EarzUp! | Erik Goes Universal (with a Toothsome Chocolate Emporium Review)

[00:00:02] It's time for the show that brings the magic right to your speakers. Hey, what's going on everybody? EarzUp Podcast back on the podcast airwaves. And we have a show for you today. It is another weird show and I love that about us. We're stretching out a little bit and we're talking about other theme parks. We're seeing other theme parks, guys.

[00:00:29] And by we, I mean Eric, because we just now came running back to Disney. You went to the regular one. Yes, right. Yes. I didn't go to the Timu version of... I don't know, I'm just kidding. Timu? I don't know, man. You know, what are we going to do? What are you going to say? But yeah, in our effort to kind of broaden horizons a little bit, because we understand that the Disney parks are not the only parks in the universe. Yeah. The universe. It's almost like a universal problem.

[00:00:59] Yeah, I mean, the other theme park competition is universal. And so that's just kind of a standard thing. So every once in a while, we'd like to cover what's going on over on Universal's, you know, sort of area of theme park, theme parkdom. And our resident theme park expert, Eric, is joining us today as he does every show to tell us a little bit about what's happening at Universal. And you recently were there, right? Yes. And you did some things, right? Yeah, I went there. I did the things.

[00:01:27] Okay. I love that for us. I ate at the place, and then I ate at a different place, and then I went on the ride. Oh, of the place that you went on? Man, that would be so cool to have like a ride themed around one of the restaurants at that Universal. It seems like in my mind, and I know this isn't reality, but in my mind, it's almost where Universal is. It's like you think of it just like a theme park based around fast food.

[00:01:56] I don't know, you know, at a counter service restaurant. It's like, man, I ate at the, you know, the roll-on-up place where they just serve burritos. And then I went on the ride of the roll-on-up burrito ride afterwards where you're a bean trying to get out of the burrito. It was amazing. So what's weird is there's a, there's a, so are you aware of like the Minions universe?

[00:02:23] Yeah, I mean, I'm aware of the Minions as much as, I know it's a meme for Boomers. Oh yes, Boomers love the Minions. Boomers love a Minion meme, dude. Can you, you know, every time you walk past someone and fart, yell, I'm jet powered! Ha ha, banana! Okay. Ha ha, yeah. Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha.

[00:02:47] But, I mean, there's a, there's like a shooter ride, like in the same vein as like Midway Mania, except you're standing and you're holding like a weird laser rifle. Okay. So they have that and you can actually shoot at stuff at Universal. Wow. Like you can blow up the Universal Globe. Ha ha ha.

[00:03:16] Oh, they have their own IP, like the, the, the park within the ride? Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome, dude. It was super fun. Universal does seem like a company that doesn't take itself super seriously. Disney would never allow this ride to exist. No. Never. Absolutely not. No. It's like, um, it's almost like, uh, Apple TV, not allowing, uh, the bad guys in their movie. Well, even just movies in general, Apple doesn't let.

[00:03:43] Villains use Apple products and any movie just across like production for years and years and years. You've got to have an old Nokia flip phone. You can't have an iPhone, man, because they don't want their brand associated with. I mean, sarin gas at a hockey match or something. I don't know. You know, I'm something like super valid and reasonable. I'm not like hacking my Bitcoin wallet, you know, is some terrorism thing. But anyway, that's cool, man. I'm looking forward to hearing about it.

[00:04:13] Yeah. Get out of town to be. I don't know. But before we get into that, I do want to give a quick shout out and a thank you to our official travel partner, Concee Ears. You can go to conceears.com and figure out the best way to get you and your families to the parks, to specifically the Disney parks. They can book other vacations, but they are Disney experts. They have a whole team of Disney experts on hand right now waiting for you.

[00:04:42] What I imagine is one of those like PBS call-a-thons where the host walks over to the phone bank and there's like three tiered rows of people just with phones ringing. There are literally 25 people sitting there right now. Yeah, that's what they're waiting. They're waiting for you guys to call on the internet. So go to conceears.com and check them out. They, you know, we talk about it all the time because they're great.

[00:05:10] And what they do is they help you. They deliver that extra level of service that you don't get from the Disney parks. And it's not a knock on the Disney parks. They just don't offer these things. But Conceears is there to fill the void. So if you need help navigating the parks, making reservations, making hotel reservations, checking to see if there's cheaper, you know, hotel reservations, figuring out how to get Rezies to eat, figuring out where to go and how to even plan your trip. Let's say you don't really understand how anything works at Disneyland

[00:05:39] because of the reservations or whatever. Concees are there to help. So check them out. Conceears.com. So I've always been a big proponent of getting animals in pairs. You know, they call me Noah's Ark at the pound. No, because, you know, you got to have something of your similar species to play with. That's my thought. You can't have one animal, right? But when all my other cats died and we got, and there she goes, and we got Dottie. We only got one of Dottie.

[00:06:09] I'm like, okay, that's fine. Because the other cats there were like bonded pairs. So you had to adopt all the other cats. I'm like, I don't want to go back to three cats. I didn't even want one. Pickle, come here. Pickle. Oh, I've been there with that. Yeah. And it doesn't feel good. And especially coming back from this last trip to Disneyland, I just felt really bad for Dottie.

[00:06:35] You know, I tend to like project onto animals, you know, and be like, oh, they probably, they're probably wondering who we are or whatever. I don't know. But we came back and like, man, Dottie was probably really bored, man. We got to get her a friend. We've been saying that forever. So we went and adopted another cat who kind of ironically looks a lot like Dottie, same color configuration, but short hair instead of long hair. And she's about a year younger or whatever.

[00:07:04] And these two cats did not get along. It took about, it took about four or five days. And, you know, now they're, they're friends and they still kind of, they chase each other around, but they're playing more often than not. And, uh, it's just really, uh, it's really strange acclimating another cat in because again, I project and I think I'm, I think I can read Dottie's mind when she looks at me like, why did you bring this thing into here? I'm not good enough for you. What's wrong with me? Are you rejecting me?

[00:07:33] I'm not cool. Am I going somewhere? Should I pack my bag? Well, we're, we're adopting a puppy tomorrow. Oh my God. Didn't a puppy break your leg or something? Your back. Didn't he break your tailbone? No, no. That just happened naturally. Um, all right. A puppy. Dang, dude. Yeah. What kind of puppy? Yes. We're going out cause we, we had to put French bulldog. What's that? French bulldog. No, no, no, man.

[00:08:02] No, this is a pit bull St. Bernard mix, which is the weirdest mix I've ever heard of. You want to be eaten by your animal. We've had a Mastiff before. Or he, he passed away from cancer and that was, that was years, years and years ago, but okay, let's go do it. Cause my wife, she gets the bug and she's like, I want to, I want to get a new dog. And I usually put up a lot of resistance. And this time. No.

[00:08:31] To your point. Like it's, it's nice to have two cause they play. Yeah. And our, our, our dog, even she like, she's fun. She runs around the backyard and she's getting to know like the neighborhood and everything. But I think she misses having a dog in the same house because she's just every once in a while, she'll lose her mind.

[00:08:56] And she'll just run around the living room and she'll pick up random toys or random bully sticks. And she'll just throw stuff at us. Like, like, Hey, get off your ass and play with me. Right. Flip, flip her face and throw stuff at us. I'm like, ah, how many toys do you need? Um, but yeah, she's, yeah, she is, um, I think bored of not having another dog. Yeah. And you can feel that you can sense that.

[00:09:26] So yeah, we got a cat. It's a, it's adopted name was peaches, but I'm like, I'm not doing that. Oh. So, um, uh, Alice picked pickles. Pickles is great. And it's stuck. Yeah. Ours was named river song, which is the name of. Our favorite character. Dr. Who. Yeah. Okay. All right. And we're like, that's a, that's a man. That's a man dog. Why did you name him river song? So we haven't settled on a name yet.

[00:09:56] We name all of our dogs after Norse gods. Um, okay. So we're, we think it's going to be tier. T Y R tier one, tier two. No. Okay. But, but yeah, like good. It's exciting. Yeah. So we're going to go do that tomorrow. It'll be great, man. Yeah. Sounds good. Well, in the meantime, Eric, why don't you regale us with regalias, regale us, regale us, tell us, teach us about your recent trip to universal.

[00:10:25] This is universal Orlando. Orlando. Now. All right. What's going on in Orlando these days? We have Florida boy in the chat trying to, so he's going to, he's going to, uh, be my barometer. He loves a universal park. So, uh, he's going to let me know if you're lying or not. Oh, well, then I should probably not lie so much. Yeah. Like, yeah. See, I got you now. I mostly just make up what I talk about.

[00:10:51] Well, when I last, last went to Carthay, uh, I had seven hot dogs. Yeah. And I was on the ceiling. They have this harness that you can sit. Yeah. There's this new thing. If you're a DVC member. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you're a DVC member and you buy three Manhattans, they will strap you to the ceiling and feed you hot dogs. And by three Manhattans, I mean a triple. Right. Uh, so I'm eating again.

[00:11:20] It's me, Eric. Eric is eating again. Oh, you want your theme music? I didn't even know it was an eating again thing. Well, I mean, I am talking about a restaurant, even though it's not at a Disney park. I don't know. Dude. I don't know what toothsome is. I have no idea. I don't care. You gotta tell me. You don't have to play the thing. Eric. Yeah. You just went like, well, Eric's eating again. So now I have to play it. Here we go. We're playing it, Eric.

[00:11:51] Hey, Eric, are you eating again? There's a word on the street is that you're eating again. I have eaten. Okay. Good, man. What are you eating? Where are you eating at? I am eating at toothsome chocolate emporium. You heard it, but I texted you about it yesterday. I don't know. It's a dentist office to me. Yes. Toothsome chocolate emporium and savory feast kitchen at Universal Studios Orlando.

[00:12:20] They have one at the West Coast one. Okay. Interesting. I hear there's a Universal Studios on the West Coast as well. Well, that's we've never we haven't discovered. We sent out a scouting party once never came back. Oh, man. We'll never know. This is a weird and somewhat, I guess, famous place.

[00:12:44] It's so toothsome chocolate emporium opened up in 2016. This is a location that looks like a factory. Okay. So it essentially this place was originally kind of a ripoff of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. That's by the name.

[00:13:13] That's kind of what I imagine. Yeah. Yeah. It's a steampunk restaurant. Okay. Yeah. I'm looking at the header now of like the Universal website. Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. Yeah. I can see that. It's sort of the text is sort of Willy Wonka reminiscent. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's absolutely going for that aesthetic. But. Oh, my goodness. What? Yeah. Good. Sorry.

[00:13:43] I'm looking at pictures and I can't. I can't believe this place exists. It. So if you've ever been to Universal Orlando, if you're walking in from the parking garage, you're walking into the main the main area of City Walk. It's it's right across the bay. There's this. I don't know how we missed it. Really? How long is it? How long has it been open? 2016. So I. Oh, we just missed.

[00:14:13] Yeah. I think it was probably still under construction the last time you were there. But yeah, it's this big factory looking place and it's right. It's directly across this water that you see when you walk into City Walk. So imagine if you've been to City Walk and you see like the the the main universal globe. Yeah. Look to the left a little bit.

[00:14:42] And there's this giant factory. It's right next to the biggest hard rock cafe in the country, which looks like the Roman Coliseum, which is another amazing place that maybe I'll talk about someday. But yeah, it's right next door. And it's this big place that looks like a factory. And that's that's a restaurant. It's a big old steampunk restaurant with a bunch of gears outside, bunch of smokestacks.

[00:15:12] It's amazing. When you go inside, they continue that theme. So when you go inside, there is a big gift shop that sells you can you can just go inside and buy chocolates. So OK, chocolate emporium means you can go inside and there's like a little chocolate counter where you can get snacks. They have prepackaged snacks.

[00:15:40] You can just go to the counter and like get fresh chocolates. They also sell weird stuff like like steampunk goggles and hats. And I love a steampunk goggle. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got some pictures pulled up here. OK, good. This is crazy. Yeah. The goggles are my favorite. I'm like, oh, they're really going for it. Yeah. They're leaning into it.

[00:16:08] But I mean, I would I know like steampunk is sort of it's had its ups and downs as far as popularity goes. Yeah. I would never have imagined that someone would be like, you know what we need to do is theme an entire restaurant around it and have it be chocolate. Right. Also. Yeah. It's a it's a full restaurant and it's not that chocolate themed once you get into it.

[00:16:33] But let's start out with the weird backstory of the restaurant. Yeah, I love a backstory. See, I usually I kind of poo poo the idea of things having backstories, but restaurants that have them. I think that's fun. It's so it's so amazing. So that's awesome. Let's go. My favorite moment was going to the restaurant with some friends of mine back in October and I started telling them the story of the backstory of the restaurant.

[00:17:02] And our server came by and she's like, oh, I was supposed to tell you the backstory, but you already did it. Good job. My God. That's like a like a dive bar vibe. Oh, yeah. I should have done that, but you did it. You're good. It's fine. Smelling of menthols that she just popped in the in the parking lot five minutes ago.

[00:17:23] Well, so the narrative of this restaurant centers on Professor Dr. Penelope Tebow Tinker Toothsome. No. She she is a world traveler. No, dude. Dude, it gets more. It can't be. OK, good. Let's go. She's a world traveler and an inventor with a passion for chocolate.

[00:17:52] She created. A robot named Jacques, and they have traveled the world looking for the best chocolate around. When they came back to London, Penelope discovered that her parents missed her and they embarked on a separate journey to join her on her adventures.

[00:18:19] They left a note stating that they will search for her wherever chocolate can be found. So they were determined to share. Oh, no, no, no. What? So you mean to tell me she discovered that her parents loved her? OK. Oh, my parents. She came back to her home and they were gone trying to find her.

[00:18:48] She has not seen her parents in many years. Oh, God. It's the saddest, weirdest story. And they're going to look wherever chocolate is found. So so like at the 7-Eleven, they're going to look at the airport. Chocolate is pretty it's pretty widespread. Presumably. Yes. They're stopping at every 7-Eleven along I-25. They're they're trying to find her.

[00:19:16] So because she wanted her parents to come back to her, she established Toothsome Chocolate Emporium to draw them in. So it's sad. Not like a not like a commercial or a billboard, but no build it and your parents will love you. Yeah. It's OK. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:37] So she she created Toothsome Chocolate Emporium to be the best chocolate place ever, hoping that her parents would go, maybe we should figure out who this person with the last name is us has has chocolates. OK. It's whimsical, but but yeah. Like, yeah, that's what it is. So Penelope is a person that shows up as a character in the restaurant.

[00:20:05] So it's a woman dressed in steampunk garb in like Victorian dress. And she has a robot companion named Jacques who walks around with her and meets people in the restaurant. Yeah. Let me put let me put it up because that is this is insane. Taryn's here, everybody. What's up? Hey, Taryn. Hello. Hi. Hello. Hi. You showed up at a weird time. Yeah. I could tell. But this is going to be a weird episode. I'm just jumping right in.

[00:20:35] It's all right. Well, apparently I see. I almost went looking for you wherever chocolate is found, wherever salt is found. That's where I'll be looking for you, Taryn. Oh, OK. Yeah. So Taryn likes salt, but Penelope's parents like chocolate. I do like salt. Were you guys talking about me? Yeah. Just now. Yeah. And your love for salt. Is this. Hold on a second.

[00:21:04] This is why big name places have producers to do this stuff for. Look at that. OK, so that's her, I guess. I imagine. Right. Let's see. Do I have to see that on Twitch? No. I mean, it's just say yes. Yes. Yes. That's exactly her and shock. And they walk around and they talk to people. They walk around the gift shop and talk to kids.

[00:21:27] They walk around the restaurant and talk to people sitting at their tables, which is why when I ate there a few months ago, they're like, oh, well, Penelope hasn't stopped by. I'm like, it's fine. I'll tell Penelope's story. It's fine. Does she does she go around like asking if were you're her parents or something? No, no. Which would be more devastating. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Here's a better picture. So, yeah.

[00:21:57] Penelope. She's OK. So she's dressed up, you know, mid 1800s garb. Uh huh. If you think of like a semi wealthy person in like, you know, Deadwood or something like that. You know, she has a nice hat on, peacock feather. Oh, yeah. A little feather. Yeah. But then like an apron, that's kind of that steampunk brass color. Steampunk has these colors, man. They're like, you know, dark browns, light browns, brass, light blues.

[00:22:26] Do you is Jacques in this picture? Jacques is in this. OK. Jacques is the robot. Jacques is the robot. He's got a little voice box. There is a freakish man. Yeah. So he let me describe Jacques. I guess he's I mean, he's just a steampunk man. Android robot. Yeah. Or whatever. He's got a metal face. He's got a lot of leather straps holding him together. Yeah. So if you don't pay, you are not leaving.

[00:22:56] Absolutely. You're not leaving this place. But yeah. So they walk around and they talk to everybody. And they entertain you and tell you great things. And there is from what I understand. Yeah. Servers at this restaurant have to go through a training. Like they have to learn about the story of the restaurant, which is why our server was like, oh, oh, you know this story. Thank goodness. I don't have to tell you this story. Oh, my goodness.

[00:23:26] But but yeah, like it there's everybody has to know the story. Everybody has to support it. And she's like, oh, well, Penelope will come by. And the question that I had prepared was going to be like, what are you a doctor of? Oh, so you were going to be one of those people. No, I didn't want to be antagonistic. I just wanted to know what she's a doctor of because I can't. You weren't going to get a yes and her. You were going to be like, so what makes you qualified to open a chocolatier and savory fact?

[00:23:56] I wasn't going to be. No, I just wanted to know because I doctor to doctor. I would like to know because I'm a doctor of pharmacy. And, you know, colleagues Penelope. Why don't you, you know, we're all doctors here. Yeah, let's let's let's learn about what you're a doctor of. But she didn't come by our table.

[00:24:17] We only saw her in the in the gift shop and she was talking to children, which makes more sense than stopping by a table full of adults and saying, hello, I'm Penelope. Professor Penelope Tebow Tinker Toothsome. It's this lady's name. Where? I'm sorry I'm coming in late to this, but what planet is this on? Universal. Planet Universal Studios.

[00:24:47] It's at both universals in City Walk. Okay. So the one in Orlando looks like an elaborate factory. There was something about this that didn't feel Disney. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I'm not doing a Disney show tonight. Oh, no, that's fine. I'll fill her in later. Okay. Yeah, it's all good. We'll tell you. No, let's start the show over again. Taryn needs to. But yes, the exterior of the building, it's a factory.

[00:25:17] There are towering smokestacks, a golden dome, intricate metalwork. It looks very industrial, which is weird next to, as I mentioned, the Hard Rock Cafe, which looks like the Roman Colossee. But it's very distinctive within Universal City Walk. Inside, I mean, it continues. It's dark. It's steampunky.

[00:25:46] There are gears everywhere. Someday I should probably do a thing on the Edison at Disney Springs because it has a very similar aesthetic of big gears everywhere. It's dark. It's clocks. It's. Ooh. Nice. Cool. You know. Would you say it's geared for aesthetics? No, I wouldn't say that. Oh, okay. Okay. But yeah, lots of dark wood, exposed brick.

[00:26:16] And yeah, these two weird characters are roaming around talking to people and engaging with the people who are eating their, trying to eat their lunch, having a Reuben sandwich. And they're like, hey, we're old timey. Have you seen my parents? Yeah. This whole thing is weird, man. Yeah. It sounds like dinner theater, and I'm just, I'm not into that. Every time the door opens, they're like, mother?

[00:26:46] Like that is my, my absolute worst. That's the worst thing about DCA is, is walking down that, the main, the main street in DCA. And those, those characters that aren't from any movie that just walk around. Oh, so the straight atmosphere people. So not like five and dime, the, the music people. No, they're fine because they stay on the car and they have like a thing that they're doing, but it's like the, the older lady. And like, there's a guy, a pudgy guy and they walk around and they talk to people.

[00:27:15] And I'm like, I don't, I don't need this. I don't want this. So I don't think I would like this place very much. They do it at Hollywood studios too. And I, I don't know what to do with them. Exactly. It's just awkward. Like, I just want to walk. I just want to walk through. I'm going, I'm, I'm going to rock and roller coaster. I, I think if you just keep your head down, they're not going to bug you. They're going to like shoulder tap you and follow you. That is true. I'm looking at some of the merch this place has. Oh, the merch is crazy.

[00:27:45] It is. They have statues. Oh my God. Yeah. There's a shirt. There's a, it's like a low V neck woman's shirt, low V neck sleeveless flowy shirt. Like this is, this is like, this is low cut shirt and says in old fashioned, uh, you know, what would be like me, like a wooden carved sign lettering, you know, if you know what I'm talking about, it says chocolate, coffee, and men.

[00:28:14] Some things are just better rich. Love it. Underneath in small letters. Must have. I bought seven of those shirts. Tooth some chocolate. I'm for you. Like, dude, that is so boomer and put a minion on and it's yellow. Put a minion underneath it. That's then that's universal. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. For sure. But they're staying in universe. They don't put a minion on that.

[00:28:43] You'd have to go to the minion cafe to get a shirt like that. I would love that. But, um, so the menu, um, as far as chocolate is concerned. Uh, everybody gets. So it's, it's, it's your, it's your usual bread service, uh, except it's warm chocolate almond bread. Ooh. Oh, that sounds delicious. Okay. With salted caramel butter.

[00:29:13] It's real good. Wow. Yeah. That made me. Yes. That sounds delicious. Um, but yeah, the entrees are not all chocolate based, thankfully. Um, but that's, that, I mean, it's, it's kind of like starting your, your lunch or dinner with dessert. Um, the, the, the bread, the bread is fantastic. I like, I, I really loved the bread.

[00:29:37] Um, but, but yeah, the, I mean, the rest of the food menu is just regular stuff. I had a, I had a Reuben sandwich. It was good. It's what you'd expect at a place like that where it's salty, it's buttery, it's, you know, tasty. Gonna give you a little tummy ache later. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe. But yeah, like it, it's regular food. It's, it's, you know, Applebee's. Yeah.

[00:30:06] A lot of the ratings I've seen online that it's, it's okay. It's like three stars. Yeah. The food wasn't amazing. Nobody was like, this is the best food I've ever had. Cause I was there with like six people and nobody was that excited about the food. The food was fine. The, um, the alcohol menu. Um, the cocktails is where they really go berserk.

[00:30:29] So you've got the cell AZ 85, which is apparently a reference to Al Capone's cell in Alcatraz, which doesn't fit the theme at all. Why? I see that face you're making. And Brandy made the same face. We're going to do, we're going to do, uh, we're going to do this cocktail. That's at least 40 to 75 years into the future of what we're even doing here. Oh yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's rye whiskey. Templeton, which is a good rye whiskey.

[00:30:57] Vermouth, pineapple juice, lemon juice. What? It's a lot. Yeah. That's weird. I mean, why is this referencing Al Capone? And the pineapple juice is throwing me. Oh yeah. Yeah. To, to further this whole thing. That's the only reference to a criminal on the entire drink menu. Like why, why is that on there? Yeah.

[00:31:27] It's almost like they, uh, they were going in another direction. Yeah. When they opened, they opened the place, but they didn't update the, the, you know, details of the cocktail menus. Like, Oh, this one slipped by. Like what if it was a 1940s, you know, speakeasy kind of thing. And then, you know, everything was like, yeah, see, what can I get the specials today? Or mahi mahi. See? Yeah. Yeah. The rest didn't have a chance to change it. Yeah.

[00:31:53] It, I, yeah, I don't, there's this guy, he's, he's called Al Capone. He's an up and comer. There's a chocolate cherry mule, which is chocolate vodka, brandy cherry, ginger beer, chocolate bitters. Maybe. Huh. Maybe. Not even maybe. I don't think I would order it, but I would want to try somebody else's. Yeah. There you go. Right. Right.

[00:32:20] How about the chocolate coffee banana, which is banana rum, Galliano liqueur, which is, isn't that a, like a, like an anise flavored liqueur? Chocolate, soy milk, chocolate bitters. Chocolate. That's a maybe. I don't know. That's a potential. Yeah. I have a hard time with chocolate flavors in food and drink anyways.

[00:32:47] Well, and banana liqueur is disgusting, but all of that stuff together might work. I have a tough time with it. It's like a banoffee pie. Yeah. That's what I'm, that's what I'm imagining. And I feel like it might be okay. Yeah. Maybe. I think there are some flavors that have a hard time transcending sweets. You know, chocolate is one of those. Like, I think, you know, it can kind of work, I guess, in some things, but I haven't had anything that really is like, you know, what really, really will elevate this?

[00:33:17] Chocolate. You know, I will say they're very. On my steak. Oh. They are creative with their drinks. I've never heard of drinks like these. Yeah. There are plenty more chocolate based drinks. The, let's see, macadamia chocolate cherry, chocolate, the same chocolate vodka, drambui, macadamia nut liqueur. Macadamia. Okay. Which I don't know that I've ever had.

[00:33:48] Let's see. So what I had was the high fashion, which is old Forrester 86, which is a great whiskey. Branded cherry chocolate bitters. It was pretty good. Yeah. It's not bad. Yeah. Chocolate bitters are fine. I have some chocolate bitters I use every once in a while. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. Mocha old fashioned.

[00:34:12] Cocoa infused dark rum sugar chocolate bitters, which doesn't really sound like an old fashioned to me. Yeah. I, yeah, I don't know. I, again, I would try these. Oh yeah. But I wouldn't want to, I don't think I would want to drink the whole thing. How? It'd be interesting to try. Yeah. How about the old chocolate fashioned? So more, more chocolate. Okay. More old fashioned, uh, destruction. The third fashion. Yeah.

[00:34:42] Chocolate whiskey, cherry hearing, sugar, chocolate, orange bitters. No, no, I don't think so. I don't think so. I, for, for me, cocktails are, I don't, I don't, I was going to say cocktails aren't an experiment, but that's just wholly untrue. True. Um, but I don't, I don't know. I don't like spending $18 on something I'd, I'd sip once and go, no, this flavor doesn't

[00:35:12] work for me. 18. And then, I don't know. What kind of deal are you getting? Okay. Well, look, man. But you know what I mean? Like, I don't want to spend the money on something like that. And then now I have to drink it when I don't enjoy it. I don't want to do that. You know, I, yeah, I, I'm right with you. I will say my, my cocktail choices lately with, with prices being so high on cocktails have

[00:35:37] changed to, okay, this sounds familiar and like not a risk. Right. Yeah. Well, that's, those are my beer choices too, but I think that's also why we get so many remakes and, you know, stuff like that. Or it's like, it's the safe bet because everybody's, you know, hoarding a penny or two. Sure. Yeah. How, how about the other drink that I know I had there? Cause I, I got, I had two, two drinks when I went there. The other is the very old fashioned.

[00:36:06] Oh my God, dude. Which is both Geneva Angostura bitters. Okay. So that's normal. Not chocolatey at all. No, no chocolate. That's fine. That sounds normal. It was fine. Apparently I found online they have a root beer old fashioned. Whoa, that sounds actually kind of good. I don't know what's in it, but it's a root beer old version. Well, it's probably the root beer whiskey, but yeah.

[00:36:31] Old, old Forster bourbon, root beer schnapps, bourbon barrel bitters. Reagan's number six orange bitters. Yeah. That's not too bad. Yeah. I'd go for that. But yeah. That's probably what I would get. Not every, not all of the cocktails are chocolate based. That's good. A significant amount of them are. Okay. There is a two chocolate stout, but they also have yingling blue moon.

[00:37:02] Okay. Okay. You got to have a yingling. I think when you're in, if you're on the East coast, you got it. You got to have it. Oh, absolutely. I love yingling when I'm out there and I've had plenty of people tell me like, that's just regular beer. I'm like, well, I can't drink it at home. Not for us. It's good. Yeah. It tastes good, man. And yeah, it's just a weird, it like it's a universal owned IP. So like they, they've made their own thing that they can have at both of the parks here. And yeah, the whole. That's good.

[00:37:32] I wonder if they're, I wonder if, if it's, if it's going well enough for them to consider doing a ride on it or some other experience. I can imagine not. From what I hear built up from what I heard, the minions, right. I was telling you about earlier, they, they made it too early. Like they finished it too early for, uh, for, um, tooth some to be in it significantly,

[00:37:59] even though it goes out into city walk and you can blow up the universal globe and all that stuff. But, but yeah, like, I, I don't know, maybe, maybe they'll, they'll continue to, to do more. It, it, it's weird to have a restaurant with a theme at a universal park. I bet. Like you expect that a little bit more with, with Disney. Yeah, for sure.

[00:38:29] Um, I, I mean, I, I like it. I like, I like, yeah. But what do you mean? Because do you mean like, like an IP related like theme? Because like, I remember when we went to universal, we went to, it was, it's forever burned in my memory. Cause it was one of the best memories. But like we went to this Bob Marley themed bar, uh, restaurant. Yes. And it's so, it was so good. It was so fun and it fit the weather. Um, so I, I'm just curious, I guess, because that's my only experience really.

[00:38:58] But what do you mean by like, they, um, you're, you're not used to seeing like the themed restaurants at universal. Well, I mean, I guess I'm, I'm thinking like an original IP. Like they've got, they've got the today show cafe at universal. They've got a minions cafe. Like the, but those are all in the park. Whereas in city walk, like, okay. Bob Marley, a tribute to freedom. Yeah.

[00:39:28] Is it's good. It's weird to see. It is weird to see. That's why we hung out there so long. We got two, two rounds of wings. We're so good. And I told you when, when I was there a couple months ago, I told you about the, the, uh, Bourbon street themed place that had a speakeasy. Like that was cool.

[00:39:57] But to have something that is so immersive and themed. Cause like the Bob, like Bob, the Bob Marley place doesn't, it's not like, you know, like you're hanging. They don't have like an animatronic of Bob Marley. Yeah. It's not themed necessarily. Like, like this is, this is, this has a whole backstory to it. Right. That is kind of different. This has a person in a robot costume walking around. Right.

[00:40:24] Like this is, imagine Bob Marley walking around. Hey man. Some random dude with a dreads wig. Yeah. Yeah. This is just, this isn't something that, that even Disney does most of the time, unless you're in the parks, like they don't have, this is akin to a princess walking around and saying hello, but you don't know who these people are. But here, but what I don't understand about it is that it doesn't make sense.

[00:40:53] It doesn't even, it's not even that. Do they make chocolate? Chocolate. Is it like a chocolate place? Do they make chocolate? Are there a chocolate here? Are they dipping truffles? Are they, you know what I mean? Barring chocolate? Are they doing anything like that? They do have like, I mean, it's a candy shop and it's kind of like Disney where you can see them making stuff or at least they insinuate they're making stuff. It's not quite the same as, as Disneyland or Walt Disney world where you can see on main

[00:41:23] street, they are making candy canes. For example, you don't see that, but they insinuate that with the, with, with, with the like steampunk aesthetic and it's a factory and they've got relatively fresh chocolates, but it's, I mean, they've got milkshakes. They're, they're big into milkshakes.

[00:41:49] There's a whole bunch of different, like, that's cool, but I just, I guess, I guess so far from the aesthetics, I mean, everything is light grays and browns and tan and it doesn't look pleasing to me to want to be in that environment at all. Especially if the food is kind of subpar or par, I guess. I would say par is good. Okay. Nothing, nothing to me is drawing me in to go to the, and like just leaning into, I guess

[00:42:17] the thing I'm having a problem with expressing is that a theme park on the level of universal kind of going so mid range with something like this. I don't know if you're going to create a whole new restaurant IP and a whole new theme. Why is it a doctor looking for her family by making a chocolate factory? Like it's just, it's so bizarre. A professor doctor. Oh, sorry. Yeah.

[00:42:45] It's, it's the weirdest idea that they, they went like they're leaning so far into this Margaritaville. Okay. Makes sense. Why not have a Margaritaville there? Sure. Yeah. But Margaritaville's I've never been in, but I imagine it's exactly the opposite where it's like, it's themed, but you, but it's, there's no backstory. There's no pretend backstory. It's just, Oh, we have this, they're playing music and there are surfboards and there's that's it. It's lightly themed.

[00:43:15] They, the outside of the, I mean, at Orlando, they do have a plane that Jimmy Buffett owned. Yeah. Okay. But like lightly themed versus themed to a, or lightly themed versus like themed, I think are very different. This is themed. This is a themed restaurant. They're going for immersive, but what are we immersing ourselves in? Right.

[00:43:43] Do we, do we want to be immersed in this universe? Is this a universe? This universe freaks me out. I don't like it. It bothers me. I'm not, I'm not defending this place other than like the drinks, the drinks were good. Okay. The food was okay. All right. And it looks cool from the outside and the inside. And that's all. Well, there you go. Yeah. That's all you can really ask for. It checked the boxes. Yeah.

[00:44:10] That's why I wanted to talk about it because as far as we're concerned on, on this show, like it's like they're going for a Disney thing. Yes. Yes. But they didn't. I don't get anywhere near it. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Like we could talk about a boathouse someday at Disney Springs, but like that's a, that's just a dude who has a bunch of boats.

[00:44:40] It's not, it's not an immersive experience. It's literally the dude who owns the restaurant has his collection of boats there. Like, so, okay. That actually, there we go. That was the episode. Yeah. Perfect. That sounds great. So the, the guy who walks around in the costume, does he talk? That robot guy. Yeah, he does. And he walks like a robot. He walks like. Oh my God. But does he talk like a robot? Except made out of like brass and leather.

[00:45:13] Yeah. How does he sound? Yeah. Is it a human voice? He's got, he's got like a, a vocoder sort of thing going on. Okay. This is a nightmare. And Penelope is just a woman wearing a dress and a hat. Oh yeah, dude. See, already I'd rather talk to the robot. You can't. You could. Excuse me, Penelope. Because I don't want to talk to a human person. Yeah. Allow me to enjoy your creation. I think kids are the same way.

[00:45:41] Alice didn't want to talk to any, like, except for Belle. That was the only one, but she, she said no to every princess going to, to meet any princess, but she wanted to meet all the other characters. And I think there's something a little freaky about a human. About our child, I think is really more what it is. Oh God. You should hear what, you know. She told me all about her dream before bed. I'll tell you about it. Well, yeah. She's bizarre.

[00:46:07] No one's showing up at Toothsome and saying, I've got to meet Penelope Toothsome. No, they're going after the other guy. I've got to meet this random character. I have to talk to Jacques, the robot. I think it'd be, it'd be really funny to go there and pretend, you know, just basically cosplay in there and then pretend like you're a citizen from the 1860s. Pretend like you're her dad. And then you walk in and you see this robot and you just scream. I think.

[00:46:37] Oh my God. What is it? I think they'd lose it. I don't think these people are prepared for that level. That level of improv. Because I mean, you know, I don't know. That's the other thing about steampunk stuff is that it sort of betrays the whole concept of like the old West and steam technology because none of it existed. Can you imagine if it did like some gold miner being on his claim for a year and he comes

[00:47:07] down and then there's like just his town is covered in robots because someone, because this lady landed her dirigible and dropped off a bunch of robot orders. You know, there's a dirigible somewhere in this story. But yeah, everything's a robot now. Oh gosh. Now you're just making me think of Wild Wild West. Well, I'm trying not to go there. You're riding a big spider. Like, I mean, you know what I mean?

[00:47:33] It's like generational trauma that you're inflicting on these people because that's the stories that will be written in history books. Oh, and you can also get a hamburger there. Thank God. Is that it? Are you, are we covered? That's it. Unless you want to dunk on it a little more because it's so weird. No. Yeah. It is weird, but I do like the fact that somebody somewhere had this idea and they leaned into

[00:48:02] it hard enough to have two locations. Oh yeah. And people seem to be enjoying it because it's been open since 2016. You said, right? Right. Yeah. I, it's not going anywhere. It's, it's weird as all get out, but yeah, the food was passed. Passable for theme park food. Question. I have a, I have a very important question for Eric. Food wise, food passability was, which one wins?

[00:48:30] This one, this place or the South Park place? The South Park. Oh, oh, oh, oh, Casa Bonita. Which food quality was better? That's an interesting question. I think, well, Casa Bonita only has like five menu items. That's fine. But what you ordered, which one was better? I think Casa Bonita.

