Oh it is Christmas time. Will the air is fresh, it's christy and nice and beautiful, and it's still love it. Don't here in California?
Of course you love it, don't you. You love Christmas?
I love Christmas.
My wife's the same way.
I love Halloween. But the day after Halloween, I'm like, let's go.
We never want to skip Thanksgiving. It's Susan's favorite holiday. Is also her birthday is the twenty seventh. Oh so sometimes it falls right after Thanksgiving. Sometimes it falls on Thanksgiving some so it's kind of wrapped up birthday Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving is by far her favorite. She goes all out. She cooks for days. It is wow. But when I say she's a good cook, I mean like she's like a legit cook.
Oh my god.
So it's yeah, turkey wrapped or bacon wrapped, this and this kind of side and the stuffing that takes a couple of days. And but yeah, I mean her cramped. She'll start her cranberry sauce in like a week.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah. So yeah, no, we're.
People eat the cranberry sauce. I find that I now don't go through the trouble the only one that is adamant is my mother in law. So she makes it because it's so much time to make a really good cranberry sauce, and then no one really dives into it, and you're just like, come.
On the thing about Thanksgiving. A lot of times you're making specific dishes for one person because it's like I'll say to her, I need I need the cream onions. She's like, no one needs the cream onions, Like, well, I use so I need the cream onions I have. Also, I take over turkey duty. She kind of cooks it, but then I baste and I carve because I have the carving down path nice. So you know you're not
supposed to slice, like don't because everything gets cold. You take it off in big chunks and you put it on a pan full of gravy and oh yeah, we've got the whole Okay, my mouth is literally as.
You're talking about a PDF format, well.
I'll send that. I will send that to you. Take off the breasts and two big hunks of the and then you cut them in giant chunks with the skin still on, and then you lay them out on a pan full of hot Gravyes, so everything stays hot and juicy because when you slice it thin, everything gets dry.
Anyone allowed in the kitchen with you and Sue, because I feel like you guys are very intense.
We are. Oh no, I'm I'm She's the main chef, ironically being named Sue, and I'm the Sioux chef.
Thank you very much.
But we work well together. We're a well oil machine. But we're not talking about Thanksgiving today.
We are not.
We're not. We're talking about Christmas. But first of all, welcome back to Magical Rewind, the show that makes you want to grab your friends, your pjs, and your popcorn and go back to a time when all the houses were smart, the waves, tsunamis and the high School's musical. I'm Wilford Dell.
And I'm Sabrina Bryant.
Deck the halls with bows of Holly, because we are going to the capital of Christmas for this movie, Los Angeles, California. Yes, for the Holiday fantasy Comedy of two thousand, The Ultimate Christmas Present. Yes, it's time for December on Magical Rewind. First got to ask, greatest Christmas present You've ever gotten in your life?
Wow? I don't it's really Christmas isn't necessarily has ever been about the presence for me, It's really the time with family that I've always enjoyed. And I will say, and this is going to be totally corny, and I do not care that. My favorite Christmas present was I was gone for Christmas one year doing a show, a dance show, and Jordan came and surprised me on Christmas Day. I was really bummed I was going to miss Christmas with my family, and Jordan came out to Florida where
I was doing the show and surprised me. And that was like, Oh the magic, because I again love being with family on holidays. You can ask me, oh, do you love this holiday? Hell, yeah, I do, because it usually means I'm getting to be with the people that I love the most. And you know, when you work a ton, with the kind of job I had on tour and stuff like that, I missed a lot of HOLLI So now it's like I just really soak them in of being able to spend time with the family,
make memories. And that was probably the greatest Christmas car the night.
That is really sweet. It's, of course the wrong answer. Christmas is all about presents. But that's very, very nice that you said that. No, of course I feel the same way. But it does not change the fact that when I was fourth grade, I think I got the g I Joe the USS Defiant, which is the giant space shuttle. Oh wow, still have it. It's the basket opened to three feet tall. Coolest thing in the world. Anyway, you still have that? But I have everything. Anyone who knows me knows I throw nothing.
Away ever, Order alert.
It's not hoarding if you love the stuff. But we're back to the ultimate Christmas Present, which marks a massive milestone for the Channel. As believe it or not, this is the first Christmas d coom Ever, how is that possible in two thousand, right?
I don't get it, But they really haven't made a lot since either.
No, it's you know what it is, and we'll talk about it. But I think it. I think they kind of realized that maybe Hallmark and all like Lifetime, they kind of have the corner on the Christmas movies. Of course I've never been they do it, Mark in Lifetime, Hallmark and Lifetime. I've been talking about this forever. I want to be in I want to be a Christmas movie but anyway, for real, they do. They really do it the best. It's just what it is, so very strange.
But this movie aired on December one, two thousand, as part of their Christmas season lineup quote unquote, since the studio was already gung ho on the holiday themed episodes of their shows and theatrical movies like The Santa Claus, but now it was time for d coms to get into the action a little bit. Do you have a favorite Christmas movie? Is the one you watch every year?
Elf? Elf?
Every year?
Yeah?
I actually just rearranged a closet this weekend. I have five copies of that. I probably could, so I just went ahead and bought another one just because, you know, and I mean I love Will Ferrell and no one does it better than him. I just nailed it. And that's my absolute favorite.
US Will ask snow what to do? Us Will ask it to do? What I'm telling you, good Christmas story for me. I watch it every year, while I really every single year. I love it. This movie was filmed in no real shock here Vancouver, though it takes place in Los Angeles, and you figured they'd actually film in LA though. No, And it does predate the Christmas movie Frenzy that we just talked about that Hallmark in Lifetime, So I guess now I understand why they're not making him.
But then it seems kind of right up the rally.
But maybe I know the magic.
The magic, I don't get it. But now now there's not gonna be a ton of film fans out there who remember much about this movie. It's another one that has sort of lost to the test of time. But the cast is definitely stacked. Seriously, just wait to hear the lineup. But you can stream The Ultimate Christmas Present now in Disney Plus and you can watch it on the third day with the Three French Hens or on the seventh day with the Seventh Swans. It's all up
to you. But remember, once you hit day ten, you got to tangle with the Lord's Leaping and they steal stuff. So pick now or after you finished the podcast, But either way you've been warned. Did you know anything about this movie before our bosses? No? I had to watch it.
No idea me either. I went to YouTube. I didn't even go to Disney Plus. I'd never heard. I went to YouTube. I tried to make me pay five dollars and seventy five cents.
I said, no, thank you, going to Disney Plus. Going to Disney Plus now before any of you out there, they'll go and steal a weather machine and almost ruin Christmas for children everywhere. Let's get into the synopsis. All after their plan to make it snow and Los Angeles goes awry, two young ladies joined forces with Santa Claus to set things right. What'd you think I was in.
