Insights into Entertainment

Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 54 "Odd Jobs, Make Overs and Baby Yoda"

February 24, 2020 Joseph and Michelle Whalen Season 2 Episode 54
Insights into Entertainment
Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 54 "Odd Jobs, Make Overs and Baby Yoda"
Show Notes Transcript

What's it like being a real Disney Princess? We talk details of what it's like being a "face" character at the happiest place on Earth and the various challenges you might not realize one in such an outwardly prestigious position might encounter. We'll also take a look at the upcoming make over of Cinderella Castle for the movie's 70th anniversary before we talk about why Bob Iger things Tom Holland owes him a pint.

In our Star Wars Insights section we'll explore talk of a new Star Wars movie in the works, discuss our thoughts on a recent fan petition for a director's cut of Rise of Skywalker and get a first glimpse at the newest Baby Yoda animatronic doll premiering at Toy Fair in New York.

As always we'll finish up with our Insightful Picks of the Week and a look ahead at some of the upcoming shows and conventions we'll be looking to cover for the show.

Speaker 1:

Insightful podcast by informative insights, 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:

welcome to insights into entertainment. This is episode 54 odd jobs. Make-overs and baby Yoda. I'm your host, Joseph Waylon and my talented and informative cohost, Michelle Waylon. Hi, and how are you doing today, sweetheart? More awake than last week. And see, it's a trick. We're going to do these earlier in the day. Yes, we do. So in today's insights into entertainment, we don't actually have any entertainment news to talk about. Typically we do. They're all entertainment stories. It's just have them categorized in our top two. We have to stop making so many segments. That's exactly. If we just talk about things in random order, then they're very well, we'll throw our stories into a jar and pull them out. That's what we do. So in our Disney detective, we have, uh, some news about odd jobs. Then we'll be talking about, uh, Cinderella castle getting a makeover and then we'll talk about your buddy in mind. Buy him Baba beer. Then in our star Wars insights we have talk of possibly a new movie in the works. Done, done. Um, then we will talk about star Wars fans petitioning for a director's cut version of riser Skywalker, which honestly, I'm not really sure that's going to help it much, but okay. We'll move on and then we will talk about baby Yoda. And then of course we'll finish up with our insightful picks of the week and then a quick discussion on every trade show, comic book show, pop culture, show a horror show every show coming to the area and we'll recap those. I'm ready to get started. Sure. All right, let's do it.

Speaker 5:

Oh, for Disney detective. So this was an article that popped up the other day where it, uh, basically, uh, was what does it like to be a real life Disney princess. Um, and basically it was a back and forth interview, um, with a woman who back when she, uh, had graduated high school, had worked at Disney for a number of years and basically for four years and basically talked about what her experience, uh, was like being, you know, a princess. Um, and you know, what was, you know, interesting in the article is, is, you know, as, as you know, I have a very close friend who worked for Disney for many years in the entertainment area, um, was a close personal friend of, of Pluto. Um, and you know, other various characters as well. So reading this article, you know, a lot of things that I knew that he had told me and experiences and things like this were very, very similar, uh, to this. So it was, you know, interesting to, to see that it wasn't, um, you know, that a lot of people have that same type of, you know, experience with it. Um, so the person that, that was in the article, uh, like I said, worked at Disney world for four years, starting in 2008 when she was just 18. Um, today she's, uh, 30 years old and has a job, uh, in the video game industry, but she looks back at her time as a princess. Um, you know, with fond memories, uh, you know, she talks about how she went through, you know, basic, you know, a, a crash course in how to be a princess and how to act like a princess. Um, she ended up, um, uh, being Pocahontas Milan and silver mist who was a Peter pan ferry, um, that was from the Disney fairies direct to DVD film. Um, and, you know, so she talks about, you know, how it was to, to work, you know, for Disney and, and, and be part of that whole thing. And it's funny cause in the article she talks about how, you know, they were never, um, allowed to say what character they were. They always would say, I'm a friend, you know, of Pocahontas. And it was funny because my friend, that's what he, you know, would always, um, say so it was just kinda, you know, funny that that was the, the set thing. Um, so it talks about, you know, how she got her foot in the door and, um, she, she talks about how Disney actually came to her high school basically to try and recruit, you know, people to, to come and work for Disney. And she mentions that nobody actually starts out right in entertainment. You actually start out working other areas, you know, of the, and at the time she actually started working at honey. I shrunk the kids playground, which we kind of were joking about last week. So that was actually how she got her start in the parks. There's, you know, she talks about how, you know, basically she was a babysitter, a glorified babysitter, cause she would watch kids, you know, jump around in, in the play area and then they would do these open auditions for the entertainment area. And because of her, um, her background, she's half Asian and half white. It was like, Oh, you're perfect for, you know, Pocahontas. Um, you know, so she learned how to be Pocahontas and she talks about how, you know, she had to watch the movies and they were very particular about, um, you know, how you stand and everything. But what was interesting is before she could actually be Pocahontas, which is what they consider a face character, you had to spend time in a costume character. So like Mickey, Minnie, Winnie the Pooh or, or whatnot. Um, and she talks about how, um, you know, that a lot of the, the characters and, and again, we kind of knew this also is that based, it's based off of their height ness, not necessarily their gender. So she says, you know, Mickey and Minnie, you have to be between four foot 11 and five foot one. So usually the majority of the time Mickey and Minnie are always women, you know, or you know, just smaller framed, uh, men. And she said that she had a friend, um, who was, who ended, uh, a male friend who actually played the queen of hearts. And he said it was the funniest thing because guys would come over and kiss, you know, the queen of hearts hand and be like, Oh my God, you're so beautiful and you know, be flirting, you know, it's character not knowing, you know, that it was a guy, you know, inside. So it was kind of funny, you know, her take, you know, on the thing. Um, and then, you know, sh um, you know, so she talks about how, you know, there's, there's almost that hierarchy too of okay, if you were a costume character, you know, you can be anybody, but you have to look a certain way to be a face character. So even though it's not really said there is that, you know, I'm a little bit better than you, you know, because I'm the face character, you know. And she said there were some days where, you know, cause she played Pocahontas for, you know, five days a week, you know, for, for three months at a time. And you know, it's like you wake up and you're like, Oh, I don't want to be Pocahontas today. And the costume characters don't to speak the face characters. Right, right. So there's a certain amount of, there's not that there is an acting with the costume characters, but it's almost from a mine stance. Yeah. And where would the face characters, I would think it's probably easier with the face characters because right. Can speak right. You have to, as a costume character you have to learn to game without speeding. And there have been some, you know, costumed characters that we've come across that have just been amazing with, you know, the, what they do and, and the physical aspect of it. So yeah, I could definitely see how, you know, they don't get as much recognition, you know, as some of the other characters, you know, and then she even talked about how, you know, it was kind of a little creepy because you know, like as Milan, she's, you know, dressed like head to toe, she's, you know, almost fully covered. And then Pocahontas is kind of scantily dressed and you'd get like the creepy grandfathers that would kind of be like, you know, CAPA feeling yen. And obviously, you know, we, we had an article, you know, a couple of months back where, you know, one of the, the character, you know, one of the, um, cast members who was Ariel got, you know, assaulted. So, you know, in some cases wallets, you know, it's cool that you're doing this and you know, so different than, you know, most nine to five jobs. There are those, you know, hazards I guess. Um, but it was, it was an interesting, you know, article like I said to, to read through. And so, so you mentioned that she's in working in game development now, right? She, she like have a voice actress or is she developing artists? She's computer. Yeah. Cause I know a lot of people who, who are character portrayals in Disney. Right. Do it as a way to get into an acting career. Yeah. She, she really did it just kind of, it was like, Oh this is kind of cool. I'll do it for a couple of months. Like, she really didn't think she was going to be there as, as long as she, you know, as she was, she ended up, you know, doing it for four years and then, you know, got out of it. But you know, she said it was definitely an experience, one that she, you know, enjoyed. Um, and you know, would definitely, you know, if it's something that you know, you're interested in doing, she kinda, you know, does recommend, you know, getting into it. But no, you're not going to get into entertainment right off the bat. And again, I know that from, you know, my friend's experience, you know, he would say, Oh they have open, you know, casting like every six months or something. They would do like open casting and even people that were already in entertainment would have to re audition for certain parts. So it wasn't like you always stayed in that part forever. You know, you had to re audition and you know, maybe you went in and did a show during costume. Like dang, you're working in Florida for example. Yeah. As you age

