Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of Nerdificent. I'm one half of
Speaker 1: your host, Danny Fernandez, sitting across from me as always
Speaker 1: Iffy Way Way first last, Now it's time to blast. No.
Speaker 1: I think you said that there are other isn't there
Speaker 1: like one other if you wa way or something, there
Speaker 1: there are other Iffy's, there are other Iffiau days. But
Speaker 1: I am the if you want a way, there's close.
Speaker 1: There's a there's an if even within my family. But
Speaker 1: he's not a Waddy Way. So back off, Iffy. Do
Speaker 1: you remember? Okay, So I said Iffy this thing because
Speaker 1: my long standing joke is that there's another Danny Fernandez
Speaker 1: spelled the same d A n I. It's a guy
Speaker 1: in Spain. He's a part of a boy band, and
Speaker 1: so it's just funny to me. I'm like, just give
Speaker 1: me because that was always you know, this is politically
Speaker 1: incorrect now, but like back then, that was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's the girl way to spell Danny, and so I
Speaker 1: was able to like differentiate in some way. But I
Speaker 1: was looking up I had to do a press release
Speaker 1: for something, so I was looking up photos and so
Speaker 1: I googled Danny Fern, Like my name Danny Fernandez and
Speaker 1: I scrolled all the way back Danny Fernandez Ralph because
Speaker 1: it was like a press release, like one of the
Speaker 1: record ralph Ones, and this guy was involved in the
Speaker 1: first record Ralph. He was like, I think he did
Speaker 1: some of the Spanish music for the when it went
Speaker 1: over there, when it was translated. I was like, what,
Speaker 1: so this Danny Fernandez was involved in Ralph before me?
Speaker 1: Can I not escape this man? What the heck? No,
Speaker 1: that's my franchise. And it was like, no, this man
Speaker 1: was involved in it two years before me. It is painful.
Speaker 1: Danny fern it. One day we will meet. One day
Speaker 1: he and I will put a put apart. I think
Speaker 1: he blocked me. It's just like we'll meet and we
Speaker 1: won't be rivals. There's another Danny. It's spelled d A
Speaker 1: n n Y though. Um. I think he's a magician
Speaker 1: and he does. He is on Netflix and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm popping up there too. I got something happened on
Speaker 1: Netflix too. I'm gonna pop up. We'll see Danny Fernandez.
Speaker 1: If what are you geeking out about? Oh? Man, I
Speaker 1: think what I'm thinking about is that Black Widow trailer.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm curious to see what happens with this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we we know her fate and
Speaker 1: in game, so I don't know it's going to be
Speaker 1: interesting because will they stick to their to their guns
Speaker 1: and uh and like ended or is this movie going
Speaker 1: to end in some type of like oh actually she
Speaker 1: you know, we'll see. I wouldn't be surprised, but honestly,
Speaker 1: what I found fascinating, which also dropped today, so we're
Speaker 1: recording this to Tuesday before when you hear this is
Speaker 1: the James Bond posters, which is funny because someone tweeted
Speaker 1: and said, this is why when the James Bond posters,
Speaker 1: which look real good, when they dropped, someone tweeted and said,
Speaker 1: this is why we got the Black Widow trailer six
Speaker 1: hours early because it was like they were trying to
Speaker 1: offset Uh whoo, yeah those posters. I cannot wait again.
Speaker 1: We had an amazing History of James Bond episode with
Speaker 1: Mark Bernard in yeah um and then Lashawna Lynch as
Speaker 1: know me, which she tweeted out her poster taking over
Speaker 1: the double oh seven Moniker. Very excited about it. I
Speaker 1: know it's super exciting. And I will say another thing
Speaker 1: I'm speaking about is uh Ma herschel Ali posted that
Speaker 1: he's going to be in season two of Ramy, so
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see what that's all about. I love
Speaker 1: Mi Herschela. I stay in him. So now I gotta
Speaker 1: go watch the first season so I can be ready
Speaker 1: for you didn't watch the first season because that's our form. Look,
Speaker 1: I know it's hard because we're all like working in TV,
Speaker 1: and it's hard sometimes to keep up with everybody's stuff.
Speaker 1: But go watch Rammy. That is our friend and and
Speaker 1: I'm excited for the second season two. Yeah, speaking of
Speaker 1: two's and sequels, there's a sequel of a movie of
Speaker 1: a reboot of a movie, and that's what we're here
Speaker 1: talking about today. Today we're talking about Jumane. Yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: as you know when you're listening to this in a
Speaker 1: few days, the sequel to the reboot, which actually was
Speaker 1: really entertaining. I think no one expected much of it
Speaker 1: because it had the recipe for not being that great
Speaker 1: of it being a reboot, and then it has like
Speaker 1: the Hottest Stars, which was Kevin Hard and the Rock
Speaker 1: and Jack Black, so people are like, oh man, but
Speaker 1: they actually turned out to be a surprise hit. And
Speaker 1: now they're bringing another one. My favorite is a Jack
Speaker 1: Black character like that is my favorite, just seeing him
Speaker 1: be like guys like just all in his like valley
Speaker 1: girl voice, and he's doing such a good job because
Speaker 1: you can really feel the personality of who he's playing
Speaker 1: with each one. So I'm really excited to check that out. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: this is something I didn't know when we were researching
Speaker 1: for this. But it actually came from a children's book. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's what I was gonna say, Dumanji. I only
Speaker 1: knew it from the movie the first movie. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it was actually a children's book which was written by
Speaker 1: Chris Van Alsberg, who also wrote Polar Express, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, yes I had that book with the bell
Speaker 1: came with like a little bell. But what was creepy
Speaker 1: is Tom Hanks' portrayal. I'm sorry, Like it just weirds
Speaker 1: me out. Like I love that man and everything, But
Speaker 1: I don't know why the animation in that movie. Maybe
Speaker 1: it was the time I was growing up weirds me out. No,
Speaker 1: it's it just the I think it was the animation.
