Speaker 1: On the Bechde Cast, the questions ask if movies have
Speaker 1: women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
Speaker 1: or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, zephim fast
Speaker 1: start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.
Speaker 2: Hey, Jamie, Hey Caitlin, do you want to talk about
Speaker 2: the Haunted Mansion two thousand and three with me? It'll
Speaker 2: only take twenty minutes tops.
Speaker 1: Ooo.
Speaker 3: I wonder if you're a dad that likes to work
Speaker 3: too much? The scariest thing of all, someone who loves
Speaker 3: working in real estate. It's terrifying.
Speaker 2: And whose wife? My wife?
Speaker 3: My wife?
Speaker 2: Why his wife.
Speaker 3: Seems like she could really take her leave real estate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she is my partner, my business partner. But also
Speaker 2: you never see her doing her job.
Speaker 3: TIHI giha. Yeah, sure I'm in. Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Awesome. Hello. I'm Caitlin Durante.
Speaker 3: I'm Jamie Loftus, and you're listening to the Bechdel Cast,
Speaker 3: a show where we take your favorite movies and look
Speaker 3: at them with an intersectional feminist lens. Even if they're
Speaker 3: eighty three minutes long. This movie is.
Speaker 2: Really wonderfully short.
Speaker 3: Ugh, it really made me feel amazing. Yeah, we're covering
Speaker 3: a couple of movies from the early two thousands coming up,
Speaker 3: and I just was like, Wow, there was a time
Speaker 3: where where children's movies were aching to be ninety minutes
Speaker 3: and not like circling the two and a half hour mark.
Speaker 3: Just great stuff. We're talking about The Haunted Mansion two
Speaker 3: thousand and three, starring Eddie Murphy, and I say it
Speaker 3: who it's starring, because I feel like I think he's
Speaker 3: actually credited before the title of the movie, which is
Speaker 3: very movie star behavior.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion.
Speaker 3: Basically, that's how I thought of it when I was like,
Speaker 3: it's and by the end of the movie spoiler alert,
Speaker 3: it is Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion. He's got the ded he.
Speaker 2: Does own it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, first we to tell people what the show is.
Speaker 3: We use so we're an intersectional feminist podcast. We use
Speaker 3: the Bechdel Test as a jumping off point for discussing
Speaker 3: Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion. But Caitlin, what is the Bechdel Test?
Speaker 2: Well, gee whiz, I'll tell you. It is a media
Speaker 2: metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel often called the
Speaker 2: Bechdel Wallace test, which has many different versions, but the
Speaker 2: one that we use requires that two characters of a
Speaker 2: marginalized gender. They must have names, they must speak to
Speaker 2: each other, and their conversation has to be about something
Speaker 2: other than a man. Ideally, for us, it's also a
Speaker 2: narratively substantial conversation and not just like throw away dialogue.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I guess we'll just get into it, but
Speaker 3: first we have an incredible returning guest returning for I
Speaker 3: love just when a guest has a wide swath of
Speaker 3: movies they want to cover because you've hurt this guest
Speaker 3: on many shows, including her own show. But for our purposes,
Speaker 3: we did Center Stage and now we're doing Eddie Murphy's
Speaker 3: Haunted Mansion. I mean the early two thousands gave and
Speaker 3: they took away, really did.
Speaker 2: It's incredible, and our guest, of course, is writer, comedian
Speaker 2: and podcaster Akila hughes Hi.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me back. We survived the pandemic
Speaker 4: mostly intact. If you want to call the survivor.
Speaker 3: We're all rocky back and forth.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were always in the womb.
Speaker 3: Great, welcome back, Aquila.
Speaker 2: Now, if memory serves, I was like, we have to
Speaker 2: do the Haunted Mansion because the new one is coming out,
Speaker 2: and you and I had been talking on Instagram and
Speaker 2: I was like, wait a minute, here's this movie we
Speaker 2: want to do. Do you want to be the guest?
Speaker 2: So I basically forced you to do this, and I'm
Speaker 2: so sorry, but also you're welcome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: So what is your.
Speaker 2: Relationship with the Haunted Mansion parentheses Eddie Murphy?
Speaker 4: Well, I love Eddie Murphy, gotta say, you know, just
Speaker 4: a real king of comedy. I would say that, like
Speaker 4: most Eddie Murphy fans, really centering on like early nineties,
Speaker 4: late eighties, Eddie Murphy was really my sweet spot. I
Speaker 4: did fall off. You know. I believe this is in
Speaker 4: the same era as Norbit, and I haven't seen Norbit either,
Speaker 4: so you know that gives you a Since I was
Speaker 4: more of the nutty professor.
Speaker 3: I wonder if this show will last long enough that
Speaker 3: we would cover Norbit someday. God, that's how you know.
Speaker 3: It's like, what do I think that we've run our course?
Speaker 3: If we're like.
Speaker 4: The good movies worth talking about? Sure, And so I
Speaker 4: would say that I'm more of a fan of Eddie
Speaker 4: Murphy than I am of the Haunted Mansion. I did
Speaker 4: work at Disney in like two thousand and eight and
Speaker 4: then again in like twenty ten, So like, I love
Speaker 4: the idea of the Haunted Mansion as like a person
Speaker 4: who worked there. It was the only job that in
Speaker 4: Tower of Terror where you weren't forced to smile, So
Speaker 4: like I had a lot of reverence for those people.
Speaker 4: They didn't have to do a fake bullshit all day
Speaker 4: like the rest of us. And so I am like
Speaker 4: excited by the concept. But this was my first watch.
Speaker 4: You know, I clearly wasn't interested back when it came out.
Speaker 4: It also was like around the time where it was
Speaker 4: before Disney was like in Marvel, so it's like it
Speaker 4: was kind of like they were just doing rides as movies.
Speaker 4: Like I believe Parts of the Caribbean was in that
Speaker 4: era as well, the same year. Yeah, one of them
Speaker 4: we think about sometimes. It has like a soundtrack that's memorable.
Speaker 3: The other is Eddie Murphy's and they wasn't didn't. The
Speaker 3: Country Bears also come out very close to this. I
Speaker 3: think they were just throwing shit. They were throwing ip
Speaker 3: at the wall and then like Pirates of the Caribbean
Speaker 3: was like the standout. Wait, maybe I think the Country
Speaker 3: Bears was, oh too, don't ask me why I know that.
Speaker 3: That's I don't know. Some like cousins like names love. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: two thousand and two, I was right about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like this was like clearly early Eiger strategy. They're
Speaker 4: just like, why don't we use all this crap from
Speaker 4: the park that no one thinks about regularly?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well, and they're still doing it. Like the Jungle
Speaker 3: Cruise movie came out last year.
Speaker 2: I saw it.
Speaker 4: Can't wait for a matterhorn? Is that a.
Speaker 2: Not yet?
Speaker 5: Ye?
Speaker 3: Give it a couple of years, wait for it.
Speaker 4: For AI to do it's thing.
Speaker 3: And I feel like at this point, because there's we well,
Speaker 3: I mean, this is like not a new point to
Speaker 3: make it all, but just because of like how aggressively
Speaker 3: ip ish movies are currently and it's like whatever, I
Speaker 3: took the Barbie pill wholesale. But I was reading this
Speaker 3: morning about how hell is like getting the wrong idea
Speaker 3: and they're like, yeah, so we actually have this. What
Speaker 3: was it there? It was jj Abrams is making a
Speaker 3: Hot Wheels movie, which I wish I was joking.
Speaker 4: Stop that, And then that's enough, there was no floor
Speaker 4: to be had. The movie Cars exists?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Also that Grand Turismo or whatever Tarismo
Speaker 2: movie that's coming out. Why that thing?
Speaker 3: Vin Diesel's doing rock Em Sockham Robot.
Speaker 2: Where's the Hungry Hungry Hippos? The Where's the Polly Pocket movie?
Speaker 3: Daniel Kley is doing Barney the Darney Store in an
Speaker 3: A twenty four type film that is heavily inspired by
Speaker 3: the work of Charlie Kaufman. I was like, enough, yeah,
Speaker 3: but I will see I will see it. Well I
Speaker 3: see it yet?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well I suffer this of course.
Speaker 3: But I shouldn't have to. I shouldn't have to see it.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to think about it, but you know,
Speaker 4: I will see it.
Speaker 3: That sentence I was just I don't know. At that point.
Speaker 3: It was like Monday morning and I read that sentence.
Speaker 3: I was like mad lib, absolute mad lib. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I will I will see it.
Speaker 2: We can't help ourselves, Jamie. What is your relationship with
Speaker 2: the Haunted Mansion? Oh?
Speaker 3: I loved this movie so much. I thought this was cinema.
Speaker 3: I thought this was great. I definitely came into Eddie
Speaker 3: Murphy and his like firmly in his Kids Era and
Speaker 3: then worked my way backwards later. I just feels like
Speaker 3: it's impossible to not be a fan of Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 3: I know we've talked about him on other episodes, We've
Speaker 3: covered a lot of his movies and alert.
Speaker 4: I know how you go from Donkey to this. I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: I'm jumping. I'm jumping at his you don't have enough money,
Speaker 4: Eddie anyway, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know we've talked about Eddie Murphy's like
Speaker 3: personal life in the patches. We're not gonna get into
Speaker 3: that today. Today we're talking about he's firmly in his
Speaker 3: children's entertainment bag. He's making a shitload of money. I
Speaker 3: think that my first Eddie Murphy movie would have been, well,
Speaker 3: this isn't an Eddie Murphy movie. But he's in Mulan, right,
Speaker 3: and he's firmly in Mulan. My first clear memory of
Speaker 3: seeing a movie was Eddie Murphy. Doctor Doolittle. Yeah, he's
Speaker 3: like I think, I mean, I guess he's the only doctor.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 3: I did see Robert Downey Junior Doctor Doolittle.
Speaker 4: Ive, how did they already reboot that?
Speaker 3: I was the only one that was I was, I
Speaker 3: was only I was like on mushrooms and it was still.
Speaker 3: It was just a disaster. Eddie Murphy is is Doctor Doolittle.
Speaker 3: I remember that really clearly because my cousins and I
Speaker 3: all went and they were passing me Starburst and they
Speaker 3: were telling me remember this story, yeah, and I was.
Speaker 3: I assumed that my cousins were unwrapping candy for me
Speaker 3: for some reason because I was little, and I was
Speaker 3: just eating Starburst rappers the whole movie. And then at
Speaker 3: the end, I was like, I feel sick and full
Speaker 3: of paper. And that's my first movie memory.
Speaker 2: Beautiful God.
Speaker 3: And then by three, Yeah, he's had he's shreked out,
Speaker 3: He's got the Shrek yacht, but he hasn't had enough.
Speaker 3: And three might be my peak Eddie Murphy year because
Speaker 3: he's in Haunted Mansion and Daddy Daycare this year, and
Speaker 3: I was obsessed with Daddy Daycare. It's Eddie Murphy and
Speaker 3: Steve zon Witch of Stuart Little theme of Yeah, Snowball's
Speaker 3: best friend in Stuart Little. He capitalized on his success
Speaker 3: from Stuart Little to be Eddie Murphy's friend in Daddy Daycare.
Speaker 3: Regina King plays his wife, and it inspired Kaylee and
Speaker 3: I started to texting you about this the other day
Speaker 3: because I was like, oh, wow, there is like a
Speaker 3: whole subgenre of movies that's just men taking care of children,
Speaker 3: and how weird is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, we were thinking about a Matreon theme, So Matrons,
Speaker 2: if you're interested in that, let us know.
Speaker 3: Stir Mom, three men and a baby, and then the
Speaker 3: peak of cinema, Daddy Takecare. Anyways, I was I definitely
Speaker 3: saw this movie in theaters. I definitely. I remember being
Speaker 3: really scared of it, especially the zombie part, and I
Speaker 3: was surprised that the reviews of this movie were not
Speaker 3: I know, it wasn't like a huge success, but I
Speaker 3: was surprised that they weren't positive. And I thought it
Speaker 3: was very weird that all of the reviews were like,
Speaker 3: it wasn't scary enough, and you're like, well, are you seven,
Speaker 3: because it doesn't seem like you really are allowed to
Speaker 3: say what's scary? You're you're a grown man, of course
Speaker 3: you weren't scared.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hopefully like you.
Speaker 3: I'd be great to read a Roger Ebert. It's like
Speaker 3: I was pissing myself at Eddie Murphy's Haunting Man. Anyway,
Speaker 3: I loved it and then watching it back, goes like, huh,
Speaker 3: what's this? Where's the plot? Yeah, this is really a
Speaker 3: very thin movie. Plot was I'm not a lot going
Speaker 3: on Caitlinious Street with Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion.
Speaker 2: I had never seen it until a few days ago.
Speaker 2: I had never ridden the ride at Disneyland. Also, until
Speaker 2: about probably a month ago, I am now firmly a
Speaker 2: Disney adult. I'm so sorry, everybody. Do have a pass
Speaker 2: during a strike? I know I'm crossing the picket line.
Speaker 4: The parks are struck, right.
Speaker 3: I actually had a question. I had a question about that.
Speaker 3: I was like, can I go on the Minion's ride
Speaker 3: or is that scabbing? And the answer I got was
Speaker 3: We're not sure. And it's like, okay, yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: it's kind of it's just like a haunted house. It's
Speaker 3: a loosely themed haunted house.
Speaker 2: Well yeah. And so I was at the park and
Speaker 2: we were approaching what I didn't realize was the ride,
Speaker 2: and I was like, what is this plantation? Ass looking?
Speaker 2: How why is this here? And my friends were like,
Speaker 2: that's the Haunted Mansion. That's the ride we're about to
Speaker 2: go on, and I was like, oh okay, and then
Speaker 2: I rode the ride and the whole like elevator thing,
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh my god, spooky. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's a pretty underwhelming ride to me as far as
Speaker 2: like thrills go. The production design is pretty cool, I suppose,
Speaker 2: but you.
Speaker 3: Know it's again it's for seven year olds, and so
Speaker 3: you're like, yeah, pretty scary. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I wasn't able to afford to go until I was
Speaker 4: doing my internship there, so I have to tell you
Speaker 4: how disappointing it was. The first day of training at Disney.
Speaker 4: They just point out all the shit that's fake and
Speaker 4: what's like, like they kill the magic for you. And
Speaker 4: I was like, I've never been here one day. No,
Speaker 4: They're like that's fake, and that's fake, and these are
Speaker 4: the exits and if you if you get stuck on
Speaker 4: the ride, you go through this room and this is
Speaker 4: what happens. And I'm like, shut up.
Speaker 3: I know they have to do that, but it's like
Speaker 3: you're especially if you're interning, You're like, I'm not even
Speaker 3: getting paid for this.
Speaker 4: Marriage.
Speaker 3: It's just destroyed me. Oh my god.
Speaker 4: So I'm still a Disney adult. They couldn't kill it,
Speaker 4: you know, but they tried.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say. I mean these like the theme park
Speaker 3: movies in the like early two thousands were like hit
Speaker 3: or miss. And I saw like a YouTube video that
Speaker 3: from I think it was a Yahara as a heat video.
Speaker 3: We'll link it if I'm correct about that. But just
Speaker 3: like how like, not all of them are great. Some
Speaker 3: of them the plot leaves something to be desired maybe,
Speaker 3: but it was like great for like kids who couldn't
Speaker 3: afford to go to Disneyland. It's like as close as
Speaker 3: you could get for a while and kind of ends
Speaker 3: up over selling it in a way that except maybe
Speaker 3: The Country Bears, I haven't seen never a long time.
Speaker 3: I feel like I saw that movie five times in
Speaker 3: one weekend and then never again, like.
Speaker 4: I remember it, but it's more of a trauma.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but like the Haunted Mansion, I feel like is
Speaker 3: the movie that feels because like I mean, I love
Speaker 3: the First Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but that doesn't
Speaker 3: have shit to do with the ride, Like this one
Speaker 3: is like it's they're trying to deliver on the.
Speaker 2: Ride, like reverse engineer a plot based on the ride,
Speaker 2: and you're like that, yeah, that's not how to write
Speaker 2: a screenplay, but.
Speaker 4: It's how someoney gave them the money and they were like,
Speaker 4: you're gonna have a script by this date. And the
Speaker 4: guy the night before was like, fuckingna ride the ride again?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, can you imagine what a fucking nightmare Disney
Speaker 3: Notes must have been like on this movie. They're like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, you didn't have the scary guy with
Speaker 3: the head. You're gonna have to write in a Walla
Speaker 3: Shawn character. And you're like, oh my god. I mean
Speaker 3: I was thrilled to see you know, Wallashan. I also
Speaker 3: definitely did not know who Jennifer Tilly was the last
Speaker 3: time I saw this movie fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. Anyway, So yeah, I saw the
Speaker 2: movie for the first time very recently, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is, I guess, more fun than I was expecting.
Speaker 2: But then on my second watch, I was like, oh no,
Speaker 2: this movie is not good.
Speaker 4: So wow, maybe you couldn't even finish it in one sitting,
Speaker 4: like objectively, just to like pull back the curtain. We
Speaker 4: were supposed to record this like four days ago. I
Speaker 4: only watched half of it because I couldn't stomach anymore,
Speaker 4: and then I forgot that I need to finish it
Speaker 4: for the podcast, so we pushed and I really I
Speaker 4: really had to bite down and.
Speaker 3: Just guys, I had a lovely time.
Speaker 4: My dog wanted to take a walk. Every time I
Speaker 4: don't wanted to take a walk. I was like, now's
Speaker 4: the time. No better time than in the middle of
Speaker 4: this shit.
Speaker 3: Anyway, we before we get into it. So yeah, the
Speaker 3: reason that we are originally covering this is because there
Speaker 3: is a reboot of this roller coaster adaptation, because that's
Speaker 3: just kind of where we're at in the world at
Speaker 3: this time. Since that, since we sort of made that plan,
Speaker 3: there is now a both a WGA strike and a
Speaker 3: SAG strike, So this means a lot of things. We
Speaker 3: talked about the WGA strike over on the Patreo on
Speaker 3: and I'm hoping to expand that to talking about the
Speaker 3: SAG strike. Aequila, are you double striking right now?
Speaker 4: I am? I am. And the worst thing is like
Speaker 4: the optics for me, So my foot. I have a
Speaker 4: foot surgery on Friday, so my picketing is like every
Speaker 4: other day for like thirty minutes, and then my foot's
Speaker 4: like ow and I just feel like, you know, there's
Speaker 4: nothing else to post online right now but striking, And
Speaker 4: I'm not, and so I feel bad. So that's just
Speaker 4: my personal thing, but it is. It's a weird time
Speaker 4: to be in either industry. I guess they're all the
Speaker 4: same industry, but any part of it, especially in LA.
Speaker 4: It's just like I already limit that I moved here
Speaker 4: for a podcast job that then I did from home
Speaker 4: for four hundred episodes year and now and now it's
Speaker 4: like there's no work. So it's tough. It's a hard time.
Speaker 4: I'm glad you all are still doing the podcast. I
Speaker 4: feel like at least there's somewhere I can talk about
Speaker 4: my love of entertainment because it's not on this picket.
Speaker 2: I mean, come back any time for any movie every week.
Speaker 3: And I guess we should be clear on the main
Speaker 3: feed that the Bechel cast is not affected by the
Speaker 3: WGA strike, because I just know there's so much confusion
Speaker 3: about it, and there's also confusion for us, and so
Speaker 3: like we have double and triple checked to make sure
Speaker 3: that everything we're doing is above board. We'll continue to
Speaker 3: do it because it is very confusing, especially if it's
Speaker 3: your kind of first go round on a strike. But
Speaker 3: one of the ways that this has affected the timing
Speaker 3: of this episode coming out. So one of the big
Speaker 3: elements of striking, or one of the elements is that
Speaker 3: if you're a SAG after a member, you cannot promote
Speaker 3: projects that you have coming out. And so there you
Speaker 3: could see there are some preventative measures taken where they
Speaker 3: pushed up the Barbie premiere, So that happened over a
Speaker 3: week before the movie came out because it seemed like
Speaker 3: there was going to be a strike. The Oppenheimer premiere
Speaker 3: was canceled.
Speaker 2: I thought that it happened, but then the actors walked
Speaker 2: off of it, like in the middle of the premiere.
Speaker 3: Multiple premiers that happened at one okay, and then another
Speaker 3: one was canceled entirely got it, and then something in
Speaker 3: the middle happened at the Haunted Mansion reboot premiere that
Speaker 3: I just am like Disney is, I mean, everything's a
Speaker 3: fucking mess. But like Bob Eiger or his I like
Speaker 3: to call him Bobby Gere, my favorite indie musician, I
Speaker 3: can't not see.
Speaker 2: It right there, Bob.
Speaker 3: Has I mean, Bob has been fucking up monumentally friends
Speaker 3: yelling at him as she should. All that to say,
Speaker 3: they did not cancel even though none of their actors
Speaker 3: can come, and it is primarily a like celebrity reboot movie.
Speaker 3: It's starring Lakeith Stanfeld, Tiffany Hattish, Dandy DeVito. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's all really really famous people Jamie Lee, Curtis and
Speaker 3: Wis and none of them can come. And Bobi Gare says,
Speaker 3: know we're doing it, and instead of anyone in the
Speaker 3: movie who are now barred from attending, he brings in
Speaker 3: costumed villain characters from Disneyland.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they didn't add Disneyland. They literally have Mickey and
Speaker 4: Vinnie in like purple Halloween costumes.
Speaker 3: Kuela Deville is walking the premier carpet, Maleficent walking the
Speaker 3: PREMI scab Maleficent, And I'm like, I guess all these
Speaker 3: people would be scabs. Mickey and Minnie definitely scabs, true,
Speaker 3: but like but it's just like, I mean, first of all,
Speaker 3: wild they didn't cancel it. Second of all, decided to
Speaker 3: have their most evil characters walked without This movie is
Speaker 3: just like so wildly toned, and so they kind of
Speaker 3: left the director of the movie, Believe Justin Simeon, he's
Speaker 3: kind of left on his own and he's basically only
Speaker 3: asked questions of like, well, how do you how do
Speaker 3: you feel about all that ship? Boby Garret is talking
Speaker 3: and he's kind of like not great. It just like
Speaker 3: it was a it was a mess. And these are
Speaker 3: the times that the Haunted Mansion reboot reboot is coming
Speaker 3: into it.
Speaker 5: I say, a haunted franchise.
Speaker 4: Wow, it seems like just deeply haunted.
Speaker 3: Also just like he's such a good director. I know,
Speaker 3: I know, but it's like dud. Anyways, I just I
Speaker 3: need to close the tab that I have open in
Speaker 3: front of me because it's a Guardian article that says
Speaker 3: the Hot Wheels movie will be emotional, grounded and gritty.
Speaker 3: But why, I'm why. Indeed, it's a fair question to ask. Uh,
Speaker 3: they're not going to outperform Lightning mc queen, but I
Speaker 3: guess they're.
Speaker 5: Gonna try, damn well.
Speaker 3: In the only card. Well, let's talk about Eddie Murphy's
Speaker 3: Haunted Mansion.
Speaker 2: Yes, let's take a quick break first, and then we
Speaker 2: will come right back. Okay, here's the recap for Haunted
Speaker 2: Mansion starring Eddie Murphy two thousand and three.
Speaker 3: Don't think it'll be long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's only eighty four minutes long the movie. Okay,
Speaker 2: so we open on a flashback of an old timey
Speaker 2: masquerade ball in a huge mansion. Is it about to
Speaker 2: be haunted? Maybe? During the ball, a woman dies via
Speaker 2: drinking poison, followed by a man hanging himself, which they
Speaker 2: show on screen, which I was surprised about for it
Speaker 2: like movie.
Speaker 3: Movie that happening during like because usually I will I
Speaker 3: will sometimes fast forward the opening credits, and then I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, oh, I can.
Speaker 2: There's like things are happening.
Speaker 3: I was. I was surprised. I was like, whoof, they
Speaker 3: are really getting into it right away, because I think
Speaker 3: that when you see that really gruesome image, it's also
Speaker 3: telling you who the director of photography is.
Speaker 2: This is like very bizarre.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So then we cut to the present where a boy
Speaker 2: rides up on his bike to the mansion. He's like
Speaker 2: a paper delivery boy, I think, and something that appears
Speaker 2: to be a ghost wooshes at him and scares him away,
Speaker 2: and he drops a bunch of flyers for Evers and
Speaker 2: Ever's real estate, which is very similar to me to
Speaker 2: the opening of.
Speaker 3: Casper Yes, except it introduces so many questions, including did
Speaker 3: Eddie Murphy hire this random kid to advertise his real.
Speaker 5: Estate on a bike door to door.
Speaker 3: How would he answer any follow up questions about real estate?
Speaker 3: We don't know.
Speaker 2: Then we cut to Jim Evers. That's Eddie Murphy. He's
Speaker 2: a real estate agent and he's selling real quick.
Speaker 4: Have you ever met a black guy named Jim?
Speaker 2: No, definitely not.
Speaker 3: I don't think.
Speaker 4: When I found out that was his name, I was like,
Speaker 4: they recast last minute. They were like, let's just get
Speaker 4: it to Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 3: Eddie Murphy truly is I mean, this is true. I
Speaker 3: guess of a couple Eddie Murphy kids movies, but like
Speaker 3: he is like, this movie's saving grace, this movie is.
Speaker 2: I think that's why I thought I liked it the
Speaker 2: first time. I was like, Murphy, he has so much charisma, Yeah,
Speaker 2: not enough, He's it.
Speaker 3: Is really a testament to how Eddie Murphy can sell
Speaker 3: nothing like yeah sorry continued.
Speaker 2: Okay, So we've got a black guy named Jim who
Speaker 2: is a real estate agent. He's selling houses, he's closing deals.
Speaker 2: He's really good at his job, but he's neglecting his wife,
Speaker 2: Sarah played by Marsha Thomason, and their kids, Michael and Megan.
Speaker 2: He's late for the anniversary dinner with his wife. He's
Speaker 2: missing his kids soccer games and stuff like that. So
Speaker 2: he's like, fine, I'll take the weekend off and we'll
Speaker 2: go on a family trip to the lake.
Speaker 3: I was really frustrated for his wife. Well, I'm frustrated
Speaker 3: for Sarah. Basically the entire movie thinks don't improve for
Speaker 3: her meaningfully at any time. But when when he comes
Speaker 3: home with a watch, yeah, I was upset with him. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but then you're like, it's Eddie Murphy. I can't stay mad.
Speaker 2: I know that's how he gets.
Speaker 4: You'll make it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So before the family goes on this trip, Sarah answers
Speaker 2: a phone call from someone who wants her to sell
Speaker 2: a house because she's also a real estate agent. Not
Speaker 2: that you would know, because not that we ever see
Speaker 2: her doing her job, like we mentioned before.
Speaker 3: Well you see her considering doing her job writing a
Speaker 3: fun call.
Speaker 4: She's been in houses.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I come down pro Sarah on this because
Speaker 3: we know this is like classic whatever, like crummy kids
Speaker 3: movie writing, where you're like, dad's working too hard. It's
Speaker 3: all these gendered stereotypes. But I'm like, no, Sarah is
Speaker 3: in a union and she is just simply saying I
Speaker 3: don't work outside of these hours. I don't. It's Friday
Speaker 3: at seven pm. I'm not setting up a viewing. True,
Speaker 3: and that's a fair boundary as a professional. That's how
Speaker 3: I feel. Because we only see her on the weekend.
Speaker 3: Maybe she's nine am on Monday. She's fucking at it.
Speaker 2: Sure, I mean, yeah, It's not her fault that we
Speaker 2: don't see her doing her job. It's the movie's fault.
Speaker 4: They could have made the movie longer.
Speaker 3: I at least let I have a feeling if we
Speaker 3: see Sarah on Tuesday, we would get a very different
Speaker 3: Sarah for sure.
Speaker 2: Where's the sequel anyway? Uh?
Speaker 3: Well it's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just had its awesome premiere. Okay. So so Jim,
Speaker 2: he interrupts this phone call and he's like, wow, I
Speaker 2: know that address. That house is huge, let's go. So
Speaker 2: on the way to the family trip, Jim insists on
Speaker 2: taking everyone to this big mansion to discuss putting the
Speaker 2: house up for sale. They arrive, it's spooky. It looks abandoned.
Speaker 2: There's a huge cemetery outside. It's almost as if it's
Speaker 2: a haunted mansion. Then it starts pouring rain, so the
Speaker 2: family hurries inside, where they meet a butler named Ramsley
Speaker 2: play by Terrence Stamp. And did anyone know who Terence
Speaker 2: Stamp was? I guess he won an oscar once. Oh,
Speaker 2: I recognize him from another Eddie Murphy movie, one of
Speaker 2: my favorites, Bowfinger.
Speaker 3: Oh oh okay, what a career?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: Also, real quick the rain had it not rain?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 4: Are we to believe that the mansion controls the weather?
Speaker 4: Because if that didn't rain, they could have left exactly.
Speaker 4: But I guess the mansion also has its own climate.
Speaker 3: I believe, And we're in are we canonically in I
Speaker 3: know this movie was shot in New Orleans? But are
Speaker 3: we canonically in New Orleans?
Speaker 2: They so Jim drives a BMW. We see the license plate.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure it says Louisiana. So it's like assumed.
Speaker 3: I think I read that the bridge that they pullar
Speaker 3: alert they get out of on mansion when they're driving away,
Speaker 3: that's like a bridge in the New Orleans area. But
Speaker 3: it seems like this like big, like Antebellum Mansion. I
Speaker 3: have so many questions about the internal logic of this movie,
Speaker 3: including just a lot of I just have a lot
Speaker 3: of questions about Terrence Stamp's character it really seems like
Speaker 3: he has consistently not had a plan for like one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty years. He's had so long to get
Speaker 3: a cohesive plan together. Well, I alive and dead, and
Speaker 3: he just never tests.
Speaker 2: I'm prepared to make the argument that this movie has
Speaker 2: basically the same exact plot as a recent Matreon episode
Speaker 2: What A Girl Wants Whoa because both movies involve a
Speaker 2: rich guy who lives in a big house, who is
Speaker 2: with a woman who the rich guy's butler does not
Speaker 2: approve of, so the butler sends the woman away slash
Speaker 2: murders her spoiler alert, which begs the question in both cases,
Speaker 2: why is a butler so concerned about who the rich
Speaker 2: guy marries? Like how does this? I guess maybe that
Speaker 2: affects his job status, But if I'm a working class
Speaker 2: person working for a rich piece of shit, I don't
Speaker 2: give a shit about his personal life. Like I don't why,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Anyway, they're the same movie, and it's
Speaker 2: you're scringing it.
Speaker 4: He's like trying to like make him see the air
Speaker 4: of his ways. He's like, no, she's ruining that.
Speaker 3: They should do we should do a whole episode on
Speaker 3: butler logic. It is really confusing, yeah, because I feel
Speaker 3: like it's always just like a one sentence explanation and
Speaker 3: it's like I made a promise to your father and
Speaker 3: you're like what and.
Speaker 4: The whole Batman philosophy y yeah, oh yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 4: is your dad still paying you? Like you can go.
Speaker 3: Like no offense he died, like you don't need to
Speaker 3: work here?
Speaker 4: Yeah, and when I die, what's your plan? You just
Speaker 4: gonna have a family of butlers that are indentured.
Speaker 2: Like well, like I think we talked about this on
Speaker 2: the Beauty and the Beast episode where it's like, why
Speaker 2: are these servants who have had their life absolutely taken
Speaker 2: away and destroyed because of their like loyalty to their boss. No.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but they're deeply invested in him becoming a better person.
Speaker 3: They may made a promise or something. It's like Terrence
Speaker 3: Stamps thing is like I'm just gonna lie to him
Speaker 3: until I don't feel bad about killing a lady like
Speaker 3: yeah's disaster.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like quitting never entered the possibility. No, like another
Speaker 4: butler job.
Speaker 3: M M.
Speaker 4: I like this fucking half, I'll say it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very bizarre. Anyway, So Ramsley the butler is creepy,
Speaker 2: and when the whole family shows up, he's like, ooh,
Speaker 2: we were not expecting others. We just wanted Sarah to come.
Speaker 2: And we're like, what's going on with that? Uh? And
Speaker 2: then the family meets the owner of the house, Edward
Speaker 2: Gracie played by Nathaniel Parker, and his sideburns and his sideburns.
Speaker 2: He's paying extra attention to Sarah as well, and we're
Speaker 2: like hmmm. And then Edward's also like, hey, do you
Speaker 2: guys believe in ghosts? And everyone's like ti he what.
Speaker 3: Then there's a really funny I think that it was
Speaker 3: that line or there was some line that the butler
Speaker 3: says that sounded like a just like ai garbled version
Speaker 3: of that line from Pirates of the Caribbean of like,
Speaker 3: do you believe in ghost stories? Because you're in one?
Speaker 3: And sorry the did you do? With the accent?
Speaker 2: Yes, your best start believing in ghost stories.
Speaker 3: You're in one, And like the high manchuscript just doesn't
Speaker 3: really have that juice because the butler's like, hey, do
Speaker 3: you believe in ghosts? Because maybe there's one over there.
Speaker 4: They'll talk about ghosts to sell your house next time.
