Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
Shrek 2 (2004)
What if the enchanting world of Shrek 2 held more surprises than you ever imagined? Join us on Project Geekology as we mark our 99th episode, featuring Anthony's return from his thrilling Tennessee getaway and an electrifying Babymetal concert. We share stories from our past concert adventures and Dakota's insightful solo journey through MCU and D&D timelines. As we swap tales of music and timelines, our conversation takes a nostalgic turn toward favorite video games and childhood card-collecting memories that continue to captivate us today.
Listeners will gain insights into the art of balancing life's responsibilities, exemplified by the challenges and benefits of achieving an OSHA 30 certification. Dive into the joys of revisiting beloved video games like Kingdom Hearts, and the excitement surrounding the release of Pokémon TCG Pocket, which rekindles childhood passions for Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Our exploration of these hobbies highlights how they remain a vital part of our lives, providing a sense of nostalgia and connection to our younger selves.
Prepare to laugh and reminisce as we explore the clever humor and pop culture nods embedded in Shrek 2. From the unforgettable antics of characters like Donkey and Puss in Boots to the whimsical world of fairy tale antics and creative twists, we appreciate the film's enduring appeal. Delve into the intricacies of animation, the unexpected casting choices, and the fascinating technological trends within the Shrek series. As we eagerly anticipate future releases, we can't help but draw parallels to our childhood favorites, forever captivated by the magic of animation and storytelling.
Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@projectgeekology
Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA
Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow
Welcome one and all to Project Geekology, episode 99, and it's a very special episode because it's not just me, dakota, today I am joined by my co-host.
Speaker 2:Anthony, yes, no mini-sode. Today I am back. I was on vacation, but you had a nice little mini-sode by Dakota. He did some Q&As about his timelines. So if you want some questions answered or I mean he already asked those questions and answered them, but if there's some that you might have had that syncs up with somebody else that he answered we'll go listen to that.
Speaker 1:Yep, I had a lot of fun doing that. Maniso, I asked on Twitter, you know, if you have any questions about, you know, my timeline obsessions basically, and the fact that and I got maybe 10 or so questions, maybe 10 to 15 questions from people asking me about different stuff from my MCU timeline to like my D&D timeline, and all that and it was really fun. I had a really fun time working on that video or not? Not? That video, that podcast, and it's available now. So if you want to check it out, it is the last thing that we produced right before this episode. But today we are going far, far away because we have to attend the. What is it? It was like a betrothal party or something. What is it?
Speaker 2:It was like a betrothal party or something Right. It was like the celebration of Fiona and quote unquote Shrek's marriage. But you know, we know that there's a whole mess that happens during that movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're going to get into all of that. I didn't Sorry, for some reason I couldn't come up with like the proper terminology because it's not. I'm just so not royal, I don't, you know, have these major banquets that I have to attend very often, but it was very pleasant uh being able to attend this one, uh in shrek 2. So, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna be covering shrek 2 today. Uh, we covered the first shrek on our last proper episode, episode 98, and yeah, we have. We have a lot to talk about because, anthony, you've been gone for uh, over a week at this point, or at least it's been over two weeks since we talked last. What have you been up to, my friend?
Speaker 2:well, you know that I had been up to kind of kind of quite a bit. I so the week that you released that mini so I was actually on vacation I was up in tennessee visiting family and kind of hanging out and getting getting away from the craziness of south florida, which was really nice. I mean since then, like I mean just not a couple days ago, I went to a concert. It was like my first concert in a couple years actually. Oh no, actually more than a couple years.
Speaker 1:Like I don't think I had been to a concert in like maybe five or more years, dude uh, dude, I hear you and it's so weird because, uh, you used to live with me for like six months in new york and we went to concerts almost like every weekend, like that was our thing. Uh, so the fact that, like I'm in the same boat where I haven't been to a concert in forever, so tell me, tell me about this uh concert that you went to.
Speaker 2:I know you sent me videos already, but, uh, let's, let's tell our lovely listeners what you attended so I, I know that and I know that that group you know you might not be like the biggest fan of them, but I went to go see Babymetal and you know Babymetal it's an interesting group.
Speaker 2:It's a mismatch of metal, rock music and J-pop. It is really interesting to see that, especially live, because you know they're you're hearing this like heavy metal music, but then there's these three girls and they're dancing like choreographed dances and then like that music kind of like moves from like heavy metal to some, like you know, j-pop influence and then the way that it kind of like flows in and out of itself is actually very interesting. I, I ended up, I I actually wanted to go see them but because I was on vacation, I really wasn't able to swing it because, you know, I was like, okay, you know I spent this money on vacation and I got reached out by a friend while I was on vacation Like hey, did you end up getting those tickets? And I was like, no, I didn't end up getting those tickets because, you know what I just said, I was like a vacation and, like you know, it's just, it just wasn't smart financially.
Speaker 1:You were stretched thin at that point, right.
Speaker 2:And so they're like, oh, okay, financially you were stretched thin at that, right, right. And so they're like, oh, okay, well, that's fine, because you know I have an extra ticket. And oh, they hooked you up. They yeah, yeah, they hooked me up, and so I I ended up being able to go see them and, dude, I had a really good time. I mean, dude, I sent you some videos, like it looked like fun, right, and there's a lot of people there. You saw that there, that thing, that was like a big stadium.
Speaker 1:That was like a big concert, dude it really was.
Speaker 2:It was like pretty much like packed out, like I mean I think there were some seats here and there that weren't sold, but if you go to look at like the rest of their shows, a lot of them are like sold out wow, I mean that's.
Speaker 1:It's really impressive and I do think, you know, even though it may not be, may not be something I will go out of my way to listen to. I don't generally listen to J-pop and I don't generally listen to metal or heavy metal. Whatever it is the fact that it's a combined genre and they've been around for a couple decades at this point, so I think that it's a cool blend and I'm sure it must have been a really cool concert. So that's awesome. How was Tennessee?
Speaker 2:Tennessee. Man, it was a really great time. I wish it was a little cooler. It was still teetering on cool evenings, like you know, cool evenings and cool mornings, but like the day would kind of shoot up to like maybe the seventies, but the leaves were like finally starting to change, so I was able to catch that.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, that's cool. Have you? Have you been in? Have you been up to anything else recently or not? Really?
Speaker 2:Oh, no, no, Like that, that's really like the biggest things. That that that's really like the biggest things. That that that's really like the biggest things. That, like I had been up to like up until this point. How about you? I know that you did your, you did your your mini, so, but like what else have you been working on?
Speaker 1:so creatively. I have been kind of at a standstill, uh, in terms of like what I'm working on. So that that Minnesota was a good kind of push for me to just do something fun for myself, sweet. So that was a good, good opportunity for me and just a good opportunity to, you know, get in touch with my audience and bring them over to Project Geekology, because I don't think that necessarily overlaps too often. So it was a good opportunity to cross-promote a little bit. So that was fun. There was something that I brought up on the podcast that I'm not sure that I've ever spoken to you about. I'm going to be moving within the next couple months. Did I mention?
Speaker 2:that I remember you telling me that you're looking to move within the next like couple or not not next couple months, but that you were like in the works of like eventually moving yeah, so well I mean, like I didn't know if you want to like say it on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I mean we could cut it out, but like I know that you had said something about jen's parents and yeah, yeah, so my, my wife, uh, my in-laws, they're they've been building a two-story garage um on their property for a very long time and it's finally, you know, built and instead of having it be a garage, they're turning it into a little, a little mini home on their property, you know. So we're putting a lot of money into fixing that up, getting the appliances up and ready, and I've been going over there maybe like once or twice a week just to do a little work on electrical lighting. We put in cabinets in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:How convenient it is to know to have that skill for like personal use.
Speaker 1:It is yeah, I'm an electrician. Actually, speaking of which I did do something like work wise. That has been like eating away at me for like the past couple months is I've completed my OSHA 30, which is I remember you talking about that. It's something that was just. It's extremely boring and it's extremely boring and it's extremely time consuming. You need to spend 30 hours at 30 hours of your your time over the course of 180 days to like.
Speaker 1:You get a maximum of 180 days to like complete it, but yeah you can do a total of like seven and a half hours per day, but like I could maybe do like one or two hours before I just kill myself. You know, like I just I. It was so mine I shouldn't say that, but it was so mind-numbingly dull it so.
Speaker 2:So that's like that, that's like a like a semester in college right there, like you know, like 30 to 40 hours of like coursework.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you practically did, you know, like a college semester yes yes, and there's there's like a monetary, like incentive to like um, when I next get my, when I get my next raise, it'll be a little bumped up just because I have that certification under my belt okay, so it was worth it at least yes, no, it will be. It will pay for itself in the end, but it was just, it just was just the worst painful, yeah, um and it's it's partially like why I've been so like, I've been in a creative rut um I know in the back of my head that I should be doing that and not whatever else I want to do.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, we all do that we all have that like dilemma, whether it's like stuff like that or even like personal growth. You know I do sometimes I I would rather do stuff like this or you know, watch something or play video games or go hang out somewhere, rather than like do the things that I'm supposed to do. So I, I completely know where you're coming from and I know that a lot of our listeners probably have had that similar issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely something that I don't want to do it again. I think I have to do it every five or ten years or something like that At least you get another few years to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:I've been playing a little bit of video games. It's not something that I always bring up, but yesterday Jen and I came home and we were like what video games do we have, like what can we play right now? And I was just like I've been wanting to replay Kingdom Hearts and she's just like let's do it. So you know, we were making our way through Destiny Islands yesterday and it was just fun. You know, it's just nostalgia, you know, and it's it's super nostalgic for me because I can. I I know the beginning of the first kingdom hearts game by heart yeah, to the point where like I'm.
Speaker 1:I'm letting her play it because she's only played through part of the game one time, so she's just like, where can I find a rope? I'm like, oh, that's gonna be over where titus is flipping around over there. Where can I find a clock? Oh, it's in this treehouse over here. So, uh, that was, that was fun, it was good, a good time to play that again. And it's funny, dude. I know in the cut scenes like I can like hear the words that the characters are going to say before they say it in my head, and sometimes I'll like say it aloud and my wife just looks at me like are you crazy? How do you know this?
Speaker 1:um but I know, yeah, I think I've played the beginning of that first one like a thousand times, yeah something about the beginning, like uh, I think most of the people playing it like are super fond of uh, what else? I've been playing some mobile games. Uh, I don't know if you you probably have grabbed it already. I think most of the people playing it are super fond of what else. I've been playing some mobile games. I don't know if you probably have grabbed it already Pokemon, tcg Pocket.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, I got it. It was supposed to come out on the 30th and I think it dropped for me at least on the 29th and I downloaded it. I've honestly been keeping an eye on that game for a while because I was like you know what that looks really interesting and like I really like card collecting, especially when it comes to like pokemon. That's like one of the biggest things that you and I like grew up with was collecting pokemon and yugioh, so this kind of like scratches that itch. But I've also kind of learned how to play the game a little bit and you know, because, like with Pokemon, I actually never really played it, I only collected it. Yu-gi-oh was the one that I actually kind of learned to play right, yu-gi-oh for us was.
Speaker 1:Was the the game that we played most? Uh, speaking of Pokemon TCG, I'm gonna. Oh, I just I popped open a pack. It's's some interesting cards in here. The first card is a holographic Nidoking. It's a reverse holo. All right, let's see.
Speaker 2:I really want to get that.
Speaker 1:Let's see Nidoran.
Speaker 2:There's this really cool Mewtwo.
Speaker 1:I just got a really cool Nidoking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool, not Dakota and I geeking over over a pokemon tcg pocket, but I mean like for good reason, because it is, it is like pretty fun, it's something like really cool, like ex cards, nice and like some of these like really cool, like art ones, like yeah, you can't see mine, I don't know why for some reason reason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all right, but it's been fun. I know some people are super caught up in it and they're having a really great time with it. I haven't gotten hooked on it yet. I want to, and it feels like something that I should be hooked on.
Speaker 2:The thing I like about it is that it's one of those games that you can. You don't have to be like active and like playing it. When you are playing it Like, you can kind of like just think passively, unless like maybe you're battling, but like when you're like kind of opening packs and then looking through your cards and even setting up decks, you could set up binders, which is really cool. I really like enjoy that aspect.
Speaker 1:Another game that I picked up for mobile um has apparently been out for about two years at this point. It's called the tower and it's just some, it's just, it's just. It's like an idle tower defense game that it's just like incrementally, like you have infinite upgrades that you can make and just keep going further and further, and I've been, I've been hooked on it for the past couple of weeks, like two weeks now. Uh, it's super impressive, just the the amount of uh thought that goes into it and like the amount of upgrades that you can do Um that's cool Like yeah, it's, I'm, I'm.
Speaker 1:There's not really much to say. I just you know something to waste my time and money on. Basically, all right, shall we jump into the topic at hand.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, sorry y'all, for us just like kind of babbling, it had been a couple weeks, yeah, since we had like talked in person. I mean we text between each other but like actually talking. It's been a couple weeks. So, yeah, let's hop into Shrek, let's go far, far away. We're moving away from the swamp.
Speaker 1:So this appears to take place shortly after the first movie, because we have Shrek and Fiona begin their, or we begin the film. You know, just kind of like experiencing some of the good times that they're having on their honeymoon and then they run home from their honeymoon and donkeys, they're all alone sad, yeah, and it's just a total nuisance, you know.
Speaker 1:So that was fun. But we are also introduced to a new character in prince charming really early on, um, and it actually starts to click together. If you remember from the first movie, the, the fable says that, uh, prince charming was going to grab her from the, the clutches of the the dragon in her tower yeah, um and the wording there is very specific. It says Prince Charming, but it could just be anyone you know.
Speaker 2:It's so funny because he narrates as he does it.
Speaker 1:Yes, that was, that was great, that was good. Yeah, so what are your first thoughts going into this movie? You probably haven't seen it in a long time. I know, I haven't seen it in a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it had been a while but, like my first thoughts were it was almost like not much time had passed, like I felt like a kid watching this again, and you know I was. I was excited because you know I was anticipating, because, like I do remember huge chunks of these movie, or huge chunks of the first and the second one at least. I think I saw the third one like a long time ago and it was like largely forgettable to me. But the first and the second one there those are, like you know, I could remember those you know like for the most part, and and so, yeah, I think I've only seen Shrek the third once yeah and it was in theaters, and then I never watched the fourth movie.
Speaker 1:So maybe that's something that we can tackle on the podcast at some point.
Speaker 2:So I think that, like you know, coming into this, you know I was pretty excited because, like I knew, like what was, you know what we were going to get, and you know, I just felt, like you know, I just felt like I was laughing almost nonstop through this movie.
Speaker 1:It's just really clever, and I want to talk a little bit about how they managed to create such an intelligent and self-referential world. That kind of works in and of itself, if you don't think about it too hard.
Speaker 1:this, this world, makes total sense, as you know, like a kid yeah so that's something that I really appreciate, and the fact that you take all these fairy tales, you take all these stories and then you just throw them and lump them into together and then you just throw an ogre into the mix and that's basically basically what this world revolves around. It's.
Speaker 2:It's just so cool and right you don't really get that anywhere else and it's not like a classic ogre, like you know from like the tales of old, like this big lumbering creature that eats people it's. It's a creature that is so used to being alone because he was never accepted and that's why he was always angry and that's why he didn't really care to be around others.
Speaker 1:And Fiona coming into his life really opened that up, and so this movie is him stepping out of his comfort zone even more what is cool about this is that you don't really you don't consider who fiona's parents are or why she was in the tower in the first right but they give that whole backstory of, like you know, as a kid she had this curse put on her.
Speaker 1:We don't really understand how she got the curse or, like you know, if that was like an intentional thing of the fairy godmother that we learn later on is evil. But she has a curse. She gets sent to a castle and the only way that the fairy godmother said that the curse could be lifted is if her own son, prince Charming, comes and saves the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I thought it was very clever when you know we have Prince Jarming riding into the tower and he just sees an empty bed. Oh, he doesn't see an empty bed, he sees the big bad wolf sleeping in the bed. I thought that was hilarious.
Speaker 2:I like how he's like Fiona, he's like no.
Speaker 1:Instead of Sports Illustrated, he's reading a book, a magazine called pork illustrated. Oh god, it was so funny bro yeah, just just the, the.
Speaker 2:There's like so many small details like that that were, you know, different, like real life things that were referenced throughout this movie uh, what did you think about fiona's parents and their introduction?
Speaker 1:and like how, how, how are we supposed to take them moving forward before they even meet shrek? Like what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:right. So you know that you can tell that the father is a little stuck up, the mom, the mom is definitely, it seems, a bit sweeter and a little bit more like accepting. But but yeah, like you can tell, like you know, they're a little stuck up, maybe a bit pretentious, but you know it. It is interesting to see like how that you know how, when, when you know shrek and fiona, you know kind of come across them like how that's gonna unfold, you know. I mean obviously we know, but you know, like like you, you can tell like it's just gonna be a mess what's so weird is that they don't.
Speaker 1:They know that, uh, fiona and shrek are married, but they don't seem to understand or know that they're ogres at this point, even though they they know to send that. They, they know to send the invitation to a swamp, you know, like um it's, it's just kind of backwards logic If you think about it, like how did they know where they lived? How did they know that they were even married?
Speaker 2:uh, without knowing the details, so so. So I guess, like in a way like you're supposed to have, like that childlike suspension of like disbelief you have to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like you, you can assume that like they maybe sent out this announcement party to like go find out wherever they were and then, and then, like you know, kind of you know, I I guess like move on from there. Like you know, like given the invitation, the announcement, but then, like you would think like okay, at that point the people that saw them would be like okay, well, that you're in for a surprise when they get here a big surprise, yeah yeah um, I love, I love the trek over to the kingdom of Far, far Away.
Speaker 1:And I like the notion of Far, far Away because when we think of that, we think of Star Wars, like that's probably the first thing most people think of is a galaxy far, far away.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And in its own way this is kind of like another galaxy far, far away, because for Shrek he is from a swamp, he's going to essentially Hollywood, hollywood for fairytale creatures and it's just everything in. It is so clever Because even having the far, far away Hollywood sign and then you have celebrity tours but for fairytale creatures and princesses, like hollywood sign, and then like you have uh, celebrity tours but for, like, uh, fairy tale creatures and princesses, like there was cinderella's castle over there, there was, um, a whole bunch of that stuff and it was. It was just clever is the word that I'm probably going to use most in this episode, just because every time the scene would change I'm like, oh, that was really good, that was really clever, or whatever you know. So, yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:What do you think about Donkey showing up, because he currently has a wife at home? He's also married.
Speaker 2:I know which is.
Speaker 1:Or presumably married. We just assume.
Speaker 2:Which is, like you know, it's interesting because, like you don't really get that realization until, like you know, the end of the movie. But it would have been weird if donkey was not there, because it would have been like, okay, yeah, you know you had stricken fiona, but then like where's donkey?
Speaker 1:you need a really hardcore, uh, for a kid's movie. You need a really hardcore for a kid's movie. You need a really hardcore character to laugh at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:You need your comedic relief, especially in this movie, when there's so many tense scenes. You know.
Speaker 2:You know what I was thinking, and I kind of I didn't think about it so much so in the first movie, but I thought it hit me in this movie. But there's a lot of things, that or no, there's a couple things that that, uh, that mike myers does with shrek, that he like pulled out of uh austin powers, like that, like little like that joke. He'll make these like little like you know jokes or like innuendos, and then he'll like laugh at it, him like self yeah, he's like and so and so like um and so austin powers did that he would do that.
Speaker 2:He would like, yeah, um, he would make like a little gag and then be like you know, like do the little laugh. And so shrek did that out and I was like. I was like, oh my gosh, like he's taking like influences from other things, which makes sense for this movie, because this movie is all about being influenced by other things, but making fun of it oh yeah, 100.
Speaker 1:There's so many influences, uh, within this movie, and let's let's talk about a little bit of it, because in the first movie there was the influence of the Matrix in that one scene, like specifically when Fiona is fighting. You know they had that like Matrix camera turn. They had a bunch of that in this movie where there was a scene where it was like Mission Impossible. Yeah, you know we had Pinocchio like.
Speaker 2:That scene was hilarious.
Speaker 1:Gliding down, there's so many hilarious scenes.
Speaker 2:What else?
Speaker 1:there was the, there was the one ring um yes, there was on their honeymoon uh thing they had. That you know like the classic scene of like the ring flying onto frodo's finger.
Speaker 2:It was fiona's finger, obviously, uh and it was a wedding ring, rather than like the one ring, but then like it, also like it, but then you also saw, like the red lettering on it yeah, what did it say?
Speaker 1:like I love you, or something yeah yeah, I can't remember. I know that there was other stuff I just off the top of my head. I cannot think about it right now, but I just remember it was very like early 2000s, uh, references that you know it's something, it's.
Speaker 1:It's all stuff that you and I grew up with and it was very like early 2000s, uh, references that you know, it's something. Yeah, it's all stuff that you and I grew up with and it was just like oh, remember that. Oh, I remember that, yeah, so that was cool. Sorry, it was like a weird noise behind me. Um, yeah, speaking about donkey, um, we know that presumably they're like he and Dragon are still together or they're having a rough patch or something in the beginning, because that's why he's at the swamp in the first place, and he says something along the lines of like she's very moody right now and I don't know why, and I don't want to be around her, basically, and that's the reason he's like hanging with shrek and fiona at this point, and then eventually goes on their journey to far, far away and there's that long scene of are we there yet? Are we there?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, and then that, oh my gosh dude, there's. There's like so many like good scenes in this movie so it has like the, the classic characters from like the first one, like you know, pinocchio and the pigs and gingerbread man, like they're. They were all in the first one. They had a little bit more of an active role in this one, especially like towards the end, but then like we get an awesome and I mean awesome addition to this movie and puss in boots I thought you were talking about the giant gingerbread man oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:I mean that's that, that's like, that's like later on dude that was awesome. But yes, uh, puss in boots oh fantastic dude, puss in boots, had me dying the entire time.
Speaker 1:Man, the and uh, it's a perfect voice by voice by antonio banderas, which antonio banderas. He did so good, dude, like. Every, every single line that he did was just. This is exactly how a cat would say that you know like, but the best, the best scene by far, the best scene by far is when, uh, like they're, they're breaking into far, far away, uh donkey, uh shrek, and uh and puss in boots and there's like a, it's like a cop show.
Speaker 1:That's happening live on yes, yes and they pull out catnip from puss in boots like belt and he goes.
Speaker 2:That's not my man I know he like the, the, the night sniffs, he's like catnip, dude, dude, that that scene, that scene was so, so funny. And then, like what about the scene like after Shrek goes through like this transformation he takes this potion, he's trying to make Fiona happy and he takes this potion that makes him human and turns her back into human and then it turns Donkey into a horse rather than you know, a donkey, and it's so funny, like when they go back and like Fiona and Shrek they keep missing each other. But she ends up outside and so, like she meets Puss in Boots and Donkey and like she like looks up at Puss in Boots and like Puss in Boots is like you know, he's cleaning himself, like very much so like a cat, and she's like Shrek and she's likerek and she's like for you, baby, I could be anybody or something like that oh, and then shrek's inside, you know, just trapped oh, it's so good.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna be honest, like, like I think from that point on, like puss in boots was like my favorite character, like in the shrek universe and it turns out he's got the best movie in the shrek universe.
Speaker 1:Did you ever see the new puss in boots movie? Last wish dude.
Speaker 2:So good, it was incredible, so good, it had no right being that good no, because it's.
Speaker 1:You know, the shrek movies are great. They're good fun yes but they're not like they're good kids movies. You know they're not like good movies if, if you understand my meaning, like uh, you don't feel like a profound sense of uh, you know like wow, I just watched a piece of art when you watch right, right, that's what I got with the.
Speaker 2:The last wish exactly like the shrek movies are like good fun for like the kids and adults, but the last wish excellent popcorn flick exactly.
Speaker 2:but the last wish was like insane and it and it was like it was like teaching, like lessons for like both kids and adults. I'm like dude, what is happening right now? I said, why is this so good? But my coworker had, um, they, they had seen it and they're like you have to go see it, it's so good. I ended up going, um, I think, oh, it was on Netflix for a little while and I decided to watch it. I'm like dude, what? And? And it was awesome because, like Puss in Bo boots is like my favorite character in the shrek universe, and the fact that, like he had gotten such a solid, like glass movie, come on yeah, um, they, they're making a shrek 5.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping that puss in boots comes back into that.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming he will considering yeah, yeah, he became like a. He became a a main character, even though donkey says that there's only room for one annoying talking animal I.
Speaker 1:I disagree with donkey there I'm really happy. One of my favorite scenes is that initial dinner or luncheon setting with uh, shrek, fiona, the parents and Donkey.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's just a stare down between Fiona's father and Shrek. Obviously, Fiona's father does not think that Shrek is good enough for his baby girl and Shrek obviously is feeling extremely discriminated against and it's almost like a Meet the Fockers.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, setting. I don't know if that was intentional, but that might have that vibe, that might have been, that might have been an influence of that movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so, because the character types, like the mother in Meet the Fockers, if I remember correctly, was much more open to you know that relationship, open to you, know that relationship, and it's the same in this movie, you know, with Shrek and Fiona, where the father is the real antagonist and is, you know, trying to break them up. Or, you know, show the daughter that the husband that they, that you know the daughter chose, isn't the person that they should be with, you know. So I thought that that was a really interesting dynamic. But there's the scene where they're all yelling at each other, like they're all yelling each other's name and then donkey's, just like donkey.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, oh, like he just says his own name, it's like Shrek Fiona, you know that, that kind of thing. And then like Donkey, just like yells out his name, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's fantastic. It's so good. That whole scene is fantastic.
Speaker 2:So this movie, you know, let's talk a little bit about like the casting, Because we talked about like how crazy the casting was for this movie or for the first movie, and then so this one opens up like a lot more. Like we already talked about antonio banderas which you know he had at that point he had done like the zoro movie, so like people knew who he was. And then you we have john cleese that plays, uh, king harold julie andrews that that plays queen lillian there's, dude, there's, there's so many. Um, there is also, was it larry king, like plays a character in there? It's, there's, there, dude, there's a lot of they kind of like it's a massive cast a lot of it.
Speaker 2:Lot of it is kind of cameos like Joan Rivers.
Speaker 1:Yes, Joan Rivers has a fantastic cast.
Speaker 2:And she was her. It was like a cartoon version of her.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute, larry King was playing the ugly, stepsister.
Speaker 2:Yeah, isn't that wild.
Speaker 1:I did not get that at all. That's hilarious. Oh man, man, yeah, I'm looking at the cast list too now. Uh, there's a lot of people I don't recognize. But the people I do recognize are just like whoa, whoa, they're in this, whoa um. So yeah, they again. Fantastic, fantastic cast. Apparently the big bad wolf in this universe is called wolf w wolf. I would have never guessed that no, that's hilarious.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, like the, the casting, this like really expands a lot in in this one, because it was mostly just like the three of them in in the first movie, with, you know, the occasional like person like thrown in. So like, yeah, they, I guess they wanted to like open up the casting. And then so this one I know that you're talking about like how the backgrounds in the first one a little bit more like on the bland side, whereas this one they added like so much more it is, I mean, it's, it's vibrant, but you can tell that, like the, the animation is. They've like tuned up the animation in the second one and I mean the dude. This movie is 20 years old and to me it, to me it was still solid. Sure, the animation models are very early 2000s, but they still look very solid. They don't look like a 3D animation model from the 90s.
Speaker 1:So have you ever heard of Shrek's Law?
Speaker 2:I have not Elaborate so yeah, Shrek's Law is it's.
Speaker 1:I'm reading the AI overview on over on Google, but it's something that I was planning to bring up in this video and it's a good thing that you mentioned the idea of like bigger backgrounds. Much more is being rendered at the same time and it just seems like a more uh, populated world right in the second movie.
Speaker 1:So shrek's law is a term used to describe the trend of increasing cpu hours required to produce each shrek film. The law states that the cpu hours needed to produce a shrek sequel will double compared to the previous film. So here are some examples In Shrek from 2001, it required approximately 5 million CPU render hours. Shrek 2 required over 10 million hours of CPU rendering. Shrek the third required 20 million and Shrek Forever After actually required 50 million CPU render hours. And it's just just. It's amazing because as technology increases, um, that doesn't necessarily cut down on the amount of time that you know rendering is actually going to take. And it actually seems to be the opposite trend where, like you have to spend, you have to use way more computing power to render all of these movies. And a lot of these movies they came down to the line. If I remember correctly, one of the Shrek movies wasn't finished rendering until the day before it was ready to go out to theaters.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's wild.
Speaker 1:It just takes so much rendering power to create these movies.
Speaker 2:I always found that that was really fascinating I wonder how many, I wonder what um the last wish is that yeah, let's.
Speaker 1:I wonder if I can look that up. Um, puss in boots last wish render, uh, cpu render hours. Apparently, the original Puss in Boots movie required 60 million render hours. I do not see that there's been any information released about the new Puss in boots movie, but you know, back in 2011, 60 million render hours that's, that's insane. Yeah, no, it's, it's nuts and it just it's a trend that, like you know, so shrek forever. After 50 million cpu render hours in 2010 and 2011, the puss in boots movie came out the first puss in boots, not last wish and that was 60 million. So I I hope that that trend doesn't like isn't like exponential, because that is just like a bad, that's bad news for like movies down the line.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, I guess we'll have to have to see about that I mean, we see how long it takes for a movie like the incredibles to be made. You know, and like, in that time between like the first and the second one, we had like a handful of like shrek movies, you know. And then so in the time before, I mean in the the time between the second one and then like the third one, you know where we're we've had some Shrek stuff. You know, there's the Last Wish. We're probably going to be getting Shrek 5. Is it Shrek 5?
Speaker 1:Yeah, in 2026. I think it's Shrek 5. Let me look it up. Shrek 5 release date yeah, it's scheduled for July 1st of 2026. So summer 2026.
Speaker 2:Right, so we'll be getting that before we get Incredibles 3 and probably GTA 6.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:That's a little bit of a joke that I wanted to throw in there. That's a little. That's a little bit of a joke that I wanted to throw in there because that's like, you know, like gta6 is like um, I guess it's like a, a unit of, like measuring time, like oh, we got this before gta6.
Speaker 1:You know that kind of thing uh, gta is is like the more popular of of that, but um, for me it's elder scrolls, because we've've been waiting for Elder Scrolls VI for over a decade. At this point it's just been nebulously announced.
Speaker 2:Right right, they had announced it and I think that announcement was really just to buy them time and really at that point they probably hadn't even started that project.
Speaker 2:It was just an announcement that they planned on doing it yeah um that's like me when I, when I like, tease timeline projects, it's like I haven't really started, but you know well, like, at least you say like, this is in the works, like, like usually like in the works for you is that like you're planning to do it and there's a lot that goes into it before you actually like sit in front of a camera right, yeah, there's a lot of studying and, uh, writing and collecting data.
Speaker 1:Um, before any of like, the actual stuff is culminated on camera or like exactly so yep, no, I agree, um, maybe. So let's go back to shrek 2. I don't know why we, we deviate. Yes, yes, rabbit, trail, rabbit trail.
Speaker 2:But let's go back to Shrek 2. I don't know why we deviated so quickly. Yes, rabbit trail rabbit trail.
Speaker 1:But, let's talk about the fairy godmother.
Speaker 2:Yes, I wanted to actually talk about her and how she goes from a seemingly good character to being the villain of this film.
Speaker 1:Which is fascinating, because in most fairy tale media you think of the fairy godmother as this almost deus ex machina character that will help the protagonist see their true potential and in some ways she is showing people their true potential. But the way that they handle it in this movie is almost like cosmetic, like um, it's almost she's almost like a plastic surgeon and and this universe, you know, like she just wants to make everyone feel good, um, instead of actually, you know, attaining their true potential right Uh you know, as is the norm in you know fairytale movies, right, you know, as is the norm in you know fairy tale movies and stuff.
Speaker 2:So I thought that like that. That was like very hollywood also, which is like kind of what the setting?
Speaker 1:is in right. Yeah, so you think of, like cinderella, the fairy godmother there is right, you know always trying to prop up cinderella to show that she's not just this stepsister that cleans all day, she can actually be a princess. You know, with the fairy godmother of this movie it's all a business.
Speaker 2:It's all part of this brand that she's creating, or that she has created, to mass produce spells and potions that are fleeting and um yeah you know momentary, uh, in terms of, like their, the satisfaction of the the person imbibing it right, this is where uh shrek gets that one potion that turns him and fiona to humans and donkey into a horse yeah, so what did you think of Shrek's human form?
Speaker 1:He became this. He was still a large dude, but he kind of became a hunk. I guess Hunk would be the term.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was so funny. I do find it funny that they decided to go with the opposite form of him being some really attractive he had muscles, he was big. Like the opposite form of him being some like really attractive, like kind of, yeah, I mean like he had, like he had muscles. You know, he was big and so like that's like I. I honestly pictured that like that's what, like shrek is like very strong and so if he wasn't fat he would probably be very muscular. So like that was like pretty much like what he would look like. But then like yeah, they like made him a human. I mean it was interesting and like I don't know, to me it didn't feel weird, it it? I imagine, like I, I think that they like reimagined him as a human, like pretty well and it still looked like shrek it had the muscular or the physical features of his face and his body build and everything like that.
Speaker 1:Even Donkey still had Donkey's face somehow just superimposed onto a horse. One thing that with Donkey's transformation when he eventually transforms back from a horse into a donkey never realized how different horses tails were to donkey tails, like that was something that was like really jarring for me, because, um, horse tails are just covered in hair, so you don't really see the like the length of the tail. It just looks like a big whip of uh of hair, right, but donkey tails are very long and with a little poof of hair. Yeah, so when when they transitioned in that I was just like I never realized how different horses are to donkeys, but you know they're in the same family of uh animals. But yeah, I thought that was cool.
Speaker 2:You learn something new every day, guys yeah, no, that that that definitely was an interesting and like I think that, like they do so well, and the fact, like, how they were able to do that animation of transformation, especially with the technology that they had back then, and that it wasn't some hand-drawn animation, which, like you know, hand-drawn animation, it has its own issues but like you can kind of hand draw that animation, whereas this you're trying to like use as much as you can. There's only, as there's a very limited amount of computing power that you have. So the fact that, like a lot of the stuff that they did looked like very well, you know, it didn't look choppy, it didn't look you know how, sometimes, for the sake of of computing animation, there's a little bit of a frame drop yeah you don't see that as much.
Speaker 1:I think there was a couple times, but not as much so, um, it's interesting that you bring that up, um, and it's interesting also because of the, the content of, like, what is being explored in this. So you're talking about the transformation scenes and, yeah, they are pretty spectacular, um, especially because it's cg, like it's cg rendering. But you also mentioned 2d and its limitations and I thought that that was an interesting uh choice because it reminded me of another transformation, that being Cinderella, who we've brought up a couple of times at this point. When Cinderella transforms from her rags into a ball gown, it's a very beautiful 2D animation and it's said to be Walt Disney's favorite sequence ever animated for his, for his movies, just it's. It's uh.
Speaker 1:I went to I think it was the met, yeah, the met museum in uh in central park in new york. Uh, they had a like a walt disney um animation exhibit and one of the things that they showcased was the original um, it was like 50 frames from that cinderella transformation and they explained, like, why this was such a big deal for walt disney, and I thought that that's something that's always stuck with me. It's just like something so simple as a transformation could be something uh, so magical, even to the, the likes of um you know animation kings like like this guy right and and like that that's.
Speaker 2:I think that like that's because you know, moments like that, like they're like really pushing to see what they can do and you know, yeah, like there's many times that like I'll watch something from back in those days, like you know, from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 70s, that they'll do something that like really baffles me, like how did they do that? Because they didn't have cg back then right, they had to get really.
Speaker 2:They had to get really creative they did, um, and I know like this is a little bit of digressing, but this is all really to culminate how amazing it is that Shrek did what it did with the amount of power it had back then, the limited power that they had back then. But Star Wars and the blaster fires and the things that they had to do with that, like how to get that effect and stuff, and so you know like we you know we grow up watching a lot of these things.
Speaker 2:you know Disney movies, star Wars, shrek but we don't realize, like how a lot of these movies like push the envelope on stuff and I can imagine like I mean creating an animation is like tough, but like I can imagine like back then, with the less power that they had, that like they really had to like push as much as they could and like I mean it, it worked out in their favor because this is like by far the best, like shrek movie and I'm not saying like shrek universe movie, I'm gonna say shrek movie because like yeah, you know I will argue to say the last wish is the best shrek universe movie yeah, I can.
Speaker 1:I will agree to that. I will definitely agree to that before we uh leave.
Speaker 2:We haven't talked about um uh the fairy godmother and uh her relation to king harold her relation to king harold and prince charming and like, really like, what unfolds in this movie yeah.
Speaker 1:So one thing that we find out, uh, somewhere in the midpoint of the movie, when you know, uh, king harold is doing everything in his power to like get rid of shrek, we find out that, uh, the fairy godmother has a um deal with king herald that you know was enacted many, many years ago, stating you know, I will make you king or whatever, if my son eventually marries your daughter yeah that promise is broke uh, broken when shrek eventually marries that.
Speaker 1:So she's threatening to reverse and renege on her end of the promise as well, which means that he's going to return not to just a lowly human but to a frog. And throughout the movie there's like little hints and gestures that you know there's something you know different about their relationship and yeah, it's because he's because he's the frog, he's basically the, it's the princess and the frog, basically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought that was funny. We find out the. Yeah, the whole reason that she's trying to do this is because her son is Prince Charming and you know she wants to. You know she, she babies him pretty much like. She wants him to like have the world and so she wants him to have this kingdom. I like that. There's that one scene where the fairy godmother pulls king harold into, like the into that carriage and they pass by like, like the medieval, like fat boy or friar friar boy oh yeah, and so fry boy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it was and so, like you know, it's like a fast food. She's like, she's like oh yeah, do you want the carne fries?
Speaker 2:no, no, I, I could get anything and like prince charming gets like the kids meal, you know yes, I like that it comes with, uh, a full like two-handed battle axe seriously that, yeah, that was hilarious, yeah, yeah, the film is pretty much, yeah, like the push and pull of the fairy godmother trying to, you know, set up her, her, her child, her to become king, and then there's the whole narrative that you know Shrek is also trying to fight, not being good enough, not being the one that Fiona wanted to marry, you know.
Speaker 1:And there's a fantastic moment actually, I mean, this movie's full of them but there's a fantastic moment where they riff off of. So what's great about Shrek is that they take these concepts, these stories, and then they turn them on their head and they kind of show you what can happen if the opposite is true. So there's the moment where Shrek is being kept in the bedroom by the fairy godmother and all the furniture starts waking up, kind of like in Beauty and the Beast. But in Beauty and the Beast that was a moment where they were trying to you know, the furniture was trying to like prop up the beast. You know it was like you got this, yeah, yeah, if, if you don't do this, then you know, we'll all be stuck as furniture forever or whatever. So it was like a positive moment. But in this movie the furniture was blocking him from leaving the room. It was trapping him there and basically telling him he wasn't good enough, and I thought that was super cool. It was just different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I liked that, and we've talked about it, how they take these elements from other movies. It's so easy for a movie to like, take an element or like the entirety of, like a whole other movie and make it feel like a rip-off. But nothing about shrek the shrek movies at least one and two feels like a rip-off. Like you know that they're taking these elements from the other movies. They're not shying away from it, but they're trying to put their own little spin on it and it works very well.
Speaker 1:It's a very unique stamp that they place on the fairy tale genre and they become known for doing stuff like that.
Speaker 2:What do you feel about Donkey and Dragon's children?
Speaker 1:What do you feel about donkey and dragon's children? Oh, we can't. That's definitely the elephant in the room. I try not to think too hard about it. It's just they loved each other very much and that's what happens. Little donkey, dragons. If you think about it too much, it's grotesque and horrible, but it's also very funny.
Speaker 2:Um, we don't dig too deep into that no, we don't, but donkey loves him.
Speaker 1:Some strong woman, I guess. I guess you could say strong, fiery woman. Um, yeah, I thought that that was really funny and I think Shrek the Third dives into that a little bit more, if I remember. I know that the donkey children are in that one, but yeah, I just don't remember the movie at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one it's been so long the first Shrek and the second Shrek. I had seen them so many times so I was able to like remember for the most part, like most of those films, maybe like a little minor detail here and there that I might've forgotten. But I only saw the third one like once and, like I said, like I forgot most of that, like pretty much, like I think you're right about the, the, the donkey, dragon children.
Speaker 1:Yeah, guys, thank you for listening to us here. For our 99th episode Next week, we have something very special. We're going to be breaking our next four episodes into, or at least we're going to try to do them four episodes back to back to back. If we have to break it up with, uh, another movie or whatever somewhere in the middle of that series, we'll do it. Um, but we're going to try to do four episodes of the rings of power.
Speaker 1:For the first episode, we're going to cover the first four episodes of season one. The second episode, we're going to cover the last four episodes of season one, and we're going to cover the last four episodes of season one. And we're going to do the same for the second season the first four episodes and the last four episodes. So we're going to break this into four episodes of Project Ecology so that we can really dig into the vibes of the Rings of Power. Anthony, before we go, what are you looking forward to with the rings of power and what is your like? How much of that have you watched or how much do you need to rewatch, and so on?
Speaker 2:So I had watched maybe partially of the first season. So but I I'm definitely going to hop back and rewatch like the entirety of of the first season, like as we go through these episodes. So I'm gonna watch the first four episodes and then we'll cover that. I don't want to like oversaturate myself myself before we discuss, because we know how like deep the lord of the rings can be. I mean, we did like that whole series and we broke those up.
Speaker 2:So I, what I'm looking forward to is like giving it another chance. I there's a reason like it didn't fully grab me the first time and like maybe it was because I didn't give it enough like of a watch, and you know, and that that happens. You know, there's been a couple of times where I've had to like I'll start watching something it didn't grab me right away, I go back to watch it and then it ends up being something that I really really like. So I mean there's a reason why this show got a second season. So hopefully I mean outside of the money, but I'm really hoping that I end up liking it more than I did the first time around. Yeah, I'm really hoping that I end up liking it more than I did, like that, the first time around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I think I only watched four or five episodes of the first season and it wasn't that. It wasn't good. It just wasn't great for me. You know like there was moments of like really fantastic stuff in it. I like the musical cues a lot of the time. I like the mystery, even though some of that has now been spoiled.
Speaker 1:For me just being on social media, but we're going to try to not spoil things that haven't happened yet in these episodes, and we might even have a special guest, because someone is really trying to join us on our podcast and we're going to have a good time with that. So we're going to. Yeah, it'll be fun.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, you hear that we may be having a special guest. We've been. We like to have guests on our podcast. We like to have that extra perspective. You know, sometimes there's things that you know Dakota or I won't pick up, that the other does, and so having that extra, that extra um perspective, will probably expand that even more, especially with something that is really lore intensive, like something in the lord of the rings universe which actually you know, before we cut this off, we do have war, the roherum coming out next month.
Speaker 2:That I would love to to be able to like cover oh yeah, I totally forgot about that, so you know when that's coming out oh, I want to say like december 7th or something in the in the beginning of december, december 13th, so I was like six days off, but yeah, close enough. Yeah, beginning of December.
Speaker 1:Cool, all right. Well, guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our 99th episode. Next week we start our Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power discussion. Maybe we'll cap that off with a War of the Rohirrim episode, but we shall see how that goes. War of the Rohirrim episode, but we shall see how that goes. If you'd like to check out any of our socials, you can find all that in the show notes down below. Please be sure to give this episode. Wait. How many stars? Anthony?
Speaker 2:We want five stars, but we don't only want them to be five stars, we want them to be juicy five stars.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, like a rare steak, you know gotta be, juicy guys, thank you. Uh, we will see you next week or hear you next week, or you will hear us next week. I don't even know the terminology there. But thanks so much. Have a good one bye y'all.
