Speaker 1: On the Doll Cast. The questions asked if movies have
Speaker 1: women and um are all their discussions just boyfriends and
Speaker 1: husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef in
Speaker 1: best start changing it with the bel Cast. Jamie, Hey,
Speaker 1: I don't have a great intro for this, but I
Speaker 1: was thinking that we should get those little like carrot
Speaker 1: shaped pens. They are also voice recorders that Judy Hopps
Speaker 1: has in the movie, and then use that to record
Speaker 1: the beck Dold Cast on from now on. Just depend
Speaker 1: with how much I had genuine questions about a lot
Speaker 1: of things in this movie. One of the lower stakes
Speaker 1: things was the pen. I was like, how much storage
Speaker 1: is on that thing? Is there an SD card? I
Speaker 1: think it's. I think it's we gotta we gotta go
Speaker 1: to I. I don't want to go to zo Topia.
Speaker 1: I really don't. Um, well, I'll still go. I gotta
Speaker 1: be honest, you go, what would you do? Um, we'll
Speaker 1: get to that. Welcome to the Bechtel Cast. My name
Speaker 1: is Jamie Loftus, my name is Caitlin Darante, and this
Speaker 1: is our show where we examine movies through an intersectional
Speaker 1: feminist lens using the Bechtel test simply as a jumping
Speaker 1: off point. But Jamie, I don't remember what that is. Well,
Speaker 1: I can tell you what it is if you want, Okay,
Speaker 1: I will. The Bechdel Test is a media metric created
Speaker 1: by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel, sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace Test.
Speaker 1: Many per mutations of this test. Here's the one we use.
Speaker 1: We require that two characters with names of a marginalized
Speaker 1: gender speak to each other about something other than a
Speaker 1: man for two lines of dialogue minimum, and the it
Speaker 1: has to have some meaning to it. It's got to
Speaker 1: have some heft. I like that. Nothink I've ever said.
Speaker 1: I don't find myself saying heffed out loud a lot.
Speaker 1: But and for anyone was to the show for the
Speaker 1: first time, being like, is that all you're going to
Speaker 1: talk about on the show? No? And in fact, I'll
Speaker 1: say that this movie does pass um. It's not really
Speaker 1: it's not as maybe not as much as a show,
Speaker 1: but it does. You know, we'll talk about it. Something
Speaker 1: that has been happening to me for the past I
Speaker 1: don't know, one to two years of this podcast is
Speaker 1: I forget to pay attention very I mean, it's and
Speaker 1: you're very on top. You're great at your job. Thank you.
Speaker 1: But that is the one thing you good is the
Speaker 1: name of this show. We've transcended so far beyond the
Speaker 1: very basic low bar that is the Bechdel test. Yeah,
Speaker 1: our our third eyes are open, right, and I just
Speaker 1: where is this? Uh? Genuinely I think they're coming up
Speaker 1: on three hunt are definitely with our Matreon episodes, we've
Speaker 1: covered around three D and fifty movies. Yeah, let me
Speaker 1: consult the Wikipedia. Also shout out to the mysterious benefactor
Speaker 1: who's been taking care of the Wikipedia page for years now.
Speaker 1: We don't know who you are, but boy, do you
Speaker 1: put me on blast in the footnotes sometimes? Holyishh it
Speaker 1: I never I forget to check. Two hundred seventy seven
Speaker 1: episodes out of today have been released on the maid
Speaker 1: feed on the Mad Yeah, I've been doing this for
Speaker 1: many moons. Oh my goodness. Well let's get our guests
Speaker 1: in the mix, shall we. He's a writer and director
Speaker 1: and that's our friend Matt Mixon. Thanks for having me,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on, thank you for and thank you
Speaker 1: for bringing us a real pickle of a waiting And
Speaker 1: why did we do this one? Again? Was this on
Speaker 1: the list on your list, but this but my I
Speaker 1: made my list based off of the frequently requested yeah
Speaker 1: backtel cast list right correct. We've gotten a lot of
Speaker 1: requests for this movie over the years, and I once again,
Speaker 1: as with many of our popular requests, I'm like, really, everyone,
Speaker 1: are we okay? Um? But we're We're curious, Matt, what
Speaker 1: is your history? It was, oh yeah, the movies Utopia.
Speaker 1: He came out in the greatest year of all time? Um, Matt,
Speaker 1: what's your history with this movie? I watched this movie
Speaker 1: on the day of a funeral of like a really
Speaker 1: close loved one past and I was in Wisconsin and
Speaker 1: it was freezing, and I was with my mom and
Speaker 1: my sister and we popped it on and I remember
Speaker 1: really enjoying it. It was my number fourteen movie often.
Speaker 1: I retroactively popped it on having seen it in January.
Speaker 1: Do you do yearly rankings? Yeah? I do him. Um,
Speaker 1: I keep it running ranking on letterbox now. But also
Speaker 1: have a movie journal so I can always know the
Speaker 1: day and like, who I saw this? That's so nice.
Speaker 1: I should be more diligent about logging my movie activity.
Speaker 1: It's just like a it's like a life journal. You
Speaker 1: can just look back and remember. You'll just see a
Speaker 1: weird name, be like who Funks? Did I see that with?
Speaker 1: Like or you know, yeah, it's just really it's a
Speaker 1: nice way to remember. Yeah, I Maggie may Fish shout
Speaker 1: out to someone who's wedding we just attended. UM makes
Speaker 1: movie journals. I think we will drop the link in
Speaker 1: there because I because I got one and I have
Speaker 1: yet to use it because I have a fundamental resistance
Speaker 1: to remember things that happened to me. UM, and that's
Speaker 1: a therapy problem. So, um, Jamie, what's your history and
Speaker 1: relationship with Zootopia? Nothing. I had not seen this movie,
Speaker 1: and it was what a journey because I feel like
Speaker 1: maybe if I saw this at the beginning of twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen when it came out, I probably would have felt
Speaker 1: different just because but I don't know. I mean, I yeah,
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen it. I didn't really know what it
Speaker 1: was about, and I didn't like it. It's fucking it's
Speaker 1: such a bad movie. Okay, I'm glad that the Tension
Speaker 1: has been released, because I fucking hated every second of
Speaker 1: this movie. It was like kind of vile and it
Speaker 1: was like, I don't think that there were like poor
Speaker 1: intentions behind this movie, but like the just every bad
Speaker 1: choice like it was. I was blown away by how
Speaker 1: much I disliked it. I think people requested this movie
Speaker 1: originally because they liked it. Yeah, but it's about girl
Speaker 1: boss Cop Solves, who causes racism and then she fixes it,
Speaker 1: but also she This movie truly blew my mind for
Speaker 1: like how many very at least very obvious, uh flights
Speaker 1: of logic that it just barrels through. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I came to this movie with fresh eyes, and boy,
Speaker 1: oh boy, I hated it. You remember liking it when
Speaker 1: you first saw it as well, which was in theaters,
Speaker 1: and when did it come out, like March of and
Speaker 1: I remember having a good time, But that was also
Speaker 1: the year that Mo Wanna came out, and I remember
Speaker 1: being furious that this movie, Zutopia won the Academy Award
Speaker 1: for Best Animated Feature the Academy Award over mo Wanna. Yes,
Speaker 1: And I was absolutely furious because I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Zutopia was fun, but Mohanna is a far superior film.
Speaker 1: And the gap now between the quality of those two movies,
Speaker 1: because at the time I was like, oh yeah, Zutopia
Speaker 1: is only slightly not as good, But now I'm like
Speaker 1: Zootopia's socks and Mohanna is still perfect, so I think
Speaker 1: it is. Really, I mean, it's an interesting example of
Speaker 1: like how much public thinking has changed in the last
Speaker 1: six years alone. It came out six like less than
Speaker 1: six years ago, and I truly was shocked at how
Speaker 1: poorly it's aged. Like just, yeah, there's there's so much
Speaker 1: to talk about. We're not like coming into I Sometimes
Speaker 1: I feel like we come into a movie like this movie,
Speaker 1: Like if you liked the movie when it came out,
Speaker 1: I'm sure I would. Like if I had seen it
Speaker 1: in theaters, I'm sure I would. I would have enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: And like, if you still like it, that's also fine.
Speaker 1: But then listen to us during the episode. Yeah, should
Speaker 1: we just get into it? I guess so, yeah, and
Speaker 1: Matt feel free to jump in during the recap, we
Speaker 1: go there's so much there's so many things that I'm
Speaker 1: going to want to be like but wait, if that's true,
Speaker 1: how could that be true? Okay? How did she puts
Speaker 1: her phone in a plastic ziploc baggy to like when
Speaker 1: they flushed themselves down the toilet? But why doesn't she
Speaker 1: do that for her little pen. That's the first thing
Speaker 1: you're taking only because we were talking about that's the
Speaker 1: my only gripe with the film end of episode everything else,
Speaker 1: the message that positive. I think it made a ton
Speaker 1: of sense. This uh well, kind of say again before
Speaker 1: we start shooting all of this movie. I enjoyed it
Speaker 1: when I saw it. Yeah, a lot has changed in
Speaker 1: four or five years. So whatever, let's have a good
Speaker 1: time here. But you know, just I it was my
Speaker 1: number fourteen of the year. I mean that's crazy, that's wild.
Speaker 1: I mean it's like, yeah, so so again it's like
Speaker 1: as always on the back to cast, never feel bad
Speaker 1: for loving him, unless I mean there's a few where
Speaker 1: it's like you should feel bad. This is not one
Speaker 1: of them, right. But also, you know, if we can
Speaker 1: bring maybe a few red flags to your attention, we
Speaker 1: would like to do that. That's our job. Okay. So
Speaker 1: Zootopia takes place in an advanced animal society where predator
Speaker 1: animals and prey animals coexist in harmony. Big cats can
Speaker 1: be accountants, sheep can be astronauts. Anyone can be anything,
Speaker 1: though it wasn't always that way in this world, predators
Speaker 1: used to eat prey, just like in our world. Uh
Speaker 1: but again, huge problems, enough for fun, but the animals
Speaker 1: have evolved beyond that. So we meet Judy Hopps. She's
Speaker 1: a young rabbit who wants to be a police officer
Speaker 1: for the city of Zutopia number two, also voiced by
Speaker 1: um mrs. He's just not that into you herself A
Speaker 1: good one. I hadn't heard of this person. Oh really
Speaker 1: she's I'm sure she's in other things, and but I
Speaker 1: know her as the person who really was not fun
Speaker 1: to watch in a movie that wasn't fun to watch.
