Insights into Entertainment

Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 45 "The Faith is Strong with this One"

December 09, 2019 Joseph and Michelle Whalen Season 1 Episode 45
Insights into Entertainment
Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 45 "The Faith is Strong with this One"
Show Notes Transcript

How do you direct a show like The Mandalorian and somehow convince your children ages 6 and 11 to keep Baby Yoda a secret? We talk about how Bryce Dallas Howard accomplished this very thing. We'll also take a look at the issues surrounding merchandise for the show and we'll talk about the opening of the new Rise of the Resistance ride in Walt Disney World.

In Entertainment News we'll look at how Tiffany Haddish is embracing her Jewish identity. We will grudgingly acknowledge the honor bestowed upon "The Irishman" by the National Board of Review who apparently think there's an overall shortage of Mafia movies and that we needed yet another Martin Scorsese Mafia movie with the same actors playing all too similar roles as so many others.

Speaker 1:

A podcast network

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 3:

come to insights into entertainment, a podcast series, taking a deeper look into entertainment and media. Your hosts, Joseph and Michelle, Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture fanatics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fans.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 4:

well good. Aren't you insights into entertainment. This is episode 45. The faith is strong in this one. I'm your host, Joe's of Waylon and my beautiful and brilliant cohost, Michelle Waylon. Hi everyone. How are we doing today, sweetie? I'm tired. How are you? Oh yeah, I'm kind of getting there too. It's been a very long week. Long weekend. It's only Thursday. It is Thursday, right? All day. Yeah. Uh, so kind of a short show today, but themed I guess. Again, I seem to be getting into these quite often. Um, yeah. Yeah. So in our Disney detective, we have a cute little story, uh, from the Mandalorian. Uh, then we have some additional Mandalorian information about some merchandising news, uh, coming out of the show and the exciting news of the rise of the resistance being, uh, opened up in Florida at a Galaxy's edge. And then in our entertainment news, uh, we have, uh, Tiffany is it head dish or Haddish, um, with, uh, some faith stories there. And then, uh, we will grudgingly talk about nourishment and then we'll finish up with our insightful picks of the week. Uh, ready to get started. All right, let's get into it. Go for Disney detective.

Speaker 5:

Cute little, uh, Disney story. Um, there were a couple of different articles that came out, um, from, uh, with, um, Bryce, Dallas Howard who directed the latest episode of the Mandalorian and basically how she got to keep the secret of baby Yoda with her kids because her kids had actually come to the set, had watched filming and you know, and her kids were six and 11 at the time, cause it was almost a year ago that they actually filmed, you know, that, that episode. So she said the thing that I was most nervous about was that my kids had been on the set quite a bit and they had seen baby, um, and interacted with baby. So she told the Hollywood reporter when we were filming, my kids were six and 11. Now they're seven and 12. And when the kids went back to school every day, I would say, so what are we not going to talk about today? And they would say, baby. Um, but then now it's very confusing because she's like, well, now you can talk about baby. And they're like, Oh, okay. But for like a year it was, you know, everybody knows about it now. Right. You know, but for a year they had to keep their, their mouth shut. So it was, it was kinda kinda cute. Um, you know, and of course now, you know, everybody's like, I want, you know, the merchandise and that's, you know, kind of leading to our next story. But, you know, she, she kinda says that, you know, yeah, everybody's kind of pissed off that, you know, there's no merchandise available, but, you know, she kind of tends to agree that the decision not to come out with stuff before the show even, you know, aired was kind of a good idea, you know, to keep the suspense, you know, behind it. Um, she also talked about, you know, some of the scenes that she, um, shot for, um, this episode were a little bit of an homage to, to other things. Um, she said there was one scene, um, that was done, which was a modge to a scene that she had done when she was an actress, um, and acted with Joaquin Phoenix in the village. And then of course, all the ATS T scenes were like, uh, Jurassic park, uh, reference to things, you know, like that, um, you know, and then of course, you know, the, the big talk was about, you know, baby sipping soup, right? Um, it was, you know, here you have, you know, Gina and Mondo or you know, destroying each other and then all of a sudden, you know, you see, you know, the scene turns and it's, you know, baby quote unquote Kevin or Yoda, you know, sitting there just, you know, sipping soup and that like totally stole the scene away, you know, from everything. So you have this, you know, martial arts, you know, kick, kicking and dragging, you know, scene going on. And then, you know, sipping though the soup. Um, and she said that they actually, you know, did many takes with that. It was, you know, does he do it with one hand, two hands, sip a lot, sip a little baby, sip, a Hardy sip. So they actually filmed, you know, multiple versions, you know, of it to get just that, that right one. Um, so obviously, you know, again, baby Yoda is just, you know, taking the world by, by storm. Um, so in our second story talking about the merchandise, you know, obviously you know, everywhere you go is baby Yoda, baby Yoda. Um, now you're actually starting to see, um, different websites where you can preorder the merchandise. Uh, Walmart was one of them. Uh, that started, um, now Disney store.com actually has them listed on their website. The only thing is if you were looking at get them for Christmas, it isn't going to happen. Some of the items, um, have a four one ship date, um, from Disney or is that from Walmart? Cause I know Walmart was, this was Disney dock, Disney store.com. I actually looked and there were, um, the one bottle head was like a six 30 date. And then there was another item, I think the fun Coke pop was a four one estimated date. So that was through Disney. Now I didn't go looking at other websites because you know, some of them have a doll, some of them have, um, the fun go pop. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see who gets the stuff. You know, first the other thing that, you know, Disney had, um, on their site where they had tee shirts and those were pretty much available within a couple of weeks because they print on demand, you know, for those. So it's nothing that they have to, you know, really make like a, a dollar a Funko pop. So it'll be interesting because I know a hot topic is supposed to be carrying stuff. Um, box lunches, supposed to be getting stuff. I think Target's supposed to be doing, you know, basically all, all your, you know, normal retailers, um, of pop culture stuff, you know, we'll eventually get it. Just, you know, when, um, you know, when it'll actually happen. And obviously, you know, we were looking just the other day, you know, Etsy is your, your friend. Um, you know, Etsy is all over the place. Some of this stuff looks really cool, some of it looks kind of creepy. So, you know, it all depends on, you know, how desperate you are and, and like we were even talking, um, you know, the other day, if it's going to be six months until you know, four to six months before something comes out, is there still going to be demand for it, you know, and you know, is it worthwhile to preorder something when you're still waiting so many months out or is it, you know, once it comes out, is the market just going to be flooded and you know, you'll be able to get it, you know, it

