Reel Deep Dive

While originally conceived as greeting card mascots with an accompanying toy line, the Care Bears debuted in a market where children's media was freshly-deregulated and immersed in shameless commercialism. It was perhaps inevitable that these characters would be spun off into an animated toy commercial that was barely masquerading as an entertainment property, but the success of the IP was far from certain. Still, despite its limited budget and rushed production schedule, the first Care Bears movie made a killing at the box office in 1985, outgrossing the much more expensive Disney effort The Black Cauldron. A theatrical continuation then become compulsory, resulting in The Care Bears II: A New Generation less than 12 months later. While it too was a cheap-looking cash grab, it made a healthy profit and encouraged the further development of a franchise that is still pushed to nostalgic millennials (and their kids) to this day.

Ryan is joined by Sylvan and Cheryl for a talk about this deeply cynical yet highly affecting franchise. Sylvan is the big Care Bears fan of the group and goes into detail about how the franchise explores emotional intelligence in ways reminiscent of kids TV icons like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Ryan, lacking too much to say about the Care Bears, makes strained comparisons to The Get Along Gang, Faust, the philosophy of Thích Nhất Hạnh.

Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Titane is about a serial killer (Agathe Rousselle) who goes on the run after she kills her parents and gets impregnated by a car. She winds up impersonating the long-lost son of a firefighter (Vincent London) and the two ultimately form a symbiotic bond that's based upon their respective emotional needs. Titane goes to some grim places, touching upon the work of David Cronenberg and John McNaughton.

Ryan is joined by Rachel for a discussion about this acclaimed work of modern horror. Thematic talking points include writer/director Julia Ducournau's comments on gender, Titane's boundary-pushing victories on the awards circuit, the movie's focus on interpersonal intimacy, and why the body horror subgenre has such a visceral effect on so many viewers.

This may be difficult to consider in an era where Disney is arguably the world's most powerful entertainment conglomerate, but there was a period where the company was in a precarious state (multiple periods actually, but we're talking about the postwar era). Disney was in massive debt in the late 40's and the company could've very easily gone under. The world might've become a very different place had the considerable investment in Cinderella had yielded a flop, but the 1950 film turned out to be the studio's biggest hit in decades. Cinderella's success put Disney back in the black, ensured the continuation of the studio's animated features, and gave Walt Disney enough capital to begin pursuing his goal of building a theme park in California.

The movie itself also set a number of noteworthy precedents for Disney fare. It's the first Disney movie to have its soundtrack get a commercial release, it's the first film to feature every member of the venerable animation crew known as "The Nine Old Men", it's possibly the first movie to feature multitracked vocal effects, and it solidified many of the tropes associated with the Disney Princess archetype. This one might be even a bigger deal to the Disney canon than you may assume; Cinderella's castle is in the official Disney logo for a reason.

Ryan is joined by Sylvan and Cheryl for a conversation about this impacting feature. Discussion topics include the history of the Cinderella story, the character's connections to the struggles of those working service jobs, whether Cinderella is too passive a figure in her own film, why Prince Charming is such a cipher in the movie, and why the mice steal every scene they're in.

Centering on two teens in the then-modern 1990's getting transported to the world of an idyllic (yet vaguely unsettling) 1950's sitcom, Pleasantville uses broad symbolic imagery to paint a picture about personal growth, the pressures of conformity, and the ever-lingering threat of authoritarianism. Gary Ross, the film's writer and director, was the son of a Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted by McCarthyism; that background infiltrates much of the movie's text and subtext. Pleasantville overtly uses visual metaphors lifted from both the Bible and fascist iconography. It makes pointed, unambiguous statements about everything from sexual repression to artistic modernism to conservative anti-intellectualism.

Ryan first saw Pleasantville at a formative age and it has remained with him ever since. He is joined by Rachel, who hadn't seen it before. Discussion topics include the movie's thematic connections to the work of David Lynch, the groundbreaking special effects used to manipulate the film's color palette, the historical memory of the 1950's in America, and what Pleasantville has to say about the notions of propriety and civility in public discourse.

A riff on the "supernatural board game" subgenre that was shot on a microbudget during the Covid-19 pandemic, Gatlopp focuses on four estranged friends who briefly reunite when one of them starts going through a tough divorce. Their awkward attempt to reconnect ultimately leads to them trying out the titular game, an experience that forces each of them to confront aspects of their lives they'd prefer not to acknowledge. Unfortunately for the players, Gatlopp promises damnation to anyone who can't (or won't) follow its rules.

Ryan is joined by Cheryl and Sylvan for an in-depth conversation about this deceptively introspective horror comedy. Thematic talking points this time include the strain of maintaining adult friendships, the parallels between this film's subtext and the pandemic that informed many of its creative decisions, and the inevitable comparisons to Jumanji and Zathura.

