Episode 6 - America 250 and Toy Story 5

In this week's episode, Chris and Dar talk about America's 250th anniversary, the World Cup and the joy that it has brought to viewers all over the world. They also talk about the book Directed by James Burrows, share their thoughts on the documentary Billy and Molly, and they provide a movie review for Toy Story 5. 

Transcript

4th of July and America 250

Chris 0:12

Yes, it is another episode of From La La to Utah, and we're very happy to have you with us. I'm Chris. I'm from La La, where I grew up in the Val, which is the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

Dar 0:23

And I'm Dar. I grew up in St. George, Utah. And Chris and I met online in 2018, and we've been married since October of 2021.

Chris 0:30

So another episode. Here we are. Gosh, what is this? Episode five?

Dar 0:35

Six? Six? Six? Yeah.

Chris 0:36

I lose count.

Dar 0:37

So episode five, we did the road trip and we saw the San Fernando Valley, and you took us on a tour of your neighborhood, and you you had a special treat for me, which is really fun. The Karate Kid House, it was really fun. Just because I had such a crush on him growing up. But I found my Valley Boy. Oh. I'm happy with this one.

Chris 0:54

All right.

Dar 0:55

I'll choose Chris over Daniel any day.

Chris 0:58

So watch our previous episode. Um and watch your Karate Kid if you want to learn karate. Moves like sand the floor, wax on, wax off.

Dar 1:05

Paint the fence.

Chris 1:06

Paint paint the fence.

Dar 1:07

Breathe. Always look eye. Always look eye.

Chris 1:09

Always look eye.

Dar 1:11

That's right. That's right. And now that you have his retina.

Chris 1:15

Yeah. Um now you have my retina. Feel free to break into Fort Knox.

Dar 1:20

But I we wanted to segue because it's uh July 4th. Then the weekend. Well, here's the thing. We're recording on Friday. So you probably have already been through July 4th.

Chris 1:29

We're in the future. We're in the past. Yeah. We're in the past. And and Fourth July hasn't happened for us yet. We're also going to talk about the World Cup and the American team's triumphs and what England is up against. For you, one, Fourth of July has already happened. And two, America and England and some of the other teams might already be out. So this was kind of our thoughts going in. And still I think coming off this weekend, and we can be completely wrong on this. It just feels like remembering we're all enough to have been alive in 1976 to remember the bicentennial, the 200th anniversary. And it was a massive thing.

Dar 2:16

So patriotic. Flags everywhere, people celebrating, a general vibe of just happiness and independence. And I don't, I could be totally wrong. I don't feel that right now. I don't feel that pride in my country. It just feels so subdued. Yeah. No, I'll take that back. We'll talk more about the people in the country. We'll talk more about that, especially in how that relates to the World Cup. But our government, our leadership, it's it's it's kind of hard to feel joy under our current situation.

Chris 2:46

Yeah. So it's and hopefully it was a safe and happy forth for you. But uh as I said, it's just like going in, it's felt like this was you know going to be a Y2K level celebration.

Dar 2:59

Yeah, exactly. Over the top.

Chris 3:00

Over the top 250 years. And we'd all be excited and out there.

Dar 3:04

Yeah.

Chris 3:05

And it's just not that. And I I I you know I think there are reasons for that.

Dar 3:09

I you know, in some ways, I think people can argue it's been turned into Well, and I feel like as a reporter, you try to be very unbiased. You try to be very equal time, uh support each side. But I know you have an opinion. I I know you do.

Chris 3:27

Sure. And I always like to say, um, you know, my job is not to tell people what to think, but what to think about. Uh it's a mantra. I didn't come up with it, uh, but uh it's something I live by. But sometimes you do have to get something off your chest. I always say, Yeah, yeah, journalists are human beings. So, you know, we see what's around us, and sometimes it affects us.

Dar 3:48

I feel like you've been carrying something on your heart that you just kind of need to share your thoughts.

Chris 3:52

Well, I mean I guess as he used to say, as Cronkite would say, uh Eric Severeid okay, I'm really dating myself now. Um you know, this was gonna be mainly an editorial comment. But but like I said, if this feels so subdued, it's almost like we were told in at the start of the school year, you know, our 80s kid selves, guess what? Duran Duran's playing con.