Speaker 4:

boggles the mind that Disney kind of missed the boat on this one again, like they did with frozen when it first came out. You know, I can totally understand the, the idea of keeping the secrecy around it, but you're, you're, you're missing an entire Christmas season for this. So we'll say, I blame bylaw tiger. It's all his fault.

Speaker 5:

It's Bob's fault.

Speaker 4:

Oh, so what's are a rise of the resistance?

Speaker 5:

So rise of the resistance, the new ride in star Wars Galaxy's edge at Hollywood studios actually opened today. Um, what was really funny, there were a whole bunch of different means going around about, um, people checking their, their Disney, their Disney app to see what the wait time was. Um, and at lunchtime when I checked it wasn't even showing up on the app. So either the wait was just so incredibly low or they just didn't, you know, update. I dunno, maybe I needed to update the app, but um, Smuggler's run actually had a 55 minute wait, which really isn't bad at all. Um, and slinky dog had like a 90 minute wait. So I was like, well, maybe. Yeah. So,

Speaker 4:

so we do have a clip here. Let's, uh, let's take a look at the clip.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 6:

we really combined all sorts of different ride elements and ride types into this one experience. So, so it's never really been done before. We're really breaking new ground with this combination of different attractions types to pull it to life and make sure that we're giving guests something that they've never even seen before. Our officers are real cast member, we're usually trained to be very welcoming. But as our first order cast members, we need to make sure that everyone's staying in line. And so it's a really fun kind of role that our cast just get to play. We have 50 storm troopers, all audio animatronic characters, no live actors in that hangar Bay scene. There is a variety, some of which are static and some of which are just slight articulations just to kind of give that idea of a full rank of actual humans in front of you.

Speaker 7:

[inaudible]

Speaker 4:

very cool. Very cool. So I did read an article today on this, um, where they talked about um, trying to figure out how to stop this video here. Hang on. There we go. Nope. See now let's start off again. They don't want to do that. Really? No. I hate when they hijack me like this. So that one goes away. And then this, then this one has to go away. There we go. All right. First day with the new computer, I knew I should have grabbed the, uh, I should've just grabbed that video. Anyway, you were saying you read an article, so read an article today and it was a, uh, immediate walkthrough of the site of the, of the ride. And there's three scenes, 18 minutes long, which is astonishing, which tells me you're going to have a ridiculous wait time for this.

Speaker 5:

Well, and I think because of it being broken up into the, the three acts, it'll kind of help, you know, and, and probably part of it, you know, a good portion of that's, you know, like pre-show number one pre-show, you know, so I think it, it'll help to kind of move things along because as you're leaving the one scene to go to the next scene, then they can load the next group of people, you know, and kind of keep it flowing almost to the, the type of, you know, like a haunted mansion ride. That's a continuous moving thing where, you know, they, they've had certain rides.