Speaker 1: I think lot of people reference it when they talk
Speaker 1: about Uncanny Uncanny Valley because it's just so close to
Speaker 1: real yet still c g I that it just kind
Speaker 1: of freaks your brain. No, Oh my gosh, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at pictures of it. Wait if we look look look
Speaker 1: at this man. Yeah, I don't like it's nightmare fuel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: look at him. Yeah I don't. It's like anyways. Um,
Speaker 1: I love you, Tom Hanks, I love you. Oh did
Speaker 1: he do mo cap? Of course he did. He did
Speaker 1: motion capture. I didn't know that. Look at this, See
Speaker 1: he has the whole cap on in the suit and everything.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize they did that for his character. It's
Speaker 1: just like a it's a beloved film, and that's all
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say. Okay, so so uh yeah, it came
Speaker 1: out in nineteen one. Jumanji is actually the Zulu word
Speaker 1: for many effects. So in the book, Peter and Judy
Speaker 1: are brother and sister who find themselves board one afternoon.
Speaker 1: The board game they pick up gives a much more
Speaker 1: trouble than they bargain for. It's a picture book. The
Speaker 1: narrative actually isn't in depth obviously as much as the
Speaker 1: film for the television show. Uh. And then, when asked
Speaker 1: how he got the idea for the book, Van Olsberg said,
Speaker 1: when I was little boy, and I would play games
Speaker 1: like Monopoly. They seemed kind of exciting, but when I
Speaker 1: was done with the game, all I had was fake money.
Speaker 1: So I thought that it would be fun and exciting
Speaker 1: if there was such a thing as a game board
Speaker 1: where whenever you landed on a square and it said
Speaker 1: something was going to happen, then it would really happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. And this book was so good that it
Speaker 1: won a Caldecott, which was an award given annually by
Speaker 1: the Association for Library Service to Children, and it was
Speaker 1: a division of the American It's a division of the
Speaker 1: American Library Association to UH to the most distinguished American
Speaker 1: picture book UH for children, and he won that in
Speaker 1: two The art, which was also by Van Elsberg, was
Speaker 1: in a surrealist style, often playing with like perspective. Wait,
Speaker 1: I totally did have this book. No, I bet you did.
Speaker 1: To hang on, look, I'm going to show you, and
Speaker 1: I guarantee you we'll look at it. Do you recognize this? No,
Speaker 1: I don't recognize that. Wait. I mean, well, it's not
Speaker 1: it's not even necessarily because I didn't have it. Just
Speaker 1: my dad, my Nigerian dad, was very slow on American
Speaker 1: media like everything, Like like I didn't. I didn't get
Speaker 1: fancy like books like that. Okay, I mean I probably
Speaker 1: got it from the library or something, but I totally
Speaker 1: had this book and the right it was very much
Speaker 1: a picture Okay, so the picture book is kind of
Speaker 1: what I'm looking at is like black and white, very stylized,
Speaker 1: like contemporary looking artwork. Uh but wow, I did. I
Speaker 1: guess let me know, if you had the book, if
Speaker 1: you had the Jumanji book at home and you're listening
Speaker 1: to this, I thought I didn't, But now that I'm
Speaker 1: looking at these pictures, I totally did. I recognize this
Speaker 1: cover and these kids. Uh So the movie then came
Speaker 1: out in it took a lot of liberties with the text,
Speaker 1: as it kind of needed to. There wasn't too much
Speaker 1: to work from than like scenes of monkeys in their
Speaker 1: living room and like rhinos going through their house. The
Speaker 1: original film was actually written by Jonathan Hensley, who did
Speaker 1: Armagannon and Punisher oh four, a totally different moving than Humanji. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but also like I'm always fascinated to find fans of
Speaker 1: that Punisher like a lot of people like it actually,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, a lot of people like it. I thought
Speaker 1: you were going to say you always find it fascinating
Speaker 1: when people do such different things, and then I was
Speaker 1: going to mention how the same person wrote both the
Speaker 1: Hangover part two did Chernobyl and then did Joker. I
Speaker 1: always think I always bring up how um the Russo
Speaker 1: brothers did my favorite guilty pleasure, which is you mean
Speaker 1: dupri Solter. We have a comedy background, which you see
Speaker 1: a lot of, like with whatever his name is, uh
Speaker 1: Tony start calling that guy squid word ye. Jim Strain
Speaker 1: also worked on it, and Greg Taylor, who wrote Harriet
Speaker 1: the Spy still holds up too. Oh yeah, yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: It was on like I was in a hotel knows
Speaker 1: On and I was watching. I was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: still slaps. Did you see that scene where the person
Speaker 1: they tweeted it they were like, Harriet did not have
Speaker 1: to go in on her like that with that girl
Speaker 1: where she was like it was like your family doesn't
Speaker 1: love you or whatever. It was okay, um. So he's
Speaker 1: stuck in this board game for nearly thirty years. He's
Speaker 1: led out of the game when his Robin William as
Speaker 1: Alan Parish. So he's stuck in a board game for
Speaker 1: nearly thirty years, He's led out of the game when
Speaker 1: a new family moved in. Uh, Kirsten Dunts and her
Speaker 1: brother to his old house and the kids continue to
Speaker 1: play where the original crew is left off. Also Bonnie Hunt,
Speaker 1: remember Bonnie Hunt was in it. The movie earned Wow
Speaker 1: sixty two point eight million dollars worldwide. I Fell I
Speaker 1: was pretty big at the time, became the tenth highest
Speaker 1: grossing film of the year. In an interview with The
Speaker 1: New York Times, director Joe Johnston, who did Honey I
Speaker 1: Shrunk the Kids, stated that the studio, which was Sony,
Speaker 1: said they would make the film if we could get
Speaker 1: Robin to do it. He had passed on the original script.
Speaker 1: A bunch of a stayed up all night doing a
Speaker 1: cut and paste job and changed a lot around, and
Speaker 1: Robin liked it enough to say yes. I'm so curious
Speaker 1: to what he didn't like about the original script. I
Speaker 1: wonder if it was two kids like because Jumanji. The
Speaker 1: film is actually very dark and it deals with grief
Speaker 1: and loss and PTSD uh, and it's actually really heavy,
Speaker 1: like it's scary now when you think about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is truly heavy. You have this guy who like
Speaker 1: essentially was trapped in a game for thirty years. He
Speaker 1: was a kid when it happened, and now he's like
Speaker 1: thirty years in the future and he like meets his crush.
