Old School Lane

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun and Patricia look back on the 1983 animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in honor of the upcoming movie Masters of the Universe. They discuss about the premise, characters, favorite episodes, and the legacy of the show's impact.

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun looks back at one of the movies from his childhood he grew up watching which is the 1985 animated film Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer based on the 1984 Hallmark cards and animated series. Rainbow Brite is trying to bring spring all over the world, but her rainbow powers aren't working. It turns out that an evil princess is attempting to steal a planet sized diamond called Spectra to keep it for herself. Together with a boy named Krys and his robotic horse On-X, Rainbow Brite travels to the princess' palace to prevent her from stealing Spectra.When the film premiered in theaters, it made $4.9 million dollars in the box office with mixed to negative reviews from critics. Today, Rainbow Brite is seen as a forgotten part of 1980s pop culture that has been overshadowed by its contemporaries. How well does the film hold up 40 years later?

The Roald Dahl Retrospective is back after an almost two year hiatus. In this episode, Arun, Patricia, and special guest Eli a.k.a. The Hero of Tomorrow discuss about the 2025 Netflix animated film The Twits based on the 1980 film of the same name starring Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Emilia Clarke, Natalie Portman, and Alan Tudyk,. Mr. and Mrs. Twit are an evil, gross couple who play pranks on one another. They open a theme park called Twitlandia to attract people into giving them money only for it to shut down immediately. They also drive a truck filled with hot dog filling and shove it into the town's silo to make a huge mess everywhere. A young orphan girl named Beesha and her best friend Bubsy learn about Twitlandia and want to go there, but then learned it's ran by the same people who covered the town with hot dog filling. They get them arrested and find out they have been locking up and abusing a family of monkeys called Mugglewumps into using their tears to run Twitlandia. They set them free, but then things turn for the worse when Mr. and Mrs. Twit are out of jail and are running for mayor when they promise to make the town great again by reopening Twitlandia to generate money and convince the townspeople that Beesha is bad for stealing the Mugglewumps, the only source of power to make Twitlandia run successfully.When the film premiered on Netflix, it received mixed to negative reviews from critics and fans criticizing its gross humor, its strange art style, its forgettable musical numbers, its social and political commentary, and not fitting into the spirit of the book. What did Arun, Patricia, and Eli think of this film?

In this episode of Puppets Go BOOM!, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 1969 sci-fi espionage series The Secret Service. The show takes in a small English village where a parish priest named Father Stanley Unwin is a secret member of the British Intelligence Service Headquarters, Operation Priest (BISHOP). Together with his partner Matthew Harding, they are giving assignments by the head of the organization The Bishop to uncover secrets while under the guise of a regular vicar. By shrinking Matthew small using a device called the Minimiser, Father Unwin packs him in his suitcase and has him learn the plans of various people of bribery, counterfeiting money, sabotage, or blackmail and reports it to Unwin to stop them. When the show premiered, it received mixed reviews. While Gerry Anderson and Barry Gray called it their favorite Supermarionation show they ever worked on, many people felt it was too eccentric thanks to Stanley Unwin's well known way of speaking gobbledygook, had far less action and adventure, and was too distinctly British to connect to a mass demographic compared to the other shows like Thunderbirds. It was cancelled after 13 episodes and is regarded as the weakest Supermarionation show ever made. The Secret Service would be the final Supermarionation show and Gerry Anderson wouldn't create another show featuring puppets until 14 years later with Terrahawks under the term Hypermarionation. Is it as bad as people say it is?

In this episode of Puppets Go BOOM!, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 1968 sci-fi espionage series Joe 90. A young 9 year old boy named Joe McClaine is helping his adopted father Ian "Mac" McClaine testing his invention the Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record and Transfer (BIG RAT) where it sends pre-recorded brain wave patterns into the recipient sitting on it. After the test is successful, Sam Loomer, an agent of the World Intelligence Network (WIN) sees the potential of the BIG RAT and Joe, so he proposes to have him as their youngest secret agent with the alias Joe 90. Thanks to the BIG RAT, Joe is able to get the knowledge of pilots, secret agents, piano players, military colonels, racecar drivers, and spies. Armed with a pair of glasses to bring the brain waves into his head, a badge, a walkie talkie, and a gun inside a briefcase, Joe goes on various missions to save people from harm as well as preventing shady weapon trading, assassinations, tortures, and murders from happening. When the show premiered, it was released during the height of the James Bond films being released as well as both The Avengers and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. airing on TV. Kids gravitated to the show putting themselves into Joe 90's adventures wanting to be just like him. However, Joe 90 wasn't as beloved compared to its previous Supermarionation shows due to being more child-oriented and having a smaller cast of characters compared to Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. What did Arun and Patricia think of it? Listen and find out.

In this episode of Puppets Go BOOM!, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 1968 sci-fi/action/adventure film Thunderbird 6 based on the 1965 series Thunderbirds. Brains creates a airship for the New World Aircraft Organization called the Skyship One. Its maiden voyage starts off on a rough note when a man hired by The Hood under the guise of The Black Phantom killed the original airship crew and replaced them as Captain Foster. Alan, Tintin, Lady Penelope, and Parker are onboard the Skyship One to test out Brains' airship, but are suspicious of Captain Foster with his mannerisms and hidden microphones in their rooms. Meanwhile Brains is trying to create a new Thunderbird vehicle with Jeff's disapproving every design he comes up with.When the film premiered in theaters, it was a box office bomb with negative reviews from critics. It was the last Thunderbirds movie until the 2004 live action film directed by Jonathan Frakes. Is it worse than the first Thunderbirds film or is it a misunderstood gem?

In this episode of Puppets Go BOOM!, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 1967 sci-fi series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Taken place in 2068, Captain Black and his crew traveled to Mars to track a mysterious radio signal. They found out that it came from the inhabitants of Mars, the Mysterons. Believing they were going to be attacked, Captain Black and his crew attacks the Mysterons. Vowing for revenge, the Mysterons kills Captain Black and control his mind making him their primary agent to take down his former organization Spectrum led by Colonel White. They almost killed and controlled one of Spectrum's agents Captain Scarlet, but he eventually broke out of their control and is now indestructible. Captain Scarlet, together with Captain Blue and the all female pilots, the Angels, learn more about the Mysterons as they kill off people or destroy vehicles and control them to try to destroy them. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons marked a major change in Supermarionation where the puppets were more realistic looking and had more dynamic cinematography due to Gerry Anderson wanting to stray away from doing movies and shows featuring puppets and doing more live action projects instead. It also went in a darker direction where the violence was increased and the action was more intense than previous Supermarionation shows. For some people, they loved it. Others felt it was too dark and took away the charm of the previous shows, especially after the major success of Thunderbirds. What did Arun and Patricia think of the show?