Angel Studios Attacks the Fans

On this Episode, we discuss Angel Studios attacking the fans because of the Animal Farm backlash as well as the fact that the studio paid reviewers and it looks as if those said reviewers didn't even review the movie. We also stumble across the fact that Angel Studios has been involved in multiple lawsuits recently. We're these lawsuits harbingers of things to come? 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_12 0:06

Angel Studios is really messed up because you know they bought Animal Farm, and of course, this is going just about as well as everybody expected. Uh, which means nobody's liking this movie. But Angel Studios has decided to go the way of Hollywood. So they're basically insulting the fans and being very, very petty. No, it's not good at all. This is how you go broke, as they say. Go, woke, go broke, and all, you know, the thing that's practically a cliche at this point. But before we get into that, there was another issue that I found very depressing. You know, me and me and my wife kind of have this saying, You will turn you become what you hate. And it's kind of become what's happened with like the podcasting space. Because there was a whole list of podcasters that re that said they reviewed this movie, but they hadn't even watched it. They just got paid. So I'm gonna show a few examples of those people right now, which this is very disappointing. Wow. So the first was Riley Gaines, and she's uh that swimmer that had to you know give up her trophy to that fella in the swimsuit. So uh she says, My husband and I got an early access screening to Animal Farm, an animated adaptation of George Orwell's novel made by Angel Studios. First of all, it was not made by Angel Studios. Angel Studios just bought it from Andy Circus, and it's incredibly well done. They do a perfect job reminding viewers that Marxism always has and always will fail. Now, we've already done an episode on Animal Farb, this version, and so we already know they're completely they're not complaining about communism, they're taking Orwell's story and flipping it and complaining about capitalism instead. So it's very clear she did not watch the movie, she just got this because she was paid, and Tim Poole and others called her out. Okay. Amy McLennan says, Okay, I go to my other Bible study at around 12. It seems to be a kind, it seems to be a kind black man from somewhere in the US. He is a teacher, kind teacher. Well, good, excellent. If we're if we're not done, we might check him out. So yeah, that sounds good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:31

Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_12 2:32

So don't get me started about Orwell. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, so yes, so Riley Gaines has clearly not watched the movie. So that was one person that did it. And then this was um interesting. Actually, I'm gonna, before I go to the Newsweek article, I'm gonna. We had Tucker Carlson doing the same thing. Paid partnerships, Angel Studios, see Animal Farm and Theaters, May 1st, tickets available. You could get a promo code under Tucker, so you know, he was paying attention. I know that's like especially since this movie's like communist trash and all these conservative guys are promoting it because they're paying zero attention. Like, it's really he's like, yeah, I'll take your money. It's like a fledgling Tucker laugh. It's like oh and then he does, you know. Oh, so Tim Poole was on it, and he said, none of these people watched the movie. Uh, not surprising. Uh so this Joe Redden, the older millennial, so he hadn't watched it.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Well, at least Tim little Timmy Poole's calling out.

SPEAKER_12 3:52

He's been on all day. Tim Poole's been jumping people.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Is he is his hat still on? Has he taken his hat off yet? Oh, jeez. It's not even wintertime, bro.

SPEAKER_12 4:07

Hey, the beanie's a look.

SPEAKER_04 4:08

It's a look. No, it's not a look. Every time I see somebody in the summertime wearing a sock hat, I'm like, you're an idiot. Maybe you're just a little harsh. Maybe you're just a little harsh, Cody. Or there's something wrong with your something wrong with your body temperature regulation. Because like you shouldn't, in 90 degree weather, you can't wear a sock hat. That's you're messing with it.

SPEAKER_12 4:31

What is it? Thyroid. He's got thyroid issues, Cody. Come on, be nice. Be nice. Go to the doctor. Take the hat off.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

You're just being a little harsh. I mean, the thing hasn't come off in years. Look, it's even on that AI picture.

SPEAKER_06 4:50

It's a look.

SPEAKER_12 4:51

It's a look. Come on. You gotta be a little kind to him. You're the one wearing a backwards cap like it's 1997.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

What was the case? Hey, look, if you if you ask AI, if you ask AI to draw a picture of Tim Pool without a hat, it couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_12 5:09

There are pictures without his hat. I'll have you. Yeah, there is. He's very he's very bald. No, there's very bald. We should be nice. Okay?

SPEAKER_04 5:25

Well. I'll stop talking right there.

SPEAKER_12 5:28

Personally, I think he looks rather dashing with his without his sock cap. But, you know, people get mad. It's like, well, they joke. They joke. They're like, you're only wearing the hat because, you know, you're bald. And then he doesn't say anything about it for years. Then he finally takes his hat off and it turns out he's bald, and everybody gives him crap. So it's like, I think you look rather dashing, Tim. I'll just say that. Anyway, moving on. Let's see, who else? This is another one. No, that's not it. There was one other person on here. I was hoping there was one other person on here. Okay. Amy says, if you guys go, thank TK. I'm not sure what you mean, but if you're saying fairly well, it was good talking to you. I think that means thank you, but I'm not sure. So if you guys go, TK. The other study starts at 12. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Maybe she's talking about the other three.

SPEAKER_12 6:33

If you guys go, it starts at 12. Okay, yeah. If we're still here, we're we will we will check it out. So sounds good, Amy. Thank you. So alright. I think that's everybody, but you get the idea. People are promoting this thing without even watching it.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

It's really too. Because they're being paid too.

SPEAKER_12 7:06

So okay. It's called Truth Right Back. Truth right back. Okay. Trevor, help me remember that. Truth right back. Alright, thank you, Amy. Appreciate it. Uh all right. So, yeah. So Tim was talking about it. Um, I don't think I got anybody else. So let me show you Newsweek's response.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

So let me run to the bathroom. Alright, sounds good.