Speaker 1: It's it's wild. They never really truly uh. I would
Speaker 1: love the like after Jumanji when they're teaching this kid
Speaker 1: everything he should know now as a thirty year old. Well, my,
Speaker 1: well they do uh they do, you know, get to
Speaker 1: in the end end up together and then they go
Speaker 1: and um, Judy and her brother's Judy and her brother. Uh,
Speaker 1: they like go to their Christmas party and their parents
Speaker 1: are like, oh, we're going to go skiing and they're like,
Speaker 1: don't go because that's how they lost their parents. Um. So.
Speaker 1: He also said every Monday night Robin went to a
Speaker 1: comedy club in Vancouver and did an hour and a
Speaker 1: half of improv with the locals, then another hour and
Speaker 1: a half of solo stand up. God, that's a lot
Speaker 1: three hours of burning off x esteem. He was glorious,
Speaker 1: said Jonathan Hyde. That was the actor that played Alan's father,
Speaker 1: Yes and the Big Game Hunter. Yes, he played both
Speaker 1: the villain and his dad. A very captain, a very
Speaker 1: hook yeah thing um and yeah it's it's so interesting
Speaker 1: reading about like Robin doing improv and comedy, because that
Speaker 1: was the one train I missed, and I truly that's
Speaker 1: the one I have very few regrets in my life.
Speaker 1: One of my guess regrets is, I guess at uc B,
Speaker 1: Robin and Williams used to go to the jams and
Speaker 1: he would just go up and perform, and so people
Speaker 1: used to be able to perform. So there are people
Speaker 1: at UCB now to this day who got to perform
Speaker 1: improv with them. And I was like, man, if I
Speaker 1: just would have started a little earlier, because it was
Speaker 1: only like not too long ago, like not too long
Speaker 1: after I started. But anyway, back to Jumanji, Uh, Bradley Pierce,
Speaker 1: who was Chip and Beauty and the beasts who played
Speaker 1: Peter recalled the gifts that William gave to the cast.
Speaker 1: So Robin he would give the cast, I guess, hard
Speaker 1: bound copies of the script as rap gifts, and then
Speaker 1: he would sign them. He wrote something like you were
Speaker 1: a great monkey boy and a pleasure to work with.
Speaker 1: You have a bright future ahead. And he was very
Speaker 1: much an inspiration, not as a performer but as a person.
Speaker 1: I love hearing stories like that because like, that's who
Speaker 1: the type of person I always uh want to be.
Speaker 1: Like on set, there was on the Now it's out,
Speaker 1: I can talk about it in a wizard school draw
Speaker 1: ap out. Um, anyone who actually like went through and
Speaker 1: washed and played it. It's on Echo is it h
Speaker 1: Hello Echo dot com? Or you can download the app.
Speaker 1: But there was the actor who plays like the creepy
Speaker 1: dude at the bar with me. He came and he
Speaker 1: had gifts for everyone, and I was like, I've never
Speaker 1: done that. I gotta do that. I gotta bring little
Speaker 1: gifts when I get really stressed on set. My my,
Speaker 1: what I always tell myself is you have the ability
Speaker 1: to make people feel good, Like I do know that
Speaker 1: about myself. And it's like, how can I make someone
Speaker 1: feel good today, like someone that's working on set or
Speaker 1: crew person like whatever. How can I make someone laugh
Speaker 1: or feel acknowledged? Yeah? So the effects eight most of
Speaker 1: the film fifty million dollar budget, which now when you
Speaker 1: watch it kind of holds up a little. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, it's a product of its time, but
Speaker 1: most of the movie still looks good. Ish. Um. While
Speaker 1: the film was a financial success, many critics worried that
Speaker 1: the picture would be too scary for children. I mean,
Speaker 1: honest to God, it probably is middle school and up.
Speaker 1: I wonder maybe fifth grade. I think if I couldn't
Speaker 1: show it to my niece who's four or anywhere around
Speaker 1: that age, I think it would be way too scary.
Speaker 1: I mean you literally have a like a hunter like
Speaker 1: hunting you down with his rifle. Roger Ebert said Jumanji
Speaker 1: is being promoted as a jolly holiday season of entertainment
Speaker 1: with ads that show Robin Williams with a twinkle in
Speaker 1: his I the movie itself is likely to send younger
Speaker 1: children fleeing from the theater or hiding in their parents arms.
Speaker 1: Those who do sit all the way through it are
Speaker 1: likely to toss in turn with nightmares inspired by his
Speaker 1: frightening images. And he's not entirely wrong. Yeah, he's not
Speaker 1: entirely wrong, but I wouldn't go all too I feel
Speaker 1: like a little sauce on that. It's definitely not a holiday.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's the Santa clause. I remember what was
Speaker 1: terrifying for me and my young age with that elephant
Speaker 1: scene at the Stampede and they hied in the car
Speaker 1: and like they're being crushed in a car like that
Speaker 1: was a really intense scene. I think for me it
Speaker 1: was the spider, like the huge spider. Also the like
Speaker 1: boy getting the tail, like turning into a monkey. Um,
Speaker 1: the wasps actually the like hornets. Remember this all, um,
Speaker 1: So we are going to take a really quick break
Speaker 1: and then we'll hop back more into Jumanji in the
Speaker 1: future of Jumanji. But first we wanted to talk to
Speaker 1: you a little bit about away bags, which I have
Speaker 1: one and if he has one. I look, I know
Speaker 1: he geeked out about this before, but it's sleek as heck.
Speaker 1: I wanted one for so long. I think I told y'all,
Speaker 1: but totally geeked out about Jennifer Rubio after listening to her.
Speaker 1: She's a fabulous woman of color who created this this
Speaker 1: brand these way back. She saw a whole need as
Speaker 1: far as luggage and traveling and just created something that
Speaker 1: was super sleek and great for professionals. But it also
Speaker 1: and also like game like people that are need to
Speaker 1: charge their phones. Like there's so many cool tech things
Speaker 1: about it. But yeah, I mean it has like it
Speaker 1: all because it looks good, it functions really well, like
Speaker 1: the all three sixty roller wheels means that I can
Speaker 1: just walk. I'm never pulling. I remember a friend of
Speaker 1: the pod, Kelly Nugent, she hasn't a way back too,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about how we're done pulling. We're never
Speaker 1: pulling a bag, We're just rolling it with us. But
Speaker 1: then also all the compartments are set up too in
Speaker 1: such a way, like y'all know, I'm a huge sneaker head.