Speaker 2: Next time, Jim is very unphased, similarly unphased when he
Speaker 2: sees actual ghosts. He's just like, interesting, it's all about
Speaker 2: the sale.
Speaker 3: He's like, all right, there's ghosts.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So then Ramsley is like, by the way, the
Speaker 2: storm has flooded the road, so you guys have to
Speaker 2: stay here tonight. And the family's like okay, So they
Speaker 2: go to their rooms. Sarah is upset about missing the
Speaker 2: family trip to the lake, and then Ramsley comes to
Speaker 2: fetch Jim because Edward wants a private word with him.
Speaker 2: And as Jim is waiting for Edward in his rich
Speaker 2: person room, his study or something like that, Jim finds
Speaker 2: a secret passageway and he goes inside and gets trapped. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: in the kid's room, a ghost ball appears and it
Speaker 2: wants Megan and Michael.
Speaker 3: Bless these kids' hearts. They are not looking at the
Speaker 3: same tennis ball and this shot no really, that's on
Speaker 3: Rob Minkoff. Oh my god, who directed Stuart Little Synchronicity.
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 3: Oh, this guy loves to direct a mediocre kids movie.
Speaker 3: He loves it.
Speaker 4: Good for him specialty.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So anyway, the ghost ball wants Megan and Michael
Speaker 2: to follow it. So they do. Meanwhile, Sarah is like,
Speaker 2: where's my husband? And she goes looking for him, but
Speaker 2: instead she finds Edward and he starts to tell Sarah
Speaker 2: about a woman named Elizabeth, because every live action Disney
Speaker 2: movie from two thousand and three has to have a
Speaker 2: character named Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she's got to be she's got to be
Speaker 3: in the thick of it, like she's a main character.
Speaker 2: Cut to Jim as he's finding his way out of
Speaker 2: the secret passage and into a hallway with scary art
Speaker 2: and bulging doors things that are basically direct, right, yeah,
Speaker 2: direct references to the bride. There's a scary mirror that
Speaker 2: makes him look like a corpse, and he's like.
Speaker 4: And at no point, though, is he like, oh, I
Speaker 4: can't sell a house with a door like that. That
Speaker 4: mirror's gotta get out, Like he's still thinking about something
Speaker 4: the house, but never commenting, like he didn't ask anyone
Speaker 4: the square footage. How much do you really care about
Speaker 4: selling that?
Speaker 3: I really this this part, like these sequences are so
Speaker 3: because at the time, like if you hadn't been on
Speaker 3: the Haunted Mansion ride, you're just like, WHOA, this is
Speaker 3: so weird. But it was like I don't know this.
Speaker 3: I feel like Eddie Murphy all but turns to camera
Speaker 3: and is like, and if you like this, you're gonna
Speaker 3: love this amazing attraction its you like because it's just
Speaker 3: like the ride for some sequences.
Speaker 4: I'm not mad at walking for a long time. Yea,
Speaker 4: now the.
Speaker 2: Left exactly smooth. Okay, so Eddie Murphy is like looking
Speaker 2: at all these spooky things. Then meanwhile, the kids are
Speaker 2: still following the ghost ball, which leads them to an
Speaker 2: old painting of a woman that looks exactly like their mom.
Speaker 2: And right then a couple of servants show up, Ezra
Speaker 2: and Emma. According to IMDb, although I don't think we
Speaker 2: really ever learned their names.
Speaker 3: I was like Wallis Sean and that lady.
Speaker 4: Cookies is what I was referring to the cookie servants.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, they are the cookie.
Speaker 4: Every mansion has two cookie people.
Speaker 3: Yes, You're like, wow, that's a really robust staff they.
Speaker 4: Had, because what was his job. It's like she seems
Speaker 4: really like she made the cookies. He's just there to
Speaker 4: be like.
Speaker 2: No, right, he's not the butler. Ramsley's the butler.
Speaker 3: So they say he's a bumbling footman. Okay, so that's
Speaker 3: his job. He's a bumbling foot he's he's like he's
Speaker 3: like in any.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so yes, it's Wallace Sean and an actor named
Speaker 6: Dina Spyby Waters and yeah it's true.
Speaker 3: That's a haunted house name.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they help the kids hide from Ramsley.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: Then back in Eddie murphy Land, he finds a room
Speaker 2: with a crystal ball and inside is this like fortune
Speaker 2: teller lady named Madam.
Speaker 3: Leota Jennifer Tilly, who I just love that they put
Speaker 3: Jennifer Tilly's head in a ball for a whole movie.
Speaker 3: I think that that's who Jamie Lee Curtis is playing
Speaker 3: in the new one.
Speaker 5: Oh that's that tracks.
Speaker 3: Oh good work if you can get it, I guess.
Speaker 2: Right, although Tiffany Hattish is also in like fortune Teller Garb,
Speaker 2: at least from what I've noticed of like the promo stuff.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I know, no idea anyway, Madam Liota.
Speaker 4: In twenty years when we do the podcast about that.
Speaker 2: I will know, Yes, we'll clarify then. So Madam Leota,
Speaker 2: who I'm like, is that Ray Liota's mom wife? I
Speaker 2: don't know, Yeah, it's his mom. He's he's to show
Speaker 2: business nepotism too.
Speaker 3: It's the crystal ball.
Speaker 2: She is talking about how Jim needs to lift the
Speaker 2: curse and release all the trapped spirits, and he's like
Speaker 2: freaking out. He runs away, Yes, for sure, he runs away,
Speaker 2: and he bumps into his kids and the cookie servants,
Speaker 2: who are ghosts by the way, But again no one
Speaker 2: in the family reacts.
Speaker 3: To I kind of love that this whole family is
Speaker 3: just like super underwhelmed by the ghosts, like we're we're
Speaker 3: actually kind of the youngest Michael is I think made
Speaker 3: out to seem like what he has to overcome is fear,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I think that we should I'll
Speaker 3: be more afraid. I think we should all be matching
Speaker 3: Michael's energy. But I like I like the kid characters,
Speaker 3: like they weren't you know, they're written, but I liked them,
Speaker 3: especially because just the daughter is just like not afraid
Speaker 3: of anything. She's just like, it's a ghost ball, let's
Speaker 3: fall away. And then when like ghost Wallace Shawn turns up,
Speaker 3: she's like, hi, because.
Speaker 2: I would like a cookie.
Speaker 4: He's great, Yeah, exactly, Please introduce yourself to this the
Speaker 4: two children in the room.
Speaker 3: Is it logical? No, But I would like to navigate
Speaker 3: the world that way.
Speaker 4: I wish all their seeds are just them screaming, like
Speaker 4: like they're just like no plot for them except for
Speaker 4: horrifying their hair turns white, I will even.
Speaker 3: Michael's like a little unfazed.
Speaker 4: And just collapses.
Speaker 2: You're like, okay, because like Michael is really only afraid
Speaker 2: of spiders.
Speaker 3: It seems, yeah, which I thought was really I guess
Speaker 3: that the actor who played it, Mark John Jeffries. Three names.
Speaker 3: That's how you know you're working with a child actor.
Speaker 3: To child actors and serial killers, that's the three name
Speaker 3: way Mark John Jeffries. I guess he was a fan
Speaker 3: of Ron Weasley and so he asked to have the
Speaker 3: fear of spiders added because Ron Weasley was afraid of spiders.
Speaker 3: Isn't that sweet? That's cute?
Speaker 5: Do we believe that.
Speaker 3: Or was that just an adult child actor? That was
Speaker 3: my idea.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I came up with the spider thing, and it's
Speaker 4: like it was in one scene. They never follow up
Speaker 4: and there's no spiders in the haunted mansion.
Speaker 2: Weird, Well, there is spiders in the crypt later, so
Speaker 2: it does kind of payoff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true. He has to get over that one like,
Speaker 4: you're right, you're right. I forgot that part. That was
Speaker 4: the part I memory hold. I was clawing for the
Speaker 4: credits in.
Speaker 3: The Yeah, the last stretch of this movie. I was
Speaker 3: terrified as a kid, but as an adult it's like
Speaker 3: it's like the last ten minutes drags.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, anyway, so we cut back to Edward telling
Speaker 2: Sarah about this mysterious woman, Elizabeth. He says that his grandfather,
Speaker 2: but it's actually him because guess what, he's also a ghost.
Speaker 2: Although Sarah does not yet know this that basically Edward
Speaker 2: and Elizabeth were in love, but they were from different
Speaker 2: worlds and couldn't be together interested to discuss what they
Speaker 2: might mean by that, And so she died by suicide,
Speaker 2: and then the man unable to bear it also took
Speaker 2: his own life. So that's what we see in that
Speaker 2: opening sequence, like the credit sequence, and then Edward's like yes,
Speaker 2: and now this man's soul haunts the house waiting for
Speaker 2: her to return.
Speaker 3: And Sarah's still like huh interesting?
Speaker 2: Interesting?
Speaker 4: Also like why is it never like clear why like her,
Speaker 4: her ghost isn't haunting the mansion too?
Speaker 2: Well, because she's the ghost ball. I don't know why
Speaker 2: she can't take a more human form, she's the gust
Speaker 2: because that would make too much sense for this movie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe she would have run into the woman who
Speaker 4: looks just like her, who's barely a realistication, but like,
Speaker 4: hey are you my? Are we related at all?
Speaker 3: Ghostball Lady has more personality than Sarah's given unfortunately.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: True, sad but true.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she was cursed with being Eddie Murphy's wife in
Speaker 4: a movie because I looked at a lot of his
Speaker 4: movies and very few do the women ever get to
Speaker 4: act at anything majoring in like some have broken out,
Speaker 4: but mostly it's a lot of just beautiful women who fade.
Speaker 2: It sucks tol. Yeah, yeah, but I guess the directors
Speaker 2: of these movies are like, well, we've got Eddie Murphy,
Speaker 2: so his partner doesn't need to have a personality, like
Speaker 2: he's gonna do all the heavy lifting. And it's like yeah, no, And.
Speaker 3: I wonder how by design, because it's like occasionally you
Speaker 3: get someone with a really really famous actor like Eddie Murphy,
Speaker 3: and then you can like launch someone's career off of
Speaker 3: like playing Eddie Murphy's his wife in a movie. If
Speaker 3: you're if you receive a character right performed.
Speaker 4: If anyone notices you in the film, right.
Speaker 3: Right, So it's I mean, who knows. I'm not familiar
Speaker 3: with this actor's work.
Speaker 4: I went to IMDb. It was pretty much nothing after that.
Speaker 3: It's like she played a lot of lawyers.
Speaker 4: The kids played kids and things for a while, which
Speaker 4: was cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and then they I think, you know, I
Speaker 3: think that they stopped working as actors, which is the
Speaker 3: right decision. You know that's probably now, especially now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, get into Crypto kids, even.
Speaker 3: The crypto from crypt to Crypto from Oh, that's a
Speaker 3: gnarly I bet I bet that exists.
Speaker 4: That his back pocket, he's.
Speaker 3: Gonna hit those kids. There's I sorry, this is a
Speaker 3: fun because I was looking for behind the scenes information
Speaker 3: on this movie, because I was trying to figure out
Speaker 3: what was this movie? Like, speaking back to what you
Speaker 3: were saying earlier, Aquila, I was like, was this movie
Speaker 3: written for Eddie Murphy? Like I could. It's just really
Speaker 3: hard to find out any significant pre production information about
Speaker 3: this movie. And you find the same five fun facts
Speaker 3: over and over and over, including this one I've seen
Speaker 3: a million times now. This was the first film to
Speaker 3: air on the Disney Channel to contain any profanity beside
Speaker 3: hell or dam. It also contained the phrase big ass termites.
Speaker 3: I've seen this fun fact a million times and I
Speaker 3: can't figure out if the movie was written or Eddie
Speaker 3: Murphy or not.
Speaker 4: Anyways, interesting, it must have been, right, like in the
Speaker 4: way that I imagine John Gole Cruise was written for The.
Speaker 3: Rock, right, yeah, right like, because otherwise there's no reason
Speaker 3: for this movie to exist if if Eddie Murphy isn't
Speaker 3: in it. Unfortunately, Yeah, with all due respect to while
Speaker 3: as Sean.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, meanwhile, Madame Leota is giving this same information
Speaker 2: about Edward and Elizabeth to Jim and his kids, and
Speaker 2: she tells them that in order to break the curse
Speaker 2: and rescue Sarah, they must enter the tomb under the
Speaker 2: Great Dead Oak and find a crypt wherein lies a
Speaker 2: key that will reveal the truth.
Speaker 3: So and we're like, uh huh huh okay.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 3: It reminds me of when ros do it Bekator gets
Speaker 3: directions on how to get to Jack in the boat,
Speaker 3: where you're just like it's a lot of steps and
Speaker 3: you'll come to it, like.
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna start yelling Jack and he's.
Speaker 3: Gonna I'm gonna get about three steps deep, and then
Speaker 3: I'm coming.
Speaker 4: Back to you, and I'm gonna be like what was
Speaker 4: after the hallway?
Speaker 2: Okay, I made it this far? Did I make the
Speaker 2: wrong turn?
Speaker 4: I just want to can talk to you in the hallways?
Speaker 3: Him problem, maybe a man.
Speaker 4: That says you are here.
Speaker 2: So the two cookie ghosts take Jim and the kids
Speaker 2: outside to the cemetery, where they see hundreds of other
Speaker 2: ghosts whose souls are all trapped there because of this curse.
Speaker 2: And they find the tomb and Jim goes inside. It's
Speaker 2: very Phantom of the Opera vibes down there. Yes, his
Speaker 2: daughter Megan comes along, and then little Michael, who is
Speaker 2: afraid of everything, gets left outside in a cemetery, which
Speaker 2: is like, he's fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I guess Eddie Murphy tries to prevent it
Speaker 3: from happening, but not very hard.
Speaker 2: Not very hard, and then his sister just abandons him.
Speaker 3: He's just like, all right, well, I guess I would
Speaker 3: have ditched my youngest child as well.
Speaker 4: He's like wife first, then maybe the crying little boy.
Speaker 3: Is it feminism to not care if your son lives
Speaker 3: or dies? Sound top in the cotton.
Speaker 2: Oh, poor little Michael. Okay, So Jim and his daughter
Speaker 2: Megan find the crypt and inside is a Skellington holding
Speaker 2: a key, and Jim grabs it, but a bunch of
Speaker 2: other Skellingtons come to life and start chasing them. Jim
Speaker 2: drops the key at one point Megan has to go
Speaker 2: find it underwater. Yeah, Titanic vibes Titanic. Exactly how many
Speaker 2: more Titanic parallels can there be? I wonder? Then they
Speaker 2: get trapped inside the tomb, this Skellingtons are chasing them,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. And then this is when Michael has
Speaker 2: to face his fear of spiders and he saves his
Speaker 2: dad and his sister.
Speaker 3: I thought it was nice. It's the most basic thing
Speaker 3: that could possibly happen. But I'm glad. But not every
Speaker 3: movie makes it that feel.
Speaker 5: It happens.
Speaker 3: Michael's one thing. Let's let him do is one thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And then Eddie Murphy's like, it's okay to be scared sometimes,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, well, okay, but like he's at the
Speaker 3: Haunted Mansion, like obviously he's scared.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this isn't a weird place to have an emotions.
Speaker 3: Like, don't be scared?
Speaker 4: Like every week they end up in a shitty house
Speaker 4: where like the mom's got to be married to some
Speaker 4: dead guy. It's a really crazy.
Speaker 3: This again, it takes Sarah so long to catch on
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, Sarah, look at his outfit.
Speaker 2: I hate how oblivious she's written to be. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: So then they take the Skellington key to Madam Leota,
Speaker 2: who says that they have to use it to open
Speaker 2: a trunk, which Jim does, and inside there is an
Speaker 2: old letter from Elizabeth to her beloved mister Gracie, saying
Speaker 2: that she will marry him, and they're like, wait a minute.
Speaker 2: She didn't take her own life. She wanted to be
Speaker 2: with him, so someone else must have murdered her and
Speaker 2: given mister Gracie the wrong letter. And it turns out
Speaker 2: that it was Ramsley the Butler, which you know you
Speaker 2: could have seen coming, especially if you'd already seen what
Speaker 2: a girl wants and.
Speaker 3: They but then you're just like what and what he
Speaker 3: does from there is even more confusing, yes, because he
Speaker 3: opens a portal to Hell, which is something he can.
Speaker 5: Do, but he won't just go there.
Speaker 3: But then he's he just like shoots himself in the
Speaker 3: foot so spectacularly because he's like, let me open a
Speaker 3: portal to Hell. Who is the only person in this
Speaker 3: room that belongs in Hell? Oh?
Speaker 1: Me?
Speaker 2: And then he just he gets dragged to Hell.
Speaker 6: He's like he d yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, it's also confusing because so he's the reason, so
Speaker 2: maybe it's not. He's the reason that the curse happened
Speaker 2: to begin with because of this whole secret murder and
Speaker 2: him secretly keeping the lovers apart, and now he's the
Speaker 2: one trying to, I guess, rectify his mistake, but he
Speaker 2: never really acknowledges that this was his fault to begin with,
Speaker 2: and he sort of acts like, thanks to me, this
Speaker 2: curse will be lifted because I'm finding this Sarah woman
Speaker 2: who I'm going to convince Edward is his long lost
Speaker 2: lover and it's going to be great and blah blah,
Speaker 2: and it's just like, but you're the reason this happened
Speaker 2: to begin with. I don't know anyway, we don't know.
Speaker 2: Ramsley did not want the lovers to be together for reasons,
Speaker 2: reasons of years. They've had so many years to talk
Speaker 2: about this. So the whole thing was that he he
Speaker 2: made Edward Gracie believe that Elizabeth didn't want to be
Speaker 2: with him, and then Ramseley poisoned her and it caused
Speaker 2: the whole curse. So yeah, Ramseley is now trying to
Speaker 2: undo it by having Edward and Sarah get together. But
Speaker 2: an a live person can't marry a dead ghost. So Ramseley'
Speaker 2: is like, oh, sorry, Jim, but I'm gonna have to
Speaker 2: kill your his wife. And then Ramseley traps the kids
Speaker 2: in a trunk and throws Jim out of the house. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: this is when Sarah is all like, hah, what's happening,
Speaker 2: because again it takes her so long to understand that,
Speaker 2: like Ramseley's orchestrating this whole thing where he's trying to
Speaker 2: get Edward to marry Sarah and convince Sarah to go
Speaker 2: along with this plan, and he's like, if you don't
Speaker 2: marry Edward, I'm going to kill your children. So Sarah
Speaker 2: puts on Elizabeth's wedding dress and is about to go
Speaker 2: through with marrying Edward. Outside, Jim is trying to get
Speaker 2: back into the house but he can't and he gives up,
Speaker 2: and Madame Leota rolls up in her crystal ball and
Speaker 2: she's like, you have to keep trying so then he
Speaker 2: drives his BMW into the house, which works for some reason.
Speaker 2: He saves his kids and then stops the wedding just
Speaker 2: as Sarah drinks poisoned wine and he's like, by the way, Edward,
Speaker 2: the truth is that Ramsley killed your beloved Elizabeth, and
Speaker 2: here's the letter to prove it. And then this is
Speaker 2: when Ramsley is like, damn you all to hell, and
Speaker 2: then a fire demon comes out of the ground and
Speaker 2: drags him to hell.
Speaker 3: Like what did he think would happen? Oh?
Speaker 4: Wow, this is the first time he's opening it movie.
Speaker 3: He's almost over.
Speaker 4: Yeah, He's like, all right, last effort, right doesn't work.
Speaker 2: Sarah starts dying because of the poison, and then the
Speaker 2: ghost Orb who was Elizabeth all along, shows back up,
Speaker 2: goes inside of Sarah and uses her physical form to
Speaker 2: kiss Edward. Okay, we'll talk about that, and she's like, babe,
Speaker 2: let's go to heaven. By the way, Eddie Murphy, thanks
Speaker 2: for releasing me. And he's like, no problem. And then
Speaker 2: Sarah comes back to life and Edward gives Jim the
Speaker 2: deed to the house and all the spirits ascend to heaven,
Speaker 2: and then the movie ends with the Evers family driving off.
Speaker 2: Madam Leota in her crystal ball is with them and
Speaker 2: they are now presumably headed to their family trip to
Speaker 2: the lake.
Speaker 3: The end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, beautiful, we love it.
Speaker 2: Let's take another quick break and we'll come back to
Speaker 2: discuss and we're back.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, where shall we start? Where would everyone likes
Speaker 3: to start?
Speaker 5: My deep size, let's just say that sucks?
Speaker 2: Should we talk about Sarah?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I definitely think that there's like so much to say.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, we've already mentioned that she and her husband
Speaker 2: have the same job, although we never see her doing
Speaker 2: her job. Really, there's a scene where she's on the
Speaker 2: phone with Ramsley and she's like, no, my husband and
Speaker 2: I work as a team. But again you never see
Speaker 2: that because you only ever see Jim working solo.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it feels like a very like early two thousands
Speaker 3: like way of being like, well, you can't say that
Speaker 3: we're not you know, like being equitable to women, because
Speaker 3: you know what.
Speaker 4: She's in it.
Speaker 3: But it's like she only acts as like a wife
Speaker 3: and mother. She never acts like her job is not Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean the movie can't happen without Eddie Murphy's job.
Speaker 2: But like you can't say the same for her, definitely. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And then on top of that, she's presented as being
Speaker 2: like a nagging wife, the way that so many like
Speaker 2: woman and wife characters are portrayed in movies, where what's
Speaker 2: usually actually happening is that they are expressing a desire
Speaker 2: for their partner to be an active participant in the
Speaker 2: relationship and in the household. They're expressing a desire for
Speaker 2: affection and emotional availability from their partner. They're expressing a
Speaker 2: desire to establish boundaries in the relationship, you know, things
Speaker 2: like that. But this is is like, why my wife
Speaker 2: won't stop nagging me?
Speaker 4: I gave her a watch? Why is she still talking?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Why is she mad?
Speaker 3: I'm just I feel like but the subtext of that
Speaker 3: is always like I'm just trying to provide for our family,
Speaker 3: and it's like, well, theoretically she's doing the same fucking
Speaker 3: job and is being a parent.