Dar 4:16

Or OMD or INXS or OMD or INXS or U2. Yeah, exactly.

Chris 4:20

Um, or even Chicago.

Dar 4:22

Yeah, man. Yeah.

Chris 4:23

Um and instead it's a guy named Dan. Um it's not Chicago, it's um a group called Aurora, um, Illinois or something. It just, it's, it's just, it's like a bait and switch. It's like, or it's a disappointment.

Dar 4:40

Yeah, of course. Disappointing, yeah.

Chris 4:41

So I I I just want to get this off my chest about this and why I think a lot of people have been turned off from all this um when they want to be excited. To me, the big reason and or one of the biggest reasons, not to get political. But it's been turned into what should have been a celebration of all of us into a celebration of one person, into a celebration of only some of us rather than all of us. So instead of celebrating the ideals that separate us from the rest of the world, we're celebrating symbols. We're celebrating one man or one point of view, one culture, um, and the rest of you aren't a part of this. But that's not what America has been for most of its 250 years. This was supposed to be the biggest Fourth of July we've ever had because we actually had something worth celebrating. But somewhere along the line, I think a lot of us have forgotten what it was that we were celebrating. Now I just see people talking about flags, colonial costumes, a Lee Greenwood song. But all that's just a facade. They're just symbols. They're not the blood, guts, and heart that built this young nation. And it is a young nation. Let's not forget that. 250 years in the scheme of the world is not a long time. Yeah, I I remember, and I've talked to you about this before. I remember taking the Universal Studios tour and realizing that those towering buildings and home you see on the screen are just backdrops. The Leave it to Beaver House. You go around the back, it's just the front. There's no house. Um the the Psycho House, um, you go around the back, there's no house. Um I remember how a Battlestar Galactica ship, and like it was the front of the ship, and you and if you turned your back after the tram moves, it's like there's nothing behind me. What? There's no ship. Um that's a facade with nothing, with no heart, no guts. So to me, celebrating America's symbols and cults of personality is like celebrating the open credits of a movie and not watching the rest of it. It's a book with a beautiful cover and empty pages. It's leaving a five-star review on Yelp about a pizza that's just dry crust with no sauce, no cheese, no toppings. You know, is that what we're celebrating? It just feels like this this weekend celebrations were hijacked by those who want us divided. People who dehumanize their neighbors, foreign and domestic. People who embrace selfishness over community. But those attitudes didn't build the American century. The American century that we talk about, the greatest generation, the 20th century, where the United States led the world. But the world never looked to us because of the design of our flag or the melody of our anthem. They looked to us because of a slogan we have on our money, a slogan we have on our buildings. E plurbus unum. Which translates from Latin means out of many, one. We all know Benjamin Franklin's famous join or die cartoon, the timber rattlesnake chopped into little pieces. But the people using it today as a symbol of my view is better than yours have lost the plot. The actual meaning of the image, that image, rather, is simple. If we don't unite, we die. We aren't France started by the French. We aren't China started by the Chinese. We weren't founded by Americans. We were built by Irishmen, Britons, Spaniards, Latinos, Asians, Africans, and indigenous natives. That we mistreated for a long time, clearly. But they still helped build our we all still worked toward creating a more perfect union. So let me ask you people on both sides of the political spectrum, have you actually felt like you could breathe in the last decade? You know the slogan. It's not a slogan. It's in our family documents. We were trying, we were yearning to breathe free. Have you been able to breathe free? Are you okay living in a land of symbols, selfishness, and internet trolls? Aren't you tired of the vision and the anger? So I wish we were celebrating the other kind of American spirit, the spirit of love, of watching for your neighbor, of helping your neighbor, of not dehumanizing others, of giving people grace, of not judging people by what they look like, where they came from, but just who they were. And finding compromise. Why has compromise become such a bad word? I wish we were celebrating that. I wish we were celebrating a place where we can truly breathe free. That's something we're celebrating. We'll be

World Cup

Chris 10:15

back.

Dar 10:17

Welcome back. Um, I wanted to thank you for saying what you did. Um, I know that's been kind of weighing on you for a while. And um, I am luckily, I feel like we are seeing glimmers, especially in the World Cup, with how kind Americans really are. Like it's it's all over my feed. It's all over Facebook just saying America's amazing, and we thought America was loud and brash and rude. And we're like, no, it's people are like paying for our meals and taking us, giving us rides, and not making us pay on buses, or or just being happy for us and patting us on the back. And um, so and then the Tartan army kind of hijacked my my feed, but I loved that because it was all about joy. It really was.

