iTunes Exclusive Episode Alice Through The Looking Glass

Greetings, Empire member and or members. If you are hearing the sound of my voice, the following conditions have been met. At least once in your life, you have listened to the Clubhouse podcast live every Sunday, 7 Eastern for Pacific, your one-stop shop for all-thing sports and entertainment, basically pop culture.

It also means you subscribe on iTunes, because it is time for another iTunes exclusive. The 288th one of these bad boys, welcome. My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast, and I've been known down to go a few rabbit holes in my life, which is how I roll.

I'm not alone for this particular episode, joining me across the desk as he tends to do is a man who will make a hat mad on you every once in a while. He is my co-host. He is Chad.

Well, I'm sorry. My hat's getting along a little bit better with me now, now that I've cut my hair. That's true.

That's probably very, very true. Also joining us is the fact checker of this show and a man that will, every once in a while, just take a drink of something just because a sign tells them to. You may know him as fun, Don Go, but his mom and even Don Ford, I'm going to call him Don Ford.

Well, I'm sorry. That did happen two days ago. See there you go.

Yeah. Probably try to drink or something. At the time of this recording, that's right, we're 48 hours removed from Buffet.

Yeah, that's right. He's wearing his shirt for the show, by the way. He probably saw a couple of things that don't drink me, he's like, ah.

Whenever we do one of these things, it is to review something, and this is no exception. James Bobin, the guy that directed both Muppets films, goes into a different wing of the Disney archive. As he directs Alice through the looking glass, Johnny Depp, Mia, I'm not even going to try to say her last name anymore, because I keep screwing it up, hell in a bottom card or a and half away, Sasha Baron Coden, Reese Eifens, Lindsey Duncan, a lot of people in this bad boy before we start this whole thing.

We have to thank Susan Jenna, everybody at Susan Jacobs and Disney for the invite to this thing. They really take care of that. Yeah, we're big fans of those kids.

We all got the invite, but unfortunately due to issues and travel and schedule, I don't say the different time zones. So, but Chad was there, and so he's going to be, I know you were there, you guys had to split duty. Chad was the one you were at the other.

So we're going to focus on you for this one, Don. We all know the story. This is really, I hate to call it a sequel, but technically it is to Alice in Wonderland.

The normal cast of characters is back, but Alice has to return to Wonderland and has to travel back in time to save the mad hat or a bit time itself, played by the Sasha Baron Coden, who I like to refer to as, I'd like to move it, move it, once to stop her. Don, did you see the first one, uh, but not straight through all the way through, but okay. Okay.

I'm just going, I'm not even going to bury Rita, I'm going to ask this right off the bat. If I didn't see Alice in Wonderland, am I going to be okay seeing this? Yes.

I honestly think so, because, let me not see this start to finish, basically, she returns to Wonderland. Okay. And so, everybody knows a basic story about Alice in Wonderland and it's to say, let's add something on to it.

Okay. In a nutshell, she starts off as we're captain being a captain of a ship and gets back to, and this is real world, and then some instance happened, and she ends up back in Wonderland and everybody's like, hey, you get to see Alice, but then the mad hater is not doing good. And he's not himself, so she basically goes back in time and Wonderland to try to fix the problem.

And that's all I want to say to be really spoiler-frame in a nutshell. Fair enough. I mean, it's Disney, so I would assume that visually this is about on part of what they're doing.

On this film when it comes to, if you want to talk visual, look at everything for stuff, we got, I was able to send 3D, okay, okay. I will say that. Really?

Did I max read or just read it? Yeah, it was full blown. Yeah, I max 3D.

Yeah, good. Good. Jen and Susan to care about something.

One, make sure we put this in the proper form. Yes. Yes.

The thing I loved most about this film was the look, the look was incredible. One of the new average 3D better than, you know, a lot of those films that come out the CGI, I was literally blown away from the look of this thing. Totally.

I can't see enough words. Wouldn't Alice, the first Alice, like, on the cusp of that first wave, like, I want to say that I saw that the trailer for Alice, the first time I saw Avatar, an Avatar pretty much got the whole ball rolling with the 3D Renaissance. So, yeah, Alice was like the next big one after Avatar.

So, they kind of have the first Alice was 2010, so that sounds about right. Yeah, because Avatar came out in December of O'Nine. Yeah, I did not see that in 3D though, the first one.

But this one, this one, of course, I did, and the 3D really, really, really the answers in. If there's one thing I could say that really gets to smoothy the big top part, be on belief, is the look. Now, all the way.

Now that you say that though, did you feel that it was style over substance or did the storyline, was it strong enough that it didn't necessarily have to rely on the visuals? No, it's relying on the visuals, and I'll tell you why. Okay, no, that's what we're here for.

This film is of course, Disney does, he likes to be very family friendly. Normally, yes. Yes.

Okay. So, let's see how the Disney band is. It's starting off with the Disney.

You see the backdrop, and here comes the castle, and all that, Disney, and all that. So, this is Disney. And I do like how they've gotten kind of creative with the castle and a lot of their films lately, especially with jungle book.

I mean, or Disney, what's their earth stuff? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Disney nature. I just love what they've been doing lately with that, but here's where I think this is where it's going to be family friendly, it's because of the look. It will keep the kids interested.

Now, here's the issue, which I put in my written view at www.clabaspodcast.com. That is our website. The plot is too complicated.

It's a little too complex, because I did read your review at www.clabaspodcast.com. Which is our website. And you said that, and I was very intrigued by that, because as I read the synopsis of the film, my first question was, man, this water might get a little deep for the younger ones.