SPEAKER_12 7:35

So this is what uh Newsweek had to say about it. A spokesperson for Angel Studios told Newsweek there are four facts about the film to get straight. Because obviously everybody's giving them crap, because they bought a commie movie. Peace out, Amy. Good to see ya. So Angel One is uh the distributor of this film, not its producer, nor with creative control. So they bought the movie. Number two, the Angel Guild members viewed the film and voted heavily to support it. Now, just so you know, this is a very common business tactic. When you get into trouble, you just blame the board. You create an amorphous group of people that don't know anything about anything, and you go, it wasn't our fault. We we sent it to the committee. They're supposed to look over this stuff, blame them. So, you know, they're just kind of dunking on their guild so they don't have to, the leadership doesn't have to accept responsibility. So this is a core, this is like a standard corporate tactic. Create a corporate entity and use the entity to, you know, just blame things. You know, offshoot problems. You have sent, oh, you sent me the truth right back link. Okay, great. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Alright, so that's uh the I'd be surprised if the guild even existed, Trevor. So, but who knows? I could be wrong about that. I'm just postulating. So the Angel Guild were we doing an Angel Guild that apparently voted and voted for and approved of this movie. I don't believe it for a second. I don't believe it for a second. So I approve of Angel Food. So point three. Why the title is the same as the classic book Updates, not rewrites, not calming propaganda, not inverting the message, updates, Trevor, updates.

SPEAKER_05 9:35

Wait. Wait, why is it calming propaganda?

SPEAKER_12 9:38

Because it's saying that the capital, like, they're hoping the kids will believe capitalism is bad. And they're also hoping that the kids will never actually read Animal Farm and realize Orwell was talking about the Russian Revolution. Well, capitalism is bad. Not compared to communism. Oh. Capitalism, some guy gets fat and smokes cigars. Communism, everybody dies of starvation and genocide. So there's a bit of a difference.

SPEAKER_05 10:09

We don't want colony.

SPEAKER_12 10:15

And capitalism, there's five fat guys of cigars, and everybody else is marginally poorer, but jealous. But everybody's alive in the capitalist scenario.

SPEAKER_06 10:24

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_12 10:27

Anyway. So, yeah, anyway, so it wasn't commie propaganda inserted into the film. It was just updates, updates. So, yeah, we're made to make it relevant to broad-based, viewer-centric, family-friendly audience. It was just to make the movie family friendly, you know. We don't want to start saying me. Yeah, we yeah, we don't want it to, we don't want it to have a sad ending. That's what it was, you know. By and by family.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

The principles of our members.

unknown 11:06

Sorry.

SPEAKER_12 11:07

I don't even know what that means, so it's alright.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

So the the last uh sentence on what you've got pulled up is this this is an anti-communism film, and the angel guild will ensure that it stands by the principles. Point number four is just a straight up lie.

SPEAKER_12 11:22

Like, it's just a straight up lie.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

But of our members can be anything, they can just make up whatever.

SPEAKER_12 11:33

Our guild is Christian, our members are Christian. Go see the movie. It's for Christian, it has Christian ideals, and everybody's like, You're full of crap. It's Seth Rogan and Andy Circus. Like heck, it's gonna be like Christian. Like, Seth Rogan's the guy that made sausage party. He is not going to be making like an anti-communist film. Like, the dude's a degenerate. Like, he wants a stupid populist because he thinks he's going to be among the elite. But we're inferencing motive. Like, that's that's logically unsound. It's inferencing motive. It's just, it's not like everything he's ever done has been to you know encourage hedonism. But whatever. And moving on. So yeah, they they handled it like adults. I'm going to jump to Angel Studios' response. And so this is Geeks and Gamers. And so the um, everybody's very bad about this movie because they're obviously insulting Orwell's memory. And they're shocked that Angel Studios would actually be stupid enough to buy this film. And Angel Studios got very petty, and they basically decided to copy Hollywood and its tactics. And so what they did is, so we'll just read an article here for a minute. So, the video, Mockery disguised as mock marketing. The video itself plays out with a parody of Romeo and Juliet, with two actors representing Animal Farm and Angel Studios as star cross crossed lovers. So they put out a video, and uh the video is basically their attempt at humor while simultaneous simultaneously making fun of fans. So, got this from Geeks and Gamers, and so we're just gonna watch the film. It's quite lovely.

SPEAKER_11 13:24

Oh, Animal Farm. No one wants us to be together.

SPEAKER_14 13:27

They haven't even seen me. They're judging a movie by its trailer, which is what trailers are for. But still.

SPEAKER_09 13:35

At Chloe Rice 8272 said, Seth Rogan is probably the last person to come to mind to voice a character who's literally meant to resemble Stalin.

SPEAKER_14 13:43

Resemble Stalin as a pig?

SPEAKER_09 13:45

Seth Rogan is a perfect pig, Stalin.

SPEAKER_14 13:48

People are saying I should have been rated R, full of blood, darkness, and despair. At Huff UITV Seth, making animal farm kid friendly is dystopian.

SPEAKER_09 13:59

It's a story about talking farm animals. It's read by kids in middle school. Yes, it's George Orwell made it.

SPEAKER_12 14:11

You will starve to death if you are communist. So it's not a child story in the sense that in the sense that it's a fairy tale you're supposed to feel good about. It's meant to scare the crap out of you. It is a cautionary tale, but that does not mean insert fart jokes. So I oh yeah, that's what they're saying. Is that really what happened? Yeah, I have Seth McFarlane like farting for a half an hour.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

So I hate his laugh. When I hear him laugh, I want to like break his knees. I'm just kidding. I shouldn't say that. I'm being laugh.