Speaker 1: He's just not that into you. Sure, wow, Okay, So
Speaker 1: she wants to be a cop when she grows up,
Speaker 1: something that her carrot farmer parents try to discourage her
Speaker 1: from doing, saying that there's never been a bunny cop before.
Speaker 1: That's again, it's like it's so at first, then the
Speaker 1: parents are like, don't be a cop. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm listening, and they're like, because bunny a cop,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have I was like, oh god, okay, we
Speaker 1: missed it. And then it's like, oh, not wanting a
Speaker 1: bunny to be a cop is prejudice and misogyny. It's right.
Speaker 1: The muddled allegory is really muddled, and the movie is
Speaker 1: confused anyway. Okay, So her parents are like, don't be
Speaker 1: a cop and then also a bully. This fox named
Speaker 1: Gideon also tells her that she'll never be anything more
Speaker 1: than a week carrot farming little bunny and then he
Speaker 1: scratches her face. So now she has all this fox
Speaker 1: related trauma. Cut to fifteen years later, Judy is now
Speaker 1: attending Zutopia Police Academy. She struggles at first, but learns
Speaker 1: to play to her strengths and she starts to excel
Speaker 1: at the academy. This whole scene was really giving me
Speaker 1: the worst possible version of that sequence from Mulan, Oh,
Speaker 1: where Mulan becomes a really amazing soldier, except this is
Speaker 1: her book coming a semi competent cop, and it's like
Speaker 1: she keeps hearing the like you'll never be a cop,
Speaker 1: and it's like sometimes it's like listen to the voices
Speaker 1: in your head. I mean, there's nothing wrong with giving up. Yes, Okay.
Speaker 1: So then at her graduation from the academy, the mayor
Speaker 1: of Zutopia, a lion named lion Heart, while also created
Speaker 1: and his assistant mayor, a sheep named Yes literally Jenny
Speaker 1: Yes a k a. Also Bell Weather. They recognize Judy's accomplishments.
Speaker 1: She's the valedictorian of her class and she's the first
Speaker 1: rabbit to become a police officer in Zootopia. So Jody
Speaker 1: is about to ship off to Utopia. Her parents tell
Speaker 1: her to be careful in the big city, to be
Speaker 1: aware of predator animals like bears and wolves and especially foxes.
Speaker 1: Then they give her some fox repellent spray. Judy then
Speaker 1: gets assigned to Precinct one of Utopia. It's the city center,
Speaker 1: though there are like a dozen different ecosystems in a
Speaker 1: city like Tundra town Sahara Square, and Rainforest District Wow.
Speaker 1: So on her first day on the job, Judy learns
Speaker 1: about fourteen different missing animal cases. They are all predators
Speaker 1: who have gone missing um, but she doesn't get assigned
Speaker 1: to work on any of those. Chief Bogo, voiced by Idrisalba,
Speaker 1: assigns her parking duty, and while she's doing that, she
Speaker 1: sees a fox who seems to be up to no good,
Speaker 1: but then it turns out he's just It's Jason Bateman
Speaker 1: and he's just trying to buy his son a popsicle
Speaker 1: from an elephant who is prejudice against foxes. But then
Speaker 1: it turns out he is up to no good. His
Speaker 1: name is Nick Wild. By the way, this is like
Speaker 1: the first of many examples in this movie where a
Speaker 1: prejudice is referenced, but then canonically in the world, it's like,
Speaker 1: and she was right, Like, you're just like right, what
Speaker 1: is the point? What is the function of that? I
Speaker 1: will say that There's all these like little moments towards
Speaker 1: the beginning of the movie when Judy is like, I
Speaker 1: want to be a girl boss cop. But then she's like,
Speaker 1: I guess I'll take out all my frustration about not
Speaker 1: being able to be a real cop, which again is
Speaker 1: like that's loaded into like issuing petty parking tickets to
Speaker 1: the working class and what if I did that? It's okay, right?
Speaker 1: Or are we are we jumping in to talk about it?
Speaker 1: Or do you want to finish your thing because I
Speaker 1: got thoughts. We'll get well, let's let's get through the
Speaker 1: recap and then I'm going to keep jumping in. Um okay,
Speaker 1: So Nick Wild the fox is actually up to no good.
Speaker 1: He's yeah, not bad. He melts down the popsicle to
Speaker 1: make a bunch of smaller popsicles to sell to lemmings
Speaker 1: to make a profit. Fun hilarious, right, So then Judy
Speaker 1: confronts him about it, and he's like, no, I have
Speaker 1: all the permits I need. Also, you're a loser and
Speaker 1: you thought that, you know, you would live here and
Speaker 1: it would be this equitable utopia, but that's not the reality.
Speaker 1: So then she goes home and she feels all dejected.
Speaker 1: But then the next day she stops a thief from
Speaker 1: stealing a bag of onion like vegetables. Those are important later,
Speaker 1: I guess um. But even so, Chief Bogo isn't happy
Speaker 1: with her and he's about to fire her, but then
Speaker 1: an otter named Mrs Otterton comes in another sorry, another
Speaker 1: genius name, perfect no notes, voiced by Octavia Spencer. Is
Speaker 1: that right, Yeah? What a thankless voice role she does.
Speaker 1: She has like thirty seconds of screen time. So she
Speaker 1: comes in saying that her husband Emmett Otterton has been
Speaker 1: missing for ten days, and Judy is like, well, I'll
Speaker 1: help find him. So Chief Bogo gives her forty eight
Speaker 1: hours to find the missing otter, but if she can't
Speaker 1: then she's off the force and it seems like there
Speaker 1: are no leads for this case. But then Judy notices
Speaker 1: Nick the fox in the photo of Emmett Otterton's last
Speaker 1: known sighting. So Judy finds Nick and makes him help
Speaker 1: with her investigation. Emmett Otterton had bought a popsicle from Nick,
Speaker 1: then he went to a spa, where Judy gets a
Speaker 1: lead that Emmett left the spa and got into a
Speaker 1: white car. Also, like every time that she's moving the plot,
Speaker 1: I mean she's moving the plot forward, but she often
Speaker 1: moves the plot forward by um breaking the rules of
Speaker 1: being a cop, where she threatens to put Nick in
Speaker 1: jail for tax evasion. Classic cop Like she right, yes,
Speaker 1: she's kind of born, born to do it because she
Speaker 1: And then there's that part that we're about to get
Speaker 1: to where she's like, well, there's ways around getting a warrant.
Speaker 1: You're like, what the fuck? She sorry, we'll go ahead.
Speaker 1: She fucking tricks Nick into climbing the fence, so she
Speaker 1: has probably cause to bake. Yeah, Like that's like fucking coption,
Speaker 1: Jennifer Goodwin. So then they go to the d m
Speaker 1: V and run the license plate that the guy at
Speaker 1: the spot just happened to remember. Then there's a scene
Speaker 1: with sloths that I find so annoying. Well, it's another
Speaker 1: example of like, oh my god, I hated it. They
Speaker 1: used that as promo for the movie for a while,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, I don't want to see
Speaker 1: this movie because this scene sucks. I really hated it
Speaker 1: so much that. Yeah, I thought it was a funny idea.
Speaker 1: But again it is like another example of like the predge,
Speaker 1: this is correct, right, Yeah, we were leaning into the
Speaker 1: stereotypes of sloths. I don't know, but as a but
Speaker 1: as a but as a funny comedy set up where
Speaker 1: he kept changing the words in the sentence. I was last,
Speaker 1: maybe the movie's only truly good bit. Uh, yeah, I
Speaker 1: suppose you're right. I just found that the way that
Speaker 1: the line delivery of the sloths, I was like that,
Speaker 1: I just didn't like it. The performance is what I
Speaker 1: really took issue with. Anyway. So they go to the
Speaker 1: d m V. That leads them to a limousine company
Speaker 1: in Tundratown, where they find the limo and inside his
Speaker 1: Emmett's wallet and a bunch of claw marks. Judy and
Speaker 1: Nick are like, what the fuck. But then they get
Speaker 1: caught by the Limos owner, which is this crime boss Mr. Big.
Speaker 1: It's a whole like homage to the Godfather for this.
Speaker 1: This reminded me of like there's a few sequences in
Speaker 1: this movie where this movie is like going for this
Speaker 1: is not the first time I've said this. In the show,
Speaker 1: they're going for a shreky in energy, but it's perhaps
Speaker 1: not working, um because they're just like there's this like
Speaker 1: long homage to a movie that no child has ever seen,
Speaker 1: and they like, hopefully the parents are going to crack
Speaker 1: up at this weird Godfather interlude that will come back.
Speaker 1: I hated came Also, we should put shreky In on
Speaker 1: some new merch. Shreky and something about shreking energy, shreking
Speaker 1: vibes something. It rarely works outside of Shrek and this one.
Speaker 1: I mean, because there's like multiple points where it's like
Speaker 1: this movie is very like leaning into pop culture. She's like, listen,
Speaker 1: anytime there's like a movie where they play all by
Speaker 1: myself when the character's sad, like, okay, shreky In, um,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't work. It wasn't laughing, not in Zootopia, Shrek.