Speaker 1: And they have a side of the bag where you
Speaker 1: can leave all your shoes, so it's separate from the clothes,
Speaker 1: but it has enough space so that you can still
Speaker 1: put your clothes in it, and that enough makes it
Speaker 1: worth it for me. I'm loving it. Yeah, it has
Speaker 1: like a really cool shell with like a double exterior,
Speaker 1: so can't withstand any type of travel that you might have.
Speaker 1: M like if he says it has an interior organization system.
Speaker 1: It has like a built in compression pad to help
Speaker 1: you pack. There's also a laundry bag, uh, and then
Speaker 1: a reportable charging thing, which is what I need. If
Speaker 1: you guys ever look at my screenshots. My batteries always
Speaker 1: on two per cent um, and yeah, they're just they're
Speaker 1: super sleek and we actually have a cool offer for y'all. Uh,
Speaker 1: you can get twenty dollars off any suitcase or bag.
Speaker 1: You just have to visit away travel dot Com slash
Speaker 1: nerd and use promo code NERD during checkout. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so just remember it's a way travel dot Com slash Nerd,
Speaker 1: use the promo code nerd, and you get a hundred
Speaker 1: day trial on everything Away makes Uh. It's designed to
Speaker 1: last a lifetime, so if your suitcase breaks, they have
Speaker 1: customer service team that will arrange it to be fixed
Speaker 1: or replaced. And they also offer free shipping and returns
Speaker 1: on any orders in the contiguous US, Europe, Canada and Australia.
Speaker 1: You know, get your way back so you can get away.
Speaker 1: And we are back talking about Shumanji. It's great, and
Speaker 1: we pretty much we're talking about the earlier movie with
Speaker 1: uh uh Robin Williams and it was it was a hit.
Speaker 1: There was. It also led to a TV series that
Speaker 1: had three seasons between and I remember that it ran
Speaker 1: for three seasons at Aerto on up N and they
Speaker 1: had forty episodes, but it excluded the kids like super
Speaker 1: Cool Aunt and the kids were sucked back in the
Speaker 1: game and they had to help out and find the
Speaker 1: clues you need to escape and you can actually stream
Speaker 1: it on Hulu, right what yeah, Oh I want to
Speaker 1: go watch it. Oh yeah, Well another thing is that
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess I always thought the board
Speaker 1: game just existed, but it didn't. Milton Bradley of course,
Speaker 1: was like, saw this and saw dollar signs, and so
Speaker 1: they came out with the board game after the film
Speaker 1: was released because it was so popular. It featured many
Speaker 1: of the main plot points in the film. Uh, And
Speaker 1: I think you can still get it now. It looks
Speaker 1: like it it's worth a hundred bucks though. Okay, the
Speaker 1: game board from the original film sold for over sixty
Speaker 1: thou Now that is something if I had a ton
Speaker 1: of money, I kind of would want because do you
Speaker 1: remember the one in the movie. It like had that
Speaker 1: big um glass dome in the middle and it like
Speaker 1: kind of showed when they would roll the die. Also,
Speaker 1: the die was cool. The board itself, like in the
Speaker 1: actual movie, was wooden. It was in great like engraved.
Speaker 1: It was super cool. So that was worth sixty dollars.
Speaker 1: But I think the board game, which I don't know
Speaker 1: if they still have out now, but it looks like
Speaker 1: you can get one from the nineties. That's like about
Speaker 1: a hundred bucks. Bandai Namco Entertainment, Europe, Outright Games and
Speaker 1: fun Solve had teamed up with Sony Pictures to make
Speaker 1: a video game based on the latest Jumanji movies. So
Speaker 1: it just came out. So that's a that's a fresh
Speaker 1: one if y'all want to hit it up. And then
Speaker 1: what's cool is that the success of the gineral Jumanji
Speaker 1: is what led to the film adaptation of the Polar Express.
Speaker 1: So Chris van Alsberg's Jumanji being adapt adapted into this
Speaker 1: film that did so well, then he was able to
Speaker 1: adapt other works of his pretty neat, you know what.
Speaker 1: This is so fascinating. So Jumanji and and Sony are
Speaker 1: now facing off twice in the box office against the
Speaker 1: Star Wars film. So the Last Jedi in Seen and
Speaker 1: The Rise of Skywalker will premier the week following the
Speaker 1: third installment of Jumanji. I find that really fascinating that,
Speaker 1: like they keep butting up against each other. Pretty sure
Speaker 1: I can tell which one is gonna win. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's also cool to see the rock um oh man um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, speaking of the rock one, So we were
Speaker 1: talking about the classic Jumanji and all that, but there
Speaker 1: was a reboot, and like I said, you know people
Speaker 1: people weren't ready, but they were. Would you call this
Speaker 1: a reboot? Um, because Alan Parish exists in this he
Speaker 1: is right, yes, yeah, yeah, it's technically yeah, it's almost
Speaker 1: like a sequel. Yeah, because it's not even like it's
Speaker 1: the game doesn't exist, there's a new one. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so in this one, instead of a board game, it's
Speaker 1: it's going to be video games. And it's like, instead
Speaker 1: of just a brother and sister who were semi orphans,
Speaker 1: you have this kind of like breakfit breakfast club asque
Speaker 1: like archetype who have to work together to get back
Speaker 1: to the real world. So in an interview with Vanity Fair,
Speaker 1: Matt Tolmach spoke about the difficulty of making a sequel
Speaker 1: without the show's original star. He said, quote, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people in their thirties and forties who
Speaker 1: hold this movie very near and dear. This was a
Speaker 1: seminal movie for them, and Robin Williams was fondly remembered
Speaker 1: for his role in it. It was a tipping point
Speaker 1: for visual effects in movies, and it's imprinted very vividly
Speaker 1: on people. We wanted to make a movie that honored
Speaker 1: the spirit of Robin and the legacy of the movie,
Speaker 1: yet take it in a completely different direction. Do you
Speaker 1: think you had to do And they did a good
Speaker 1: job of yeah. And so they had the script since
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, but couldn't quite crack it until
Speaker 1: community screenwriter Chris McKenna stepped in. He came to him
Speaker 1: with a pitch and Chris, you know, he said, he's
Speaker 1: a big dude. He was very tall, and he said that,
Speaker 1: you know, he's an avid video game player. And it
Speaker 1: used to come home from school feeling all these things
Speaker 1: that you felt in high school, you know, uncomfortable in
Speaker 1: your own body, don't really like it. But then you
Speaker 1: would go into these video games and make these avatars.