Speaker 4:

through the part, you know, it comes, there comes a point where you just physically can't do that anymore. Right. And that's what happened with your friend. You know, it just got to the point where his health wasn't good enough to be in that costume and that heat for such an extended period of time. And, and Disney does do a very good job rotating their, their characters

Speaker 5:

on stage for, you know, so many hours. You know, it's, it's a short period of time that you're onstage then you're offstage.

Speaker 4:

Right. In his case, he was able to move into the hospitality wing of the resorts and moved out of character portrayal.

Speaker 5:

Well, he actually started, that's actually where he originally started. He started in hospitality, ended up going to entertainment and then went back to hospitality before leaving. And,

Speaker 4:

right. I guess my point is, is that, you know, Disney, you know, if you reach a point where you can't do that anymore, dizzy does, doesn't just wash it out. Right. In most cases there's probably something still yeah.

Speaker 5:

Available for you. But like I said, it was, it was an interesting, you know, take, and again, because I already knew somebody that had a lot of this experience, you know, it was interesting to to hear somebody, you know, somebody else's take on it, which was, you know, very similar

Speaker 4:

and you know, more power to him for, to Heron to your friend. For, for doing that, I don't think I'd have the self confidence or the carriage and where the physical endurance to do something like that down in that kind of environment. So tell us about the castle.

Speaker 5:

