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

Episode 90 - THE FIFTH ELEMENT

The story of The Fifth Element's journey from bemusing sci-fi oddity to beloved cult film hinges on its exoticness. Luc Besson's passion project looks, sounds, and feels like nothing else among the late-90s mainstream. Hyper-obsessed with action, sex, and every other sensory pleasure, it's simultaneously a portrait of its time and ahead of its time.

Jack Stovold of Reopening the Wormhole joins us to unpack this lascivious European cousin of the high-concept American blockbuster, so grab your multipass and get ready to revisit this outrageous space opera.

The Fifth Element (1997)
Directed by Luc Besson
Produced by Patrice Ledoux
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
Starring Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Brion James, Tiny Lister, and Chris Tucker

Episode 89 - PLANET OF THE APES (2001)

Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake is the orphan of the erstwhile sci-fi franchise, a film made with great expense and expectations that failed to re-ignite the public's interest in simian social allegories. Yet it is also a triumph of technical craft, and pays homage to its predecessors in its total commitment to immersing the viewer in a primeval, primate-dominated world.

Sam Stovold joins us for an analysis of this much-debated Apes installment, helping us praise its performances, question its themes, and attempt to explain its idiosyncratic approach to time travel.

Planet of the Apes (2001)
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Richard D. Zanuck
Written by William Broyles, Jr. & Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal
Based on Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, Kris Kristofferson, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Episode 88 - SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

Among the many superheroes who strengthened their foothold in the cultural consciousness via animated avatars, is there any tale more fortuitous than that of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? In his '90s cartoon, Spidey confidently leaned into his sprawling comic book mythology (recently energized by a badass symbiote named Venom), and re-introduced the world to a sympathetic, wisecracking do-gooder whose popularity would only soar higher in the coming decades.

Bona fide web-head Daniel Borders-Ashe swings by to discuss the defiantly nerdy series that faithfully re-created the structure and the spirit of the comics. Also, we sling suggestions for Spider-Man's (and Stan Lee's) future adventures.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998)
Produced by Bob Richardson
Based on Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Starring Christopher Gary Barnes, Linda Gary, Julie Bennett, Sara Ballantine, Jennifer Hale, Gary Imhoff, Rodney Saulsberry, Roscoe Lee Browne, Hank Azaria, and Ed Asner

Episodes featured in this podcast:
"The Alien Costume, Part 3" (aired 5/13/1995)
"Shriek of the Vulture" (aired 2/17/1996)
"The Return of the Green Goblin" (aired 7/12/1997)
"Spider Wars, Chapter II: Farewell, Spider Man" (1/31/1998)