Speaker 4:

The description that I saw, it was very similar to the star Trek, the experience ride that we went on when we were out in Vegas. Um, where it's, it's transitions, you're taking groups in through transitions. And there was even one like, you know, the one thing that really still stands out to me to this day was the transporter sequence where you're just standing in a regular room in a room, you, the lights go out, the transporter sound happens and then you're in another room and the floor is different. Which I still don't know how they did that. They have a similar effect with this apparently.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. I just seeing bits and pieces. Um, you know, and then there was a video that came out cause I guess, you know, when they had the, um, the media, uh, people there, they also had a bunch of, um, celebrities there as well. And it was their reactions to it. And you know, all of them were saying, Oh my God, this is like nothing I've ever been on. Totally immersive and just totally incredible how, you know, the technology and everything else, you know, behind it. So it, it, I'm excited and again, Scott only knows what you know, cause we're going to be there on Christmas Eve. Um, you know, one of the busiest weeks of, of Disney, we need to show up at eight o'clock in the morning or eight o'clock and we, we need to check out of the hotel, go and, you know, just stand there and basically run, uh, to Galaxy's edge to get online for it. But it, you know, I haven't heard anything bad, uh, you know about it. Um, you know, everything. Everybody was just excited, you know, cause even with Smuggler's run, Oh, you know, people were saying, well, unless you're a pilot, you know, you're just basically pushing one button. You know, you're not really, it's still cool, but you're not, you know, as part of it where this just seems like, you know, everywhere you look, you know, you're, you feel like you're in the movie. You know, this article talked about, you're literally part of the plot line. Yeah. So obviously, fingers crossed. We, you know, we get on it. Um, you know, when we're down there, you know, in a couple of weeks and we'll definitely have a, a firsthand account, you know, review of it. But, um, I'm excited now, so she'd be cool. Very cool. So that was all we had in our Disney detective segment. Yup. And we'll come back with our entertainment news. Tell us about a bat mitzvah. So this was actually kind of cool. Tiffany Haddish, uh, is a comedian. Um, she's been in a bunch of different movies. Um, you know, there's been a bunch of different, uh, TV shows that, you know, she's been on, um, and she's hosted Saturday night live, uh, Saturday night live and, and whatnot. Um, and she's actually come out where she's now, um, you know, making it known that she identifies with her Jewish identity, which she didn't actually find out about until she was about 27. Um, and she just turned 40. Uh, so she decided to hold a black mitzvah. Um, and she actually also has a, um, comedy special of the same title, uh, that dropped on a Netflix, I believe it actually came out today, uh, or no, a couple of days ago. It was December 3rd, um, which was also the day of her, her 40th party. Um, she said her, her father, I guess had, you know, done some research and found out, you know, that they were Jewish and she's actually, um, you know, started studying Torah and learning how to read Hebrew and, and really, you know, embracing it. Um, and she said she even did, you know, a 23 in may, uh, you know, genetic testing. And sure enough it came back, you know, that she was like, all right, I guess this is, you know, really true and, and whatnot. So, you know, kinda kinda cool, you know. Did it say what prompted the, the research on the part of her father? Uh, no, it just said that, uh, you know, that, uh, she, Oh, she didn't meet her father, I'm sorry, until she was 27 and then he told her, you know, that, um, that he was Jewish and you know that she was, and she was for some time now, right? Well, she, yeah, she found out when she was 27, she's 40 now. Right. So, you know, she didn't find out about her Jewish history until she was, you know, an adult and figured, Hey, you know what, it's time to have a bat mitzvah and why have a bat mitzvah? You know, I'll have a black mitzvah. So looking for to, well, because she happens to be black, so I don't, I don't know. I guess you have to, I don't know. I guess I'll, you know, I'll have to watch the special to, to see, you know what, uh, um, what do you call it? You know what it's all about, so, okay, fair enough. So let's, Robin trying to avoid talking about this. Anybody I should before the show, we have to talk about, well, this was funny because, so we have, um, uh, well no, we have a disdain for that. Well, I want to say Amazon echo Echo's right, cause that's what, okay. So we have a whole bunch of Amazon echoes throughout our house and, and some of them are the, the um, Amazon shows, so it's a little screen or whatever. So this actually popped up yesterday and we kinda, we started like bantering about it and then as it turned out, I found the news article about it. So of course I had to throw it in just because I wanted to, you know, get your reaction. Yeah. That was, and it was the national board of review names, the Irish men, the years best film. So I kind of laughed because I had never heard of this before. So it's just kind of like being like the best burger town burger joint in town, because you pay the newspaper. This is, you know, so, so the national board of review has named Martin Scorsese's film, the Irishman, the best film of 2019. Um, and the, uh, two of the stars, Robert de Niro and Al Pachino are also receiving the organization's inaugural inaugural icon award. So of course when I read that, I'm thinking, Oh, this organization has only been around like, you know, for like since the movie came out, when really it was actually established in 1909 by theaters owner's protesting the New York, uh, mayor's attempt to block the exhibition of motion pictures in the city. Um, and it's been picking best films