As the birthday celebrations wind down, and a cool breeze flows through the Delaware River Valley, it's time for one more Cinema Class!

Astroid City was Wes Anderson's contribution to 2023's "Let's go to the desert and figure out what it means to be alive" genre. While not the runaway success of Barbie or Oppenheimer, it is one of the best examples of his iconic artistic flourishes while asking messy and complicated questions about creation and life.

Tune in as Carter and Sydney talk birthdays, composition, and dreaming.

Back to birthday celebrating, the Disney Desk reaches another milestone in Carter's life: his time at NYU. During his early years in New York, a fascinating animated film falls into his lap and helps push him to embrace the animated craft.

Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress is the second of his four films: the story of an actress recounting her iconic career as her roles begin to blend in with her personal story. It is dense, it is chaotic, and it is utterly beautiful. Listen in as Carter and Sydney talk dreams, cycles, and why we tell stories.

Another month, another fifth weekend Carter and Sydney somehow didn't notice. So, for the extra week of Carter's birthday month, the Disney Desk presents their Patreon review of Project Hail Mary.

Directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, the creator's of Carter's beloved The Lego Movie, the sci-fi adventure was one of the big hits to start the year. It's starry optimism and humor had many of the podcast's friends saying "Yep, that's a Carter Coded Movie(tm)."

To get more fun bonus content like this, sign up for the Disney Desk Patreon!

https://patreon.com/disneydesk?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&utm_content=join_link

Last week, Carter discussed how Spider-man was the first major ‘event’ film of his life, a symbol of his early years of film-going. This week, he presents the film that got him into filmmaking. 

David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network is one of the landmark films of the 21st Century, a warning that was years ahead of its time.

Listen in as the Disney Desk talks digital cameras, student films, and living in the world Facebook created.

It's August, and class is in session early! To celebrate his Birthday, co-host Carter has decided to pick four films from different important points in his life and use them to teach about the art of filmmaking and show how they inspired him to get into the arts!

To begin: the Disney Desk is covering 2002's Spider-Man. The first 'event film' Carter had growing up, Sam Raimi's take on Peter Parker is a masterclass in tone management, editing, and finding the right balance of digital v practical, while creating a pitch-perfect take on the character and his world.

Stay after the credits for Carter's first impression thoughts on Spider-Man: Brand New Day!

At long last, it's time to cover the film that inspired Carter and Sydney to dedicate July to Pixar's iconic franchise!

While they never explicitly said there would be another Toy Story 5, it was still a surprising announcement given back to back finite endings in films 3 and 4. But with franchise mainstay Andrew Stanton taking over the directing helm, and a new lead in Jesse, are there still great stories to be told in the world of toys?

Tune in as the Disney Desk finds out!

(We would like it on record that we recorded this episode less than 24 hours before LeBron James announced he would be joining the 76ers. We are prepared to take credit).

Toy Story 3 was heralded as one of the pinnacles of animation and cinema history. A definitive flourish to end the Toy Story series and another shining star in Pixar's nearly spotless record.

The decade that followed was a tumultuous one for the company, seeing sequels overtake originals, the head of the company ousted, and an unmistakable vibe shift for the former golden studio.

But then a little spork waddled in and changed everything. Or didn't. It's still up in the air.

Toy Story 4 arrived in the jam packed year of 2019 and flew under both Sydney and Carter's radar. But today, the Disney Desk Duo sit down to talk about sentience, the Wild West, and Dance Moms for some reason.

After a decade of groundbreaking animation, Pixar returned to Woody and the Gang for one more adventure. The ensuing threequel became the higest grossing animated film of all time, one of three animated films to be nominated for Best Picture, and end the series on high note that sealed Toy Story's place as one of the great trilogies.

But another 15 years and two films later, does it hold up? Does it hint at troubling trends that the film industry and Pixar would fall victim to? Does Lotso work as another twist villain? And can Carter and Sydney survive a lightning storm and multiple tech failures to form a coherent point?

Tune in as the Disney Desk covers Toy Story 3!

Yeee-HAW! To celebrate the month of July - and the release of Pixar's latest - the Disney Desk is covering one of the Great American Franchises: Toy Story!

To kick the month off, Carter and Sydney cover what might be the seminal film of their childhood: Toy Story 2. Tune in as they talk about production disasters, Romanticism, and the joys and horrors of being a toy.

Our Summer in Springfield finally comes to an end. As we end this breeze, yellow-tinted month, the Disney Desk finally dives into 2007's The Simpsons Movie. The long-awaited film stands as one of the most iconic moments of the show's run, a brief moment where fans from every generation of the show came together in appreciation of this cultural landmark.

And it just so happened to be released smack dab in Carter and Sydney's childhood! Tune in as they talk to the audience, the internet, and finish up one of their favorite months with the show.