Spongebob Squarepants was far from a sure thing when animator Stephen Hillenburg pitched him to Nickelodeon executives, but the program quickly became a gigantic hit that transformed the network, the children's television landscape, and the millions of kids who watched the show religiously. Combining well-defined characters with absurdist humor, vaudevillian gags, and a surreal reality, Spongebob inspired and enchanted a legion of children and adults.

Ryan was never really swept up in the Spongebob fandom, so he brought on Rachel and Riley to discuss how the show impacted them so deeply. Several core stories from Spongebob's first three seasons are discussed alongside an overview of the program's development and creative process. Discussion topics include Spongebob's connection to early Nicktoon Rocko's Modern Life, its spiritual debts to the Golden Age of Theatrical Animation, how perceptions of characters like Squidward and Patrick can change as one grows older, and why the first three seasons of Spongebob are far more revered than what came afterwards.

One of the most infamous celluloid turkeys of its time, the 1993 film adaptation of the Super Mario video game franchise suffered from a disinterested IP holder, thousands of rewrites, an annoyed and confused cast, and a disastrous shoot supervised by an inexperienced directorial team. The film bombed hard with both critics and the few people who willingly paid for a ticket, but the movie did clog up video rental shelves and basic cable timeslots, so it's not without its apologists. When compared to the sleek, polished, and heavily-focus grouped blockbusters of the modern day, Super Mario Bros feels like an oddly-unique failure; box office flops are not typically produced at this level of scale all that often.

Ryan is joined by Cheryl and Toby for a detailed analysis of this bizarre train wreck of a film. Discussion points include a brief overview of Mario's evolution as a character, the film's rampant imitation of cinematic trends of the day, and how the early internet preserved interest in this movie's existence.

Derived from the popular (and controversial) stage musical composed by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Norman Jewison's 1973 version of Jesus Christ Superstar is a deeply timely reflection of the spiritual and socio-political issues gripping the environment that produced it. While a box office success that garnered attention from prestigious award committees, Jesus Christ Superstar got ambivalent notices from both film critics and the men who wrote the songs used in the film itself. It also got some harsh attention from religious groups that accused it of blasphemy, historical revisionism, and antisemitism.

Ryan is joined by Sylvan, Cheryl, and Melanie for a thorough discussion of this intriguing and influential time capsule of a movie. Talking points include how movie musicals were perceived in the New Hollywood movement, how Jesus Christ Superstar played into how the film industry approached religious material in its era, the movie's attempts to humanize its divine subject matter, how the then-burgeoning evangelical movement affected perceptions of Jesus Christ Superstar, and the ways that the film approaches longstanding Jewish stereotypes in its subtext.

Based on the idiosyncratic comic series by Sam Kieth and William Messner-Loebs, The Maxx centers on a vagrant with delusions that he's a mighty superhero. While ineffective in the real world, The Maxx is powerful and important in the world of The Outback, a fantasy version of Australia that appears to be bleeding into reality. The Maxx's supporting cast includes "freelance social worker" Julie, a jaded rape survivor who helps/enables The Maxx. The main antagonist is Mr. Gone, a serial rapist who seems to have secret knowledge about Maxx, Julie, and The Outback itself.

Roughly a third of a comic series was adapted into 13 animated shorts that appeared on the anthology program MTV Oddities. The show was met with low ratings and critical confusion before it was quickly canceled, but the property itself has endured to some degree in nerd culture ever since. VHS and DVD releases were coupled with a role playing game and an audiobook. The comic itself got collected into paperback in 2003 with a remastered version following ten years later. A feature film has been in development hell since 2019.

Ryan is joined by Cheryl and Sylvan for an extensive discussion about this complex, singular, and surreal work of art. Talking points include the deconstructionist trend in 90's comics, how the feminine perspective is expressed in The Maxx, and what the show (and comic) have to say about rape culture. The philosophies of Camille Paglia, which are espoused by Julie in The Maxx, are given an examination as well.

While his screen persona is arguably the least defined of the Three Stooges, Larry Fine is frequently argued as the glue that holds the act together. While not as driven as Moe, as wild as Curly, or as physical as Shemp, Larry's role as the relative voice of reason (and his penchant for bizarre ad-libs) adds ballast to many a Stooges short. That, combined with his almost musically-acute sense of timing, means that studious viewers will easily find many ways in which Larry Fine's performance elevates the humor in most anything he appeared in.

Ryan is joined by Rachel for a close reading of four Three Stooges shorts, ranging from the very first one to Larry's personal favorite. A brief overview of Larry Fine's life, career, and legacy is also presented. Thematic talking points center on the philosophical possibilities inherent to comedy, a winding discourse that touches upon points made by Aristotle, Lenny Bruce, Kant, and Dave Attell. Naturally, Ryan and Rachel also discuss how the impact of the Three Stooges compares to the contributions made by the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Bean, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and Dave Chappelle.