iTunes Exclusive Episode Strange Magic

The following is a sooner orgator production.
Good morning!
Good morning!
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Greetings!
My name is Rob, and I am the Executive Producer of the Clubhouse Podcast.
We're going to do some little different in this particular episode.
Are 101st version of these things?
Joining me across the desk as he tends to do is my co-host.
And a man who's magic couldn't be stranger if he tried.
He is Chad, a welcome to the show.
Is that a compliment or an insult?
Take it as you will.
I will neither confirm nor deny.
That's comforting.
Also, joining us for this particular episode is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man who's mojo is rising.
You may know I'm as fond on go, but his mom and even don Ford, I'm going to call him Don Ford, welcome sir.
We are doing something kind of different here tonight.
This is a first for us.
But we're always open for something new. Why not?
For the Empire, they deserve it.
If we ain't growing, we ain't evolving. We're not getting any better.
Exactly.
So for this particular episode,
you could say we've done this a bunch of times, but not technically.
Like this.
We are actually reviewing a DVD release today.
Yes, we are.
Of a movie from the mind of George Lucas, called Strange Magic.
This came out earlier in this year, in the year of our Lord 2015,
Real March roughly.
Get's released on DVD and Blu-ray in places where you get DVD and Blu-ray releases on May the 19th.
Which is a Tuesday.
And for again,
we got to think Nicholas and Susan and everybody at Susan Jacobs,
and also the great people at Disney for, you know,
given us these DVDs to review for them.
This is kind of something new for us.
Yeah, you know what?
We're happy to have them.
Thank you.
It's just like a movie review, but different.
Exactly.
So this particular film, it's an animated film.
All CGI.
Uh, starring the voice talents of people like Evan Rachel Wood,
Kristen Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph, Alan Cumming, Alfred Malena,
Peter Stormare, Kevin Michael Richardson, who has played Batman.
And more.
I'm just going to read you exactly what it says off the back of the, uh,
Go for it.
The case here.
Strange Magic is a music-filled fairy tale about finding true love in the unlikeliest of places.
This magical adventure features a host of colorful characters,
including a princess who is sworn off love.
A dubious villain, a slightly nutty sugar plum fairy, a tenacious elf,
a mischievous imp and a knight who is no prince charming.
That's pretty much covers it.
Without being spoiler free.
Right.
We're very happy.
Yeah.
We're, we're proud of it.
Basically, the king of the split and half.
You got the fairy kingdom and you got the dark forest.
And they're shall the two mean until this thing happens.
That's really what you need to know.
Uh, kind of dubious as to the director of this thing.
Being one Gary Rightstrom and Chad,
do you want to fill in our audience and who he is?
This guy has worked with Lucas for decades.
Uh, you'd know him best as a sound designer for many of the-
Many, many, many, many, many, many films.
Many things that ILM has had their hands on.
It has seven Oscars under his belt.
Uh-huh.
We got to start with the movie itself.
Let's just say, uh, first of all,
if you are wondering,
we'll give you all the specs on this particular DVD release.
We did watch the DVD version,
but we watched it on my Xbox one.
So, of course, the upconvert looked amazing on it.
It's 99 minutes long.
You have the choice of Dolby 5.1 digital,
or you can have it in 2.0,
what they call descriptive audio language.
Basically, for people that are either blind or can't see well,
it describes to them what's going on
and say they have to read subtitles.
Which is kind of cool.
There's a lot of theaters around the DFW area right now.
They're doing this as well.
Let's see.
It also has French and Spanish subtitles as well.
Inerson's special features, which I thought we're going to get it all the way down.
Okay, now we talk about the film itself.
Shall we start with you?
I knew you were going to do this.
Well, let's talk about the look of the film first.
How did you feel about the look of the film?
It, it looked like it happened right down the street from Shrekville.
There definitely could be Shrek parallels drawn here.
The character design was very, very reminiscent of the human characters in Shrek.
Okay.
But I mean, other than that, look wise.
How did you feel?
We talked about this.
We kept kind of banding it back and forth
while we were watching it.
And it was like a mashup of like the way Don put it epic and frozen.
And you've got to throw Shrek in there too.
The reason for the visual, the visual style.
I mean, it, it looked good.
Okay.
But that's what we're talking about right now.
It's the look of the thing.
It's on.
It looked fine.
On the look of this thing, I'll, I'll let you explain what you said about the characters
and how some were realistic and some were.
I'll leave F to you.
I'm not going to take that away from you.
But I know, look, there were some very good scenes on it.
I was kind of blown away with the night scene.
When they're seeing strange magic.
I like that look of that scene.
Towards the end of the film.
Yeah, that's about two, thirds through.
Sure.
We're, you're not getting a plot.
But two fairies are, you know, seeing it night and flying around and stuff.
I did a little that look right in and there.
That wasn't credible.
That blew me away.
I'll say that in heartbeat.
Okay.
Resist stuff.
I thought the CGI was really good.
I thought it was fine.
I had no problems with it.
Like we said, in, in the green room, in which is also my written review on the Quavas podcast.com.
That's our website.
Like Chad said, it, this film kind of had that look of,
it reminded me of frozen meets epic.
And when we get to plot, there's something that I do want to bring up.
But I'll let you go talk about your part of the about the look.
For me, the look of it.
It's so competitive anymore.
When you talk about CGI films and the looks of them,
and the technology has moved so fast,
to me, this will look very video gaming.
That's for what I wanted you to talk about.
For most of the characters, there was one character in the film,
but I thought was rendered head and shoulders above everybody else.
So that would be goodness.
Was it, was it sunny?
Yeah.
I thought he looked amazing.
Right, right, right.
Everybody else just had audience.
Let it go.
Let it go.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
What I say video gaming, when I play video games,
the human characters, as much as they're evolving,
and they're looking better by the year,
they're still kind of a hollowness to it.
Except for sunny, sunny had a very vibrant face,
and I thought was very well done.
But everybody else still had that.
They don't have a soul.
Yeah, but it looks like a soulless character.
But not only that, but it's just kind of like,
there's Pixar, and then there's everybody else.
Yeah.
And that's where it kind of fell for me for all of the rest of the characters.
Now, another character though that I felt didn't have that emptiness,
was the bog king Alan Cummings character.
I thought they rendered him very, very well.
The one that probably should have looked like he didn't have a soul.
Right.
But the other ones, your e-thought, were just kind of plain Jane,
compared to real estate.
Yeah.
But visually though, you know I'm a big fan of the CGI feature.
I'll always love hand-drawn animation just because that's, that's my, that's, that's our era.
But I thought for a CGI film,
if you don't put it to the Pixar smell test,
it was above average.
It wasn't stellar, but it was above average.
It's still felt like a video game to me.
And I'm not saying that there wasn't a video game,
at least in development to tie in with this thing.
But it's may not have gotten released for lack of box office receipts reasons.
Yeah. I mean, the look that that was fine,
but was anything close to the book of life?
No.
No.
No.
But still I didn't hate it.
And I didn't think they failed on it or they dropped the ball at all.
Okay.
So now let's talk about the plot and Dom will start with you.
The storyline.
Okay.
This is going to be kind of weird because
I watched the trailer.
And then when I watched this thing,
it's kind of different than what I thought
to what the trailer showed.
How's that?
This thing ends up being like I said earlier,
epic meats frozen.
And epic because you got like the characters of that kind of
generan stuff like that.
genre genre genre genre.
But I'm a tomato.
But potato potato.
But on the other hand,
the film was more musical like frozen.
That's why I see that.
Let's address that though because we really need to
address and we talk about the music.
None of this music was original.
This was all new takes on both new and old songs.
Yeah, but I didn't expect this to be as much as a musical
as what the trailer showed.
You know, you're always going to get some music and songs
in Disney Animation, which is fine.
You know, and don't get me wrong.
I know we're not to target audience for this.
And that's fine.
But as a reviewer,
I could easily look past that.
But when I watched the trailer,
then we get into this film.
