iTunes Exclusive Episode Monkey Kingdom

The following is a sooner orgator production.
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Because it's time for another.
I don't just curse you.
Welcome.
My name is Rob. I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast.
And if we're doing one of these, it means probably because we're going to review something.
No exception.
This is iTunes exclusive number 93, as we are climbing the mountain towards triple digits.
But I'm not alone in the room.
Let me introduce you to the other players in this deal.
Across the desk for me is my co-host.
And a man who has shocked a monkey at least once in his life.
But he's not allowed to talk about it because it's top secret.
He has chat, welcome to so sorry.
You're a second individual.
That's the nicest thing someone said to me today, so thank you.
Also across the desk for me is the official fact checker of this show.
And he has a kingdom of his own.
A brand new kingdom of his own because he just moved.
You may know him as fun, don't go.
But his mom and name him, Don Ford.
I'm going to call him Don Ford, welcome sir.
Oh, thank you.
Glad to be here.
Also joining us for this particular episode is a man who's known as the ginger ninja.
And has had to display those skills on more than one occasion.
He is the king of bowling.
He is Andrew Beckham.
Welcome to the show sir.
Thank you.
Did you know my ninja smoke bellet is red?
I was not aware.
Because you can blend better for you.
Right.
Oh, okay.
Came up with that this morning.
In this particular installation of our show, we are going to be reviewing a brand new
movie from the Disney Nature Studios.
Basically in 2008, a Disney created Disney nature.
And every year on around Earth Day, they release a new movie.
That's some kind of a nature documentary.
This year, it's called Monkey Kingdom.
Takes place in Sri Lanka.
And it is narrated by the great Tina Fey.
Well, first off, Rob, before we begin.
Sir, we have new friends.
We do have new friends.
Oh, we got to think everybody at Susan Jacobs and corporate.
Everybody at Disney.
We got to think Susan and Nicholas for inviting us to this thing.
This is a new relationship.
And we're looking forward to a long, long relationship.
These people are incredible last night.
They were so wonderful to us.
And we cannot think them enough for having us screened this movie so we can tell the
Empire about it.
And one of the things I love about Disney Nature is they have a deal.
If you go see the movie and this first week of release, they do some kind of a
giving back type deal depending on the film.
And in this particular film, if you go see Monkey Kingdom and this first seven days of release,
part of the money from the proceeds are going to go to places like Cambodia and do help
preserve areas for the monkeys as well as safe drinking water for the people that live
there too.
So if you're going to see it, see it this first week.
Yeah, see it.
See it.
See it.
You're giving back.
Which is awesome.
Basically, this takes place in kind of a abandoned ancient city where there's a
troop of monkeys that live there.
They are token of cost.
Can I say that, right, Jack?
McCack.
McCack.
McCack.
If it's in Sri Lanka, we do we got that cover.
And you see the class system.
You have everybody from your alpha male named Roger all the way down.
And our story kind of centers on a female named Maya.
She's in that lower class.
She doesn't get to hang out with all the cool kids.
But she gets by, you know, doing what she does.
And one day an outsider comes in named Kumar.
And he kind of takes a liking to her, not that Kumar.
No, not the one that escaped from Guantanamo Bay.
But he comes in and he kind of takes a liking to Maya, which normally Roger I wouldn't care
about all of a sudden he does.
And so he exiles Kumar, but not before Kumar can mate with her.
And so she has a small son.
And the story is mainly about how she survives for both herself and her son.
And the adventures they have.
At one point, there's another rival troop that comes in.
And there's some, some shenanigans there.
And how, and how the entire troop has to adjust to that as well.
A turf war.
And the sun's aim is kept correct.
Yep.
Funky monkey.
You guys don't know what's coming.
That's the beauty of the show.
The music is its own character.
Okay.
So Chad, let's start with you.
Interesting for me.
Did you see this as a linear story or more of a nature documentary?
Interestingly enough, there was a, there seemed to be a narrative to this thing,
which you normally don't get in in a, in a nature documentary.
So I want to get to that in a minute because there's something about that that I thought was interesting.
But go ahead.
But it, it didn't seem to be nothing about it seems staged.
It's not like we're looking at stunt monkeys performing here.
You know, correct.
You're correct.
You almost get the impression that this was, you know, by hearing us describe it.
It doesn't even sound like we're talking about a nature doc.
It, it sounds like we're talking about a CG animated film with monkeys in it.
And it's not.
I mean, it is, it is a straight up documentary film.
But somehow they're able to marry the two ideas and it works.
There's just one thing.
This one Disney does.
Yeah, you know, and the thing that struck me when they, when they first showed the,
the quote unquote kingdom that they live in, the first thing I thought of was,
we're King Louis hung out in Jungle Book.
It looked almost exactly like it.
It's the first thing I thought of is like, I'm, I'm expecting to hear,
I want to be like you played any second.
And by the way, if you, for those tickets you've gotten a week one, they will,
the, the organization that we don't need to, is conservation international.
Okay.
So, I want to make sure we put that out there.
And I thought it was clever the way they worked in some, some popular music selections in the film,
which was clever.
Different versions of it as well.
I don't want to give anything away.
Although the, the first track, it sounded pretty close to the original track,
but you could definitely tell there was a difference there.
But just a beautiful film.
I can't say enough good things about it.
Done.
First off, if you go to my written review at the clubhousepodcast.com.
That's our website.
I put on there that I'm a sucker to documentaries.
And I'm finding the same thing, especially as I'm getting older,
the documentaries becoming a bigger and bigger planner.
I watch so much in national geo and stuff like then discovery channel.
And I'm a sucker for those kind of things.
And when I looked at the film,
the narration of Tina Fey took the movie from one row to another.
Okay.
Because when we think about it, we saw that same documentary with some 60-year-old guy from England
talking in that film.
No, no, no, no.
We'll be moving from unrock to the other.
Exactly.
If it was, if this was just like a normal documentary,
it would just seem like, okay, we're watching the monkeys,
but with Tina Fey, who I think did very good on this.
She turned it into something where kids could watch this
and understand it by the what she says and how she says it in the emotion
she says when she does this.
And interesting angle, too.
It well played, sir.
Yeah, so I was thinking that National Geo usually sits the bar on this.
But watching this thing overall,
it's putting it to, they're given National Geo
run for the money for setting the bar on this stuff.
I mean, you look what they've done in the last couple years.
This is just a new style documentary,
which makes it interesting for even little kids.
Andrew.
I enjoyed it.
I like documentaries.
Mainly the sports ones, because I'm into sports,
but it was enjoyable.
The story, the actual story made it enjoyable for me.
Chad, you had a turn up?
Well, it's interesting that we're talking about
that Don, you were mentioning National Geographic
and how Disney's kind of raising the bar.
I put in my written review that I'm on the clubhouse.com,
which is our website that I remember growing up watching
the National Geographic mainly on television,
National Geographic Nova, the undersea world of Jacques Cousteau,
and in the days before the dawn of cable,
before we got the Discovery Channel and animal planet,
that that was our main venue to watch them.
But the Atrically, the only one I could really remember being
based the Atrically were old Disney films,
like the Living Desert and stuff like that.
So, Disney's been doing this for a long time,
but nothing on this scale, right,
to where they pull you into like a little microcosm
of a piece of the world that otherwise you would never get to see,
especially up this close,
and that they've never really lost their stride.
I really can't think of too many nature films
that get released theatrically.
Well, not on a regular basis on a large scale,
outside of somebody like this.
Discovery does one every now and then,
but Disney's pretty much your go-to for something like this,
and I'm glad to see that they're still doing it.
For me, and you touched on this a little bit,
you've heard the term bait and switch,
where a company advertises something you go to buy it
or out of that, but you can get this.
There's actually a good way to do that,
if this does.
It's hard to get a kid to sit down and watch it documentary.
Let's be honest.
But the way Disney nature does what they do,
and done touched on this too,
you get somebody like Tina Fey,
which, by the way, I'm a huge fan of,
first female lead writer in Saturday Night Live history.
You get heard and narrate it.
You pull the kids in by saying,
hey, there's actually a story here,
and what the kids don't realize is they're actually watching a documentary,
that this is the way things really happen.
This isn't something scripted.
This is these guys studying the habits
and behaviors of these monkeys
for however long they did
and forms it into a narrative,
which I thought was brilliant.
Totally.
I agree a hundred percent.
And when I look back on this,
I learned so much.
I mean, these monkeys could be ruthless.
I mean, even in their own little group and clan,
ruthless and incredibly resourceful.
Totally, but man, how they will,
you do not go, it's like some of these monkeys
when they try to sit in your dad's seat.
You know what I'm saying?
You do not sit in dad's seat.
Like when we have paper views in the green room
and someone is seated on my throne
when I walk into the living room.
That is where daddy sits.
You will remove yourself from it.
There is a class system in the entire troop.
And there's a pecking order.
And I thought it was explained brilliantly.
I thought it was, I didn't feel like I was confused at any time.
Even at certain points where they would show
certain members of the tribe,
Tina Fey would come in.
Even if you knew who they were,
she still told you, okay,
that's what this person is doing.
This animal is doing.
Because I think Disney knows their audience
and they know it very well.
And so by doing that,
you're not talking down to your audience.
I never felt like, I know,
okay, they're just doing this for the kids.
I felt that she was helping me keep up too.
Oh, me too.
So there was that universal appeal that I really, really dug.
On this thing, no one thing I got to go into.
Please do.
The photography.
Go walk of this thing.
I was through the rough.
And you know how critical I could be on stuff like that.
This is the kind of movie that digital film was made for.
Oh, absolutely.
The theater we saw it in was a Dolby atmosphere.
I'd forgotten how big that story is.
And the digital look.
Absolutely gorgeous.
I mean, you could see the wind blowing through the monkey's hair.
Like it was that clean, great presentation.
And I don't know how long it took these guys to shoot this thing.
But they got everything.
And I don't know how.
I mean, because you see there's actually during the credits.
You actually see some of the behind the scenes stuff where they're running to get certain shots that are happening.
Oh, this is happening right now.
We've got to get in there and get this shot.
Because you shot with a Jaguar.
They said they waited for like the Jaguars.
The bears.
Because it's not, there's not just monkeys in this.
There's other animals that they interact with.
That it's part of their deal that you have to see too.
That I thought was very well.
The longest was correct.
Yeah.
I love the longest.
And then the longest part of it and the the bear part of it did give me kind of that throwback feel to the early 70s.
Late 60s Disney nature stuff that we would see on the wonderful world of Disney.
Right.
All my husband and stuff like that.
But it was that throwback that I really that kind of gave me that nice little warm feeling of I remember this from when I was a kid.
I want a mongoose now.
The bike shop sells not that.
My only issue with the film was I felt the first third of it was a bit slow.
Now I understand why it was slow.
It was slow because you had to set everything up.
Disney makes no assumptions.
So like look, we're going to explain to you how this works.
So that by the time the story really starts to move, you're already caught up to us.
We don't have to explain anything.
But if I've got to have a criticism, that's it.
That first 30 minutes were a little slow for me, but I don't know about you guys.
It was it was very slow.
And I felt like they kept saying the same thing over and over and over again.
I was like, already know this.
But again.
But what you have to think of is the audience that the target audience is for.
When you're talking to kids, you have to keep explaining it because they need to be able to fully understand.
Done.
You want to say something.
I disagree with you on this one.
Okay.
I thought they really planted out and set the foundation very well.
We were learning about they have to teach it a life of these things and how things go before the,
you know, the last half of the movie and what really gets going there.
Right.
No.
And I said, I knew they had a lay on the ground.
That part of it was just slow for me.
For me, it wasn't.
I thought the pace is good because I learned so much about this.
These monkeys being able to swim in everything like that.
I mean, it was very informed of me, plus very entertaining.
Chat.
The thing that we always need to bear in mind is that this is also used as a teaching tool.
Absolutely.
When this thing gets released on home video, they release like activity packs to be used in classrooms
and stuff.
So it doesn't really bother me that that they kind of take a slower pace at it.
And you, you, you, like, don't, if you walk away from the thing and you didn't learn anything,
then you weren't paying attention.
Well, and another thing that people may not understand and they say, well, you know, why does
Disney do these kinds of things?
Walt himself was a huge conservationist.
And if you ever go to Walt Disney World in Lake Wayne, if it's the Florida, there is
more land undeveloped that will never be developed than all four parks combined right now.
If you can believe that because Walt was such a huge conservationist,
he, I think it's like 30,000 acres or something ridiculous like that.
That will never be developed on that he just wants to preserve nature for.
So he's always been that way.
And Disney has kept that spirit alive to this day with the Disney nature brand and everything that they do with the community,
which they've already been doing for years.
This was just the next phase of the evolution of that.
Peter Gabriel, shock the monkey.
There were some shocking moments in this film.
Oh, yeah.
But yeah, I like how they made it family friendly too.
Absolutely.
Really tough.
And I'm going to see is the Ponsine.
How they kind of, they let you know, but they kind of didn't have to show.
They gave you that they gave you that like this can be dangerous.
Yes, exactly.
And I thought they did that perfectly for the family.
So I'll, this is a very friendly family movie.
Yeah, that's what I said.
I think it's great for just about every age, except the infants.
Fair enough.
We ready to get to the final analysis before we do.
We got to thank our new friends again.
Thank you so much, Nicholas, and Susan, and everybody at Susan.
So wonderful to us last night.
We get this.
Thank you so much.
The new friends are looking forward to long relationship.
Incredible people.
All right.
The way we do the final analysis on this show is we don't.
We don't give you letter grades.
We don't give you numbers.
We don't give you stars.
We don't give you thumbs up thumbs down.
Our audience, the empire, we believe is better than that.
The way we do a final analysis on this show is we ask two questions.
Question number one is, what do you see this film again?
If the answer is no, we're done here.
If the answer is yes, then the follow-up question is,
how would you want to see this again?
Would you pay full price in an evening show?
Would you go to Twilight Show?
Would you go to Matt and A show?
Would you go early and morning on a weekend?
Would you wait for it in second run?
Would you wait for it on red box?
Would you stream it through Netflix?
Would you wait for it on TV?
Chad, we'll start with you.
Would you see this film again?
Oh, absolutely.
How far would you be willing to go?
I would prefer to do like a, like a matinee.
After matinee.
But I would have to see it in a theater equivalent to the theater that we saw it in.
Brother, you ain't one.
Don, would you see this film again?
Oh, definitely.
I thought it was very great.
How would you see it again?
I would probably do something like Twilight,
but I'm going to say this as a recommendation.
This is a perfect family, night or family day or family event movie.
Take the whole family.
Whether you're going to go to dinner and see it after or see this
and go to dinner after.
I think it's perfect for the entire family to go out and do something as a family.
Book it in with a trip to the zoo.
I was actually going to say that.
Yeah.
Andrew, would you see this again?
No, sir.
This is just not my cup of tea.
Not your bag?
Not my bag?
Nothing wrong with that.
That's your opinion.
Can you see this to Disney and Donna?
Thank you.
To echo what Chad said,
I would see this again.
I'd probably go maybe to an early afternoon show
maybe then take the family to the zoo afterwards.
Make a day out of it.
Because in this town, you got a choice.
There's two different ones.
Because we do the show out of Dallas, Texas.
I go see this go the rainforest cafe and then go to the zoo.
I didn't realize you were that rich.
Wow.
You might get two of those three out.
I don't know if you're going to get all three.
But again.
Just go for appetizers.
The movie from Disney Nature is called monkey kingdom.
Go check it out when you get a chance.
See it.
Make sure try to see it in that opening week.
Yeah.
So part of that money goes to conservation international.
You're getting to be entertained for an hour and a half.
And the money is going to something awesome.
Totally.
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Somebody to go pound sand.
I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
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I am going pound sand to gmail.com.
Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that.
And she was well-mechaned to avoid her time watching this film.
Yes, she did.
She was very, very appreciative of it.
Our normal show, your one-stop shop for all things sports and entertainment every Sunday,
night, seven Eastern, four Pacific.
So until the next time we talk, for Andrew, for Don, for Chad, for the Empire, I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is closed.
Pretty popular.
She loves nature.
I'm just saying.
The preceding was a sooner or later production.
Get a go, get a go!
Why?
Because I have to.