Speaker 1: And I definitely remember that because you had games like RuneScape,
Speaker 1: World of Warcraft came out while we're in high school,
Speaker 1: and these were games where you got to play as
Speaker 1: these different characters, but still it was like an avatar
Speaker 1: to represent yourself. Like you know, if you're playing like
Speaker 1: a Halo, you're like playing as master Chief. But in
Speaker 1: a lot of most massively multiplayer online games, you're playing
Speaker 1: as this character you're creating that represents yourself, and so
Speaker 1: I always found it fascinating me. Uh. Mostly as for me,
Speaker 1: I typically do like it. It's such an interesting kind
Speaker 1: of point to make. And I'm not really trying to
Speaker 1: say it as a flex or anything, but I could.
Speaker 1: I always knew I was like pretty okay with my
Speaker 1: self image because when I played video games, I always
Speaker 1: wanted it to look like me, like I never wanted.
Speaker 1: But meanwhile, I had like certain friends who like always
Speaker 1: made them look buffer than themselves or like always played
Speaker 1: like a woman. And there's you know, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that that that means anything in particular, but it is
Speaker 1: funny to see, like if you're playing a game, whether
Speaker 1: or not you want to make the hero yourself or
Speaker 1: you're like, now, this has to be something completely different
Speaker 1: than me. Yeah. Another thing that McKenna, who actually worked
Speaker 1: on the first script with Eric Sommers, his writing partner
Speaker 1: on the Lego Batman movie and Spiderman Far from Home,
Speaker 1: did not realize that they wrote both of those. Uh
Speaker 1: shared his opinion on sequels in the same article. He said,
Speaker 1: I don't love reboots. You can't have another two kids
Speaker 1: find the board game. You have to reinvent it. You
Speaker 1: have to do the opposite it and go into the game.
Speaker 1: Uh and so like if you said, they wanted to
Speaker 1: treat it like the Breakfast Club, which was essentially like
Speaker 1: the nerd, the job, the princess, the highstrung Tracy Flick type,
Speaker 1: and forced them to all work together. According to The
Speaker 1: Rock Dwight Johnson, the film was partially inspired by video
Speaker 1: games from the nineties. It does very much have that
Speaker 1: like tumb Rater, Metal Gear, Crash of Bandicoo like elements
Speaker 1: of it. There's actually an entire list of games under
Speaker 1: Island Survival that also plays into the storytelling of Jumanji.
Speaker 1: By the way, before we ran run right by it
Speaker 1: because we said it so matter of factly, do you
Speaker 1: know who Tracy Flick is? Right? No? Have you ever
Speaker 1: seen the Reese Witherspoon movie Election Barely? Okay, So that's
Speaker 1: Tracy Flick. That's the type. So if you if you
Speaker 1: never seen Election. And the only reason I wanted to
Speaker 1: point it out is because this character is so funny,
Speaker 1: and also because I had to do this scene with
Speaker 1: a scene partner in my acting class. Uh so I
Speaker 1: really got to learn. But Election is about like that
Speaker 1: you're super type a person and she wanted to be
Speaker 1: class president and of course she knew she was the
Speaker 1: best for it, so it was like that stereotypical like
Speaker 1: book smart, super driven. I think another comparison would be
Speaker 1: like Amy Poehler's character and Parks and Wreck, where they're
Speaker 1: just like super invested in theirselves. So if you ever
Speaker 1: hear like Tracy Fleck, that's kind of what they're talking about.
Speaker 1: I love it. I also this was, you know, the
Speaker 1: start of this, not start, but it was like more
Speaker 1: into this Rock and Kevin Hart bromance. Their relationship is
Speaker 1: hilarious to me because they just like dog each other
Speaker 1: so much. I know, And if I can just for
Speaker 1: a second to take a step out of this from
Speaker 1: just looking at it as is, but just also from
Speaker 1: a you know, creative social media marketing aspect, it's so
Speaker 1: such a great idea you can be known to just
Speaker 1: as the way you interact with people, because it just
Speaker 1: makes people more interested in you ribbing each other. And
Speaker 1: I think you know a lot of the guys and
Speaker 1: white women we get that a lot because we obviously
Speaker 1: grief each other online. So I'm always up for it,
Speaker 1: and I love seeing it because like it's but it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like it's kind of like when you
Speaker 1: see people you know you're hanging out and you know
Speaker 1: you have those two friends that always give each other
Speaker 1: hard time, you just love watching it. And so I
Speaker 1: love that they both lean into it, like the fact
Speaker 1: that like when they're in you're and I think you're
Speaker 1: a thousand percent right. I think this movie was the
Speaker 1: beginning where they first started really doing it because it
Speaker 1: was this um actually, when did the first one come out?
Speaker 1: The first? Um? No, no, I mean the first So
Speaker 1: it was like right after Central Intelligence. So they did
Speaker 1: that movie together and I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you saw that or remember it. I remember it.
Speaker 1: It was all right, you know, it was great. I
Speaker 1: actually really liked it. But so like they it's when
Speaker 1: they kind of like right on the cusp of when
Speaker 1: they started doing movies to other and is the reason
Speaker 1: the why now Kevin Hard appears in Hobbs and Shaw randomly,
Speaker 1: but yeah, no, I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing at me.