Speaker 1: What I we need to stop the regarding Shrek Rock
Speaker 1: it's good, I mean, it has its problems, and then
Speaker 1: Shrek Too. You gotta see Shrek to Shrek Too is
Speaker 1: has suffers from many of the same problems. Also going
Speaker 1: to say this this seek this part rips off training day,
Speaker 1: yeah day where they're like having in the bathtub and
Speaker 1: they're both to kill Ethan Hawk and then they find
Speaker 1: out that he saved the dude's daughter. It's like the
Speaker 1: exact same thing that happens there, Okay, And again it's
Speaker 1: like that reference is for who. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a reference that was just straight. That was this plagiarism
Speaker 1: that was and that was like another bizarro girl boss
Speaker 1: cop moment where if you like, I mean, it's like,
Speaker 1: if you apply a second of thought to a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that happened in this movie, it just
Speaker 1: completely falls apart or becomes deeply unethical. Um where it's
Speaker 1: like she saves that what animal is the Godfather is
Speaker 1: like like a little mole. I think, awesome, No, that's
Speaker 1: not powesome. I'm from the woods, so I know about
Speaker 1: woodland critters. Possums are huge and they're fucking on my
Speaker 1: neighbor's roof every single night. I think it's like a
Speaker 1: little mole maybe, but like she saves the Godfather's daughter
Speaker 1: from and I haven't seen the Grandfather, so I'm just assume,
Speaker 1: but I know what happens in the movie. Basically, it's
Speaker 1: pretty good. It's wait, that's a hot take. I've never
Speaker 1: heard that. You check it out. But Godfather too, Godfather
Speaker 1: to suffers from many of this. This person just told
Speaker 1: me they saw a house of Gucci twice in two days,
Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes ago. Look, I see, I see it.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen you know that's true. I mean, we
Speaker 1: all have our areas we do need to, you know,
Speaker 1: improve upon. My Godfather spot is not good. But well,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about for years maybe doing Godfather Month
Speaker 1: on the Matreon because we covered a frances for Cobla
Speaker 1: movie recently. But it was Peggy's who got married Francis Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah I did. It's a weird one, but oh so
Speaker 1: the logic is that Judy saved the daughter from a
Speaker 1: large doughnut whatever, and then Judy compliments her wedding dress,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: now the cops can collude with the mob, and then
Speaker 1: that's just cannon. For the rest of the movie, the
Speaker 1: cops are colluding with the mob, which happens in real life.
Speaker 1: But I don't think that that's any Like the movie
Speaker 1: is not commenting on anything there, Like the mob is
Speaker 1: funny r so, and we love cops that here in Zootopia,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, they love cops. So the crime boss
Speaker 1: is like, all right, you can get some more information
Speaker 1: from the driver of the limo. So Judy and Nick
Speaker 1: go to the rainforest district to talk to the limo driver,
Speaker 1: a jaguar named Mr Manches, who says that all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, emmet the otter went wild in the limo.
Speaker 1: He became violent and attacked him, all while yelling about
Speaker 1: night howlers. And then right then Mr Manches also turns
Speaker 1: into a wild animal and attacks them. Judy and Nick
Speaker 1: narrowly escape, but when Chief Bogo shows up to the scene,
Speaker 1: Mr Manches is gone, so Judy has no evidence to
Speaker 1: support her theory that for some reason, these animals are
Speaker 1: going wild. But Judy still has a few hours to
Speaker 1: crack the case. So she and Nick, who are getting
Speaker 1: along better, maybe they're even becoming friends. What they set
Speaker 1: off to city Hall to get help from Assistant Mayor Bellweather,
Speaker 1: who Assistant Mayor Jenny Slade missing a major piece which
Speaker 1: thing trauma. Oh, yes, okay, so there's a flashback. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I figured we'd we'd get sometimes I gloss over. Let
Speaker 1: me do my job, Matt. So they go to bell Weather,
Speaker 1: who can get them access to traffic cams to see
Speaker 1: where Mr Manches went. They discover that a couple of
Speaker 1: wolves grabbed Mr Manches and put him in the back
Speaker 1: of a van. Judy's like, oh, those must be the
Speaker 1: night howlers, because wolves howl. So they track where the
Speaker 1: wolves went, which leads Judy and Nick to this facility
Speaker 1: where they find a number of predator animals basically all
Speaker 1: the mammals who have recently gone missing, including Emmett Otterton,
Speaker 1: but they're all like feral and wild. Then Mayor lion
Speaker 1: Heart comes in. He seems to be the bad guy
Speaker 1: behind this whole operation. So, like Judy calls it in,
Speaker 1: the mayor is arrested and it seems like the case
Speaker 1: is solved. And this is one of the points in
Speaker 1: the movie that I got so frustrated because it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: city Hall corruption yeah, totally, but but but but you
Speaker 1: know what institution is above criticism the cops. You're like
Speaker 1: a fucking hey, come on. Anyways, So then during a
Speaker 1: press conference about this case, Judy mentions that all of
Speaker 1: the animals that went wild, we're predators and mentions that
Speaker 1: maybe it has something to do with their biology, which
Speaker 1: greatly upsets Nick since as a fox he is a predator,
Speaker 1: so he storms off. And then following this press conference,
Speaker 1: there is civil unrest around Zootopia, with more predator animals
Speaker 1: going wild and attacking prey animals wondering if they're safe.
Speaker 1: There's protests. Also the Shakira as a gazelle. She's like
Speaker 1: everyone everyone in Zootopia is a huge fan of Shakira.
Speaker 1: Also that song the Slap. Though, to be fair, try
Speaker 1: anything pretty good for me, and I'm a fan. I
Speaker 1: don't dislike Shakire at all, but I just feel like
Speaker 1: there's other pop stars there. I recently watched Don't Look Up,
Speaker 1: which I also didn't really like very much, but Ariana
Speaker 1: Grande fills a similar role in Sure and Don't Look
Speaker 1: Up and the song and I was equally underwhelmed by
Speaker 1: the song Sure. I quite liked don't look up. But
Speaker 1: that's just me, you know. Anyways, So it wasn't shrekky
Speaker 1: and enough. And also, as Matt pointed up, I saw
Speaker 1: how was a Gucci twice, So we're just different people
Speaker 1: at the end of the day. So Judy feels responsible
Speaker 1: for this civil unrest and resigns from her cop job,
Speaker 1: much to the disappointment of Bell Weather, who is now mayor.
Speaker 1: So then Judy goes back home to become a carrot farmer.
Speaker 1: But when she's there, she learns about these vegetables that,
Speaker 1: when eaton, can make an animal wild and aggressive. And
Speaker 1: guess what they're called night how Rulers. So it turns
Speaker 1: out that's what Emmett Otterton was talking about. Also, her
Speaker 1: bully owns a food truck now question Mark awesome, And
Speaker 1: it's like the most aware, self aware bully you've ever
Speaker 1: seen in a movie. He's been in therapy for. Oh,
Speaker 1: this was one funny. Like one of the funnier flights
Speaker 1: of logic of the movie is that all the animals
Speaker 1: in the Zootopia expanded universe live human length lifespans. Because
Speaker 1: at the beginning, it's like, you know, Judy is bullied
Speaker 1: by a future food truck owner, and then it was
Speaker 1: fifteen years later and it's like, oh, Judy is fully dead.
Speaker 1: She's fifteen years later, you're telling me a twenty four
Speaker 1: year old rabbit is good. Piss me off, didn't. I
Speaker 1: was like, there's so many there's huge, high level issues
Speaker 1: and then there's little things that it's like, come on, well,
Speaker 1: you know, and you're disbelieve you're fair fair? What can
Speaker 1: I say to that? Okay? So, so it turns out
Speaker 1: these vegetables are what has been making the predators become violent.
Speaker 1: So Judy rushes back to Zutopia. She tells Nick her
Speaker 1: theory that someone is targeting predators on purpose and making
Speaker 1: them go wild. So then Nick forgives her and the
Speaker 1: team back up and find a lab where this ram
Speaker 1: named doug Uh is like making a serum with the
Speaker 1: nightholler vegetables that he's been shooting predators with. So that
Speaker 1: grabbed the evidence and make their way to the police department.
Speaker 1: Also really clunky breaking bad reference. So on the way
Speaker 1: they run into Shrek that that is an attempt at
Speaker 1: the Shreky end, but it's not where it doesn't quite
Speaker 1: work the way this movie like in the way that
Speaker 1: I was like, I know what you're talking about, but
Speaker 1: unlike Shrek, it's making a reference and I'm not laughing.
Speaker 1: It's just a reference for a reference to say. So.
Speaker 1: On the way to the police department, they run into
Speaker 1: Mayor bell Weather, who ends up being the bad guy
Speaker 1: who was behind the whole thing. She tries to sabotage them,
Speaker 1: and she shoots Nick with the serum so that he
Speaker 1: will go wild and kill Judy. But Nick had loaded
Speaker 1: the gun with blueberries, so it didn't work. Classic classic switcher.
Speaker 1: How does this factory into Chekov's guns principle? There's Jason
Speaker 1: Bavin has to load it with blueberries by the third
Speaker 1: act or it shouldn't be there. Um okay. So, and
Speaker 1: then they managed to get an audio recording on Judy's
Speaker 1: little Carrot pen that is also a high quality voice
Speaker 1: recorder um of bell Weather confessing to this whole conspiracy.
Speaker 1: Bell Weather is arrested, Lion Heart is reinstated as mayor
Speaker 1: I think, or maybe that doesn't happen. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Um no, he's like also in trouble, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because he was complicit, but Judy is a hero. And
Speaker 1: then Nick also becomes a cop slash Judy's cop partner,
Speaker 1: and then the movie ends on another sloth joke. I
Speaker 1: was blown away that it was like, it was like,
Speaker 1: there's no he's he's good in that he's a cop
Speaker 1: at the end, and they're like, and don't we love that?
Speaker 1: And don't we love it? Let's take a quick break
Speaker 1: and then we'll come right back to discuss back we're
Speaker 1: back um with odds. Where should we begin here? I
Speaker 1: think we we um. We gave a preview of some
Speaker 1: of the mater issues, but there's we didn't even touch
Speaker 1: on all of them. There's Joe Biden's America. I know
Speaker 1: this movie came out in Obama's America, but this is
Speaker 1: a Joe bidden and then yea all day Okay, so
Speaker 1: what who is Jason Paymon Black? Like what's what the fuck? There?