SPEAKER_12 14:54

No, it's just his laugh. Oh, okay. It's just his laugh. It's just a certain pitch. Just says, I need to hit something. So anyway. So yeah, no, but I there's a misnomer here. It's Animal Farm is a kid's story, but it's got a very adult message. It's packaged in like, you know, personif using personification, like turning animals into humans or whatever, but that does not mean adding all this like overly friendly, goofy, you know, fart jokes and people thro run running cars into swimming pools or whatever. It's meant to be scary. Like it's like um Grimm's fairy tales, if you will. Like they're meant to be warnings and you're changing the genre. That's the problem. So.

unknown 15:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12 15:48

So yeah, let me. I don't know if we can play all. Huh?

SPEAKER_04 15:53

Definitely a mess.

SPEAKER_12 15:55

I don't know if we're gonna play all of this, but I do want to skip to the end because the end got kind of dark.

SPEAKER_14 16:00

It's not like we're doing Schindler's List with farm animals.

SPEAKER_06 16:04

It's animal farm.

SPEAKER_12 16:09

I thought that was a little dark. Laughing. Oh, it's not like we're doing Schindler's List with farm animals, and then she laughs. Like, why are you laughing at that? That would be horrible.

SPEAKER_04 16:17

Because it was a propaganda movie, it wasn't real. Stop it. I'm just telling you, Schindler's List was a fictional movie. No, it's not. That's why she laughed.

SPEAKER_12 16:28

No, that's not why she laughed. She laughed because it was like a silly comparison in their narrative. But anyway, no, I think the Holocaust happened.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Let's not say the Holocaust didn't happen. I'm saying Schindler's List was a fake movie, just like Animal Farm.

SPEAKER_12 16:46

No, like it's Schindler's List is like dramatic, but it's still relatively a biopic. Like Animal Farm's an allegory. Like they're yeah. Alright, like I mean, like a movie can take dramatic licenses, but like an allegory is meant to take like a completely unrelated scenario and then use an unrelated scenario that doesn't have the same like connotation.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Oh yeah, because the contrast makes you see it.

SPEAKER_12 17:16

If it's seen in a different environment, then you can see the what happened and the patterns and the messages more clearly. You know what I'm saying?

unknown 17:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

Yeah, yeah, I'm just being an idiot.

SPEAKER_12 17:27

Okay. Let's just skip to the end here because it's just more well, no, wait, no, there is one thing I don't want to show before we do that.

SPEAKER_11 17:34

And then at Dustin Maddox 9445 said, it is wild that Angel Studios would put out a pro-communism movie that was adapted from an anti-communism book.

SPEAKER_14 17:44

But I hate communism.

SPEAKER_10 17:46

Me too. And at generically entertaining said, they don't even need that windmill anymore. Just hook up a generator to George Orwell's grave and he'd power the whole farm. Because he's ruling over it.

SPEAKER_14 17:59

I get it. It's really funny. It's not true. But it is really funny. So angel thing.

SPEAKER_12 18:10

Like it's just, yeah, it's so awesome. Alright, uh, Amy McLennan says, I am taking a nap and eating some food before the next Bible study. Well sounds good. We'll we'll see you then. We'll probably be we'll be here. We'll be here for a while. So Alright, we'll see you, Amy. Thanks for you know participating in the chat. Appreciate it. So, alright, so hang on a minute.

SPEAKER_14 18:42

Like the pig.

SPEAKER_12 18:44

Don't you love that peer pressure? It's like, hey, if you don't like our movie, you're just as communist as the pigs are. Very adult. Huh?

SPEAKER_04 18:54

I mean, that's what they did with COVID. Yeah. I don't care at all. They can live in their hell, I don't care.

SPEAKER_12 19:04

Alright, uh, Amy says, actually, my Bible was copyright 1984. Oh. Wow. Yeah. That's cool. That's interesting. So yeah. Weird. The point is they're trying to peer pressure you. And uh, here's what they had to say at the end. And then Amy says, please come over to the other Bible study. We very well might, because this is we're our show is running much longer than normal, so we might very well do that.

SPEAKER_04 19:42

So this whole video you just showed, that was like to try to make the Yeah, they're trying to push the movie.

SPEAKER_12 19:47

Actually, I don't even think they're doing that. I think I think this thing is just pure spike.

SPEAKER_04 19:51

How much money does Angel? Apparently too much. Angel Studios must have a ton if they're paying Will Farrell. Because Will Farrell doesn't give a shit about this.

SPEAKER_12 20:00

I don't know who that is. Yeah. Are you sure? It's not Will Farrell.

SPEAKER_04 20:06

Hey, I sure thought it was.

SPEAKER_12 20:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:09

It's a fake AI video.

SPEAKER_12 20:11

Oh, it's fake AI video. I don't know. No one knows what's going on. What is this caring about? So uh but anyway, so here's what they did at the end. Okay, so oh, it's not Will Farrell.

SPEAKER_04 20:31

What are you crazy?

SPEAKER_05 20:33

Yeah. It's an AI version of Will Farrell.

SPEAKER_12 20:38

It's weird. Alright, let's let's just finish it. Can't let the pigs win. Never angel proudly presents Animal Farm, a cautionary tale in theaters, and then they they put it so it's really hard to see, but if you scroll very closely, it says whether you like it or not. So it's this. This is so crazy, dude. I apparently they want to go bankrupt. So it's like they literally, this whole video is basically a middle finger to all the fans that have supported Angel Studios this entire time. It's like, you people are a bunch of plebs. You know, rather than just admitting, look, we didn't know. It was Animal Farm. We thought it was like a regular Animal Farm movie. We thought it was gonna stay true to Orwell's vision. We didn't realize that Andy Circus was a creepy socialist, and you know, he you know, he basically inverted the story, but we spent so much money, we have to make our money back. You know, it's like it's it's not like a hey, we screwed up, sorry about that. That please watch it because we need the money. Like that would have been better, honestly. Instead, it's screw you. You don't even know what's good. Because these people would sooner light themselves on fire than admit they were wrong. So they decide to flip off their fans and take them off.