It's not what the trailer kind of,
but I saw what the film would be from the trailer.
It's kind of different.
It reminded me of a big musical like frozen,
but at that epic little mix to it.
You ordered a bacon cheeseburger and you got a ham sandwich.
Yeah, kind of, maybe just the regular soy burger.
Put it that way.
Chat.
Oh, man.
It's not at all what I was expecting.
I want you to say what you're going to say.
But I'm going to kind of amend what I think you're going to say.
What do you think I'm going to say?
Just go.
Just go.
Just go.
Do you?
As the kids like to say,
with the clothes in the hair.
That I want to get off my lawn.
Okay.
Now, what question exactly am I?
We're talking about the storyline, right?
Okay.
Well, we already,
we, we knew going in because I don't know if you looked it up,
or if it was just common knowledge of this was something that Lucas wanted to do that was based on Shakespeare.
I don't know what Shakespeare he was reading.
He says he based on him in summer's night stream.
So I've seen a couple of productions that made summer night stream.
I'm not saying I'm just saying.
The thing was a mess.
I didn't know who to root for.
Why I should root for them.
It, it was a movie without a sense of direction.
So I really didn't, I couldn't follow a story.
There were a lot of storylines in this.
And let's just go ahead and put it out there.
There are multiple story arcs,
almost going on simultaneous in this film.
And not in a pulp fiction, kind of.
No, it was, it was, it was a confusing,
misguided mess.
I couldn't follow it.
And unfortunately when each target the five six year olds,
this will be too confusing.
It really will.
Yeah.
I don't know who their aim is.
So let me, and I knew,
I was hoping you were going to go that way.
Because something that I was thinking about as I was sitting here.
Story wise for me,
I think the object here was to try to give you a story
that you didn't see coming.
But I think there was another factor to this
that I think if you took this other factor out of it,
I think the story would have been better for you.
For me, or for me, for you.
And I think for both of both done in myself.
Because I was thinking about it as the credits were rolling.
And as we were sitting there wrapping this thing up.
Because we literally came straight from watching this DVD
into the studio to record the special edition.
Here's my thing.
Take the music out of it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because, again, this is not original music.
This is all covers.
And you're hearing music in the background.
All of the music I selected for this particular.
iTunes exclusive.
Or from the film.
The original version's anyway.
So, take that out of it.
If you took, and let's be honest,
the arrangement's not stellar.
No.
If you take that out of it,
would the story have been better for you would have been a better film for you?
Probably because so much of the music,
like I mentioned in the green room,
felt like they were just shooting it in.
It's like they tried to smack it in there and just say,
that would work in this scene because of what they said.
What you want to look at said is that he wanted more of the Beatles in this thing.
Couldn't afford it.
Couldn't afford it.
But it wouldn't matter.
I don't know if it would matter what songs he used.
It's like they broke into song for no apparent reason.
And I know he's just kind of how I felt about frozen.
Because I felt frozen had too much music in it.
Yeah, but at least that was all original.
Right.
For me, I agree with you that the music was just kind of,
it was like, it was a distraction.
It was like, hey, what kind of music can we put?
It was like he was trying to do the moon on Rouge thing and never got there.
Because at least the moon on Rouge had fit what it was doing here.
Yeah, you're right.
I agree with you.
The music was very shoehorned in.
And he even said in the interview,
which we'll talk about the special features here in a minute,
that he wanted this to be like an opera.
And it wasn't.
But he likes the opera because remember,
so wasn't Star Wars supposed to be a space opera?
That's what it's always called.
It's not called a science fiction film.
It's called a space opera.
There's no singing.
But I think if you had taken that out of it,
I think you would have liked this film more.
Yeah.
Because there were so many moments where I just,
I was smackin' myself in the forehead going,
oh god, really?
Come on.
Again, I'm still trying to figure out where this was.
Yeah, it was in the credits.
And it's just such an odd thing.
Because he had made this movie because his daughters
wanted him to make a movie for them.
It was kind of like Stephen King when he wrote I of the Dragon.
The reason Stephen King wrote that book
was because his kid said to him,
I can't you write a book that I can read or that I would enjoy.
I hope they enjoyed it.
Because for me,
this was a rough watch.
Yeah.
But I think you could put this movie on for little,
80 Bitty Kids.
And they would just see all the, all the prettiness of it.
And they would probably learn the music.
And might learn music that they may not learn otherwise.
But like my niece, because of her mom's parents,
loves Chuck Berry.
Because it was in the Chuck Berry all the time in the car.
My niece is four.
About to turn five.
So from that standpoint, I get it.
You get kids.
I get to see fairies and mushrooms and things dancing around
and having a good time.
And they get to learn some music.
This is going to be a struggle for the parents.
Yeah.
We keep saying that we're not the target demographic.
But who the heck is the target demographic for this?
I think the younger you go the better, the closer you are to the demographic.
I think the demographic for this would probably be seven and under.
But so much of it's going to be lost on them.
They're not going to understand what's going on.
It's serious.
But again, it's, it's for me in my interpretation of it.
It's about just them seeing all these pretty things on the screen
and hearing the music and learning the music.
It's not going to be frozen.
It's not going to be no.
You know, it's cute for what it is.
But it's cute.
And that's as far as I'm going to go with it.
I mean, I mean, seriously has, and I know this is going to be a really stupid question
because we all know this.
No such thing.
We all know the answer to it.
No such thing has Lucas literally gotten that selfish to where he just made it for his kids.
What do you say?
I wanted to make something for me.
He said that in the interview we saw on the DVD.
Well, I mean, he has said for years that I want to make movies
that I would enjoy watching.
Is it really gotten that?
Is he gotten that?
Well, and remember when Disney bought Lucas film in 2012,
this was already, it was pretty much done.
It was in production.
So this was kind of part of the whole deal.
Yeah, but I don't play this.
I would never play Disney.
Now, from a special feature standpoint,
actually, let's hold off on special features for just a minute
from an audio aspect because from a DVD,
when we talk about DVD films,
I have a pretty good home theater system in the green room.
Yeah.
So I'm very critical of these things.
From a sound field concept, I thought it was fine.
Yeah.
Nothing real flashy at all.
You know, didn't didn't have a bunch of subwoofer stuff
that would shatter my windows.
But that's not what you want from a film like this.
This isn't like a apocalypse now or short out your receiver.
Like you shut your mouth.
Like a certain time cruise film did.
Cool.
Which we all found out later down the road is my fault.
But from a sound field aspect,
I thought it sounded great.
It was one of those deals where it didn't have to be real flashy,
so it was okay.
From an extra standpoint,
because as a fan of home theater as I am,
and you know,
you and I have been special feature.
Just gurus.
I gurus is a good word,
but more of just hungry for.
Yes.
For 15 years now.
It's it's why we were so ravenous about the DVD format.
The first place.
Here's what you get.
You do get the standard Disney fair of sneak peeks.
For what we saw was for the Clone Wars, The Lost Mission.
Which got my attention.
Which.
And it didn't have,
not only there's a list of the sneak peeks,
and they didn't have it on this one.
So.
We don't know for sure if that's the only one on there.
Beyond that,
you get two feature sets.
That's the ball game.
You get something called magical mashup,
which is outtakes, tests, and melodies.
And these are about five minutes of peace.
Not a lot to it.
Uh.
That was kind of neat.
But I felt like it was kind of put thrown together.
Yeah.
And then you have connect creating the magic,
where you meet the cast and the filmmakers.
Which that was your standard fair feature at.
They did.
There wasn't, to me,
there wasn't enough of the cast they talked to.
Yeah.
You've got Kristen Chenoweth in your movie,
and you don't have an interview with her in this thing.
Everything just felt like scraps that was left on the table.
It was kind of like,
well, the sale happened,
and we don't really have to do anything else with it.
I got to keep in mind,
this was the DVD only.
The blue ray may have even more.
We don't know.
Probably not though from the standard fair.
I mean,
if you get a commentary track,
you get a commentary track on both the,
oh damn,
the blue ray.
The only thing a blue ray might have
would be,
I don't know chat about what you say.
More audio tracks.
I mean,
in high resolution.
Possibly.
But you don't normally get a lot of special features.
There are exceptions.
Yeah, but it's,
but it's the exception more than it is the rule.
And it's usually,
they usually would,
would throw something like that to a film that,
was incredibly successful.
And this one,
or you kind of lock it down with special features
to try to help promote it and get people to buy it
because there'll be more stuff on it.
Yeah.
You know,
sometimes you might get a director's cut with just,
you know,
maybe some,
some seamless branching,
which X men was really the first film to do that with,
which I,
you know,
I'm a fan of seamless branching.
And if you don't know what that is,
it's where you have a lot of deleted scenes,
and you can set it up so the deleted scenes
get inserted into the film.
Actually, no.
Was it not X men?
They were doing that with a lot of those,
like Cameron films.
Okay.
Aliens.
The X men was the first one I remember.
Because they had done it on the,
on the laser disk.
Like T2.
I've got, yeah.
T2.
The Abyss and,
Aliens.
Yeah.
Where they had those directors cuts,
and they,
you could watch either version on,
on the same disk.
You'd have to switch disks.
Okay.
So,
the final analysis here is going to be a little different,
because this is not a theatrical release.
So,
Don and I and Chad have kind of set bat down together
and figure out how we're going to rate this.
So here's how it's going to work.
The first question as always is,
would you watch this again?
If the answer is no,
then we're done here.
If the answer is yes,
then we're going to rate it differently.
It's not going to be stars.
It's not going to be numbers,
letter grades,
thumbs-up, thumbs-up,
anything, because our audience,
the empire is better than that.
For a DVD slash blue,
I release,
we're going to have a couple of different things.
Would you buy this new?
Would you buy it used?
Would you wait for the bargain bin?
Would you get it on Netflix?
Slash a red box,
because we can all slump Netflix and red box
in the same thing.
Chad,
would you see this one again?
No.
Okay.
I am not the target demographic.
Again, we've explained that.
We'm not sure who it is.
We just know what's not us.
Done?
I would do.
I could be a little different on this.
Okay.
I was your honest opinion.
Yeah, I would not see this again more than likely.
But I would still recommend it to,
basically like maybe the bargain bin or Netflix
for the family night,
where they had a bunch of little kids in.
You got like the little six-grade,
six-year-old sleepover,
the neighbor kids and stuff.
This would be a good one.
I think the throw into the DVD or blue ray player,
whether it be Netflix or the bargain bin,
to keep them,
you know,
they're tension on something.
You know what I'm saying?
Because this will be a tensioner for the young kids.
I'm kind of on the same line with wavelength.
You, I personally would not watch it again.
But if I were a parent,
and I were going on a road trip with the kids,
and I had the big DVD set up in the minivan,
or whatever.
They've watched everything.
Exactly.
And there's just a rotation of movies
that I would just like a break from.
Throw this in there for the kids.
Let them watch it because it's not like it.
It has an uplifting message about love
and how everybody deserves love,
and all that good stuff.
And there's no one out there for everybody.
And there's some great CGI,
which the kids will like in the little music.
That's what I'm saying.
I think the, for kids like seven and under,
this would be a good thing for like you're saying
the road trip or the little sleepover or stuff like that.
You know, would this be good for a teen movie?
No.
No.
Not at all.
I don't snide out.
No.
But before we finish up,
we got to think everybody at Susan Jacobs, Nicholas, Susan,
and everybody at Disney for sending this stuff.
It's been a new relationship,
but it's been great.
And for them to just give us the opportunity
to do something new like this.
We really got to thank them.
All right.
Let's do the plugs.
Let's do it.
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I'm a yes that Rob Irvin that is spelled ERV.
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So until next time, for Don, for Chad, I'm Rob.
Clubhouse is closed.
You could have used Britney Palmer as like a character reference
or a motion capture for the fairies.
I'm just saying.
The preceding was a sooner or later production.
Gotta go get a go!
Why?
Let's go!