Chris 11:02

And I'm yeah, and uh I I think the big thing is that America is celebrating right now, it's celebrating the joy that the World Cup is about. We we are World Cup crazy right now. I'm not just talking me because I was a soccer fan.

Dar 11:13

In our house, we are.

Chris 11:14

But I mean I think everyone is. I think so. And not even, you know, it's not just the fact that the US is doing well and they are they've been amazing. Yeah, it's the fact that people, I think, a majority of people, maybe a silent majority, prefer joy and happiness over divisiveness. Yeah.

Dar 11:32

It's like we forgot that we can have joy, that we can have fun, because we're kind of we've been under such a gloomy cloud for so long. But I I do want to share a quote that my cousin had on her Facebook. Okay. Yeah. I wrote it down so I could read it. Yeah. Somebody said the World Cup is just the US having a giant sleepover with cousins we never see because our parents hate each other. Doesn't that sound about right?

Chris 11:55

Exactly right.

Dar 11:56

Because it's like when we when we actually are face to face with we have a great time and we treat each other well. And like when we went to your um nephew's graduation, and I'm not gonna say his name just because he deserves privacy, um, the people in front of us, we were getting to know them, and you know, we're like, oh, who's your graduate? And here's here's our graduate, and we were cheering for each other. And I that's that's what we do. We help each other. We I like to focus on the fact that we really do um like to show kindness. We do at a at a personal level.

Chris 12:30

That's the real America.

Dar 12:31

Yes, I think so.

Chris 12:32

I think you keep hearing people who come from other countries say, I didn't know Americans were like this. Yeah. Because what once again is about the facade. What we presented to the world is cowboy mentality. Cowboy mentality. You're with us or against us. You're with us or against us. Yeah. We're gonna drive our ATVs onto your front lawn, whether you like it or not.

Dar 12:50

Um loud music, loud. That's not us. I mean, that's that's a part of us. That's a part of us.

Chris 12:55

I can't say it's not us at all, but but the thing that, like I said, made us leaders in the world, the thing that made us for lack of a better term great was our joy, our unity, our ability to show that you know, Europe was all these different nations, yet the United States were all these different states and still we're one nation.

Dar 13:14

Yes. Our diversity. I mean, our and and really it's like it's I've heard a lot of people, you know, as the World Cup is going, say, you guys, you can't just lump America into this one lump sum. It's like each state has its own identity, its own cultures, its own foods, and it's true. Um it's I really enjoyed seeing America through other people's eyes who are here for the first time. Yeah. Um, so I I I just want to get back to the fundamentals of treating people well. Um, I remember as a teacher, I taught for 12 years in the public school system, and I didn't care who was legal, who was not legal. I didn't care who was rich, who was poor, who was religious, who was gay, straight. I didn't care about any of that. What I cared about is how we treated each other and how what we what we could accomplish together, and also how we could cheer each other on individually, right? Because we all have certain gifts. We should feel free to be ourselves, our authentic selves, and and be able to make decisions for ourselves, for our family, without being judged, without being put down. Um that's that was my goal for my classroom, and it's my goal for my country is just treat people well, show some grace, be kind, let people live their life, and you live your life, and hopefully we can keep coexist peacefully.

Chris 14:31

More perfect union, e pluribus unim. Why is it so hard? I don't know. You know, there's a Elvis Costello song. I used to I used, I still love. Hey, Elvis Costello, awesome.

Dar 14:42

Yeah, yeah.

Chris 14:42

Uh you know, what's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?

Dar 14:46

Yeah, totally. I agree. I totally agree.

Chris 14:48

You know, yeah. Um, no, we're not always gonna agree, but I'll tell you, we we this world is this world, I mean, not just this nation, this world is a lot better when people can say, you know what? No, I'm not gonna get everything I want, you're not gonna get everything you want. But we agree on this. Let's get at least that.