Speaker 4: And it's like I just don't get that. Like if
Speaker 4: their partners, then they're both making the same right, Like,
Speaker 4: it's like it's their company, it's their real estate business.
Speaker 4: So like she's obviously aware of the fact that like
Speaker 4: he's doing that job and saying you can do it.
Speaker 4: Less we have enough, and I'm like a man. A
Speaker 4: man doesn't want to hear work less. Then you hate
Speaker 4: your family. Like the subtis here is in the real
Speaker 4: version of this movie, they go to the house, all
Speaker 4: the kids would get sucked into that tron. The wife
Speaker 4: would get kidnapped a that guy and he'd bounce. He'd
Speaker 4: be like, okay, like he got in the car. It
Speaker 4: wasn't raining anymore.
Speaker 3: He could.
Speaker 2: Could have been a force majeure. Is that what that
Speaker 2: movie is about? Anyway?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like she's just so attractive. It's like such a bummer.
Speaker 4: It's like that she should really leave it. Like that's
Speaker 4: the whole time. You don't have to go through with
Speaker 4: the marrying somebody to save these kids.
Speaker 3: It's like you and the kids are basically, you know,
Speaker 3: doing your own thing anyways.
Speaker 2: Right, And then so like for the whole second half
Speaker 2: of the movie, she's extremely damseled. Like we already mentioned,
Speaker 2: she's characterized as being very oblivious and overly trusting because
Speaker 2: like Edward is being so creepy, Ramsley is being so creepy,
Speaker 2: she doesn't seem to notice. And it's just like in
Speaker 2: real life, the world is an unsafe place for women,
Speaker 2: particularly women of color. True, and so women have to
Speaker 2: move about the world in a very specific way where
Speaker 2: they are hyper aware of their surroundings. They sense danger
Speaker 2: very well. Like and she's just like, dode do what
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 4: The fact that they're having a fight about their relationship
Speaker 4: at the mansion to the point where she would be
Speaker 4: alone in a room in a place where they have
Speaker 4: to stay night and they don't know those people. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'd be like, get your ass in here, we're gonna
Speaker 4: hash it out. Yeah, all night, push, I don't care
Speaker 4: if some man wants to talk you, right.
Speaker 3: It's so bizarre. Yeah, I mean, I just feel like, yeah,
Speaker 3: they don't write a character for her at all. We
Speaker 3: get the set like in everything she does as Sarah
Speaker 3: and then eventually as Elizabeth is to service the like
Speaker 3: whoever the man in the scene is, because it's like
Speaker 3: she's there at the beginning saying you need to spend
Speaker 3: more time with your family. To set up Eddie Murphy's
Speaker 3: conflict she has like she's got nothing, and then at
Speaker 3: the end she comes out of the ghost orb to
Speaker 3: resolve whatever his name Grimsbys. Edie believe the Bleep's conflict,
Speaker 3: so she can kiss him, and then he can and
Speaker 3: then they can die, Like you're just like this his
Speaker 3: actors like double fucked in this movie. It sucks right.
Speaker 2: Her body is used so that a ghost can inhabit it,
Speaker 2: so that the ghost man can kiss her. And I
Speaker 2: was like why, Like I was asking that question that
Speaker 2: we posed before, like why can't Elizabeth's ghost take a
Speaker 2: more like corporeal form? Is that how you say that word?
Speaker 2: And that like that's the form that can kiss Edward?
Speaker 2: Like why does Sarah's unconscious body have to be used?
Speaker 2: And then I remembered, oh, because Disney movies are obsessed
Speaker 2: with men kissing unconscious women, because like a few moments
Speaker 2: later you do see ghost Elizabeth in her like human
Speaker 2: body form. Why couldn't Edward have kissed her?
Speaker 3: Then? Like, well, I think that the reason it is
Speaker 3: is to set up the like Eddie Murphy or I
Speaker 3: guess Jim whatever, the Eddie Murphy character joke where he's like,
Speaker 3: oh no, this ghost is kissing my wife, Like that's
Speaker 3: the joke that's being set up by the ghost possessing
Speaker 3: his wife's unconscious body where he keeps I mean, and
Speaker 3: he's Eddie Murphy out, Yeah, I can't take it from him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's also like since we know that his
Speaker 4: wife is not the ghost right, Like the ghost is confused,
Speaker 4: why does he ever? Like once that is established to
Speaker 4: the ghost guy, the other orbs should become a first.
Speaker 4: I know, she doesn't have to be in the lookalike
Speaker 4: body if they're not even related, there's no story.
Speaker 2: I don't know why this happens.
Speaker 4: It makes no sense at all. It's just like they
Speaker 4: needed the actress to do something active at some point,
Speaker 4: so they were like the ghost you, the ghost look
Speaker 4: alike you from the eighteen hundreds is gonna kiss this
Speaker 4: ghost white man and then they're gonna go off to heaven.
Speaker 4: Why did it to be married to go to heaven?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I didn't even think of that, Like just
Speaker 3: leave God does he? Movies are so like sometimes you
Speaker 3: don't even realize the amount of like weird institutional thought.
Speaker 3: That's it's like, well, of course you can't go to
Speaker 3: heaven if you're living in sin, so you want to
Speaker 3: get Christian married.
Speaker 4: And also like all the other people in the house, okay,
Speaker 4: like the house gets cursed because they both killed themselves,
Speaker 4: so why is everybody else even there? They didn't die
Speaker 4: that night, they died in the house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what is that about?
Speaker 3: Did they eventually die and then they just had to
Speaker 3: stay there for plot reasons? Yeah, it's really, But then
Speaker 3: there's like a whole thriving Yeah, because I guess they
Speaker 3: do kind of act as if like a bomb went
Speaker 3: off in the haunted mansion after these duths took place,
Speaker 3: because everyone is still there from that night, including hundreds
Speaker 3: of other ghosts. You're like, yeah, is this like Oppenheimer
Speaker 3: like what happened? Like, yeah, why so many ghosts in
Speaker 3: one place?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Did they all live there at once? That's a thousand
Speaker 2: people is a lot to live, even in a huge mansion.
Speaker 4: And would you stay there if somebody like two people died,
Speaker 4: you'd be like, I'm never going get me out of here.
Speaker 4: Did I drink the poison? Like I'd make it about me?
Speaker 2: We're not sure. It's almost as if this movie was
Speaker 2: based on a ride with no narrative and they just
Speaker 2: had to make shuit up and none of it makes sense.
Speaker 3: Make sure every ghost and the ride was in the movie,
Speaker 3: and don't question you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. They were like that weird puppety one from
Speaker 4: the end between.
Speaker 2: You and my god, why are the singing busts? Why
Speaker 2: do they have a whole scene to themselves.
Speaker 3: Because Caitlyn, they're on the ride part.
Speaker 4: I hear there was like that rumor that one of
Speaker 4: the ghosts that are singing is like Walt Disney, But
Speaker 4: that's just not true. It just looks like him.
Speaker 3: Oh, people are so goofy. They're like, well, if it
Speaker 3: looks like they're extremely.
Speaker 4: Goozy, They're like, it's some other guys. Just like a
Speaker 4: lot of people look like Walt Disney or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, white guys with mustaches. They're everywhere. Yeah.
Speaker 2: A couple other things I want to say about Sarah
Speaker 2: is that she saves her kids by having a wedding
Speaker 2: versus Jim saves the kids and his wife by you know,
Speaker 2: crashing his car through a wall. He's fighting sentient suits
Speaker 2: of armor. He's doing a bunch of like action stuff,
Speaker 2: because men do action and women have weddings. Also, she
Speaker 2: drinks the poison, which I'm pretty sure she knows, like
Speaker 2: the wine is poisoned, and she knows this because Ramsley
Speaker 2: puts the poison into the goblet right in front of her,
Speaker 2: And I'm like this, why wouldn't she figure out a
Speaker 2: way to like not drink it or any like.
Speaker 3: Because because women in this world see things and it
Speaker 3: does not compute.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like also like no struggle drinking it like I
Speaker 4: would have been.
Speaker 2: Like, and she's like young Yeng look Kbride Salyon. She
Speaker 2: makes absolutely no active choices to get out of this
Speaker 2: very dangerous situation she's in, which is like, you know,
Speaker 2: classic damsel behavior. And then meanwhile, the man is making
Speaker 2: active choices right and left and like figuring out how
Speaker 2: like how to overcome the obstacles that he's in and
Speaker 2: do this, and that she does nothing is very frustrating.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Also I started on my second watch of the movie,
Speaker 2: I cause on my first watch I noticed how often
Speaker 2: Jim says my wife, and so I started tallying it,
Speaker 2: and I feel like I missed a few times, but
Speaker 2: I counted fourteen times where he's like my wife, my wife,
Speaker 2: my wife.
Speaker 3: I also, ye, I think he says it more often
Speaker 3: than Yeah, he beats Boorap by three whole years to
Speaker 3: this amazing catchphrase, But I think he says it more
Speaker 3: than he says her name, which is like.
Speaker 2: I also counted how many times Sarah says my husband
Speaker 2: and unless I'm missing some I only counted four times. Huh,
Speaker 2: so big difference.
Speaker 5: Well yeah, I feel like she said the kids' names
Speaker 5: more frequently too.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well I also thought it was interesting. Okay, So contrasting
Speaker 3: with Sarah, where it seems like adult women I guess
Speaker 3: of which, Sarah is the only like character of importance
Speaker 3: who's an adult woman in this movie because Cook, I
Speaker 3: mean no disrespect to Cook Cookie Lady, but they're kind
Speaker 3: of a package deal. Ye, But she's like the only
Speaker 3: woman that even has something resembling an arc, even though
Speaker 3: it's just in service to the two men. But and
Speaker 3: then on the other hand, for some reason, the daughter
Speaker 3: is like, I don't know, she has more to do
Speaker 3: than her mom and has, you know, at least it's
Speaker 3: a very like Disney Channel personality, where like I can
Speaker 3: do anything, I'm not scared, I'm the big sister. But
Speaker 3: it was like that worked for me. Fine. I liked
Speaker 3: that she like and I think that more like it's
Speaker 3: it's you know again, it's like there's not massive it's
Speaker 3: like not earth shattering Oppenheim first dime plot developments, but like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's nice to see the like the courageous,
Speaker 3: like really smart kid, be the daughter that's always nice.
Speaker 3: I liked when Eddie Murphy yelled at her for knowing Latin.
Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, yeah, you said it was a dead language.
Speaker 3: It's like, well, he's right, that's right. Like she does
Speaker 3: motivated choices, like like she had a few, Like she
Speaker 3: had more moments than I was expecting.
Speaker 2: For sure, she is given things to do. She remembers
Speaker 2: the whatever clues that Madam Leota says. She goes into
Speaker 2: the tomb to help her dad. She is the one
Speaker 2: who finds the key that he dropped. Like she's doing things.
Speaker 2: But it does take a while for her participation in
Speaker 2: the story to feel significant because up until that point
Speaker 2: there's a lot of focus on Michael, especially because like
Speaker 2: this arc for him is being set up. Megan doesn't
Speaker 2: really get an ARC, But I'm like, okay, that's fine,
Speaker 2: because like she is given more to do and then
Speaker 2: Michael gets an ARC. Like that feels like a pretty balanced,
Speaker 2: like narrative characterization kind of thing. Yeah, but Michael's arc
Speaker 2: is weird to me because so it's set up that
Speaker 2: he's a scaredy cat and he's especially afraid of spiders
Speaker 2: and his dad is like, you have to learn to
Speaker 2: face your fears. You should never be afraid of anything,
Speaker 2: which is very much like.
Speaker 3: Well, and it was very and he directly ties it
Speaker 3: into like it's time to be a man.
Speaker 4: Yeah they're ten, Yeah, exactly, go get a job at
Speaker 4: the real estate firm that your mother.
Speaker 2: We need to be evers and evers and evers.
Speaker 3: I did forevers and evers. It's not the worst. It's
Speaker 3: not the worst turnive phrase.
Speaker 4: It's so clever, pretty cute. It's the.
Speaker 2: Advice that fathers give their sons in movies is almost
Speaker 2: always like the worst advice possible. It's always like, here's
Speaker 2: how to be a man. And then he proceeds to
Speaker 2: say the most toxic and reductive thing ever, and then.
Speaker 3: Ada turns out he was right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then Madame Leota also kind of has to
Speaker 4: tell Eddie Murphy's character Jim to be a man because
Speaker 4: he's like, she's like, don't give up, and then he's like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'll ram my car through the wall, which is like,
Speaker 4: maybe take the car.
Speaker 3: It gets it's not really what she was asking for
Speaker 3: a man.
Speaker 4: This is wrecking a car.
Speaker 2: So then so Michael's are culminates when he has to
Speaker 2: like face his fear of spiders to like open the
Speaker 2: door to let his dad and sister out of the tomb,
Speaker 2: and Jim is being like, Hey, remember before when I
Speaker 2: said that you shouldn't be afraid, Well, guess what, it's
Speaker 2: okay to be afraid. I'm afraid right now. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I like that that what Jim is saying, and that
Speaker 2: he's kind of going back on his toxic mindset about
Speaker 2: like fear being for losers kind of thing. But I'm
Speaker 2: also like, is Jim just saying this because you would
Speaker 2: say anything to get out of being murdered by Skellington's like,
Speaker 2: because they never have a final beat of that where
Speaker 2: they like have a calm conversation when they're not in
Speaker 2: danger in danger exactly. So I'm just like, how does
Speaker 2: Jim actually feel about this? I feel like we never know,
Speaker 2: so I don't know how to feel about that. But yeah,
Speaker 2: but I do appreciate, like we were saying that. Megan,
Speaker 2: even though she doesn't get an ARC like her brother does,
Speaker 2: she does get to play a more active role in
Speaker 2: the story, especially towards the end of the second act.
Speaker 3: Totally yeah, which is like, again that only that only
Speaker 3: goes so far because the movie is like still not awesome,
Speaker 3: but you're like, all right, maybe i'll take I'll take
Speaker 3: what I can get.
Speaker 5: Something happened.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the whole time, I was just hoping that somebody
Speaker 4: would like come and burn the house down, like just
Speaker 4: put us out of our visity. Like, no one is
Speaker 4: committed to being here except for the butler, and he's
Speaker 4: dead already.
Speaker 2: Why so committed to it?
Speaker 4: I don't get it, Like did he get cursed to
Speaker 4: stay there because the dude killed himself? Like I just
Speaker 4: don't get, like, free yourself as a butler, you're a
Speaker 4: butler in death.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do not understand the logistics of the curse.
Speaker 2: It must be like trapping them there physically.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: But they have cookies, so it's like not all that.
Speaker 2: This was actually fine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and they don't really have to work because the
Speaker 4: lady's dead. Now it's true, so kind of cookies and
Speaker 4: sulking worse. It's better than my present. Honestly, they didn't
Speaker 4: survive a pandemic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're not on strike, they don't have a union,
Speaker 2: and they're not really working to begin with. Can we
Speaker 2: talk about Madam Leota briefly. Sure. The main thing to
Speaker 2: say here is that a word that is largely considered
Speaker 2: a slur for Romani people is used to refer to
Speaker 2: Madam Liota. We've talked about this situation a lot on
Speaker 2: the podcast, and it.
Speaker 3: Still happens in movies now, which blows my mind. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it still does happen.
Speaker 2: Yes, And then this character exists in the story in
Speaker 2: the same way that Romani people are almost always characterized
Speaker 2: in popular media, which is like, she's a fortune teller,
Speaker 2: she's a mystic of some type, she speaks in riddles.
Speaker 2: The Romani people in any given movie are almost never
Speaker 2: like the protagonist of the movie. They were just like
Speaker 2: a side character who's there to help or hinder the protagonist.
Speaker 2: The protagonist is usually a white character. That is not
Speaker 2: the case for this movie.
Speaker 1: But right.
Speaker 5: Now, you too can discriminate.
Speaker 2: And then they're often not played by Romani actors. Jennifer
Speaker 2: Tilly almost nets not Romani.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and it doesn't seem like if I'm remembering correctly,
Speaker 3: And Jamie Lee Curtis is in fact the actor who
Speaker 3: plays Madame Leota in the new movie that has not
Speaker 3: been improved in the interceding twenty years. Yeay, y, yeah, what.
Speaker 3: I think that this was something when I was just
Speaker 3: looking for kind of I don't know, I feel like
Speaker 3: for every millennial movie, regardless of quality, really, there is
Speaker 3: a number of essays about why it was important to
Speaker 3: somebody or stuff like that. I was looking for people
Speaker 3: who have been fans of this movie over time, like
Speaker 3: what sort of keeps them coming back to Eddie Murphy's
Speaker 3: Haunted mansion. And there were two reasons that I was
Speaker 3: finding consistent. One was just like, it's a movie for kids,
Speaker 3: and I think part of the reason it was reviewed
Speaker 3: harshly was as if it were it was supposed to
Speaker 3: be scary for adults. And to that, I say, grow up, like,
Speaker 3: watch your own movie. Yeh, go watch the Baba Duck
Speaker 3: like you're fine. And then there's also the fact that
Speaker 3: this is one of the only children's children's movies period,
Speaker 3: but also children's horror movies that features a black family,
Speaker 3: which in two thousand and three was not happening anywhere.
Speaker 2: I would extend that even to just movies in general
Speaker 2: that feature a black family. That is the type of
Speaker 2: movie that a white family would generally occupy.
Speaker 5: That totally roll.
Speaker 4: It's like black Casper, right, right, I mean Casper made
Speaker 4: more sense, it was better. But right, and that's not
Speaker 4: the black people's that's just the movie, right.
Speaker 3: That's just yeah, the movie was written by a white
Speaker 3: writer who uh yeah, like if.
Speaker 4: You would put black people in Casper, it would be
Speaker 4: the same movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, only the ghosts were as interesting.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly or hot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why aren't the ghosts hotter in Casper?
Speaker 4: I know there were really only one was trying to
Speaker 4: date in.
Speaker 2: Show, but yeah, I mean so few Hollywood movies that
Speaker 2: feature black people as the main characters allow them to
Speaker 2: be in a story where they are dealing with the
Speaker 2: same type of stuff that white people deal with in
Speaker 2: movies all the time, such as like accidentally going to
Speaker 2: a haunted house the way that white people and movies
Speaker 2: go to haunted houses all the time. Yeah, that's like
Speaker 2: one of the main reasons I wanted to cover this
Speaker 2: because I was like, this is such a rare example
Speaker 2: of and I think we talked about this maybe on
Speaker 2: the episode on the movie US as like another rare
Speaker 2: example of of and specifically like horror movie, but yeah,
Speaker 2: of like a black family being allowed to deal with
Speaker 2: the types of conflicts that we normally see white people
Speaker 2: dealing with in movies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and just being liberally I mean, and and there
Speaker 3: was I mean, there was just a there's just a
Speaker 3: movie dedicated to like exploring this trope of like, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's I finally got to see it last week, and
Speaker 3: it's so so much, so fun really funny. And I mean,
Speaker 3: I think especially yeah, in the horror space, there's so
Speaker 3: many racist tropes. And so even though you know, is
Speaker 3: Eddie Murphy hat to mention a masterpiece?
Speaker 4: No, absolutely not.
Speaker 3: No, no one's asking no one's asking it to be
Speaker 3: like the ride's.
Speaker 5: Not a masterpiece.
Speaker 4: It's doing justice to the ride. I also just like,
Speaker 4: you know, maybe the way to update it is like
Speaker 4: have the ghosts be black, Like I think that at
Speaker 4: least for us, like the movie us, like the spooky thing,
Speaker 4: the spooky element, the tethered's, they're like some of them
Speaker 4: are black, Like that's kind of interesting. I do think
Speaker 4: it's funny, like the conceit of a black family having
Speaker 4: to deal with like these like eighteen hundreds white people
Speaker 4: goes who are progressive and want to marry the black woman, right,
Speaker 4: they had the right politics. Allegedly we don't want to
Speaker 4: dive too deep into it, all right.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, I guess I'm glad that they didn't
Speaker 3: like get deep into Yeah, can you imagine the century racism, But.
Speaker 4: The way that it's skirt the movie's bad, you know
Speaker 4: it is it is like.
Speaker 3: Vaguefied to a wild degree that it's just like forbid different,
Speaker 3: Like everything they're saying could also be applied to classism.
Speaker 3: But because of like you're just like okay, okay, movie, fine,
Speaker 3: all right whatever.
Speaker 4: Right, like all right, you tried it. I also think
Speaker 4: like an important point and I think that like Eddie
Speaker 4: Murphy does this more in his movies than most other
Speaker 4: like major black movie stars who are men, is that
Speaker 4: his spouse in the movies are almost always black women,
Speaker 4: and so like to see a full fit family that
Speaker 4: is like black love and black everybody is Like I
Speaker 4: feel like that was still even today is very rare,
Speaker 4: Like it's it's just like it's usually like a black
Speaker 4: guy and his like hot latina wife, his hot white
Speaker 4: wife and then the kids are you know, a light
Speaker 4: skin color and then it's fine. But I think that
Speaker 4: was at least interesting to watch for like more than
Speaker 4: an hour was like, Wow, four black people, they really
Speaker 4: all got paid, right.
Speaker 2: It almost feels like the trend, the current trend of
Speaker 2: that is like we're progressive because look at us featuring
Speaker 2: a mixed race couple. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that right? Subversive?
Speaker 4: It's very I mean, you know, maybe one day a
Speaker 4: black woman will get a role that like is it
Speaker 4: four lines and.
Speaker 2: That she actually has a character.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It felt dated even then. I would think I didn't
Speaker 4: see it then, but it's like, I, yeah, I guess
Speaker 4: like they don't really make well, maybe they do. I
Speaker 4: haven't watched a lot of kids movies since that era.
Speaker 4: Like that was when I stopped. I was like, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna I'm a teen, Yeah, and to like to see it.
Speaker 4: It's just it felt very nineties, Like it felt like, oh,
Speaker 4: this is a Jim Carrey movie. This is a there's
Speaker 4: the premises this and there's no plot beyond that, and
Speaker 4: the woman is no one. She's just disappointed by her husband.
Speaker 2: That's it, yeah for sure.
Speaker 4: So like and then maybe they get a divorce at
Speaker 4: the lake, like she's like that shit sucked. You were
Speaker 4: only there because you're greedy.
Speaker 3: I hope that She's like, I don't know if you're
Speaker 3: paying attention, Jim, but they actually made the deed to
Speaker 3: me specifically. And you're a bad husband and a bad father,
Speaker 3: and you're Eddie Murphy, so you'll be financially fine.
Speaker 2: And my mother, you'll be in Shrek two and.
Speaker 3: Four and five if we're lucky, lucky please, Well they're
Speaker 3: young and alive.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I just I appreciated that because again, white
Speaker 2: people and white families in movies get to do anything,
Speaker 2: and black characters are rarely afforded the same range of narratives,
Speaker 2: the same genres, and so I appreciated that. This is
Speaker 2: again a rare example of a movie that lets black
Speaker 2: people get into spooky hijinks.
Speaker 3: In the haunted mansion, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Family vacation's gone wrong, people dealing with ghosts.
Speaker 4: They got to have a lake house. We never saw it,
Speaker 4: but they had some sort of wealth going true.
Speaker 2: He drives a BMW.
Speaker 3: Well, one thing about Jim, ever's he's a closer.
Speaker 2: He's always be closing.
Speaker 3: He always be closing.
Speaker 2: What's that movie? The most boring movie I've ever seen?
Speaker 2: Sorry McGuire, No Glengarry Glenn Cross.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's always so frustrating when a movie's title
Speaker 3: is more fun. It's more fun than the movie, right,
Speaker 3: it's fun title. It sounds like it's about a fantasy
Speaker 3: cartoon world, but it's not.
Speaker 5: Unfortunately, no, never let well does.
Speaker 3: Anyone else have anything to say about Eddie Murphy's Haunted
Speaker 3: Mansion two thousand and three?
Speaker 4: Uh? I mean, I don't think it passes the Vechtel says,
Speaker 4: I don't want to spoil is that one where we headed?
Speaker 2: Yes, we are indeed thause we're headed that way. I honestly,
Speaker 2: you forgot to pay attention. If anything, it would be
Speaker 2: Sarah talking to her daughter Megan, which I don't.
Speaker 4: Actually, it was always about the dad. I felt like, yeah,
Speaker 4: I even thought maybe the scene where the Cookie Lady
Speaker 4: is talking specifically to the girl about the cookies, but
Speaker 4: it's not enough dialogue and they both they don't both
Speaker 4: talk about the cookies. So I mean, maybe I'm wrong,
Speaker 4: but I didn't get a sense.
Speaker 2: I think no.
Speaker 3: I think yeah, I think the only real shot at
Speaker 3: that would have been I don't think it happens between
Speaker 3: Meghan and her mom, and I think the only other
Speaker 3: opportunity would be Meghan and Cookie.
Speaker 2: Lady or Madam Liota.
Speaker 4: I guess yeah, I don't know, but weren't they talking
Speaker 4: They're probably talking about the dead guy.
Speaker 2: Well, she also only really talks to to Eddie Murphy.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna say spiritually. Spiritually, it just doesn't we're
Speaker 3: gonna We're gonna go with no. And if you want
Speaker 3: to talk to us about a technicality, I don't think
Speaker 3: we want to hear ye. I don't actually want to think.
Speaker 2: You can keep that to yourself forevers and evers.
Speaker 3: Now to the metric that matters.
Speaker 2: That's right, our nipple scale a scale of zero to
Speaker 2: five nipples. Based on examining the movie through an intersectional
Speaker 2: feminist lens, I would say, based on the general PISP
Speaker 2: treatment of Sarah, her being characterized as being nagging even
Speaker 2: though she's just like once a partner who is not
Speaker 2: ruining their marriage. She is so oblivious to all the
Speaker 2: creepy stuff going on around her. She isn't allowed to
Speaker 2: make any active choices all that kind of stuff. I
Speaker 2: do again, I do appreciate that this is a and
Speaker 2: A it's a high budget movie, and it grossed a
Speaker 2: decent amount at the box office. It's a ninety million
Speaker 2: dollar budget grossed twice that at the box office. So
Speaker 2: it's a movie that people want to go see that
Speaker 2: features a black family that isn't explicitly about those characters
Speaker 2: struggling with racism or issues related to systemic racism things
Speaker 2: like that. It's just they go to a spooky house
Speaker 2: and they have to deal with the cur that's happening there.
Speaker 2: So I appreciate that. Even so, I feel like it
Speaker 2: only gets like a one and a half all of
Speaker 2: those things considered. Yeah, and I'll split my one and
Speaker 2: a half nips between Sarah and Megan.
Speaker 3: Good for them, naked, use it, they need them. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess I'll meet you at one and a half.
Speaker 3: For all the reasons you described it, I mean, I
Speaker 3: love I loved this movie when it came out for
Speaker 3: reasons being that I was eight. That's for however old
Speaker 3: I was when this came out, I don't remember, but there, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think that this is like, it's just like a
Speaker 3: simple kids movie. I think that, yeah, it's important to
Speaker 3: have black families represented in this genre outside of all
Speaker 3: of the tropes that I think unfortunately kids may have
Speaker 3: been familiar with going in seeing this movie. But as
Speaker 3: far as giving the women in the story much to do.
Speaker 3: It's either yeah, it's either Sarah is just left out
Speaker 3: to dry the entire movie, and then the other women
Speaker 3: in the story are just kind of giving Eddie Murphy
Speaker 3: various clues. And I think Megan is the best written
Speaker 3: woman in the movie. And wowie wow amazing worth mentioning
Speaker 3: because you try to touch Oh God, jump scary. I
Speaker 3: still had the Country Bears Wikipedia page up, and that
Speaker 3: while this movie centers a black cast, I don't believe
Speaker 3: that there are any black creatives involved, at least at
Speaker 3: the highest level. And movie I feel like there's moments
Speaker 3: where that shows. And also it's just I think important
Speaker 3: to keep a movie in check and when they're doing
Speaker 3: on screen representation and less than nothing off screen. One
Speaker 3: and a half nipples. I showed this movie to a kid.
Speaker 3: Why not? It's fun and I will give my nipples too.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know. Megan. The Bridge, Meghan
Speaker 3: and the Bridge. I like the bridge at the end.
Speaker 3: I've never been to New Orleans and it made me
Speaker 3: want to go to see that bridge.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 3: I googled the bridge. I google Hanta Midge Bridge.
Speaker 5: It's beautiful. I thought it was like, they're driving in
Speaker 5: Hawaii or something. I don't know why I thought Hawaii.
Speaker 4: Oh because he had the Tiki's drinks at the beginning, Okay,
Speaker 4: I was like, why is that in my head? Yeah,
Speaker 4: this this bar is just like Hawaii, right, and he
Speaker 4: believes them. So I'm gonna say, you know, one and
Speaker 4: a half nipples feels fair. And it's not just because
Speaker 4: I'm trying to be agreeable. I think that, like Meghan
Speaker 4: deserves one, I'll give half to Madame Liota. She did
Speaker 4: have some she had more dialogue, and even if it
Speaker 4: was all in service of Eddie Murphy figuring out the
Speaker 4: stupid dead people mystery, it was like at least three
Speaker 4: pages worth of words.
Speaker 2: True.
Speaker 4: Yeah, everything you all said is correct. I think like
Speaker 4: it's so important to have any representation, especially in horror,
Speaker 4: especially for like kids horror. I just feel like I
Speaker 4: always thought it was like white people had supernatural shit
Speaker 4: when I was a little kidny Black people just couldn't
Speaker 4: afford ghosts or something like. Now, I'm like, okay, so
Speaker 4: if you're a realtor, you could go to the Haunted House.
Speaker 4: You don't own the Haunted house, but at least we're
Speaker 4: making progress. But the movie is just so unfortunately horrifically bad,
Speaker 4: Like I cannot stress enough that, like, if you're watching it,
Speaker 4: you're setting yourself up to I think, maybe entertain children
Speaker 4: for the full almost ninety minutes. I think as a kid,
Speaker 4: I would have been like, we can leave, like then,
Speaker 4: Like I really had a low tolerance for movies where
Speaker 4: nothing happens. But I think, you know, in service of
Speaker 4: the ride, excellent, it's exactly the ride. There's some stuff
Speaker 4: from the ride even that's not in it that I'm like, Wow,
Speaker 4: they could have had like busts that follow you with
Speaker 4: their eyes, that could have happened. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just think that the movie was so bad, and like,
Speaker 4: truly Sarah is such an afterthought, yeah, so much to
Speaker 4: so that like I think the painting of her is
Speaker 4: more impactful than the actual right.
Speaker 2: That reveal you're like, oh my gosh, wow.
Speaker 4: My god, someone really paint that. Did she get to
Speaker 4: keep it? Like That's all I could think was, like,
Speaker 4: that would be great if someone painted a picture of
Speaker 4: me and I look that good in it, Like that's awesome.
Speaker 4: So that's what the one it hast goes to. I
Speaker 4: guess it could be Madame Leota, little Girl and a
Speaker 4: little bit to whoever painted Sarah, they did a great job.
Speaker 2: Hell yea, Kila, thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 2: once again.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. I love it here.
Speaker 2: It has been such a delight. Come back anytime. Come
Speaker 2: back in twenty years for three when we're striking again.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll all be on that one tiny pinnacle that's
Speaker 4: left of land on the earth, and we'll be doing
Speaker 4: a podcast for the seven other people on the cumpound.
Speaker 2: Yes, we will all be on fire, but we'll have
Speaker 2: to find some way to entertain ourselves, and that will
Speaker 2: be by talking about Lakeith Stanfield's haunted mansion. Where can
Speaker 2: people check you out on social media? Plug anything you're
Speaker 2: able and willing to plug.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like it's just such a hard time
Speaker 4: to plug, so as you're on the picket lines. I
Speaker 4: tend to be at Paramount, but it's too hot right now.
Speaker 4: So there they got us elsewhere. But yeah, I'm always online.
Speaker 4: Follow me on threads and it's also my Instagram handle,
Speaker 4: And I'm not gonna plug Twitter anymore. I'm done, I'm done,
Speaker 4: screw line, I'm over it. So mostly just there waiting
Speaker 4: for the world to come back.
Speaker 2: And you can follow us on a guest Twitter, but
Speaker 2: you don't have to, and also Instagram. Should we get
Speaker 2: on threads, Jamie I barely.
Speaker 3: Not right. No, we're not gonna you will not be
Speaker 3: finding us there. We refuse to assimilate today.
Speaker 4: Now we've been freed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're done. We're done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, go outside while the air is still breatheable, which
Speaker 2: it barely is.
Speaker 4: A little bit.
Speaker 2: Anyway, you can. What you should do definitely is subscribe
Speaker 2: to our Patreon a ka Patreon at patreon dot com
Speaker 2: slash bectyl Cast, where you get two bonus episodes a month,
Speaker 2: plus access to the entire back catalog of around one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty bonus episodes, all for five dollars a month.
Speaker 3: Amazing. And you can get our merch over at teapublic
Speaker 3: dot com slash the Bechtel Cast. And with that, let's
Speaker 3: load in the car and drive down the cool bridge
Speaker 3: because we're going to Baby and we're bringing the annoying
Speaker 3: statues with us. Bye ye bye bye bye.