[00:48:57] Because, because this place toothsome, they've got like that cheesecake factory sort of menu that's giant and they have too much stuff and they don't specialize in anything. Got it. Yeah. Looking at the menu online, it seemed like a BJ's cheesecake factory level of like, yeah, there's there. You can spend 10 hours looking at this menu. Yeah, it's too much stuff. Casa Bonita at least is like, we've got a chef. It's not the best food in the world.

[00:49:27] But he knows how to make these five things. Right. Yeah. We're going to focus on this. He's going to night school to learn to sex. So leave him alone. Give him a break. You want tacos or burrito? Yeah. Well, very good, Eric. I'm glad. I'm glad you went there. That sounds like a weird place to go. I still don't know if I would do it when we go back. However, I encourage anybody else to go and let me know how it was. Give me one of those shirts that says chocolate, coffee and men all taste better rich or whatever.

[00:49:57] Yeah. I mean, honestly, you'd probably just catch me at Bob Marley's. But you got to go there, though. I'd probably just spend all my time there. I'd be next door at the Irish place with the speakeasy. Yeah. But it was just so cool with the music and then the music videos and the vibes. Why are you swaying? That's my vibe, man. Yeah, man. That's my vibe. That's my vibe, man. Taryn's going to go look up minion memes on the break now.

[00:50:24] If we go back to Universal someday, I'm going for Harry Potter and Bob Marley. I want to do all of the things we didn't do if we ever go back. Yeah, I don't care about all those things. It's so disappointing. We should bring more people because I'm not interested in that. That's fine. There's a whole Margaritaville you didn't visit and it's right. Oh, I don't care about that either. That is not my vibe. No, that's not my vibe, guys. All right. Well, speaking of vibes, everybody, we're going to like totally take a break.

[00:50:54] We're going to come back and do like Disney news because Disney news is my vibe. That's my style. All right, everybody. Hang on. It's ears up. We'll be right back back to ears up where the opinions never stop ever. All right. Thanks for sticking around, everybody. Oh, you're lovely. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, you have to. Well, you don't have to.

[00:51:24] You don't have anything else to do. Actually, if you left, you'd have to go do chores. Probably. Probably. It's only 10 o'clock. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a lot of late night chores. I know Brandy keeps you working until one, two, three in the morning sometimes. As she should. Right. You know, she deserves it. You know what I'm trying to say? Kind of. We got that already. We got that already. All right. Before we get to the news, everybody. Summer is here, basically. You know what I mean?

[00:51:53] And the 21st Amendment Brewery has the perfect lineup to keep you cool and refreshed all summer long. Hell or High Watermelon is coming back. The ultimate summer classic brewed with real watermelon juice. It's crisp, juicy, and ready for sun-soaked adventures. Or you have El Sully Lime. The reward-winning Mexican-style lager with a bright citrus twist. Smooth, refreshing, and made for warm days and cool nights.

[00:52:20] And to celebrate 25 years of brewing freedom, we bring you, and by we, I mean the 21st Amendment, because us at Ears Up had nothing to do with it. We do not brew beer. I mean, I do. But like, you know what I mean? We didn't make this beer, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Not this one. Okay. No, Sully would never. Can you imagine? Hey, JP, why don't you come up and just make this beer? I'm going to take a break. I'm like, what? There's like 50 million hectoliters of beer to me. What are you talking about? And Sully would be like, no, you got it.

[00:52:49] I'm going to go. I need to go on a run. I'm surprised he hasn't asked you to just make a few batches. It's just, there's work there. I trust you, but don't I need training? No. Don't I need a hard hat? No. Don't I need boots? No. Gloves? Absolutely not. Here's a mash pedal. Get to work. Barely, yeah. So 21st Amendment brings you the 25th Anniversary IPA, which I have not had yet.

[00:53:17] And we were just there last Sunday, and I forgot to give it a try. So next time we go back, I'll give it a shot again. But it's a bold West Coast IPA packed with classic and modern hops. Bursting with pine, citrus, and a touch of tropical fruit. It sounds delicious. I mean, if you get a good mix of those two, they can be incredible. And if Sully knows one thing, it's how to blend hops together to make this sort of like, I don't know.

[00:53:45] My favorite IPAs are sort of like almost retro when you got the piney, citrusy thing, you know? And then you got the modern tropical side as well. If you can blend those two things together, you're all over it, man. So whether you're just kicking back on the beach, firing up the grill, or just raising a toast to summer, they've got the perfect beer for the moment. Find 21st Amendment beers at your favorite store, bar, or brewery tap room. Because summer deserves great beer. And so do you.

[00:54:13] Not only just summer, but autumn, amber, Jennifer, any other ladies that you know, any other men that you know to. You guys all deserve great beer. That's a joke. That's true. Sorry, Sully. That was a good one. I had to say it. I'm drinking the 21st Amendment lager right now. March in the past, present and future with all the news that's fit to cover. It's the Ears Up Disney News. All right.

[00:54:43] We got a lot of news to cover. And originally I was going to cover, there's like some Marvel news to talk about. But then I started digging into news even more. Oh no. And there's a lot, man. There's a lot to talk about. I don't know if we're going to get to it all tonight. I might just save a bunch of this for the secret show, which I don't know when we're going to record. Not tonight, but maybe in a couple of days, something like that. Sure. Not tonight is perfect. Not tonight is perfect. Sounds great.

[00:55:14] Yeah. Not tonight is the best timeline you could ever have on anything like that. You know what I mean? So we're going to talk a little bit about what's happening and, you know, we might as well just jump into it. But Snow White was released this weekend, everybody. And yeah, things are not going well. I have several news stories to read with Snow White. So it might sound a little complicated or convoluted. So work with me a little bit on it and, you know, bear with me.

[00:55:44] I have a lot to get through about Snow White. And I'm going to try to stay as positive as possible because I haven't seen the movie. I've seen the trailers and I would probably rather hear the spiel at Toothsome than watch the actual movie. But from, I think, Amber in the Discord, or here's Olivia, I can't remember. They went to see it and they said it was fine. Their kid loved it. And that's kind of all that matters. You know what I mean? Yeah. But they said it was fine.

[00:56:11] And to me, that is a very nice way of saying my kid loved it. Yeah. It was fine. Yeah. But again, if your kid loves it, that's what you're going for. Then it was fine. Yeah. So this one is from The Independent, and this has generated a lot of sub-articles. But basically, Rachel Zegler's social media posts are being blamed for Snow White's backlash and box office performance.

[00:56:39] Well, I mean, look, they weren't great, but you can't blame her for just the weird way that those... A couple of posts, everybody's like, well, she's directly insulting her co-host. I don't think Gal has not come out and said, I can't stand this woman. Here's the problem with what Rachel Zegler was doing, is that she was not upholding the

[00:57:08] legacy of the story. She was pooping on the history of the story and the legacy of the story and things that people really enjoyed. And she was supporting that fact. Someone who's asleep and some dude who kisses her? I guess. I don't know. But she was really upset about that kind of stuff. And when big studios, when instos are trotting out their stars of these movies and putting

[00:57:34] them on social media and having them help to push and campaign for people to see the movie in the buildup to the release, they're counting on positive stories. Mm-hmm. So part of that backlash is not necessarily what she said directly, but it was how she was carrying herself around the franchise that people latched on to kind of first, I think. Maybe second. First, it was all the weird racists, but that's fine.

[00:58:02] That's going to happen with anything, so it doesn't matter. But it's kind of the way she handles herself about the legacy of the movie. Obviously, that's what ticked a lot of people off, and I think that's what they're talking about. So you have a lot of interest invested into how your stars are supporting the film and the project on social. That's a big thing because it's basically free marketing. Yeah. If you have your number one star jumping into the fray going like, yeah, isn't this really

[00:58:32] dumb that women weren't empowered? We're going to change the story fundamentally, and everyone's freaking out. They're just pointing and shrieking into the void. Of course, that's going to snowball, man. If I were Disney, like if I were these giant corporations, though, I would put it in a contract that like to have boundaries around social media for these giant stars, for these

[00:58:57] giant movies, because if if they really do have that much influence over the movies, which I'm not advocating for, I don't think that that's really the case. But let's say that that's their argument. Then put something in the contract that says that they can't even talk about it until after the movie comes out. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know either. I mean, but but I don't think you want that you when you hire somebody, you expect them to be professional. Yeah, that's stupid. I agree.

[00:59:25] Back in August, while sharing the first official Snow White trailer on Twitter, Zegler thanked her fans for their support before adding in a separate post and always remember free Palestine. So this isn't even necessarily about, you know, her controversy before. This is like another thing I didn't even hear about the post, which garnered 8.8 million views online caused Disney executives to immediately contact Zegler's team with the film's producer,

[00:59:55] Mark Platt, flying to New York to speak to her directly. That's how you know you're in trouble when the producer, when your boss flies from wherever they are to you to tell you that you did something incredibly incorrect. Zegler's co-star Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, reportedly began to receive an increased number of death threats following the post and Disney had to pay for increased security for the star and her family. I just don't believe that.

[01:00:25] I don't believe that. But I mean, what do you do you think that variety is lying? I think. I think that this is exaggerated. I don't know. I have a hard time believing that she received so many death threats, like legitimate death threats that they needed extra security for her. Well, okay. Well, here's the thing. So if your team normally has death threats. You exist in America, right?

