Best Seat on the Couch

Y'all remember the original Puss in Boots spinoff from 2011? The CGI in that film has...not aged well. But over a decade later, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has arrived to soft reboot the Shrekiverse and tell a more compelling story about the titular side character - well, compelling to most of us on the Couch, at least. The animation and visuals are leaps and bounds over anything else from this series before, the characters that surround Puss in Boots are genuine, deep, and entertaining presences, and Marcus believes the villain is one of the best of any animated movie he's ever seen. Come for the movie, stay for the hot takes! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Nestled in between juggernauts The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Cars is often regarded as being somewhat lesser than its fellow Disney/Pixar entries, which Marcus angrily argues is absolutely unreasonable and that anyone who subscribes to that is trash. The gang does make sure that Cars 2 receives whatever the opposite of flowers is, but the original Cars is a pretty solid movie! Strong voice acting, a cool premise and interesting animation, a genuine American™ theme, and some believable character growth give this movie all of the ingredients to make a top tier Pixar film. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Have you ever felt social anxiety? Have you ever wanted to join a band? Are you a Japanese teenage girl? If so, you'll love Bocchi the Rock! for many reasons, chief among them the honestly surrealist portrayal of main character Bocchi's internal monologues as she navigates high school and band life with extreme social anxiety. The animation feels almost Into the Spider-Verse levels of genre defying, putting a hilarious twist on a slice-of-life story about a group of girls trying to make it big in the indie rock band scene, but it's not all goofy all the time - it's respectful in its portrayal of social anxiety, knows how to navigate its humor, and has a pretty cool portrayal of the band's musical performances too. The gang highly recommends! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Did you know that the gang is ohana, and ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind? Maybe Michael's childhood memories got left behind due to brain damage, but those probably weren't important anyway. Still, Lilo & Stitch is an excellent movie that everyone agrees is better than we remember, with particular praise for its portrayal of Lilo, her family issues and genuinely rocky relationship with Nani, Stitch's character development, and Jumba's accent. You can't help but cheer for practically everyone in this movie, and it's wonderful to see them achieve their happy ending! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

There was definitely something magical about reading about this series in development in March 2023 and learning that the entire original cast of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World had signed on to join a new anime series called Scott Pilgrim Takes Off coming to Netflix. The 2010 film is a fan favorite at the Couch, of course, but we were all pleasantly surprised with how much more this series developed the world of Scott Pilgrim; the Evil Exes become characters as opposed to video game bosses, Ramona learns how 2 relationship properly, and Scott - yes, all 3 of them - feels like a better person at the end of this series than at the end of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and that's awesome. We all recommend you watch the movie first, though - it's a classic! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Happy New Year and welcome back to the Couch! This week we're talking about Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, a classic early-2000's Cartoon Network smash hit that's received 5 Annies and 7 Emmys - making it even more baffling that Marcus had never seen a single episode until this recording. Foster's has a couple of really excellent episodes in a sea of quality television, tackling the common topics like dealing with annoying siblings or the fear of moving away from friends with a cast of great characters (Wilt, Coco, Eduardo, Bloo, and best girl Frankie!) and some great punchline payoffs. And of course, no kids' show discussion on the Couch would be complete without deep discourse on the horrifying ramifications on this universe's treatment of sentient life! Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

The holidays are upon us and that means Alex brings back his other best friends for another edition of Best Seat on the Couch - ONE PIECE edition! Katy, Lony, and Owen return to the couch as they dive headfirst into the Egghead arc and discuss big lore implications, hypothetical pirate-vs-pirate 1v1 results, and validated called shots. We even get some deep Katy lore with the story of how her dad got into ONE PIECE thanks to the Netflix live-action series, which came out last year and made a big splash in bringing the manga and anime to a larger audience. The episode ends with a discussion on a NEW ONE PIECE anime coming out late 2024, Fullmetal Alchemist style, and the gang's thoughts on what to expect, what's gonna be different, and whether it'll help or hurt the current series. Someday, maybe Michael, Iris, and Marcus will join in on the fun...

Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Our final release of 2023 coincides with an Alex week, so of course we're sending the year out with a banger of an anime series, Mob Psycho 100. Alex had brought this to a couple of us after season 1's release in 2016, but we finally get to talk about the quiet-but-unbelievably-overpowered Mob, the homies within the Body Improvement Club, the super secret evil organization known as the Claw, and the 100% best character in this show, Reigen Arataka. The show combines the humor and power-level-dynamics from One Punch Man with the sweetness and emotional beats from a story about a businessman and the kid he's babysitting, and it's a tremendous watch from start to finish. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Lots of great stuff to say about Disney's Wreck-It Ralph and this was a truly beloved movie to our younger selves - but does it hold up? For the most part, yes! We get a whole lot of video game nostalgia, funny side characters and animation, a really excellent villain reveal, and a banger of an ending, at the cost of some iffy pacing and gratuitous side character tangents. Pretty glad that they never decided to make a sequel that goes beyond the confines of an arcade, right? Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

The gang ventures into uncharted hip-hop head territory with Entergalactic, a Netflix special pseudo-movie that goes in tandem with a studio album of the same name from acclaimed artist Kid Cudi. Cudi, as well as a couple of other artists and actors, put together a fairly vanilla rom-com that's got a knack for emotional beats and accompanying visual spectacle but offers little else to engage the viewer outside of music + animation + vibe. Still, there's plenty of discussion to be had about its characters, voice acting, and ending, and Entergalactic is certainly the most recent movie of all time on the Couch. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.