Dar 15:05

I think you hit on something, and that's kind of what I wanted to say is that we all want what's best for our family. We want clean water, we want good food, we want shelter, we want safety. How we go about that, sometimes we disagree on how that looks. Sure. But we should all be able to decide for our family what that looks like without hurting anyone else, right? At least don't make somebody's life worse, right?

Chris 15:27

Exactly.

Dar 15:27

So that's where I'm coming from.

Chris 15:29

I appreciate you getting your point across.

Dar 15:31

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Chris 15:32

And it's funny, so get to the actual soccer of the World Cup.

Dar 15:35

Yes, yes, please. Geek out.

Chris 15:37

But once again, yes, you're in the future.

Dar 15:39

Yes.

Chris 15:39

Everything's already happened. You're either sitting there going, wow, that was an amazing victory by the United States. I cannot believe England actually won in Mexico. My, in Azteca. Wow. But you know, we're in the past, so we don't know.

Dar 15:55

So as it stands now, what are your thoughts?

Chris 15:58

So here's the thing. First of all, you know, you you always like to say you're not a sports fan per se, you're a fan that I like sports.

Dar 16:06

Right.

Chris 16:07

And but you definitely know soccer a lot more because of Ted Lasso.

Dar 16:10

A lot more. I I wouldn't say I love it. I'm not like I don't know that I would turn it on and watch it alone. Um but I like watching you have fun and watch it with my nephews, with my family. I just love the excitement. And so I I have gained an appreciation.

Chris 16:25

So basically, for Dar, football, Chris discretion advised. Um anyway, so so I have to talk about first of all, the American team has shown so much heart. They going in, they had some faults. They had some problems, especially getting the ball up forwards to their forwards so they can score. Because I always knew these forwards, you know, Pulsic and and this team, if you can get forward, can score. I I was worried they weren't gonna be able to. They are. Um, but let's let's the thing is, I I support two teams, the United States and my dad's native Britain, in the case of England. Um Scotland didn't uh get past the main round, and my favorite team, Wales, this is a Wrexham kit, um didn't get to the World Cup at all.

Dar 17:25

Yeah, sorry.

Chris 17:26

Yeah. But that said, the US has a much better road to get potentially the semis to me. At least until Monday. Um hopefully they've won, and you're all celebrating the victory over Belgium, um, than England. Here's here's what England has to do. In sports, we talk about even those who don't follow sports.

Dar 17:51

Miracle on ice, right?

Chris 17:52

No, yeah, miracle on ice. Yes. The Dodgers in '88 being the heavy favorite Oakland A's and Jose Conseco and Mark McGuire. People remember these things. They remember the under the major things in upsets in sports, Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson. What England has to do is do not one miracle, not two miracles, but three.

Dar 18:18

Yeah. Are they up for it?

Chris 18:21

Here's the problem. Now, the game you may have already seen. And so I'm gonna be talking, and it's already over. England's on a flight right now, heading back and uh drinking some of my favorite peaky tips. It's a team. Um but they're playing, they start off by playing Mexico in Estadio Azteca, where in competitive games, Mexico is something like 86 and two. That's 86 wins, they've lost twice.

Dar 18:50

And it's at high altitude, too.

Chris 18:51

And high altitude, if England doesn't play in.

Dar 18:54

And their home team, their home grounds. Yes.

Chris 18:56

They're the host nation, yeah. The fans are going crazy with support. Um that's daunting. Okay, let's say, and you're in the future, you know, I don't. Let's say England gets past that game. Miracle. That it it's it's not, it should not be understated how massive that win would be.

Dar 19:19

Yeah.

Chris 19:20

But guess what I probably play next? Brazil. Or Norway, which is also a pretty good team. But one of those two teams, but probably Brazil, and Brazil is Brazil. It's like if I say baseball, Yankees or Dodgers, I like to say Dodgers, but you know the Yankees have the most championships. If I say basketball, Celtics or Lakers, or the Chicago Bulls of the 90s. If I say international football, Brazil. Okay. Let's say they get past that game.

Dar 19:52

Miracle number two.

Chris 19:53

That's miracle number two. Yeah. Guess who they have to play in the semis, more than likely. Argentina and Messi.

Dar 20:00

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris 20:03

You know, so it's like not one, not two, but three miracles.

Dar 20:07

And may the force be with them. And may the force be with them. We hope that.