At the beginning? And then this? I will be honest, guys, I'm sorry. Don't come for me. This movie exhausted me. And there was so many different storylines going on. I was exhausted. I just kind to stop caring. I really did.
I didn't get what it was.
No, everything that kept me going was Branda's song because she is a queen.
Yeah, yeah, Brenda's song is great. And I'm a huge Peter Scullari fan and have been a huge Peter Scollari fan since Buzs and Buddies, like, huge fan. And he was funny in this movie, and he was great, But I didn't understand what it was. Is this a movie about a girl trying to get her name off the naughty List? Is it about Santa Paper. Yes, not getting to the boys.
It was the paper getting to the boys party that this that there was so much, Like I said, my brain was like.
I just didn't understand that. I couldn't bad, Like the acting wasn't bad, and it was directed well, it looked nice. I just didn't get what it was it was.
It was just tough for me.
It was Yeah. So the Ultimate Christmas Present was directed by a Hall of Fame name here on the podcast, Greg Beeman, whose dcom resume includes the contraver Marshall Brink. And It's only controversial because apparently I'm the only person.
In the world.
He didn't like it, and I didn't dislike it. I was just met. I'll watch it again, poorse Sense and under Wraps, and his first two directing gigs were on The Magical World of Disney Movies, The Richest Cat in the World Hopefully that's just about a very rich cat in nineteen eighty six, and Little Spies later that same year. Beeman also directed theatrical films like Oh License to Drive, Great movie and Mom and Dad Save the World Another great movie, and was a big TV heavyweight, producing shows
like Nash Bridges, Heroes, Smallville and Minority Report. And I'm assuming Minority Report was a takeoff, like a television takeoff of the Tom Cruise movie, but I don't know.
I don't know.
The movie stars Haley Hirsch as Ali Thompson. Haley is best known as the little girl in You've Got Mail, but was a soap opera veteran even at a young age, with rolls on as the World turns, Loving All My Children and the Young and the Restless. You might also recognize her from shows like Judging, Amy, Jag, and Grey's Anatomy. Also on a very very creepy episode of Law and Order I will never forget, where she plays like a
little serial killer girl who was killed. Oh, totally creepy, to the point where right when I saw her, I was like, why do I have chills when I'm seeing this young girl? And I was like oh, And I had to google her and I was like, Oh, she was in that creepy Low and Over episode.
Oh, I got it.
This is a truly rare occurrence for an actor, though, because she had not appeared in a true Disney production before this movie, and it seems like she never did again. Wow, Like they Disney went and just cast a girl who had no Disney affiliation and had her star in a dcom and she.
Was great, And then she was weird that they didn't use her again because she was awesome never before, never since, likable, awesome, Yeah, and.
Weird tod that Disney would do it. And again, this wasn't nineteen eighty five where they were getting their footing. This was two thousand where yeah, girls right around the corner. Very strange. And then of course just mentioned Brenda's song
is back. A dcom legend, she plays Samantha Kwan. Brenda was a constant on the Channel, with appearances on That So Raven, The Leelo and Stitch Show, Phil, The Future, Wizards of Waverley Place, and most notably, she was London Tipton on the Sweet Life of Zach and Cody, and of course a star of the dcom Stuck in the Suburbs. It seriously would be difficult to imagine the Channel in the early two thousands without thinking of her. Brenda is also in the upcoming Oscar Shoe in the Last Show Girl,
starring Pamela Anderson and Dave Batista. Wow, I don't know anything, So somebody else wrote that line for me, I don't know anything about uh this movie, and I'm assuming because it's starring Pamela Anderson and Dave Batista. The Oscar shoe in part was a joke, but I could be wrong and they could be in some amazing film that I don't know about, So I apologize if his own really it's not a joke, this is it's going to be an Oscar shoe in Really have you seen it?
Brenda will have will be up for the Oscar because if that's the case, I am so in.
I have not seen yet, but pam Anderson's the Lock and then Batista is supposedly going to be nominated to Really.
Okay, not a joke?
Great good for the cool directed by Giacopobla.
Oh okay, gotcha. Spencer Breslin is the little brother Joey Thompson. We might be giving out a new award this week for the most annoying human little brother on the planet. Spencer's big breakout was the two thousand theatrical releases Disney's The Kid, and was somehow in two other Christmas movies, Santa Claus two and three, and is probably most recognizable from the Cat in the Hat with Mike Myers, which he starred in as Conrad, and his sister is little
Miss Sunshine herself Abigail Breslin. He was also in the film theatrical version of Zoom Again with.
Tim out Oh, Tim Allen. Wow.
Haley Todd plays the mom Michelle Thompson, but our listeners out there will recognize her as Joe McGuire, the mom on Lizzie McGuire. And then you got basketball player John Sally who plays Crumpet. He was the first NBA player, this is amazing ever to win championships with three different teams, the Pistons, the Bulls and the Lakers, ironically three more teams than I've won with, as well as the first player in NBA history to win a championship in three different decades.
Wow man, very coo.
Somehow he ended up making a smooth transition into acting, appearing in Bad Boys one, two and three, Malcolm and Edti, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and Confessions of a Shopaholic. And he was great. And this week in the Coleman Reynolds chair, we have the Oh, I love him so much. We have Peter Scalari as Weatherman, Edwin Hadley. His first fame was as one half of the sitcom team on Bosom Buddies, sharing the starring role with a young comedy focused actor
named Tom Hanks. If you do not know Bosom Buddies, please go watch it. It is phenomenal. People will say that it is way out of touch and tune and oh my god, but watch it for what it was. It was really really great. He also worked on shows like New Heart, where it was phenomenal, Honey Shrunk the Kids, and HBO's Girls. But it's maybe most beloved for his part in the Hanks directed That Thing You Do, which
is another great movie. Scullar worked right up to his death from leukemia in twenty twenty one at the young age of sixty six. Rest in peace. He was an unsung comedy talent. I know he never seemed to get his flowers because Tom Hanks is always around him, which is phenomenal. But Peter Scullari was amazing. The movie is a mirror wait for it eighty minutes long. I felt a lot longer, ten away from what we see as as ideal. But if you want to come up ten short,
we approve your decision. As we've now become accustomed to with dcoms. A story credit is given to someone named Hallie Einhorn, and this would be her only credit ever. But the script was written by Michael Hitchcock, an actor and writer who not only wrote this, but sleep Away Camp two and three. I wonder if you don't see sleep Away Camp one, if you'd lose the story if you just saw two and three, Mad TV, Glee, and
Crazy Ex Girlfriend. But has also been seen in Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and All the Christopher Guests classics, as well as Bridesmaids, GLEEVEEP and the recent Netflix hit Nobody Wants This. He has the craziest career and is so unbelievably funny. I did not even know he was a writer oh when we started this, because as an actor, especially in all the Christopher Guest stuffs, he is hysteric, funny.
Wow, and Nobody Wants This is such a good show.