So Cinderella's castle at Disney world in Orlando will soon look very different. Jason Kirk, the vice president of magic kingdom announced in the Disney parks blog on Monday that the iconic structure would get a make-over in honor of the 70th anniversary of Cinderella. Though Kirk didn't reveal specific changes coming to the castle, he did share a mockup of what it's expected to look like after the renovations, while the castle structure looks the same. Um, as in the mockup, it seems to be painted in pink Navy gold in place of the current blue and gray. Um, obviously inside the castle, um, you can dine at Cinderella's Royal table. They have, um, the[inaudible] Bobbity boutique, um, years ago they had made the one of a kind suite that now I think is reserved for very exclusive VIP[inaudible]. You know, you never hear about anybody really staying there anymore. Um, so it's unclear, um, when it's supposed to be, uh, unveiled, but obviously[inaudible] renovations are going to be starting within the coming weeks. Um, and during the summer the stage shows that they, um, Mickey's rural friendship fair and happily ever after fireworks will still be going on during the renovations. Um, it's likely that the renovations are hopefully going to be completed by magic kingdom's 50th anniversary, which is going to be October 1st of 2021. Now are these changes going to have anything to do with the 50th anniversary? I dunno cause I was expecting that the changes were going to be for the 50th. I didn't realize that they were doing it because of Cinderella's 70th. So maybe they're kind of mixing them together because the colors that I had originally heard were Rose gold. And obviously that's not Apple. They're talking, you know, pink, Navy and gold, which I guess maybe match a little bit more to the colors from Cinderella maybe. And hopefully it won't be as ugly as soon as the birthday cake was. You know, the birthday cake was not that bad. What was the one that you didn't like? I didn't, I know you weren't fond of the one where they hung a mirror on the side of it. No, I like that one. There was one that you absolutely hated. No, I never, the pissy and the birthday cake, I didn't hate, it was just Lao. Looking back at it now, I'm like, okay. That was very, I think it was a little too much. I, I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. I felt bad for anybody that got married within those 18 months, you know? And you, you know, got married and, and got married at Disney world. I happened to be on a honeymoon while that was going on, so it wasn't horrible, you know? And I have a friend who absolutely loved it. She actually has a piece, I guess when they, um, yeah, when they dismantled it, they sold off, you know, pieces of it where, you know, you got a little certificate saying you know, that it was authentic, you know, from the gap. She absolutely loved it. So for how long, how long are they supposed to keep it like this? It doesn't, it doesn't say so. I don't know if it's just going to be, usually when they do something like that, it's usually for 18 months, usually two years. So, um, so I'm guessing at some point it'll probably get down there in the time. I'm sure. I'm sure we'll see it. So let's talk about buying my buddy Bob a beer. Well, let's not, so Tom actually owes him a beer. It's not that, you know, so, so last summer Tom Holland helped save the Spiderman deal and now Disney CEO, your best friend Bob Iger, uh, would like a little something in return. Nothing huge. He just tweeted that the wall crawling actor owes him a beer for helping salvage the negotiations between Disney and Sony. The story famously goes that while the internet was having an internal in the days and hours after the news broke, Holland took matters into his own hands. Uh, the result made fans around the world breathe a sigh of relief as Spiderman would get to have that final solo adventure in the Marvel cinematic universe. Each company is now building for their future in what is called a win win win by both sides of executives earlier today. So Uyghur obviously wants a drink to celebrate. So he tweeted the other night that he was at last night's premiere of Pixars latest film onward, and he got a chance to see Chris Pratt and Tom Holland. And he says, Tom owes me a pint for saving Spiderman. So the pint is actually a joke because, um, Tom boasts that he's a pub trivia master. So that's where the whole pint came in. Um, and it was actually a moment outside of a bar that could have ended up saving everyone's friendly neighborhood, Spiderman, all of it had to be red to get the full scope of how the exchange went down. So Bob Iger had said, Miraca miraculous. See he was at the[inaudible] event and Tom was there because he was the voice in this new Pixar movie. So he said something on stage and it was clear that fans wanted Tom back as Spiderman. And so after D 23 Tom actually reached out to folks to get Bob's contact information. They said, Hey, can you give me his phone number or his email or whatever. And they were like, okay. So they gave him the information. Tom and Bob ended up talking and he, and, and Bob Iger says that, you know, he almost made me cry on the phone, basically saying how much he cared about the character and that fans really wanted him. And that Bob said, okay, let me see what I can do. And that's when he got off the phone with Tom and called Sony executives and were like, all right, we need to hash this out. We need to, you know, save this. And low and behold, Spiderman was saved. So whether or not that's how it really went down is, you know, it makes for a nice story. So, all right. So I gotta take a step back here. And of course you do.

Speaker 4:

Um, all of a sudden, you know, Bob Iger has been CEO of Disney for quite some time now. He's developed, um, we'll say a reputation as being kind of, eh, divorced from the average person in kind of cold hearted towards his employees based on some bad press he got from uh, other Disney family members, family members, right? And all of a sudden we're seeing all these feel good stories about Bob helping now here and helping out with the one the PCA and how, you know, bombs really not that bad of a guy. He just wants to have a beer with you now. So it seems an awful lot, almost like he's going to run for president, you know, like he's doing everything he can to South, sort of salvage his reputation at this point in time.

Speaker 5:

I wonder when the next shareholder meeting is, if there's something,

Speaker 4:

well, and that's the thing, like he already announced, he's only staying in through what, 20, 23, 1980, something like that. So, you know, he's not going to be there much longer, but what are his ambitions afterwards is what I want to know. Why do you need to repair a reputation that you didn't care about up until now, the begin with. Right. Um, so I kind of take the story a bit, tongue in cheek here as you know, Bob Iger trying to get some good press again, maybe, maybe I'm just bitter about Bob Iger, but I really think he's fishing for compliments at this point. Maybe that's what it is. So anyway, not to be skeptical, but it's Bob Iger so I can't help it. Uh, so that was all we had for Disney detected for Disney stuff. We will come back with star Wars insights. It's about a new star Wars movie.