since 1930. So this is actually an organization that's been around their best films are the, well, it's funny because in the one thing over the last 10 years, a little over half of the films on their list have actually ended up being best picture nominations, but only one, um, winner in the last 18 years. Um, which was 2014 and most violent year failed to land an Oscar nomination for best picture. So they actually, you know, have a pretty decent track record. But again, I was kinda like, ah, really? Um, but they listed, you know, they, they, they talked about, you know, they, they had a whole list. So it wasn't just, you know, they give like a top 10 list of movies. So it was, um, 19, 17 dolomite is my name. Ford versus Ferrari, Jojo rabbit knives out marriage story. Once upon a time in Hollywood, a Richard jewel, uncut gems and wave. So they do, you know, so they, they pick the best overall, but then they give like their top 10 list. Um, then Quintin Tarantino, uh, was named this year's best director for once upon a time in Hollywood. Um, you know, acting awards went to Adam Sandler for uncut gems and Renee Zellweger for Judy. Um, Brad Pitt for once in time in America, uh, once a upon a time in Hollywood. Kathy Bates for Richard jewel. Um, you know, so they, they give a bunch of, you know, awards out. But of course it was just hysterical of the fact, you know, that your favorite film, you know, and, and what was funny was, what was it, I guess it was last night cause we were watching, uh, the crown. And the movie was over and we were kind of scrolling through like, okay, what's going to be our next thing to watch? Cause we're, you know, we only have one more episode left and we actually watched the trailer for the Irishman and it was just like, Oh look, it's a mafia movie mafia movie. Wow. And it has Robert de Niro, Joe Peshy like Al Pachino. Right. There was nothing. Yeah. So same mafia movie over and over. Yeah. So you know, we have no desire to watch it. Hey, it might be a really good movie, but you know, mafia movies supposedly it's really good. You probably watch Martin's cause cause apparently that's really all he made. Right. Right. So that it was really more just to, you know, poke the cage cause you know, cage, we'll be back with our insightful picks of the week, which better not be the Irish. Go for your insightful pick. So my insightful pick is not, the Irish has got to do it, but then I was like, no, I won't. Uh, this was actually a, uh, a series that popped up on Netflix. Again, it was one of those, Hey, since you've watched this, you might want to watch this. Um, and it is called the movies that made us, uh, so the gist of it is it's along the same lines and it's actually by the same people that made, uh, the toys that made us that documentary. Um, so basically it's the story behind various blockbuster movies from the eighties and nineties. So the first set of episodes, um, of the movies that made us takes a deep dive into four movies, home alone, dirty dancing, die hard. And Ghostbusters. Um, the first episode that I watched, I've only watched one so far was dirty dancing. Um, and it was really kind of interesting because there were things about the movie that, you know, I didn't know. Um, they interview a couple of the stars. Obviously Patrick Swayze isn't alive anymore, but they do interview his wife, uh, for a bunch of different things. Um, you know, not the, the main stars of the movie, but they do, you know, have a couple of stars that, um, that they, they interview, they have, you know, the different producer and they have the writer. And, and what was interesting is how the story, you know, came to be and you know, the different locations. And they had, you know, the choreographer and the music director. Um, and that, you know, the, um, the production company, you know, they, they took this story around to all the different, um, uh, studios and none of the major studios wanted it. And they even took it to, you know, the lower studios and none of them wanted it. The studio that actually ended up distributing it was actually a company that started out just doing direct to video, uh, movies. And this was actually their first big movie that they ever did. Um, so it was kinda, you know, interesting how, you know, they were going back and forth. The one person that viewed the movie was like, no, can it throw it out? And then they did a test screening for like a thousand people. And everybody loved it. And then they were like, no, we need to go forward with it. Um, and, and it was just an interesting, you know, story and if you've ever watched the toys that make us, you know, there are little quirky things that they do. Yeah. And that's what they do with this, with the quirky little animation and this and that. But, you know, it was really good. So I'm, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the, the other ones. Um, what was kind of cool was at one point, because when they did the filming, it's supposed to take place in the Catskills. They couldn't, you know, the, the amount of money it would've cost for them to do it cause they could, they only had like a 14 day a shooting schedule. They ended up doing it in, um, I want to say, I can't remember, they ended up doing it in the South and they did it obviously after the season was over, but they needed to do it quickly before, you know, the leaves were changing color. So it was actually two different locations. So like the main building was one, but all the, the um, the bungalows, you know, were a separate one. And at the end, you know, the woman that was the producer, they actually took her back to it. And what's neat is at the location they actually have signs up of, you know, Oh this is where this part was shot. So they still do like a dirty dancing like weekend, you know, where you can go and they re-enact, you know, certain things. So that was kinda cool to see. And from what I read about some of the other episodes, some of the people that they interview, they actually go back to some of the locations where things were shot to have them, you know, reminisce. So that'll be kind of cool to say. So.