Speaker 1: I love the right I follow him. He's definitely definitely
Speaker 1: must follow on Instagram. I mean, he's very inspirational, he's
Speaker 1: working out like four am, even though he has to
Speaker 1: be on set at six am and he was up
Speaker 1: until midnight, uh, filming. But what I love is he's
Speaker 1: somehow spun this. This last a bunch of our friends
Speaker 1: went to the press junket. They normally have it in
Speaker 1: like Hawaii or Mexico or whatever. Um for a lot
Speaker 1: of these jungle like that in Drastic World they did that. Um,
Speaker 1: they'll fly out press to like you know where they
Speaker 1: filmed and stuff, or like a more tropical area. And
Speaker 1: he's somehow spun it into his tequila. You know, he
Speaker 1: is a tequila company. Oh my gosh. If he follow
Speaker 1: him on Instagram, he like every third post is one
Speaker 1: about his tequila company. Which is fine, Like I love
Speaker 1: the man, support POC run businesses. Um. But it was
Speaker 1: just funny because it was like also kind of like
Speaker 1: fit in with the theme and it was like at
Speaker 1: the junk like also tequila. You know, he's an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: But yeah, So the teen film, what I did remember
Speaker 1: from it was my favorite Jonas brother was in it,
Speaker 1: Nick Jonas um and how the Rocks character his like
Speaker 1: superpower was the smolder Do you remember that? And they
Speaker 1: had to actually convince director Jake Kasden to do that,
Speaker 1: which is so funny because I bet on paper it
Speaker 1: doesn't sound as funny as he actually does it. So
Speaker 1: the film gross nine hundred sixty two million worldwide. It
Speaker 1: became the fifth highest grossing film of seen but the
Speaker 1: fiftie highest grossing film of all time, which is fascinating.
Speaker 1: I mean it is it is a sequel, but it's
Speaker 1: not necessarily like you know, some of the other ones
Speaker 1: that were looking at, like again, they're going up against
Speaker 1: Star Wars and so it's it's a fascinating conversation and
Speaker 1: for me to be like, people aren't going to the
Speaker 1: movies anymore, or I guess if they are, they're going
Speaker 1: just for these But like this is a well known
Speaker 1: I p but I wouldn't consider it up in the
Speaker 1: realm of Marvel, d C or Disney. So it is
Speaker 1: fascinating that it still made it into the fifth highest
Speaker 1: grossing films of all time. That is just a fascinating um.
Speaker 1: So we had I did. I didn't want to say
Speaker 1: before we moved on. That also worked on the screenplay
Speaker 1: with Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: leave them out. They also wrote it uh, in a collaboration,
Speaker 1: but it did start Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart,
Speaker 1: Karen Gillian, who you will recognize as a Nebula, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Nick Jonas and Bobby Cannibal. It's actually set twenty
Speaker 1: one years after the original Jumanji, and they do, of
Speaker 1: course make a reference to pay tribute to Robin Williams
Speaker 1: by mentioning his character's name by mentioning Alan Parish. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: it's it's very it's it's so because, yeah, they find
Speaker 1: this old video game console. They're drawn into the game's
Speaker 1: jungle setting, and they become adult avatars, uh, of the
Speaker 1: characters they chose, and they found that you don't just
Speaker 1: play the game, you must survive it. So and it's
Speaker 1: just kind of the same beat as the board game.
Speaker 1: You have to beat the game to escape the game.
Speaker 1: So now they're fighting for their lives literally to beat it.
Speaker 1: This is really fascinating because Bradley Pierce, who again played
Speaker 1: Peter Shepard in the original one, he actually told E
Speaker 1: News that the remake was quote unnecessary and kind of insulting.
Speaker 1: But I mean, you know, it's been quite a while
Speaker 1: since the first one came out. It's a really good
Speaker 1: concept and they updated it in a way that was
Speaker 1: kept it fresh. I know, it's it's that's that's always
Speaker 1: such a um interesting take. Is this idea of unnecessary
Speaker 1: because like when when is a sequel necessary? And the
Speaker 1: and and you know it's I think the best answer
Speaker 1: I kind of uh got for it was from Alonzo
Speaker 1: um do all Day from Who Shot You, who also
Speaker 1: is a review editor for The Rap who said, you know,
Speaker 1: he really enjoyed Frozen too, even though it's an unnecessary
Speaker 1: uh sequel. And someone in the Who Shot You um
Speaker 1: group was like, well, what what is that? What is that?
Speaker 1: And he was like, well to me, he was like,
Speaker 1: unnecessary is that? You know, a necessary sequel is a
Speaker 1: story that isn't finished and then you do it, and
Speaker 1: then an unnecessary is just kind of when you're just
Speaker 1: doing it again. Uh. And I feel like that that's
Speaker 1: I mean, like when you put it like that, I
Speaker 1: feel like it's not necessarily a negative thing, but it
Speaker 1: just unnecessary feels like such a negative word because it's
Speaker 1: like it's unneeded. You don't you want it. But it's
Speaker 1: like I think as long as people are interested in
Speaker 1: the I P it is necessary because you want to
Speaker 1: feed that. I p because what are you gonna No
Speaker 1: one's going to re buy the old movie? You know,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Put out a criterion you
Speaker 1: know collection? Well, what's fascinated? You brought up Frozen too?
Speaker 1: Because when I was doing press, when I was interviewed,
Speaker 1: I was the um host and moderator for a lot
Speaker 1: of the press, the Ralph stuff, And actually Disney gave
Speaker 1: me that question to ask the filmmakers, I think also
Speaker 1: to get ahead of the press. Uh. So I would
Speaker 1: ask them as the moderator. Uh, And it was, you know,
Speaker 1: why did you you know the film? It kind of
Speaker 1: wrapped everything up with these characters? Why did you want
Speaker 1: to revisit it? And that is exactly on the money
Speaker 1: if he is. I think, Um, there's more story that
Speaker 1: could be told? Is normally what they say, like, there's
Speaker 1: more you could do with these characters. And I think
Speaker 1: they were like we're we weren't done telling their story. Um.