Oh, it's good.
I watched it literally in a day. It was I mean, you just have to real next episode.
It's so so it's like below Deck.
Yes, it's like below death Watch eight thousand episodes in one weekend.
Okay, So all right, I've got I'll check that out and then I'll watch the Pamela Anderson Batista one because I feel like I insulted them for this amazing movie. Yeah, so this seems like another situation where they got the idea from either a very green writer and or somebody who wasn't a writer at all, and then handed it off to a pro who we also didn't know was a writer but isnt. Phenomenal actor and yeah.
Anyways, so crazy, I love it.
Follow La, Let's unwrap the ultimate Christmas Present once and for all. I'd like to thank you and apologize for all of my singing. It will continue to happen because of the Christmas. So we open with a reggae inspired version of Deck, which is great. And it's Christmas in Los Angeles or lack thereof. It's sunny, with busy freeways, scooters, convertibles,
palm trees, and rollerblades. I'm telling you this is not your grandpa's Christmas movie, unless, of course, your grandpa was in the Beach Boys or lived in Los Angeles, or was in this movie, then it is, in fact your grandpa's Christmas movie. We zoom into a home and a televised weather report from Action Now News meteorologist Edwin Hadley. He says there are only three more days until Christmas and it's gonna be sunny weather until the big day.
Edwin starts to explain all the scientific reasons, and a young Ali Thompson, who's watching the screen, turns off the TV. Boring. We are now in the Thompson house. Things are chaotic. Both of Ali's parents, Michelle and Steve, are on the phone getting ready for work, and her brother Joey can't find his Smash Crash Float game. Smash Crash Float Smash. I don't know what that is his video game, which can't be the best fake video game name the writer
came up with. It's probably just the one they used. Another phone rings and led me instantly to wonder how many phone lines of this house actually has In two thousand, where nineteen different people are on the phone at the same time. It's Ali's friend and neighbor Sam Alie needs to talk to her asap. The very popular Blake Lynch called and they're invited to his Christmas party. This is the best thing that has ever happened to them, so
Sam runs over and gets the details. His party is of course at four pm on Christmas.
Christmas, on Christmas, what is happening?
I don't get it? And it gets weirder, and Ali offered to come over early to help. So there's a party on Christmas. What parents are going to let this happen? But anyway, there's a party on Christmas. The girls see that this is their way to finally become popular. Meanwhile, Ali's dad wants to know what they think of his pending pet treat focused website bones for Bowser dot com.
It appears he's very high in this terrible domain name, and he's going to visit investors in San Francisco, like two days before Christmas.
Yeah, because everyone knows, especially in La. La is shut down the day after Thanksgiving and we pick back up in mid January. Yeah, exactly, nobody works. It's so true before Christmas, it so true.
I mean, we're recording this podcast right now. It's September first, exactly. It's not I'm kidding, but it might as well be. It might. You're right, everything shuts down, but Ali's mom already has a Christmas schedule in mind for when he gets back, and all the girls care about is that they'll be done by two. Joey the Little Kid also has a basketball tournament at two on Christmas. Nope, no one. No one in Los Angeles apparently, or just in this
version of Los Angeles has anything to do on Christmas Day. No, which is very, very just weird. Before the kids leave, Ali announces she wants new rollerblades because her current pair are so last year and perfect for two thousand. She's probably a Brink fan Brink. We're now at the girls school. A teacher lectures Ali in her classmates. But Ali is daydreaming,
which is another big trope from that time. I've been in that same position where you're sitting behind a desk and you're daydreaming, and then the teacher it says your name. Like there's so many movies that they do that in.
I've done that a real life thing, for sure. It is. No.
I meant I've done it in movies. Oh, I'm sorry what I'm not here, I'm not here, I'm not here. Ali is daydreaming, writing Blake in cute bubble letters all over her notebook. The teacher catches are slacking and asks how her five page creative writing assignment due tomorrow is coming along. She obviously hasn't even started it. So Ali stumbles with her answer, but eventually hits her stride. She looks around the room, figuring everything out makes up an
entire story as she goes. She is writing about uh William Shakespeare, who finds himself one morning in current day Los Angeles and no one believes it's him, so he makes money by flipping burgers and writing on the side. He eventually writes a play called The Tale of Two Pickles. By the way, great idea for a story.
Seriously, why couldn't you, I mean jot that down?
Be great idea for a story. That's an alas story. Yeah, that's an A plus story right there. You think any other kids coming up with shake ends up in Los Angeles as a fail play writer who's flipping burgers.
It's brilliant, exactly this and that was one of my spirit seas. The teacher gives it no credit, Like no, she's just like, yeah, whatever, that's stupid, and it's like, no, this little kid just came up. You know, she's lying, and like, look how creative her brain is.
She's how about that line, how about that line? How about using that mine you just used to lie to me to make that and make a story, and just make a story, you'll be a bajillionaire vibe. Yeah, I mean, come on.
Terrible teacher.
Alie can't really finish her story, but she is saved by the bell. The class laughs and leaves, but the teacher looks forward to reading it. We are now back at their locker. Sam ad mitched she liked ali Shakespeare idea, but no, she was making it up. Of course, so did everyone else in the world. Allie knows she has to write it, even though she's forgotten almost everything. She just said she needs a plan on how to get out of doing the paper before Christmas break, even though
she had a week to finish it. Just then, the very popular and very short Blake walks up to talk to the girls about his party. It always kept him a couple steps ahead, did you know, set They had her on low steps and him on the steps. This kid comes up.
It's not impressive.
I mean, hey, I'm a short guy to short kings forever, but come.
On, not just his height, just like in general, like I was saying, Blake was going to be this like hatty mc toddy, and he just was s you know.
So terrible that a little kid, but I think the same thing.
Well, he's an adult house.
I know, but still I was like, oh man.
It was just kind of like, that's Blake, all right.
It honestly seemed like it was like the director of producer's kid, like just a guy who was like, you played the part of Blake, but they kept him on a stair above and yeah and all that kind of thing. He was love, we love you Blake. We love you Blake, we absolutely do. That's just But also shout out, sir Jason Dolly, just because you deserve it. You weren't in this movie, but we're going to shout you out every week. It's just the way that is. So they It's just
just how it has to be. So little Blake thought Ali's story in class was awesome too. Things are really coming together for these dorky girls. They only have seventy two hours until the party and now have errands to run, so they're going to be cutting it close. But Allie knows of a short cut through the woods. Never a bad idea, The girls take off on their bikes and quickly realize this shortcut isn't working out. They have no idea where they are and are in a real blair
Witch kind of situation. Eventually they stumble on a weird little cabin that they've never seen before, which is actually like a decent sized house, not a little woods at all. No, it's not the unibomber cabin. This was like an Airbnb yea for bedroom. Yes, cute palatial estate in the middle of the woods that they had never seen before. Ali wants to find out who lives there. Sam is hesitant, but Alli peeks in to see an old man building something.
She wants to ding Dong ditchum, which I didn't even know was still a game in two thousand. But Sam just wants to leave. Ali proposes a bet. If she pranks him, Sam has to write her paper, which I Sam's like, my paper's done. I had a week. I'm finished with my paper. I did my work. But if she chickens out, Ali has to do Sam's and thus the worst bet proposal in film history is done.
Horrible. Starting to lose me here, I'm.
Like, this is this is where? This is where I'm out all the parties and all the stuff you have to do on Christmas that makes sense. Falling in love with the tiny little kid. That makes sense, but fine, but going in through the woods, that makes sense. This bet, I'm.
Out, it's ridiculous.
Ali was just about to ring the bell when the old man just is all flustered and everything and hurls something right out the front door and into the garbage can, almost smashing into her. The girls hide just in time. As the frustrated man walks out and complains about some wires and gears. Allie sneaks up to the trash to see whatever was making the guy mad. It looks like a small steampunk robot with red ears. It was a weird design that was nothing Christmasy about it. Oh, there
was nothing weathery about it. It was just.
Weird robot looking thing it was.
But it like have it look like something a candy cane, a reindeer, a sleigh, a snowflake, something that has to do with something.
Yeah, it was like we find out later like create can create. I mean it's all weather, so maybe that's why, because it's not just for break.
But then make it look like something, I don't know, make it look Christmas anyway. It looks like a small steampunk robot with red ears. And she has no idea what it is, but she steals it anyway. Again, it's in the trash, technically not stealing, but you know, between this and the ding Dong ditch, Ali turns out is actually kind of a thug. After the girls leave, the old man immediately realizes it's gone and is very very concerned.
We are now back at the Thompsons. Michelle is hard at work on a popular catering company with her spicy assistant Reuben. Joey wants to know, Okay, people get catering a lot of cater on Christmas. That's probably a thing, right, people don't want.
To parties like Christmas parties. Okay, yeah, like work parties. I think is okay, but like a big that makes sense.
But I think wasn't she supposed to have it on Christmas? Another thing on Christmas? I don't know, ye, very strange. But Joey wants to know when they're getting a Christmas tree. Two or three days before Christmas, they still don't have a Christmas tree. Afraid that by waiting for their dad to come back, who was just home, by the way, it's not like he's been gone for a month that they're going to miss out on all the good trees.
This is again when I was like, who's planning this family is get a calendar.
His parents are not on it. Christmas is not a big thing for them.
It seems like it gets even worse with the parents. And we'll get into that. It just seems like they're doing everything last minute, which leads to a very good question because it changes every year. And Sue and I just had this conversation, when do you normally get your tree?
I would love to every year we get it later than what I want. We get it probably I would say two weeks before Christmas. I would love to be one of those families that gets it the day after Thanksgiving, get all my free have it. But Jordan's like, no, that's a fire hazard.
Thanks.
By the time Christmas comes around, it's dry. There's nothing you can I mean, we can. I feel like our tree, even though we only have it for about two weeks, maybe a little bit more than two weeks, is very dry. When we take it down, like every year religiously put the you know, the special stuff in it, and the and the water and you know all that. Still it's hard. So Jordan won't let me, but I would love to do it the day after Thanksgiving, have it up all
for so much longer. It's so beautiful and it's all memories and on.
Sue likes a very specific kind of Christmas tree. It's the one that has like there's a branch and then you have a big space, and then a branch, and then a big space and then a branch. Okay, she likes, I forget the name of it. That's because then you can see the ornaments and you can wrap the center of the tree she likes. She takes its very specific center.
So she does the tree.
She does this center the trunk all the way up. She pours a glass of wine. She puts on the same album, and she cries the whole day as she's in the tree. It's just a thing. It's a thing every year. It's hysterical, every ornamental turn around. This was our dog and then it's so it's a thing.
Gosh.
So we went three three weeks before Christmas last year to find the specific tree she wanted, and it might as well have just been kindling by the time we took it out. She's Jordan's right, I mean it it's have you heard about sprite or seven up. Apparently if you put that in with the water and that helps.
I don't know we do that the first time. You have to do it like because you know, they recut the very bottom of it for you and that soaks up and the sprite is really good for it. But then I get my tree at Home Depot. They are very good trees. Home Deepot has a great depot.
Yeah.
Home Depot has a lot of trees. They're so good and they're great price, and I get a huge tree. Our tree gets taller and taller every year. We started doing pretty big seven eight. Now we're at like eleven twelve.
Oh that's big. Yeah.
So and they're at Home Deepo. They have a special special little like bottle of stuff that you do just like a cap every time.
Okay, okay, yeah, I think we use that stuff too. All right, it's interesting this year we're gonna we can't go as late, but then we might, like it's a whole thing anyway. This is also the time in the film that we learned that Uncle Don and Aunt Gwen. I say aunt, they say aunt, I'm saying it correctly, are coming over for the holiday too. Well, that's I always tell people like it's aunt. I go really so I was born in August are coming over for the
holiday as well, and they seem like real characters. Ali and Sam return home and quickly make their way upstairs to check out this new random contraption that they've just stolen. Sam turns it on and a whistle pops out of its head, which is now spinning and causing smoke to bellow from its top. Eventually, the smoke becomes a dark cloud in her ceiling that pours down rain on them. So it makes rain. They try to make it stop,
but the rain only comes down harder and faster. They eventually turn a knob and realize they can make the cloud move. They also summon thunder and lightning. Joey tries to barge in, but the girls keep them at bay, and thus the machine is still a secret. And now we can officially announce we have another mean, annoying little brother. He was the worst.
I thought he was so cute.
Oh guy, he's a cute kid, but oh god, it was so annoying. Oh my god, we have different different forms of hilarity. I believe to bring. That's a good little brother. Now Sam wants to take a turn at what she assumes is a weather making a machine. I don't know why you'd instantly assume that, but apparently it is. She presses a button and we get a massive gust of wind and then an earthquake.
Which isn't too crazy at in California.
No, but I'm saying, if you're building a weather machine to help people with Christmas, why an earthquake? What? What is the the what? Why does Santa we don't want to cause earthquakes?
Santa's doing this yet, we just know we don't.
But still, what's the positive of an earthquake?
I don't know, it's exactly.
It's very I was like, oh, so Santa wants to eventually I will control the whole world. Ho ho ho really weird. Yes, So they decide they're going to leave that one alone from now on, which Santa probably should have done as well. And finally they press another button and they make it snow in her room. They think this machine is so rad great word, but Sam thinks they should just return it to the old man, which they probably could or should have. But Ali has a
totally different plan. She wants a snow day. She has a cousin in Boston, and sometimes it's snows so much there they shut down the schools. And so if she can make it snow in La she won't have to turn in that paper for two more weeks. They will also have a full day to decide what they're wearing to Blake's party. How much can you possibly hate homework? You want to blanket a city in snow to not write it, but you live.