Speaker 5:

So as Lucas films is mapping out the next phase of the star Wars movies, executives are grappling with the question as development moves ahead, which characters, which stories, you know, justify a theatrical release and which should be exclusively on the streaming platform of Disney plus. So the Hollywood reporter learned on Friday that a new star Wars projects is in the works. A DJ, uh, Dillard, best known for writing and directing a scifi thriller sleigh. And Matt Owens, a writer on Marvel shows like Luke cage and agents, a C shield has been tapped to developed it, but insiders say that it's undecided whether the project will be for the big screen or for the highly prioritized streaming platform, plot details and character details and settings are really unknown, you know, so this is really kind of at the the starting point, you know, of everything. Um, so Disney and Lucas films appear to be shifting gears on the franchise to help boost Disney plus with Disney chairman Bob Iger saying earlier this month that the star Wars, um, star Wars is foreseeable future was really in television with theatrical movies kind of going on hiatus. Now, the next theatrical film remains to be released, um, December 16th of 2022 and other entries planned for December of 2024 and then December of 2026 so while a Skywalker grossed 1.0 7 billion globally since its December launch and will likely end it's run as the sixth highest grossing film of 2019. The trend for star Wars films at the box office has actually been declining since Disney took over in 2015 with fork force awakens, I'm making a little over 2 billion. Um, and then obviously solo gross, you know, 392 billion. But you know, on the other, the flip side is that since November's launch of Disney plus the Mandalorian obviously has, you know, created a lot of buzz and you know, boosted their, you know, subscribership um, you know, up to 28.6 million. Um, and that the second season of the Mandalorian is going to be arriving in, in October. So, you know, with all of this, you know, going on and you know, in the different spinoffs, it seems like their plan right now is really TV. Um, you know, they, you know, in, in the one um, article they said, you know, we did, we realized we, we saturated it. You know, they know that they made too many movies too quickly.

Speaker 4:

They tried to go the route of Marvel with star Wars and, and you can do that when the movies are really good and there's a demand for the story for it. But when you put out movies like solo and they're terrible, and then you put out movies like last gen eye and you put out movies like rise a Skywalker, like you're, you're putting stories out there for the sake of having stories where if you look at what they did with Marvel, they had a 10 year plan for Marvel. They knew where the story was going to start and where it had to progress to. Right. They might not have had all the details in the mill, but they were able to borrow from the comics and they took the general story and the big mistake that Disney made when they acquired Lucas was they decided that they were going to throw out the entire expanded universe and rewrite everything themselves. Right?

Speaker 5:

That's where they shot that. Right. And that's where I think now they're kind of realizing that they made a mistake because if they had done something like that said, okay, expanded universe, we have all these characters that not everybody knows about. Let's introduce this one. Let's do that. You know, an opportunity

Speaker 4:

to take 30 years of expanded universe novels, cherry pick the ones that were the best and put the whole storyline together. Now I'll be the first one to admit that not everything from the expanded universe was worth keeping, but there was a ton of stuff out there that was, and they could have progressingly picked what they wanted, just like Marvel did Marvel cherry pie. And then even cherry picked the stories necessarily. They cherry picked the concepts and the characters and they redefined characters that were lesser known characters who would've thought they would've taken Gallant guide guardians of the galaxy. And it turned into a huge success because of the way they reinvented it. And Disney decided almost in spite of Lucas that they're gonna throw everything away and show Lucas who's boss and I'm going to redo it themselves. And everything they did right from the start of when they acquired Lucas films was exactly that. And now you see the movies themselves tried to harken back to some of that stuff. The novels now, you know, one of the, one of this novel series that was the best was the thrawn trilogy that came out that was set in the expanded universe and everyone loved it came out in late nineties and the idea was that would have been the perfect sequel trilogy after return of the Jetta. Everybody loved it who read it and they threw the whole thing out. Well now people love those characters. People loved granddad reframes so much. They're now bringing him back in animated TV series and the novels and everything else. Because it was such a good character. Timothy Zam was a genius when he created that character. And Disney's finally starting to appreciate this. But it's too late because they've, they've ruined the franchise with the direction.

Speaker 5:

Oh and maybe it's something that, you know, they can kind of fix, you know, cause you know, look at also, you know, before, you know, Marvel's revamp their whole tenure. You know, there were Marvel movies before there were, you know,

Speaker 4:

well they were terrible movies, but they were, they weren't done by Marvel. That's right.

Speaker 5:

Well that's the thing is you had, you know, and maybe that's the, the thing that Disney now has to realize is listen, we know we can put out quality stuff. We just have to pick the right quality stuff.

Speaker 4:

[inaudible] me is that in order for them to, to save this franchise is they need to reinvent it. And the last thing that I want is my childhood star Wars being re-imagined by Disney because they've already done a bang up job ruining what we had already. But speaking specifically to this movie, uh, there is talk, first of all, the good news is, is that, um, uh, Ryan Johnson's name is nowhere on this project, which is probably the best news of anything that I've seen so far. Uh, keep Ryan Johnson away from star Wars for the rest of the star Wars franchising. You should be okay, but there is talk that there's a fundamental shift in time periods for this. Um, so this movie itself, there was talk to, it's going to be set in the old Republic. Now the old Republic happens to be a very expanded universe rich topic between video games and novels. The game that I play now, which is star Wars do over, Republic is set 3000 years before the Luke Skywalker saga ever exist. So there's such a rich history of it there and there's so much you can do that doesn't affect the star Wars that we know and love. Now it's sort of like a, how JJ Abrams reinvented a relaunched star Trek. But you're not, you don't have parallel timelines that you're writing about. If you reset this entire thing and you start a movie 3000 years ago, so much can be explained that would support what we know already rather than ruin what we know already. So I'm kind of looking forward to how this project developed and hoping that it goes, kinda goes that direction. Um, but very grateful that Ryan Johnson's not associated with it at this point.

Speaker 5:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

Okay. What else did we have? Fear. So tell us about the star Wars fans and which I'm going to have a very strong opinion on here. Petitioning for a director's cut of rise of Skyway.