Speaker 1: Same with Frozen. It's like, yeah, you could just leave
Speaker 1: it at that, or we could kind of play around
Speaker 1: with them more. What else can they do? What other
Speaker 1: worlds can they explore? Um? What else can we explore
Speaker 1: with their growth? And so stay with incredible. I mean
Speaker 1: actually all of those and finding Dorry, and it's like,
Speaker 1: all of those don't necessarily need Toy Story fit perfectly.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful, but a lot of people love Toy
Speaker 1: Story two, three and four, so you know it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily and of course it's not necessary, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's interesting because you're interested in the I P.
Speaker 1: And I think I would argue that the Dumont reboot
Speaker 1: was necessary because, I mean, now tabletop games are starting
Speaker 1: to take over, but you know, for a while, like
Speaker 1: no video games are the new hit, so you are
Speaker 1: updating a story for a new audience. So I would
Speaker 1: argue that each sequel is necessary because of that reason.
Speaker 1: We have to take another quick break and then we're
Speaker 1: going to hop into more of June Mangi. But first
Speaker 1: we want to talk to you all about Express VPN.
Speaker 1: Yes we do. Yeah, So with all the recent news
Speaker 1: about online security breaches, which is actually really scary. It's
Speaker 1: hard not to worry about where all of our data
Speaker 1: goes and making an online purchase or simply accessing your
Speaker 1: email could put your private information at risk. You're being
Speaker 1: tracked online by social media sites, marketing companies, your mobile
Speaker 1: or internet provider. Not only can they record your browsing
Speaker 1: history that's also scary, but they often sell it to
Speaker 1: other corporations who want to profit from your information. That's
Speaker 1: why we decided to take back our privacy using Express VPN.
Speaker 1: It has an easy use app that runs seamlessly in
Speaker 1: the background of our computers, phones and tablets and turn
Speaker 1: it on. Express VPN protection only takes one click. Express
Speaker 1: VPNs secures and anonymizes our Internet browsing by encrypting our
Speaker 1: data and hiding our public IP address and protecting yourself
Speaker 1: would Express VPN costs less than seven bucks a month.
Speaker 1: Express VPN is rate at the number one VPN service
Speaker 1: by tech Radar and comes with a thirty day money
Speaker 1: back guarantee. So if you ever use public WiFi and
Speaker 1: want to keep hackers and spies from seeing your data,
Speaker 1: Express VPN is the solution. And if you don't want
Speaker 1: to hand over your online history to your internet provider
Speaker 1: data resellers, guess what Express VPN is the answer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So protect your online activity today and find out how
Speaker 1: you can get three months for free at Express vpn
Speaker 1: dot com slash nerd. That's e x p R E
Speaker 1: s s v p n dot com slash n e
Speaker 1: r d for three months free with a one year package.
Speaker 1: Visit express vpn dot com slash nerd to learn more.
Speaker 1: We are back talking about Jumannge So the new one
Speaker 1: drops this weekend. It's Jumanji the Next Level. I should
Speaker 1: have said the other one was Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle,
Speaker 1: which is actually my favorite. Guns and Roses really um
Speaker 1: and I think I need to clear I don't know
Speaker 1: if I said this on here, Okay, so maybe it
Speaker 1: was the episode with Joel. I listened to Duff mccagan,
Speaker 1: he's the bass player for Guns n Roses, and I
Speaker 1: listened to his audio book. Uh, it's so easy and
Speaker 1: other wise I think is the name of it. Highly
Speaker 1: recommend because he also talks about Pearl Jam, you know,
Speaker 1: losing his friend like all the hair metal days, like
Speaker 1: losing his friends to drugs. How he like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: like his spleen or something burrs his stomach first they
Speaker 1: were drinking so much. I mean he's totally sober now
Speaker 1: and a really really great guy, great dad, great husband,
Speaker 1: like very pro women, like goes to marches and stuff.
Speaker 1: But he um back when he was younger, he was
Speaker 1: drinking so much his stomach exploded and um, he said,
Speaker 1: like his legs were cramping and it was like his
Speaker 1: stomach acid was actually going into his It was wild.
Speaker 1: But what I was going to say is, uh, this
Speaker 1: has a point. I think the fact that I brought
Speaker 1: up was that Duff Beer from The Simpsons was named
Speaker 1: after him. He actually said that in his auto on
Speaker 1: his autobiography, but it turns out that's kind of not
Speaker 1: true because Matt grading said, no, that's that's absurd, like
Speaker 1: that's absurd, and then Duff was like, well, I think
Speaker 1: it's absurd that he said that it was absurd or whatever,
Speaker 1: and so it was so funny, but like several people
Speaker 1: at The Simpsons have been like, we did not name
Speaker 1: it after you. Um, although it is kind of fascinating
Speaker 1: because it was kind of like the same time, and
Speaker 1: Duff said, like, you know, he started to see people
Speaker 1: wearing t shirts of Duff Beer like at his things,
Speaker 1: but it was I want to clarify that that Apparently
Speaker 1: both sides are sticking to their story and I don't
Speaker 1: know which one is true. Um. So the last movie
Speaker 1: was Welcome to the Jungle. This one is the next
Speaker 1: level and uh, someone that we know, Aquafina is going
Speaker 1: to be in it. Iffy, that's I'm drinking that Aquafina juice.
Speaker 1: You know. I saw the Farewell she crushed in that,
Speaker 1: and I watched Crazy Rich Asians and I'm like, okay, cool, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it is, let's couple God. This is directed by
Speaker 1: Jake Kasdan again um so the premise is unknown to
Speaker 1: his friends. Spencer kept the pieces of the Jumanji video
Speaker 1: game and one day repaired the system in the basement
Speaker 1: of his grandfather's house. When Spencer's friends Bethany, Fridge, and
Speaker 1: Martha arrived, they find Spencer missing in the game running
Speaker 1: and decided to re enter Jumanji to save him. Spencer's grandfather,
Speaker 1: Eddie and his friend Milo Walker here the commotion and
Speaker 1: inadvertently get sucked into the game. That's the part I'm
Speaker 1: excited about too. Before any of Spencer's friends can select
Speaker 1: their avatars with a new quest offered to them by
Speaker 1: Nigel Billingsley, the teenage friends must help Eddie and Milo
Speaker 1: get used to their their in game avatars, get them
Speaker 1: to help find Spencer and Bethany and escape Jumanji once
Speaker 1: again and for all, unless they decide to do another sequel.
Speaker 1: There are new people joining the team, Danny de Vito
Speaker 1: and Danny Glover. Oh my gosh, I love Danny de
Speaker 1: Vito with all my heart too. And it looks like
Speaker 1: we're gonna have Nick Jonas reprising his role and Colin
Speaker 1: Hanks as well. He did pop up, remember in the
Speaker 1: original one. And what's interesting is apparently the Germanty The
Speaker 1: Next Level is going to be the first Hollywood film
Speaker 1: to be shown in the United States with its immersive
Speaker 1: cinema experienced technology that comes from the most the French
Speaker 1: multiplex company c g R Cinemas and uh it was
Speaker 1: launched three years ago by c gr in The ummersity
Speaker 1: format works with five LED panels flanking each side of
Speaker 1: the auditorium filling peripheral vision with the complementary colors and
Speaker 1: Regal l A Live wo whoop is uh is all? Um?
Speaker 1: The regal l A Live complex was also one of
Speaker 1: the earliest sites with for d X technology from Koreative
Speaker 1: from Korea based company cg for d Plex in addition
Speaker 1: to real three D three D tuch Um three D installation.
Speaker 1: So it seems like uh they might be It might
Speaker 1: who knows. Maybe uh, regular A Live is going to
Speaker 1: be the first to rock with that. Um. I can't
Speaker 1: remember if they were the ones that I think they were,
Speaker 1: But I saw the meganty we didn't as my friends,
Speaker 1: and I'd like Joe like, we'll just go and see whatever,
Speaker 1: and like it's way too expensive and you get water
Speaker 1: like squirted at you. Yeah, it's it's really funny to me.
Speaker 1: They should do more, like but really do it? Like
Speaker 1: there I think there was a helicopter scene and like
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, all this blowing air at you
Speaker 1: and like, but yeah, I really want it to be
Speaker 1: like you know, soaring the Disneyland ride and when you're
Speaker 1: soaring over California and you're soaring over these orange trees
Speaker 1: and then they like sprail the orange so it smells
Speaker 1: like fresh oranges. Like that's what I want. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to watch. I want like mosquitoes flying at me.
Speaker 1: I wanted to smell like sewer swamp. Oh yes, thank you.
Speaker 1: Here we in a stanky place. If you guess how
Speaker 1: much the rock may just take a guess what do
Speaker 1: you think that he made for this ten million? If
Speaker 1: he I would think like yeah, like how much would
Speaker 1: he get paid five million. Yeah, what do you even
Speaker 1: do you make tequila? Yeah? Well because and it makes
Speaker 1: sense to tequila, it makes sense to you because a
Speaker 1: movie like this is going to definitely do well overseas,
Speaker 1: so they're probably expecting a lot in return. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that that's going to be small pill. This might be
Speaker 1: a close to billion dollar. This is gonna do really
Speaker 1: well with the holiday because a lot of people aren't
Speaker 1: just going to see one. You know, you're there, you're off,
Speaker 1: the kids are off for like two weeks, so you're
Speaker 1: probably gonna see you like one or two films. I'm
Speaker 1: sure everyone's gonna go see Star Wars. But also this
Speaker 1: is coming out during the holiday, so you're definitely gonna
Speaker 1: take your family friendly, fun, non controversial to Mangi. So
Speaker 1: this was also produced by both Seven Bucks Productions, which
Speaker 1: is if followed the Rock, he would know that's his
Speaker 1: production company because he tweets about it a lot and Heartbeat,
Speaker 1: which is also Kevin Hearts. Oh yeah, this is uh,
Speaker 1: this is yeah, stacked, stacked, stacked production list. So yeah,
Speaker 1: go out and see it. Like you know, there's not
Speaker 1: much more to say, uh, you know, besides reviewing the movie.
Speaker 1: But I haven't seen it yet, so you know, go
Speaker 1: go see it. Are you a fan of Dumanji? Are
Speaker 1: you a fan of the New Ones? Let us know
Speaker 1: on flying? Are you just a fan of the rock?
Speaker 1: I mean that, who's going to blame you? He's so
Speaker 1: I know everybody's like he should run for president. I'm like,
Speaker 1: but then you would not like him? Yeah, because it's
Speaker 1: so funny is the people that we love it eventually
Speaker 1: like their political stances and whatever like are flawed. You know,
Speaker 1: they are um and then you know they have to
Speaker 1: do things that we might not agree with. They have
Speaker 1: to like all the stuff, and then you just would
Speaker 1: not like him um anymore. Anyways, that got dark? Where
Speaker 1: can people will find you? Danny? Um? Well? You know,
Speaker 1: Actually tonight, y'all, thank you to everyone that watched me
Speaker 1: on the CW on Sunday. I am also going to
Speaker 1: be on the Crisis Aftermath show tonight with Kevin Smith.
Speaker 1: It comes on after the Flash who myself and a
Speaker 1: bunch of other guests are breaking down the Crisis episodes,
Speaker 1: but we're also just talking about d C cool stuff
Speaker 1: in general. Um and and you know, growing up with
Speaker 1: these characters. So check it out. It comes on after
Speaker 1: the flash and if you miss it, I don't know. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can watch it online. What about you?
Speaker 1: If he you know me, you can find me at
Speaker 1: if you Wadway on Twitter and Instagram, if he's on Twitch.
Speaker 1: If you want the discord, it's Discord dot g G
Speaker 1: Forward slash Salt Squad, and we keep the discussion going
Speaker 1: in there of course, t public dot com, Forward slash Nerdificent.
Speaker 1: You need gifts, you know you need it. You just
Speaker 1: thought about it right now you're like, oh, I forgot
Speaker 1: I need a gift. So what you can do is
Speaker 1: go to to your public, get some mugs, some T shirts,
Speaker 1: sitting that to all your friends, and also like tag
Speaker 1: Iffie and I please, because that's the only way we're
Speaker 1: going to see it. It's a tag both of us
Speaker 1: and UM. And then we can reshare it if you
Speaker 1: want us to know, if you want us to. But
Speaker 1: you know, like we always say, stay nerdy, Stay nerdy,