The EarzUp! Disney News Show | Taylor Swift Joins Toy Story, The Carousel Progresses, and more!

[00:00:00] Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen, nichts entspannt mich. Echt? Mich entspannt meine Steuer total. Steuer? Wie Finanzamt? Die Steuererklärung? Ja, ich hab ganz locker über 1000 Euro zurückbekommen. Hast du geheime Connections? Nö, nur die Visu-Steuer-App. Wow, und das ist einfach? Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch. Plötzlich fühl ich mich so entspannt. Hol dir dein Geld zurück. Tiefenentspannt mit Visu-Steuer.

[00:00:33] The magic right to your speakers. Ears up! Hey, what's going on everybody? Ears up podcast. We are back. I didn't like that intro. I didn't like that intro. I'm going to start it over again. Oh, okay. It's time for the show that brings the magic right to your speakers. Ears up! What's up everybody?

[00:01:01] Is that better? That's good. This is Chill Jason. Just relax it. Just relax. It's Saturday afternoon. Saturday afternoon, guys. This is a chill podcast now. Yeah, this is Lo-Fi Beats to Chill and Study To. Yeah. This song podcast. Yeah, yeah. That's all it is. This is what I always study to. It's just the intro to my shows over and over and over again. It's really relaxing. Yeah, the other one was just a little too, I don't know, puker for me. A little bouncy? Yeah. It's like, that's not how I'm feeling right now. That's all right. That's good.

[00:01:32] Anyway, what's going on everyone? This is a news show and we got a little bit of news to talk to you about. I'm pretty excited about it, of course. We were supposed to have Miss Beverly, the return of Miss Beverly back on the show today, but she had to work. She had a late meeting scheduled and she goes, I can't get home in time to get on. And they're, you know, they're really busting my chops over here to make some sales. I need to get this sale. I'm like, all right, dude. You go get it, boss woman. She needs the Saturday works.

[00:02:01] She needs it, man. So unfortunately, we can't hear about her time on the train, which I was excited about. Yeah. I wanted to hear it and we talked about it. I, I, I, you talked about it on one of our last shows or whatever. And then someone wrote in with a train story for her on her own. I was like, oh, this is sweet because we actually got, we don't get feedback anymore. Yeah. Now we got some feedback and it was a cool story to share. And so now I'm kind of debating whether or not to just hold on to it until Beverly can like hear it and comment on it.

[00:02:30] But then it's like a full two weeks away. Yeah. I kind of feel like though it should wait. I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that's an understandable pause, you know? Yeah. Was that the surf liner or no? Cause the surf liner is the one that goes to San Diego, right? I have no idea. No, she just rode straight up Amtrak. I don't know if, I don't know if Amtrak has like different lines that they have cool names for like that, but I don't know anything about it. Yeah. That's the one that Dan takes. Okay. I know. All right. Yeah. See, there you go.

[00:03:01] So no Bev, if you tuning in to hear Miss Beverly, uh, she's, she's, uh, she's boss babing hard and that's all. Take that. Yeah. Good for her. Yeah. Take that patriarchy. Yeah. Women can ignore their family too. I love that. I don't know. I don't know. So we're just doing straight up news today, folks. It's going to be good.

[00:03:24] Um, God, I got a, I had a whole like thing to, Oh, so, um, on the, on the, this Twitch channel that we do right every now and then we, I mean me, but if you want to listen live to the shows and like participate in the chat or whatever, you go on Twitch or just twitch.com slash ears up. And, uh, you know, Thomas is in there right now and, uh, you know, we're all just like kind of hanging out. And, um, but it's so anyway, Alice knows that I stream games on, on this and this is how we do the show. So she knows a little bit about it.

[00:03:53] And we were playing supermarket simulator, which is like her favorite game right now. And she was telling Terrence, she goes, yeah, I'll kind of want to like try streaming this like streaming myself. And I'm like, all right. I mean, all right. I don't know. So keep, you know, keep your, uh, your, your inbox open because, uh, I'll tell you in the, in the, you know, cause you got to write in the. In the notification, like what's going on. I'll tell you that if Alice is Alice and I are going to play supermarket simulator and

[00:04:20] it'll be Alice's little face and, uh, take some dramamine because she's a hard time moving the mouse around, but you know where I'm sitting here and she's like, she's doing, she's doing the commentary. She's doing, she's doing the same thing I'm doing where she's just like, Oh, you can't got to put that theory. Oh my gosh, this is right here. Okay. Well, what should we do here? And I'll look at this person. Like she's doing the thing just naturally. So I think she'll be good at it. Well, I don't know. I mean how natural it is.

[00:04:49] She's been watching these YouTube videos of people playing Roblox. And so that's what they do. And so I think she's, she's emulating, but. And that's why she's like, Oh, I want to, I want to, I want other people to hear me do this. Yeah. Okay. See, I liked it better when she was copying me and not copying other people. Oh yeah. Yeah. But that's all right. We'll pretend that's what it was. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. So yeah, that'll be cool. What else, man? There was something.

[00:05:15] Oh, uh, in a couple of weeks I'm, I'm, I'm pinning down a date and time, but I think it's going to be the weekend of the 13th of June. Uh, the return of Jeremy. Okay. Yeah. With his, uh, music of pirates of the Caribbean. And I guess Bev might have to be on that show too. I was hoping to split them up, but you know, if, if I just play the Bev thing out for too long and no one's going to care. So, um, yeah. So those two might be reunited on the show and that'll be fun. That'll be fun. Okay. So we got some stuff coming, man.

[00:05:44] We got some stuff, uh, you know, stuff figuring out. Cool. Dottie, you are way too warm to be on my lap right now, bro. But I think you're going to stay there cause you're nice. Uh, oh yeah. The other show, the other thing I was talking about. Uh, so if you want to hang out for the Buena Vista boys live show, we're going to be doing that next weekend on Twitch. I think probably four or four 30 usually is what we do on Sundays. Um, and we're covering, um, the love bug. Oh yeah. Okay. Going to a classic.

[00:06:13] That is a movie, man. Uh, let me tell you. Oh my God. Is it on the good side? The bad side or the bad side? I can't tell you. Nothing? I'll tell you, but I can't tell you. I don't know. I don't know what to feel about it. I don't know how to feel about it. Okay. It's a, it's a movie. I mean, okay. First of all, the bug is super sick. It's like early sixties, rag top, like clean, loving it. Right. Absolutely loving it.

[00:06:41] And then like, there's a point where, where the bad guy who I think was like the, the banker dad and, um, Mary Poppins. Oh, okay. Yeah. He like, he's the bad guy. And he walks around the front end of, of Herbie and like Herbie squirts oil on him. And I'm going, but the oil is in the back because the engine's in the back. So that, that, that's the side he was on is where the gas tank is. Why would, why would Herbie be shooting oil out? I don't know. You know too much.

[00:07:10] I know too much to enjoy a Disney movie from the sixties or seventies or anything, anything. Yeah, dude. You'll point out things like, well, he couldn't have shot that seven times. Cause there's only six things in that gun. I'm like, who knows this stuff? Like that's an automatic gun. Dude. No one knows this, but you. I know. I know. And I blame for that. I blame the, uh, the American educational system. Well, there you go. I guess they did something. That's a shame. Yeah.