Speaker 5:

So some star Wars fans are petitioning JJ Abrams to release an extended cut director's cut of rises style Skywalker following a widely S, uh, circulated rumor that the studio impose changes on the filmmakers original version of the final episode of the Skywalker saga. Uh, basically it was, uh, posted on, on Reddit and you know, people were saying that Abrams was blindsided by changes, you know, without his involvement. You know, according to the, the Reddit user, Abram's original version was a three hour long film and there were lots of differences. Uh, between that version and the two hour and 22 minute theatrical version that obviously everybody got to see in the theaters. Um, the petition was launched on change.org and has garnered 5,800 signatures. So it's not, it's not breaking records, um, you know, anytime soon. Um, but various people, um, you know, have been tweeting, uh, to, to have it, um, come out and, and that, you know, the, the hashtag release the JJ cut has emerged as a trending topic. Um, you know, they were saying that, you know, there were, you know, changes that came in and that maybe would've been a better movie had, you know, he had more control over it. You know, you know, the, the one person in the article talks about how, you know, J J, you know, star Wars, you know, is such a geek Fest and you know, that there was just so much there and you know, Easter eggs and things and just, you know, things got moved around and, and it was just kind of all over the place. So more than likely, obviously it's not going to happen because it's going to be available on DVD in March. So obviously it's not going to happen anytime soon. But it would be interesting to see if anything, you know comes about or you know, maybe somebody makes their fan version of it. Cause now every day, you know there's, there's always a new fan version of something coming out. So I wonder if somebody will go back and find the notes and you know, make all these changes, you know, for everybody else to, to see.

Speaker 4:

Let me get up on my soapbox here. Okay. First of all, you could add another 40 minutes to that movie and it still would've socked. You couldn't see that movie with the director's cut. You couldn't have saved it with a shredder. Okay. The people that are putting this petition together are, the reason this movie was so terrible because Disney and Abrams bent over backwards to cater to all the fans that bashed, myself included. There was certain extent that bashed the last Jetta because of how bad a job Ryan Johnson did on last Jedi. So it took so much criticism and so much heat from the fans that Abrams and Disney decided that they were going to make a fan fast movie. And what you got in rise a Skywalker was nothing short of a fanfic film on a Disney budget. So there's nothing that a director's cut is going to come out with that's going to make it any better than it was because it was a fundamentally flawed movie. It was a fundamentally flawed plot. It lacked any kind of substance whatsoever, and it reinvented a villain that was dead to begin with that by reinventing and re re reincarnating the villain, you completely wiped away anything that happened in the original trilogy. So now another 40 minutes is not going to solve the problem with this movie and the fans need to stop having petitions and complaining and stuff like that. Let the people who know how to tell stories, tell stories. If JJ Abrams had the freedom to do what he should have done with this film, you would have gotten a film that was 200% better than it was if anyone tied JJ Abrams hands. It was the ridiculously fickle fans of star Wars who bitched and moaned about last, Jed I and made Disney force JJ Abrams to make that steaming pile of manure that was rise of Skywalker. So how do you really, well, let's add another 40 minutes of, of crappy film, cause that's, that's certainly gonna make

Speaker 5:

it better, right? Absolutely.

Speaker 4:

All right. That'll be another 20 minutes of Palpatine shooting lightning in the, in the air and taking an entire fleet out. Okay. Yeah, that's exactly what we need to make it better. Tell us about a baby Yoda while I get my blood pressure back down here.

Speaker 5:

So should we play some calming music or something? Maybe I'll put pictures of baby. She's a baby Yoda. That'll make you feel better. So obviously baby Yoda was definitely the breakout star for the Mandalorian, but it finally looks that he's going to be the breakout star of this year's toy fair. A slew of baby Yoda Toyer a baby Yoda toys. Say that five times fast. Just dropped at a Disney event and all of them. But out of all of them, I'm sorry, the Hasbro audio, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That Hasbro animatronic plush was the highlight of this. He is just adorable. I saw it and I was like, I need that. So the child plush by Hasbro as you might expect, is incredibly lifelike in person. He burbles and coups like a good baby should and his ears wiggle up and down and his head quirks from side to side because he forced choke people. I dunno. Cause at one point he does kind of go like this, his ears wiggle up and down. Um, and every so often he extends a tiny arm to use the force. So yeah, he does kinda, you know, he could choke you. Um, the bassinet, um, that they were showing I think is sold separately. It's not included. Um, but you do get, there's a necklace that comes with it. Um, and they said that by touching baby Yodas head, it activates over 25 sounds and motion combinations. And then if you lay him down, he'll take a four snap, like a power nap. I think so. Um, but the incredible thing is that it's only gonna retail for$60, which is really, you know, impressive for, you know, what it does and, and the way that it, you know, and looks, um, again, you get a stylish necklace that comes along with it. Um, and the bassinet is not included. So I'm guessing that might be an add on or they might've just shown that before. You know what, I'm sure it's available. I'm sure somebody has it at sea. Um, now, you know, now that we've seen it at, at that the toy fair, it's not coming out until, you know, December, this article actually just said sometime later this fall, because basically the people that go to the toy show are, you know, your dealers, your dealers, and so they're looking for, you know, what they're going to place orders for. So now, you know, they're placing orders to have these in, you know, the store. So it looks like this Christmas everybody will be able to get by. But like we were saying, you know, the, uh, the other night, the new season of the Mandalorian will be coming out in October. So for people that missed it, didn't watch it, you know, the first time around you're going to get those new people and you know, it's still going to be just as fresh and people's, yeah. Batch your baby or the toys from Hasbro be coming out in March anyway, March. April is when they're targeted, so. Right. So if you're get there, you'll get less sophisticated static toys and they'll hold you over until, you know, you can get your official or you can just go on Etsy and look for baby aliens and alien baby alien baby baby, you know, if you need to tide yourself over, which still didn't bring the other one up with the frog and it's, yeah, I meant to, I think that one was, was awesome and that's nice because he doesn't, it doesn't look like baby on it. It looks like maybe Yoda, but it's doesn't, it's recognizable as baby Yoda. It's like a caricature of him and very well done Academy. Yeah, but not right. So it doesn't, it looks cool. It doesn't look cool. It's December. You got to wait for it though. It's okay. Well it's the end of February. Yeah. Not so bad. Does it come with a little metal ball on the frog? It didn't say, it didn't say that. He was, I could see that being like an add on accessory pack that you get that later on. So, uh, so that was all we had. Excuse me for, um, star Wars insights. We will come back with our insightful picks of the week. Okay. So my pick of the week is Zoe's extraordinary playlist. Um, they have been advertising the show for a good couple of months now. Um, and I think the first episode up until it premiered, um, on television, you could actually stream it. Um, it was available the, the whole, uh, uh, first, uh, episode. Um, so the, the, the premise is after an unusual event, whip smarted computer coder, Zoe Clark magically begins to hear people's inner most wants and desires through popular songs. Suddenly strangers, friends, and coworkers and family are unknowingly singing their feelings. But just to her at first, Zoe questions her own sanity, but after some guided guidance for Moe, her neighbor who happens to be musically attuned, um, and making a breakthrough with her ailing father, Zoe soon realizes this unwanted curse may be just an amazing and wonderful gift as she now connects to the world. Like never before. Um, it's a musical comedy. Um, it's one of those things where, you know, when they break out into song like a musical, she's the only one that sees it or hears it. Cause there's one scene with her and Moe, they're in a coffee shop and Zoe says, Oh my God, it's starting. And then you see it from most perspective and everybody's just standing there ordering coffee and then you see it from her perspective and everybody's singing and dancing, you know, around, she lives in a Disney movie and it's pretty terrible. Um, but the music, it's, it's all different genres and time period. They did, you know, Jonas brothers, they did the Beatles. Um, uh, um, you know, just all over the place. Whitney Houston, even, you know, so they've done, you know, there's some dance routines and there's some remixes of the songs or remixes because the, the cast members are actually singing the song. So it's not, you know, it, it's not just, you know, them overdubbing it sounds like one of the, it sounds almost like glee, where you're, you're ready to get a soundtrack outta here. You can, you can definitely, you know, do that. And it's, and you know, some of the songs, um, you know, they take it a different tempo or a different, um, so I can't eat. So, um, Cindy loppers true colors, her father sings it to her and the way that he sings it to her, it's like, wow, I never heard the song done that way. Or meaning the way that it was. Um, so what's kinda interesting is with her dad, he ends up, he had some neurological, um, rare disease. So basically he's, he's not really in a coma, but he can't talk. He can't really move, he can't gesture or whatever. And you know, she, she's talking to him and all of a sudden, and he's, you know, in her mind or whatever, he's singing a song and, and relating to her, you know, what his true feelings are and where like, you know, the, the mom was very protective. You know, since the dad got sick, we can't take him outside. We can't do this. And you find out that he had always loved going boating and stuff. And after she has this one interaction with her dad, you know, she basically tells her mom and her brother were taking dad out on the boat. He wants to go out and like you can see, you know, just a glimmer of a smile that that's what, you know, he wanted. So, you know, so you see that, you know, so she starting to that it's not really a curse that she's finding out, okay I can really help. And then you know, she finds out that her best friend has a crush on her cause he starts singing a love song to her while they're in the middle of like, Oh my God, we got stop. So it's interesting because again, it, it's probably going to be one of those things. I'm sure there's a soundtrack available, you know, on, on iTunes or you know, we'll be available. Um, kind of refreshing, kind of different, you know, kinda quirky, you know, so if you like things like glee, um, smash was another show that I had liked that had that musical, uh, balance to it as well. I would definitely recommend it.

Speaker 4:

Cool. Oh, nice. Thank so, I've been on a reading kick lately. So this, I have, and this week's, my pick this week is a novel. It's a star Wars novel called rebel rising, rebel rising as a novel written by Beth Revis and published by Disney Lucasfilm press. It covers 13 years of gin earth, so's life between the opening of the main events of rogue one, a star Wars story when she was a, uh, rebel fighter alongside Saul Guerrera and survived on her own afterwards. The novel was released May 2nd, 2017. So I'm a little bit behind on my reading. So the intro is when Jenner so is eight years old, her mother is murdered and her father taken from her to serve the empire, but despite the loss of her parents, she's not completely alone. Saul Guerrera a man willing to go to any extremes necessary to resist Imperial tyranny takes her in as his own daughter and gives her not only a home but all the abilities and resources she needs to become a rebel. You rebel scum. Jen dedicates herself to the cause and the man, but fighting alongside saunas his people brings it brings with it danger and the question of just how far gin is willing to go as one of Saul's soldiers when she faces and unthinkable betrayal that shatters her world, which is mentioned by the way in the movie not depicted, Jen will have to pull the pieces of herself back together and figure out what she truly believes in and who she can really trust. The book itself is interesting because in the movie rogue one, all star Wars story we see at the beginning of the movie how Jen gets orphaned and saved by Saul in the cave. And then we don't see her until 13 years later when she's grown up and she's picked up from a Imperial prison world by the rebels, uh, who need her to get in touch with Saul for the mission in the movie. So this fills in the blanks there. Uh, and it's interesting to see in the book itself how her relationship with Saul Guerrera actually forms how she gets her training because there are scenes in road one where she is like an India in her combat skills. Uh, so you see where she gets that training and you also see where she gets that air of indifference initially when the rebels pick her up and want her help, you know, basically she's of the mindset of, you know, keep your head down and, and don't draw the attention of the empire and the leave you alone. And the story itself relates all these different experiences that she has over this time period where it really forms her personality. Um, the ginner so that you see in the movie there is already a complete and complicated person and the book itself shows you how she gets there. So it's, it's a nice bridge, you know, in the, in the movie itself. So you kind of see where she comes from. Um, and you kind of know where she winds up too because you know, she winds up getting captured at some point in time cause she's in prison. Um, but it's interesting the, the movie itself, she confronts song basically says you left me in a bunker with a gun and said to stay there. And that story itself is related in a book and you really get the background on it. So it's, it's kind of interesting that some of that background background story, a star Wars rebel rising by Disney Lucas film press and it's available now in paperback and audio book. Very cool. So we will come back and we will talk about some upcoming events.