You come from a place where you did get snow days. I'm somebody who's from California. I am on board one with Ali. Let's make it snow. Let's get a free day off of school. Hell yeah, let's Allie, let's do it.
Wasn't free, I get back, but they attack it on to the end of the year. So you're just adding more more days in the summer.
Get a certain amount before they added on the end of the year. No, I thought you got like seven free days before you Again, I will say, I am in California, not knowing really what a real snow day thing is. I was into it. I'm like, yes, absolutely everyone else gets a snowy Christmas, we don't. Let's do it.
Here's here's one thing I will say. There was something marvelous. Growing up back east, which is where I am right now. I'm in my childhood bedroom back in Connecticut, there was something wonderful about you. You'd know it was supposed to snow, and you go to sleep knowing was supposed to snow, and then you'd wake up in the morning and you'd see a fresh blanket of snow on the ground and you turn on your radio and you sit there waiting radio. Yeah, yes, yes,
you're you're laughing like, we didn't have to do that. Wow, it was Yes, it was after Ranger station. No, it wasn't on TV. It was on the radio. It was first of all, why are you driving a car as you're turning on the radio.
I'm adjusted senior.
Those were called rabbit ears, And yes he had to do it with the footfail you would. You would hear like Avon and then they pause. They always knew when to pause. They go like Avon. Middle school is closed today, and you're like oh, and you go right back to sleep under your beil or you get the thing that would be good but kind of stink was they would say,
is delayed. So instead of starting at seven, you know, seven thirty, you'd started nine thirty, and it was like, okay, now it's just made it more difficult than my parents to try to get me to school at this point. So yeah, snow days were good, but not anyway, not not worth blanketing entire city.
I would be so down for that if someone did it this year, Like I want snow here, I'm like ready for we got to go driveway. I will invite all the kids.
Hey, with all the crazy stuff going on with the weather in the world, you never.
Know, you never know.
Ali's mom. This is when she walks in and the girls quickly hide the machine, but they can't disguise the soaked floor. Ali's mom needs catering help, and though she's mad about the conditions of the room, she never actually asks why it's wet, what happened, or why the items in the room seem to have fallen down and broken into pieces. She just picks up a shattered lamp and she's.
Like, lamp right, Well, not that this is a sabrinast season. You just had an earthquake. You felt it, your assistants under the table. Why aren't you running upstairs checking on to make sure your kids didn't have a bookshelf fall on them or something crazy, like, Mom, what's going on?
Yeah, it's la. Have you ever been in a restaurant during an earthquake. I've been at a restaurant during an EarthCare Everybody instantly just grabs their wine and holds it up because they don't want the wine to spill. That's it, and then you put the wine back down the grate didn't miss a drop.
I honestly think I've only been home during earthquakes. I don't think I've ever been even out and about really, or even at school. I feel like I feel like, well, I.
Wonder where we'll be for the next one, cuz we're two sus always. Why do you say that, I'm like, cause it's true anyway, Yes, no, no, The mom just chooses not to ask why everything's broken and why the room is all wet, just pick everything up and go from there. So fine, But they want to keep the new machine on the DL, so Ali decides to put it outside in a little balcony area and set it to snow. Now, they say, nothing happens, but maybe it
takes a while or maybe it's broken. They don't know, but they just leave it spinning and they walk away. We then cut to the North Pole, where they're having no trouble with the snow at all, and missus Claus is concerned they haven't heard from Santa at his summer rental house yet. Amongst her worries, two elves Crumpet and Sparky enter with a pitch Worth noting they're not small as a matter of fact, they're huge size. Yeah, and
size appears to be something they've grown out of over time. Frankly, I kind of love this twist on elves. I thought that was very cool. It's like they're not not only they're not short, but they're basketball size people. Very very funny. I thought that was cool. Anyway, They these two elves, Crumpet and Sparky, have an idea. They want to build a state of the art workshop where machine take the jobs of elves and the elves become telemarketers. So Crumpet
is basically describing Amazon. Yeah, and missus Claus hates it. Yeah. Everyone thought Christmas couldn't yet Santa can't deliver anything around the world. Yeah, go order something right now. By the end of this podcast, it'll be at your house. Just then, the phone rings and it's Santa he's breaking the news to his wife. Uh oh, the weather machine is missing. Yes, this is where we find out if you didn't know already, the old man in the woods was Santa. He says
it vanished, and he only blames himself. He's worried it's gotten to the wrong hands. The damage could be catastrophic. Missus Claus calms him down and sends the immature Crumpet and Sparky to help him find it. She offers him reindeers to travel, but actually it's reindeer. I think the probably the plural of reindeer is reindeer, so which is Yeah, she offers him reindeer to travel, but he's been bitten by it. I think he said, was it donner bit him?
Or blitzing bit him last time? Again? Was it blitzen blitzen blitzen can bitch? And so yes, he doesn't want to be on the reindeer, so instead they introduced her to their newest invention, and SUV, a Santa utility vehicle. Very cute. Back at the Thompsons, Alli is hard at work on her Stream of Consciousness Shakespeare story. When her
dad calls from San Francisco. He wants to know what happened to her room today, Not about the earthquakeer if they're okay, but just what happened to a room today, which frankly is a very good question considering her mom didn't care at all. Ali keeps it vague and somehow gets away with it. We might have our first ever truly. Well, no, we've had a couple. I was gonna say another set then, yeah, truly stupid decom parents. Um, they just seemed yeah, out of it.
Yes, and again I get it. We are in a d coom, we're watching d coms, and you kind of sometimes just have to take things for what they are.
And yes, we're absolute.
Parents are just I mean, you're just like we're at this point, Disney Channel is embedding into kids' minds. Your parents are dumb.
Yeah, it's too all much.
You can get way with.
Break you in your room and make it rain.
Because you're to go.
They're never gonna get it. Yeah, so very strange. But just then, as Michelle's about to close the shade, she notices it worked. It is snowing in southern California. It is a Christmas miracle or is it the weather machine? Who knows the family is amazed and runs outside to play with Sam and her mom. Up in the skies, Crumpet and Sparky are on their way to meet with Cabin Santa, but they run out of gas and they coast to the ground, using umbrellas to break their fall.
This is the kind of Christmas stuff that I love. Are these little Christmas inventions And like, like again you're talking about Elf, like the rocket card on Elf and how it takes sheer to run. I love all that stuff. I'm for it me too. And now with this unpredictable weather, meteorologist Edwin Hadley is freaking out on the evening news. He doesn't believe that this is happening. They keep trying to tell him at snowing, but he just doesn't believe it.
He reports snow but explains that it is not scientifically possil and just then he is hit in the ear, and I mean right in the ear. That's all I think about as an actor, is is like it went right in his ear by a snowball. Apparently his coworkers also think he is a bull ring Santa himself. Here's this weather bulletin and he knows exactly what's going on. We are now off the air, and Edwin tests some of the snowballs, just like taking pieces of ice and
putting it in blue liquid. Ah snow science, because he of course plans to figure out exactly where all this originated, but first he has to meet with mister Martina, his station boss. Immediately, the head honcho here asked what Edwin wants for Christmas. As Edwin starts to explain a raise, Martina cuts him off. The boss just wants to see a little positivity from him, how about a smile and some energy. And to top it all off, he's not even getting the weather right, and to not get the
weather right in Los Angeles is saying something. Edwin explained that this storm is like nothing that's ever happened, and he's going to figure out the cause. But that doesn't stop mister Martina from calling him the worst weatherman ever, while also revealing he's married to Edwin's sister. He then turns a photo around and is clearly Peter Scalari in a wig, so his sister I did too. I thought it was very funny.
This, by the way, was probably the harshest SmackDown I've ever seen of a going after an employee. Holy cow, I mean he is ravaged, like he is savage with it. He is so mean to this guy.
Yeah, who also turns out to be his brother in law. Yeah, it's also your family.
Like this never snows in California.
How is he most Yeah? Yeah, he finally says, Oh, by the way, for the record, he's married to his sister. Never comes up again, ever, never mentioned again, none of it.
It's just as they should give him an extra.
Year and exactly exactly correct, just to show Peter's scalari in address, which again is a throwback to bos and Buddies. And it's a throwback that's what and Buddies was about, So I'm guessing that's why they did it. But anyway, since it's the holidays, Edwin is going to get one more chance. Martina wants celebrity stories and hard luck Christmas tales. Back at the Thompsons, Allie's plan has come to fruition when it's announced that both her and her brother's schools
are closed. They couldn't be happier. The entire neighborhood found their winter clothes and are having a blast outside. We get a montage's sledding building snowmen that everybody's partaking in snowball fights and making snow angels. Los Angeles has snow fever. Meanwhile, Crumpet and Sparky arrive at Santa's cabin to help and immediately start selling him on some of their ideas, like it's a bad episode of the Shark Tank, but Santa
isn't hearing it. He needs help with this weather machine, and while investigating the scene, they find a shoe print near the trash can. Santa realizes it's been stolen. Back on TV, Edwin reports on a new snowfall record for southern California, and he is not hiding his suspicions. Michelle is getting slammed with calls about her catering progress, and Ali's dad is still duck in the snow in San Francisco. Now he's delayed, so we don't know if he's gonna
make it home. They joke that Ali is so excited is almost like she personally ordered up the snow from the Weather Service herself. Also, Ali's mom can't find those rollerblades Ali wants, and the reason they're talking about that because it leads us to her shoe size, which is seven. That sends us back to the cabin where Santa and his business minded and tall Elves had figured out the exact shoe that made the print, and with Santa's knowledge of kids in the area, he knows there are just
under two thousand possible thieves. They're gonna start with the Naughty List, which, based on Ali's recent decision, she's gotta be on absolutely there is no time to lose now, so they take to the La streets over some big band swing music's like it's Ali Cat's strike once again. They approach girls from the Naughty List, who are all doing mischievous things like pouring snow on strangers or stealing chocolate,
but they all have alibis. That night, Ali unveils her perfect outfit for Blake's party, and ironically, it's something Sam gave her. As if we needed another reason to think Ali's kind of a slug, it appears she's also kind of a thief. She just never returns things. Just then, Sam's mom arrives to pick up her daughter and Steve calls he's still stuck at the airport. He might not make it back for Christmas. Ali promises that he will make it back and the girls rush upstairs to turn
off the powerful weather machine. The snow doesn't immediately stop, but maybe it just takes some time again like it did for it to start. Okay, reasonable hypothesis. Ali can't imagine her dad not being at Christmas, but Sam says she can. Allie apologizes as Sam reveals her dad died when she was three and she barely remembers him. Alie knew this. That's why she apologized, right, because she's like, yeah,
I probably shouldn't have said something like that. Yeah, but again, weird kind of not twist, but they took it a kind of a quick dark section there.
Oh man, down like it goes down into the deep like ends of certain topics, like very quick, and then it's never over with. We don't hear about it after this, this one little moment which I loved for Brenda. You got to see her do like an emotional scene.
Yeah, but then that's it.
That's all it was ever really said as far as it goes with Sam's character.
Yeah, it was an emotion. She was good in the scene too. She's got the tear running down her face like she was. She was very good. You can see why Disney was in love with her.
Oh yeah, she is all the things.
Every time she hits she was everything, everything you could possibly want for. She was like, it's like the Disney factory, the Disney Plato factory built her, and she came out like, ooh, Disney Star, thank you very much.
Exactly.
She's adorable.
She's a great actress, and she's she's so good and.
She gets through the glass like you want to watch her, You just want to watch her. Yeah, absolutely so. Sam's mom told her that Christmas was her dad's favorite holiday. The girls exchanged some of their parents' holiday traditions and they know they have to fix this, and just then
they notice the snow stopped. Okay. Edwin finally gets to report the shocking storm has ended in California and gets to sneak in some of that celebrity news he's been instructed to include, reporting that Jennifer Love Hewittt slipped on a patch of ice in Burbank. Too many jokes, yep.
At the Thompson's, Michelle has worked out the very busy Christmas schedule, hoping they can spend a few more hours together before all their individual plans, which again all for some reason, take place on Christmas and in the family room, Ali and Joey have surprised their mom with a terrible looking Christmas tree in case they aren't able to get one tomorrow when their dad gets home.
Why do they have a five foot plus cactus in their house?
I also just don't get who buys their tree on Christmas.
I bet you some families do, Like I really I do know of a one friend in particular buys HER's Christmas e and that's what they do Christmas Eve is they decorate.
Okay, that could be a thing, but yeah, Christmas Day, it's not very many. I mean, how many What would you have to choose from on Christmas Day?
That's what I'm saying. Even when Jordan and I go two weeks before Christmas, we we sometimes it's like, okay, babe, we've got to go earlier than this. We've got some pickens here. We had to go to, you know, three different home depots.
I'm going to send you some names that aren't home or depot for your Christmas tree lots in the future. Here We're going to make sure. But anyway, yeah, I get it. It's it just doesn't make any sense. In turn, though, Michelle introduces your California born children to the fireplace. The Thompsons, who are usually very busy, are finally spending some valuable
time together. Did you so you've talked about how you did you missed out on winter during the day, but you said you've been going to Big Bear most of your life, right? Yeah?
Well, yes, yeah, and we are. That is definitely something that is going to be My kids will go to Big Bear a lot during the snow time. I give her like a little espresso size mug that she SIPs her hot chocolate. We do small. Yeah, we do the whole thing. And it's super fun because I really wish that I had more white Christmas winter experiences growing up. I didn't really start that, I think until like junior high is when I really remember.
So were you one of those people who were like twelve or thirteen the first time you saw snow.
Not saw we would quote to Big Bear, but it wasn't a frequent thing. If it was a trip, it was a big deal trip that we were going, you know, to Mammoth or as.
You've seen snow, you've seen and played in Yeah, okay.
Yeah, but not a ton, not a ton. I mean, it was, but every time we went, we were buying snow stuff versus you had probably a whole closet.
Full of you much Still do you know, still do one of those.
Things that they call a mud room? I had no idea what that was until I was an adult.
As to quote, my wife love a good mudroom. She does, and we've talked about moving, and she's like, wherever it is. As long as I was mud room, I'm good. Cool. That night, while Ali is sleeping, the weather machine starts whirling again, and to her dismay, she wakes up to a horrific blizzard. It's still going. The Thompsons go straight to work, trying to shovel the driveway. Sam gets dropped off because Sam's mom works at the hospital and they're
on emergency alert. Ali reveals to Sam that she can't turn the machine off and she has no idea why it restarted. The buttons aren't working anymore. And this is when it hits me. Their plan's going to kill people.
Yes, it's the people are.
Actually going to die, yes, because of what's happening here. And I don't know if Disney's going to admit this. We've got a letter and I just sent her to care of Disney. I'd like to see if it works. We are now back at the new station. We see reports of the havoc being caused by the storm. The National Guard has been called in freeways and airports have been closed. Mister Martina wants Edwin to report on the cast of Friends being stuck in their studio or else
he'll be fired, but Edwin's also onto something else. He's figured out exactly where the storm originated Ali's house. He sneaks out of the newsroom to investigate. We're now back at the Thompson's. They're an uncle called they're snowed in and won't make it to Christmas. Woo. That excites Joey, but his happiness is very short lived since their grandparents also won't make it and their dad is stranded up north.
Ali is crushed. This is all her fault. And it was so funny because this is when I was like, he's in San Francisco, get in a car and drive there. And right as I said that, she asks, He's like, no, the roads are shut down. I was like, ah, they got it, they did it. Okay, they got me, They got me. Because it was like, Oh, that's it, that's all. That's a loophole. Oh no, okay, you're right, they got me. Yep,
she's crushed. This is all Ali's fault. Out in the streets, Edwin tries to get to the Thompson's, but all the cars are stuck all over the place, because again, even when it rains, nobody can drive in Los Angeles, So I wouldn't even imagine what happens when it snows. A snowmobile speeds by like you do, and Edwin common deers I'm putting in quotes the vehicles by pushing off the driver in the name of media and his eventual Emmy speech.
He now safely navigates the snowy streets and is a felon because he literally just carjacks.
Somebody exactly exactly.
He's snowmobile jack mobile jacked.
Yeah, which is just insane, because who has a snowmobile Southern California. I think people up in big bear snowmobiles.
I've yet to see what where are the snowmobi who's got Who's like, Oh, thank god, I've got my snowmobile out here, and see, luckily out in Burbank, I am gonna bust out my snowmobile. No, not how it works. Ali's assistant is still working on catering, but people all over town are worried. And the worst news, Blake has canceled his party. He's been lost under a two foot snow drift. They can't find him. I'm kidding, of course, poor little, poor little Blake. Ali and Sam admit they
have ruined everyone's lives, but especially their own lives. They retreat upstairs, hoping to fix the machine and find Joey. Joey sneaking onto Ally's balcony. He thinks the weather machine is his present that year for Christmas. He swears it's a boombox. They usher him out of the room. Sam wants to return the Machine of the Old Man, which probably should have happened long time ago, but Ali isn't sold.
She's not even sure she could find the cabin, and breaking into it seems like a very bad idea, but she has a plan. Here's the plan. She's going to use wire hangers to make the machines antennas longer to reach outer space. Because what cause huh.
Oh, god, she's got Sam, who shuts that down?
God? Yeah, because apparently Ali thinks she's a scientist, and I don't know what a science stition. Let's call that because it doesn't even make any sense. This spirals into a fight between the girls, though, and Ali calls Sam a chicken. The electricity goes out and things are looking dismal. The girls absolutely apologize to each other. They get into this big kind of altercation, but they apologize to each other, and Sam suggests a lead box based on something she
saw on Superman. At least that's science, right, if Superman's involved, it's real.
There you go.
Don't get me started. If they put the machine in the box, it could stifle its rays. It's something They sneak into the garage as Michelle fields catering cancelations and her assistant goes home in horrific weather conditions. Note to everybody listening, we never see the assistant again in the movie. I think we have to assume he died on his way home.
I didn't even think about that, but yeah, he's gone, see you later.
That guy our first death because of the weather caused by these two meglomaniacs who are destroying the world.
What was his name? What's the assystem's name? He's got to go one.
It was what is it?
Oh man?
I forget the assistance? All right, we'll Jamie, we will find it out. We'll find it out. But you're right. He does have a good one too. Joey tries to wrap them out to their mom, in action that only a dcoms sibling can try, and is unsuccessful. Now that both girls are outside, this leaves Joey with the ability to check on that boombox once again. In Ali's room in the garage, it is pitch black and the girl
stumble around to find a toolbox. Eventually, a light turns on, revealing Senta Clause and his elves in full get up. The girl scream, and Chris Kringle official name, screams right back at them. Ali has some serious explaining to you. By the way, the assistant is Ruben Wright, Ruben, a good friend of Jackal Johnson's Rubin Right. Gotta love a good alliterative name. Just ask eighth grade hottie Shannon Chipley and your eighth grade who is your eighth grade popular girl?
Morgan Mackey Morgan Mackie. People love it, love it so the girl scream. Chris Kringle screams, right, back of them, Ali has I'm explaining to do. She is number two hundred and sixty three on the Naughty List. The girls don't believe it's actually Santa Claus, because who would, but he proves it with Sam's secret. When she's alone, she dances to Ricky Martin songs and pretends she's married to him. Apparently Santa doesn't know everyone's secrets though, thank god for that.
He also reveals that Ali's secret, which is kind of deep, is that her family isn't as perfect as they seem. No one is time for one another, and that makes her very sad again jumping in. Just what you said exactly.
Just like whoa? We are talking about? Bullet back, Santa, pull it back. You could have just said, like I have a I don't know something else proved I was too much he did.
He turned like, went to one girl and went you dance to Ricky Martin and your socks and you know your mother's cheating on your father with most.
Like what the hell?
Wait, whoa Santa?
Yikes?
Was that your brother was dead?
