Verbal Diorama

Have you seen that movie by Edgar Wright?Shaun of the Dead? I love that movie.No, the other one.Hot Fuzz - I always quote it!No, neither of those, the one with the young lad as the leadBaby Driver! Oh my god, such a cool movie, great soundtrackNone of those! The other other other other Edgar Wright movie!The World's End?Get out!If this conversation has happened to you, you're not alone. Scott Pilgrim vs The World is actually brilliant, but so are all of Edgar Wright's other movies, and so poor Scott Pilgrim tends to be forgotten.I want to change that. Scott Pilgrim has a phenomenal cast, great music, brilliant fight choreography and more video game references than all video games combined (probably). It about heart, strength, character and defeating your new loves' evil exes. What's more relateable than that?Most importantly, I've found a new ringtone and a way to swear on the podcast without actually swearing - all thanks to this movie!I would love to hear your thoughts on Scott Pilgrim vs The World! You can

If you've downloaded this because you've seen The Iron Giant - big pat on the back and well done for doing so! Take a listen as I go on an almighty rant about why people under-appreciate animation and why The Iron Giant contradicts the myth that animation is just for children, whilst also being a master-class in animation, theme, characters and voice talent.If you've downloaded this because you haven't seen The Iron Giant, but trust what comes out of my mouth, I'm going to say..... PLEASE WATCH THE IRON GIANT! And then come back and listen for all the reasons above. It saddens me you haven't seen it, but I understand why. 1999 was incredibly saturated for excellence in cinema. But this..... this is worth the watch. If you only trust me once, trust me on this.This is not just animation. Animation is never just animation. The Iron Giant proves more so than any animated feature that to class animation as "just" animation is plain and simply idiotic.Animation is not a genre.Animation is everything.The Iron Giant

There were lots of fantasy movies which came out in the 80s. Flash Gordon, The Dark Crystal, Krull, The Neverending Story, Legend and Labyrinth to name a few. None were, however, as sweet-natured, innocent and kind as Willow, with a marvellous central performance from a mature beyond his years teenage Warwick Davis. (He was actually 17 during filming, not 18 like I say in the episode.... ooops!)You simply couldn't have Willow without Warwick. Nor could you have Willow without the ground-breaking special effects; a mixture of animatronics, stop-motion, miniatures, animation, over-sized sets, blue-screen compositing, rear projection, as well as ILM’s innovative 2D transformation system, called MORF. This movie contains so much state-of-the-art special effects work that they had to scale down production to stop the budget from being blown!Don't even get me started on that James Horner score. It's so beautiful it makes me cry!Simply put, whilst the story is simple, this movie is magic. Willow...... You Are Great!

Jarsoomians! Welcome to Barsoom Airlines. Exits are here, here, here and here. Please fasten your seat belts, there's a lot of turbulence on our journey and honestly we're all in for a bumpy ride to visit John Carter (of Mars).John Carter, fictional hero of the American Civil War and of Edgar Rice Burroughs' popular Barsoom series of novels should have had an easy road to Hollywood glory. His name in lights should have enticed men, women and children to his big screen adventures, with multiple sequels, telling a story beloved by many. He should be as big as Star Wars or Avatar, movies that were inspired by his adventures.He's not though. His movie spent 81 years in development hell before being released, flopping terribly and fading into relative obscurity. It's almost like it's a swear word in Disney canon, (because lest we forget, this is a Disney movie). The House of Mouse wants nothing more to do with this character or this movie.Join me, as we follow John to Mars, discover why Mars was actually deemed pa

What is The Matrix?No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.I would love to hear your thoughts on The Matrix! You can get in touch onTwitter @verbaldioramaInstagram @verbaldioramaFacebook @verbaldioramaor you can email me general hellos, feedback or suggestions:verbaldiorama@gmail.comYou can rate or review the show in iTunes or at Apple Podcasts and I'd very much appreciate that!For Augstravaganza, please don't donate to Ko-fi. Instead please donate to shinecharity.org.uk/donate so they can provide advice and support to families dealing with spina bifida, hydrocephalus and related conditions. Any Ko-Fi donations I receive in the month of August will instead be donated to Shine.My website is at https://verbaldiorama.comSpecial thanks to Lorraine & Harrie from Show Me The Podcast - come back to podcasting soon, we miss you!Thanks to the following for their contributions to this episode:Twitter peepsAndy @geeksaladradioJason @WooLongTalks@

 I... I may not be an explorer, or, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am! I….. am the girl who really really loves The Mummy.Wholly, completely, absolutely despite its flaws, I love it. I can watch it every damn day. It's the perfect mix of action, adventure, romance, comedy and horror, with peak Brendan Fraser and perfect Rachel Weisz. Hollywood just doesn't make movies like this anymore.Like Evie Carnaghan, I need a Rick O'Connell to help me decipher the hieroglyphs of this wonderful slice of pulp cinema, and who better that literally one of the nicest guys in podcasting?!Despite the curse on this episode ("The curse, beware of the curse!"), I'm finally joined by Jason from WooLongTalks, on our third attempt, to gush over this movie. We avoid the Hom Dai, and delve into the tombs of Hamunaptra to find a nice gooey Mummy; its history involving the likes of legendary horror directors like Clive Barker and Wes Craven, but the main reason The M

Good morning Angels.Good morning Charlie!Three, is the magic number. You have three blind mice, three little pigs and you always, always have three Angels. Three extraordinary women who work for one man, Charles Townsend, played by three extraordinary actresses.Drew Barrymore and her production company Flower Films had a vision for a Charlie's Angels movie; she wanted it to be fun, campy and inspirational, where the women were just as sexy as they were funny, as they were skilled at martial arts. So she set out, with her production company partner Nancy Juvonen and pitched her idea, her choice of first time movie director and her vision to the studio. By some miraculous turn of events, she got it, and so did we, and boy it's just so much fun to watch!Charlie's Angels is often lampooned as a terrible movie. Whilst it's not perfect, it has a great cast who worked incredibly hard, and have built life-long friendships because of this movie. Just don't talk about that moonwalk. It's not a moonwalk, Drew!Also, don'

The Phoenix will rise.....But will she, though?I'm joined by ChinLin from The Bingeables Podcast to talk about the final part of Fox's landmark X-Men franchise, which started in 2000 and all but kicked off the modern fascination with superheroes. There's been sequels, prequels, spin-offs and now this, an(other) adaptation of one of the X-Men's most well known and loved story lines: The Dark Phoenix Saga.Truthfully, the movie is a bit of a mess, however we both love the X-Men and so we find some things to enjoy, but we can't help but wonder what could have been of this movie had certain other events not been going on at the time. It could have been great, it should have been great. Mostly though, our thoughts are summarised by the phrase.... "What the Vuk was that?!" #WhatTheVukYou can find ChinLin and The Bingeables on Twitter @bingeablespod and you should follow and listen to ChinLin and Isaac if you don't already!I would love to hear your thoughts on X-Men Dark Phoenix! You can get in touch onTwitter&n

Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for us.Gaaaah me hearties! Ahoy there! This be Em and I be joined by me co-captain for this voyage across the seven seas, Sade from Offscreen Babble. It might be trifle bad luck to have women aboard yer ship, but avast! We batten down the hatches to reach that horizon, stoppin' off on islands filled with Aztec gold and copious amounts of rum, where we will always remember the day we met Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy?!Thar's blood, scares, violence and enough sexual tension to make the lily-livered faint. Be ye sure t'is a Disney movie?Don't end up in Davy Jones' locker! Hoist the Jolly Roger with us on the fastest ship on that there ocean - the Black Pearl! But be warned, there be a curse on this here ship, so watch out for Captain Barbossa and his mutinous crew!Are ye aboard? Say AYE!(The boring non pirate bit!)Massive thanks to Sade for coming on the show. You can find Offscreen Babble on Twitter @offscreenbabble, Facebook @offscreenbabble and Instagram @offscreenbab

So, this is a little bonus episode I did after watching 2019's Aladdin and inevitably compared it to 1992's Aladdin; the movie I watched the most as a child.Spoilers for the new 2019 Aladdin (although to be honest, if you know the 1992 movie, you should really know the rough plot - it's very similar!)I also go into the production history of 1992's Aladdin, and the legacy of Robin Williams incredible performance and why we have Ferngully: The Last Rainforest to thank for all of this.I would love to hear your thoughts on either version of Aladdin! You can get in touch onTwitter @verbaldioramaInstagram @verbaldioramaFacebook @verbaldioramaor you can email me general hellos, feedback or suggestions:verbaldiorama@gmail.comYou can rate or review the show in iTunes or at Apple Podcasts and I'd very much appreciate that!If you'd like to buy me a coffee, you can do so at https://ko-fi.com/verbaldiorama My website is at https://verbaldiorama.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-ou

Pop quiz hotshot. There’s a podcast in your ears. Once that podcast reaches 8 episodes a guest is introduced. If that guest chooses the best action thriller movie, this podcast blows up (and by that we mean figuratively rather than literally!) What do you do? What do you do?Turns out you do a lot, for a long time and then take ages to get it out of the door. Trust me, I understand the irony of a podcast episode about Speed being 3+ hours long and being released 1+ weeks late. It's a bit of a change to the usual format, but still enjoyable I hope!Thank you to the wonderful Kristin from So I'm Watching This Show for guest hosting on this very unspeedy of episodes, but honestly we had such a blast recording and just having a bit of a chat about one of the best action movies of the 90s; a movie that still raises the tension after 25 years, with great chemistry between its leads and a genuinely unhinged bad guy who constantly raises the stakes.Basically, we spend a long time gushing over how wonderful this movie i

So, you have this girl, probably a virgin but always beautiful and occasionally really stupid. She's in a slasher movie, so you know she's going to run towards danger, ignore all the signs of the monster and probably witness all her friends being slaughtered. She's the final girl. She'll probably survive to star in your sequel.But what if there was a movie that wanted to deconstruct all the tropes of slasher movies? What if it's all a big reality TV show, where the "reality stars" are just the pawns of the corporate bigwigs who manufacture the arena? What if all those horror tropes are subverted? What if we take these tropes and satirise them, and essentially make fun of the whole genre whilst also paying homage to the genre?It's really rather marvellous that The Cabin in the Woods actually manages to achieve all those things!The Cabin in the Woods is brilliant at subverting those tropes. The characters are never who they seem to be, and neither are the monsters. Written by Joss Whedon (he who already success

Ahh, the 1950s. A time of tradition; where fathers were the breadwinners and worked the 9 to 5, mothers were homemakers and caregivers and children were obedient. Men ruled the roost, women ruled the kitchen and children were seen and not heard. Are you looking for the ideal place to raise your nuclear family? Choose Pleasantville! An idyllic black and white utopia with no sex, drugs, rock and roll or emotion of any kind. It's swell!Ahh Pleasantville. The town of choice for repressed sitcom families everywhere. The town of choice for 90s movie siblings to crash into and change irrevocably. Are you looking for the ideal movie about repression and the power of change? Choose Pleasantville! An idyllic black and white utopia, where you can introduce sex to the people, words into books, art onto walls and emotion into the every day lives of the perfect residents. It's pasty, but it won't be for long!Pleasantville is a movie that uses the metaphors of inserting colour into a predominantly black and white movie to

Most movies contain some blue screen in some way (some, green!). If your movie is full of complex special effects, or set on some vast, wholly imagined alien world, you need that blue (or green) screen to be able to insert those computer generated backdrops, with your actors in the foreground pretending to be in that world. In the early 2000s, brothers Kerry and Kevin Conran had an idea..... what if they could shoot a complete movie using these blue screen backdrops, set in an alternative 1939 New York, where robots attack the city and only a brave pilot and a smart reporter could save the world?!Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was the result of years of painstaking hard work and determination. Its effects were revolutionary for the time, and paved the way for modern movies. You think Sin City or 300 started this revolution? Nope, it was Sky Captain!Whilst the visuals don't always hold up 15 years later, the premise and ambition of the movie really does. Plus Jude Law is super hot, but this episode isn'

Miracles don't happen every day, especially in Hollywood. If something is too complicated, they'll make it easier. If something goes over budget, they'll cancel it. If it's too raunchy, they'll tone it down. You get the picture. Making a movie; a good movie, is hard in any town, but especially in Toontown. This ain't no fairy-tale; it's a story of sex, violence, murder and patty cake. Why don't you do right, indeed!Who Framed Roger Rabbit was complicated, expensive and a feat of technological marvel. It had a long and difficult production, not to mention a vast array of characters, all of whom had to be individually licensed to appear. A movie like this will never be made again. It shouldn't exist but it does. It truly is a miracle. There's one man we have to thank, and rather surprisingly I don't mean Robert Zemeckis! This episode contains full spoilers for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, so if you haven't seen the movie, I'd highly recommend you do so! And where have you been all your life if you haven't seen thi

It's not every day that you see a movie described as "a glorious ballad of bloodshed". Yeah, that's how I would describe Dredd and I did on this very podcast!I bet you're thinking of Stallone right now.... well get Sly out of your head because this Dredd is better, bloodier and more faithful to the source material than the 1995 version, and all the better for it. It's got a great score, great performances and looks so much more expensive than its budget would suggest, but not that many people saw it at the box office. Sad face. This episode does contain some spoilers for Dredd, but I implore you to download, stream or buy this movie if you can. It's a lot of fun, and as remakes go (because technically yes, it is a remake even if the original movie was inferior!) it's up there with the best you can think of. The Bring Back Dredd campaign was passionate and powerful, and although a second movie never has and probably never will materialise, it's time judgement came to the movie industry and Dredd is recognised

SURPRISE!This is not episode 2.Well it is, but it also isn't, because episode 2 is about [redacted] and this is about Captain Marvel.I did a little minisode on Captain Marvel and how I felt about it after seeing it. The "real" episode 2 will be out shortly, but in the meantime have a listen to why I loved Captain Marvel so much.Let me know your thoughts on Captain Marvel too:Twitter @verbaldioramaInstagram @verbaldioramaFacebook @verbaldioramaLetterboxd @verbaldioramaThanks for listening and keep your ears open for the actual episode 2, coming soon! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to the first episode of Verbal Diorama!In this inaugural episode, I discuss the movie that literally sunk Fox Animation Studios; the groundbreaking and risk-taking Titan A.E.; a movie that's rich in history and legacy, as well as infamous for being one of the biggest financial flops of all time. *Hint* It's actually not a bad movie, I liked it, but it does have issues!I also briefly talk about my favourite movie of last year, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.You can follow me on:Instagram @verbaldioramaTwitter @verbaldioramaFacebook @verbaldioramaLetterboxd @verbaldioramaor you can email me general hellos, feedback or suggestions: verbaldiorama@gmail.comThanks for listening!Em See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.