It's My Screen Time Too

Peter Thiel and the San Diego Zoo gorillas help guide our conversation about our families’ back-to-school screen time policies.

Previous Episodes We Mention:

• Are Dumb Phones a Smart Choice for Kids? 

Gorillas at San Diego's zoo are getting too much screen time 

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel says he only allows his children 1.5 hours of screen time a week 

The Contrarian by Max Chafkin

Peter Thiel’s War on Gawker: A Timeline

Zoos’ New Dilemma: Gorillas and Screen Time 

We mistakenly refer to Claudia Kishi from The Babysitters Club as Claudia Schiffer. They are, of course, two different people - one fictional, one not. Our apologies for the slip.

What we’re watching with our kids:

• Fly Me To the Moon
• Lego Stop Motion Cooking

What we’re watching during grown-up screen time:

• Fabulous Four
• Deadpool and Wolverine

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We have a great time reviewing Apple TV’s nerdy time-traveling adventure series Time Bandits, which manages to make ancient history look realistic while still being fun.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Pretzel and the Puppies 
• Harriet the Spy 
• Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock 
• The Snoopy Show 
• Jane 
• Ghostwriter 
• Better Nate Than Ever 

As of our taping, the original Time Bandits movie was available to steam on Max. 

Time Bandits made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Quantum Leap
• Goonies
• Doctor Who
• Rome

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The box office numbers are in, and parents’ taking their kids to see movies like Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 are saving an otherwise disappointing season in Hollywood. We pat ourselves on the back for rescuing the entertainment industry and discuss what such a multiplex-heavy summer means for movies in general and our families specifically. As usual, we take time to catch up on what we’re watching with our kids and during grown up screen time.

Kids’ Movies Are Saving the Summer Box Office by Chris Lee for Vulture 

Previous episodes we mention:

• Elemental 
• Despicable Me 4 
• Kung Fu Panda 4 

What we’re watching with our kids this week:

• Grizzy and the Lemmings
• Brown and Friends
• The Olympics

During grown-up screen time, we’re watching:

• Acolyte
• A Family Affair 
• The Idea of You
• Presumed Innocent
• Twister

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We review the latest installment in Disney’s juggernaut tween Descendants franchise: The Rise of Red. Can Aurodon survive the replacement of its core cast? Does the soundtrack live up to previous installments? Most importantly, how happy are we to see Brandy as Cinderella again? Spoiler alert: very happy.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Teen Beach Movie 
• Zombies 
• Zombies 2 
• Zombies 3 
• Sneakerella 

Check out Katie’s magnum opus on Cinderella adaptations featuring the Brandy version from the 90s. 

Katie was not misremembering. Anne Hathaway did, in fact, play the White Queen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. 

Descendants: The Rise of Red made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• 13 Going on 30
• Back to the Future
• Clueless

We cast our gritty reboot with these actors:

• Anne Hathaway as Red
• Tessa Thompson as Uma
• Angelina Jolie or Jessica Shore as the Queen of Hearts
• John Cho as Prince Charming
• Adrien Brody as Hades
• Natasha Lyonne as the Fairy Godmother or the Evil Stepmother

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We talk about the trend of people dumping their smartphones for so-called dumb phones and whether this could be a smart strategy for our kids. We reminisce about our favorite flip phones and catch up on what we’re watching with our kids and what’s on our grown-up screen time watch lists.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Despicable Me 4 

Americans are ditching smartphones for 'dumb' devices that only call and text to avoid 'zombie mode' by Rob Waugh, June 30, 2024, in The Daily Mail

Vice’s roundup of the best dumbphones from January https://www.vice.com/en/article/3akyyy/best-dumb-phones

Some books:

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 

The Quiet Zone by Stephen Kurczy 

Jonathan Chait, political columnist for New York Magazine 

Gabb phones 

Our beloved Motorola RAZR

Here’s what we’re watching with our kids this week:

• Doctor Who 
• Lion King
• Unfrosted

Here’s what we’re watching during grown up screen time:

• Suits
• The Bear

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We review the most anticipated release of the summer: Despicable Me 4! Did we need a sixth movie about Gru and his little yellow henchmen? Maybe not, but we did appreciate the opportunity to re-familiarize ourselves with the works of Culture Club and Franz Kafka.

Things we mentioned in this episode:

The classic of high school English classes: Kafka’s The Metamorphosis 

Previous episodes we mention:

• Kung Fu Panda 4 
• Inside Out 2 
• IF 
• Garfield 

Despicable Me 4 made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Silicon Valley
• The Fly
• The Riches

The AppleTV series Loot did our gritty HBO reboot casting for us with Benjamin Bratt as Gru, but Deborah would also like to see an SNL skit with Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen as minions.

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We discuss two short articles about screen time: one from Time that says it’s totally fine to talk about screen time using the language of diet culture as long as we don’t count minutes like we count calories and one from the Wall Street Journal that refutes our closely held beliefs about the harm caused by screens before bed. We also catch up on what we’re watching with our kids and what’s on our grown up watch lists.

Previous Episodes We Mention:

• Screens and Diet Culture 

Stop Counting Screen Time 

Screen Time Before Bed Might Not Be That Bad After All 

Here’s what we’ve been watching with our kids:

• Ghostbusters Afterlife
• Elemental

What we’re watching during grown-up screen time:

• Outlander Season 7
• Acolyte
• The Sympathizer
• Hacks
• Presumed Innocent

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In our review of Inside Out 2, we pick our faves from Riley’s new emotions and get into the puberty of it all by comparing Inside Out 2 to another similarly themed Pixar title, Turning Red.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Turning Red 
• Elemental 
• Lightyear 
• Soul 

This series of puberty books by Robie H. Harris:

• It’s So Amazing 
• It’s Not the Stork 
• It’s Perfectly Normal 

The Screenwriting Life Podcast 

Inside Out 2 made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Annie Hall
• You’re the Worst
• Wilfred

We cast the gritty HBO reboot of the movie with: 

• A tension-filled voice cast featuring Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, and Maya Hawke
• A resurrected Gene Wilder as Depression

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We discuss summer movies--the films we want to watch with our kids and a few we’re planning to watch for date night. We cover our hopes for all the new installments of our favorite franchises including Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Descendants Rise of Red, Twisters, and even Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Plus, Katie taunts Deborah about the impending release of Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure.

Things we mention in this episode:

23 Summer Movies to Watch, Vanity Fair

Summer Movie Guide, AP News

Previous Episodes We Mention:

• IF 
• The Garfield Movie 

Check out Deborah’s post about rewatching Beetlejuice with her kids. 

Here’s what we’re watching with our kids this week:

• Inside Out

Here’s what we’re looking forward to this summer for our grown-up screen time:

• Thelma
• Fly Me to the Moon
• Babes
• The Fabulous Four
• It Ends With Us

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In our review of The Garfield Movie, Deborah mourns the absence of the fundamental pathos of the Garfield comic strip in this zany animated take on everyone’s favorite lazy tabby. Katie betrays her co-viewing values and dares to suggest this would make a good solo watch for kids. We talk product placement and adapting dated but beloved material for a modern audience.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Kung Fu Panda 4 
• The Super Mario Bros Movie 

Garfield made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Keanu
• Back to the Future trilogy

We cast the gritty HBO reboot of the movie with: 

• Nick Offerman or Donald Glover as Garfield
• Kerry Washington as Liz
• Rebel Wilson as Arlene

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