Latest Episodes

S6E57 — Encanto

The widely praised 2021 Disney movie about generational trauma and Columbian culture has shaken the world and set a new standard for the kind of media it is, coming from a deeply considered authentic place of emotionality in a family from whom we so often hear nothing. And if you can hear this podcast over the sound of Talen’s grinding teeth, you’ll be able to find out what Fox has to say about it!

S6E56 — Raya And The Last Dragon

Early 2021 saw the release of Raya and the Last Dragon, a Disney movie that was completed in closets, which is ironic, given the way the two leads look at and talk about one another. Come, see Disney once again create an Asian movie (but not really) with a queer protagonist (but not really) and a meaningful message (but not really).

S6E55 — Frozen 2

If two princesses and one good song can make a billion dollars, what can two princesses and no good songs do? Well, we check it out with 2019’s Frozen 2, the last of a pre-pandemic culture’s vision of blockbuster family cinema! Do they do a good job? Will the movie earn Fox and Talen’s approval as ‘good stuff’ or will it have to take its mere billion dollars as a consolation prize?

S6E54 — Ralph Breaks The Internet

Oh look, Ralph’s back, everyone. Get a load of this, it’s Ralph again. Can you believe we get to hang around Ralph again? In 2018, Disney decided to try and take on Internet Culture and it’s as vulgar and cringe as when they tried to do videogame culture.

S6E53 — Moana

There were TWO Disney movies in 2016? And one was a Musker & Clements joint? Holy macaroni! Oh and it has a joke about tweeting. Fox and Talen talk about Moana, a movie with a beautiful visual scope that nonetheless wants to try and include in its wide spread arms a set of cultures whose territory encircles an ocean larger than the moon. How did they do? Better ask a pair of white people in a settler state!

S6E52 — Zootopia

We get our hands on a lollipop that’s all fuzzy, all over, when we look at 2016’s extensively badly-handled race metaphor and white feminism metaphor, Zootopia. Remember, Actualising Criticism Articulates Barthesianism! We talk about how policing and capitalism don’t work at these scales, or though, maybe they do, and that’s… the… point?

S6E51 — Big Hero Six

Why is it that all the best Disney Animated Canon features are the ones that don’t make giant piles of money? We talk about 2014’s Big Hero Six, about the alternate history it represents, about how comic book heroes let us examine big ideas in a handleable way, and about the importance of mental health as an affect to your material conditions.

S6E50 — Frozen

What would it take to make a princess movie that made a billion dollars? Turns out, two princesses and exactly one good song. Fox and Talen talk about 2013’s media juggernaut and landscape shaper Frozen. Bonus, this is once again, the last movie Walt Disney ever worked on.

S6E49 — Wreck-It-Ralph

If a Boomer had an opinion on videogames in the forest, would it still be a bore? We talk about the 2012 3d animated feature Wreck-It-Ralph, which made Fox and Talen surprisingly angry. Come along and learn how the story of Wreck-It-Ralph is about Trans Women In Sports, and how reference is not commentary.

S6E48 — Winnie The Pooh

Twice now the Disney Animated Canon has included a short story compilation about Winnie the Pooh that just kind of wanders around the house making up a story about whatever random things it finds. Fox and Talen look at the 2011 animated feature called just Winnie the Pooh, and try to stay awake.