[00:07:40] Uh, all right. I don't, I don't have anything else. This whole Bev thing. She sprung it on me less than an hour ago. So I'm kind of like, I'm kind of thrown right now, but that's all right. I have some breaking news. What is it? I have news that has to do with literally today. So shall I go first? Yeah. Go ahead. Taryn, why don't you go ahead and kick us off the news segment, brother? Okay. So I did talk about this on another show recently, but this is so, so it's kind of an update,

[00:08:07] but could Taylor Swift be the next Disney princess? No. Well, I'll go. Sorry. As Pixar prepares to release Toy Story 5 this summer, the rumors keep flying and getting more and more mysterious that Taylor Swift is somehow involved with the film. Over the past several weeks, Swifties and Disney fans alike have been buzzing with theories

[00:08:31] that Tay-Tay may have some connection to the highly anticipated animated sequel. The theory first gained traction after a mysterious countdown briefly appeared on Taylor Swift's website in late April. Now, countdowns are not uncommon for Swift, but they usually lead to some kind of an announcement, a new album, a single release, or new merch on her website, etc. But this countdown that appeared on April 30th featured a 48-hour yellow timer on the

[00:08:59] iconic blue sky background with white clouds from Andy's room in the Toy Story film. Screenshots of the countdown spread across social media quickly before it mysteriously disappeared completely, leading many to wonder whether Swift was teasing a collaboration with Pixar or whether the countdown was mistakenly put up at all or simply put up just too early. Neither Taylor nor Pixar ever commented on the countdown.

[00:09:25] It is, however, interesting to note that the Toy Story clouds are copyrighted by Pixar, and Taylor would not have been permitted to use the images without Pixar's consent. The clouds are copyrighted? They are. They are very specific clouds that are copyrighted. Hmm. Interesting. Mm-hmm. And as any Swifty knows, Taylor Swift is the queen of Easter eggs and often uses her fashion aesthetic to Easter egg her next project.

[00:09:55] So it wouldn't be a stretch to theorize her connection to the Disney Pixar film based on her recent public outings where she has been photographed wearing outfits that matched the Toy Story color palette, blues, yellows, and reds. Now, many fans have become convinced that Swift has either written or recorded a song for the film's soundtrack and or is a voiced character in the upcoming animated film. Fans have pointed out that in the official trailer for Toy Story 5, there is a portion where Buzz

[00:10:24] is riding what looks like a majestic purplish Barbie horse with wings. The horse is kind of a pink and blue mix, which happens to be the same colors as Taylor's lover album and era. And. And. Jesus, man. And. She doesn't own those colors. Things can be colors and not have to be related at all to anything. Oh, my goodness. And. Freud would have a field day with Taylor Swift fans. Yeah, go ahead.

[00:10:53] The horse has very prominent bangs. Oh, my God. Oh. Mm hmm. Wow. So as the premiere of the film is approaching, it comes out on June 19th. Things are getting even more curious. Yesterday, May 29th, Taylor changed the background image of her 2023 re-release of her 1989 album cover.

[00:11:20] The original cover features Taylor with a blue sky background with birds flying above her head. Well, this new updated version, the birds have been replaced by none other than clouds. Now, this is seemingly a promotion for Toy Story 5. And so all of. So just to make this clear, like all of her album covers on like Spotify, Apple Music and the one that we use. I forget its name. Title. Title.

[00:11:50] They all changed overnight. OK. Weird. Weird. I mean, that's not that weird. You can just you just do it. This is a click. But why? She's weird. But that's the thing. That's what's weird is why. And it's also worth noting that Taylor Swift's albums are often referred to as TS1, TS2, TS3, etc. Based on the order in which they were released. She has 12 albums. So it goes up to TS12.

[00:12:16] Her 1989 album is referred to as TS5. Toy Story 5. TS5. No. Ah. OK. I hate it. I hate it. This is where it gets even better. Now, if that weren't enough to convince you, which clearly it seems like it's not. No. Also yesterday on April 29th, Pixar put up a new Toy Story billboards in eight cities across the world.

[00:12:44] And as of an hour ago, more are popping up. Oh, sure. Yeah. Well, you know. In L.A. and San Francisco now. Right. The thought is that there's going to be eventually 13 because that's her number. But we'll see. Oh, I don't like it. So anyway, Pixar put up Toy Story billboards in eight cities across the world. And these billboards were the blue sky and clouds image as the background with a giant yellow red yellow and red TS in the middle. TS for Toy Story.

[00:13:15] And or Taylor Swift. Now, Pixar may just be using this rumor hype to get some easy, swifty publicity leading up to their upcoming premiere. But again, it's important to note that Taylor Swift actually has a copyright on the initials TS, meaning that Pixar would have had to seek her permission to use the image of the TS on the billboard. I don't know that to be true. I do. How do you how do you how do you copy copyright two letters? She does.

[00:13:44] She did like two letters in print. Usually. But you and you clearly research it. So but from what I know about copyright stuff, you it's as long as nobody else is using TS to promote a music or an album or something like that. But for this, I think it would be different uses. So you it would be OK. Just to note, this isn't even in my notes, but just to note. OK. OK. You lose the lose the attitude. I can't lose the attitude. Lose the attitude. All right. I can't.

[00:14:14] Toy Story has never. Just to note. Never in their all of their years of having to promote their their movies ever used just TS ever. Right. I'm just saying that if they used TS, I don't know that they would need permission from her because it's a different context. OK. Well, also today. I know how Alice feels. April 30th, 2026.

[00:14:45] Pixar fueled the rumor mill by posting on their social medias a video of Jesse dancing on the aforementioned billboard to Taylor Swift song. Shake it off with the caption. She's making the moves up as she goes, which is one of the lyrics from that song. Even with all of this evidence, Pixar's creative team recently discussed the rumors directly.

[00:15:10] During an interview, director Andrew Stanton said the filmmakers were surprised by the theory and considered it an honor that her fans connected Swift to the project. OK. Producer Lindsay Collins added that a collaboration would be pretty amazing. But Stanton confirmed. Kind of oddly that Swift did not perform the film's end credit song. That's very specific. It's a very specific like, oh, no, she didn't. She didn't do that. OK. She didn't do the end credit song, guys.

[00:15:40] No. And then you're like, but didn't she do anything? She didn't do the end credit song. Yeah, it's a weird way to say that. And so to tack on to that, influencers who attended a 45 minute pre-screen of the film have noted that Swift was not in the first 45 minutes of the film that Pixar showed to these special audiences. Bro, I would hate to watch 45 minutes of a thing and have it be incomplete.

[00:16:08] Like this is what do you want me to do with this information? It looks fine. It's a story. Are you like 45 minutes, depending on how long it is. What are you halfway through the second act? I know. There's nothing. There's no. What is this? What am I doing here? Yeah. And to be honest, like that coming from like, quote unquote influencers, I'm kind of like, did that even happen? Like, is that even a real thing? So anyway. But so for now, there is no confirmation of Taylor Swift's involvement in Toy Story 5.

[00:16:38] Pixar has shut down rumors that she contributed to the movie's end title song. And no official announcements have linked the singer to the film. Swift herself has yet to announce to be announced or interviewed in any kind of connection to the film, which at this point, I feel like you would announce it and just go like, yeah, because that's going to be publicity. So that's also strange.

[00:16:57] Still, as Swifties know all too well, speculation has a way of taking on a life of its own, especially when mysterious clues, Easter eggs and a beloved franchise are involved. This is a developing story. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. I don't know. I mean, for me, it was clear from the thing online that she's going to be participating in the movie. So like, I don't know, like all of this like weird, you know, rumor.

[00:17:27] I don't know. It just, it seemed, for me at this point, the stuff that she's doing, and maybe she's not doing it, but the stuff that's going around, right? Like the billboard, it's just, it's like, oh my God, you're trying too hard now. Like you're, you're trying too hard. Nah, it's fun. Don't be so, it's not fun because it's so obvious. It is pretty obvious, but it's fun. I don't know. It's fun to like, guess. Maybe it's fun. Okay. But you're not, okay. Okay. I will give that, you'll give you that. Thank you.

[00:17:54] I just, to me, for me, it comes across as like, we get it. You're so mysterious, bro. Yeah. You know, we totally get it. I mean, yeah. And she probably did voice the thing. Like, great. I don't know. Whatever. Yeah. If she did do a voice for it, like I watched the whole trailer and like, it's, I don't think it's a very big part because the other billboards that they have up don't even have, like if she is that horse. Yeah. Can you imagine?

[00:18:24] It's not even in the billboards. So. No, well, see, this is, okay. So I think the, the way to do something like this is to do what they're doing, which is to not just go, oh yeah. It's publicity. So we're going to say that she's in it a week before the movie comes out or two weeks or whatever. It's going to be a quote unquote surprise. You know what I mean? That's all it is. I think that that's just what, so that's why they're not going to put the horse in the thing or whatever. That would be too much.

[00:18:48] But, um, can you imagine like if they, I don't know, they had someone else on the crew whose name was TS and like, we're going to make a billboard or like the other actors. Like, why am I not getting a billboard? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it is, it's obviously like the TS. Okay. Let's assume she's in it. Um, the TS is obviously just because she does that kind of stuff. So they know what they knew. They know this is going to happen. Yeah. And they could just be. Jumping on the bandwagon.

[00:19:18] Well, yeah, I guess. Yeah. They could just be drafting off of her, you know. Yeah. Her, her thing. And they could, maybe they paid her to advertise for it. Who knows? Yeah. But that if, if she's not involved in this movie in some way, I think there will be a negative backlash. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. You know what I mean? That's how you kind of know that she's in it. She like has to be. Yeah. Absolutely. Because at this point it's like, okay, come on. It's really cute. Huh? The clouds. Sweet. You changed all your album artwork. Okay.

[00:19:48] You didn't do that just for nothing. Yeah. So now we know. Well, and there is a couple other things that I didn't include because they just seemed like too much. I felt like it was too much. Oh, okay. But on her last show for the Eras Tour, she was wearing her costumes. She always changed the colors of her costumes. Like it would be one costume, but the colors would change throughout the shows. And on the very last one, her costumes were Toy Story colors.

[00:20:14] And she, she had a, she has named microphones and she has this one that's called Cloud, but no one could figure out why it was called Cloud because the other ones all match up to like an era. But then there was this random one called Cloud. Cloud. And then that's the one that she's using. Is that her new era? I don't know. Is that she's going to be voiceover lady now? I don't know. So just weird stuff. That's great, dude. It's fun though. That's great. I like it. Yeah.

[00:20:41] I'm, I'm, I'm happy for her that she's doing that. That's deep. It is. It is. It's really deep. Okay. I got something really short here real fast. Okay. All right. This is in relation to magic key renewals. You know, the annual pass people. First, we had some, when we were doing annual passes, when they're called annual passes, there were some sort of like benefit to renewing. You would, you know, you got something for it.

[00:21:10] I don't know what it was and then they took all the stuff away. You used to get a calendar. They took all that away. You used to get magnets. They took all the way. They gave it back. They took them away, whatever. Well, apparently they're, they're back and better than ever folks. This offer that I'm going to be talking about will be available for renewal passes through May 26th, 2027. So if you have your pass and it, it comes up for renewal and you, you choose to do that,

[00:21:36] you can get a Disney dining card worth up to a hundred dollars. Wow. The card can be used on a variety of food and beverage options at participating locations throughout the Disneyland resort. This is what the Disneyland website says. They go a part of it. It goes, quote, You're one of our most valued guests and we thank you for your loyalty and support. We hope you'll keep enjoying admission opportunities, value, convenience, choice,

[00:22:05] and magic key holder extras at the Disneyland resort for another year to come. You're our favorite. You're one of our favorite people. Don't tell the other people that you are one of our favorites. The amount loaded onto the complimentary Disney dining card varies by magic key tier. 25 bucks for the imagine, which is the lowest, right? 50 with the explore 75 with the believe and a hundred for the inspire key.

[00:22:34] Disney will email magic key holders. They're dining Disney or the Disney dining card within 72 hours of the renewal purchase. Taryn's gone. Oh, I messed up. Oh, sorry. God damn it. I'm coming back. I'm sorry. The meeting looks really cool now. I know. Yeah. I accidentally, I thought I was exiting out of my thing. No. Just two cool dudes. Yeah, it looks great. Sorry. Hey. You got to do the whole thing. Okay, I'm back. All right, there you go.

[00:23:04] And then I didn't really, I guess, realize the discounts that you get for these stupid passes. But for the imagine key, it's $599 box. I mean, let's call it what it is. It's $600. Yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm. You know, plus tax. Right. You get 25% off parking, standard parking, 10% off select merchandise, 10% off dining, and 25% off lightning lane multi-passes. I didn't realize that was like a, that's a big discount. That's not bad. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:33] The explore key is $1,000. And you get all the same things. There's no difference, it looks like. Really? Unless I just copied the wrong information. I just copied and pasted this from a frigging KTLA article. Hmm. And it looks like they didn't change anything. Whoops. The explore key and the imagine key look like the same exact discounts. Whatever. The believe key is $1,474.

[00:24:02] You get 50% off standard parking, 10% off merch, 10% off select food and drinks, unlimited photo pass, and 25% off lightning lane. And the inspire is $1,900. Wow. Free parking, 20% off merch, 15% off food and drinks, unlimited photo pass, and 25% off lightning lane. That's crazy to me. Yeah. That's wild. So there you go, man.

[00:24:33] If you're thinking about renewing, you could, you know, but here's the thing. Like, if you're going, oh, I don't know. It's a little expensive. I mean, do we really want to put in another $1,500 for each of us to go back to the park? It's so, and then Disney goes, hey, dude, check this out. If you give me $1,500, I'll give you 75. Like, that's enough? Come on, Disney. I, for me, I feel like it's not really going to move the needle for anybody. If you're, you know what I mean?

[00:25:02] If you're going or not, if you're going to renew or not, 75 bucks or even $100 for on a Disney dining card, is that going to be enough to push you into that purchase or not? Like, oh, it's $100. Yeah, I know. It's something. Yeah. It's something. But I don't know. It's like, I have this crusty bread. You know, sir, I'm buying a car. I don't know if I want to buy this car. Yeah, but you could get this crusty bread.

[00:25:28] Well, I don't know that it will push somebody to purchase it. But somebody who has it and they have to renew, I feel like. Yeah, they have to. Well, no, their renewal's up. I feel like that incentive could work in that way. Especially if you are paying monthly. Because then you kind of forget about it anyway. I don't know. It's cool. It's better than a sticker.

[00:25:56] Yeah, you Californians and your monthly payments. Yeah. Yeah, well, you were special. I just have to buy the whole thing. I just don't see it as a big enough incentive to get me to drop even $600. Like $25 gift card? Thanks, Disney. I really appreciate that. But like a month ago, it was nothing. Yeah, I know. But that's what I mean. Like if I'm walking around with $600 in my pocket, am I going to stop and pick up $25? No.

[00:26:25] I mean, I am. But you know what I mean? Well, it's on the ground. I'm just saying. It doesn't make... Just for me, that's not... For me, it just... It doesn't bother me. It's like, okay, that's a thing that I got. And that's cool. Look, I appreciate the thought. But it's just not... I don't know. Give me a discount on the purchase. That's what you should do. That's what I want. Or a t-shirt. I don't know. I want something. You'd rather a t-shirt than a gift card?

[00:26:53] No, but I'm just throwing out words, Taryn. I'm just curious. I'm trying to get into your brain. No, you're not. Trying to understand how your brain works. No. I need a flashlight for that. Yeah. I mean, look, if I'm honest, I want a discount. Give me 10% off my purchase of my renewal. That is a thank you. Hey, we know that you gave us $600 times three.

[00:27:20] Why don't I take off, you know, 8% or 10%. I'll pay the taxes. You know how car dealerships do that sometimes? We'll pick up the tax on the thing. That's what I want. That to me is better than a Disney dining card. Because also, like, okay, let's say you're at the bottom tier. You get $25 dining card. What are you buying for $25? Nothing. You're buying a meal for $80. So you're in there spending the money anyway.

[00:27:49] Get some pastries at Jolly Holiday. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Maybe, look, maybe I'm the only one. Maybe I'm ungrateful. Okay. Maybe I'm the ungrateful child in the room. But I would rather. I think it's much more valuable to have for on my end as the consumer to have a discount on the purchase rather than a free gift card. I would say from like a business perspective. Yeah. Taryn's really into business mode lately, guys. I am.

[00:28:19] So am I not supposed to say that? I don't know. Probably not. Why? Because people listen to this show. Oh. Should I delete this from there? Yeah. Okay. Yes, please. Thank you. All right. Forget you heard that. But Taryn's really into business mode. There's a lot of things at work that she has to come home and she has to try to justify. And, you know, she's basically turning into a class trader. I am not.

[00:28:45] But what I was going to say is that both of those things probably hit different GL codes on their financials. And what you don't want, what they're not going to want to do is reduce the amount that it's showing that they're bringing in. So they don't want to discount the thing. But they still want to provide something. So I guess I'm just saying like those, those, those monies come from probably two different

[00:29:15] buckets is my guess. And one of them is an easy bucket. One's a tougher bucket to tell show. Well, yeah. I mean, I could have said that, but I guess the only question I have, and then we'll leave it there is what's a GL code? I don't know what it stands for, but it's accounting stuff. It's like where it's the category of the, the, um, just because I don't know what it is. Doesn't mean I'm lying.

[00:29:41] The charge, like your chart, like if I, like I, I have Canva at work and every month I have to do that charge on my credit card bill thing. And that GL code goes to software. General ledger. Maybe. Yes. That's what it is. Did you just look it up or you just came with it? How am I looking it up? I don't know. My hands are tinted. Like I'm an, I'm an Illuminati soldier. Yes. You know what I mean? General ledger code. Tinted. Like I'm a CEO. I'm going, yeah, you're canned.

[00:30:11] You're canned. Clean out your desk. You're using acronyms that I don't understand. Whatever. Eric, how many stories do you have, pal? I have one. You have one. All right. Well, let's take a quick break then. And then we'll come back and we'll get to Eric's. And then I have another one. And Taryn has a long one. No, that was my long one. That was your long one? Yeah. Oh. Uh-oh. I actually don't have another one, but I do. I did want to mention something because I realized there's no story.

[00:30:41] Okay. But I want to mention something really quick. Okay. Well, that was the long one, bro. Okay. That being said, we're going to take a quick break, everybody. We're going to come back. We're getting into Eric's story. Taryn's going to mention something, guys. Probably she's going to go work for Taylor Swift in her Easter egg department with that teaser. Hey, Disneyland is great. Bye. And then I have a story that most people aren't going to like. So hang on, everyone. It's ears up. We'll be right back.

[00:31:11] And now back to the show that ignites your dream wish of imaginations and magical color wonderment of forever. Ears up. So I just went out to get something to drink in the kitchen. And I go, Alice, where are you? She goes, over here. And she's in the kitchen. And, you know, sometimes she has that face. Kids can get that face. I'm like, I'm not doing anything. What was I doing? No, what? I don't know what I'm doing.

[00:31:41] I go, what are you doing over there? She goes, I was getting the sponge. And I'm like, okay, but lose the attitude. I caught you doing something. What are you doing? I wanted to see if lemons work like soap. And she had like a third of a lemon because she can't cut straight with a butter knife. I mean, who can't? And then she's like rubbing half a lemon on the sponge. I'm like, why? I'm like, they don't. What in the world? Yeah. I'm like, where does that come from? She goes, I don't know.

[00:32:09] I just thought that it might like help the clean. I go, I love the creativity, but that's not waste of lemon. Mom just bought this lemon and she probably needs it for something. So let's not do that. But also what made you think that? Well, I don't know. I just thought that. Well, because sometimes like cleaners have lemons. So maybe that was where you were going. She goes, oh, I didn't know that. You just brain, brain lit idea, dude. Wow. Yeah. So there you go. That happened. That was fun.

[00:32:39] All right, Eric, why don't you go ahead and dial in your story there, pal? Okay. Well, you know what? There's this thing called Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress, and it is a fairly old attraction. And we're getting a major update for the first time in decades. Nice, dude.

[00:33:04] This attraction was debuted at the 1964 New York World's Fair. It was part of General Electric's Progress Land Pavilion, and it introduced the revolutionary Rotating Theater and featured the Sherman Brothers song, There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.

[00:33:29] After the fair was done, it was installed in Disneyland as part of the New Tomorrowland in the theater that is now nothing. Eventually, it was closed and moved to the Magic Kingdom in Florida in 1973 just to give more stuff to the Magic Kingdom for reasons. Yeah. You know how it goes. I do. Yeah, I do. Yeah.

[00:33:59] This attraction has been there since the 70s, and if you haven't seen it, it basically starts, it goes through several scenes where you're seeing the progress of technology through time. And eventually, General Electric said, How about we change the song to maybe highlight, you can buy these things now?

[00:34:29] Because nobody knows. Right. And yeah, it's been through some changes. It was moved back to the name Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress in 1994, when they redid the attraction and the General Electric sponsorship ended. And they wanted to update it to a vision of the year 2000.

[00:34:56] Because the last portion of the attraction was always, here's what's coming ahead. They updated it to the 1990s with a big TV and VR and an oven that can be activated by voice. Nice, dude. Which you could do, which is kind of crazy. Yeah, these are all things you can do now. Wow. So the update is, well, let me guess.

[00:35:26] It's going to be like flock cameras and chat GPT on your phone, right? Well, we'll get there. Okay. We'll get there. And this has been the way it's been for decades. Yeah. Until they changed some of the characters' clothing in 2022 to make them, I don't know, slightly nicer. Yeah.

[00:35:55] And everything else has been unchanged since 1994. This attraction has not always run. But then I think in the last few years, it looks like it's been run more often because it's something that you can put a whole bunch of people in in Tomorrowland. And it's air conditioned. And that's it. Yeah. We saw it. It was great. I love that thing, dude. It's cool. Yeah. It's funky.

[00:36:25] Oh, it's great. Yeah. Great place for a dad to take a nice nap in the middle of the day. Sure. Yeah. But big changes are coming in the next year. I love it. The dad's going to be like, honey, the laundry folding robot is going through my social media and reporting my posts. Basically, yeah. Pretty much.

[00:36:51] So the attraction is going to close on July 6th, 2026, which I'm reading from my reports is this year. Yes. It's currently this year. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And it will open sometime in 2027. They don't have a firm timeline on it, but the show is actually updating for the first time in decades.

[00:37:20] And they're completely changing every time period. So each chunk of the ride will now be something different. So we're starting in the 1960s. Instead of the 1920s. And this will feature the excitement of the space race and the 1969 moon landing. Oh, that's cool. I do like that. You know? Yeah.

[00:37:49] Johnny's smoking the worst pot ever imaginable. Oh, yeah. Yes. Ditch weed. Yeah. Yeah. Reading the Kool-Aid acid tests or whatever. And you'd be like, man, this is far out, dad. Whoa. Yeah. I can't believe it. Dad says, dad tells a joke and Johnny just snaps. Yeah. That's cool. Dad. I don't know if his name is Johnny, but it should. Radical. Oh, wait. No. Radical's too early. Too early. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So the 60s. That's cool. I like that.

[00:38:19] I appreciate that. Because, I mean, we don't connect with the 20s anymore. I mean, come on, dude. You know? Right. Basically, that generation, it doesn't exist anymore. Yeah. I mean, it's nice to see. Like, I liked the old setup, but it jumped too far between things and ended up at a place that is out of date. See, and this is where my idea, I think a couple years ago, should come to fruition.

[00:38:45] Where they should have a rotating museum on campus where you can take the 20s scene and put it in there and let people go. It's a walk. Let people go and, like, look at it. It's not moving, doing the thing, but at least you can still appreciate it and, like, look at it. That would be a good walkthrough. It would be sick. Yeah. Anyway. Sorry. Go ahead. 20s. On. 60s. In. We're back. Moving on 20 years to the 1980s. Hell yeah, dude.

[00:39:14] The rise of modern household technology. So we're changing things up. Acts 2 is the 80s where everything bigger is better and things keep on getting bigger. Yeah. That's right. The phone cords were miles long, so mom could be in the hallway talking while there's something boiling on the stove.

[00:39:42] That is a great point. But yes, it's Halloween night, 1985, and for the first time ever, Sarah is the main character. That's John's wife, who normally is in the background doing something pedestrian. Good for her. Hold on. Pedestrian. Carousel Progress is woke. It's progressing. Oh, my goodness.

[00:40:07] But even in a fantasy world of Walt Disney World, it still took decades. I know. Oh, my goodness. Not even in the 60s. They still have to wait for the 80s. Women, you got the right to vote, and then, you know, that's it, I guess, according to Disney World. Well, don't worry, woke, woke stranax. Woke police, yes. John is still out on the porch handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Hey, there he goes.

[00:40:36] And Uncle Orville is still in the bathroom with no privacy around here. That's the act where he's got basically the entire, yeah, it's just toes sticking out of the bathtub. Okay. I love that it's Halloween. I don't know why. For some reason, that's, like, more exciting because I like the idea of, like, a mid-80s Halloween. I mean, just look at, like, the movie Halloween, which I know is, like, late 70s, but it's still that aesthetic.

[00:41:04] Any sort of, like, Halloween slasher movie in the 80s? I don't know, it feels better than just a general, like, you know, it could have been, like, I don't know, summer, end of school party, 1985, which is a million movies are made out of. But I don't know, I like that it's Halloween, man. It feels good. Well, yeah, and they had a Halloween day in the original parasol. Oh, okay, well then, there you go. That's why they did it then, you know what I mean? But, you know, it was just, you know, there's a pumpkin over there.

[00:41:34] Okay. So, apparently, this is going to be a little more involved. Act 3, the third portion of the rotating theater, the 90s are drawing to a close, and our carousel family is preparing to ring in the new millennium on New Year's Eve 1999. Where were you on New Year's Eve 1999? I don't know, man. How was that? 96. 96. Oh, I remember.

[00:42:05] I was probably at a bar. Oh, gosh, you're so much older than me. I'm five years older than you, yeah. I know. All right. My parents used to have New Year's Eve parties all the time, so my friends and I, we were all drinking in the front yard while our parents were drinking in the house. Oh, fun. I was in a van driving back from University of Illinois to Chicago after the MicronPC.com bowl. Everyone remembers that.

[00:42:35] Everyone remembers that bowl game. Yeah. Yeah. And, yes, I was in the town of Onarga. Onarga. I've never... That's a cool name. Named by Tolkien. There we go. Yeah. When the clock ticked over to 2,000. Yeah. Nazgul came and... Yeah. Anyway, amid the excitement of the countdown to 2,000, a new thing called the Internet is

[00:43:03] bringing John, Sarah, Jimmy, and Patty, and the world closer together than ever before. Yeah. John is there going, okay, guys, no one here on the phone for the next 20 minutes. I'm trying to download a JPEG, whatever that is. And it just, you know, it's like an inch of screen at a time every five minutes. It's a download. I'm almost there, guys. The world will end in a few minutes, too. So, just be careful, kids. Yeah.

[00:43:33] If you're anything like my family, not everyone is making it to midnight. Grandpa has already nodded off before the big countdown. Happens. While Grandma sneaks the TV over to wrestling when no one's looking. Grandma. So, that is a similar beat to the previous Act 3 scene where Grandpa's asleep and Grandma

[00:44:02] goes, give him a left hook, you big lug. He's watching boxing. All right. I love the fact that there's wrestling going on on New Year's night at almost midnight, you know? Yeah, of course there is. And then Act 4, the possible future. As we reach the end of our show, we see the family one last time in the distant future in a home off-planet.

[00:44:30] So, they're not saying what year this is. From a helpful robot assisting with everyday tasks to space travel, the scene imagines a future where extraordinary invention, innovation, oh my goodness, I'm Disney-pilled. Innovation has been part of life and proves that a beautiful tomorrow is just a dream away.

[00:44:58] And they've got some concept chart. All right. Well, that's cool. Living off world, you know? Yeah, I bet they can't. They're not going to take a chance at the guessing because considering how it went in the 50s, you know? According to the 50s, we're all living off planet now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's cool. That'll be fun, man. I like that.

[00:45:21] And in addition to all of this, they're going to install a Walt animatronic to introduce the entire attraction. I don't like that. I don't know why. I just... I mean, if they're going to put it in here, just put them in every one. Put them in every single friggin' ride. I don't even care anymore. I don't know. I guess I just... I don't like it either. And it's like we went for this many years without him introducing things. I just don't feel like we need it. And it's creepy.

[00:45:50] I don't think we need it. I mean, creepy maybe. I don't know. I just... I don't know what you're getting out of it. Welcome to Pinocchio. Yeah. Keep your hands and arms inside. You know, I don't know. When's it going to stop? You know what? If they wanted to introduce Walt into the parks more, what I would prefer truly, instead of an animatronic, use... Jason's going to yell at me.

[00:46:18] AI to create Walt's voice and be the voice of Disneyland. Like, that part would be okay with me. But don't... I don't want to see Walt. It's... I find it really creepy, to be honest. But I also found... I think that the Abraham Lincoln thing is really creepy, too. So I just don't... I don't like real people being animatronics. Well, Lincoln wasn't real. I mean, he was definitely made up.

[00:46:48] As a person? Yeah. There's that. Okay. I mean, look... Oh, this is new information. Yeah. Well, if he... I mean, think about it, guys. If he was real, why is there no video of him? You know what I mean? Like, it's just nothing... That's a valid point. I mean, all these people, you know, his speeches just forgot their phones. Yeah. Yeah. Like, to record? Like, what are you talking about? I mean, I'm maybe dumb, but I'm not stupid. Okay? I understand that. Yeah. I don't know, man. Having Walt there...

[00:47:14] I mean, even just the animatronic for Lincoln, you know, in the Lincoln area or whatever, I find off-putting and weird. And a lot of people did, too. I think that was, like, the big kind of, like, reaction online. So it's kind of surprising that they would put... Do it again, basically. But in another thing that didn't have Walt in, like, what's Walt doing in here? Are we that desperate to do things like Walter did? And to have him in the Carousel of Progress? Just... I don't like... I don't know.

[00:47:44] I don't know. I don't like it. I think they just want to do another Walt, because they made one. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, I mean, they've been... If you've been on the attraction lately, after they renamed it Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress, the intro is always an old man sitting at a podium going, Walt Disney at the World's Fair in 1964.

[00:48:12] You know, it's... They're trying to immortalize Walt without including him. And now it's going to be... It's going to be Walt sitting there at that desk saying, I am 1964. At the World's Fair. Yeah. I guess I just don't see the point. But there is no point. It's just to have fun.

[00:48:40] And I would rather them do these kinds of things than get rid of the whole ride altogether. So I appreciate the fact that they're realizing that people still want that at Disneyland, for God's sakes. So, like, I appreciate that the fact that they're just keeping it around and changing it and putting the effort and the money into it to make it different and to update it. That I like. So, it's all I can do. It's about time, and they made a huge leap, and I'm glad that they're doing something with it.

[00:49:07] I wish that you had this at Disneyland in Tomorrowland. I agree. Yeah. It would have been sick. All right. Well, very good, Eric. Okay. Look forward to hearing about that. Okay, folks. This is my story about the Mandalorian and Grogu movie. Ooh, yeah. Okay. This last weekend saw the release of another Star Wars movie film, The Mandalorian and Grogu,

[00:49:36] represented a welcome return to the big screen for the Star Wars franchise, even if it was a bit too on the nose as far as titles go. You know what I mean? It's just The Mandalorian and Grogu. You're the people in the movie. Yeah. I don't know. Based, of course, on the hit TV show The Mandalorian, The movie takes the title character and pairs it with the most interesting part of that show by a mile, a baby Yoda. Yes, I know it's not really a baby Yoda, but in order to make this even remotely interesting,

[00:50:06] I have to lie to myself. So, how did the movie fare over the long-ass weekend? Well, if the fact that I'm writing this story can give anything away, the answer is, as Alice would say, medium. The box office take over the four-day holiday weekend was $98 billion bucks, putting it lower than possibly the worst Star Wars movie since the prequels, Solo. That stink. 98 billion?

[00:50:32] No, I realize it sounded that way, but it was million. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 98 million, yeah. Solo, that stink burger, made $103 million when it opened on Memorial Day weekend in 2018, and that was before the theater business took a hit due to COVID. The worldwide numbers helped a bit more, making The Mandalorian and Grogu's take home around $167 million for the four-day weekend.

[00:51:01] That's not good, you guys. Solo came out in a time when theaters were still doing pretty well and made more money than this thing, but not by much, you know what I mean? Yeah. Now, the upside for Mando is that the film was cheaper to make than Solo was, partially due to the new technology being utilized on the set. You know, they got the big movie screen in the back or whatever, so they can kind of just, you know, reduce a lot of the set stuff.

[00:51:29] But also, there was no multi-director handoffs happening with this one, keeping salaries low. So if you remember in Solo, it got handed off to like three different people. It was a mess. And so that's, of course, you got to pay these people, right? So there you go. But even that's not enough to save its reputation. Last year, when Lilo and Stitch opened on Memorial Day weekend, it sold 10 million tickets. Mando sold 5 million tickets. Ooh, ouch.

[00:51:58] Begging the question, just how much juice is left in this tank for the series? And that seems to play out online. Companies who track the social reverberations of movie releases note significant pushback on Mando, with many people collectively wondering why they would pay high movie prices for a TV show stretched into a feature-length film, especially when they have been paying what many would consider a premium Disney Plus subscription to watch the same exact content.

[00:52:28] Mandalorian has been on Disney Plus for three seasons now. And a lot of reports are saying that the movie is just a long version of the TV show. That's kind of what I've heard. Yeah, that it's three episodes of a show. Yeah, which I'm not saying is inherently bad, but I think there is an expectation, I suppose.

[00:52:52] When you go to the movies, you're seeing movie-quality content, not TV show-quality content. Sometimes those are different. Sometimes those are the same. The writing, the pacing, for sure, is different. Yeah. There are also many people, like myself, who feel that the storytelling, the writing, and the universe Disney has built within here, which I'm calling the Mandoverse? Question mark? I don't know. Okay.

[00:53:19] It's just not really that interesting, kind of lazy, and a tad boring once you get over the cool pew-pew sounds of Blastrifier. I don't find the Mandoverse to be that thrilling and exciting, to be honest with you. And I've said this from the beginning. Even the first season of the TV show, I'm like, that's kind of boring. I was shocked at how popular it became. Also to note, this is... It's because it was Star Wars, and it was new Star Wars. It was new Star Wars. It rolled out with Disney+. So people were like, this is great.

[00:53:49] This is cool. Yeah. It's different, and I appreciate that, but I don't think it was handled that well. I just found it really boring. Also to note, this is the very first Star Wars film ever to not have a lightsaber in it. Wow. Oh, yeah, because even Solo had that cameo of Darth Vader at the end. Not Solo, Rogue One. Yeah.

[00:54:15] As of this week, Mando has already been dethroned at the box office by a horror flick called Obsession. By Calvin Klein. That movie is in its second week in theaters and is relying more on word of mouth over big budget pushes. So, just to recap and to underline this point, a movie deep into its second week of release beat the latest Star Wars movie that is still in its first week of release.

[00:54:45] That is unheard of stuff. It's a low-budget indie horror film beating out the first Star Wars movie we've had in like seven years in its second week. Yikes. It's crazy. Part of the lackluster performance could be the fact that these characters were created for the small screen. So, we have a movie based off a TV show that was based off of a set of movies.

[00:55:12] Things can get confusing and writing styles can vary between formats. Even Jon Favreau, I believe is his name, the director, I believe he's the director, I don't know, said in an interview that he wasn't sure why the Mandalorian got the call to be the subject of the first Star Wars movie back in theaters in seven years. If the guy who's in charge of the thing is saying, I don't know, shrug emoji. I don't know, they just told me to make a movie. Yeah, I'm like, I'll write the thing, I don't know, Jon.

[00:55:41] I'll also say, and this has come up on this show before, but we have a Disney podcast. We recently went to Disneyland. Disneyland. We are in this sphere of Disney and Star Wars and all of this stuff. I did not know until last week that this movie existed. And when I saw it, I thought it was just another season. And I was like, oh, cool. Like, I liked that show. It's another show to watch. And then I was like, oh, it's a movie.

[00:56:12] So, there's like two checks against it from me personally. It's like, ew, it's a movie. First of all, I don't have an hour and a half in me at the end of the night anymore. I get one hour until I have to be in bed. And so, hour and a half doesn't work for me. Two hour movies can't do it. Don't have the time for that. But also, just, I don't feel like their advertising is hitting the demos that it needs to hit. I should have known about this. Well, here's the thing.

[00:56:42] We've covered it. But also, we don't watch anything with commercials. Oh, that's true. And I have to remind myself of that, too. Like, we don't have Disney Plus anymore. Because it's too expensive and there's nothing on it. Like, you know what I mean? Like, the commercials that we have now are political commercials because we're watching the live TV channels on Plex. That's true. And so, it's just, you know, Katie Porter goes after the whatever or like, you know, a medication commercial.

[00:57:12] That's it. That's all we're watching. Or like Toyota commercials in Spanish. So, we don't see any of this stuff. We're not exposed to any of these commercials. They should try and find ways to find people like us, though. Because. I mean, yeah. They don't. I mean, I don't think we're super alone in that. We're the unadvertisable. Unadvertisable. That's what we are, dude. Yeah. I don't need to know about Ren Vogue. I need to know about. Exactly. About the Mandalorian. Yeah. The Mandalorian. Yeah.

[00:57:42] Season one of this TV show was a huge. Hold on a second. Let me back up because I want to make a point real fast. When I was saying that writing styles vary between formats. I do think that some of the appeal of the Mandalorian is because it's not a movie. Because he needs lines, right? And I think that format of him not showing his face, all that kind of stuff, it works better on TV. I don't think it translates well to the movies.

[00:58:08] And I think the writing between a movie and a TV show needs to be different. Or else it's going to feel like a TV show. And that's what people are complaining about for this. I don't know how you would do that. I think some things just don't translate well into movies. And it sounds like this is one of those things. But we'll see. Anyway, season one of the TV show was huge. It was a big cultural moment for sure. But the drop in viewership between seasons two and three, some numbers put that upwards

[00:58:37] of 15%, make it hard to justify a whole movie based around it. It signals, to me at least, a loss of interest in the storyline at best and a loss of interest in the characters at worst. Now, this is a quote from an article that I read, and it makes me nervous to watch this movie. Of course, I'm going to at some point when it's streaming. But listen to this, please. Watching the muscular son of Jabba the Hutt, voiced by Jeremy Allen White, fighting alongside

[00:59:06] Mando against creatures that look eerily similar to the ones Chewbacca played on the chessboard in the Millennium Falcon. The floor they fought on even looked like a chessboard. Felt forced. Felt forced. Hmm. That's a weird sentence. Yeah. I mean, if you're not, if you're not Star Wars. Yeah. But the muscular son of Jabba the Hutt is fighting alongside the Mandalorian for, what do you,

[00:59:33] this is, I guess this has always been my problem with Star Wars. The new kind of, it's all just retro vintage, you know, vibes. Let's make this guy Jabba the Hutt's son. Why? Why? If you make, if you invoke the name Jabba the Hutt, there comes, it's a different thing. You're bringing in a different emotion.

[01:00:03] You're bringing in a different set of circumstances. You're bringing in a specific set of memories from the Star Wars franchise. And if what is happening on the screen doesn't match those, those memories, it feels forced. And so like, just don't even, just make him a Hutt. You don't need to make him Jabba the Hutt's frigging son. It doesn't make any sense. There's no reason to do this. It's just no reason. Sorry. I see that. Like, not everything has to be connected.

[01:00:33] Not everything has to be connected. And the Mandalorian TV show was takes like, it's like five years after, after Return of the Jedi or something like that. So it's like relatively soon, but I don't know. Unless he's, unless the son of Jabba the Hutt is like, you know, talking about how it was messed up that his dad got blown, got blown to hell. Like, I don't know. The muscular son. Why is he muscular? Why is he just a big fat slob? Healer is a weird qualifier on that front. I know. I don't like it.

[01:01:02] Well, and I'm looking at pictures now and he is, he's got like a 24 pack or something. I hate it. It's very weird. I dislike it greatly. Anyway, right now on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score is sitting at a high 88% while the critics score is sitting at a 62%. And it's funny because it's dropped because of the article that I read about this came out a couple of days ago and they said it was a 63%. And so I decided to look it up and it was a 62.

[01:01:31] To me, this signals that the critics wanted something more complex, something new. While the fans are happy to settle into their local theater for a good, clean family action movie that has no real stakes and nothing to really play for. Just a couple of guys being dudes in space. A couple of guys being dudes. Which is fine. And one's a baby. Yeah. Which is, this is totally okay. Right. To like, to have that. And that's the other thing I've heard. It's a family action movie.

[01:02:01] There's nothing big going on. You're not saving the universe or whatever. With the original Star Wars, there was a lot to play for. You know what I mean? There's a lot of history that you kind of already are introduced to. And, you know, Luke's aunt and uncle got killed. And so like he needs revenge. There's a lot of stuff. Right. But this is just, I guess it's not that. Yeah. Now, at the risk of not sounding so cynical, it could very well be that Disney doesn't actually mind too much about the box office for this specific movie.

[01:02:30] The Mando and Baby Yoda merch still rake in a ton of cash. And it's a good reminder to folks who haven't maybe seen the Mandalorian TV show that that thing still exists. I'm not saying Disney doesn't like a profit. They love a profit. But I wonder if the expectations are as high with this. And Mando was chosen as the return to the big screen precisely because of its family appeal and not its box office draw.

[01:02:54] Spin the Star Wars movie going routines back up and prime the pumps for that new Ryan Gosling original Star Wars film coming out next year. Was it like Speed Starfighter? I think is what it's called. Speed Starfighter? Not Speed. Starfighter. That's why I paused. And the capital S. You don't know if you saw me say that. Speed 3. Yeah. Speed 3. I can't go faster than four times light speed. If I do, I'll blow up. Yeah. Apparently that's like a just a totally original movie.

[01:03:24] It's already done filming. I don't know why it's not coming out till next year, but that's what it is. Disney movies are much more of a long game these days, considering you have the movie tie-ins with the parks, loads of different merchandise to keep pumping out, and a cyclical business layout of taking money from the parks to fund content that pumps people back into the other parks, which you've seen on calls and stuff. So that's, I don't know.

[01:03:48] And there's some industry people talking around online going like, they might not really care too much. Because they're going to make money on the back end of merchandise sales and driving people to the parks and reminding people that this content exists. And so they expect the viewership numbers of the Mandalorian TV show to go up now because of this movie. People come back and they watch a thing.

[01:04:13] So Disney is kind of smart in that they do have that long game IP sort of thing where maybe direct numbers in butts in seats at the box office aren't necessarily their only driver like they would be for most movies. It's that other, maybe, you know what I mean? I don't know. But what this, what else we're going to talk about is the changes that a movie like this will be making to the parks. I mentioned there's IP in the park.

[01:04:42] So, you know, of course, Smugglers Run in Disneyland and I imagine Disney World as well. They are adding new scenes. You know, path to fly, the whole new game to play basically on the ship, right? Where Nando comes in, you're doing a thing or whatever, right? Yeah, why not? Yeah. But just like the original one, they had a secret mode called Chewbacca mode, which apparently was really hard to activate. This one is called Grogu mode. Okay. And you have to unlock it.

[01:05:12] So here's how you unlock it. First, you need to get all six members of your crew to agree to do the Grogu mode mission. Jeez. Yeah. Nobody in any of the pilot, gunner, or engineer positions can touch or press any buttons in the Millennium Falcon before activating Grogu mode. Okay. Nothing. Clean sleep. Okay. Step one. Everybody in the cockpit needs to fasten their seatbelts. Well, that's just what you do. So I don't know why they wrote that. Yeah.

[01:05:41] Step two involves the two gunner positions sitting in the middle seats. Underneath the video screens on each of the side panels next to the gunners are a row of four white square buttons. Each of the gunners needs to press the white square button closest to the back of the cockpit. I don't know why they didn't just say the one on the far right, but that's just... The fourth one. Just closest to the back. But by only a foot. Like, whatever.

[01:06:11] Step three. Each gunner needs to press the round gold activation button surrounded by a green box. If you've done it right, all the lights in the cockpit will turn green and you'll fly the mission in Grogu mode. You'll still get to hear the mission critical commands from the Mandalorian, but you get way more Grogu. Plus, Grogu will call in more to your mini screens.

[01:06:35] As an added bonus, the Cantina song by Figurin' Don and the Immodal Nodes plays during the Coruscant mission in Grogu mode. Well, I can't argue that that's... That's bad. No, that's fun stuff. First-timers who want to try Grogu mode but are uncertain of the steps can politely ask for assistance from the Disneyland cast member who should be happy to help. Oh, of course. Yeah. Which also, like, no. No.

[01:07:05] No, you don't get help doing it. The secret game mode. You... Dunderhead? That's what I say. Dunderhead. Yeah. So there you go. That's what's going on with the Mandalorian and Grogu. You know what I mean? It's, uh... Yeah. Okay. It's out. It's out. It's underperforming at the domestic box office. And I bet the guy who played Han Solo, whatever his name was, is probably going like, yeah, that's right. Eat it.

[01:07:35] This Mando did worse than my movie did, bro. Yeah. Yeah. But by all accounts, Mandalorian made its money back already. I think the budget was like 165 million or something like that. And I think the budget for Solo ended up being somewhere in the three millions or something because of all the rewrites and reshoots and terrible things, man. Messy. Yeah. That's it, man. What do you think of that? All right.

[01:08:02] Everyone's making fun of my comment in the chat. Which one? The one where I said, why not just say the one towards, you know, the one on the right. But then Ryan's like, well, technically, if you're sitting on the other side of the gunner seat, then it's the one on the left. So then, and then Mr. P's like, well, yeah, of course it made sense to me. I don't know. Dorks. All right. Go ahead, Taryn. What were you going to say? You have something. You have something. I have a thing to mention. All right. Mention it.

[01:08:27] So do you guys remember back in, I think, 2024, Steamboat Willie image of Mickey Mouse became public domain. Yeah. Well, a brewery in Colorado called Four Noses Brewing Company. That's such a good name. In Broomfield, Colorado. Yeah. They used that image on a can of their 8% hazy double IPA.

[01:08:55] I was going to say, you know, it's a frigging double. God damn. I'm so glad I'm not in that orbit anymore. Yes. Go ahead. And this beer is called public domain. And there's no story there beyond that. But I thought that that was kind of cool, actually, that they used it. Because it's funny because people on Reddit just like obviously don't listen to this show because they were like, oh, I bet Disney is really upset about using this. And it's like the thing's called public domain. Like put two and two together, idiots.

[01:09:26] But not everybody on Reddit is really smart. No. No. Four Noses is pretty great. Yeah? Yeah. Pretty quality. They do have high like things on like untapped and things like that. Gross. God. I hate. Don't ever say those words to me again. What? Untapped? Yeah. It's terrible. Untapped. I will mute you. Yeah. I mean, I think part of that goes back to there was that there was that string of, you know,

[01:09:52] new releases that small breweries would do just ripping IP off left and right, like mid-teens. Yeah. Yeah. Everywhere. And that's, then maybe that's people just don't necessarily know that Steamboat Willie's in public domain. So they just assume. Yeah. It could be. Um, yeah. So I mean, good for them, I guess, but like also. That's cool. I don't know, man. 8% double IPA. Okay. Sure. Whatever. Gross, dude. Yeah. There's this article. I want to read it on whenever we do the secret show, by the way, which we've got to plan soon.

[01:10:23] Um, where this guy is in the Atlantic and this guy's talking about how Miller Lite is like the perfect beer. And, uh, I don't know. I want to read it and get Eric's opinion on that too. Talk about it. Maybe we'll have some Miller Lite. I, I don't, I disagree with that, but like, I think Sierra Nevada pale ale is the perfect beer. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll read the thing and we'll listen to it. Interesting. Okay. Um, let's get out of here, everybody. We're done.

[01:10:52] We're done for the day, folks. All right. We did it. Even without Bev. Especially without Bev. You had to do it. You know what I mean? I had to get it done. Yeah. I tried to get Mr. Pina calling to talk about Tokyo Disney. I mean, he's like, we're not even there. We're in Seoul, South Korea. Actually, he just said Korea and I'm like, which one? But he said the name. So this is what it is. They don't have a Korean Disneyland yet. They should. I mean, I think Korea is Disneyland. That's what I've heard. Yeah. You know what I mean? All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.

[01:11:23] I do appreciate it. And, um, you know, I don't know. Go to patreon.com slash ears up. Support us, please. It keeps the light on and whatever I say every time that I screw up. Um, we have merchandise on ears up, uh, Etsy page, whatever. Go to our website. I don't know. I love you guys. I appreciate you guys listening. Um, next week we'll be recording the Buena Vista boys. So that's cool. Uh, check out all the other shows we have going on, on our website. Ears up hyphen podcast.com. Check in with the lads. See what's happening, man.

[01:11:52] See what the shows are up to. Uh, if you haven't, uh, they miss you and, uh, it's always fun stuff over there. So check it out. All right, everyone. Thanks a lot for tuning in. And until next time we'll see you in the parks.