Chris 20:10

I, you know, I'm very much an England supporter, so I certainly hope uh, you know, Harry Kane has been unbelievable. Amazing. Um, you know, but they also have to show a lot more too, or they already have. I don't know. You're in the future. I'm not.

Dar 20:27

Yep. We get it.

Chris 20:28

We get it. Okay. So in the meantime, we're gonna go back to the future shortly. It's gonna be like a little break for us, and then we'll be in the future. We'll be right back. We'll be right back in the future.

What we are into this week.

Chris 20:42

And welcome back to From La La to Utah. And hey, you made it to the future. Um, so we always like to talk pretty much in every episode about what we've been watching, what we've been seeing in pop culture, because we love pop culture. Um so a couple things, but before that, it's about using our eyes. And there's something wrong with this eye.

Dar 21:04

Try not to look, but um, I've got something going on with my eye. I think it's an autoimmune thing, but I hey, I have salve, I have medication. It's being addressed. Just try not to look. I'm just saying what's out there.

Chris 21:14

Do not pay attention to the eye on the screen.

Dar 21:16

These are not the eyes you're looking for. That's right. That's right. Um, anyway, going on. So, anyway, going on to what we've been listening to. We started listening, I think we started listening to it, honestly, when we were playing Dr. Mario, and then we continued on our road trip. On our road trip, yeah. That we saw last week. It's called Directed by James Burrows. And it's an audio book that he reads, which I love hearing the author's voice because he's talking about himself and his experiences. But if you know Mary Tyler Moore, Friends, Will and Grace, Cheers, Taxi, any of those, if you appreciate any of those, you can thank James Burrows.

Chris 21:51

He's the guy doing it. And unfortunately, we lost him two or three weeks ago.

Dar 21:54

Yeah.

Chris 21:55

Um, so it's almost like an epitaph to listen to his voice still talk to you. To me, it's what makes people immortal.

Dar 22:02

Yeah.

Chris 22:02

You become immortal by what you've left the world, whether it's your art, your writing. Um so it's just fascinating because it's it's almost it, it just it's an it's a little bit of the nuts and bolts. It's a little bit of the behind the scenes of of your favorite shows you know in these late 70s, 80s, yeah, um, 90s. I mean, come on, Friends, Cheers.

Dar 22:23

Yes. I mean, I'm a huge Friends fan. Always have been. I can quote, you know, a lot of it. Taxi was never really on my radar because when it was on, I was a lot younger.

Chris 22:34

And living in Utah.

Dar 22:36

Yes. And so now I'm kind of appreciating it. There's an episode you showed me uh where um Christopher Lloyd Christopher Lloyd's character he he's Jim, Reverend Jim. Reverend Jim, there we go. He tries to to get his driver driver's license to drive a taxi, and he he kind of needs help to pass this test. And so the the the gang go there, they're kind of whispering answers to him, helping him pass. And he's like, What does a yellow light mean? What does a yellow light mean? And then who what did they say?

Chris 23:07

And then Jeff Conway is you know, slow down.

Dar 23:12

Yeah.

Chris 23:12

So Christopher Lloyd comes back. What does a yellow light mean? And then you hear something, slow down. And then you just go back. What does he just go down? And James Burrows talks about in the in in the audio book in the book, um, about um how the studio audience was cracking up like crazy, and he just left it all all the cracking up in because it is one of the funniest moments on TV, look it up on YouTube. Um and I he also talked about his own background with Broadway.

Dar 23:46

His dad um was a director on Broadway, and and he kind of went, he learned the trade through his dad. And if you think about it, a sitcom really is a stage play that's filmed, right?

Chris 23:57

Well, in the case of like Cheers, big Cheers person, um, I went to two tapings.

Dar 24:02

Yeah.

Chris 24:03

Um so it's one in particular I put it on for Dar.

Dar 24:06

Yeah, we watched it the other day.

Chris 24:08

I did a specific laugh that I hoped would show up, and it did. You hang your ha ha ha in the background, and that's me, because I want to make sure I stood out a little bit. I'm surprised in in the in the post, they weren't like through this guy. Yeah. Um so um, and if it was one episode in particular that I was at that's one of my favorites, it's the episode where Sam, uh his old friend, comes back and he's uh former teammate and says, Let's go back and try to make the team again. They go back and yeah, try to make the team. Um baseball.