Speaker 5:

So what's the first thing you want to talk about? So we've been talking about a bunch of these things for, for a while now, but you know, just kind of recap them again. So the first that is coming up is March 3rd 13th through the 15th, and that's a monster mania con 45. Um, it's at the crown Plaza in cherry Hill. Um, I just wanted to kind of, you know, for anybody that was in the area that wanted to go, just to kind of give you a, an idea of the pricing. Um, they have, you know, a couple of early bird tickets that you can buy where basically you get in an hour beforehand. Um, but the normal price is$60 for all three days or$25 for each day. And kids under 10 are free. So anybody 11 and older does need, um, a full price ticket. They don't do like a kid's ticket. Um, and this is one we've gone to, you know, multiple years. We don't always go every year. It's kind of when we, we skip every now and then and then we go. And it also depends on, you know, who's going to be there. Right. Right. Even though they're fright and we normally don't do any of the celebrity stuff. Um, you know, but it's kinda cool cause the one area, you know, they do have where you can kind of walk around in and in most cases you can see them. You don't necessarily, you know, they do frown upon you taking pictures, you know, without paying for them for one year. And we did, they had a, the ghost hunters were there. Right. We did that the one year and we did. And it was like 10 or$15 or something. I think that was the only time that we ever got had lunch with Herschel. The one time that was, that was kind of cool when they had, you know, a bunch of, uh, the, the people from walking dead. So if you're into, you know, and what's neat is a lot of the vendors that are there have horror related things. So, you know, if you're into that type of genre, you know, and, and you go to a, you know, a convention or you know, you're looking for that unique hard object, this is definitely a place you know, to, to go and find it. So, um, so that's going to be the 13th through the 15th. Um, then a couple of weeks later is the Delaware toy show, which is on Saturday, March 28th at the nourish shrine center in new castle Delaware. That only goes from nine to two. Um, admission is$5, uh, children 12 and under are free. And then they do an early bird admission at eight o'clock for$10, and that's just toy, uh, trains. Um, then the following day is the April fool's toy show, which is on Sunday, March 29th, and that goes from 10 to four prices, the same$5 for a regular admission,$10. If you do the 9:00 AM early bird admission, and then 12 and under are free. Um, and that's one, it's very much more so as we mentioned, kind of a flee markety you know, guest panels. It's just toys. There's no cosplay. Nobody really, nobody dresses up. And a lot of, a lot of the vendors just weren't finding a lot of the vendors go there with the intent of displaying their stuff. Right. They have no intention of selling somebody cause some, uh, yeah cause some of the stuff you know is just way too expensive. Way too pricey. You can usually haggle to, to get stuff down. But yeah, there's those couple of vendors that really, they're just there to show off their stuff. Uh, you can find, you know, some of the bootleg DVD people that we not endorse that at all. There are some people that that have new stuff, you know, cause there are some people that have like local comic book stores or toys stores that you know, come in and so please define a little odds and ends. Right. You know, like Oh I didn't know they made this part of, you know, and it's five bucks to get in. And then there's actually the, we had mentioned before, there's the farmer's market flea market literally right up the road. So you know, you can walk around there to get some snacks and don't order a diet Coke from the donuts zone. I've got, he's very anti, very anti as per day. That was really funny. Then we have the great Philadelphia comic con which will be April 3rd to the fifth. And why is it great? Because they said so, um, it's at the greater Philadelphia expo center in Oaks. Uh, the ticket prices are a$70 for the three days. A Friday is$30, Saturday is$45, and then Sunday is$35 and kids and under, uh, kids 10 and under are free. Um, that was one that we went to last year for the first time because every other year we hadn't been home when it was coming on. Um, so it's definitely one that we enjoy. Um, cause it's actually really big if you've ever been to uh, the greater Philadelphia expo center, there's multiple halls and usually they have two or three things going on at one time. But when they have the um, uh, greater the, the, the great Philadelphia comic con, it's the whole section. So you really get an appreciation for how big it is down the aisles and not be bumping. Yes. That's a nice spacious, there's nothing that was crowded, you know, definitely not like New York comic con and not well attended. Oh, a very large venue to have a very large venue. When we parked, we parked, we parked by BJ's. I, you know, I dropped you guys off. Yeah. You'd never understand it. It was far, far away, you know, galaxy far away, uh, so far ago. Um, then you know, that kind of rounds out April then you know, kind of may is quiet. There's probably something going on in may, we just don't know about it. Um, but then starting in June, June 5th through the seventh is the pop mania con one, which is the sister, a convention to monster mania. Um, that again, same location, the crown Plaza hotel in cherry Hill, ticket prices are the same.