[01:00:53] Your team normally gets 10 death threats a month because these people do. Sure. They deal with random stalkers. So let's say they increase to 50. How do you know what's credible and what's not? You have to hire security to go to make sure. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like why take the chance? No, I, I, I, and I guess I see that. I guess I just, I'm like, why is it Disney's problem? Um. Like why are they hiring security for her? I don't know.

[01:01:20] Cause why isn't she going like, dang, I should probably hire some extra security. Like it just, it just feels like they are jumping into the drama when they don't need to. That's what it feels like. That's, I think my, what, that's my point. I, you know what? Look, man, if I had, if I had, if, if, if Ryan said something about Eric that caused Eric to get death threats, I would 100% pay if I could for security until I figured it out.

[01:01:48] Uh, we need, we need to have a conversation. Okay. You know what I mean? I think, I think of all the things that Disney has done to kind of fumble the bag in the last five or 10 years, this is not one of them. I think they absolutely should be paying for that because it's their star that frigging said the thing. Yes. So she should be paying. Okay. Anyways, God dude. Reflecting on Zegler social media activity. One insider told the publication she didn't understand the repercussions of her actions

[01:02:16] as far as what is meant for the film for gal for anyone. Three months later, following the results of the presidential election, Zegler shared a post that read F Donald Trump and may Trump supporters never know peace. Platt reportedly pulled Zegler aside and explained she was signaling to a substantial chunk of America that the forthcoming Disney film was not for them. After some discussion, the star agreed to work with a social media specialist paid for by Disney

[01:02:45] who approved all posts leading up to the film's release date. I mean, a little too late, but that was the right move. I totally believe that that's like a real job. Oh, yeah. 100% it is. Of course. Yeah. I mean, it's just someone who manages social media. You know what I mean? So it's like, you want to say this? Okay, let me make sure I'm hired by corporate to sanitize everything, to make sure everything's fine. But therefore, it's not her fault anymore.

[01:03:14] It's the social media manager. I wonder, well, clearly Gina Crump didn't check with that team. No, that did not. They didn't even give her that chance. They were like, no, you're too far. Okay, we're done here. The new Disney live action remake of Snow White has a sluggish start at the box office, making just $43 million on its opening weekend against an estimated production cost of $270.

[01:03:45] Whoa. Things aren't looking good for this remake, man. No. They really aren't. But if you've... Eric, have you seen this movie yet? I have not yet. No. I just... Like, I have only watched the trailer and I am terrified by the dwarves. So, like, I just don't... I just... I feel like just the dwarves alone are a mess. But we'll see. I don't... I don't... I don't mind...

[01:04:15] I mean, the dwarves have changed significantly from early trailers. If you remember when they were like... Mm-hmm. Dudes. Yeah. They're like real people. Right. I feel like that would have been better. So, it's... Yeah. It's interesting that we've gone to... That they went... They went the direction of making them animated characters. Yeah. Basically. And...

[01:04:46] I don't know. This whole... This whole production has been fraught with... With controversy. And... I mean, starting from, like, Peter Dinklage saying, Hey, we shouldn't be making a movie about dwarves. And then they're like, Oh. Oh. We were... We were trying to be respectful. Yeah. By not including you. Like... And... They tried to be like, Here. Look... Look at the... Look at the...

[01:05:15] The people that we have hired to do these... These... These... These characters. And then it's changed again multiple times. Like, I... Yeah. They're trying to fix it. And I get it. And they should, I think. But... I... It's hard when you have a charged movie like Snow White. And I don't think it should have been charged, necessarily. No. No. But you have, you know, Rachel Zegler being like,

[01:05:44] She's not gonna be saved by a man. She's gonna be the leader she was born to be. It's like, you're fundamentally changing the story. People are gonna complain about that. If it's one thing Disney fans don't like is change. Yeah. They don't like it. I mean... You're already fighting that uphill battle. So to, like, be so flippant about it is gonna piss people off even more. And then you have the weird CGI and the problems on set. And then all this stuff leading up to it. And the pushback of the release. And there...

[01:06:11] I think people are sort of already tired of the drama around the movie before they even see the movie. So that's my opinion on it. No, I think in a lot of respects you're right. Because there's so much more drama around this one than previous ones. Like, where they've done... Yeah. They've done things that people didn't like. Like... Little Mermaid. Oh, she's black. Yeah. Oh, we're not happy about that.

[01:06:41] And they're like, I don't care. And great. They finished it and the drama went away. What was the other? Aladdin. Oh! Princess Jasmine has an opinion about the world. Yeah. See, that's where I draw the line. And, you know, ultimately when it came out, it's like, oh, she got an extra song.

[01:07:08] I think people were more pissed off about Will Smith as a genie than anything. That's the only thing I ever remember hearing about is Will Smith being the genie. Yeah. It's like, dude, what is this? This is not good. The blue wasn't great. But ultimately... Now that Snow White's opening weekend, $87 million worldwide. $87 million worldwide is in the rearview mirror. Burbank brass are evaluating what went wrong.

[01:07:33] To put Snow White's global box office hall into perspective, it's about $34 million less than Joker Foley Adieu. But with a bigger budget by $70 million. What is Joker Foley Adieu? The Joker 2 with Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix. Why are they comparing it to that? Like, is there a correlation? Because it was a ball. It was a stinker. Nobody liked it. Oh, okay. Yeah. It was terrible. And it did worse?

[01:08:03] It did worse. This is not her fault, though. It's not her fault, but I'm saying it's... I think her actions have contributed towards it. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. But she can't be blamed for the whole thing. I mean, they're trying to remake a... So, people have been complaining about the live-action movies for so long, and then they made their original, like, the original animated movie.

[01:08:27] Like, no one else made an animated movie before Snow White, and they're remaking it as a live-action, and people don't... Have not been excited about the live-action movies for a long time. No, absolutely. Even though they make money, and this is, I think, it's on track to be the worst of them. Quote, you can't say that a live-action remake of the most iconic film in the vault that cost

[01:08:50] $270 million and has been reshot multiple times, opening to $50 million, is okay. The math does not work. That movie should be a billion-dollar movie, said an executive at a rival studio when the film was tracking for a $45 to $55 million domestic opening. It ended up at below even the low-end figure at $43. Oh, that... I mean, that's rough. Yeah, that's right. They had, like, multiple reshoots, too. Yeah. Because they kept changing it. Yeah. And that's the thing.

[01:09:20] Like, okay, I feel like the studio knows when they have to do those reshoots, they're like, okay, this is not going to be a hit. Like, you know. But you can't stop. You have to kind of keep going. You've already put too much money in it to, like, to scrap the project. But, like, I can't... I wouldn't believe that they're very surprised. Mostly because of those reshoots. Like, when you start having to reshoot things, things are going downhill.

[01:09:49] The same thing happened to the Guardians guy. Jim's guy? The director, he got, like, yeah, he got fired. And then they did reshoot. There was something with that. They're like, that was a tweet from 10 years ago. He's fine. Yeah, like, but there was all this drama with that. And then that movie kind of didn't do as well as they thought. And it's just like... I think when you start really messing with a movie that got greenlit, it's just not good. So this is part of the Variety article,

[01:10:16] which I think sparked, you know, all this other stuff. But it mentions that, let's see, the complaining with Ziegler started after she wasn't invited... She complained on social media that she wasn't invited to the 2022 Oscars as the star of the Best Picture nominee West Side Story. Because she was in that, you know, that was her first role. I don't know. Sources say that she had just begun production on Snow White in London and Sean Bailey, then president of Walt Disney Studios'

[01:10:46] motion picture production, declined to cut her loose for the telecast. After Ziegler aired her grievances publicly, which you don't do, okay? You do not complain that your company did not send you to the thing. You do not say that. They provided her with a ticket, even though she wasn't nominated. And then Bailey was gone from the job by February 2024, it says. Months later at D23, she criticized the original 1937 Snow White, noting that the prince, quote,

[01:11:15] literally stalks the heroine. One top agent said, that was the moment that Disney allowed Ziegler to control the narrative. Quote, the first time she shoots her mouth off, you nip it in the bud. Instead, the studio said nothing, and purists began to revolt. So I think that was the problem. She said, oh my God, really? Like, you know, all that kind of stuff that Jeremy and I beat to death on that show. Disney didn't say anything to push back or to like rein her in.

[01:11:45] So she probably felt emboldened to like, say whatever she wanted to say. And then, you know, the snowball increased and people were done with it. They say all press is good press, but in Snow White's case, they were unabashedly wrong. Says box office analyst, Jeff Bach. Too much negative controversy surrounding this film for years. This is what we were just saying. And it didn't help that the reviews were subpar, likely rendering this latest live action adventure to Disney Plus for many potential ticket buyers. It's, I mean,

[01:12:15] it's interesting because I'm thinking back about a similarly, think back on Avatar 2, Way of Water, where to make money on it, they needed to make a billion dollars. And everybody went, I don't know. I mean, the last movie was years ago and they had to do all this extra stuff on this one and the movie was too expensive. And somehow it pulled through.

[01:12:45] Like, they made that money and more. Like, it's, in some, in some cases, it seems like Disney is laying back and going, I don't want to deal with this. And in other cases, they're saying, no, we're, we're gonna, we're gonna support this. We're gonna push this through. Everybody's gonna go see this movie. It almost feels like, what's the movie? Strange World,

[01:13:15] Strange Planet. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, The last animated feature that, a few animated features ago, where they just, people are like, there's a gay kid in this movie. Oh, no. And, and Disney was like, we're sorry, there's a gay kid in this movie. And they didn't promote it at all. Disney has, Disney, like, it's a good, it's a good movie. I liked it a lot.

[01:13:43] Disney does push the kind of, you know, norms, I guess, and not even norms, because that seems ridiculous to say. You know, because, guess what? There's gay people, everybody. I don't know if you knew that. What? But like, but like, yeah, where, where are they? You, point them out to me. It's, Disney has kind of been, you, one of those companies, at least trying to dip their toe in very passively, but also, you know, putting that stuff out there in the,

[01:14:13] in the narrative forms of their movies. Right. But then they don't know how to support it. And it's like, they don't, they, they, the spine that they grow to like, finally go, you know what? There are gay people. Guess what? Everybody, we're going to put them in our movie too. What do you think of that? And then people go, and then they go, Oh yeah, right. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. They're like, they get English. Like, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I ran into you. I'm so sorry. You ran into me. I'm so sorry. It's like, figure it out. And I think that does a lot of damage too. It's either do it or don't.

[01:14:44] If you're going to do it, which you should, then keep doing it. Stand up for it. You know what I mean? Push the narrative even more. Yeah. I mean, that's, I mean, we've been talking about this for years at this point where JPEC, fumbled the ball. Oh my, are you wearing a JPEC t-shirt? Oh yeah. But JPEC was framed, but yeah, like he got, I mean, he got a raw deal for sure.

[01:15:12] And he didn't, he wasn't prepared to have these conversations and that's, Oh my God. I just, I just thought of a new t-shirt to make. It's Lee Harvey Oswald on the cover of time. You know, when he has the, like the doctored photo of him holding the rifle and the shadows, all crooked or whatever, but put a JPEC head on it. Oh my God. I'm going to do that. We were walking around Disneyland. Disneyland. So Jason wore this shirt to Disneyland one day and some guy stopped us and he was like, that's dark.

[01:15:42] It was a cast member. He goes, Whoa, that's dark. I was like, and I looked at it and I was like, you're wearing, like, I didn't know you'd wear it here. You got to do it, man. Look, man, every CEO is kind of terrible. That's just by definition. That's what they do, man. And then to see that, that Iger was so adamant and was so political for a while.

[01:16:04] And now the situation has changed and suddenly the company is backing away from DEI. Yeah. Well, we're talking about that. Let's let's wrap up the snow white stuff and that's, we'll get into that too. Okay. Sorry. I'm so on the other end of the snow white thing. Um, this is an article on cinema blend where this is like movie reviewer talks about how they liked snow white more than they thought they would. And they've seen it twice in the first week and whatever. And I'm like, okay,

[01:16:34] this will be a cool article to, to, to mention on the other side too. Like, I like seeing a positive press about stuff so we can, you know, have other versions of the truth to, to figure out. But what he does at the end of his article is essentially say what he liked about them. He goes, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I never loved the original snow white and the seven doors, but the new film, which basically gave the original,

[01:17:03] a modern musical facelift worked for me. I enjoyed it so much. And I thought other members of my family would as well. Then a couple of days later, I went to see it again, this time bringing my wife and seven year old daughter with me. Um, blah, blah, blah. He, he says, what I found myself most focused on was the theatrical experiences and taking my daughter to see a Disney classic. As my parents had done so many years ago.

[01:17:32] So he kind of intonates there that like the part that he enjoys most about snow white is just going, going to see snow with his kid. Yeah. Going to do the, going to the action. It's the step one, go to the movie. Step two, removal of frontal cortex. Step three, exit movie. Enjoy life. There's, there's no, he's not talking about the movie and how good it is or anything like that. Yeah.

[01:18:00] It's just that what I really loved about it was being able to go see snow white with my daughter. Yeah. Cool. Which is nice, but yeah, like, yeah. Hmm. That's a weird review. It is a weird, it's a weird, it's almost like an opinion piece. It was very odd. Um, let's see. Yeah. Um, anyway, there's more, there's more numbers here for snow white box office, but I think you guys get the point. It's not going. It's not going well. Yeah.

[01:18:26] Critics were largely not impressed with Disney's latest live action remake with reviews coming in at just 43 fresh, 43% fresh on rotten tomatoes. Um, there's been a wide variance between the box office performance of other live action Disney remakes, but snow white might mark a new nadir. I don't even know what Ralph nadir's back. The hell's going on. John Favreau's photo realistic, the lion King didn't have great reviews either, but it grossed more than $1.6 billion worldwide.

[01:18:56] And they're making more snow white opened worse than Dumbo, which had a $46 million opening and well shy of Cinderella territory with 67.9 million. God, it opened worse than Dumbo. Dumbo was a stinker. It was good. I still haven't seen it. I haven't seen it either. I bought a copy of it. I still haven't seen it. I, I normally would have, but I mean,

[01:19:26] Danny DeVito, like what's, what's wrong with that? I know, right? Come on. Yeah, for sure, dude. A flying elephant. Come on, man. Let's do some light news. Trump's FCC commissioner opens investigation into Walt Disney company and ABC for diversity policies. Yeah. This might be more of a secret show. Um, talking point. Yeah. Let's just save for the secret show. Cause we can say bad words. So we can say bad words, but also like, I don't know.

[01:19:55] I've kind of been too heavy already. I just, let's, let's do something lighter and get out of here. Okay. Um, I worked at Disney world for two years. There are nine things I'd never buy at the parks. Okay. Love these. Love these. Nine things. This, this, this, I should also save for the secret show, but that's right. Popcorn. Single use water bottles. Agreed. Yeah. Sure. Of course. I don't like buying those. Plan ahead. Bring your water bottle. They allow it.

[01:20:25] But here's, here's the thing. This is the problem with articles like this. They're obvious. They're all so obvious. They are to us, but I wonder if it's obvious. I mean, we used to buy water bottles there because we would forget our, right? Because the, the drinking water sucks there. It absolutely is trash. And I think they do it on purpose. So you buy the good water. No, Disneyland or Disney world? Just has bad water. Disney, Who goes to Disney world? Come on. Disney.

[01:20:56] Florida water. Sulfur. Yeah. So also bad. It's worse water. It's way worse water. Um, let's see. This is a weird article because there are nothing's like numbered. So it's all written kind of weird. Um, there are water fountains located around Disney world property. So I usually bring a reusable tumbler. It's called a water bottle. It's called a frigging thermos. A reusable tumbler. God. Um,

[01:21:25] most tumblers, you just throw them away when you're done. I know. Yeah. Give me my single use Stanley, please. Popcorn buckets are supposed to help you save, but they don't. If you keep buying them, nobody's buying them to save money. No, they're buying them because they look cool. Right. You want the new collectible thing. There are always so many to choose from and some Disney fans collect them. Personally. I don't understand the draw. Rude. Um, let's see. I, this, this, this,

[01:21:55] it's little, this article is formatted really horribly. Um, so I can't figure out if I'm going to hit them all, but spirit jerseys feel outrageously expensive to me. I think they're ugly, but then you know what? I'll be honest with you. You almost got one. I almost got one. Well, I didn't almost get one, but I looked at them because ultimately they're baggy and you kind of get that sort of terry cloth feel on the inside. And I was like, okay, maybe,

[01:22:22] maybe I can be in my spirit Jersey era, but I would have loved it if you got one. Cause you have been, they were $80. There's no way I'm going to get that. No, this show. Uh, here's another one. I don't really get why people like the Disney themed Crocs. It's first of all, now she's Andy frigging Rooney. Do they sell Crocs at the park? Some people like shoes on their feet. I like shoes where they belong on my hands.

[01:22:52] Why is it that Disneyland wants to sell you shoes on your feet that remind you of things that you put on your hands? I just don't get it. Call me old. Come on, man. I don't know who Andy Rooney is. Not Andy Rooney. Is it Andy Rooney? Is it? Who am I thinking of? I don't know. Not Andy Rooney. The guy used to just do the weird, like monologues and complain about a bunch of stuff. Is it Andy? I think that's Andy Rooney. Andy Rooney. Okay. I'm thinking of Mickey Rooney. I'm going, no, that's not Mickey. No,

[01:23:22] not Mickey Rooney. Andy Rooney. We'll figure it out. Mickey Rooney is a national treasure. Yeah, that's right. The world. Okay. Let's see. Oh yeah. Here's this article that I pulled up that just made me almost vomit. The 54 best shows on Disney plus right now. 54. It was written by Disney. This was written by Bob Iger. No, this was written by an AI. I know, right?

[01:23:52] Bob Iger pressed the button. GPT act as if you were Bob Iger and you were writing an article for a wired magazine to talk about how many good shows there were on Disney plus. There are 54, 54 best. Like I already can't trust the article because of the sheer amount of things. 54 best implies that there are others that are also very good, but these are the 54 best ones. Can you imagine if you are on,

[01:24:21] if your show, like say you were an actor and your show was on Disney plus, but not on this list, I'd be pissed. I'm like, wait a minute. What do you mean? Charlie Cox is like, come on. The new season of daredevil is great. There's so many, uh, star Wars stuff on here. 54 of them. Apparently renegade. Nell dinosaurs. That old diner, that old dinosaurs, uh, car, uh, that's on there. That show, my goodness.

[01:24:51] That show is so good behind the attraction. Loki. It's good. Daredevil. The original Osaka. It's nice. The wonder years, secret invasion, a lot of Marvel, star Wars. Come on. Yeah. I don't know, man. Do you remember the episode of dinosaurs? That was surprised. When, when I started rewatching that show a while back, yeah, I could not believe that they had an assisted suicide episode. They did. Grandma dinosaur.

[01:25:20] I do remember that. Yeah. Oh my God. And that was season one. Dude, that show was wild. It was so good. Yeah. I'm not into that. Um, okay. I'll tell you what, let's do what we're talking about is the, uh, Avengers doomsday cast. And then we'll get out of here. We'll save everything else for the secret show. We can play some more clips of stuff. Um, cause I do have some, I do have some good things coming up. I have a lot of good tabs open,

[01:25:48] so it'll be fun to see if my computer decides to not shut down until, um, yeah, anyway, whatever. That might be the first time anyone in history has ever said, I have a lot of good tabs open. Maybe. I don't know, man. Okay. Marvel studios announced Wednesday. The production has begun on the film Avengers doomsday in theater. May 1st, 2026 and a multi-hour global live stream that I didn't know about.

[01:26:16] Marvel also revealed several of the films, all star cast teasing the return of some familiar heroes. The Avengers doomsday cast includes Chris Hemsworth, Vanessa Kirby, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Wyatt Russell, Tinak Herta, Tinak Herta Meja, Iban Mosbacherick, Simula, I can't, I'm not going to read all these people cause who cares? We all care. There's just a lot of people. I can't. Yeah.

[01:26:44] It's a lot of people that I can't pronounce their name. I can do a Tom Hiddleston barely. Okay. Alan Cumming, maybe Ian McClellan. No, I can't because I put an extra L in there. So I'm just going to do everybody else a favor. But apparently Kelsey Grammer is going to be in it. Beast. Beast is back. Oh, he was being interesting. He was beast. Yeah. And they, he was at the end of the Marvels in a post credit sequence. The what?

[01:27:13] The Marvels. Yeah. I don't know what that means. Yeah. It's Captain Marvel too. Right? Yes. You loved it. Toss salad and scrambled eggs, man. He's super MAGA. Is he? He is. Yeah. Just found this out. So disappointed. Yeah. He's, he's very, very conservative, but. All right. Well, that's the secret show conversation, everybody. Yeah. So that's happening. I thought I had a deeper article in that, but I don't. It's just a list of names. It's just a list of names. Yeah. But everyone's like really excited about it. I'm like,

[01:27:43] wow, what does that mean? I can't wait to read articles about it. And then all the articles like, here's the names. All I heard is Ant-Man. Ant-Man's there. Well, here's one about the 10 major Marvel stars missing from the Avengers doomsday cast announcement. So there is quite a bit of chatter from what I've read where people are sort of disappointed and they're not necessarily like, they're thinking this might not be the, a great film because these like tent pole MCU characters are not in it.

[01:28:14] So I don't know what you guys think about it. I would love to hear what you guys think about this. So Tom Holland as Spider-Man, he will not be in it. What do you mean? Boo. Boo. We love him. Oh, okay. Yeah. Great. Benedict Cumberbatch is Dr. Strange. He's not going to be in it too. I can't believe like doctors. He's so, you know, an integral part of the Avengers. Why is he not going to be in it? That's so weird. He's asleep in this one. Oh yeah.

[01:28:44] See, you say that and I don't know what that means, but I just, I took it. Uh, you know, honestly, I'm fine. Deadpool, we need to take a 10 year hiatus from Deadpool. I am so tired of Deadpool things. Yeah. He and his wife also, they're, they're not good for Disney social media right now. They need to go away for a bit. Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. See, that's fine. That's a good move. I'm all right with that. It's fine. Uh, Tiana Paris as Photon. Don't. Yeah. I don't know either. Uh, it's from the Marvels.

[01:29:13] I guess she's in the Marvels. A movie I just referenced. Okay. Chris Pratt, a star Lord. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine. I can use a break. Yeah. I need a star Lord break. Also. Uh, Mark Ruffalo is Bruce. We love Hulk. Uh, yeah. So I think that'd be cool. I liked him. I think he was a good Bruce Banner. I think a lot of people didn't like him, but I think he've, uh, he played the weird eccentric genius. Pretty good. Yeah. Jeremy Renner is Hawkeye. I never cared about Hawkeye. I never was a Hawkeye guy.

[01:29:43] Hugh Jackman is Wolverine, but this was the big one. Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch. She's currently dead. In the MCU. Look, bro. It's a comic book movie. I know. I know. They're going to come back. She'll definitely come back, but that's why I'm like not expecting her in this one. She'll come back eventually when it's convenient. But I think that's why people are a little bit, like taken aback by it where she's hyper. She was probably the,

[01:30:12] I'm going to guess one of the five most popular MCU characters that doesn't have their own movie or doesn't isn't in like a movie. Right. She did the TV show. Right. Oh, she's in the movies. I mean, she was the main antagonist in a multiverse of madness. The, the second Dr. Strange movie. The what? Do you watch? Do you, do, do, do, do, do, do, Are you okay? I broke him. I broke him.

[01:30:41] Everybody shut him down. Reboot sequence initiated. Do you listen to puny pod? No, they're not on that one yet. Do you watch one Marvel movies? No, because I do. No, I do. You've, you've seen some of them. Well, look, man. Okay. I, I've been on this show long enough. I know. I get it. Here's a secret. I don't really remember much.

[01:31:09] You get in front of this microphone and just talk. And that's just kind of what happened. I, I am aware of how podcasting works. Yeah. Thank you. I was just, I wasn't telling you specifically. Oh, okay. The audience. I know how, you know, how it works. Okay. The last story we're going to cover. There was a fire in Epcot the other day. Did you guys see any of the footage of that? I did. I saw a couple of Tik TOK videos. Right. Yeah. And I'm sure it was like the, the, the video I saw the, the, not the biggest, but the,

[01:31:38] the one I saw referenced most often was like from the skyway buckets. And I'm thinking, all I can think is I'm so glad I bet Disney's going, man, I'm glad that we have these back. So everyone can get a nice footage of the toxic plume. Apparently it was behind the France pavilion. Do we know what it was? Well, it was a dark column of black smoke began to rise near the France pavilions. A few days ago, photos and videos posted to social media,

[01:32:07] showed the fire located backstage near Remy's Ratatouille adventure ride. Disney officials told Fox 35 news that the fire itself was extinguished fast. And it was sparked by a random French person who tried to get a cigarette from one of the cast members in backstage. Cause cast members, I don't know, whatever. Um, the fire happened backstage. They don't really know. Oh, I'm sorry. They do know a walk-in cooler.

[01:32:34] The Disney official told Fox 35 on Saturday that a walk-in cooler backstage caught fire. The good news. No one was hurt in the fire. Well, that's good. Yeah. Jeez. Damn, a walk-in cooler. Yeah, that's like a... Couldn't handle the spicy French food. Big fire. Yeah, dude. Wow. That's it. Mr. P's laid out the chat with his emojis here. But it was like a real,

[01:33:04] it was a very big black plume. It looked bad. Didn't look like it was like in, even indoors. Honestly. I know, right? So, well, good. I'm glad that Epcot still exists. Yeah. I mean, the French Pavilion could go. That's fine. You know, put the Greek Pavilion in there now. they have, um, champagne. Yeah, but put the Greek Pavilion in there. Who cares, dude? You get sparkling wine somewhere else. You know what I mean? It's not worth it. We need, we need the Greek Pavilion. All right, everybody.

[01:33:33] Thanks a lot for tuning in. I do appreciate the support of the show. If you want to support the show, if you don't currently yet, you can go to patreon.com slash ears up, or you can go to the website. We have everything there. It's ears up hyphen podcast.com. We have links to our Etsy page to buy some cool t-shirts and stuff like that. And you can find all the, the low down on the, um, the, uh, Patreon, you know, page and stuff like that. Eric, thank you very much. Uh, once more for diving into tooth, some,

[01:34:03] a Marvel universe, MCU crossover event. That's me. That's you. Perfect. All right, everybody. We are getting out of here for you. Patreon supporters. We are going to be hitting up a secret show here in a couple of days, a date unknown, but don't worry. We will put in patron for you as well. So, uh, be sure to check the discord for any show announcements. If you want to join us live, you're always welcome to, if you,

[01:34:33] anybody else wants to watch these shows live, you go to twitch.com. no, excuse me, twitch.tv slash ears up. And you can, uh, follow our little channel and you'll get an email notification whenever we go live. So you can go ahead and, uh, jump in the chat room with all the people there, uh, like Mr. P spamming emojis over and over and over again, which is what you do. That's basically what it is. I mean, that's his deal. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah. That's his deal. It's what he does. Yeah. All right, everybody. Thanks a lot for tuning in. And until next time, we'll see in the parks.

[01:35:09] He's still doing it. Yeah.