SPEAKER_04 22:23

Yeah, that was terrible. I can't.

SPEAKER_12 22:25

Yeah, why and I do appreciate the irony of a cautionary tale because I'm like, Angel Studios, you are about to become a cautionary tale. You might want to be careful about dark irony. So, and then um, let's see. This is from Friday Night Tights. These are like some of my favorite guys. They had a couple things that were really interesting. But Angel Studios knows that they screwed up. And so they they pull the Disney, and you'll see what I mean here in a second. So, yeah, they pulled a Disney. Here's how.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Hire this movie. And so that's there's there's an email that that I have here. I'll I'll pull it up if we need to, but I don't think we do. But here's this is an email. So a paying subscriber reached out to Angel Studios customer support and said, Why did you guys buy this? And the response here says, This this movie came to us as an already completed film. Guild members had the opportunity to view and vote on the movie in its entirety. Our Angel Guild approves stories that are, quote, true, honest, noble, just, authentic, lovely, admirable, and excellent. Animal Farm passed because they felt the movie fits that description. And you can learn more here about the guild. And so this is this is what they're telling the people that are paying for the subscriptions. But if I may, I think it goes even a little deeper than that. I saw the movie yesterday. I was pretty concerned because I went to an early showing on a Thursday. This looks pretty packed. This is the showing that I attended. I screenshot this because I had I had a funny feeling that, like, okay, Animal Farm, maybe it's a hit. Maybe we're all everybody's going to see it. Here is the actual theater. There was no one there. So, you know, you if you're an Angel Studios member, you're giving them money. They're buying tickets in theaters that no one is in. Like that, that is, and so if we continue down, guess what? Here's the next showing filled with this almost the same seats. Next showing, right?

SPEAKER_12 24:22

Almost the same seats. Disney's been doing this for a long time. They've been like hiding their losses by buying the tickets and saying, oh, it's you know, it's for it's to give to people. It's like, yeah, okay. But they've been selling out the theaters. And what this guy points out, I don't know if we've passed that scene yet or not, where he says it or not, but he says that these are identic, these are the identical seats. So you know it's a bot basically buying all these theaters because it's the same seats every time.

SPEAKER_04 24:52

Yeah. You're a film guy. Tell me if you if you made a movie on a budget, or bought a movie on a budget, and then bought all the tickets, could you make your money back?

unknown 25:06

No.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Taylor Swift's dad did it.

SPEAKER_12 25:11

Okay, that's a fair point. Then that is what they're trying to do, but it's not working because people, word of mouth has already spread. They already know the movie's crap. So there you are right about Taylor Swift, though, and it did work with Taylor Swift. Like, she uh she was able to create the impression of fame. Actually, what did no? You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_04 25:31

Because um you can get away with this, but it takes a massive spell. Like, you gotta really trick some people.

SPEAKER_12 25:40

Yeah, no, you're right. Hey, it's Garfield. Sorry, my cat is tormenting poor Trevor.

unknown 25:48

Ah.

SPEAKER_12 25:49

Anyway, so um no, you're right, because what it was um the religion business, which is a movie I don't particularly like, but there was an interesting scene, or it's a series I didn't particularly like, but there's an interesting scene where um the uh the Christian ministry market, they're actually uh buying books. Like they'll sit there and make their books bestsellers by basically buying them all back after the print and putting them in a basement. So this is a common tactic that a lot of people have started using to create buzz. But when the movie's already this bad and you're already telling off the fans, you're not gonna make your money back. And this is what happened to Disney. This is how Disney ends up losing billions and billions and billions of dollars, and how they end up having massive layoffs. You can only hide this crap for so long, and it's amazing. Angel Studios hasn't been a big dog in Christian in in the Christian industry for like two years for more than a couple years. And they're already pulling this crap.

SPEAKER_04 26:58

Well, they got away with the what was the what was their kickoff?

SPEAKER_05 27:03

Was that um free the dark darkness or something like that?

SPEAKER_12 27:07

Well, Sound of Freedom was big. Let's see.

SPEAKER_05 27:10

Sound of freedom.

SPEAKER_12 27:11

Yeah, Sound of Freedom and this the Jesus show. Let me look that up. Did Angel Studios do the Chosen? Okay, so they're saying it was instrumental in the founding of the chosen. So that might not the same thing. They didn't do nothing. Well, here's what's interesting. Um let's just look at this really quick. Dallas Jenkins says the ties between the chosen and angel studios are officially severed. So they parted ways. So maybe this is a signal that Angel Studios was going dark about a year ago. Because this is June 24th, 2025. So yeah, Dallas Jenkins. Yeah, he broke off with them. Calyx says LOL, by the way. I'm not sure what stupid thing we said, but thank you very much. So um, yeah. Let's see, let's see if it says why. I doubt they will, though, because they always got to do business, nice talk. Ties between Angel Studios and the Chosen have officially been severed, the biblical dramas creator Dallas Jenkins announced during the recent live stream. The first three seasons of The Chosen were distributed through a partnership between Dallas Jenkins and Angel Studios, the Utah-based film studio known for distributing Sound to Freedom and King of Kings and other faith-based content. In 2023, the Chosen entered a private arbitration with Angel Studios over multiple significant contract violations, Jenkins said. The following year, the arbiter ruled overwhelmingly in the favor of the chosen team. So Angel was already being so they're from Utah? It's almost like that might be relevant. I have no idea what you are. Surely not.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

They maybe think they're maybe they think they're better than everybody else in their own.