Speaker 1: Great questions questions? Okay, our foxes black? I know this
Speaker 1: movie doesn't know, but what do you think they thought?
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of shrug and going on
Speaker 1: between these couple of writers. I feel like the movie
Speaker 1: gets so a lot like because when the movie starts,
Speaker 1: I thought I was like, oh, bunnies are being presented
Speaker 1: as a minority because they're like, well, bunnies don't become cops.
Speaker 1: Bunnies can't do anything but be carrot farmers, and there's
Speaker 1: no reference to like jener or anything like that. I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, so is that the allegory being set up?
Speaker 1: But then it turns out no, that's not. And then
Speaker 1: and then so it's like every new character I feel
Speaker 1: contradicts the logic of what the movie has been saying
Speaker 1: so far. I don't know, here was my best guests.
Speaker 1: So I think that the movie is setting up a
Speaker 1: parallel basically that predator animals are people of color and
Speaker 1: prey animals are white people. There are a few hints
Speaker 1: to this as far as like the ratio of like
Speaker 1: prey to predator, but also that's not even reflective of
Speaker 1: like a major metropolis, where like a lot of cities
Speaker 1: are extremely ethnically diverse, So that doesn't even track right.
Speaker 1: But then also, although I would say, you know the
Speaker 1: piece where her parents are super afraid of letting her
Speaker 1: go to the city, that's real, sure, you know, like
Speaker 1: they're they're like, oh, there's all these predators there. Don't go,
Speaker 1: you'll get mubbed or whatever. Right, I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: was like a good point or anything. I just right.
Speaker 1: There were like moments where I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: think I understand what the movie is trying to do here,
Speaker 1: and then there were other scenes where I was like,
Speaker 1: I just don't know. I just like right, because it's
Speaker 1: so muddled. The messaging in the allegories extremely muddled. And
Speaker 1: you'll never guess why. It's because the people who made
Speaker 1: this movie were a lot of white men. What I okay,
Speaker 1: So here's a little here's some context corner. So and
Speaker 1: I got a lot of this information from So. There
Speaker 1: was a screening of the movie in and there was
Speaker 1: a Q and a panel with several of the filmmakers
Speaker 1: after the screening. So it was Jared Bush, Rich Moore
Speaker 1: Byron Howard, who all directed the movie. I will say
Speaker 1: Richmore is a great white guy name What's More Money Baby.
Speaker 1: Jared Bush also co wrote the screenplay, and also present
Speaker 1: at this panel was Phil Johnston, the other co writer
Speaker 1: of the screenplay. The movie also has several story by credits.
Speaker 1: Jared Busch is also credited on MO Wanna big here
Speaker 1: for that guy? J I s Jared, I saw it.
Speaker 1: We'll do an episode on it. We got to do
Speaker 1: it with Melissa Right, Okay, so this panel got written
Speaker 1: about in the rap, so here's where I'm getting a
Speaker 1: lot of this information. So basically in this like right up,
Speaker 1: the filmmakers are really patting themselves on the backs, being like, wow,
Speaker 1: our intentions were like so honorable when we were making,
Speaker 1: you know, developing this movie. We wanted to do a
Speaker 1: movie with like an easily digestible allegory for racism, isn't
Speaker 1: that And then they talked about like the research they did,
Speaker 1: and they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, this movie is
Speaker 1: so prescient during this time of political unrest because it
Speaker 1: was released during the time that was leading up to
Speaker 1: the election. Uh. And they're like yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: we've just been paying attention to what's been happening, just
Speaker 1: like not even reflective of the movie's production history even remotely. Yes,
Speaker 1: because it was supposed to be a sixties heist movie,
Speaker 1: like an espionage John Lasseter and you're just like I
Speaker 1: was like, so okay, so yeah, the movie went through
Speaker 1: several drafts and just like wild rewrites. So the filmmakers
Speaker 1: they're talking about how relevant their movie is. Um, you
Speaker 1: learn about the research they did, which was mostly on animals,
Speaker 1: Uh at the Animal Kingdom. They didn't even They literally
Speaker 1: are like, let's go to Disney's World. We can do
Speaker 1: that for free, and let's just stare at Lemmings for
Speaker 1: six days and be like, all write our movie about racism.
Speaker 1: You're forgetting about the two weeks safari they went on
Speaker 1: in Kenya where they studied animal behavior. Uh, they did
Speaker 1: not seem to do nearly as much research on I
Speaker 1: don't know, critical race theory or anything like that. It
Speaker 1: seems as that they talked to exactly one person, Dr
Speaker 1: Shockty Butler, who is a filmmaker and an educator on
Speaker 1: racial diversity. Director Byron Howard said, quote, she taught us
Speaker 1: everything there was to know about bias and discrimination things
Speaker 1: we had no idea existed. End quote. So this is
Speaker 1: the background, Like, this is the context that these filmmakers
Speaker 1: had for trying to develop this allegory for racism, which
Speaker 1: they did not execute well. Which is so clear based
Speaker 1: on like the story team assembled is I believe five
Speaker 1: white guys, uh and then um one white woman Jennifer
Speaker 1: Lee who is the director of The Frozen from Chies,
Speaker 1: and then one woman of collar Josie Trinidad, who is
Speaker 1: currently and I think at the time of this movie's
Speaker 1: release as well, was in charge of the Disney Animation
Speaker 1: story team. So it's kind of unclear how much actual
Speaker 1: story she wrote because her job is primarily translating script
Speaker 1: to visuals um like storyboarding type stuff, right, right, and
Speaker 1: that seems to be kind of her her primary job.
Speaker 1: So it's like impossible to know who contributed what in
Speaker 1: a team this big. But the team is vast majority
Speaker 1: white guys, and then you know white people in general, right,
Speaker 1: So they fumbled it in a number. So okay, this
Speaker 1: movie we made a billion dollars. A billion dollars, that's
Speaker 1: so many, but it still doesn't make sense. Who is Hops?
Speaker 1: What's Hops? As deals supposed to be? Right, So we've
Speaker 1: got this, like you were saying, Jamie, the movie is
Speaker 1: setting up this like the idea that people are prejudiced
Speaker 1: against rabbits and saying you can't be a can't be
Speaker 1: cops Hops is a woman? That okay, so right, right,
Speaker 1: But it's like if that's the case, they need to
Speaker 1: make that clear because it's like not like bunnies covered
Speaker 1: the gender spectrum, but they were just like no bunny
Speaker 1: cops period, right, So that's confusing and right, So I
Speaker 1: guess like in this movie, rabbits are women, because there's
Speaker 1: there's a few other references to that too, where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you rabbits, you're you're so emotional, and oh you throw
Speaker 1: like a bunny, you're bad drivers, you throw like a bunny,
Speaker 1: like all these things that are stereotypes about women. But
Speaker 1: we know that all rabbits are not women because Dad
Speaker 1: multiple occasions and the front desktop calls her cute, and
Speaker 1: she says that only another bunny can call her cute. Okay,
Speaker 1: So there's a bunch of like weird, very cringe e
Speaker 1: jokes that are like specifically referencing either aspects of black
Speaker 1: culture or stereotypes about black people, right, where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: a bunny can call another bunny cute, right, that makes
Speaker 1: no sense, But if she's who we think she is, right,
Speaker 1: Jennifer Goodwin. And then there's another scene where Nick is
Speaker 1: touching bell Weather's wool on her head and she's like,
Speaker 1: you can't touch a sheep's wool, which is like, I
Speaker 1: guess analogous to you, you can't touch a black woman's hair.
Speaker 1: So this sheep with her wolf. So there's that thing
Speaker 1: that doesn't make sense, but it's Jenny's Jenny's light has
Speaker 1: been in this pickle a couple of different times. And
Speaker 1: then there's another scene where shortly after Judy meets Nick
Speaker 1: in like the popsicle place, she's like, Oh wow, you're
Speaker 1: so articulate, but it's Jason Bates. It's pretty articulate, actually, right.
Speaker 1: The metaphor is so messy, where sometimes it's a metaphor
Speaker 1: about discrimination that women face, but we only see that
Speaker 1: with one character in Judy hops and she's a prey animal,
Speaker 1: and then the rest of the metaphor is about race
Speaker 1: rather than gender. But sometimes references to people of color
Speaker 1: are attributed to prey animals when the larger allegory is
Speaker 1: that predator animals are the allegorical people of color. Christian
Speaker 1: Mark like, it's so messy, and like, I understand that movies,
Speaker 1: especially when it's like directed towards children, if they're trying
Speaker 1: to tackle a complex issue, like a complex allegory, they
Speaker 1: will simplify things and the interest of like making it
Speaker 1: digestible for a younger audience. But there's also a responsibility
Speaker 1: to make that allegory clear and make sure it makes
Speaker 1: sense and that it tracks, and the movie like again,
Speaker 1: just fumbles it and every step of the way. I
Speaker 1: also feel like that not to bring Shreky and back.
Speaker 1: But if you are, like, it's clear that like Disney
Speaker 1: at this point, this is true of all Disney movies.
Speaker 1: They're very self referential and they make it clear that's like,
Speaker 1: we know that adults are watching this too, and we
Speaker 1: want to give you something to enjoy too. So it's like,
Speaker 1: if that's true, then you need to really think through
Speaker 1: the entire metaphor. You can't just like throw in a
Speaker 1: couple of song references and be like it's for grown
Speaker 1: ups too. It's like the right And then another reason
Speaker 1: that this whole metaphor doesn't track is the copaganda thing,
Speaker 1: where the irony of a movie that is trying to
Speaker 1: make a statement about racial prejudice that also centers a
Speaker 1: character who is like this hero cop and in a
Speaker 1: movie that seems to have like a very pro cop agenda,
Speaker 1: keep saying like, wow, cops are awesome. We need them
Speaker 1: to make our community safe. They help make society a
Speaker 1: better place, when in the real world, like law enforcement
Speaker 1: is an institution that was founded on and is one
Speaker 1: of the biggest enforcers of racial prejudice, which renders the
Speaker 1: allegory of this movie a complete paradox. Like it just
Speaker 1: it ends the movie ends with both, Like the movie
Speaker 1: begins with neither of our protagonists being cops and ends
Speaker 1: optimistically with both of them being cops. They should have
Speaker 1: ended the movie at the end of act two where
Speaker 1: she she stops being a cop. That was the best
Speaker 1: part of the movie. Well that was the second best
Speaker 1: part of the way. I'll get to the best part, okay,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I was like, hell, yeah, go off like
Speaker 1: a back tops, be a farmer, you know, just like
Speaker 1: work the land, or be something else, like they keep
Speaker 1: That's why it's like, I mean, even the opening sequence
Speaker 1: of the movie, they're like, anyone could be anything, and
Speaker 1: then they come up with like accountant and cops, like
Speaker 1: there's yeah, the jaguars, Like I want to be an actuary.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what that is, and I didn't
Speaker 1: bother looking it up. I don't know. It sounds boring.
Speaker 1: Dream Baker kids like do and and yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's of the many things that gets muddled here. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean, in a movie, even in
Speaker 1: sixteen it is a very bizarre specific route to choose
Speaker 1: be being a cop, and then kind of like doubling
Speaker 1: down on that by I mean, in my head, I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is a girl boss logic firing on all cylinders,
Speaker 1: where you know, her parents are like, it's great to
Speaker 1: have dreams, but don't don't dream too big. You don't
Speaker 1: want to dream out of your pay grade kind of thing,
Speaker 1: which is something you see It happened very often at
Speaker 1: the beginning of uh story where a woman is told,
Speaker 1: you know, this isn't your place, and then Drew Barrymore
Speaker 1: does whatever, and then the movie's over, and that's very
Speaker 1: clearly what's being set up here. But her dream sucks,
Speaker 1: and so you're sort of like, well, maybe your parents
Speaker 1: are right. Yeah, okay, so let's let's just say that
Speaker 1: she is like the girl boss white woman. On top
Speaker 1: of that, she fucking sucks, like she's a piece of ship.
Speaker 1: Yeah okay, So what do you what do you both
Speaker 1: think is the movie saying that? Okay, because she has
Speaker 1: this idea of like, her idea of being a cop
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with like helping people. It's it's
Speaker 1: like she says it does, but it does she ever
Speaker 1: say that yeah, because she says, I want to make
Speaker 1: the world a better place by being a copy Yeah,
Speaker 1: but her actions do not reflect that. Right. She wants
Speaker 1: to like cough bad guys basically, and so she gets
Speaker 1: caught up by Gideon as a kid, and that gets
Speaker 1: like linked to her dream of being a cop, right yeah,
Speaker 1: and her you know, punitive ideas of justice and like
Speaker 1: you know, tracking people down and like you know, hunting Weaselton,
Speaker 1: who I'll get to in a bit. Weaselton's the ship
Speaker 1: the dopest character in this movie, Weaselton, who I was like,
Speaker 1: that sounds a lot like Steve bush Emy, but it's
Speaker 1: not doing impression. Totally didn't it. So I don't know
Speaker 1: what they're trying to say. They're trying to say that
Speaker 1: Foxes are bad, so that's why she's gonna stop them,
Speaker 1: or she's trauma ties by a fox and so now
Speaker 1: she holds an unfair prejudice against Foxes. It maybe both
Speaker 1: because she wants to be a cop prior to that,
Speaker 1: but like that moment where she stops the bully and
Speaker 1: then he specifically says you'll never be You'll never be,
Speaker 1: and it's like it's like, Okay, I'm rooting for him,
Speaker 1: like love the pies, like really good good stuff there.
Speaker 1: I like, it's so I don't know. This movie like
Speaker 1: really reads to me, like this movie went through five
Speaker 1: million drafts because it was like her character like regresses
Speaker 1: throughout the movie. Because before she leaves for cop Academy,
Speaker 1: she you know, her parents are being prejudiced towards foxes
Speaker 1: and here like you know, you gotta be carefully. Here
Speaker 1: is repellent. And then she says, well, I was bullied
Speaker 1: by a fox, but it was a mean person who
Speaker 1: happened to be a fox. And then rabbits are jerks too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like anyone can be an asshole, and you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: like Children's movie, I see where this is going. But
Speaker 1: then like later in the movie, she I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess this is maybe reflective of reality. Becoming a cop
Speaker 1: sets her views backwards. Yeah, and she becomes more prejudice
Speaker 1: as the movie goes on, right to the point where
Speaker 1: she almost fox mess Jason Bateman, who's a black guy.
Speaker 1: But she looks to constantly reorient your brain of like right,
Speaker 1: saying right, I don't know, very stressful, right, She like really,
Speaker 1: even after she's become friends with this fox, who she
Speaker 1: again had this like prejudice against up until this part
Speaker 1: of the story, and he had shared with her this
Speaker 1: like very traumatic story, which is like that part of
Speaker 1: the movie like does move me to tears where there's
Speaker 1: a flashback where he's like, I wanted to join the
Speaker 1: Junior Rangers and but I was the only predator and
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to be welcome, but then
Speaker 1: I got harassed and assaulted by who I thought were
Speaker 1: my friends, and they put a muzzle on me. And
Speaker 1: I learned to accept who I am and if if
Speaker 1: everyone's just going to see me as a sly, sneaky
Speaker 1: little fox, well then that's who I'm gonna be. And
Speaker 1: he like tells her this story and like it opens
Speaker 1: up and she's like, oh my gosh, that's awful, and
Speaker 1: then she becomes like at a press conference, she's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: well spouting eugenics like she's it's so wild, right, So,
Speaker 1: like that scene is like bizarre because the movie is
Speaker 1: suggesting that racism is the result of a press conference
Speaker 1: from one rabbit and also like one sheep's actions of
Speaker 1: shooting blueberry looking paintballs at animals and not like systemic,
Speaker 1: like a systemic widespread problem. Yeah, I mean it's like
Speaker 1: this movie is like really determination to not interrogate systemic
Speaker 1: anything is kind of like I mean, but they kind
Speaker 1: of do with the mayor's office, but for some reason,
Speaker 1: like they're willing to go for it there right, but nowhere,
Speaker 1: not in like right, not in law enforcement, but in
Speaker 1: within this allegory. What is Jenny Slate's end game so
Speaker 1: to like what what is also like Otter Tens a predator,
Speaker 1: He's like smaller than the right, so like what's the
Speaker 1: what the fuck? It's so I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: one of the And this is not a new point.
Speaker 1: This point has been made about Utopia many times, and
Speaker 1: I know that we have a famous tweet from a
Speaker 1: friend of the show, Kate Young, about this. But the
Speaker 1: huge issue, like one of the huge issues is like
Speaker 1: implying that like in this world there are predators in
Speaker 1: prey and conflating minorities with predators that have been integrated
Speaker 1: into society like plays into so many super predator right,
Speaker 1: like how how did they? I mean, this is classic
Speaker 1: five white dudes in a room like uh, this is
Speaker 1: the fucking Hillary Clinton c SPAN press conference where she's
Speaker 1: like super predators are like mindless killing machines. These black
Speaker 1: teens are like mindless killing machines or whatever. M fucking
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton, um, girl boss. And so then the whole,
Speaker 1: the entire conceit of the movie is set up between
Speaker 1: predators and prey like you're already like on fucking third
Speaker 1: real city. They're like, you know, and and that's like
Speaker 1: one of the many. I mean, I think it's like
Speaker 1: maybe them. It's hard to say what about this movie
Speaker 1: is the most egregious, but like that, like taking that
Speaker 1: logic and then making it can likely true in this
Speaker 1: world is so fucked Like, yeah, the I wanna so
Speaker 1: the tweet you're referring to, So Christina Holland at American Wombat,
Speaker 1: which is an amazing handle, tweeted a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: I think a big problem with kids allegories for racism
Speaker 1: is it's like the Green people and the purple people
Speaker 1: hated each other just for being the other color. Isn't
Speaker 1: that silly? And not the purple people kidnapped the green
Speaker 1: people and treated them like livestock for hundreds of years.
Speaker 1: So that's the original tweet. And then friend of the
Speaker 1: show Kate Young quote tweeted it and then just said
Speaker 1: glares at Zootopia, which is like very much the problem
Speaker 1: with this movie. It's ignoring the coherent enough to be
Speaker 1: guilty and bad. It's missing so many points. But like right,
Speaker 1: but I mean shout out to Kay. Yes, yeah, this
Speaker 1: movie is like incoherent in such a frustrating way. But
Speaker 1: like casting like the white coated animals question mark, because
Speaker 1: that fluctuates throughout the movie wildly, but like I think
Speaker 1: ultimately who we are supposed to believe for the white
Speaker 1: coated animals as prey is like well, no, like it's
Speaker 1: just I mean we should say that Jason Bateman's partner
Speaker 1: in crime, he's like the blackest dude I can think of.
Speaker 1: It's it's tiny Lester, who is like Debot from Friday,
Speaker 1: and you know, he's like the big, bald, scary dude.