Speaker 4:

Nice. Good FIC. Thank you. So my pick this week, I'm going to go a cranky old man pig here cause I feel like my father with this one, and it's the greatest events of world war II in color. Uh, this is on Netflix. It's a 10 part series. Um, greatest events of world war II and color is a comprehensive and it is comprehensive and sweeping in scope a definitive treatment of a conflict that revolutionized modern warfare. The expertly restored and colorized footage is graphic. Taking a viewer from the Plains of Europe to the jungles of Southeast Asia. Commentary is supplied by British, German and American historians. Um, British actor, uh, Derek Jacoby provides the narration on the Wars major turning points are all covered. Uh, the ninth episode, uh, uh, features the liberation of uh, and ball, uh, which deals exclusively with the events leading up to an including the Holocaust. The first episodes, uh, lay the groundwork for Germany's aggressive plan to overturn the 1919 treaty of Versailles and expand its borders at the expense of its neighbors. Greatest events of world war two in color graphically recreates this Titanic struggle. Um, and it's interesting to watch a film like this cause it's a contemporary, a series of episodes that they do with fairly well known. And I say well known historians. I mean, not, not a lot of people, not a lot of historians, you know, watch a lot of documentary. But yeah, there, there are a lot of historians that pop up in a lot of the modern documentaries that are on TV now. Um, so you're not getting firsthand accounts in a lot of cases by these historians because they're relatively young historians. But it is an interesting take on, um, modern society and values and, uh, understanding of what happened during the war. Um, and it's interspersed with what typically people remember as being a black and white war. Um, so it's interesting to see in color. Now granted, these colors are interpreted, um, based on historical accounts. They go back and they restore the footage and they colorize it and so forth. Um, there's some inaccuracies because there just happens to be some inaccuracy, but there isn't everything. Uh, but all in all, I think it's, uh, it's the, the footage itself is very dramatic. There's a lot of footage in here that isn't commonly Aaron. And they talk in the promo about the ninth episode, uh, with the concentration camps and seeing that footage that has always been portrayed as black and white. Um, seeing that portrayed in color gives it a whole new depth. Um, and a whole new characteristic to it. Um, so it was very impactful watching it. Um, it was, it was educational. There was a lot that I learned. Uh, but it was a, it was, I don't want to say it was entertaining watching war, but, um, it's portrayed in such a way that it, it makes it digestible. It's easy to digest. Um, so greatest events of world war II in color is streaming now on Netflix and it's a 10 part series. Very cool. And uh, I think that was all we had. Uh, did want to offer one programming note. We will be on hiatus during the holidays. Uh, we'll be skipping two weeks. Um, well I think next week we're gonna probably do the weekend, right? Next week we'll be filming live on the weekend, the week after, or not sure week after. We're probably not cause the schedule is too tight and then the week after that we're not going to be around and I'm not taking the studio with us on the road. Right. We were originally going to try and do stuff from, you know, the road, but I think we decided to actually take a little vacation. We deserve the time off. Yeah. This is, you know, 45 I'll get 46 episodes under our belt before we take a break. Right, right. That's so bad. I think we've done pretty well. Next week we will kind of have a holiday theme to it though. We do a little treat, treat a little special, a project that we've just finalized that we'll have next week. Uh, but until then you can get ahold of us via email, at comments, at insights into things.com on Twitter, at insights underscore things. You can get our video podcasts on YouTube at youtube.com/insights into things. Obviously our website, www.insightsintothings.com and the audio versions with transcripts and show notes is available at podcast. I didn't say it's in entertainment.com and on facebook@facebook.com backslash insights into things podcast. Another one in the box. Yep. Have a good one everyone. Bye.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible].