Episode 97 - 'WEEN-A-THON 2017

Our Halloween "visual playlist" spooktacular returns! This year, our trick-or-treat bag is packed with a variety of ghoulish goodies: commercials, cartoons, and comedies that capture the spirit of the season. Muster up your courage for a not-so-grisly grotesquerie of our Halloween faves in our second annual 'Ween-A-Thon...if you dare!

Featured in this episode:

Clips and Shorts
Coca-Cola "Monsters of the Gridiron" commercials (1993-1994) - Spot 1, Spot 2, Spot 3
Walt Disney World Inside Out - "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" (1994)

TV Episodes
South Park - "Pinkeye" (aired October 29, 1997)
Rugrats - "Candy Bar Creep Show/Monster in the Garage" (aired January 5, 1992)
The Adventures of Pete & Pete - "Halloweenie" (aired October 9, 1994)
Home Improvement - "I Was A Teenage Taylor" (aired October 29, 1996)

Episode 96 - SCREAM

What's your favorite serio-comic deconstruction of the horror genre? For many, there is no better answer than the prescient Scream series, which combined trendy self-awareness with old-school storytelling chops. The instantly iconic (and oddly bumbling) Ghostface villain not only breathed life back into slasher movies, but also inspired the trick-or-treating costumes of countless lazy teenagers for decades to come.

Daren Sprawls joins us in celebration of the Halloween season as we soak in the details of the classic bloody whodunit, and indulge in listing our favorite scary movies.

Scream (1996)
Directed by Wes Craven
Produced by Cathy Conrad and Cary Woods
Written by Kevin Williamson
Starring Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Jaime Kennedy, and Henry Winkler

Episode 95 - 3 NINJAS

The coolest threads, the finest toys, the slickest moves: 3 Ninjas isn't just a movie, it's wall-to-wall wish fulfillment. Nothing is too excessive for a film centered on three prepubescent martial arts masters that combines the acrobatic clowning of vintage Jackie Chan with the outsize "kid power" ethos of the 1990s. (Not to mention a healthy dose of the noble ninja code, which apparently allows for low blows.)

Jean Magers makes her thrilling podcast debut for this delectable stew of kiddie flick tropes. So just kick back, knuckle up, and get ready to enjoy this most honorable episode. Eeeeyah!

3 Ninjas (1992)
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
Produced by Martha Chang and Yuriko Matsubara
Written by Edward Emanuel
Starring Michael Treanor, Max Elliot Slade, Chad Power, Rand Kingsley, Alan McRae, Margarita Franco, Kate Sargeant, Patrick Labyorteaux, and Victor Wong

Episode 94 - AN AMERICAN TAIL and FIEVEL GOES WEST

Scrappy cartoon mice are as American as baseball, apple pie, and an abiding sense of optimism that somehow endures constant alienation and glaring injustice. That combination of the wholesome and the serious defines An American Tail, a poignant re-imagining of the immigrant experience from legendary artist Don Bluth and wunderkind executive producer Steven Spielberg that dared to challenge Disney for animated musical supremacy.

Just because you find some success in America, however, doesn't mean you relinquish your underdog status. By the release of the sequel Fievel Goes West, Bluth was gone, Disney was ascendant once more, and the Mousekewitz family was still seeking a better lot in life. It was time to change the approach.

Brian Rudloff joins us for this special double feature episode, as we try to reconcile two very different films with the same core message: somewhere out there, dreams can still come true.

An American Tail (1986)
Directed by Don Bluth
Produced by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy
Written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss
Starring Phillip Glasser, Amy Green, Nehemiah Persoff, Erica Yohn, John P. Finnegan, Christopher Plummer, Madeline Kahn, and Dom DeLuise

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)
Directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells
Produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Watts
Written by Flint Dille
Starring Phillip Glasser, Cathy Cavadini, Nehemiah Persoff, Erica Yohn, Dom DeLuise, Amy Irving, John Cleese, and James Stewart

Episode 93 - KINDERGARTEN COP

After almost three decades, Kindergarten Cop still represents an aspirational standard for the thespian trapped in a cycle of typecasting: Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the crest of his rough-and-ready muscleman trajectory, poking fun at his brawny persona and spinning it into comedy gold. Real-life educators Daren Sprawls and Ariel Quist Sprawls help us rate the movie's classroom verisimilitude and celebrate its tremendous quotability, evident in its contributions to a classic prank call soundboard.

How do six-year-olds stack up against a former Mr. Universe? Why are so many family classics filmed in Astoria, Oregon? Who is your daddy, and what does he do? Find the answers to these questions and much more in this special back-to-school episode!

Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Produced by Ivan Reitman and Brian Grazer
Written by Murray Salem and Herschel Weingrod & Timothy Harris
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pamela Reed, Penelope Ann Miller, Richard Tyson, Carroll Baker, Christian Cousins, Joseph Cousins, and Linda Hunt

Episode 92 - HOMEWARD BOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

Homeward Bound is a valentine to pet lovers everywhere, a fanciful look at what might be going on inside the minds of our furry friends. Its conclusions are simple and elemental: Dogs don't get along with cats. The world is meant for exploring. And our pets are eternally preoccupied with us, their human familiars.

The movie says much about our tendency to view pets as projections of ourselves, and says even more about what we find endearing in our animal companions. Who wouldn't want to run around with Chance, or caress Sassy's lustrous coat, or relax on the porch under Shadow's watchful eye?

It doesn't matter if you're a dog person or a cat person. All heartstrings will be pulled by our episode on this sentimental, four-legged family adventure!

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)
Directed by Duwayne Dunham
Produced by Jeffrey Chernov and Franklin R. Levy
Written by Caroline Thompson and Linda Woolverton
Based on The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
Starring Don Ameche, Sally Field, Michael J. Fox, Jean Smart, Kim Greist, and Robert Hays

Episode 91 - THE PAGEMASTER

Culkin! Lloyd! Between the combined star power of these two 90's movie pillars, it's a wonder The Pagemaster isn't more of a mainstay in our collective memory. Perhaps the "Macaulay mystique" had waned by 1994, or maybe kids just don't go to the movies for reminders to visit their local library. A love letter to the written word, the live-action animated hybrid paints a shared universe of anthropomorphic books and familiar literary characters (strictly those in the public domain) in a rare cinematic attempt to encourage reading.

It turns out we both could stand a re-read, having remembered this 80-minute breeze more for the associated promotional content than the actual film itself. So get your library card ready and join us as we determine if this short story is a classic, or if it has us longing for that giant floating exit sign in the sky. When in doubt, look to the books!

The Pagemaster (1994)
Directed by Joe Johnston and Maurice Hunt
Produced by David Kirschner and Paul Gertz
Screenplay by David Casci, David Kirschner, and Ernie Contreras
Starring Macaulay Culkin, Christopher Lloyd, Ed Begley Jr., and Mel Harris; and the voices of Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Welker, and Leonard Nimoy