Speaker 1: He was a very deep voice and in the movie
Speaker 1: he's the tiny little fox with big ears or I
Speaker 1: don't even know what kind of animal that is. But
Speaker 1: he's like pretending to be Jason Bateman's character's son when
Speaker 1: they do their whole like scam scam. He rules too,
Speaker 1: because the second he the second the cop comes around,
Speaker 1: he's like not fucking with her, and then when Bateman
Speaker 1: decides to help the cop, he's like, I'm not fucking
Speaker 1: with you. The movie him. Weaselton was like, oh, so
Speaker 1: now you're helping a cop. That's why we okay. Weaselton
Speaker 1: rules because he calls that out off the rip. And
Speaker 1: then later when he gets like Mr Big is like
Speaker 1: going to kill him, he's like dangling him above like
Speaker 1: an ice pit. And Weaselton's still like, buck you for
Speaker 1: hanging out with cops, like, I would never fucking I
Speaker 1: would never funk with the fun with cops, Like he's
Speaker 1: just down to die for the coups, Like Weaselton's the
Speaker 1: hardest due in this movie. He's also selling an array
Speaker 1: of DVDs that are referencecing shreking references to other Disney
Speaker 1: movies that we're coming out around this time, such a
Speaker 1: but they're all like the animal versions of it. My
Speaker 1: favorite one is obviously Meajuana, so it's Mowanna as a cat.
Speaker 1: I like this part, so that's the best part of
Speaker 1: the movie. Perhaps his iPad was tight to that was
Speaker 1: some cold design animal bands stuff. Yeah, but um, let's
Speaker 1: you know what, Let's take a quick break and then
Speaker 1: we'll come back. God all right, we're back. Now where
Speaker 1: do we go? So, there's there's so many places we
Speaker 1: could go. Here's where I would like to go next.
Speaker 1: So the movie repeatedly uses a word that is a slur.
Speaker 1: I will use the word to identify it. The word
Speaker 1: is savage. Again. The movie uses it repeatedly to refer
Speaker 1: to the animals who have gone wild and have become
Speaker 1: violent and attacked. So, uh, this word is a very
Speaker 1: offensive slur toward indigenous people in particular, I will say,
Speaker 1: I guess in the movie's defense, the conversation around this
Speaker 1: word being a slur was not a very mainstream conversation
Speaker 1: at the time of this movie is like making and release.
Speaker 1: It's been in kind of like more recent years that
Speaker 1: this conversation has been brought to the forefront of cultural consciousness.
Speaker 1: But even so, one of the many elements of this
Speaker 1: movie that aged extraordinarily poorly five years right, um. I
Speaker 1: asked a friend of the cast, Jess Merwin, their thoughts
Speaker 1: on the use of this word in the context of
Speaker 1: the movie. I said, you know, is it still offensive
Speaker 1: in the context that it is being used in this movie?
Speaker 1: Or is it just a word that should be eliminated
Speaker 1: from our vocabularies entirely. And this is what just had
Speaker 1: to say. Within Western culture, the concept of savage exists
Speaker 1: in a binary with the concept of civilized, the idea
Speaker 1: of one cannot exist without the other in opposition. Even
Speaker 1: though in the film the word isn't being applied to
Speaker 1: human beings, this binary still presents itself in the behavior
Speaker 1: of the animals being labeled savage. They are violent, they
Speaker 1: are volatile, they are quote other. When we associate violence, volatility,
Speaker 1: being uncontrollable, being other with the word savage, we perpetuate
Speaker 1: the harm that the word was intended to do when
Speaker 1: it was applied to black and indigenous people. So basically,
Speaker 1: for any listeners or anyone who's just not aware this word,
Speaker 1: don't use it. Thank you, j Yes, thank you so
Speaker 1: much Jess for your time and thoughts. So but yeah,
Speaker 1: I was counting. The word gets used in the movie
Speaker 1: no less than a dozen times, possibly more, just like constantly,
Speaker 1: especially like after the halfway mark, which and and it's
Speaker 1: the way it's used is to kind of reinforce this
Speaker 1: gigantic failed metaphor. That is, like the word is used
Speaker 1: to apply to predators, which again is like a hillary
Speaker 1: the Hillary Clinton. It's infuriating and and I wanted to
Speaker 1: get into that part two. I don't know, just like
Speaker 1: as this movie was going on, there just more and
Speaker 1: they were I feel like every time one metaphor would
Speaker 1: kind of sputter and fail, they would start another one,
Speaker 1: and that one would also be really poorly realized and
Speaker 1: not good. The last big set piece of the movie
Speaker 1: that's trying to comment on something unclear is the what
Speaker 1: is it that howling the night howers right where they're implying,
Speaker 1: you know, it's And there was a lot written about this,
Speaker 1: like not right when the movie came out, but like
Speaker 1: for some reason and eighteen I think people rewatch this
Speaker 1: movie and they were like, now, hold on a second.
Speaker 1: Is Utopia trying to comment on the drug epidemic in
Speaker 1: the US? I'dn't even consider that. Uh well, the arguments
Speaker 1: for that include the including this like very throwaway goofy
Speaker 1: breaking bad reference and like basically implying that the government
Speaker 1: is bringing drugs into quote unquote predator neighborhoods and turning
Speaker 1: them into like, uh, I don't I don't know what
Speaker 1: to but you know what I mean? Like, and so
Speaker 1: I think that in the third act of this movie,
Speaker 1: they're trying to like comment on the crack epidemic and like,
Speaker 1: but again it's so poorly realized and so like in
Speaker 1: this movie, like last minute like that, you're just it's like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing, guys, Like execute one thing correctly,
Speaker 1: like truly one thing. They simply can't. Wow, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: doesn't occur to me either. It's now that you bring
Speaker 1: it up, it is very wild. This is from it
Speaker 1: was like referenced in a review of this movie from
Speaker 1: Birth Movies Death Um that did come out at the
Speaker 1: time that the movie came out, but yeah, just sort
Speaker 1: of reference that. It's like it appears that like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the government is bringing drugs into certain neighborhoods and then
Speaker 1: you know, using the media to inspire fear and hatred
Speaker 1: among everyone else, like in the quote unquote in Utopia,
Speaker 1: World Prey. This movie is so funny and then like
Speaker 1: and on top of that, the depiction of media in
Speaker 1: this movie I also found to be very bizarre. Where
Speaker 1: media is obviously very very up for criticism, but the
Speaker 1: way it's used here is primarily Oh, the only reason
Speaker 1: that Judy really fumbled and couldn't stop spouting eugenics and
Speaker 1: her one press conference is because the media was twisting
Speaker 1: her words and like they were like media training, but
Speaker 1: she immediately forgot and they like and it's like implied
Speaker 1: that like the media is misreporting on police press conferences,
Speaker 1: which I wouldn't say is the problem, Like it's it's
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just incoherent. Like every issue they
Speaker 1: try to tackle, it's like I don't know what you're saying,
Speaker 1: but I think I disagree, And then other words it's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I definitely disagree. But like that was another
Speaker 1: moment where I'm like, what does it take, like believe
Speaker 1: cop press conferences, Like what is the takeaway from that?
Speaker 1: To quote ma wanna, what is the lesson? What is
Speaker 1: the takeaway? Don't miss with Mauie when he's on the breakaway.
Speaker 1: This movie needed more Maui problem. One thing I think
Speaker 1: this movie gets pretty accurate is um, dirty cop bullshit
Speaker 1: because Hops pulls out all the tricks, but that's not
Speaker 1: the movie. It's like presenting her as being like, look
Speaker 1: how lever she is. She's so resourceful, she can get
Speaker 1: stuff done, because like I think maybe one of the
Speaker 1: reasons this movie was requested so frequently, especially like shortly
Speaker 1: after it came out. Is because it's like an example,
Speaker 1: I mean, very much on the surface. You could look
Speaker 1: at this movie and be like, oh, it's a female
Speaker 1: character who is really motivated and really active, and she's
Speaker 1: driving the narrative and she's smart. She undergoes an arc
Speaker 1: and she got more racist. But like she literally almost
Speaker 1: shoots Jason Bavan at the like at the end of
Speaker 1: the second act, just for like because he kind of
Speaker 1: scared her and she almost one billion dollars. So anyway,
Speaker 1: what was I saying, Um, oh, you're taking to highly
Speaker 1: motivated a female character, like a surface feminine so so
Speaker 1: I I guess it has that going for it. But
Speaker 1: as we've pointed out, that female character is just like
Speaker 1: girl Boss cop Lady, who is like doing crooked cop ship.
Speaker 1: But the movie is not. Actually, the movie's intent is
Speaker 1: not to be like, look at how crooked cops are.
Speaker 1: It's like, look at how resourceful this clever bunny is
Speaker 1: well and and like Jason Bateman Fox with Nick nick
Speaker 1: Nick like says that once, like when she's in the
Speaker 1: middle of doing a cop crime, he's like smart a
Speaker 1: little bunny. It was like, what the fuck is happening?
Speaker 1: Do we, um, did we hit on all of the
Speaker 1: cop crimes? She did? Because we we did? Reference we
Speaker 1: should run it down. Yeah, do you does anyone have
Speaker 1: a comprehensive list? Because there there was a bunch. Okay,
Speaker 1: So she tries to um. Well, first of all, she
Speaker 1: profiles Gideon in the beginning, before she's even a cop,
Speaker 1: she's on her fucking Kyle Rittenhouse ship and she just
Speaker 1: fucking sticks her no into some ship that's not, frankly
Speaker 1: her business. I mean, I guess her friends were getting robbed,
Speaker 1: but you know, don't snitch. Um. So she profiles Gideon,
Speaker 1: and then when she gets to Zutopia, she profiles Well.
Speaker 1: First she's like, hype to give out parking tickets. Yeah right,
Speaker 1: She's like hundred, I'll give out two hundred by noon,
Speaker 1: and this is supposed to endear us to her. And
Speaker 1: if it's a parking ticket in a city like Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: for example, that then costs somewhere between like sixty five
Speaker 1: and seventy five dollars. And she's so she's like basically
Speaker 1: robbing the civilians of Utopia. She doesn't want to help people,
Speaker 1: she just wants to facilitate. Trying to exactly from everyone.
Speaker 1: Then she um tries to basically blackmail Wild after he
Speaker 1: explains his scam, she pulls up she has tax forms?
Speaker 1: Did she Why does she have those? I don't know
Speaker 1: to blackmail him with I know, but well, I guess
Speaker 1: she planned ahead. That was like a premeditated black if
Speaker 1: she already had the forms. She tricks Wild into jumping
Speaker 1: a fence, um so she can use probable cause to
Speaker 1: also jump the fence and break into a car to
Speaker 1: get evidence. I mean, Mr Mantchez is basically having a
Speaker 1: mental health episode and she just calls more cops to
Speaker 1: the scene to funk him up, which historically has never
Speaker 1: goes well. Yeah, like she does so many cop crimes.
Speaker 1: And also like there's just like these kind of I
Speaker 1: mean again and maybe this is more like kids movie stuff,
Speaker 1: but it's like kids copaganda, so it's complicated. But there's
Speaker 1: like multiple moments where she's fired and then she's just
Speaker 1: like no, I'm not, and then she's not, and then
Speaker 1: at one point Jason Bateman is like no, she's not,
Speaker 1: and then it's like you can't. You don't even work here,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Like, but he will also
Speaker 1: we should point out that like Bateman is like, you know,
Speaker 1: he's the criminal or whatever, and then when he reforms,
Speaker 1: he just becomes a cop. So like that's like, that's
Speaker 1: like the station that all goodhearted animals and Utopia aspire to,
Speaker 1: the pipeline from criminal. Before he meets Hops, he could
Speaker 1: never dream of being a cop. It's like, catch me
Speaker 1: if you can. When he's like, first, I'm a con
Speaker 1: artist and I'm so good at that that I'm going
Speaker 1: to help the cops learn about con artists. And that's
Speaker 1: what happens at the end of the movie. They both
Speaker 1: fucking suck. They suck so much it's so like, it's
Speaker 1: so frustrated, like and I feel like the way that
Speaker 1: Idris Elba's character is used is also like he's one
Speaker 1: of the only black voices in the cast, and he's
Speaker 1: cast in the police chief role, which is, at least
Speaker 1: right now, is a very popular trope of like the
Speaker 1: black police chief who just kind of unquestioning lee holds
Speaker 1: up the establishment. It's just, I don't know, the fact
Speaker 1: that this movie has no interest in interrogating policing at
Speaker 1: all is just so like mind blowingly frustrating to the
Speaker 1: Elda thing. Elda thing is so modeled too though, because
Speaker 1: he has such a specific like South London accent and
Speaker 1: like voice. Yeah, if they want, if they needed to
Speaker 1: like get a black cop, like he's like the not
Speaker 1: he wouldn't even be in like my top one voice list,
Speaker 1: you know, right, nothing. It's just so like I just
Speaker 1: feel like it's yet another example of like this movie
Speaker 1: just like no one is in the room who is
Speaker 1: thinking it through? And the little tiny bit of research
Speaker 1: they seemed to do was to ask one person who
Speaker 1: she taught them everything, and then they went to Disney
Speaker 1: World to congratulate themselves. Oh my god, Oh wait, one
Speaker 1: more thing. Um, there's a fucking you'll ever seen like
Speaker 1: the TikTok or Instagram videos or like cops play basketball
Speaker 1: with kids, like like you know, we're community policing. We're
Speaker 1: like we're cool. You can talk to us like we're down.
Speaker 1: You don't know what I'm talking about. It's just like
Speaker 1: bad cop propaganda to be like, look, we're actually cool,
Speaker 1: but it's like pretty popular in the social media age.
Speaker 1: There's like a thing at the end where she plays
Speaker 1: soccer with these two kids. Did you catch that? Like
Speaker 1: she's walking into city off She's like hey kids, check
Speaker 1: this out. Hello, fellow kids, it's me a cop. Um. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's a thing I'll say. Ready, So, Gideon the Fox
Speaker 1: speaks with a thick accent from somewhere in the American South.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um. So, there's obviously a tendency to
Speaker 1: assign like American Southern accents to someone who has like
Speaker 1: a backward way of thinking, someone who has like regressive politics.
Speaker 1: I myself have been guilty of doing this in the past.
Speaker 1: But it's like it's basically doing what the movie is
Speaker 1: trying to say, Hey, don't do this, don't make sweeping
Speaker 1: generalizations about people. Don't like lean into stereotypes. And that's
Speaker 1: what they're doing with that character. I had that as well, Wow,
Speaker 1: look at us, look at us. Um it is a
Speaker 1: small thing, and I feel like it is something that
Speaker 1: it's not even like inherent to animation, although animation tends
Speaker 1: to be a worse perpetrator of most tropes because it's
Speaker 1: such an exaggerated form. But yeah, I mean I feel
Speaker 1: like that's something we see all the time of the
Speaker 1: person who is wrong quote unquote, even though he's like,
Speaker 1: don't be a cop, but like he's wrong. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: he shouldn't have hit her. Okay uh. I think the
Speaker 1: person who is wrong is given a Southern accent, and
Speaker 1: the person who is right has a coastal accent even
Speaker 1: though they live in the same place, And like, why
Speaker 1: is does everyone here have and why does everyone here
Speaker 1: have a different accent? And it is truly I think,
Speaker 1: like just assigning heroism and nice good ideas to people
Speaker 1: from the coasts and if you have any kind of
Speaker 1: any I mean really like most regional American accents are
Speaker 1: applied to people who you're not supposed to think are
Speaker 1: as smart as someone who talks like they you know,
Speaker 1: like work in Manhattan or whatever the funk, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So yeah, that's just yet another weird
Speaker 1: l this movie voluntarily takes one billion dollars. Another one,
Speaker 1: I would say is the movie leans into some fat
Speaker 1: phobic tropes and stereotypes with the Clawhouser character and that
Speaker 1: he's constantly eating, He's like very sedentary and out of shape.
Speaker 1: The one time he has to like chase after someone
Speaker 1: he like is not able to physically move very well.
Speaker 1: Just different things like that. And there's there's the movie
Speaker 1: being shitty yet again in in a different way. I know,
Speaker 1: like we've we've like referenced a lot that there's just
Speaker 1: like so many individual moments in this movie where you're
Speaker 1: like the moment that you've brought up, Matt where um,
Speaker 1: where Judy quits being a cop at the end of
Speaker 1: the second actor, we're like, let's call it. We did it.
Speaker 1: Movie done. But again how it's like just like such
Speaker 1: a nasty feminism that is being expressed here that is
Speaker 1: extremely white and in service of all things capitalism, where
Speaker 1: it's like the framing for her quitting being a cop
Speaker 1: because she, in the world of this movie has ruined
Speaker 1: the city is like, but what about your dream? Girl?
Speaker 1: Like they're like, girl, don't come up on your dreams
Speaker 1: to fucking ruin society. You're like, what, but the movie
Speaker 1: believes that the movie believes that she would be morally
Speaker 1: wrong to give up on her dream of ruining society,
Speaker 1: Like it's just so misguided and so like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: And then Eadris Elba says, the world has always been broken,
Speaker 1: that's why we need good cops like you. And then
Speaker 1: she's like, I quit and then she's like, no, you're right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get a new cop on the forest
Speaker 1: and recrude. I'm recruiting people, yea, so um, but that
Speaker 1: sex Bole they go to fucking kicks ass. That's like
Speaker 1: where I would hang in Utopia. I was trying to
Speaker 1: think of, like what micro climate I would want to
Speaker 1: go to, because that sequence where she first she takes
Speaker 1: the train, gotta give it up. That part she's cruising
Speaker 1: through all these climates. You've seen Utopia, which looks very
Speaker 1: much like Asgard from the Thorn movies, by the way,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, I wonder where I would live.
Speaker 1: I think I chose the jungle, but then once I
Speaker 1: saw the sex Spot, it's wherever that is that your
Speaker 1: number one favorite part of the movie. I mean, no,
Speaker 1: I'm never a part of the movie is when Weaselton
Speaker 1: is just like I'm ready to die, motherfucker, like I
Speaker 1: will never help the cops like fucking kill me. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: the sex Spot part is sex Spot rules. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: world building in this movie from a strictly visual point
Speaker 1: of view, not like cultural or societal, but just like visual.
Speaker 1: It's like very pretty and cool. I loved I loved.
Speaker 1: Was it called Rodentia or something where it's like where
Speaker 1: it was just a bunch of dollhouses. I liked that.
Speaker 1: That was fun, the filmmaker. So, speaking of kind of
Speaker 1: the world building, the filmmakers consulted experts such as zoologists,
Speaker 1: who were like, this is how animals move and what
Speaker 1: their fur looks like. I just like that shouldn't be
Speaker 1: priority number one, right, That's what I'm saying. Like, But
Speaker 1: they went so far as like consult specialists from the
Speaker 1: Americans with Disabilities Act who helped construct a city where
Speaker 1: like a two inch little rodent would live in the
Speaker 1: same city as like a twenty seven foot giraffe. Um.
Speaker 1: They also consulted h VAC system designers to figure out
Speaker 1: how to, for example, build a tundra neighborhood next to
Speaker 1: a desert. But they just only talked to that one
Speaker 1: lady about how to do racism. Like that's all sounds
Speaker 1: pretty cool, but there's one there. Oh god, that's so.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like and that research. I'm sure that
Speaker 1: that was really fun and interesting. It's like, you gotta
Speaker 1: do the whole movie. You can't just do Yeah, it
Speaker 1: could have been awesome if they had just gone with
Speaker 1: a different story. I mean, the setting is awesome. Um.
Speaker 1: I read that. I forget which of the directors this was.