$60 for all three days or$25 for each day. Kids 10 and under are free. Um, and this one's, you know, probably going to be the same, you know, makeup of, you know, the rooms. Um, you know, with the celebrities and stuff. But now everything, you know, all pop con culture, not just, you know, the horror stuff. Um, and then wizard world, cause we've been hinting it head it but we haven't actually talked about it. Um, so wizard world is actually going to be June 19th through the 21st, and that's at the Philadelphia convention center in center city. Um, it'll be Friday the 19th through Sunday, the 21st. Um, right now the only ticket prices that I, I saw was they actually had an early bird special for a three day admission was 49 99. So that's actually, that's really good. Now we, we might actually go, um, now the sale actually ends in 20 days. Um, because I couldn't find anything on the website that actually said, um, you know what the, the next ticket price was. I know the last time when we wanted to go, it was like$60 a day. And that was for one day. So right now, you know, if you're interested in going, you know, for, for two days, even for, you know, for 50 bucks. Yeah. When I saw that today I was like, Oh darn, we might actually, yeah. And cause it's still, it's still kinda, you know, early. Um, now with each paid adult admission, you do get to bring up to two children but 10 and under for your kids. So unfortunately for us, our kids now really expensive. She's not, she's not dinner under, but again, they don't really have much, um, listed for, you know, the guests or anything. But again, if you're willing to take a chance, it's definitely not that expensive, especially for a three day, you know, pass. We did a three day pass years ago, um, where when she was actually still in preschool, she went to preschool on Friday, the two of us went to the show for a couple of hours on Friday, then all day Saturday, you know. And what was nice was because we were there multiple days, we could do panels, you know, we didn't feel rushed and Sunday we shopped cause we got all the deals. Right, exactly. So you know, the Saturday, the Friday hours are only from 12 to seven, you know, Saturday is 10 to seven and then Sunday is 10 to four. So for 50 bucks, that's, that's actually a really good deal, especially for wizards. Um, the only thing is obviously parking and whatnot, you know, unless you can, unless you live in the city or you know, do a, you know, some sort of transportation friendly for people who drive. No, no, not at all. So what else we got? Uh, then after wizards we have Keystone comic con, which is also the Philadelphia confounded convention center. Basically a month later, August 28th through the 30th a ticket prices for that is Friday is a flat$30 Saturday it's$55 or$45. If you order it by August 15th. So save 10 bucks, you know, a week before where they got a lot of room in there and it's not, yeah. Yeah. And then, yeah. And then Sunday is$45 but 35 if you buy it before August 15th because that's actually what we ended up doing. We bought, we did just the Sunday ticket and I bought it like two weeks ahead of time. So we saved, you know the 20 bucks or you can get a three day pass. Now their three day pass is$80 if you buy it before the 18th and then$90 yeah. But that's the whole thing is I don't know how much more wizards is going to go up cause it's only for another 20 days. So as of right now wizards is cheaper. But if you can, if this is going to be, you know,$90 you can imagine how much you know wizards is going to be and that's also just for the regular, you know, pass, you know they have all the VIP and the ads on, you know, this is just the generic, Hey I want to go and experience how much is it going to cost me to get in. And last but certainly not least, we have retro cold. I didn't grab the pricing for this one, but this one is the end of September. Uh, September 26th, the 27th, I want to say it's like 20 bucks, 15 something. Look at that box.$20 for Saturday,$15 for Sunday, 12 and under, uh, kids are free with a paying adult. Um, and that one is back in Oaks at the greater Philadelphia expo center. And that's a nice one. Um, they can advertise what a picture of Oraco you have to, yeah, yeah. That, that's definitely one where you get a bunch of cosplay walking around, you get some[inaudible][inaudible] list celebrity, it's to payments, you know, but it's, it's neat because there are people that you're like, Oh wow. For the South Jimmy Hart. Okay. A voice of spoos. Okay. Okay. A couple other credits there. Smart toy designer and yeah, it's, it's definitely one where you don't go for the guests. You know, it's really more Jimmy Hart, but, but it's one that we go to mostly to, to look for what they have, you know, to buy, you know, toys and stuff like that. So it's really more of a toy where they do kind of throw in, you know, some celebrities here and there, but you know, always, you know, a good time, you

Speaker 4:

know, going to that one as well. All right. Uh, and I think that was all we had on that extensive list. I mean, that's a whole nother segment right there. That's pretty impressive. Thank you. Uh, I think that's it for today. If you want to send comments over to us with requests, uh, suggestions, snide remarks, bad jokes, whatever, just say hi. You can email us@commentsandinsightsintothings.com on twitter@insights_thingsonyoutubeatyoutubedotcomslashinsightsintothingsonthewebatwwwdotinsightsintothings.com. You can get our audio podcast and podcast on insights into entertainment.com or on facebook@facebook.com backslash insights into things podcast. And I will throw out there that we have a new video hosting provider for all of our video podcasts. Uh, I don't have the link here right now, but if you subscribe to our video links off of iTunes, Stitcher, anywhere else that you can subscribe to, two podcasts, uh, it is the same subscription. Uh, we just changed where the source of it was, right? So I'll have a direct link on the show for the show next week. Uh, and that is it. That is it. Another one in the books. Have a good week everyone. We're out.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible].