#20: With Special Guest Billy Madden, better known as “The Movie Grader,” Happiest Pod jumps into his experience returning to Disneyland, sharing details about Webslinger. Stef, Ariel, and Billy analyze the changes happening in Disneyland parks, and how these developments are setting a precedent for other theme parks.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

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Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello everyone! Welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth!

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:15
And I’m Ariel.

Billy Madden 0:16
And I’m Billy.

Ariel Landrum 0:18
And we’re all just me fans, but we’re really so much more than that.

Stefanie Bautista 0:22
I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:27
And I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them heal from trauma and mental unwellness

Billy Madden 0:33
And I am a content creator who shares my passion for film by reviewing movies.

Ariel Landrum 0:37
Happiest Pod is a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why? Because just like we are more than just fans we expect more from the mediums we consume. So what Disney experience are we dissecting today everyone?

Stefanie Bautista 0:48
Well today is a fun episode because not only are we going to discuss something that is of recent events when it comes to the Disney Parks but we’re also going to be joined by a very special guest today. We will be talking about the virtual queue process. I know many of us have been seeing and following the news whether or not you have been to the parks, about the new virtual cube process and how all that works. But more importantly we are going to be talking about the new ride, Webslingers Ride at Avengers Campus. And our very good friend who will be sharing this experience with us today is Billy Madden. Welcome to the show Billy!

Billy Madden 1:24
Thank you guys so much for having me. It’s an honor.

Ariel Landrum 1:27
Yeah! So Billy or better known as the movie greeter that it is a friend who has grown up his whole life in the industry. He knows the ins and outs of movies and he has a podcast of his own called The Movie Grader and it comes out…

Billy Madden 1:41
The Movie Grader and Friends.

Ariel Landrum 1:43
And friends. He has guests I shouldn’t…

Stefanie Bautista 1:46
This Movie Grader has friends guys. Don’t forget that.

Ariel Landrum 1:49
And it comes out with spoiler free reviews of new movies and he actually does them fairly regularly almost like next day.

Billy Madden 1:56
Yeah, I mean I try to be as timely as possible but you know now that I do have a job…

Ariel Landrum 2:02
That J-O-B.

Billy Madden 2:04
The schedule is kind of hairy… So like you know like as Ariel said I am Billy I am the Movie Grader. And in a nutshell I’m just an avid movie goer and I enjoy I enjoy reviewing movies on my podcast and occasionally on the website. Which is you know, getting less and less love because of time in life. But um the whole Movie Grader idea was actually born from an idea that a friend of mine, Adam Goldberg had. He used to go see a movie and on Facebook simply give it a letter grade without any other any other explanation. I figured heck I mean my mom’s is a teacher and I at the time was actually considering considering going into the education field, you’re welcome kids that I didn’t…

Stefanie Bautista 2:48
They say “Thank you!” Just kidding Billy.

Billy Madden 2:51
So I thought like hey, you know what, I can add a little more to it you know, and just just start writing reviews. So I started writing reviews for you know, People of Con, which we have… Had, had I hope.

Stefanie Bautista 3:02
Have.

Ariel Landrum 3:04
It’s achrived.

Stefanie Bautista 3:05
Archived.

Billy Madden 3:05
Archieved. So I started being a writing for people con and then I thought you know what, I kind of want to do this on my own. So I created my website and then I after the website, I started up the podcast because I love podcasts and it’s been a lot of fun and I have friends and come on and do the show with me… And it’s not nearly the level of production that you guys do on this show. But I’m a total amateur amateur but um you know I just have fun with it it’s it’s it’s been a lot of fun I mean it’s been going on for… Jesus over over a year now I think actually so yeah, it’s it’s it’s simply that I mean I just I just grade movies and we talk about it discuss and you know, spoiler free zone. And yeah, that’s that’s pretty much it. I’m you know, I’m not a hero, like you guys are who actually change the world. A therapists and educators. Much respect.

Ariel Landrum 4:01
However you do bring the humor. I will say this to anyone who is listening to the podcast or just like follows Billy on Twitter. He’s just hilarious. He puts a smile on your face. He’s a really great friend to have.

Billy Madden 4:16
Oh I love you guys.

Stefanie Bautista 4:17
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 4:17
So I think like you’re the you’re the type of people I tell my clients to make friends with.

Stefanie Bautista 4:23
Absolutely. And on top of that, Billy, you know, you and the podcast were really instrumental of catching me up on movies that I did not see when all the movies were coming out.

Billy Madden 4:33
Right. right.

Stefanie Bautista 4:34
And I it gave me like an insight because as you know, coming out of the pandemic as a new mom, I just wasn’t readily available to go back to the movies right away. And it was great to always get those updates from The Movie Grader And Friends because I knew should I waste my time and money on this or not. You guys are just honest opinions and I love it. So thank you for that.

Billy Madden 4:56
There’s no problem. There’s that you know, that’s it slogan you know, “We watch it so you don’t have to.”

Stefanie Bautista 5:04
Thank you for your service.

Billy Madden 5:08
Oh please yeah you’re very treacherous going to the theater. I’ve sank many hours into movies that I’ve liked and yeah so it’s it’s it’s been fun I mean I just do it for for fun I mean. I don’t make a dime off of it it’s it’s it’s really just for my own entertainment and I guess it’s it does serve a use a purpose to people who like to go to the movies but are you know I guess a bit more timid to go see a movie. Like I don’t care I’ll go see anything really so…

Ariel Landrum 5:44
No prejudice. “It’s a movie I’m watching it.”

Stefanie Bautista 5:46
Yeah.

Billy Madden 5:46
Yeah, it’s fine.

Ariel Landrum 5:47
The really funny thing is we brought Billy on here to not talk about movies.

Stefanie Bautista 5:53
But low and behold The Movie Grader’s gonna movie grade.

Billy Madden 5:56
Yeah I went on assignment.

Stefanie Bautista 6:01
Yeah, I love how we did that we kind of we threw a curveball at you. We’re gonna take you a little bit out of your element but at the same time talk about something that you had a I guess a good experience with I guess we’ll find out the next couple minutes.

Billy Madd...