Dar 24:41

Yeah.

Chris 24:41

Yeah. That's a sport thing.

Dar 24:43

Yeah, it is. But uh But I I understand why you liked it though. It was a it was a fun episode to watch with you. Um, but switching gears a little bit, um so we came upon a documentary. We were watching uh a BBC Channel 4 show, and this commercial came on. Oh, sorry. Channel 4. Channel 4, sorry.

Chris 25:02

Yeah, I'm BBC, ITV, they're all part of the brits.

Dar 25:06

Okay, anyway, we saw this app about a documentary, and we're like, this looks so cute. And it's called Billy and Molly. And it's about a guy from northern Scotland that befriends an otter. And he and he names the otter Molly. And it is so adorable. And it's like if you if you love pets, if you love wildlife documentaries, you're gonna be sucked into this as well. It's just a really warm, fuzzy feel good.

Chris 25:34

Really? I mean, it in the cinematography, the visuals are amazing of Northern Scotland on the border. Yeah. Shetland, the actual Shetland, on the right where it basically you have the North Sea and then the Arctic.

Dar 25:46

Um it's a show you can watch with the whole family and thoroughly enjoy it. Um, so I I recommend Billy and Molly. Billy and Molly. In America, you can watch it on Disney Plus um in the UK.

Chris 25:57

UK on Channel 4 or it's on Channel 4 streaming deal. Yeah. Um he also has an Instagram feed. I would probably avoid it until you see the movie because you know it's it's after the movie, so it might give you spoilers. But his name is uh Sheltie Bill, S-H-E-L-T-I-E underscore Bill on Instagram. I want to give him a shout-out, obviously. Um because it's just so touching. It's it you're not gonna, it's not a, you know, it's not there to educate you, it's there just to show share a story of two people making a connection, of two people being together. I mean, if if you like, like to me, it also reminded me a lot of March of the Penguins um or My Octopus Teacher, which is not necessarily well, you know, especially the case of My Octopus Teacher, they weren't there to say, this is what an octopus is, this is what an otter is. This is what it's like it's just taking real life. The recent documentary style of not even having a narrator, just basically letting them talk.

Dar 26:56

Um tell their own story. Yeah.

Chris 27:00

Um, so it talks about connection. And speaking of connections, we're gonna connect that to one more thing we watched this week.

Dar 27:06

We went to the movie and we will review that movie when we come back.

Toy Story 5

Dar 27:11

Hello.

Chris 27:13

Hello.

Dar 27:14

We are watching Toy Story 5 getting ready to watch. Delicious Icee and popcorn, of course, and luxury seats. Got the heater going already. Are we gonna compete?

Chris 27:27

I think so.

Dar 27:28

Okay, it's on.

Chris 27:29

Okay, but but technically I put that on your side so it's yours.

Dar 27:32

Oh, rude!

Chris 27:32

And we've connected to the other segments.

Dar 27:35

And we saw Toy Story 5. Yeah, and and we specifically said, let's not talk about it, let's save it for the camera.

Chris 27:43

That's right, which which we are. Yeah. So we don't know. We didn't even tell each other. I think we both knew we liked it.

Dar 27:50

But we were gonna talk about it, and then we're like, oh, let's talk. Let's talk. Let's save it.

Chris 27:54

We want to save it.

Dar 27:55

Yeah.

Chris 27:56

So So we're like, Andy's here.

Dar 28:00

Okay, you have a thing where any kind of sequel has to hit a certain benchmark. What is that benchmark? Explain to the people what

Chris 28:09

People in the future, I will explain to. What what to me, a sequel has to prove that it's worthy of existing.

Dar 28:16

Just standing on a thumbs up.

Chris 28:17

Like stay on its own, that there was a reason to make this movie.

Dar 28:20

Yeah.

Chris 28:20

And to me, the first two sequels Toy Story One was, of course, groundbreaking and amazing. It was enough that was groundbreaking, also was a great movie. Two, fantastic, worthy of being made. Three, my you did not cry at the end of Toy Story Three. Come on. Very worthy. In fact, I mean I'd argue it was almost three was the best. Then came Toy Story Four. Let down. Kind of meh. To me, Toy Story Four had no reason to exist.