SPEAKER_12 29:16

I don't know about that, but they would have a lot of money. They would have a lot of money. So uh fair enough, yeah. So let's see. I'm trying to remember. You know, it sucks being old. And I know I'm in my 30s, but I feel old because it seems like, am I wrong in thinking that Angel Studios was the original group that well, all they they had their original shtick was an app, wasn't it? Like they would take pre-existing movies and they would like cut out the cursing and the nudity and everything like that. Wasn't that Angel Studios' original shtick? Am I right about that, or is that a different group?

SPEAKER_04 30:00

I think you're right. Because I remember the chosen being free on the Angel app. I never downloaded or anything, but I remember that.

SPEAKER_12 30:08

Let me check this because I think I have I have thoughts if I'm right.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

The uh the grift thing is like really uh coming to the forefront.

SPEAKER_12 30:18

I'm basically thinking it's a grift. Superficial morality is a signal. They're just like is kind of where my brain's going.

SPEAKER_04 30:25

Taking other things and changing it for a specific group of people.

SPEAKER_12 30:29

Hang on a minute, let's see. Did Angel Studios start by, how do I word this? Uh removing uh controversial content from other films for Christians. Umgel, I am right! Holy cow! Alright, hang on. Let's see. I'm pretty sure I'm right here. Let's look at this article. Good night. I hate oh, I hate OBS. I hate that I have to constantly change these squares. It's like the worst. Okay, so really, dude. Alright. Here we go. It's Vid Angel. I knew I was I knew it. I freaking knew it. Okay, over the past three decades, numerous Christian and Catholic organizations have dabbled their hands in producing animated television movies, documentaries, and entertainment. Most of these efforts led to the production of mediocre media entertainment. Some efforts were successful, while others not even worth mentioning. However, over the past few years, Angel Studios, based out of Provo, Utah, has managed to create a platform that is now producing exceptional media on par with major established media players. An accomplishment that represents growing demand for family-friendly entertainment. The company, Angel Studios, was founded by Neil Harmon, whose previous company, Vid Angel. I am that's that is so funny. A short-lived streaming service platform. Uh Neil's name Harmon. Neil Harmon. Yeah. That was involved in a series of lawsuits over its capability to censor or remove profane images from major Hollywood blockbusters.

SPEAKER_04 32:31

Wait, so it said it was it was censoring movies, but it wasn't even censoring.

SPEAKER_12 32:41

That was the shtick. It was like, hey, we're like Netflix, but no cussing and nudity.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

But it just said it probably pursued to oblivion.

SPEAKER_12 32:53

As it should have.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

What an idiot. Neil Harmon, kick rocks.

SPEAKER_12 32:58

Don't you mean pound sand? So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

Uh either one will work. I'd rather kick rocks so he breaks all his toes. Pounding sand doesn't hurt that much.

SPEAKER_12 33:09

Yeah, oh my gosh. I that was so long ago. Yeah, I remember thinking that's crap. Like, that's such a crap. I don't know. It's it's cussing and all that stuff is not the cause of the fall of society or whatever, but I guess that's a whole other subject. The problem is somebody who's just gonna buy films and then edit them, would surprise, surprise, they'd buy they'd buy an inverted version of Animal Farm and not think anything of it. So yeah, so that's crazy. But that's what I was that was what I was getting at, Cody, was basically like you can tell, like Joe Cristiano, he had a wonderful saying. He would always say, never trust somebody who has a fish on their business card. Right? Because yeah, well, it's the super people who focus on superficial morality are, as you say, grifting. And whenever you see that kind of superficial stuff, that's usually a signal that you're not dealing with somebody who's a sincere actor, you're dealing with somebody who knows that they can manipulate a large chunk of the population, you know, if they put on this particular image. But the funny thing about those people, and this is what we're seeing with Animal Farm, is uh they get particularly mad when it stops working. So when people catch on and go, No, we're not we're not following you with this Animal Farm show, they go, Well, you know what? Screw you, and then they put out a spiteful Twitter commercial. You know why? Huh? Why?

SPEAKER_04 34:46

You know why? Because they've attached their morality to the thing that they made. Because it's like they're projecting their morality. So when you look through the bullshit that they made, you're looking through them.

SPEAKER_12 35:00

I think they've got a pride issue. I think they've got they just think like there's something in the business world I keep coming across, or I used to come across when I was really heavy in it, but or I'd met people in it, I should say. I don't want to overstate my role, but they always took pride in the fact that everybody was stupid. You know what I mean? It's like when you bought a product, it wasn't, oh, thank you for supporting me. It was like, ha, gotcha. It's like they'd already assumed their product was crap and it was a victory that they'd tricked you. Like that was the kind of culture that was that I saw. And I feel like these people have it. And when people catch on, they get mad and really, really petty about it. I mean, I can't say that about everybody.

SPEAKER_04 35:44

It's harder for the rich man to enter it's harder for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a channel to enter the heaven.

SPEAKER_12 35:52

That can make it hard. Yep. So I think we're seeing a little bit of better. But I never liked Vid Angel. I never liked Vid Angel. I never liked that they were able to just censor other people's material. I'm like, that that's not a good idea. That just seems unethical to me. It's like, first of all, that stuff by itself is not really why like the in the culture's like acting nuts. Like, I would argue that a show like Two and a Half Men did way more damage to society than something with like curse words and nudity in it. And the reason being is because two and a half men was on every night and it was constantly affirming that you could live that kind of lifestyle and nothing bad would happen to you. Now, not every movie with graphic content in it has that message, but two and a half men did. And Wonder of Wonders, and this is one of the dark ironies about it, is Charlie Sheen wound up being destroyed by that very message. He's out there on this show basically saying, You can live like me, and this is the dream, and some people just got it and others don't, and good guys never prosper. And he's out there advocating that week after week after week after week, and then his whole world implodes, and his show implodes. Of course, when he left, the show collapsed because he was the draw of the show. You know, and it's just an irony that his life, which he insisted had no consequences, destroyed him for years. You know?

