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Earworms
- Vince – Bon Iver – Sable Fable – https://open.spotify.com/album/3L3UjpXtom6T0Plt1j6l1T?si=fQAzpsSlQGOQWFar7-uOuQ
- AJ Obsessed – Mariah Carey
Summary
In this engaging podcast episode, Vince and AJ Marotte explore a variety of themes including their favorite music, the impact of spring on their mood, and a deep dive into the popular series ‘The Last of Us’. They discuss the evolution of music preferences across generations, the significance of earworms, and the cultural relevance of artists like Boney Vare and Mariah Carey. The conversation also touches on the adaptation of video games into television series, highlighting the narrative depth of ‘The Last of Us’. In this conversation, AJ and Vince delve into the intricacies of character dynamics and storytelling in ‘The Last of Us’, focusing on the journey of Joel and Ellie, their development, and the emotional impact of loss. They also explore the transition into the second season, discussing the challenges of character engagement and the implications of immunity. The discussion shifts to anime, particularly ‘Attack on Titan’, highlighting its popularity and the cultural significance of anime as a medium. In this conversation, Vince and AJ delve into the intricacies of the anime ‘Attack on Titan,’ discussing its character development, emotional investment, and the challenges of navigating its complex world. They explore the unique animation style and aesthetic of anime, comparing it to live-action adaptations and other popular series. The discussion also touches on the thematic depth found in anime and kung fu movies, emphasizing the importance of storytelling and the cultural impact of these genres. Finally, they shift focus to the significance of national parks and conservation efforts, highlighting the need to protect these natural treasures.
Transcript
Vince Marotte (00:01)
X and Z on the first two episodes I said X and Y because it just out of habit because it’s What’s X and Z? Gen X dad Gen X dad Gen Z daughter talking Stuff we love music and art and stuff like that. So yeah, that’s the third one of these I think or I think we’re starting to figure it out get pretty good at it But yeah, what’s the spring is starting to happen?
AJ Marotte (00:07)
I didn’t even notice.
Shenzi!
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (00:28)
Might be 80 degrees out in the Pacific Northwest tomorrow. Everybody’s… Everybody got their pasty white legs out tomorrow on campus. It’s rough. rough. It’s rough. Now I’ve got some sun. I’m starting to get some weird tan. I already got like a helmet strap line that I get. Now I should get like a chin strap line for my bike helmet.
AJ Marotte (00:32)
Yeah, it was raining yesterday, so I got a little nervous for a second, but thank God the sun’s back
Mm-hmm
Erk.
Yeah,
the heart monitor strap or whatever, that one’s a crazy one.
Vince Marotte (00:57)
I got yeah heart strap like
Yeah, yeah, so I’ve got I’ll have weird tan lines in a couple months, but but yeah Awesome. Well, we got earworms. We’re gonna talk last of us and we’re gonna talk attack on Titan as you get me into anime and I’m just just starting to immerse in it and and And get going so I’m trying to figure that out. So Let’s talk earworms and I’ll go first
AJ Marotte (01:22)
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (01:28)
⁓ this one’s kind of a, an easy one for me because I’m a Bony Vare fan. ⁓ I’ve, I’ve loved Bony Vare. I’ve probably exposed you to plenty of, of Bony Vare. It’s always been, you know, since you were little been on around, around the house. ⁓ and even likes, even like some Bony Vare. Just, ⁓ I wasn’t that into Bony Vare when they first got rolling.
AJ Marotte (01:41)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I love bony fear.
Vince Marotte (01:54)
You know their their first album. What’s it as it for up for for Emma forever ago? I think was there is their first kind of big album and I wasn’t for whatever reason just the timing of it came out 2008 so I was probably really heavy I was close 2008 that fleet foxes self-titled album came out. I was getting into band of horses. So they were adjacent I was aware of it and the main single off that was ⁓ skinny love
AJ Marotte (02:00)
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (02:23)
You know, so I got heard some but I never really got into the album. I never really listened to it And then they released a self-titled in 2011 and again, I hadn’t really heard any of it because at that point by 2011 you’re just not listening to radio anymore and You’re you’re trying to figure it out So it’s kind of like this dark moment in music for me because music discovery we had just moved over to streaming You know, but but you’re still kind of buying music and so you’re you’re the world’s a little narrow
AJ Marotte (02:29)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (02:53)
And I knew they were good. I knew I would like them. ⁓ and so I got, you know, you know, John, who’s my cohost on the, the, the main podcast, we’ve, his wife was always lucky. So Austin city limits, which you’re familiar with the festival was it’s it’s main thing or what it’s always been was a TV show on PBS where it was, and it’s how I, my introduction as a child to live music on TV.
or what I thought was live music. Austin City Limits was a show on PBS shot in Austin and then syndicated across all the PBSs across the country, you know, whenever they would air it. And it would be a band playing live and they had a backdrop of the skyline of the city of Austin and that sort of thing. And they even had like bushes and trees behind the audience and up in the cameras to kind of literally like when I was a kid, I thought it was outside.
AJ Marotte (03:30)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (03:48)
Like
because they’d shoot shots like through the trees and just kind of zoom in as a song we’d get rolling And I got to go in that studio with some musicians doing work and we actually filmed some stuff in the old the old set For austin city limits, which was pretty cool. But anyway, what a lot of people know is you can’t buy tickets to that That show there’s only ⁓ in the old one. There was a few hundred people could go It was pretty small the newer venue that they have that you know now the moody theater It seats maybe maybe a couple thousand
AJ Marotte (04:00)
Really?
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (04:16)
But for the most part, you can’t buy the tickets. This is a nonprofit thing. You have to win them in a lottery. You sign up to go to the show. ⁓ Sponsors have like some luxury boxes, know, because they pay a lot of money to sponsor PBS. They get a luxury box. Everyone else, you’re interested in a lottery. And we got a bunch of killer shows. One of them was Boney Bear. And I’d never, you know, never seen them live. And even then I didn’t just…
AJ Marotte (04:17)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (04:40)
It was just a busy period of life. I didn’t even listen to a bunch of Boney Bear before we went there I kind of was going in cold having really just heard skinny love and The opening tracks of the self-titled album for 2011 all kind of go together almost like a medley on the album Like one ends and other ones begins, but it’s kind of seamless and they played that in its entirety the first three and I remember like about halfway through the second song I was like I’m in like this is my one of my new favorite bands like they were killing it
AJ Marotte (04:48)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (05:09)
It was so good and so intricate and so dynamic. just loved, loved, loved Bodie Faire. So ever since been, following, following, or, know, just all their stuff and what they’ve been doing. I think you got a lot of the 2016 album, 22 A Million. I think we were driving to and from Dallas a lot. Yeah. Great album. Uh, and they have a new one that just came out, you know, last month or earlier this month. We got some singles early in the year. It’s called Sable Fable. And I’ve just been spinning. It’s been what I’ve been putting on in the morning.
AJ Marotte (05:09)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
that I love that album. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (05:39)
⁓ And it’s it is a lot more like the like the first couple albums or even the first album a lot more just simpler songs a lot less of the kind of the electronic and manipulations and sounds which I love in 22 a million So that’s my earworm right now. I’ve been really spinning sable fable It’s just a cool evolution of the sound of bonivere And it’s that’s that’s my go-to right now. Are you get any bonivere on the rotation for you lately?