Dar 28:49

Okay. So what do you think about five?

Chris 28:52

The question is Toy Story Five worthy being existing.

Dar 28:54

Did it pass the Chris test?

Chris 28:55

Let's do one. Well, let's do one, two, three. We'll both say it. What? Thumbs up or what? Was it worthy?

Dar 29:00

Okay.

Chris 29:00

One, two, three. Worthy.

Dar 29:02

It's worthy, yeah.

Chris 29:04

Absolutely. Um fantastic.

Dar 29:07

I thought it was it got its point across, but not in a preachy way at all. And I think kids will enjoy it, adults will enjoy it, and a lot of the toys that are referenced are from our childhood. And just fun scenes.

Chris 29:20

And by the way, toys reference for a millennial, toys reference for a generation X. Yeah, totally.

Dar 29:25

Yeah. I think it's it's a winner for just families of of all ages, really.

Chris 29:30

Yeah. And and you know, it's um it's funny that uh, you know, I mentioned about Toy Story. To me, at least my personal headcanon, there's Toy Story One, two, and three. Four doesn't exist, go right to five. Okay. To me, this should have been Toy Story Four. It's worthy with the rest of the movies. I still would say, I mean, the other three are probably better movies, but it's and and the there are some characters from the fourth movie who return for this one. Keanu Reeve's character returns folks.

Dar 30:00

Yeah, and Bo Peep has a bigger role.

Chris 30:01

Right, but slightly. What reminded me a little bit is is the first movie in a way. Yeah. Because the first movie was about the older ancient kind of toy woody. Like dolls and suddenly here comes Buzz Lightyear, the modern with batteries and all that. And they had to learn to live among each other, and ultimately they do and make connections.

Dar 30:26

That's exactly. I mean, I felt like okay, they needed to speak on the technology component. I it it kind of felt like they had a duty, they were duty bound to say something about that because how many of our kids have tablets? How many of our kids are on their Switch?

Chris 30:41

How many people are on their screens not paying attention to that?

Dar 30:44

Exactly. And this film kind of shows that. Like you look into a house and look at all the windows that have blue light or people into a screen. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Only half listening, right? So I felt like Yes, listening.

Chris 30:57

I was listening, yes.

Dar 30:58

So I feel like they made that statement purposefully, but how they made it, I thought was very tasteful.

Chris 31:03

How it was made, it was very tasteful, and ultimately it is about the whole movie is about connections.

Dar 31:08

Yeah, it is. How do you make friends? Is it important to play? Is imagination important? Like how how do you make friends?

Chris 31:15

So it brings us all around to what we were talking about in the start of the show about America 250. Yeah. It's all about connecting with each other.

Dar 31:20

Yeah.

Chris 31:20

And we have, whether it's because of technology, whether it's because of of our views, whether it's because of the pandemic, we are so divided right now. We need to connect again.

Dar 31:30

Yeah, yeah, we do.

Chris 31:31

And the movie makes a good point about that.

Dar 31:32

And put down the screens and don't let the algorithm hijack you.

Chris 31:35

But also when you, by the way, uh, without spoiling too much, they ultimately they have to figure out to live with the screens and the toys in the same board.

Dar 31:43

The technology is not going away. So how do you how do you do it in a balanced way, really?

Chris 31:47

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And so very well made. And so the person who made uh the director writer, uh Andrew Stanton, um he made some things that we enjoy, you know. Yeah. When it comes to Pixar, he is the mind behind um the Finding Nemo movies. Um, and to me, probably one top one, two, or three Pixar movies is WALL-E.

Dar 32:07

Oh, I love WALL-E.

Chris 32:10

Um, so same quality. Yeah. Um and he also has done a lot of TV that we love. You won't realize you wouldn't realize.

Dar 32:17

Well, I mean, you when I heard um the voice of Krys Marshall. Yeah, Krys Marshall. And I'm like, wait, her voice sounds familiar. She's on um For All Man kind .

Chris 32:27

And then she plays in Paradise and she plays Daniel Poole on For All Mankind. It turns out Andrew Stanton directed a lot of the second season episodes of For All Mankind. Yeah. He also directed a lot of the second season episodes for Stranger Things.

Dar 32:40

Oh, yay! I love it.

Chris 32:41

We like Stranger Things.

