EMMET: This is Flyover Film Country. Unikitty Bomber: Hello everybody, welcome back to Flyover Film Country. This is a film podcast hosted by residents of Arkansas and Oklahoma. We're somewhere between the average moviegoer and your cousin enrolled in his sophomore year of film school. We want everyone to know that movies are great and we're building a community of film fans in Flyover Country. Unikitty: That's right. And today my voice has still been taken by Ursula. So she still hasn't given me my voice back. So I still sound terrible. But today we are celebrating the 12th anniversary of the Lego movie. And we have a very special guest with us. Longtime listener, first time guest. We have our very own Walker's brother, Zach. Unikitty Bomber: Let's give it up for Zach. EMMET: Wal Thal, yeah! I gotta find that clip, the clapping, since I'm doing Walters' job today. Unikitty: Let's get it up for Zach. EMMET: Walter doesn't do the fade out, I just did the fade out. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Hey, I think the fade out is actually like really nice. BENNY: My audio cut out. Can you guys hear me? EMMET: Hmm. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ I enjoy the fade out too. EMMET: Yeah, you're a little tinny. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ yeah, but. Unikitty: Yeah. BENNY: Cut this part out, Walter. EMMET: ⁓ wait, okay, so you can hear us still? BENNY: I can hear you now, can you hear me? Yes. Unikitty Bomber: Can you hear us or no? Unikitty: Yeah, we can hear you. Can you hear us? Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, but I think you're coming through your AirPods. You're not coming through your mic. BENNY: Man, I don't come in through my AirPods. can't. No, it like. EMMET: Here, can start over. ⁓ wait, no. So we can hear, yeah, we can hear you and then we can hear you coming through your mic. And that's how, that's probably, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. All right, preamble, moving on. It's all good, it's all good. Okay, we got two of, you both are filmmakers. We got a brother filmmaker duo here. How do you fancy yourselves? Yeah, okay, okay. Unikitty Bomber: Oh, there we go. No, no, no, you're good. BENNY: Okay, cool, cool, cool. Unikitty: Yeah, yeah, yeah. BENNY: I'm sorry. Party foul. Unikitty: Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Unikitty Bomber: It's okay. BENNY: Yes. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: Use the term very loosely for me. Unikitty Bomber: No. EMMET: Well, you guys, met you through, I actually officially met you at a coffee shop, like after the 48 hour film festival premier last year, but you guys worked with Walter two years in a row on Squatter and ⁓ have a nice day. And you both are editors, like video editors, right? Do you, do you, does, Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, professionally. EMMET: Do you both like, we're both editors, is that kind of what you do? Or does Walker, do you consider yourself more of a director or Zach or yeah, talk us through that. You more Duffer brothers or Nolan brothers? That's what I'm wondering here. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, so I mean, to make. Yeah, make money, we're both editors. That's what we do to make money. But when we work together, usually, so we both enjoy the production side of things, like pre-production, so we both produce everything that we work on together. But usually, I direct and Zach edits, is usually how we do things. Unikitty: Hmm BENNY: think that sums it up pretty well. EMMET: Right on, right on. Unikitty Bomber: So, yeah. BENNY: I like sitting behind the desk and so white collar, have all my cute cats laying next to me and everything. EMMET: So yeah, more one of you. Yeah. You have multiple cats as opposed to the just one. BENNY: ⁓ yeah. I'm a crazy cat down. I'm the guy that they, the liberal that they warned you about. You'll see them eventually. We'll just, we'll name them as they come. EMMET: Okay, well, what are their names? Unikitty Bomber: haha Unikitty: Haha Ha EMMET: Okay, okay, cool. Because we see the orange one ⁓ on Walker's screen. Unikitty Bomber: Okay. Yeah. He's over here right now. He's mad because I couldn't get in my lap. no Zach and yeah, Zach and I have been working together specifically on, you know, filmmaking together for the past really three years. Pretty heavy. We worked on stuff in the past before that, but doing our own thing kind of the past three years. And it's been, it's been really fun. We really compliment each other very well. Like we ⁓ were alike in the ways you want to be alike and not alike in the ways that we don't want to be alike. And so it works perfect for us. EMMET: Little bit of Cohen Brothers. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, for sure. EMMET: Perfect. Cool. Well, okay. That quick preamble. ⁓ Lego movie. BENNY: Yeah. The Lego movie. That's what I'm excited to talk about. Unikitty Bomber: The Lego movie, yeah. EMMET: The LEGO Movie. Well, let's talk about it. Before we do that, Olivia, were you a Lego kid growing up? Because this was the big question mark that I had as I was thinking about this ⁓ episode. Unikitty: whether or not I was a Lego kid. Yeah, I mean, we had Legos. We didn't have any like sets though. So like when you asked us that question, Isaac texted us earlier and was like, everyone talk about like, or have in mind your favorite Lego set. And I was like, I don't, I've only ever done one true Lego set. And that was a couple years ago. ⁓ My friend Tyler loves the West Wing. And so for his... 29th birthday, think 29 We ⁓ got him our whole friend group pitched in and bought him the White House Lego set and so I he asked I helped him build it and so that was a lot of fun I think my brother had one of those like bionicles or a couple of those, you know, if you guys remember that But mostly we just like threw stuff together and and that Unikitty Bomber: That's cool. EMMET: ⁓ cool. Unikitty Bomber: Oh dude. Yeah, yeah. EMMET: ⁓ my gosh. built your own stuff. You were a master builder. Unikitty: Yeah, that was what we were doing. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, I have to say I had trouble finding like thinking of my favorite sets as a kid because we had two huge tubs of Legos and I don't know like if we ever built with the instructions like I think that we just every time we get Legos we would dump them in the tub and it was just adding to the chaos of the tubs. Unikitty: Hahaha EMMET: That's funny. I I... was not that way. I was kind of an Emmet, because I like followed the instructions and then kept them together and then played with the sets as they came. So I was going to show y'all the ones that I never glued anything together, which I'm proud of. I yeah, so I here we go. BENNY: You had the Kragle? Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: Okay. I feel like that's a step over the line. That's when you know you've really turned like heel. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. EMMET: ⁓ yeah, I was not that big of a control freak. This version of the Millennium Falcon was my abs is probably my absolute favorite Lego set. There were you see if you can get inside of it. But like you had the you had the table here. You could put someone in that the cockpit to shoot ⁓ there. ⁓ There's an escape pod. If you pulled out ⁓ this. Unikitty Bomber: That's awesome. BENNY: Wow. EMMET: kind of side hatch here, the drawbridge would come down and you could like position the figures on the drawbridge like running up and down. ⁓ it was so cool. And then this alpha team was one of my favorites. And so I played with this one so much. It's like a mobile command base. Unikitty Bomber: That's so cool. Unikitty: That's pretty cool. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ see this like you see the little front part where it has BENNY: For the listeners, this is set four, seven, four, six. for the listeners. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, you see this? EMMET: and the Millennium Falcon was 4501. Unikitty Bomber: The little like glass part on the front of this, see, that looks familiar to me. The rest of this does not look familiar, but I'm like, we must have had a piece of that somehow in our Lego box. BENNY: Yeah! EMMET: Yeah. Yeah. I freaking loved, I loved Alpha Team. love... Go for it. Go for it. BENNY: ⁓ I brought a couple as well. I loved, ⁓ 85 96, the bionicle we, I had like a huge tub of bionicles. This was like the guy with the mask of light. ⁓ he had like some magic motorcycle or something too. It was super cool. ⁓ Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ yeah. EMMET: Talk anewa. BENNY: Yes, we had that movie, I think on VHS and I watched it so many times, way more than it deserved. To be honest, that was like a total boy toy. I feel like. Then I had the Star Wars speeders. Yes, there was, and it was extremely hard. Unikitty Bomber: Yes, yeah. Friggin' sick. EMMET: Yeah. I loved Bionicles, I had a ton of Bionicles and a ton of Legos. Unikitty Bomber: They're all so. Was there a Bionicle GameCube game? Unikitty: I think there was, yeah. BENNY: We definitely had it. I also had the speeder 7128. It was like two speeder bikes from Star Wars. Dude, I felt like the coolest guy ever with those. I was like, I've peaked. This is it. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ I'm getting flashbacks. EMMET: The... ⁓ yeah, I remember that. I... Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Ha EMMET: This is it. BENNY: I was a Lego kid. Unikitty Bomber: Can I tell you the that I did pull up and it's just a minifig, but I'm pretty sure we had this and I never knew what it was until today when I looked it up and found it. Because I was looking up just a list of like the best minifigs and I saw this one, I was like, this looks familiar and I think we had it as a kid. It's Aldar Bito from Star Wars and it's just like one, it's one piece, it doesn't look like him at all. EMMET: How darby though? Unikitty Bomber: And so you look him up and you see what he looks like and then look up the Lego piece for him and it's just this weird like misshapen like thing and I'm like I'm kind of think that we had this and I never knew what it was. It just was always around. BENNY: You Hahaha Unikitty Bomber: Like when I saw it, looked familiar, so. EMMET: ⁓ yeah yeah yeah. Yeah. BENNY: I also remember. Unikitty Bomber: And I just like. Go ahead, go ahead. BENNY: Sorry. Okay. I remember pining after the Lego Death Star. Like I remember being maybe 10 or 11 years old and they would always include that promotional booklet with every Lego set. Like at the end it would be like, here's a book full of Lego sets. And I remember pining for it so bad. It was a hundred dollars. And I was like, one day I'm going to be an adult and I will have a hundred dollars and I will buy this. Unikitty: ⁓ yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. EMMET: Yeah. BENNY: And then I became a creative. Unikitty: except now it's so expensive. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah Yeah now like that that version would cost like a thousand EMMET: Well the third- yeah. Yep. The third one I was going to show y'all was the Lego Daily Bugle. I bought this. This was $350 and almost ended my marriage. ⁓ I am, man, this one is so great. This one is amazing. It's like three feet tall. BENNY: OOOO Unikitty Bomber: So BENNY: ⁓ wow. Unikitty Bomber: Ha ha. BENNY: Isaac is a brick head. He's bricked up. Unikitty Bomber: Bricked up. EMMET: It was a little bit of a boring build, but there's so much detail inside all the offices, but like the walls got kind of old after a while, but it has like 18 mini figures and it's just so, it's so cool. There's the effects of the glass and stuff. anyway, this is the, Lego is the only commercialism that, that Fiverr Film Country endorses. So we just had to take a second to talk about it. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. ⁓ that's awesome. Yeah. Last one, and I don't have it, but I just do think it's cool, is the ⁓ original Stranger Things Lego collab they did with ⁓ the house and the upside down. So sick. Yeah, it's super cool. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. EMMET: Yeah, where it flips. Unikitty: yeah to be honest i think the harry potter's lego collection is really cool they're really cool also i'm gonna say it i really want the twilight one i think it looks sick it looks really cool also i looked up the death star and the current version of the death star they have on the lego website is a thousand dollars EMMET: ⁓ they're so cool. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ yeah. The Twilight one is awesome. BENNY: Valid. EMMET: Yup. Sounds right. That's the circular one, not the spherical one. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Harry Potter would be a deep, deep hole. Yeah. BENNY: It never ends. Unikitty: Yeah, it never ends, man. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. BENNY: That's like the top of Maslow's hierarchy. Unikitty: is it it's not self-actualization it is the lego death start BENNY: Lego Death Star. Unikitty Bomber: Like, yeah. EMMET: Okay, so, Lego Movie. Now that we've kinda got it out of our systems. Zach, where were you when the Lego Movie came out? like, who was Zach in 2014, 12 years ago? BENNY: The LEGO Movie. I was a sophomore in college. I was studying music. I don't know, busy all the time. I don't know if I really watched it when it came out in theaters. I think I watched it when it came out like in the $5 movie bin or something. Like we would always just buy a bunch of $5 movies and then watch them ⁓ like back to back to back. EMMET: ⁓ yeah. BENNY: And so I think I actually got it from one of those. So I might have not even watched it until like 2015 or 2016. Either way, I'm a huge fan of animation and I love the message of the movie. I love the style of it. I think it's just an all around feel good movie. EMMET: Yep. So you didn't see it in theaters. BENNY: No. It would have looked kind of weird if I went at that time by myself. EMMET: Okay. Did Olivia? Gotcha. Yeah. Well, is that how you feel about going to see movies in general now? Like you don't want to go by yourself? Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. ⁓ BENNY: Sometimes, okay, I'm a chronic animation lover, but let's be real. If there's a random white guy in the theater by himself in a theater full of children, it looks just a little weird. I'm sorry, other weird white guys ruined it for us. Unikitty: Do you feel that same way about white women by themselves? Just asking you for a friend? Okay, I was just curious. Just wondering, no reason. BENNY: No, definitely not. Unikitty Bomber: No, no, no. BENNY: Either way. EMMET: Olivia, did you see it in theaters? Unikitty: No, I literally watched it for the first time, like, I finished it 20 minutes ago. Not even an hour ago. Where's- I finished it- it's 921 in this exact moment at night and I finished it at like 9 o'clock. Right as we were supposed to record. It was. It was. So. EMMET: An hour ago. Wow. Unikitty Bomber: Ha ha. BENNY: That was a photo finish. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Walker, what about you? Well, were you like in 10th grade? Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, I don't think I... Yeah, I was. ⁓ I don't think I saw this at the movies either. I think I probably saw it eventually, maybe even after Zach saw it and told me I should watch it or something. Like, I don't think I saw this for a couple years. So yeah, think it's so crazy though watching this movie today again, I told Isaac this earlier. I saw Isaac earlier today. We were at the park together, just two white guys at the park. That's not weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But ⁓ there were a lot of kids at the park, But. ⁓ BENNY: chilling with a bunch of kids there. It was weird. EMMET: Totally acceptable. There were a ton of kids at this park. It was insane. Unikitty: You BENNY: Wow, you heard it here folks. Unikitty: Hahaha Unikitty Bomber: But I was telling Isaac, I cannot believe how good this movie still looks. Like if I saw this movie in theaters today, I would be like, wow, this movie looks really good. And so the fact it came out in 2014 blows my mind. EMMET: Yeah, I saw this in theaters. BENNY: think because it's highly stylized. ⁓ sorry. EMMET: No, you're good, you're good. There's a little bit of a lag. But yeah, I saw this in theaters. ⁓ Olivia, you're the only person who knows this person. But I saw this with Hannah Hawley. Unikitty: Wow, okay, okay. EMMET: Yeah, and ⁓ it was snowing outside and we had a great time seeing the movie. We were freshmen. So, so we, I, that was spring of freshman year, but we established that Zach is our age. So you saw it later in the year, probably after it had come to a DVD ban. Unikitty: We were freshmen when this came out, ⁓ Yeah. BENNY: Yeah, definitely. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: But in theaters, people were just like laughing and having a great time. yeah. Where did you go to college? BENNY: I didn't watch it with Hannah Hawley. Sorry guys. I don't mean to ruin the mystique. Unikitty: ⁓ man. BENNY: Henderson. EMMET: Mmm. So you both are readies. Okay. BENNY: in Arkadofia. Yeah, exactly. Unikitty: Nice. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yep. Unikitty: Nice. I did see the Lego Batman movie in theaters. Isaac, did I see it with you? EMMET: ⁓ yeah. BENNY: That's a good movie too. EMMET: Did Jonathan come with us? Unikitty: No, I went with... it was like Bryce Woods and ⁓ Josh Welch and that little crew. So I couldn't... okay. EMMET: Okay. I saw it with Jonathan and I remembered, I remember that Jonathan, my younger brother who got engaged last week. Good job, Jonathan. ⁓ He was, he was really little. He's 10 years younger than me. So he was, okay. Yeah. I guess he was like 12 and he had a Batman mask and he wore the Batman mask for the whole movie. Yeah. BENNY: Go Jonathan. Unikitty: 12. Unikitty Bomber: Man. BENNY: Nice. Unikitty: Aww, that's so cute. ⁓ Unikitty Bomber: Can I can I tell you guys a story about Zack and I real quick go into the movies together so The closest movie theater to us growing up, you know We grew up in Camden Arkansas and it's a small town. The closest movie theater is 45 minutes away in El Dorado So it's like, you know not a small deal to go to the movies for us So Zack and I I was really excited to see this new movie that's coming out Unikitty: Yes. EMMET: Yes, I was hoping for some. Unikitty Bomber: and I convinced Zach to drive me to El Dorado so we could go see this movie. I even had a shirt for the like of the movie. I was super excited to see it. And the movie was Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds. And it, and it sucked so hard. it was. Yeah, I think you're right. Unikitty: Amazing! EMMET: Ha ha ha ha ha! BENNY: It is a horrible movie. Unikitty: I think that's what broke him. I think it's what broke him, even though it's how he met Blake Lively. EMMET: Yeah, it's what caused him to become the Antichrist. BENNY: Like on the way home, were like, so that sucked, right? Like I think we both kind of were quiet about it for a second. And then just the flood gates opened up. Unikitty: So I Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. That might be the first time I ever remember watching a movie and being like, ⁓ like this is bad. EMMET: I remember having that thought, I was just like, my green lantern brain, because I do love lanterns. I'm really pumped for the HBO series that's coming later this year. ⁓ But I had read, ⁓ I name dropped it pretty frequently on this podcast, but I had read Blackest Night, which was this run of, it was like an omnibus where these black rings. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Mm-hmm. EMMET: go throughout the whole galaxy out of nowhere. They don't know why, but they get on the different DC heroes fingers and turn them into zombies with their powers. And it was so dope and so cool. then Adam is a big character and helps get a couple of key characters away, including Pal Jordan. And they end up like, you end up figuring out what is going on. Unikitty Bomber: Okay. EMMET: but that was such an iconic run. I thought the movie was gonna be as epic and then when it wasn't, I was like, he didn't even do anything and he didn't figure out how to use his powers. Yeah, so. BENNY: Yeah, the movie was horrible. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, he just did hot wheel. ⁓ BENNY: Speaking of Hal Jordan, he's in the Lego movie, right? That was him. He's a there's a Green Lantern. Is it him? EMMET: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: It's Jonah Hill is Hal Jordan, I think. BENNY: Jonah Hill and then ⁓ Channing Tatum is Superman. Unikitty: I don't think they ever say like Superman. Yeah. Yeah, they don't say which Green Lantern it is. It's just credited as Green Lantern on IMDB, but. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ I didn't realize that. EMMET: Yep. BENNY: Yeah, but they had just come off of 21 Jump Street at this point, right? Because that movie was also directed by the same guys who directed this movie. So it was kind of like a nod back to him. Unikitty Bomber: Hmm. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. EMMET: Yeah, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ interesting. EMMET: Well, this actually was, they were selected from, well, I think it was after, but they were hot off of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, because nobody expected that to be good, and that movie's really funny. BENNY: Was it before? Unikitty: Ugh, and it's so funny. Unikitty Bomber: Mmm, so good. BENNY: That's banger of a movie too. Walker and I watched that on a cruise on pay-per-view. I'll always remember it. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. ⁓ EMMET: Nice. Nice. But yeah, they, they are the ones who kind of got a risk or were responsible for making the tone a lot more satirical and the fast paced and slap dash and, know, the humor itself. So. Unikitty Bomber: Yep, we did do that. Unikitty: Wow. BENNY: Okay. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: Yeah. Well, and one thing that I wrote here is that there's a clear cinematic vision. Like they have virtual cameras set up in their animation and you can really tell it some moments that I thought really stood out. There's a moment where Emmett is on the like wagon and it's spinning and the camera is locked onto his body while his head spins. And then the camera lock switches onto his head. And so then the rest of everything else is spinning. ⁓ Unikitty: Mm-hmm. BENNY: And so like, just thought that it had, they had such good like camera sensibilities that they were utilizing sort of in the animated space. And then I said, there was one more where they had like a camera lock on him swinging across like into an electric fence or a laser grid, I think. And the camera was like locked onto him. There was a lot of good camera movement. And I mean, there were no real like actual cameras in it. Pretty cool. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. EMMET: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: for the Kregel. Unikitty: Mm. EMMET: Yeah, yeah, it's an amazing movie. It holds up as good as I remember. Olivia, what were your main takeaways since you're the freshest off the boat, off the metaphorical boat? Unikitty: it since I'm the freshest, I literally just finished it 28 minutes ago. This was a really good movie. I figured I was going to like it because I love the Lego Batman movie. And I do think that, you know, Lord and Miller are so good as a duo and a team. And I love 21 Jump Street. I think 22 Jump Street is also really funny. And of course, they did. They've done the Spideyverse films and those are just Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm Yeah. Yeah. Unikitty: beautiful, beautiful pieces of film. And you can see some of that similar style to an animation, just like as they were like, know, scenes and, and when there was like motion, like a lot of motion happening, you can see similar styles of animation happening, even though they're very different films and very different ⁓ media. So it's just, it's really cool. And so Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Unikitty: I laughed a lot. also was like, huh, this is just a very time. mean, this is 12 years old, still very much applies to everything that's going on in the world. And it feels really timely watching it now as we are just days out of the, ⁓ you know, Paramount buying Warner Brothers. So just kind of crazy, honestly. EMMET: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. EMMET: They make all the TV and surveillance cameras and... Unikitty: ⁓ we lost Zach. EMMET: ⁓ where'd go? Unikitty: I don't know. Unikitty Bomber: He'll be back. There he is. EMMET: Was I lagging at all, for y'all? Unikitty: There he is. Do what? Unikitty Bomber: No, you've been good. For me at least. You're good. Olivia, think you're right and I'm very curious like this whole if movies like this are gonna be more like come around more often because Paramount is gonna own so much just IP, it's gonna be insane. And. BENNY: Sorry, I froze. Unikitty Bomber: I don't know if it starts happening all the time if that's gonna be a good thing because it works so well in this movie because it's like I think it works so well because it's Legos and Lego has all you know, they have all those IP already but I Don't know. It's like when you see it in like ready like ready player one, for example It kind of eventually gets eye-rolly and like okay, okay, okay so But it works well in this movie and it's fun and makes it just way more fun and gave us Will Arnett being Batman, which is amazing. Unikitty: Amazing. Yeah. BENNY: He might be one of my top five favorite Batmans. I don't know if that's like controversial, but... Unikitty Bomber: hehe Unikitty: not here, not here man. i honestly the lego batman is is one of my favorite batman movies. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Good stuff. BENNY: think it's just a fun take on the Batman universe. Unikitty: So. Unikitty Bomber: Now I'm thinking of like where I rank the Lego Batman movie. BENNY: It's one of Walker's top five favorite movies ever. He can buy to that Emmy one time. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, totally, totally. EMMET: right next to a racer head. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, it's a racerhead Lego Batman movie. Inland Empire. BENNY: I don't know if we mentioned this, it had a $60 million budget and on opening weekend made $69 million, eh? And then made $468 million overall. EMMET: Yeah. Unikitty: Noice. That's crazy. Unikitty Bomber: That's nuts, actually. That is so crazy. BENNY: That's a good run. I think that's fairly cheap for animation too. mean, like that's a lot of money, for, I mean, think about the studio this size. I didn't even look up how many people it took to animate this. Unikitty Bomber: Well and I EMMET: It was a, I think it was 350 people were animated, were animating it. And it took like two years. They had 350 artists, technicians and support staff. From Animal Logic, it was an Australian digital studio based at Fox Studios in Sydney. Australia. Unikitty Bomber: cheese. BENNY: And I think it was actually all CG, right? Except for the very end, like the credits. I thought it was really cool how like... EMMET: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it looks like it's... You got it. BENNY: I thought it was really cool how they like put in thumb prints on the model. Some of them had scratches. You know, the space man's piece was broken because it really did lend it to look more like stop motion animation, but it was all CG. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: So for comparison, Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse, the budget for that was 90 million. Unikitty Bomber: That, okay, that blows me away, because I looked up, there is a second Lego movie that I've never seen, I don't know anyone that's ever really seen it, and the budget for it is 99 million. EMMET: , as of Unikitty: Whoa. BENNY: Wow. Unikitty Bomber: and it has way worse ratings than the first Lego movie across the board. EMMET: How to go see it now. It, I don't know, yeah. It's, yeah, it's crazy that I didn't go see it. But it's also interesting, that was one of the things I wanted to discuss with you guys a little bit earlier than I had intended, but why there was such a sharp drop off, because Lego Batman was financially and commercially really successful, Ninjago was not either, and then Lego Movie 2 was not either. BENNY: I've never seen it and I'm a huge fan of the movie. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Yeah. EMMET: So I don't really know why that is and I didn't look into it before this, I wasn't sure if anyone else had. Unikitty Bomber: Well, I would think it's probably because I think that the Lego popularity did drop off for a little bit, right? And now I think it's back in the past like five years more, but I feel like there was a time there for a while where it wasn't as popular with kids or adults. And now feel like it's really popular with adults specifically. EMMET: Mm-hmm. Unikitty: Well, and we're seeing like a ton of like athletes like professional athletes are talking about how that's how they spend their time. Like Miles Turner who played for the Pacers last year and was traded. I don't remember where they traded him. Anyway, ⁓ but like it was Miles Turner, right? He has a whole like Lego room in his mansion. And when they traded him, everyone's like, Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. I can't remember where either. Yeah. Yeah. Unikitty: ⁓ what's going to happen to his Legos? Like, how is he going to pack those? ⁓ And there's like, yeah, some crackle. ⁓ I saw an interview of some football player from Ohio State who's in the NFL combine right now. And they asked him what he does in his free time. And he's like, I build Lego sets. And he like names his favorite ones. And it was, it was just really interesting. like, yeah, there's been a resurgence. And I think part of that. BENNY: PRAGLE Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: in popularity is because these athletes are super into him. EMMET: Yeah, so in the movie, every character building vehicle, ocean, fire effect and cloud in the film is built from a digital recreation of actual Lego bricks. So they didn't like hand build all of them, but theoretically everything there could be built like there were no cheats. Yeah, which is crazy. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. It's possible, yeah. That's super cool. BENNY: The water effects were awesome. Like it was so sick. Unikitty: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ yeah, super cool. EMMET: I bet that took forever for them to do that like one 10 second scene. Unikitty Bomber: That... I can't... Yeah, the Lego water simulation had to be so taxing on whatever poor computer had to do that. EMMET: Yeah. I like too that they had the ⁓ ghost, when Vitruvius died. First of all, that's pretty funny when Vitruvius dies, he's like, what I'm about to tell you is the most important thing in the world. And like, always die, I always crack up whenever characters in animated movies get Xs over their eyes when they die. It happens in Fantastic Mr. Fox too with Rat. ⁓ But when he comes back as a ghost and you can see the string. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: Hahaha Unikitty: So funny. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: That just kills me. Like, he's like, ooooh. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Uh-huh. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, that, think it's such a fun, this movie ⁓ is so full of fun little stuff like that, because at the end of the day, is, ⁓ a kid is playing with this, and we're watching this story that this kid is coming up with and that he's doing, and so I think that when they put that little stuff in to kind of remind you of that, it just makes it that much more fun. That ghost toy, that is a real minifig. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. EMMET: Yeah. Like from the seventies, think like long time seventies or eighties, a long time ago. Unikitty Bomber: that Lego put out at one point. was looking, yeah, it's like really old. And then I think, isn't the spaceman, like he's the blue one, he's like the first Lego minifig ever, right? EMMET: I think so. And his helmets like cracked. Apparently that was something that would happen with that model of ⁓ Lego minifig helmet because you you'd put it on twice and then it like would just crack because it was really fragile. So I like that he ended up having like a pretty prominent role in the movie. ⁓ He's voiced by Charlie Day. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Hahaha Yeah. That's funny. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: This movie had a star-studded cast. EMMET: Um, but yeah, that, oh yeah. Yeah. It's crazy thinking about, I don't think anything has changed more in our world other than our political climate. Uh, other than what Chris Pratt like was in 2014 is completely different than who he is now. It is insane thinking about how different he is. Yeah. Unikitty: ⁓ yeah. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ man. BENNY: Crazy cast. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: I wrote a note about this too. Unikitty Bomber: haha Unikitty: Let's hear it. BENNY: He had just come off of Parks and Rec, right? Like he had all this good will. I like Chris Pratt. I thought that he did great as Emmett. I thought that he did great as Mario. ⁓ His voice acting work is solid. I don't know how I feel about everything else, but I think that he has a good repertoire as a voice actor. I thought he was good as Emmett. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. EMMET: Yeah, it's crazy this year was also the year of Guardians of the Galaxy. So he was in two of the top five films of the year. Because it was, I think Guardians was first and then. ⁓ BENNY: ⁓ wow, he was busy. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ so. Unikitty: No, this was first because Guardians was the Marvel summer movie of that year. EMMET: No, was Frozen first? Unikitty Bomber: Hmm. EMMET: No, sorry, I meant like, think it might've been the top grossing movie of the year. ⁓ I could be wrong, but you know, Lego Movie and Gardens of the Galaxy were in the top five. So, neither here nor there, but. Unikitty: ⁓ okay, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Unikitty Bomber: Mm. So we recently just rewatched Parks and Rec again for the first time in a long time. And it is so shocking to see the difference just in Chris Pratt and that show. Because it goes from, I think was 2009 to 2015. So you see him transform. it's literally it happens in between seasons and they even make a joke about it where like. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: He's Andy Dwyer and then it comes back the next season and you're like, ⁓ he is Star-Lord now. Like Andy is gone and Star-Lord has arrived. And they make a really funny joke though where Ben is like, Andy, man, you lost a lot of weight. Did you really lose that just from stopping drinking beer? And he's like, yeah. And he goes, how much beer were you drinking? And he just goes, a lot. Unikitty: Yeah. Yeah. BENNY: You Unikitty: I remember that joke, that's so funny. And they have him training as a cop and that's like how they try to explain like his muscles now. EMMET: Hahaha Hey, every- Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Ye- Yes, yeah. EMMET: Everybody loves a comeback story, you know? That's my favorite. That did not make it into an episode, but it's like a blooper that circles through my algorithm. Was I talking to y'all about my algorithm? Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: No. Unikitty Bomber: Yes. Unikitty: Yeah? Yes? EMMET: Recently how, okay. It's, it's that scene from parks and rec that outtake where he's like the comeback story, which is so funny, but I'm not going to, we're recording an episode on the Lego movie. So I'm not going to like repeat it in case we have listeners who are children. Um, and the other one is the, we all read the script, right? From, uh, Tropic Thunder where he says, I don't read the script. The script reads me. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. So funny. Yeah. Yes, yes, Yeah. EMMET: And then the third is the Always Sunny in Philadelphia where Jimmy Simpson goes, he's dead. Like those are the three clips that filter through my algorithm constantly. Unikitty Bomber: you That's funny, because all I'm getting on my algorithm right now is ⁓ Dunk and Egg edits or like them do it, like the actors talking and talking about how they like hang out and stuff all the time now. That's all my algorithm is, is Dunk and Egg. Unikitty: Yeah. EMMET: There's one scene in the early part of Nine of the Seven Kingdoms where it's the two of them is in the actual show where they're just sitting there talking about something, watching people be drunk in the mess hall or something. he, Dunk says something that is so funny. And they're having this back and forth that Jess and I were crying laughing at it. It was, I love that show. yep. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's really good. But back to the LEGO movie, I guess. EMMET: Anyway, ⁓ I got a note on cinematography. Unless Zach, you want to, did you have something for us? BENNY: Back to the LEGO movie. I I thought that the cinematography was really good. I feel like you could tell that whenever they animated this movie, they did it with like camera knowledge in mind. There were several times where I noticed that like the camera was pushing in or there was panning and then like those movements that I mentioned earlier where the camera was locking and stuff. ⁓ Sometimes animation feels like it gets kind of like a A cam, B cam kind of situation or just like a zoom in and kind of like a zoom out. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. BENNY: But I thought this was really well done and they had some virtual cameras set up and it was very clear that they knew what they were doing when they animated it. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Mm-hmm. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. So, so for those of us who don't like edit film or anything like that, I've never made a movie, talk to us about like a virtual camera. Like, what does that mean? How does that work? Tell us about that. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. BENNY: Yeah. So the logo movie was 3d animated. So they have this whole environment set up just like you would have like actors on a set. And then they have a virtual camera, which is function similar to a real camera and they just make it move, you know, like you would move a real camera, move it left to right, move it forward, move it backwards, stuff like that. Um, and they can do that because it's 3d animated. So all this stage essentially is set up and then you can kind of move stuff around, but Because it's a virtual camera, it can fly, it can go through the floor, it can, you know, be attached to anything, anywhere. But it takes a lot of money and time to do something like that. Unikitty Bomber: It's a super ⁓ cool thing. ⁓ can do, I've never animated anything crazy, obviously even close to this, but you can do a 3D camera in After Effects that I've used a few times for different stuff and it's really a cool and powerful tool. Unikitty: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: You can even do, on these virtual cameras, can set what millimeter you want the lens to be and you can make it have bokeh and all these things. It's really cool and really, so when it's used effectively like it is in this movie, it's such a powerful tool and. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: You can get shots that you can't obviously you couldn't get in real life. And so it's really cool when to see people utilize it as like they do in this movie. And we see them even push it further and things like the Spider-Verse movies and stuff. BENNY: Yeah, and you could tell that they were really thinking about like focal length and stuff like that because there are some scenes that are shot. There's a scene where Emmett is being interviewed by what's his name, bad cop. And like literally they have pulled focus on Emmett at the table and the background is blurred out. Like there is a lot of cinematography in this movie and it's really good, I think. Unikitty: So how... Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So how often is a virtual camera used? what are some like it sounds like like ⁓ Lord and Miller use this a lot. So like how often is it used in other movies? BENNY: It's a 3D animation thing, so you wouldn't really find this in 2D animation because it only works in a 3D space. But ⁓ it just depends on how much budget they have, so you'll find it in a lot of really big budget 3D animations. I mean, if you're watching like a kid's cartoon, they're not doing crazy virtual camera movement. just trying to, you know, it's some animation farm in Korea trying to get it done. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Yeah. EMMET: Yeah, they, ⁓ the. Unikitty: Yeah, cool. Thanks. BENNY: That's how cartoons are made, guys. I'm sorry. Unikitty: No! EMMET: Well, not anymore or not about to be anymore. So unfortunately, Pablo Pleistad was the, I believe that's how you pronounce his name, was the cinematographer for the Lego movie. And he deliberately avoided the floating kind of smooth look of how the camera, the 3D camera would move in order to maintain this sort of ⁓ jagged stop motion feel of how like Legos are actually moving. Unikitty Bomber: And yeah. Yeah. BENNY: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: Super cool. EMMET: to make it look like stop motion, which is super cool. Unikitty Bomber: I think it really comes across in that first chase scene with Wild Style and Emmett and it's just so chaotic and so fast-paced and it's just so much fun. I think that's like this movie just in a nutshell. It really is so chaotic. There's not a lot of slowing down. Once they get going, this movie's going full speed the whole time. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: and it's so fun and every aspect of it is, and it gave us the banger, everything is awesome. So that's a huge plus too. EMMET: I still want to know Noah kind of like sad but funny ⁓ background about that movie or about that ⁓ title. I stayed up way too late, late guys. Sorry. ⁓ Everything is awesome. So Sean Patterson wrote that and he was going through a divorce when he wrote it. And he said it's it was like relentless cheerfulness rooted in heavy sarcasm. ⁓ Unikitty Bomber: Please. Ha ha ha! EMMET: to be satirical, which, honestly, the movie is satirical. So it works in that regard. But yeah, Tegan and Sarah did the movie and the lonely island were on it too, so. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. BENNY: Yeah. felt like it was a good reflection of the society. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: I feel like it was a good reflection of the society of, you had the names in here, I can't find it, but where Emmett lived, his hometown, it was like this like kind of nicely colored, like basically dystopia, you know, they have instructions they have to follow, literally the president comes on the TV and says, anybody who doesn't follow the instructions will be put to sleep, it's, and everybody's like drinking their coffee to them. Unikitty Bomber: Brickberg, right? EMMET: And he's like, wait, did he just say put to sleep? Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: hehe BENNY: But like everybody's drinking their coffee and they're watching sitcoms and stuff, but it is kind of like this weird sort of dystopia. I don't know. EMMET: Stay in line, follow the rules. You can be something else, but you can't abandon the instructions too much. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, and it's interesting, I was telling Isaac this earlier too. was like, know, there are some, yeah, at the park with all the kids. I was like, there are some adults in my life I feel like I might need to sit down and make them watch the Lego movie and maybe they'll finally understand some things I've been trying to tell them for a while, you know? Like. EMMET: At the park with the kids. BENNY: Thanks for reminding us. Unikitty Bomber: Even though on its face like this is a kids movie. It's like there is so much in here that you could, you know, could teach probably some people that need to be taught a few things. And I don't know. I just forgot that part of it. I forgot about that aspect of it. And so was so surprised watching it earlier today. BENNY: Yeah. think it is really subversive and I like the sort of, Emmett is sort of an unwilling hero and he's kind of like an idiot, but in the end, his conformity and like the fact that he is like everybody else ends up being kind of his superpower because they can't track him because he has the standard yellow face, you know, they have like cameras everywhere. And then also in the, in the end, he's like leading the charge against president business. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Which is so funny. BENNY: because he's able to like get everybody to work on a team where before they're all like all the master builders are individualists and they, they all want to do their own plan. say, we've already done every plan we can think of. But Emmett teaches them like, if you hide within the, you know, we use their ship and we go in their way and stuff like that. I thought it was kind of a really cool kind of turn of things. It's not bad that he's normal. It's not bad that he wants to fit in. Ultimately that ended up being his superpower, I thought. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. BENNY: Any thoughts, anybody? EMMET: Yeah, which is a cool statement on, you if you try so hard to stand out, then you're gonna kinda forget what makes, or you forget what you have in common with people and, you know, seeing eye eye with them. So, what are you gonna say, Olivia? Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Unikitty: Well, I gonna say it's similar to Into the Spider-Verse, right? Anyone can wear the mask, right? Anyone can do the things. You just have to really believe that you can do it. working with other people, you know, we... Humans are meant to be in community with each other and work with each other and live life together and share life together. And... Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: our hyper individualized world has really taken us away from that in a lot of ways. And so I think that's the beauty of this movie is that, no, actually we're supposed to be like creative and be willing to work with each other and help each other and lean on each other in order to like fight back and push up against any sort of, you know, Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Unikitty: tyrannical system that's really trying to strip us of those things. ⁓ Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, I think that this movie too is honestly like a great example of what it looks like to make a movie in a way because one of the reasons I love making like filmmaking so much and is it really is one of the most collaborative things you can do. Like, you there's you can't make a movie without. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: other people at the end of the day. mean, you can try and you can, but to really make a movie, you have to have other people help you. You have to have other people that are better than you at certain things, and then you're gonna be better at certain things, and you guys just all get together and collaborate and make this one thing that you all can own together. And I think that this movie at the end of the day, that's what it's saying. It's like everyone. has these unique abilities, these unique ideas, and when you all work together, you can make something great and do the right thing in this case, but make a movie together. think that, we're talking about Zach and I working together at the beginning of the episode, that has been something that's been so fun for us these past three years is just seeing the different things that we're good at that the other one might not be as good at and kind of filling in in those spots. And it's just like, It's a really cool thing and we do that with Walter too like when we're on set like there's stuff He's good at that we're not good at and there's stuff that we're better at than him and I think that it's just so being collaborative is so fun and it's just way better than trying to do it all on your own and I think that you know is something this movie is trying to say to BENNY: Would you say that everything is cool when you're part of the team? EMMET: Yeah, it just made me want to become a consumer again and buy more Legos. BENNY: You Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, yeah everything is cool when you're part of a team that's true especially BENNY: They have so many properties. The Master Builder Summons. The Master Builder Summons was just like a flex of like, we have this much IP. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah EMMET: Yeah, there was something cool about that that I was going to tell you all. when they were so the first idea, inkling of an idea for the movie was in 2008. Dan Lin was a producer, visited LEGO's headquarters in Denmark and ballooned at Denmark and they were skeptical, but one VP, Jill Wilford said, ⁓ that's a good idea, that's cool. And eventually that paid off because apparently sales of Lego during the movie's theatrical window increased between anywhere from 12 to 25%, which is insane. If you think about how big of a boost that was, ⁓ ROI-wise. So after that, when they were kinda, okay, we got a go ahead on developing this movie, he went around to like, Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. oof jeez yeah Unikitty: Wow, yeah. EMMET: all the Warner Brothers different IP creators to make sure like, this is our idea for using Star Wars. And he went and visited Lucasfilm and Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder because Justice, yeah, like the new Justice League was starting to launch around then. So he went and then he went to J.K. Rowling and ⁓ said like, this is what we want to do, you know? And so he like talked to all these people. So, yeah. BENNY: Rest in peace. Unikitty: You EMMET: Apparently it was the most ambitious multi-IP crossover since Who Framed Roger Rapp. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ wow. That's wild. BENNY: Wow. EMMET: Which is crazy in 1988. Yep. Unikitty: That's crazy. Wow, I didn't realize that movie was that old, geez. Unikitty Bomber: and EMMET: And it doesn't feel, it doesn't, or the Lego movie doesn't feel hackneyed in the same way. It feels like beloved and irreverent because it is silly, you know, in the same way that like Roger Rabbit was silly because they were artists treating these things as, know, all these characters showing up as like, it's just for laughs. All this is just for laughs. We're not trying to take it too seriously. Unikitty: Mm-mm. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-mm. Yeah. Unikitty: Yeah. BENNY: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. EMMET: It's a far cry from what I think it's become now, which is, we need to like have this moment, you know, where two characters do this. it's just not like the Millennium Falcon shows up for like 10 seconds and it's such a funny laugh line because Batman like leaves with them and then steals their hyperdrive. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Yeah. BENNY: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: Dude, that was really Billy D Williams and really what's the name of it was really the actors of ⁓ Lando and C3PO. They didn't get Harrison Ford though. I looked it up. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Well... Yeah. EMMET: Yeah, I was like, that's not Harrison Ford. I couldn't remember if it was him or not, but I was like, that does not sound like him at all. BENNY: Hahaha! Okay, there was something else that I wrote down. oh, go ahead. Sorry, where are gonna? Unikitty Bomber: well and it No, no, no, you go, Zach, you go, you're going. BENNY: ⁓ guys, I cried when I watched this movie last, ⁓ the storyline at the very end of like the father and the son and will feral as a dad. First of all, he was a great villain. thought president business was awesome villain. like his motivation of like, everything needs to be the same and put together all that stuff. But then when it showed that this was actually a kid's world and his dad is the villain and his dad like pulls the Lego of him out and it's like, this is the bad guy and has a change of heart. Guys, I'm gonna be real. I cried just a little bit. Not a whole I did the cloudy with the chance of meatballs thing. I sucked back in. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Well, and it's like, I think... You just bring it back in. ⁓ I think, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because, one, I think it's funny that Will Ferrell has now played a similar character in two different movies, because that's kind of the character he plays in Barbie as well. ⁓ But two, I think that also is a huge theme of this film, is that we as adults get so caught up Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: and everything has to be a certain way and we forget to play and be silly and I think that is one of the worst things that can happen to adults is that we become too serious and especially if we have kids or work with kids, we need to show them like, it's okay to be silly as an adult. And so... Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unikitty: Yeah, as a therapist, whenever I that like was revealed on screen, I was like, Oh, this kid is probably going to be in therapy. This kid's going to be in therapy. know, undo some of the yeah, some of those daddy issues. We're going to address those. Unikitty Bomber: Hahaha EMMET: I- Unikitty: Yeah, I had no idea. was shocked. EMMET: It's funny because I'm now living that reality because the aforementioned Daily Bugle set is now in a box because it was close to being destroyed and Sophie loved playing with the pieces. my and if it was if my younger daughter. Unikitty: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Isaac is in that. EMMET: Louisa was older, I would have left it up for them both to play with and I will put it back up for them both to play with. Some of the pieces were starting to get missing, but I did have to go through a process of reckoning with don't touch this, don't touch this. I just wanted it to like not fall apart, you know? then when Sophie, yeah, I could have, ⁓ Sophie was playing with specifically Ghost Spider because we've watched Unikitty: Hahaha Unikitty Bomber: Hehehehe EMMET: Not the whole Spider-Verse, but most of it. But especially the opening scene of ⁓ Beyond the Spider-Verse. ⁓ Across, golly. ⁓ Across the Spider-Verse. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Unikitty: cross. EMMET: with it's like all about her and she she's blonde like my daughter and so she's just like, oh, that's her. And so when she saw the Lego, the Lego up here, she was like, oh, that's so cool. So I love that. And that's really what changed it for me. I was like, I love that she's playing with this, but I took it apart because I don't want my one and a half year old to choke on any of the pieces. So they were like back here. And so I was like, I'm going to take him down. It's going to stress me out or not stress me out on multiple levels of, know. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Unikitty: No, that's fair. That's smart. Unikitty Bomber: That's good. EMMET: if I just go ahead and do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Resident fight. Unikitty: Isaac, did you get Sophie to watch this movie with you? EMMET: Okay, so she, I told Walker this earlier today at the park with the kids. We, she watched, she was like locked in for the first 20 minutes, like, and I think it was a little too surreal for her. I don't think she was comprehending, like she knew, she's seen those pieces, you know, like up here in my office. Unikitty Bomber: Park with all the kids, yeah. Unikitty: You Mm. EMMET: but she couldn't comprehend how they could be talking and moving and it was kind of jagged and you know, it's stop motiony. And she liked it and she thought it was funny. Like there was a, there's one scene where she went, she looked at me and went, hee hee hee. Like at different points when I was laughing, she was trying to like laugh along, even though don't think she really knew what was happening. Metalbeard really scared her and then all the scenes with Lord Business scared her. So she was like, I don't like this daddy. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: ⁓ huh. Mmm. Okay. Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ haha. Unikitty: Hahaha EMMET: Yeah, so anyway, one day, one day we'll watch it and you'll like it. Unikitty: Cause she, how old is she now? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I can see where this might be a little, little too scary for her. Yeah, that's probably ages five and five and up. EMMET: Yeah, I didn't know that until I looked at her. She's three and a half, so... Unikitty Bomber: I don't even know that either. EMMET: I think five is probably, five or six is probably a better age. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Yep, it's smart humor. Unikitty: Uh-huh. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: That was really good. EMMET: Why does everyone keep saying that? Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. EMMET: was so cool. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: Mm-hmm. EMMET: When the ships would leave, they go Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, like the little kid, he's making the sound effects for them. Yeah, it's awesome. It makes me think of when SpongeBob would do the live action cutaways or something. That's what it reminded me of. Unikitty: Yeah, yeah, yeah. EMMET: Yeah, yeah. So good. Unikitty: Uh-huh. Yeah. EMMET: Yeah. ⁓ Unikitty: Hahaha Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Yep. That's hilarious you said Enron because it's Octan. Unikitty Bomber: Isn't Enron the, yeah, wait. EMMET: But it kind of is Enron. Unikitty: Yeah, we'll talk about it later Zach, don't worry about it. No, that is funny because like it is like man, this is making fun of mega corporations big time and ⁓ I also liked the bit where he's watching TV and ⁓ President Business is like, you know, ⁓ or I'm gonna glue you or freeze you or whatever he says. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: But Taco Tuesday just like cuts right past it and Emma is like, well, that doesn't sound good. Like, what does that mean? And then the sitcom shows up and he's like, yeah, yeah, put him to sleep. That's what he says. I'm gonna put him to sleep. And he's like, that doesn't sound good. And then the sitcom starts and he's like, what was I thinking? It's like, ooh, that is actively what's happening today, right now, like in this moment. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Wait, what? Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, yeah, we're experiencing that. EMMET: Mmm. Unikitty Bomber: Hmm. EMMET: Where are my pants? He's dead! Unikitty: Hahaha! Unikitty Bomber: Hmm. Unikitty: Elon Musk. EMMET: BULL Unikitty Bomber: be more like the villain in Tron Ares, I think. Unikitty: Yeah. He's the good guy. EMMET: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: No, he's the good guy Zach come on EMMET: He should have been the villain. Unikitty Bomber: He's the villain in He-Man. Unikitty: Right. He's the villain in Blade Runner 2049 which I watched for the first time last night. Yeah, it was really good. It was really good. EMMET: Did you like it? Unikitty Bomber: ⁓ my. EMMET: The scene at the end with the snow. Unikitty: ⁓ chef's kiss. EMMET: So good. Really? Nice. Unikitty: Nice. Nice. I love that full circle moment. Unikitty Bomber: That's awesome. I feel like we do have to talk about ⁓ this movie was absolutely snubbed at the Oscars. It was not even nominated for best animated feature that year, which is nuts. And ⁓ I think, what was it, Big Hero 6-1 that year, I think, which is also a great movie that I love. But this movie, like, Unikitty: Crazy. EMMET: Pretty good movie. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: I'm sorry, this movie kicks Big Hero 6's ass. Like this movie's awesome and it's such a shame that it didn't even get nominated and then didn't get the chance to win because I feel like it probably should have. EMMET: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: but the way that the Oscars treat an animated movie sucks, so. Unikitty: Yeah. Yeah, basically if it's not a... what? EMMET: Yep. Fantastic. Mr. Fox didn't win in 09 or 10 or in 10. Unikitty Bomber: What did it, what won that year? EMMET: ⁓ up, I think, I think up beat it. Which I mean, I like up as much as the next guy actually bought the up house in Lego on sale for Sophie when she's old enough to build it. It's in the closet right now. ⁓ I like up, but fantastic. Mr. Fox is like, Pixar, Pixar, no longer holds the Academy, ⁓ hostage because they've had so many duds in the last couple of years, but Unikitty: What? Unikitty Bomber: I like, yeah. Yeah. Unikitty: ⁓ that's fine. Unikitty Bomber: Nice. That'll be fun. It's a really, it's a really, really great movie. EMMET: then I was... yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. We just can't get RAM now. EMMET: Mm-hmm. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. It's a fun fact, just so everyone knows, in the United States of America now, 64 gigabytes of RAM is more expensive than an AR-15. Unikitty: Cool. Unikitty Bomber: So, yeah. EMMET: depressing. Unikitty: Hahaha Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, it's a... EMMET: It honestly is. That's one that scared Sophie. She was like, ahhhh. Unikitty: Yeah! Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. Unikitty: Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: They were they were freed at the end. Also, I love that Liam Neeson voiced bad cop, good cop and paw. Paw cop. So funny. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, yeah. EMMET: Yeah. Yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. I think the way that President Business pronounced all the relic names, like for some reason that hit me really hard on this one. He's like, the cloak of Bandai and the Polish Rumowa of Nail. Unikitty: Uh-huh. Yeah. That was really good. Which again, should like that made it feel like this is a kid playing with this. Like this is a kid being very creative and entertaining, you know, himself with all these things. And I thought it was, I thought that was just really fun and amazing and really just made this movie very enjoyable. Unikitty Bomber: It got me. Yeah. Yeah. I EMMET: Empire has... Unikitty: So. ⁓ huh. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. EMMET: Yeah. Is that a real brand? Because if it was, that's not the brand that we would buy. We would just buy a normal super glue. Unikitty Bomber: Crazy Glue? Yeah, crazy glue is real. I was like, I'm pretty sure it is, but yeah, it is. I see it. Unikitty: It is... yeah. Yeah. EMMET: But was it called Kragle? Unikitty Bomber: Well no, was the paint had chipped off, right? So it was like, so some letters were just missing. Unikitty: No, it was just... Yeah EMMET: ⁓ gotcha. Okay. didn't catch that. Empire had Lego movie listed at 39 in a list that they compiled in, ⁓ 2026. But they have Into the Spider-Verse as number one, which feels a little, I don't know. I would put Beyond the Spider-Verse at number one. Unikitty: or yeah. EMMET: Anyway. Unikitty: Interesting. Okay. EMMET: I've thought about it a lot, yeah. Unikitty Bomber: This is. EMMET: Yep. K-pop Demon Hunter's going into the Criterion channel. Like, what in the world? Unikitty Bomber: It's awesome. So sweet. Yeah. Unikitty: ⁓ I'm so excited. I'm gonna buy it. I'm pumped Yeah, no, I think we're in a really cool interesting. ⁓ we lost we lost back again. He'll come back ⁓ But we are in a cool cool time for for animation and you know I think with like flow winning best animated film last year at the Oscars is huge because again that was that was just like a pretty cheap animation thing you can buy like on your iPad like Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Unikitty: It's nothing crazy. so, which is awesome because I think that if, if people can continue to like hone their skills and like do make, make animated films or feature like short films or whatever, like that's, that's going to be really, really cool to see what, people put out there. And it's not going to be just be Pixar, which Pixar isn't necessarily like, obviously Pixar has done a lot for animation and Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. Yeah. Unikitty: has put out some incredible films and also there's so much more to animation than just that specific style. ⁓ Also, I would love to see a resurgence of 2D animation. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Unikitty: So that's my own personal preference though. EMMET: ⁓ yeah. Any final thoughts about the Lego movie, y'all? BENNY: It's solid movie. I think it's good for children, for adults. If you're a parent, show it to your kids. I think you'll both have a good time. Unikitty: had a great time. Yeah, agreed. EMMET: Children five and up. like it when Will Ferrell says, his son's like, that, it says to 18 plus. And he's like, that's just a suggestion. And he's like, so condescending. They have to put it on there. So funny. Will Zach, yeah. Yeah, ⁓ yeah. Five plus, yeah. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, fine. BENNY: It says 9 to 14. Unikitty: They have to put that on there. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, 8 to 14. Yeah. Unikitty: That was funny. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. BENNY: Maybe give this episode an age rating. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah. I'll a plus on this one. BENNY: you EMMET: Because I didn't tell the comeback story from the blooper. So, Zach, thank you for joining us. This was super fun. Hope to have you back soon. Made it through the technical difficulties. BENNY: small parts. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah Unikitty: Yeah, thanks for being here. BENNY: No problem. I'm always happy to talk about animation. Yeah, I'll figure out what the hell is wrong with my internet next time. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, Zach, I'll got to tell you ⁓ one of the movies that was on our possible watch list this year was Anomalisa and ⁓ that movie Zach showed me that movie and I it's didn't make the list but I just had to throw that out there that I watched that movie in a pitch black apartment Zach's college apartment with my friend Carson and me and Zach so Yeah EMMET: ⁓ good. BENNY: Andy Kaufman. It's a great movie. It's weird. It's so good. Unikitty Bomber: It is very odd, but it is good, EMMET: Is it like unsettling? Yeah. That's number 37 on Empire's list. Unikitty Bomber: Yes. Yeah. ⁓ wow. Just under the Lego movie, right? ⁓ BENNY: Yes. EMMET: Yeah. Yeah, which is crazy. Unikitty: Ha ha ha ha ha ha. BENNY: That's definitely one you don't want to watch with your family. Do not watch that one with the kids, unless they're six or up. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, that one's definitely 18 plus. Unikitty: No. EMMET: Yeah, Charlie Kaufman's movies, like, I just, I was pretty upset after I watched, I'm thinking of ending things. So I just, don't know if I can watch. ⁓ we're gonna, I mean, we're gonna watch Synecdoche, York, which I am looking forward to. Unikitty: ⁓ yeah, that movie. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, it's on our list. I'm looking forward to that too. Can I tell you, I read... BENNY: That was one of my suggestions too, I think. Unikitty: Yes. EMMET: Yeah, probably. Unikitty Bomber: I read the book, I'm thinking of ending things years before, yes, and the book is worse. The book is way worse. ⁓ I can tell you, I can't say it on air what happens at the end of this book. It's so insane. But like the ending of the movie is not near as crazy as the end of the book. The end of the book is one of the craziest things I've ever read. But I read the book in high school. I just bought it at the bookstore. Unikitty: It's a book? What?! ⁓ my god. EMMET: ⁓ geez. Unikitty Bomber: and I read it in high school and I like always remembered it but I could never remember the name of it. And then when I saw the trailer for the movie, no I saw the trailer for the movie and I said, is it, this is it. This is the book that I read that was so crazy. But. EMMET: Until now. No, I'm joking. Yeah, that's like one of the most upsetting, like, nihilistic movies I've ever seen. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, the book, I have the book, another, the book that the author wrote after that, but I haven't read it yet. It's called like, We Grow Apart or something like that. BENNY: I don't mean to be a snob, but I do love Kaufman. Unikitty: We're all bummer of a way to end. EMMET: Ian Reed. Unikitty Bomber: Heh. Heh heh heh heh. EMMET: No, I mean, like I love adaptation, because that's him too. ⁓ But that's like more my flavor of coffee. Unikitty Bomber: Well, when he, mean, and he wrote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mine, which is amazing. EMMET: Yeah, that's insane. BENNY: Don't even get me started on that movie. EMMET: Okay. Well, thank you for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe. Thank you to Walter Lyle for, ⁓ editing and producing this podcast. And thank you to me for doing the intro and outro, ⁓ tracks. Our art is by Sean Cohen. Our music is by cord and jocks. And our next episode is anyone. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Unikitty: Yeah, thank you. Unikitty Bomber: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Blazing Saddles. EMMET: Blazing Saddles. One of my all-time favorite movies. So, and I rewatched it a couple weeks ago and I'm gonna get to rewatch it again and I'm not mad about it, let me Unikitty: ⁓ is it really? Alright. Unikitty Bomber: Yeah, it is. Can I?