Yeah, I believe. Even for adults. They go to the point where it's, I really have two, it's one of those films where you really have to kind of keep up with the plot.

Without being, it's not one of those real, real intense, don't miss a second, but as an adult, you really have to keep your toes on to really look at the plot, and which I even told last talking to Jen after the show, and I said, that was the one thing. There's, I don't see any way where a 10, 12, 8, 6-year-old can't follow this plot. You know what?

Your screenwriter is a Linda Wolvergen, responsible for Beauty and the Beast, Maleficent, the first Alice, the both Lion King films, Mulan, let's see, she did a lot of different things. So, and most of the, of course, Disney related, the homework, bounding incredible journey. The plot I really did, I liked it when I was able to keep up with it and everything, but as a family film, there's no way the kids can follow this thing, no way, so that's why I'm saying as a family, friendly film is going to be more of keeping the look and the 3D and the images, that's how it's going to keep the kids in there.

So for you, it's, I don't know how to ask the question, do the actors, are they, actors able to keep up with this storyline, I mean, are the performances on par, yes, I would say, in my, my shadow actually goes to Borat, Sasha Baron Cohen, I like to move it, yeah, I come for it, I know it's Borat, and all that, and I'll lead G, but you know, it's really, but when he's not being this, he's a top character, he's got acting yes, he's really done, and he showed it in this as far as time, as time, he did incredible, he got my, he got my shadow for this film, I'm no fan of the guy, but I dug him in, uh, Swiny Todd, yes, and we really showed some range. Now, what do I tell you, you're going to have to put you with nothing about that, no, what does film really remind me of, which is kind of ironic, because because cones in this, you go, I'm excited, yes, yes, I did it, it wasn't that like heavily based around a time plot, yes, I've never put a clock in that in, in times and clocks in time, trouble really go into this film, very nice, so I'm watching that, now I've been told some, you know, fellow critics after the thing, I go, this had that real fill of Hugo, and they're going, you know what, you're right, it had that kind of look, it's, it had that look of like Hugo, when you're in, you know, in the special areas and everything, so it's kind of, you know, here's Cohen again, you know, from Hugo doing this and reminding me of that film, which I thought was kind of ironic, interesting, yeah, acting was, was good, I mean, there's only, you know, three or four handful characters that which are really people, the rest of voiceovers for like the rabbit, and all that, you know, the jackalope and everything, but voice wise, they were fine, I just realized it in this effectively Rickman's last film, because I know you just saw the one about the drones from, you know, okay, yeah, the right way, I think it was less on three different stations going to be, yeah, this is listed as his last one, there's another one we're in here, it's called this tortoise could save a life, but yeah, the his last few are listed as Alice, that this source could save a life in an eye in the sky, yeah, his, his was just a voice on this, yeah, yeah, I mean, it, I'll be honest with with Rickman, it was probably only about three minutes, that's all he was in there, yeah, he didn't have a lot of time in the last, he was absolutely in the caterpillar, yeah, so I mean, his character was only in there for about, uh, he was a voice character was only in there for about three minutes, totally. Anything else you need to add for me to the final analysis?

Uh, acting, I overall like the acting was good, I like where the plot went, but very too complicated, but I think the look will really make up for it, I thought that the characters really fed off each other even when they were their voices, so time was really able to play off some of these characters, uh, just by the voices and stuff like that, I thought. Okay, so that was done very good. Chad, any questions you have for the final analysis?

It sounds a lot like the original, because I mean, the original, I know through a lot of people, they didn't even know what they were looking at until they were halfway through it. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, it's going to be in that kind of feel plot-wise. So it's consistent, it's just, let's add on another story.

It's, especially since they changed directors, especially since Burton did the original, I know he was involved, but he wasn't directing. All right, well, let's get to the final analysis, the way we do the final analysis on this show, we're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs down, we're not going to give you number rankings, we're not going to give you stars, letter grades, anything like that. Our audience whom we affectionately refer to as the empire, they want us to go deeper than that.

So we're going to, I'm going to ask Don up to two questions. Question number one is would he see this film again? If the answer is no, we're done here.

But if the answer is yes, I'm going to ask him, would he pay full price? Would he go for maybe a twilight showing? Would he go to a matinee?

Would he go for an early morning show on a weekend? Maybe second round the dollar theater? Would he venture away from the homestead to rent it from red box?

Would he shoot me on Netflix? Maybe he wait for it on TV. Don, would you see this film again?

Yes, how far are you willing to go? I'm going to recommend it as a matinee or a 99th center if you could get the 3D. Okay, the lowest price with 3D.

Because the 3D makes it, I think you get more out of it watching in the theater than you would at home if you could get it in 3D. That really, really made the difference on this one. All right, any other questions?

But basically just, you know, try to 3D it if not. Okay, but still, I still like it, the plot but be careful the plot with the kids. And again, we have to think Susan, Jenna, Susan Jacobs, everybody it is for the invite for this thing.

Thank you so much. All right, Alex, you're looking glass. You've heard it from the man himself.

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I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com. I am Chad at the clubhousepodcast.com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest.

Jules Wong, she's hanging out in the green room because that's kind of what she does. Hunter's battle cat has also joined us. Our normal show every Sunday night, 70's turn for Pacific, where you're one stop shop for all things pop culture.

How we roll. So until next time, for Don, for Chad, for the Empire, I'm Rob. Clubhouse is closed.

Brittany Palmer. Maybe Cheshire Cat. I'm just saying.

Let's go put out there.