RPC Podcast #3: Tooned Up volume 1
The lines are drawn in our first animation-focused podcast!
Greetings, Renegades, and welcome to the first installment of our animation podcast, Tooned Up! In a world where things are pretty chaotic, we here at RPC strive to be calm voices of reason and fun, and in this episode, we talk about Spongebob, Trolls, Scooby Doo, the Minions, a couple of cool-looking dragons, and a movie about Soul (which I personally cannot wait to see).
This episode also features the first appearance of a guest host from our Facebook group: Cameron! Please visit his website and say hi to him in the group! We’re hoping to make guest hosts from our community a regular feature on the RPC Network of Podcasts, so stay tooned—I mean, tuned—for that!
Thanks to my other co-hosts for the episode, as well: Mike, Josh, and Kristal! I am, as always, Keona, and let’s feast our eyes on some timestamps for the episode!
11:22 - Onward: We take a spoiler-free look at Pixar’s latest tearjerker/thrill ride, in theaters now!
17:05 - Trolls World Tour: Dreamworks’ upcoming film features Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake reprising their roles from the first movie, but this time they must defend their community from villainous rocker trolls who want to take over the world. Why is rock the bad guy here? I guess we’ll have to see the film to discover the reasons behind it.
22:57 - Scoob: The latest iteration of Scooby Doo and his gang of friends (including Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy) must come together with Blue Falcon and Dynomutt to defeat Dick Dastardly (a likely name, if I’ve ever heard one). There are references to Ikea and Netflix in the latest trailer, which is totally topical, bro. On the plus side, it’s nice to hear Frank Welker playing Scooby once again. Takes me back to my childhood a bit. Honestly, I’ve liked most of what I’ve seen from this movie. There’s a charm to it, and I’m a bit surprised by how much I want to see it.
28:28 - Spongebob Squarepants: Sponge on the Run: I’m a bit older than most of my co-hosts, so I was never really into Spongebob when the show aired back in the day. I haven’t seen the other movies, either, so I went into this trailer pretty cold. It looks okay, actually. The jokes mostly land and I loved the surprise celebrity cameo and the design of the underwater city. All of the signs seem to point in a positive direction for this one.
34:03 - Minions: The Rise of Gru: Okay, as you can tell when you listen to the episode, I am not a fan of the Minions movie. I find them obnoxious. But… this one is going to make money, and the celebrity voice cameos look pretty good here. I like what Steve Carell is doing with his voice to make Gru sound younger, and I appreciate any movie where Dolph Lundgren plays a character named Svengeance and Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a villain named Jean-Clawed. I’m sure Minions fans will enjoy this one.
44:11 - Connected: Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the directors of the Lego Movie) bring us a nice-looking animated family road trip comedy with a dash of an evil robot uprising, a pinch of Panic! At the Disco, and a dollop of stylized animation techniques. It looks pretty endearing, and the cast is great. I’ll probably go see it.
Y’know what connects us all? ‘Splosions!
51:25 - Netflix discussion: Cameron discusses the slate of animated releases on Netflix, like Dragon Quest: Your Story and the upcoming Willoughbys.
1:04:25 - Bob’s Burgers Movie: Will Bob’s Burgers: The Movie see the light of release day in 2020? Or will Fox end up pushing it over to Hulu or repackage it as a longer, “event” episode? We give you our take in this segment.
1:07:47 - Croods 2: Another film that seems to be trapped in development limbo is Croods 2, which we don’t think is coming out anytime soon. Hear our thoughts on the franchise and let us know if you agree!
1:11:10 - Wish Dragon & Indie animated films: Cameron and Mike break down some lesser known upcoming animated films.
1:14:14 - Soul: Here are some quick thoughts on Pixar’s follow-up to Onward, which I think looks very cool. The animation style is so neat, and the concept reminds me of one of my favorite Pixar movies, Inside Out.
1:19:56 - Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution: The recently released Netflix film sees the cast of the original Pokemon theatrical movie come back for a retelling of Mewtwo’s story. This time around, they used CG animation, which turned out okay, but I found myself longing for the more traditional animation style of the 2000 film, and I miss the original voice cast. Still, Pokemon fans should give it a watch, if only to see how different their favorite critters look in CGI.
1:27:57 - Sirocco et le Royaume des Courants d'Air: Also known as Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds, this French animated film looks intriguing! I like the surreal style of the visuals, the design aesthetic, and the sense of whimsy this film evokes. It really reminds me of the work of Jean Giraud, aka Moebius. Check out the trailer here!
1:28:24 - Upcoming Anime releases: Next up, Cameron discusses some upcoming anime releases with Mike, Josh, and Kristal, including Her Blue Sky and Wanting to Cry, I Pretend to Be a Cat. I mean, that last title is enough to sell me on that one.
1:32:02 - Raya and the Last Dragon: Disney’s first animation project in a while is still shrouded in mystery, but the concept and poster art we’ve seen makes it an eagerly anticipated film in our books.
1:34:06 - Ducktales reboot season 3 & TV series discussion: Finally, we close out the show with a discussion on the Ducktales TV series, which is set to release its third season and is still going strong (and is one of Mike’s favorite shows on TV)! Cameron also gives us his recommendations for some upcoming shows, and we finally bid you adieu after our longest episode yet!
Thank you all for joining us on this inaugural edition of Tooned Up, Renegade Pop Culture’s animation podcast! We hope you enjoyed listening to it, and I hope you like what we’re doing with each episode as we focus on a single topic and introduce our hosts who specialize in the area we discuss.
Also, guys, I’m so sorry for botching the opening and for the audio issues we had toward the end of the show. We’re going to get better at this, I assure you. Thanks for putting up with the rough edges!