Speaker 1: But basically when he was pitching to John Lasseter, who
Speaker 1: obviously John Lasseter, but he was like, yeah, When I
Speaker 1: told him we wanted to do a movie about talking
Speaker 1: animals who wear clothes, John Lasseter reportedly picked him up
Speaker 1: and like hugged him and was like we green Light
Speaker 1: was just laughing because just like picturing a grown man
Speaker 1: picking up another grown man and like an excited of
Speaker 1: animals and clothes, which does happen all the time. The
Speaker 1: design of Zutopia reminded me a lot of Richard Scarry's
Speaker 1: Busy Town. Oh. I really loved it when I was
Speaker 1: a kid. Oh, I can't wait to show you. It
Speaker 1: was just like it was a city where all animals
Speaker 1: live together, and they wear clothes, and they have jobs
Speaker 1: and um, and they, as far as I can remember,
Speaker 1: don't attempt any themes that are way out of their
Speaker 1: depth like Zutopia does. I do feel like with this
Speaker 1: movie it's kind of another example of and we've talked
Speaker 1: about this, I think from a lot of different angles
Speaker 1: over the years, but like taking a massive societal ill
Speaker 1: like racism and prejudice in general, and making it like
Speaker 1: one person's fault and then being like and then they
Speaker 1: either learned from their miss like they learn and then
Speaker 1: they say, let's all get along. And then one person
Speaker 1: goes to jail and we're not going to talk about jail,
Speaker 1: like and then problem is solved. And that's like, what
Speaker 1: because one rabbit solved the problem? Because one rabbit became
Speaker 1: more racist? Like I firmly believe she became more and
Speaker 1: more racist as the movie was going on. But like,
Speaker 1: by sending Jenny Slight to jail, racism is solved. Is
Speaker 1: the logic that this movie is operating under. I also
Speaker 1: think it sucks that it's like the only other like
Speaker 1: dominant female character in this movie is like the most
Speaker 1: evil person in the world, which you know it happens,
Speaker 1: but but it's a there's just I feel like we've
Speaker 1: we've seen this. I always go back to I don't
Speaker 1: know why, I always go back to the Girl with
Speaker 1: the Dragon tattoo, and we talked about this, but like
Speaker 1: there's a character who assaults Lizabeth Salander in that movie
Speaker 1: and he is like this, you know, a symbol of
Speaker 1: all misogyny. And by defeating this one man, we have
Speaker 1: we've we've fixed it, and nothing bad is ever going
Speaker 1: to happen again. And I feel like that's like there's
Speaker 1: a version of that going on here with a different
Speaker 1: theme that it's just like attributing a systemic, centuries millennia
Speaker 1: long problem too. It was one person who's responsible, well,
Speaker 1: like refusing to even reference any of the issues within
Speaker 1: the system even though the movie is about Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean the conspiracy goes to city Hall, so they they
Speaker 1: they're me at the system right like and city all
Speaker 1: and cops get along. Like that's another like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Does anyone have any other thoughts? Um,
Speaker 1: good for Shakira. Good for Shakira. I will say that
Speaker 1: a far, far, far better animal movie with a climactic
Speaker 1: showdown between the protagonist and the villain that takes place
Speaker 1: in a natural history museum is Paddington One. Wow, I
Speaker 1: didn't think of that. You know what else is like?
Speaker 1: Um Tailspina, Yeah, but it's it was like Jungle Book
Speaker 1: characters but they live in a city. Oh, I wow,
Speaker 1: I haven't thought about that. In Becky Whoa it was
Speaker 1: like on Disney Channel. Um, yeah, it might have been
Speaker 1: on regular STV too. I can't remember Starday Morning Cartoon.
Speaker 1: Think whoa. I wonder if that holds up. It sounds fun.
Speaker 1: I think I remember they're doing a new Disney plus one. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's the law. You have to every piece of
Speaker 1: intellectual property must be rebooted. And if it's anything like Utopia,
Speaker 1: if it'll be Mark capaganda billion dollars. Yeah. I part
Speaker 1: of me is like, what about though, like the target audience,
Speaker 1: and is this, despite its many problems, is this movie
Speaker 1: an okay, jumping off point for young children to learn
Speaker 1: about racism and prejudice. It could be. I don't want
Speaker 1: to like undermine that as a possibility, but like, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't show this confusing and inconsistent so never mind scratch that.
Speaker 1: I mean, and it's again, it's like listeners if you know,
Speaker 1: we're not parents, so like, if your kid loves this movie,
Speaker 1: we would be interested to hear. Yeah, personally, I don't
Speaker 1: know this. This one is too messy. I wouldn't want
Speaker 1: my kids first introduction to these themes be this movie
Speaker 1: because this movie doesn't know what it's saying. Yeah, very true.
Speaker 1: It passes the Bechdel test though apparently between Jenny Slatee
Speaker 1: and Jennifer Goodwin iconic Wow, what do they talk about
Speaker 1: it's like sticking together talking at cops. Us. Little guy's
Speaker 1: got to look out for each other, and she's like
Speaker 1: woman's solidarity, the cop and the evil mayor. Um. Okay,
Speaker 1: So as far as feminist, that is feminism five nipples.
Speaker 1: As far as our nipple scales zero to five nipples.
Speaker 1: Based on how the movie fares when examining it through
Speaker 1: an intersectional feminist lens, I'll go with we'll get with
Speaker 1: this movie a half nipple because, uh, the main character
Speaker 1: is a woman, and um, she's you know, people are
Speaker 1: sexist towards her question mark. Um, but again that this
Speaker 1: is I just because this is where we find out
Speaker 1: you've been friends with Officer Hops the whole time. Um,
Speaker 1: so yeah, obviously I'm having a hard time justifying this.
Speaker 1: Um I'll give it half nipple because of weaselton character
Speaker 1: and the horny, horny horny animals at the horny horny
Speaker 1: sex spots, and those are the only redeeming things. Judy
Speaker 1: shut up. She's just so happy if the movie half
Speaker 1: a nipple. He was like, you should have been five.
Speaker 1: What about at the end they're driving like a militarized tank, Like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, and they just fucking pull over the
Speaker 1: slot dude, like, come on, and even though he was speeding,
Speaker 1: it's implied that they're like, we'll let you off the
Speaker 1: hook because you're my friend. Oh yeah, Oh, I thought
Speaker 1: baby was like hyped to throw the book at I
Speaker 1: don't know, hard hard to say. I'm giving this movie
Speaker 1: no nipples. I really didn't like it. I did. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are like small characters and like small scenes that
Speaker 1: I liked, but I just like, I don't know, this
Speaker 1: movie was such a bummer to watch. It's such a
Speaker 1: bummer that it came out so recently. I just think
Speaker 1: it's just like, and I know I sound like an
Speaker 1: asshole saying this, but I think it's neoliberal trash and
Speaker 1: I gets useless and I don't like it. Um Weaselton
Speaker 1: was fun. I laughed at the slop scene and the
Speaker 1: Shakira song was Okay, it's slightly better than okay. Anyway,
Speaker 1: how about you if you think I'll give it one Okay,
Speaker 1: I think it's a problematic and neoliberal trash. But if
Speaker 1: you aren't thinking too hard, or it's on in the background,
Speaker 1: or you want to just drag it with your friends,
Speaker 1: it's pretty good looking I mean visually, the world building
Speaker 1: is kind of fun. Just talk over it one nipple.
Speaker 1: If you are not watching it, what you're saying. If
Speaker 1: it's un mute and you close your eyes every time
Speaker 1: there's a cop on screen, it's actually awesome. Now I'm
Speaker 1: just doing the thing of like thinking about how I
Speaker 1: really liked this movie like five short years ago. Sure,
Speaker 1: but it's like it's yeah, like we said, it's a
Speaker 1: testament to how things are progressing, and it's fun to
Speaker 1: reflect on that. This is this was this this, this
Speaker 1: one broke my brain a little bit. This was a
Speaker 1: tough This was a tough prep. But I'm I'm glad
Speaker 1: we did it. Thank you for Thank you for bringing
Speaker 1: it to us, Matt, even though it sounds like you
Speaker 1: kind of didn't want to. I mean, thanks for whoever
Speaker 1: requested it. Because I was thinking, I didn't realize it
Speaker 1: would be such a rich text to dive into. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't either. I genuinely did not know what this
Speaker 1: movie was about. I was like, they're at the zoo.
Speaker 1: It's it's Madagas, it's that movie. We bought a zoo.
Speaker 1: We bought a zoo. We should cover that movie. I'm
Speaker 1: kidding I don't know what I mean people sentence, but
Speaker 1: I've been wrong before. Well that yes, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being here. It's been a delight. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for having me. Where can people follow you on
Speaker 1: social media or if there's anything you'd like to plug? Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't really post too much, but it's Matthew Mixon
Speaker 1: at Twitter and Instagram. Oh, actually, can I point my
Speaker 1: mutual aid thing? Absolutely? Okay, Um, yeah, we have a
Speaker 1: small mutual aid group and um, we're not very big.
Speaker 1: But if you go to the links on my my
Speaker 1: link tree or whatever, all the money I'll just like
Speaker 1: or you can buy like Amazon stuff like socks and
Speaker 1: tents and blankets and stuff. It's pretty cold in l
Speaker 1: A right now. We just go out every couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: And yeah, if you send me money, it'll go to
Speaker 1: tents and cool stuff that people need. Or if you
Speaker 1: just want to buy stuff off the Amazon links. Um,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Hell yeah, so amazing. And if
Speaker 1: you can follow us on social media at pecktel Cast
Speaker 1: on Twitter and Instagram. You can subscribe to our Patreon
Speaker 1: aka Matreon that is at patreon dot com slash pecktel Cast.
Speaker 1: It's five dollars a month. It gets you Tube bonus
Speaker 1: episodes every month, plus access to the entire back catalog
Speaker 1: on a hundred episodes. We're finally this month U Matreon.
Speaker 1: We read books. We're doing the Jane Austen adaptations. You
Speaker 1: want to stop bugging us about um and Okay, we're
Speaker 1: not going to make a habit of reading books, so
Speaker 1: don't get used to it. Strongly anti book, anti reading podcast.
Speaker 1: But just this once we each read a book. We
Speaker 1: bought a zoom more like we read a book. Uh,
Speaker 1: that was awful. You can get merged at dot com
Speaker 1: slash the effectel Cast, where I will I will commit
Speaker 1: to Shrek shreky in. I have a list of so
Speaker 1: many shirts that we've said we would design over the years.
Speaker 1: Ultimately I have not designed a new shirt in two years.
Speaker 1: Since that's on me and now I uh bye, good episode, everybody,
Speaker 1: Bye bye