SPEAKER_04 37:25

Yeah, I would argue Seinfeld did more for the degradation of U.S. culture than any any other TV show.

SPEAKER_12 37:31

I think that's very plausible. Elaborate as to why you think so.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

Because it's a horror show, it's about three narcissists walking around New York ruining people's lives, and you laugh at it, and it's because there's a laugh track. If there was no laugh track, you wouldn't care at all. It'd be a terrible show. You'd be like, these people suck. But it's like it's a and it excuses bad behavior. So like they they're like, oh well, I mean not that there's anything wrong with that crap right there. There is something wrong with that. Don't be a loser. Yeah, call it out.

SPEAKER_12 38:05

No, I think you're right. I think you're right. I think it affirmed bad behavior.

SPEAKER_04 38:10

And and these people that it justifies it to people in their minds because they're they come up with this this fucking rhetoric they see on Seinfeld, and they're like, oh well, fucking George did it.

SPEAKER_12 38:20

Yeah, yeah, the other guy deserves it or whatever. But you know, but at the same time, Sunny in Philadelphia is kind of the inverse of that because those characters are terrible people, and they usually end up getting it. Yeah, it shows them getting what they deserve. So it has the it's like the inverse of Seinfeld. I would argue Stunning in Philadelphia is a positive in society. But these people they focus just on the cussing, they focus just on the nudity, they focus on the external stuff, and they don't think about the messaging as to you know whether or not they're advocating for a behavior or not. And so you got you have a show like Seinfield, you have a show like two and a half men, it slips through the cracks. And it teaches people to live like degenerates, and you don't hear a single cuss word. And then freaking platforms like VinAngel go in there and are like, well, we'll make that story good for you. We're gonna take two and a half men, but you know, we won't, you know, we won't allow you to see any of the raunchy stuff. Well, there is no raunchy stuff, it's network television. Oh, we'll let you watch this other movie, but you know, we'll get rid of the cussing and the nudity. And it's like, it doesn't matter. They're still watching Family Guy, they're still watching 70s show, they're still watching Seinfield, and they're getting that liberal hedonistic messaging, whether or not the blue content is in there. And that's what you're not paying attention to, and that's the stuff that's convincing your kids to act like degenerates.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

Yeah. Yeah. I just like like I've I've noticed that recently because I started listening to Kanye probably like six months ago. And I was like going back and listening to all the stuff that I listened to in high school and stuff. It's like, he's been talking about God the whole time, dude. The whole time. And everybody's like, oh well, Kanye is a piece of shit because he talks about how he likes that's it. It's like, well, yeah, he's talking about his his sins, his vices, and then he talks about God in the next verse. And they're like, oh well, he's just he's unhinged.

SPEAKER_12 40:22

I think platforms like yeah, okay, like platforms like VidAngel keep people shallow and stupid. They don't teach people how to think thematically, they don't teach people how to think about messages, it's all feel good, cheap marketing. You're not helping people to conceptualize the propaganda that's destroying them.

SPEAKER_04 40:45

So yeah, which is what Bart does and Sonny and you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 40:50

Like Sonny doesn't advocate for the horrible things that those characters do. That makes it a better show than 90% of the stuff we watch growing up.

SPEAKER_04 41:03

Yeah, and there's that clip in there, and he's like, science is a liar sometimes, and that shit's great.

SPEAKER_12 41:18

And then Frank Rill's going, anyway, I started blasting.

SPEAKER_06 41:22

So, anyways, I started blasting.

SPEAKER_12 41:26

Anyway, so yeah, it's no surprise we're here. It's no surprise it's Angel Studios. I I find that so funny that Dallas Jenkins, you know, not funny, but it just matches the timeline that he left a year ago. Or almost a year ago at this point. That just that fits the suspicion. Because was it okay? I got one more thing I want to check. I got one more thing I want to check here. Uh, because didn't Angel Studios do start out with House of David? Because I know Dallas Jenkins was tied to that.

SPEAKER_04 42:01

That can't be right, because you guys you guys just watched House of David not that long ago.

SPEAKER_12 42:05

But it was a different DEI memory lapse. That was the problem with it. Like, did Angel Studios have any involvement with House of David? The Wonder Project. So, no, this is actually a different studio, so we're wrong about that. Let's see. Oh, look at this. The cartoon David's getting there's a lawsuit involving Angel Studios in this movie that came out with David, too. These guys are just getting sued left and right. It's like we we've been studying this for all of 20 minutes, and we've already uncovered three lawsuits by front for these guys. Vid Angel gets sued by producers, and then Dallas, Jenkins, and them get into a conflict. Now, animated Bible epic David Cotton legal battle over rights. Slingshot, the film's producer, brought a lawsuit against Angel Studios for allegedly co-opting the feature to advance its own business interests, including its fledgling streaming service. Last year, Angel Studios, home of the sleeper hit Sound of Freedom, predicted to theater owners at Cinemacon that its upcoming film, David, would be the highest-grossing animated movie of all time while announcing the title as a splashy 2025 Thanksgiving release. The Utah-based firm, which has eskewed the Hollywood system and prides itself on catering to faith-based and conservative consumers, announced months months later that it reached a deal to become a publicly listed entity. Okay, so that's interesting. So it became publicly listed. That might explain something of a turning point, or one aspect of the turning point. Because if it's a publicly listed entity, conspiracy theory time, I'm gonna say the CIA bought it. So, anyway, I know I I'm being hyperbolic, but I mean they're pretty sloppy right now. I'm I don't know. It could be at this point, who knows? So since then, Angel has been clashing with Slingshot, the production company behind David, over its rights as the film's distributors in November. Slingshot terminated its deal with Angel, which responded that it didn't breach the agreement, has and has been sued in a lawsuit seeking a court order that it no longer retains the rights to the movie. Let's see, let's just go on here. Slingshot alleged that Angel vastly overstepped its authority by excluding it from decisions related to international distribution, merchandising, and marketing, making it appear as if David is an in-house production and as part of a bid to herd support from shareholders to vote in favor of a purchase by a special purpose acquisition company, better known as an SPAC. Angel propped up its fledgling streaming service by placing episodes of a related TV series, Young David, behind a paywall, despite an agreement that the con content would be available for free, the lawsuit said. So there's almost like there's a pattern emerging. Corrupt business practices. But this is another thing that kind of gets into my contention with people in this ilk is it's like, oh, you're gonna get mad at cussing and you're gonna get mad at blue humor or blue content and media, but you're not gonna have integrity in your business practices because that's different. Like that's good business, and we don't have to be Christians when it comes to business, or something like that. You know what I mean? I feel like that's an attitude that permeates a lot of Christian culture.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

So it is I feel like we're we're in spiritual warfare, right? We battle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. Um when you're when you're making films and trying to influence people if you're speaking truth, you're you're gonna battle some demons, okay, in that in that world. And Satan is the ruler of this realm. You're not gonna make your money off of the truth. Like your money has to be made on lies. You can't you can't remake a Bible story and make money on it. It's not gonna happen. You might be right. I I don't I don't think you can, dude. Like, like God might bless you if you spread the truth. But I you can't force payment for the truth.

SPEAKER_12 46:32

I don't know. You certainly like God doesn't mind people being rich, but like there's a difference between being rich in a fair way and just like cheating people. Like these guys are like trying to Yeah. I I just feel like there's this legal chicanery thing is kind of the norm in in that world. And but they'll whine about cussing. But I feel like the cussing and stuff is like a red herring. You know what I mean? Like I feel like the cussing and the drinking and the stuff they normally jump on, it's not a it's give me the lexicon of curse words in the King James that you're not supposed to use. Like that doesn't exist. You know? Drinking, it's talking about drunkenness, it doesn't necessarily talk about- I'm sorry, but the whole idea that like the wine was grape juice is just stupid. It's just stupid. Like, that's not you do realize there's this entire history to fermentation, like the majority of humans have survived off fermentation because that's the only way to preserve food for the majority of human history. The wine was not grape juice that like spits in the face of like all written data that we have, as far as I know. But the point is you focus on all this superficial stuff because you don't want to hit people where they live. You know what I mean? You don't want to actually talk about the business ethics, you don't want to actually talk about like yeah, things that are actually relevant. For example, modesty. Modesty is a great example about this. They will get mad at like skin coverage, but if you read Paul and Timothy, he's talking about earrings. He's talking about dressing up to like embarrass other people, you know? And that was like the majority, that was like how modesty was understood for the majority of human history. Like, for example, in the Middle Ages, you want to know why you have like religious jewelry? Because the women were going, well, wait, I know we're not supposed to be wearing jewelry, but what if it's Christian jewelry? Can we get away with that? That's how you get the origin of like religious jewelry. And even in like George Washington's rules of civility, he says, dress in accordance with the expectations of your time. Meaning that the importance, the point behind modesty is to not call attention to yourself. It's not just like a lust thing, it's an anti-pride thing. So if you're going to church with like name brand clothing, you're not being like just for the sole purpose of making the guy that buys clothing from Walmart feel bad, you're not being modest. Like it's it's it's a pride issue. And that was understood for forever in the church, but they've kind of relegated it to like skin coverage so we can just yell at teenage girls and not get mad at the people on TBN who dress up or the people in the church that dress up or whatever. You know? It's just we we wanna we wanna take our rules and denigrate one particular group so we don't have to actually focus on like stuff that's applicable to everyone, in my opinion. You you you you did a a very dramatic face there. I'm curious as to what you were thinking.

SPEAKER_04 49:47

Because I'm not sure if I can say it or not. I what okay, so what we're talking about, the uh uh the one upping each other. I immediately thought of the black church because they all wear those orange suits and crap like that. And so they're all trying to like like Tyrone brought brought an orange suit, so then Shaquille brought a purple suit the next week and everywhere.

SPEAKER_12 50:14

Yeah, it's like these people, yeah. But that's but there's some people that try, yeah, they try to one-up each other with suits and they they make it a big they make it a big shebang, you know, to dress up nice. But if you're calling attention to yourself, you're sinning. But we don't want to talk about that. Let's just, you know, get mad at the teenage girls for their mini skirts so we don't have to make the rule relevant to everyone. So I hate stuff like that. And that's how you that's how shows like Two and a Half Men infiltrate the culture and teach people that hedonism is okay. You know, and that's how you have a company that's supposedly Christian being sued on a regular basis. So that was a random tirade that wasn't exactly related to Animal Farm, but I do feel like it was pertinent. So, all right, back to Animal Farm. What else? What was the other stupid thing that they did? Alright. Let's um let's go back to uh them buying up oh yeah, you know, you know what buying up theater seats is called in English. Speaking of like rules that apply to everyone, yeah. You know what this is called in English? Lying. This is called lying in Christian nomenclature. The word is lying. Anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 51:34

In the same theater. And that's something that they do too, right? Because uh they have a whole paperboard thing where you can buy tickets for people to sit to claim for free. So what this means is that people, no one is claiming these free tickets to see the movie.

SPEAKER_04 51:47

Yeah, we've seen this with Disney movies too.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

So I'm really glad you point that out. So I am currently sitting, I have two accounts that are currently sitting in the queue to get free tickets myself. Both I submitted with two separate accounts to claim these tickets. The email I got back is you're in the waiting list, and it gave me a number, and the number is 1,127 for both accounts. One was yesterday and another was this afternoon. I cannot get through to get these free tickets. What is the deal? Oh boy, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

Wow, well, I'm angel exposed. Man, this is actually a fairly common socialist trick as well that they use in the political gatherings. I mean socialist trick, literally, when they do political gatherings, they give people option to buy solidarity tickets for the underprivileged who can't get it there otherwise. And this is 98% of the time merely a way to go, like, hey, you'll be a really good person if you pay twice, and we'll give this to an underprivileged person. It is a complete scam.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

Well, equally there is no supposed to anymore. Okay? We're free. For example, I'm about to fart right now. This is the sound of freedom.

SPEAKER_12 53:10

Don't you think it's a bit weird that they were like I don't I mean, I I don't know if they were intentionally insulting the own their own movie that they put out, but that is a little bit of a weird comment. But yeah, anyway, they farted because you know it's a kid's movie.

SPEAKER_04 53:26

I actually made the same the same face that that little pig on there is making.

SPEAKER_12 53:30

I'm still making that face.

SPEAKER_04 53:32

So it's it's really a very appropriate face to Seth Rogan talking. I mean far.

SPEAKER_12 53:40

Alright, so there's that. And I had two timestamps of this. Let's see, we had 25 minutes and 28. So let me move on to the 25-minute clip. Uh oh, yes, this is the this is what they did to you if you disagreed, if you didn't like the movie. This is how they uh like because they would give you a poll if you like you liked or disliked the movie or whatever. Uh they had two responses or whatever. So one if you were right, one if you were wrong, like one if you were liked it, one if you disliked it. So let me pull that up here. I thought this was appropriate.

SPEAKER_03 54:18

If you want to share my screen here, this is what you get when you scan the I didn't like it QR code.

SPEAKER_06 54:25

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 54:28

Your opinion is wrong, and if I scroll down, yeah, we heard you and you're wrong. Uh and but wait, just wait, just wait, just wait, just wait, give us money.

SPEAKER_12 54:38

You gotta give them points for boldness, I guess. Is that not the most obnoxious thing you've seen? Yeah, people are ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

What are you bold move button? Let's see if it plays out.

SPEAKER_12 54:54

I don't know how you guys are gonna pay for all your lawsuits if you're taking your fans off. So what do you think? Yeah. Buying your own tickets. What do you think, Trevor?

SPEAKER_05 55:09

Uh I no longer have respect for Angel Studios.

SPEAKER_12 55:12

It's pretty disillusioning, ain't it? Or disappointing, let's say. Alright, let's see.

SPEAKER_03 55:23

Yes,$75. This is real. This is a real checkout if you didn't like this movie.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

That's so they are trying to lean into the joke by calling the fans a loud minority when you bought a movie that Hollywood didn't want, by the way. That's why you got it, Angel Studios. Hollywood did this wasn't good enough for Hollywood. And and does Andy Circus hate communism? No, don't think so.

SPEAKER_08 55:52

He was a member of the Socialist Party in the 90s. So there's that.

SPEAKER_12 55:57

I got one more time stamp here.

SPEAKER_08 56:00

Recommends the book. Most of his ad read is what the book is about, not the movie. So he clearly didn't watch it either in one from his team. It's pretty bad. Um, and I do think it's pretty damning that Angel Studios agreed to do a debate with Tim Paul and then backed out because they had no one that was available to do it. Now, that's probably the best decision because I think they're about to be humiliated. Andy, with Andy Circus's comments, they don't really have a leg to stand on in that regard.

SPEAKER_03 56:23

There there also has to be the the the no disparagement clauses. I mean, in Angel Studios, even if the guys like, let's let's play, let's say they knew, oh my gosh, we bought something we shouldn't have bought. They can't say anything bad about it. They can't besmirch Andy Circus. We can talk about how bad this movie is and how this was a bad mistake. They almost have to make something to get some kind of buzz to convince somebody to be willing to go that like to see the film, but they can't say anything bad about it. They they're they're they're liable.

SPEAKER_07 56:54

I think that's what happened. I think they bought it off of name alone. They thought, yes, oh, this is anti-communist, so it's gonna go to our base pretty well. And they actually watched it and they're stuck with it, and they have to sell it, and they can't say anything bad about it. Because like the the I didn't like it, and then you take you to the some like snarky thing about oh, you were all wrong and all that stuff. I could totally see that being a joke on if it was actually a good animal farm technique, and people that were left and said I didn't like it, then they're making fun of them. So I could totally see that as their angle, but they didn't watch the movie, and that's not what the movie said.

SPEAKER_08 57:26

In that case though, Angel Studios should have watched the movie and formed a marketing campaign about what the movie was, because even the um the professional critics, a lot of them would have agreed with the like the communist perspective, all the quality and everything else. And they interpreted Orwell's novel as different. So a lot of them say the problem is about power and authority rather than specifically communism or subversion or virtue signaling. So there are different ways that you can read that book, which are technically correct but entirely miss the point.

SPEAKER_12 57:51

So yeah, if they'd had a little bit of humility and pivoted because they realized they screwed up, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But again, humil double down.

SPEAKER_04 58:00

Double down. If you don't like the movie, you're wrong.

SPEAKER_12 58:05

But you know, humility is a Christian virtue. And why build that up when you can just not cuss? We hope you enjoyed this episode of Faith Fiction and Folklore. If you did, we would love it if you would subscribe to us on YouTube or follow us on Rumble. We can also be found on X, Instagram, and Facebook. And we are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. Thank you again very much for listening, and we'll see you next time.