AJ Marotte (05:45)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Not recently, but I do love Bony. It does pay me that people my age only know Bony Ver from Twilight. I think there’s one song in there. I think it’s in the top five because it’s Rosalyn, I’m pretty sure. And so no, only people know that song and they don’t know how to pronounce Bony Ver. It’s always Bon Iver and it hurts every time. But they have no way of knowing, so I get it. But it hurts.
Vince Marotte (06:17)
Okay.
Okay.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha
So they had a big they got a soundtrack. Yeah, their stuff that kind of music doesn’t lend itself to tick-tock discovery You know, it’s a lot a lot of like the there’s not a nugget in the song. That’s cool There’s not like a big hook. It’s it’s a whole experience That’s funny. I didn’t realize they had it was a Twilight Connection there. That’s that’s cool. No, I always tell I always tell people I’m proud my kids, you know through stranger things there was a couple like
AJ Marotte (06:41)
No.
Yeah. Yeah.
Great song.
Vince Marotte (07:02)
Resurgent, you know songs from the 80s. They’ve got a like they pinged in the charts again I’m like, my kids already my kids already do master the master of puppets. My kids already knew space age love song You know, they’re part of our rotation. So awesome. Yeah, and I’m digging digging sable fable. So that’ll probably be ⁓ On the road. We’ll road trip next week and that’ll be that’ll be spinning. So What’s the ear one? What are you rocking lately?
AJ Marotte (07:13)
Yup.
yeah, I need to check it out.
yeah, yeah, Perfect. Okay.
My music right now, I haven’t been listening to a lot because it’s really just we’re in the grind and the school grind right now, but the weather’s been nice. So I’ve been walking everywhere. There’s been like weeks where I don’t touch my car for like two or three days, which has been awesome. I love that I can walk to everything where I live right now. ⁓ The flowers are blooming. It feels great outside and I’m just feeling good walking. I wear these literally everywhere I go and I just, I just stunt. And so my song right now is Obsessed.
Vince Marotte (07:35)
Yeah.
Thanks.
AJ Marotte (07:58)
Bye Mariah Carey. A little throwback, but it just makes me feel like the most powerful person on campus when I’m walking around the glass. And it’s so awesome.
Vince Marotte (08:00)
Nice.
Not that old 2009 album memoirs of an imperfect angel.
AJ Marotte (08:13)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (08:22)
Yeah, it’s a banger. Yeah, that sounds like walking in the springtime, that song.
AJ Marotte (08:27)
I just thought,
why are you so obsessed with me? Like, just makes you feel good. It just makes me feel like I could walk another two miles just just for fun while I listen to that song on repeat. But.
Vince Marotte (08:33)
Hahaha ⁓
What’s
the full take on Mariah Carey? Where does Mariah Carey fit in with your generation? to me, she’s a bit of an enigma because the bubble I’m in, I never understood it. But where does she fit in? What’s the kind of the take of Gen Z on Mariah Carey?
AJ Marotte (08:54)
Yeah.
I will say a lot of the songs I know are from TikTok and have been TikTok trends. So like I’ve heard obsessed on TikTok all the time. There was a pretty, I think it’s on the same album. Now I have to find out. ⁓ It’s a rap. That was a really popular one for a while because it was a TikTok dance.
Vince Marotte (09:08)
Mm-hmm.
AJ Marotte (09:27)
And so I remember hearing that over and over and over, but I literally could not tell you another song on this album. I only know those two and it’s because of TikTok.
Vince Marotte (09:36)
she does have a history of singles, which at least from my perspective, that’s what it is. And I’ve always had this question of, I know she is one of the biggest selling musicians of all time at this point. And.
AJ Marotte (09:40)
Yeah.
Yeah. Isn’t it just
because of Christmas?
Vince Marotte (09:58)
I think that’s probably a big part of it. don’t know what her, you know, let’s go to her artist page on, on Spotify and see her most popular, obsessed, we belong together. That’s our biggest spin at, at so, and it’s nothing at a billion at least on there, which I’m surprised now looking at that where you’re a lot of the legacy artists always have a one or two songs that have hit a billion. She’s close with we belong together. She’s got another 200,000 to go.
AJ Marotte (10:09)
Okay, I do know that song.
Yeah.
Well, it makes sense that all I want for Christmas is you isn’t up there right now. Or would that just stay up there if it was?
Vince Marotte (10:32)
Right? I
wonder if that is.
AJ Marotte (10:38)
Cause that’s the one I can’t, I’ve never listened to another Christmas song by her. That’s the only one you listen to.
Vince Marotte (10:46)
Right? Let’s see. Yeah, that one’s at two billion. So it doesn’t show up on our artist page. Yeah, that’s a big hit. I know they can kind of tweak those, what shows in there, so their new stuff shows it. Yeah, she’s getting paid. Yeah, she’s getting paid.
AJ Marotte (10:48)
I didn’t…
There we go.
She’s set for life. That thing comes around every year. I love the
like on Twitter, it’ll say like, it’ll have her like frozen in ice in November and like she’s defrosting and it’s like the song’s coming back again. Like she’s good.
Vince Marotte (11:08)
Ha ha ha ha.
That’s
that that’s what it takes. You know, I hear like Sting, you know, because every breath you take for the longest time was one of the most played songs ever on radio. And then it was then Puffy made a song with it without without getting proper permission. So Sting gets paid on that, too. And to the point of I think he was getting, you know, last I heard two thousand dollars a day for life, pretty much on royalties on one of the most played songs ever back in the radio days.
But Mariah Carey was always funny to me because you used to have to buy your music. So if you were you really liked something, you had to buy it. You know, first tapes for us in the 80s and then CDs in the 90s. You had to buy it. And I knew in the 90s, so she dropped her her first album in 1990 was The Queen in the 90s was huge in the 90s. She had a single every once. You know, she’d have something on the charts all the time and you’d hear it on the radio.
AJ Marotte (11:46)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (12:10)
But in my bubble, yeah, I never knew anybody that was buying the music that had the CDs. So I was like, who’s, you know, who’s buying the Mariah Carey that she’s doing so well? Like, I’m not mad at it. It’s great music, but it was always like, I live in a bubble, ⁓ clearly, of people who like alternative, obviously alternative and hip hop, but even like with the hip hop and R &B and reggae I listened to, I figured there’d be some overlap.
AJ Marotte (12:16)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (12:40)
⁓ but just, was always funny to me like, okay, who’s buying the Mariah Carey? Cause I’m not, you know, when I flipped through people’s CD books at their house, it’s never there and she’s the biggest selling album album for, you know, a year sometimes. So anyway, yeah. Remarkable voice. actually, she actually came up on a, on the podcast earlier this morning. We’re recording the other episode. Yeah. Because I was talking about one of my favorite vocal inflections for
AJ Marotte (12:40)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that is fascinating.
Really?
Vince Marotte (13:08)
for artists is when they can, trying to think of a good example, when they can push their voice to the point of where it kind of cracks a little bit. So I think of Rolling Stone’s Gimme Shelter with the kind of the gospel singers in the background where she’s singing, know, rape, murder, it’s just a shadow way. And her voice kind of just cracks a little. you can tell, it adds this layer of it, what it’s just really, it makes it more dramatic because it’s like she’s.
AJ Marotte (13:23)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (13:38)
The vocalist is pushing to that point of cracking ⁓ Where mariah cares on the other end of the spectrum where she can she can create she can sing in this register that doesn’t even seem human and not crack which was Yeah, yeah Just so high and not crack which is also impressive. So it’s kind of the other side of the spectrum. So I love like
AJ Marotte (13:41)
Mm-hmm.
She can hit whistle notes. I think that’s the most impressive thing ever from people. That’s so crazy.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (14:04)
You know, like Greg Graffin, he’s a punk rock singer. His voice is just always on the verge of cracking. Like he’s just singing too hard. And I love it, you know, when rock singers do that. So, so different, but, yeah, Mariah Carey, I’m not mad. That sounds like spring. That’s a great, that’s a great banger. I put a, I put, I put the Decemberists June hymn on my, on my Instagram when I took a picture, a bunch of dandelions the other day. Cause that’s, that song is literally about spring.
AJ Marotte (14:07)
Mm.
Yeah.
If you’re going on a walk, it just makes you feel good.
Mm.
Vince Marotte (14:34)
and flowers growing and stuff like that.
AJ Marotte (14:34)
So great. Yeah, my whole
camera roll right now is just flowers on campus. There’s the building that I have. I have class in the women’s building. It’s very historical. But outside there’s just these giant bushes of pink flowers everywhere and they smell like perfume. ⁓ it’s a, and it’s my favorite part of my day is walking through them. Cause I just like look up, I like, it’s so awesome.
Vince Marotte (14:39)
Yeah
Yeah.
You
Flowers are good right now in in Oregon. I got stung by a bee last week
AJ Marotte (15:03)
There’s so much. It’s great. ⁓
Vince Marotte (15:09)
I’m
not I think I get as I get older something’s going on my immune system. I don’t fight the bee I don’t it it lasts longer than it used to like he’s just you know be staying might be be like a pimple maybe a little bump for a day, but like I had swelling ⁓ you know got me the shoulder aside swelling down my arm down my chest. had a man boob for a day I Had a full-on man boob it was weird Yeah, I could feel it jiggle when I like went down the stairs like it was that like
AJ Marotte (15:18)
Yeah ⁓
Did you actually? How does that happen?
She
was an angry bee.
Vince Marotte (15:39)
So I think I’ve, you know, I got to take a, you know, take an allergy medication, just a Benadryl after I get stung by a bee next time, because that was annoying, but he got me. okay, two things we’re talking about. Last of Us, Attack on Titan. I want to talk Last of Us.
AJ Marotte (15:55)
my gosh.
Vince Marotte (15:57)
Okay, so it’s based on a video game, right? Of the same name, The Last of Us. Have you played it? I know you play some video games. Okay, and it’s my understanding that it’s based on Halo, or it’s kind of like the prequel to Halo. And so, Halo was probably the first like story-driven video game that really broke beyond
AJ Marotte (16:01)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
I have not.
Okay.
Vince Marotte (16:25)
the core people that were playing like MMORPGs or those kinds of things. The first person shooter that reached the masses in the modern era and then turned into online gaming where you, ⁓ so you know, a game like that, you’re playing through a story. So you’re this guy, you’re the master chief and you’re trying to accomplish a mission. And then as you finish things, you watch little mini movies. So the video game is like a movie, right? There’s a story to it.
AJ Marotte (16:35)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (16:52)
And the first time you play it, it’s helpful to watch all that stuff and it becomes a thing that’s very immersive. And that was Halo. ⁓ And then there’s a component in it somewhere. can’t remember. I think it’s in Halo 1 where there’s a thing you’re fighting called the Flood. Have you played Halo and you know the Flood?
AJ Marotte (17:12)
I only played in your office when I was too young to understand what was happening. So I don’t remember.
Vince Marotte (17:15)
Yeah, yeah, so you’re you’re like so you’re
a master chief and the story is we’ve had to leave earth Right and create a planet. So like you’ve seen interstellar Where the planet they created is this big it’s a big ring To I don’t know if it actually works in science or whatever but in movies they tell us it works where it’s it’s a ring and it It rotates to create gravity and the humans live on the inside of the ring so they can have a graph, you know a normal situation
AJ Marotte (17:23)
Yeah. Uh-huh.
Mm.
Vince Marotte (17:44)
And so Halo, that’s why it’s called Halo. It’s a circle. The Halo is where all the people left Earth to go live because Earth became uninhabitable, presumably because of the fungus, the last of us. So this is well before, yeah, so think this is in the 90s is when it’s set. So they don’t yet have the technology to leave Earth, right? So they’re there fighting it. So that’s the thing. And in Halo, the video game, which in the timeline,
AJ Marotte (17:54)
Mm-hmm.
cortisept.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (18:12)
will take place after the Last of Us video game, or maybe even during it. Many people are still on Earth trying to make Earth work while we’re living up on the halo too. That fungus gets into space. So at first you’re fighting these aliens who’ve now that we’re out there living on the halo, they don’t like us, they want to fight us or whatever the covenant they’re called. And then you then a fungus has infected things. So you’re fighting basically the fungus zombies and that sometimes people, sometimes aliens that have turned into the flood they’ve called it.
AJ Marotte (18:20)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (18:41)
So I was aware of it. So I knew there was gonna be a fungal thing. And so the last of us just to set the stage for the people who haven’t watched it, we’re in second season. Last year was season one. Pedro Pascal is the lead. And it starts with that where there’s an infection they don’t understand. And at the first episode, I think is really powerful where ⁓ they have this infection somewhere like in the Philippines or Indonesia, like in an island in a containable space and someone has it.
AJ Marotte (18:44)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (19:09)
And they show it to someone who knows, okay, can figure out what it is and sees that it’s a fungus. And fungus is very hard to fight. It’s not like a virus, right? And the lady, after looking in the microscope, has a look of panic and then looks up at the people and just says, bomb.
AJ Marotte (19:18)
Yeah.
Yeah, we should blow everything up.
Vince Marotte (19:29)
She
said, you just need to nuke this island. I’m sorry. That’s the only way, but apparently people got out before they could do that anyway. So it’s that bad. So it’s a cool setting. It’s cool setup, right? And then we go to America and kind of what happens there just to give us the next set. So give us the characters.
AJ Marotte (19:38)
Yeah.
I gotta think back. Yeah, well, Joel is at home and he’s a single dad with his daughter. That’s what we get. I don’t even know how it all starts. Like, yeah.
Vince Marotte (19:49)
Joel and Ellie. So Joel, we start with Joel.
Right.
Well, they got to run. They got to make a run for it somewhere
because it’s happening and there’s there’s kind of two things you’re fighting people who are freaking out and hurting each other because, you know, it just becomes becomes everybody’s the enemy in a situation like that because you could be infected, which we felt during covid, you know, for a minute there, everybody was a bad guy. Well, you might have covid, you know, and you don’t know. And so everybody’s panicking and he his his daughter ends up getting killed in front of him. You know, he’s trying to trying to.
AJ Marotte (20:10)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
panicking. ⁓
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (20:31)
trying to get out of there. And so he gets and goes on his own and gets, you know, I think we fast forward a little bit and he’s kind of made his way as someone who knows how to survive in this world at some point. there’s, there’s
AJ Marotte (20:36)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Is he ex-military
or is just his brother?
Vince Marotte (20:43)
His brother, I think it’s it may be a little bit, but they’re both very
AJ Marotte (20:45)
I think it was just his brother. He always
seems like he knows what he’s doing and he’s very resourceful. Immediately. Yeah. So you’re like…
Vince Marotte (20:51)
He’s a skilled operator. Yeah, he’s a skilled operator.
And that’s important. I want to pin that, that he’s a skilled operator and I enjoy watching skilled operators. I love it when a protagonist is good at what they do. I don’t mind them trying to figure things out, but I hate when their protagonist is kind of bubbling through and just like, oh, figure it out. And like, that’s kind of why I didn’t care much for Hunger Games.
AJ Marotte (21:08)
Yeah.
Mm.
Vince Marotte (21:19)
It was she was kind of flirted between that she was capable of subspaces, but also trying to also kind of bumbling through and that just always drives me nuts It’s It’s it’s on the yeah, it’s on the fringe. It’s on the fringe. I’m not saying she’s a total bumbling protagonist, but
AJ Marotte (21:25)
It’s so good. It’s so good. I can’t take Hunger Games hate. I can’t.
Different Different
you know everyone’s putting all the pressure on her. She’s she’s the face of the revolution. That’s I I’d bumble a bit too She just she just wanted to shoot arrows, and they’re like Katniss do all this too, and she’s like ⁓ gosh
Vince Marotte (21:39)
Yeah.
Maybe, I’ll give you that.
I’ll give her I’ll give her that but he’s skilled operator and so fast forward and he meets with you know, some people that have organized some kind of You know, they have they have some structure like they are ex-military, right? Are they is this the Fireflies the lady or just yeah So it’s these people who are ex-military or some they’re more organized almost like a militia But we were under the impression they’re good people and they’re trying to protect the people and create safe spaces within the areas they control
AJ Marotte (21:50)
Yeah.
I think so.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (22:18)
And Joel gets tasked with taking this girl he’s never met from wherever they are on the East Coast to I believe Colorado Springs, Colorado and traveling is treacherous when you leave these safe areas right, so so that’s Ellie we meet Ellie and You know, she’s kind of rebellious early teen kind of vibe you’re picking up Maybe she’s 13 or 14 years old when we meet her and so that’s the jerk. That’s the challenge get her
AJ Marotte (22:40)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (22:44)
to this place and as they go along the way, we learn more about them. They get adventures. We do little side stories, you know, that are incredible. The first season was was awesome. You know, it was awesome. Yeah, you know, episode three of season three of of season one was just just you weren’t ready for the emotional impact of it was just beautiful. Right. And so it was so good. So good. And I don’t watch zombies.
AJ Marotte (22:54)
It was insane.
It’s making me sad thinking about some of it.
It was amazing.
Vince Marotte (23:13)
I don’t watch zombie movies. didn’t watch. I didn’t watch the what’s the zombie show?
AJ Marotte (23:14)
Yeah, I don’t like it.
The Walking Dead?
Vince Marotte (23:22)
walking down, I watch them because it’s like, eventually they always devolve into what is basically a car chase where we’re just running from zombies. know, like the first season was not run, you know, they’re not zombies. They’re, they’re people that and whatever they’ve been affected by this thing. Basically a zombie. They’re not running from it. They didn’t spend too much time on just act action sequences of people. You know, there’s a little bit, but it wasn’t so much that I was like, I’m disinterested. Um,
AJ Marotte (23:31)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (23:51)
So was good, good setup. So ⁓ fast forward, season two starts. Set the scene. We’re two episodes, well three, I haven’t watched third one yet.
AJ Marotte (23:52)
Yeah.
old.
Yeah, I won’t watch it either.
Vince Marotte (24:04)
or a few years farther.
AJ Marotte (24:06)
Yeah, I’ve not liked that everything in the show is very accurate to the game. so I hate that, like starting the second season, I had no idea what was happening. And then there are people out there that are like, no, exactly what’s going to happen. So like when they pop up, we’re like. Years, years fast forward like.
Vince Marotte (24:28)
I it’s like,
I think they said it was like three to five years or something like that.
AJ Marotte (24:32)
Yeah, like,
long. Joel’s got gray hair. He’s old. ⁓ His brother’s kids are older, so you’re kind of trying to figure out what what’s going on. And Joel and Ellie are just not on good terms. Ellie avoids him, you know, typical teenager stuff doesn’t want to hang out with with dad. And ⁓ so Joel’s going through that. Yeah, like she wants to she wants to go out and kill the.
Vince Marotte (24:55)
You won’t let me be what I want to you know?
AJ Marotte (25:01)
the clickers and he’s like, no, we got to stay in here and be safe. Like just do what you’re supposed to do.
Vince Marotte (25:04)
Yeah,
but he’s like the mate. He’s the mayor So they’ve they’ve put them in jackson hole wyoming and they’ve made a safe compound there and they have organ Yeah, they have they have order organization. Yeah, so he’s the mayor of that And she’s you know in the in their kind of their security force and wants to be you know and so that first episode you get the sense that she is Really what I came away with the first episode is she is
AJ Marotte (25:08)
Yeah, he’s a big dog.
Yeah, they got a nice place. They got electricity. They got everything. A government. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (25:34)
wants to be really aggressive, is super motivated, but makes a lot of dumb decisions that are dangerous. Right?
AJ Marotte (25:37)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. And like,
and it’s because like she’s immune, but nobody knows that and nobody’s allowed to know that. So she’s out here wanting to go kill stuff. But it’s like, you got to stick to the rules of the of the compound. Like we’re only supposed to patrol and just look for danger and then go home if there is not go at it. And that’s what she wants to do. Yeah.
Vince Marotte (25:46)
Yeah. Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s a that’s an important point. Yeah, she’s immune
to the fungus, which is why in the end we find out why Joel was transporting her in season one to I believe Colorado Springs because there was some scientists there who Come to find out wanted to harvest her brain and organs to figure out how to create some way to to Make everyone immune or you know create a vaccine or something like that ⁓ and they you know
AJ Marotte (26:24)
Yeah, something, yeah.
That did not end
good.
Vince Marotte (26:29)
True or not, had to, it required her to die to do that and Joel wasn’t having it. So, you know, then we fast forward, they get through that and they survive and they end up in Jackson Hole. And so she’s out in the first episode, does just some dumb shit. And you’re originally like, so here’s where I am and why I want to this conversation into the second episode is, I’m like, I’m annoyed by her. I was always kind of annoyed by her because she’s just an annoying kid.
AJ Marotte (26:33)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. ⁓
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (27:00)
Right?
And I think that’s okay. I’ve seen movies where there’s annoying kids and that’s kind of part of it. But she’s stupid and annoying and you know, has a big head about how capable she thinks she is. It’s just annoying. For someone who likes a protagonist who’s a skilled operator, she was just freaking annoying. And so that’s why I came with it. I’m like, you know.
AJ Marotte (27:05)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (27:28)
Is she gonna die or is she gonna am I first thought you know, because I don’t know the video game story She’s gonna lose her immunity somehow. I don’t know something stupid’s gonna happen. She’s gonna compromise the whole whatever so you knew something was gonna happen and then we get into season two and I’m gonna spoil it. So everyone listening can or episode two Everyone can can pause this and whatever and go watch get up through through episode two anyway Joel gets killed
AJ Marotte (27:35)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
He gets, he gets merked, gets obliterated. ⁓
Vince Marotte (28:03)
Right
By someone by the daughter of the doctor he killed to to rescue ellie and this woman is really annoying too ⁓ and And she she wants to torture she wants to torture joel, you know to kill him and that scene is it felt forced To me didn’t feel like I thought that was it was pretty weak
AJ Marotte (28:11)
who was gonna do the operation.
I can’t.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (28:32)
Like just for a production value, I did actor. didn’t, I didn’t believe it just didn’t. It felt forced. ⁓ and when, you know, Joel’s in the background and she’s over there and he just yells at her and she’s just monologuing. He just says, says, shut the fuck up and kill me. Like, please. I was thinking the same exact thing. I’m like, shut up lady. Just kill him.
AJ Marotte (28:32)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just do it. Just do it.
⁓ yeah. ⁓
Vince Marotte (29:01)
And you know you and I think looking back on episode one I think that’s why they kind of made Ellie out to be kind of stupid. She’s motivated She’s okay with some of her skills. She could you should do to handle her gun and do all those things But tactically and strategically she was just kind of stupid putting herself in different situations So, you know your hope was in the middle of the torture. She would be able to rescue him but she Ended up not because again, she just does something totally stupid
AJ Marotte (29:20)
Yeah.
She just walked in
there, started shooting, and then immediately got taken down. There was nothing was happening. ⁓
Vince Marotte (29:31)
This
Yeah. yeah. So she, she
over, overplayed her hand, thought she had more game and, and skill than she did. But I, I, correct me if I’m wrong, but we leave that episode without them knowing she’s the one. Right.
AJ Marotte (29:52)
Yeah, they don’t know that.
Vince Marotte (29:55)
So here’s where I am.
AJ Marotte (29:56)
Cause they just leave her there. Yeah, they just all leave.
Vince Marotte (29:59)
Yeah,
yeah, so they didn’t realize that was ellie the immune child because I would imagine if they knew that they would have taken her with them and
AJ Marotte (30:03)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, but like they’re
the only fireflies left, correct? That’s what we everyone’s got. Yeah. OK.
Vince Marotte (30:10)
As far as they know, as far as we know, yeah.
They did hint that, don’t go to Seattle. So I assume we’re gonna end up in Seattle at some point. ⁓ Anyway, but I left the episode going, and Mom too, it’s like, I’m not interested in watching this show anymore. Because I watch this because Joel is the protagonist I like, he’s the lead, and now he’s dead.
AJ Marotte (30:17)
Yeah. Yeah, probably.
Yeah. ⁓
Vince Marotte (30:38)
Do I even want to watch this anymore?
AJ Marotte (30:40)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (30:41)
Because I don’t know if I can watch Ellie bumble her way across the country.
because she’s annoying and stupid and has very little endearing qualities and is not a skilled operator. Why am I watching her?
Am I a horrible person?
AJ Marotte (31:00)
Yeah
I know. I feel like I see so much of their characters together outside of this and I really like the actress that plays her. So I feel like I’m like, yeah, I’m watching her and not Ellie. And not Joel. Yeah, I don’t either. I just see them in interviews and I think they’re so cool. So I’m like, ⁓ I like her. But I’m like, wait, no, she’s Ellie and not.
Vince Marotte (31:14)
Right.
Not Joel. you’re watching the actress, not Ellie. OK, yeah. See, I don’t know her from anything else.
AJ Marotte (31:34)
What is her actual name? I can’t think of her name, but…
Vince Marotte (31:37)
Yeah, she’s just not my type of protagonist and You know, I I guess I gotta give it I gotta give it more Or chance for right now. It’s like I don’t know if I want it so we didn’t we’re behind we didn’t watch see we sat down to watch them both and after that one we both were like No, I’m good. Let’s go back to watching the Wu Tang. And so we went back and watched American Saga. We were finishing up that series and it was
AJ Marotte (31:41)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (32:07)
Yeah, so that’s where I am right now. I don’t know if it’s it’s bella ramsey is the actress I don’t know if I want to watch anymore because I loved watching joel and But I guess that’s the video game That’s the point of the video game is Everybody dies. This is about the last of us there. It eventually there will be nobody left on earth. There’s not a redemption here
AJ Marotte (32:11)
gone i can’t
Yeah. Yeah.
I want to know what happens with like the immunity and stuff. Like, is that going to help anybody or she’s just going to like get to be the only one? Like, I got to know because now the only people that know is her uncle or whoever his name is. Like they’re the only people left that know. Yeah.
Vince Marotte (32:41)
Right?
Yeah, Joel’s brother,
And he’s, don’t trust him. He’s kind of a wild card, but we didn’t quite, we weren’t sure about him in season one. I think it was kind of like, might bail on you, he might leave you hanging. So we’ll see. But yeah, it’s gonna, I’m gonna have to, I might not be able to watch it for a few weeks. I might just have to get over that.
AJ Marotte (32:56)
Really?
Yeah.
⁓
Vince Marotte (33:18)
You know and try again maybe after the playoffs are over because right now it’s all basketball playoffs all the time at our house So especially with the Warriors playing at 430 doing I get on and get on it early But yeah, don’t about last of us. I’m a little little worried But I get it. I get it. So attack on Titan
AJ Marotte (33:18)
I was not ready for that.
Vince Marotte (33:39)
I have started you first you you came over you came up to our house and we watched a couple episodes together I’ve since watched a couple more ⁓ I’m trying to get into the anime. So earlier in the year steel had turned me on to ⁓ A demon slayer because that was available on the streaming. So now that that I’m in now I’m in the crunchy roll Which is the name of the streaming service for anime run by sony
AJ Marotte (33:47)
Let’s go.
Vince Marotte (34:09)
⁓ So, tell an old guy what anime is. ⁓
How would you describe it? Yeah, what’s the… What is it kind of at an overarching theme? What’s different about it between, know, because we see it at a distance, not knowing it, it looks like a cartoon. You know, what’s the… What’s the, you know, original… Where does this come from?
AJ Marotte (34:19)
what it is.
Yeah.
Hmm. Guys.
Well, I don’t even know where to start. It took me so long to get into it. I was one of the haters. I was very judgmental. I was just like, it’s a weird cartoon where there’s like
Vince Marotte (34:54)
So specifically
the attack on Titan.
AJ Marotte (34:58)
Just all of them. do remember starting Attack on Titan by myself once and watching the first episode. I wasn’t expecting it to be that gory. didn’t. I was like, this is a cartoon. Why is there? Why are they ripping people’s heads off and stuff? Like what’s going on? So I was like, OK, never mind. won’t do that. But then. It’s one of the highest rated TV shows of all time, like TV shows, period on IMDb. It’s like. Top 25.
Vince Marotte (35:11)
Ha
Right.
AJ Marotte (35:26)
I think 22 maybe something up there. So I’m like, how can it be that popular? like everybody I know doesn’t watch anime or doesn’t like anime. So like, what am I missing? Like who are the people that are out there watching this? Like why is it such a big deal?
Vince Marotte (35:45)
Right? Well, Avatar is on. Well, first, since you mentioned it, just for context. ⁓ highest rated TV shows per IMDB user ratings. Number seven in the top 10 is Avatar, the last Airbender. I believe that’s an anime, right? So, that’s a little higher. I’m trying to make sure I don’t see any other ones. Number seven. Let’s see.
AJ Marotte (35:49)
Yeah, let’s see.
Mm-hmm.
Yes. ⁓
That’s number seven, really? It deserves that.
Vince Marotte (36:11)
Bluey is on there, which is a cartoon I’ve heard of and not seen Rick and Morty top 20 Attack on Titan at number 21 So so for all the so all the gen Xers and people that are familiar with other shows that’s ahead of Better Call Saul the office it’s ahead of See if I get into some of that see if there’s some Seinfeld. It’s a it’s ahead of See some other ones on there. A lot of these are a lot newer. I’m trying to think of stuff that
AJ Marotte (36:15)
I love Bluey.
21, okay, I was close.
Vince Marotte (36:39)
People my age would definitely be familiar with. Yeah, it’s ahead of a couple, you know, legendary ones on there. ⁓ So yeah, it is up there. So you got two animes and one of top 10, one at 21. Attack on Titan. So yeah, Avatar.
AJ Marotte (36:44)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I didn’t realize Avatar was seven.
Avatar,
The Last Airbender, I that’s like a Nickelodeon show. Like that’s what people like kids my age like watched growing up. And so I never considered it as an anime, but I guess I think technically, yes, but that’s like even people who don’t like anime have like watched that. But I think that was kind of my entry, because I was like, if I like this, like I got to I got to try these other shows, especially.
Vince Marotte (37:03)
huh.
Is it considered anime?
Right.
AJ Marotte (37:22)
being as popular as some of these other shows are, was like, I should, should be able to get.
Vince Marotte (37:26)
the creator
of Avatar the Last Airbender, no relation to the movies out of Avatar as far as I can tell. Michael Dante DiMartino, that’s a very Italian sounding name, and Brian Kononicko. So it doesn’t have, it doesn’t sound like it’s got deep roots in Japan. At least the creators of it don’t seem to be native Japanese folks.
AJ Marotte (37:40)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (37:52)
Interesting and then when I go over to attack on Titan just to set some stone. So again here kind of created by Again, jesse james grell and trina nishimura He has a there’s japanese sound. I don’t know the etymology of her name. It sounds like it’s japanese Although she looks like she might be hoppa for us from hawaii. That means she’s Yeah
AJ Marotte (38:07)
Yeah. ⁓
Most of it, most
animes are based off mangas. So I think that’s like, so there is an Attack on Titan manga. Manga is like a Japanese comic book, essentially. And you read it, you read it backwards from how we read it. I have the Attack on Titan manga in my room. But that’s so most, I think all, I don’t know if that’s like a requirement, but like a real anime comes from manga.
Vince Marotte (38:16)
Okay. What’s a manga?
Okay.
The source
material was a comic book first. ⁓
AJ Marotte (38:42)
Yeah, so I don’t know if Avatar the Last Airbender has one, but Avatar the Last Airbender is one of the greatest shows ever. It deserves to be at seven. There is a character in it. It’s one of my favorite character arcs ever. It’s similar to Jamie Tart and Ted Lasso. You hate him so much at the beginning to him being one of your favorite characters by the end. it’s like, it’s
Vince Marotte (38:48)
Gotcha. Yeah.
⁓
And that’s Attack on Titan or Avatar? Okay, so back to Attack on Titan. That’s my entry point into anime. And so I’ve started there, watched a few episodes. ⁓ Set the scene for what’s going on. What’s the premise here of ⁓ Attack on Titan?
AJ Marotte (39:08)
Avatar.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so we start our main characters, Eren Yeager, and it starts off, he’s just hanging out with his friends in their city and they live in the middle of these giant walls and their sole purpose is to protect them from the Titans that are outside the walls. They don’t know anything about life outside, just that these giant, humongous, man-eating creatures live beyond the walls and they were put up to protect them and they can’t leave.
And, you know, Aaron complains about living behind the walls and all this. Like, people hate it. But there are these there are these people called and blanking on their name already. What are they called? No, the Scout Regiment. my gosh. Yeah, they’re like their army. They’re they’re they literally just kill Titans. That’s it. And Aaron, like, wants to be one so bad. And I think it’s in the first episode.
Vince Marotte (40:07)
Titans?
Okay, yeah, yeah, they’re like the military. Yeah, the defenders
Right.
AJ Marotte (40:23)
Titans break through the wall. And like in Aaron city and they eat his mom. Yeah, like.
Vince Marotte (40:31)
And there’s like layers to it. It’s like a big city and there’s like there’s
the walls have names. And so they keep they broke through the first set of walls and.
AJ Marotte (40:37)
Yeah, it’s Rose,
Maria and Sina, I’m pretty sure. So like in the middle is like the government. I don’t know if he’s a king. It’s usually like the rich people are in there and then it gets bigger. There’s still big people in there and then outside walls are like your smaller villages type thing.
Vince Marotte (40:42)
Yeah, yeah, so you learn that they show you the map
Right.
And most of the people
in the, what’s their security force military thing called again? Yeah, the scout, most of them want to be inside police. That’s their, cause it’s pretty chilly, just hang out. And they kind of paint that picture. I picked that up that they’re kind of just lazy cause there isn’t much to do because the outside defenses. And then there’s the, Aaron wants to be one of the guys that actually goes out into the action.
AJ Marotte (41:05)
Scout, scouts.
military police.
Yeah, everything’s outside.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (41:29)
and because he wants to kill
Titans because he in camp him and some of the other, you know recruits Have actually seen them their families their village that where they live they live there And so the other recruits start to learn that and they kind of like, you know, well, you’ve seen them You just see what they can do you see you paint this picture. And so here’s where my mind is now so it’s different it know, just to kind of
AJ Marotte (41:40)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (41:55)
Help me through or others that might want to watch it for the first time and I haven’t really watched any anime But my generation had our anime was called Voltron Right, it was a similar thing where it was it was at japanese origins, I believe And it was very formulaic And the navigation was you what it was. Let’s see I can get back to the original Voltron defender of the universe
AJ Marotte (41:58)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm.
Vince Marotte (42:23)
Ran from 84 to 85. It had that vibe. I don’t know if it came from manga, but it kind of had that thing. Or it was episodic. It was just kind of fantasy action and was just kind of, I love Voltron anyway. So the one thing that was a struggle for me that was different than more modern TV shows is the world build and the premise.
Is thrown at you meet like you don’t even understand what’s going on Like the titans are attacking So I still you know, I think i’m six episodes in I still have a lot of questions Where did they come from? Are these aliens are these you know? So we don’t know what the the the the origin of a titan is or why when we built the cities and why we’re there So there’s no background there um in in some ways that’s good because you’re straight into the action because sometimes
AJ Marotte (42:54)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (43:19)
You know, like Game of Thrones, there’s so many people you need to get to know the cast and the world is so big. It can be hard to get into because it’s like there’s a lot of exposition. There’s a lot of world building. There’s a lot of learning characters where they just get straight into it. So it’s a little disorienting because I’m like, who’s that? What’s that? Yeah. And so I feel like I should know more.
AJ Marotte (43:30)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (43:46)
But I’m starting I’m trying to just be okay with it like hell figure out when I get along But at end of the day like even with Game of Thrones by the end of it, I still remember people’s names. I enjoyed the show But I would have to ask mom or Peely. Okay, what was that? What’s that person’s again? know because it was just so complex but yeah, how do I so that’s my first question, how do I How do I navigate all of that because it’s not being I’m not being helped out much by it yet
AJ Marotte (43:50)
Yeah.
Oof.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that is the hardest part, honestly, getting into new animes. I feel like they throw characters at you so fast, especially attack on time. There’s just so many people. And it is hard to kind of keep track, but I think you do. It starts to get better. Like if you just wait, like you said, just accept that there’s a lot going on and. Everything will be answered, that’s all I can say.
Vince Marotte (44:39)
So
we will know the origins of Titans.
AJ Marotte (44:42)
Everything. The main reason I got into the show is because obviously it’s one of the greatest shows. People are telling me there’s like six or seven different plot twists that actually like knock you off feet, jaw drop. Like you have to go rewatch the episode because it’s like what just happened. Like I don’t even understand what happened. And so that’s why I’m like, OK, I’m just going to be patient because something’s going to happen. Like I need to know what’s going to happen because what do you mean?
Vince Marotte (44:57)
wow.
AJ Marotte (45:10)
what’s the plot twist? Like that was my motivation for starting and finishing the show. So like, there’s so much I can’t tell you.
Vince Marotte (45:20)
Yeah, no, don’t tell me I don’t want it spoiled, but that’s my that’s my struggle right now is It’s hard to care Because you know they it happens so fast that you see where Aaron comes from get annihilated and that trauma but even within that you’re like ⁓ Like I don’t care, you know, like that’s I don’t care. It’s just like I’m not emotionally invested
AJ Marotte (45:23)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (45:48)
because I don’t know enough about you, your family that’s getting killed, you know, I don’t know enough about these, the Titans. So that’s my challenge right now, whereas I think of like a, there’s a concept in movies called fridging. Have you heard that? Okay. So it’s basically you just create something for you to emotionally care about, and then you just get rid of it. You put it in the refrigerator essentially. And it almost always happens to the wife or the woman or the love interest.
AJ Marotte (45:51)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Uh-uh.
Vince Marotte (46:17)
So you get a double fridge and John Wick So they double click into it you meet his his wife And they rapidly make you one, you know fall in love with them as a couple and her as a person And then they break your heart ⁓ And help you understand his pain and then just to make sure you get it the puppy comes into his life And and the puppy gets fridged as well and it’s simply just to create
AJ Marotte (46:17)
Okay.
and the puppy.
Vince Marotte (46:47)
quickly a motivation for our main character our protagonist that we are also Emotionally involved in we’re mad too that his wife is dead and that they killed his dog. We’re pissed too. So we’re in John Wick Let’s go fight, you know where with this one ⁓ It the other aspect is the bet the bad guy is like the Titan and my first thought is Well, they’re weird-looking. I mean, what’s their perspective on this?
AJ Marotte (46:50)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
They’re so weird looking.
Vince Marotte (47:17)
You know, did
AJ Marotte (47:17)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (47:17)
we did we invade their place? They’re trying to take it back. Are the aliens? Is it just a communication problem? You know, what’s their what’s their motive? Like I want to know like why why do they seemingly want to kill these people? Why can’t we get along? I don’t know, you know, so you’re and they’re also very robotic. So you’re you’re not there’s no emotion there. It’s almost like the you know, when they did the Star Wars kind of the prequels and they did the the attack of the clone thing, the Clone Wars.
AJ Marotte (47:20)
Mm.
I just to keep watching.
I just watched that in the theater, so it’s like fresh.
Vince Marotte (47:47)
You’re like,
well, this is boring. It’s just robots fighting robots. Like, is cool. Like, there’s no emotional investment. So I’m going to get past that because I trust you. I trust that it’s really good. But that’s my initial hang up is, what the hell is going on? And why do I care?
AJ Marotte (47:51)
Mm-hmm.
Nobody cares about the droids.
And I know you think like that, so was like, he’s gonna love this because you are so confused at the start and like piece by piece. It’s like, ⁓ okay. ⁓ I’m getting more. wait. Now everything’s complete opposite of what I thought. Like, man that wrote this is a genius. Like every little thing you find out, you’re like, well, how did they even think to put those here?
Vince Marotte (48:25)
Ha ha ha.
Don’t
spoil it. All right. So the other aspect is just the art of it. So there’s music, if you love metal, I mean, there’s music, like it is, everything’s like extra. You can tell it has comic or manga roots because it’s not a typical animation. There’s a lot of just kind of.
AJ Marotte (48:36)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
It’s so good.
Vince Marotte (48:54)
There’s even like still paintings. So some of your action kind of cuts between partial animation, partial still, you know, it’s a very, it’s even that is a little bit disorienting because you’re not used to it. And as I start to get used to it, I think it’ll make more sense. But I do appreciate the art of it. Like it seems like there’s more care going into the painting and drawing, you know, I believe this is probably hand animation. It’s not a like a Toy Story. And so that probably creates some challenges, but
AJ Marotte (48:56)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (49:23)
You have the old school plated backgrounds where the background is not animated so it looks like a really beautiful painting and then the action happens on top of it. So it’s like the cartoons I grew up with. That’s what they looked like. So that’s pretty cool. ⁓ But what’s kind of the energy of the story and purpose behind that? The aesthetic of an anime, particularly Attack on Titan, as far as you know.
AJ Marotte (49:30)
Mm-hmm.
Sure. They’re also different. The very first anime I watched was Demon Slayer and that’s a very new anime and like the anime, they’ve won, it’s won awards for its animation. Like it’s, it has the most insane animation and going to, from that to Attack on Titan was just so different. It is, it does take some getting used to it. Cause it’s like.
Vince Marotte (50:01)
Okay.
Right. More traditional.
AJ Marotte (50:12)
just very different.
Yeah. And then now that I’ve like kind of started reading the manga a little bit, like it’s all very similar to that. And so I think that’s cool. Like I feel like it looks exactly the same. Like every page is looks like each scene. Like, so that’s been really cool to look at. I don’t know. The Titans are gross. And. ⁓
Vince Marotte (50:34)
They are, so
if you haven’t seen it, they’re people, they’re humanoid looking. Yeah, they have lots, what’s creepy is that they’re mouths and teeth. They have like normal people looking teeth, but instead of like the 30 something teeth we have, they have like 70 teeth. So their mouths are, some don’t have skin, some are metal plated. All of them seem to be androgynous. You know, they just have.
AJ Marotte (50:40)
Like humanoid thing, yeah.
in the dark.
Well, then like some of them are so different sometimes some of them. Yeah, they’re armored.
Yeah,
no junk. Barbie, Barbie.
Vince Marotte (51:04)
Just a weird crotch area with nothing there. Yeah,
yeah, it’s like that. And so they’re interesting. I’m like, I’m curious to see what I’m interested to see what their origin is and what what their story is. But on the manga side, so that, you know, are you familiar with the graphic novels? Which is just, you know, a comic book that’s just longer as it to be, ⁓ you know, to to overemphasize it and.
AJ Marotte (51:19)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (51:34)
There was a couple of movies made in that aesthetic where it was live live action. Originally and not most famously, but the first one that was big was one called Sin City from 2005 directed by Frank Miller Miller. Quentin Tarantino is a part of the Robert Rodriguez. And so it is live action with a comic or graphic novel aesthetic. So
AJ Marotte (51:40)
Mm-hmm
Vince Marotte (52:03)
the characters a little less realistic. So you kind of have live action in the midst of, you know, computer generated anime type stuff. ⁓ And some of the shots and just cuts to slow-mo type shots where it just kind of mimics a comic book or even an anime. So Sin City is the first one. Did you see it?
AJ Marotte (52:04)
That’s cool.
Yeah.
Mm-mm.
Vince Marotte (52:27)
Bruce Willis is in it. It’s pretty cool. It’s just kind of like a film noir detective thing. And pretty cool. But most people saw 300, which was a similar thing. Different director, but that was also done in a graphic novel comic book aesthetic. It was kind of fantasy style. It was stylized to kind of be
AJ Marotte (52:38)
Yeah. Okay.
I didn’t know that.
Mmm.
Vince Marotte (52:56)
Mostly live-action but with an animated aesthetic to it. So it had kind of that fantasy fantasy aesthetic ⁓ I’d be curious to see it, you know if someone takes on an anime and does it like that does like a live-action You know like those two movies because I thought the aesthetic was cool and I thought it would catch on but it really hasn’t since 300 I don’t think we’ve really seen anything At that scale where it that kind of popularity
AJ Marotte (53:00)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The one of a very popular, one of the greatest animes. I have not watched that much of it because they’re still making episodes and it’s over a thousand episodes right now. Some of these animes going on right now, like they haven’t even stopped writing the manga. so it’s like, but it’s one piece. I don’t know if you’ve heard of that. It’s an old, like it’s old, like it’s been going on forever.
Vince Marotte (53:34)
⁓ jeez.
I have.
AJ Marotte (53:51)
but that Netflix made a live action version of it. And I don’t know how accurate, I haven’t looked into it just because I haven’t watched enough of the actual anime because there’s so much. I know Steel has watched quite a bit, but quite a bit’s only like maybe 300 episodes, 500 episodes, that’s not even halfway.
Vince Marotte (53:55)
Was it any good?
still going started in 1999. Probably popular because it’s airing on American networks, Cartoon Network.
AJ Marotte (54:17)
Yeah, okay.
Mm-hmm.
I’ve probably watched like 40 episodes and I think it’s great. ⁓ Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy is the main character and he just wants to be the greatest pirate of all time. That’s like his, his goal.
Vince Marotte (54:25)
Peace.
1128 episodes Or or excuse me 1127 28 comes out next this Sunday So still going that’s up there that’s like that’s like Simpsons level Longevity since 1999 so we’re at 26 ish years of airing. That’s pretty pretty cool
AJ Marotte (54:45)
It’s still going.
Yeah, it’s insane.
Yeah.
Yeah,
so it’s a little intimidating to start, but I really enjoy the characters, the story. I think a lot of animes, it seems like just a fun little story about friendship. But if you like to analyze and go deeper into themes and stuff, think that’s what makes it fun is there’s so many different interesting… Like Avatar, The Last Airbender. Yeah, it just seems like a bunch of kids going on an adventure, just being friends, but it’s about so much more than that. It’s so awesome.
Vince Marotte (55:33)
Yeah
Well, no i’m excited to get to To get into it. I need to ⁓ Watch some more of attack on titan because the deal was Yeah, yeah, i’ll watch them this weekend. The deal was that I watched this and then you’ll sit down And really watch the blade runners You have seen them you haven’t watched them And it’s a difference so and it what what i’ve
AJ Marotte (55:35)
I think that’s what I enjoy about it.
We can watch some this weekend. We’ll watch some this weekend.
I have watched them.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (56:02)
What popped into my head as we’re talking through this, especially that last point you made about, it’s not just a fun friendship thing. There’s some deep meaning there. Really good kung fu movies are like that. Where they do a bunch of, you know, it’s. They it’s kind of like they do a similar thing where they just overlay ridiculous fantasy or in the kung fu sense, ridiculous, impossible kung fu, you know, just because it’s fun to watch. But encased in that layer.
AJ Marotte (56:09)
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (56:32)
is always really good truths ⁓ and really good lessons about honor and you know, be a good person and those sorts of things. that might be the way for me to kind of dig into it a little bit more because I went through a Kung-Fu, I don’t know if a lot of dudes go through a Kung-Fu phase, but like in high school and college, watched a lot of Kung-Fu movies, ⁓ which we should probably watch one or two in the coming weeks just to kind of.
AJ Marotte (56:38)
Mm-hmm.
Yes. ⁓
you
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (57:01)
see the see the overlap specifically
AJ Marotte (57:02)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (57:03)
there’s two come to mind one is ⁓ Fist of Legend by Jet Li which is probably like peak Jet Li where he you know kind of the last like real Kung Fu movie that he did before ⁓ he kind of he got into you know mainstream Hollywood acting so I think I Kung Fu movies kind of mid-90s that was the end of that era where they’re you know they’re
AJ Marotte (57:09)
This top.
Vince Marotte (57:31)
straight from the source.
AJ Marotte (57:31)
has a hundred
percent on rotten tomatoes. 7.5 on IMDB.
Vince Marotte (57:34)
It’s a good movie and the action is it’s less fan
fantastical Than than than other action movies and the other one that that ⁓ I really always you know recommend is crippled masters The crippled masters 1979 it’s ⁓ sum chuan shen and chow ming khan One dude has does not have arms like really doesn’t have arms like and another dude
AJ Marotte (57:40)
You
Yeah.
I’ve heard you talk about
this theory. I did not think this was a real thing when you mentioned this to me. was, I thought you were joking.
Vince Marotte (58:04)
does not have legs. And so they get together, they form their own human
Voltron and they go on Kung Fu and they fight. And it’s fantastic. I have the DVD, the box set of, there’s like two episodes or two films, I have it in there. ⁓ But yeah, it’s brilliant. Like he basically ties him to his back, so he has arms and.
AJ Marotte (58:18)
It’s real.
You do?
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (58:34)
It’s pretty That’s the kind of stuff like they almost like challenge themselves to just create ridiculous premise and then try to Write some truth and some an interesting story into it. What to watch crippled masters but jet Li is probably the most approachable in my opinion kung fu movie Because it’s the least ridiculous it has it has a lot more of it based in in in reality
AJ Marotte (58:35)
here’s the photos.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (59:02)
the way to go. But yeah, I’m going to keep going on Attack on Titan.
AJ Marotte (59:07)
amazing.
Vince Marotte (59:09)
So next episode, we’ll talk national parks, because we’re going to go hit one up next week, hit up a national park, one of my favorites, Redwood National Park. ⁓ Get out in some nature. It’s that time of year. What’s the scene? What do we need to hit? What do need to learn? And we’ll talk. I own it. I only own one Ken Burns series. I love Ken Burns. It’s my opinion.
AJ Marotte (59:14)
I’m so excited.
My passport’s somewhere over here.
I’m so excited.
Yeah
Vince Marotte (59:36)
that teachers should stop teaching. If Ken Burns has done a thing on it, that’s it. That’s the curriculum. teachers shouldn’t be teaching the Civil War really anymore. You should just watch the Civil War series from Ken Burns. It’s educational. It’s awesome. I love a good documentary. And I own, my favorite Ken Burns is called America’s Best Idea.
which is about the national parks and how they were formed and all this kind of stuff and the history of it, the politics of it. ⁓ And once you watch it, you really start to understand that why it’s titled that it really is America’s best idea because you’re talking we’ve protected these spaces for generations and they’re worth it. And if we’d now if you think of how close we were to losing some of these things, if it weren’t for some of that stuff.
AJ Marotte (1:00:04)
yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (1:00:30)
the redwood trees we’re gonna go see, dudes would have cut those down and the biggest ones aren’t even there anymore. It’s a shame how many are gone ⁓ and how valuable is to keep protecting them. And the other one that he really talks about what I’m aware of, because I grew up in California is a place called Hetch Hetchy Valley. There’s two Yosemite valleys.
AJ Marotte (1:00:32)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (1:00:53)
One is now a reservoir. We filled it with water and it was called Hetch Hetchy Water and it’s Hetch Hetchy Valley and it’s one of the heartbreaks of the American National Park movement. We couldn’t save it. The people, people, the money took over. So anyway, we’ll talk about that next on the next episode. But other than that, last words, springtime?
AJ Marotte (1:01:07)
it.
Yeah.
Everybody watch Attack on
Vince Marotte (1:01:19)
All right.