Dar 32:42

We do, yes, we do.

Chris 32:44

We like Stranger Things.

Dar 32:46

Um and then um so you know, but you also have a thing. If if a movie only promote promotes who the names, who the celebrities are, you're like, oh, that's an automatic turnoff. It didn't do that.

Chris 32:55

Because to me, it's just like this, you know, when you see an anime, it's usually the bad anime movies. The previous film was like, this has Because that's the only draw. Spencer this guy and this guy and this guy. It's all about these people. Yeah. They don't they to this day, they've never promote Toy Stories movie by saying, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen.

Dar 33:17

But they're all there. Like if they're if they're alive and they were able to come back, then they reprise their role.

Chris 33:22

And you don't even see who plays, you know, all the characters. It's such a massive cast now. It's almost like the Avengers of so many famous people building. Yeah. And they're all back.

Dar 33:31

So who plays the new little potty console thing?

Chris 33:34

Oh, so so one of the technology toys is basically a potty.

Dar 33:40

It's like a little reward, like number one, number two.

Chris 33:43

Like an early toddler leap pat, basically.

Dar 33:45

Yeah, potty training. And yeah.

Chris 33:47

Conan O'Brien plays the potty machine. He's he's brilliant, yeah. Um, and it's funny uh because that reminded me so much when my oldest was very young.

Dar 33:57

He's not gonna be happy about this story, but yes, maybe, but yeah.

Chris 34:01

But he he had a it wasn't a toy per se, it was more like it was a button you put on the wall. Okay, okay. And so every time when you were potty training and he would go potty, and you'd press this button, and you'd hear the hip-hop music dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun and then his big voice would go, that's potty power. And it made it every time. It sounds like it's potty trained because of potty game.

Dar 34:28

It sounds like it was good at its job.

Chris 34:30

So that's what the Conan O'Brien's potty technology thing. But it's it's not it's not too much potty humor, folks, so it's okay.

Dar 34:38

No, it's I I thought it hit the right tone. Lots of Easter eggs.

Chris 34:43

You go through it's one of those things. You go through who voiced that you don't pay attention too much because the story's great. It is. You don't care it's who's in it.

Dar 34:50

And it's not totally predictable either.

Chris 34:51

It's not.

Dar 34:52

Yeah.

Chris 34:52

And and it's funny, but the cast, first of all, there is an after credit scene, so stick around. Stick around. Um but there's um you don't see the list of the cast until way into the until after the scene. Yeah, and there's way after that scene. Yeah, it's just like so to me, what the brilliance of Pixar and Disney's recent animated efforts are is it's not about who's the voice, it's not about the star power, it's about the story. Yeah. And that's you know, when they get it wrong, it's when they forget that. So just like we get it wrong when we forget what our country was about.

Dar 35:26

Hopefully we can remember and make and make things better and turn it around and cut it.

Chris 35:31

Hopefully you're in a nicer future now where everything is great.

Dar 35:36

Well, but I want to thank you for spending your time with us too. And so we we always want to, you know, if you want to reach out and give us ideas or any feedback, call us. Yeah, we have a phone number. Yeah.

Chris 35:48

Um, you know, don't call me personally, you know. Well, yeah, you can call us.

Dar 35:51

Um I'm gonna give you the number, right? It's a voicemail inbox. You're not gonna actually speak with us, but I'm not sitting here.

Chris 36:00

But number is four, it's on your screen. 435-990-5824. Yeah. 435-990-5824.

Dar 36:08

You can email us at from lalatoutah@gmail.com and share your thoughts about the episode.

Chris 36:14

We'd love to hear from you. We'd love to hear your views. There's to me, we need to listen to each other. It doesn't mean we're gonna agree, but at least I think we're better ultimately, and we actually are able to find common ground when we do listen to each other.

Dar 36:25

Well, and I would love to hear how you and your neighbors are trying to buoy each other up. Or maybe something, maybe you ran into people who are in America for the first time, and it's been a great experience. I would love to I would want to hear more glimmers. That's what I want to hear about. Let's hear some joy. Yeah.

Chris 36:40

So for now, we hope you have a great week in the future. Yeah. And we hope you take care of yourself.

Dar 36:46

See you. See you next week.

Chris 36:48

Take care.