Right? Exactly? Oh my god, it is it just it got real dark for Alley, real fast. Snay on the ecrets say, Santa, come on tillikes yeah, but right on cue, a suspicious Edwin arrives at the Thompson's front door. Michelle answers the door slightly confused, but of course lets him in because he's on TV. As he investigates the house, he pretends the family won a Channel three contest and afternoon with Edwin. He was very I I don't know if he did not buy what he was doing, but
he committed one hundred percent to it. He made the character so weird that it was it was funny. Yes, he was my favorite part of the movie. He wonders if her husband has a government job, something clandestine, and even starts to take a part a lamp looking for a wire back in the garage. Though the girls are telling the truth to Santa about the machine, Santa says it took over two months to build and he never
perfected it, which is why he threw it out. Which is why he threw out such an important machine in frustration. He wanted to create the ultimate Christmas present. He wants a gentle snowfall to make everything slow down in society and give everyone a few moments to be reminded of the magic of the season.
I'm back in amazing, doesn't it?
And that's if you press the left button. If you press the right button, the San Andreas fault crumbles and we lose California. Thanks for the machine, Santa, What the other nine buttons for? Yike? Ali apologizes to Santa. If she wasn't such a and just wrote the school paper you think like she was supposed to, none of this would have happened. Santa says they can talk about that later, but for now, where's the machine? After asking Ali's mom for a buffet spread of food and drink, which I
thought was great? Can I get you anything? Cup of coffee? Sure, I'd also like it, he just lists all this stuff off. It was funny. Edwin looks around the house, eventually landing in Ali's room. He opens the door and is met with a gust of wind. There is a full on blizzard going on inside the room. Joey is screaming, hunkered down, holding the machine. Edwin gets him to hand it over by threatening jail, realizing it's a weather making machine that
could make him the greatest meteorologist ever. He can control the climate. This is where you got real kind of like evil les villain kind of villain.
Okay, yeah, he just thought he was a weird weather guy. Turns out Captain.
Cold do you know Captain Cold? No No, Captain Cold Arch Nemesis of the Fat No Arch Nemphsis of the Flash. I swear to God, Arch Nephysis of the Flash. Now, Captain he is anyway that they weren't all gems. They can't all be gems. There Sabrina.
Yikes, Frank Freeze, I mean, come on, well, excuse me, you just made one up, mister Freeze.
Doctor Freeze is the villain and batman who freezes everything. Doctor Freeze.
Oh my gosh, God.
To me too, Yeah, that to me too was mis Take to a DS and call me in the morning. Yeah that was yeah great. Uh. Anyway, Joey alerts his mom to the situation upstairs, while outside, the girls, Santa and the Elves need a way to distract Ali's mom. Ali then suggests, like she always does, ding Dong ditch, which is not a fun game at all. The plan works because as Michelle answers the door to No One, Ali and the gang sneak upstairs, only to run into Edwin,
leaving with the machine. He darts off, trying to sneak out of Alley's window, yelling to Santa that it will never give back to contraption. While arguing, he slips, falls off the roof and into the snow. Edwin dusts himself off and stumbles onto his stolen snowmobile. Santa the gang run out of the front door. Santa and the gang run out the front door, right past a confused Joey, just in time to see Edwin driving off. Ali announces she knows another shortcut because that worked out so well
the last time. But Edwin crashes the snowmobile into a candy shop when he's confronted by Horace, the man he stole the vehicle from. We do get a very cool stunt here, which was great as he flies into the air and lands in a vat of chocolate, just saving the machine from being covered in dessert. And this might be, I think the best stunt we've seen since motocrossed. Yeah, I mean this was like a legit stunt.
It was good. It was good. And there's a second one that comes right after it that I liked.
Too, Yes, I did too, but this was cool. Ali and her friends finally catch up and burst into the candy shop, but Edwin is nowhere to be found. Ali eventually finds his chocolate footprints that fizzle out in a corner. Also, is this the world largest chocolate store that apparently makes their own stuff. It's like they're in the Hershey factory in the middle of downtown LA, but not even in the in the middle of the neighborhood in.
LA small little town, and but a giant candy store.
Yeah, I want to own a candy store. I want to own a candy store, but I want to own I want to own Willy Wanka's candy store, like I want the Chocolate River and all that. So, oh wow, we'll talk, We'll talk. Why do you think I'm doing so many podcasts? I'm saving up out of nowhere. It starts drizzling chocolate from above and they realize that Edwin is hiding on the platform. They beg froim the surrender,
and I love this, say. They send up Sparky the Elf to attack, and before he gets up there, he puts a candy cane in his mouth like Rambo used to put the knife in his mouth when he would climb something. So it's like he grabbed a weapon.
I didn't get that.
I thought, that's it.
Why what was the point of that? What was the purpose?
It was like one of those war era things that if you have to climb something and you're holding the knife, they always put the knife between your teeth and their So he puts the candy. He came between his teeth like an.
Goes around the corner and picks up the candy can.
It was awesome. It was it was like he was getting a knife. I know, I know, but it was totally cool. I know, I knew no one was going to get that, but it was just the greatest.
Thing in the world.
Yeah. So, in a very last ditch effort to escape, Edwin uses a giant candy cane to swing from upstairs, dropping the machine in the process. Just in time, Ali dies and catches it, just like Mike Trout saving a game in the ninth inning, and Edward descends into a huge cotton candy maker. Is that the stunt that hes in the cotton zip line and the cotton candy machine?
Yep, Giants, giant box of cotton candy was.
In Keshu watch cotton candy. They're shipping it off it's cotton candy day. Everyone does that on Christmas. You know that, all right? Uh? Yes? So Ali has saved the day. Edwin emerges covered in cotton candy and he is apprehended by the giant Elves. Now with the machine back with his rifle, owner Santa works on it with the help of Ali and Sam. Back in his cabin. The elves watch on with a captured when nearby, but Santa just can't figure it out. He's triple checked everything it should
be working. Ali suggests batteries, and Santa says he uses his own brand that lasts for one hundred years. Thank you for giving those to us, Santa, but you didn't. But in this case he'd run out. That's right. He remembers that he used generic batteries this time. Ali was right, that was the problem. He switches out the batteries and woila. He is back in business. They raised the temperature to bring out the sun and it immediately works. It's four h five pm, which was very specific, and it's time
to get Christmas back on his feet. Ali asks she's really on the naughty list, and Santa says yes, but it's not permanent. If she learned a lesson today, it can change. She can't waste all of her brain power by skipping homework assignments. Good, good, rule of thumb. But if we got all this Santa stuff and everything just for the message to be do your homework. Wow, Yes,
but that's what it seemed to be. And as far as Edwin goes, Santa remembers him as a child, he wasn't a crook, then what made him a selfish, mean snob? Edwin says life hasn't been fair. He's always wanted to be a weatherman, but he feels like a failure. Santa says he isn't a failure. He just needs a new challenge, a place where he can be passionate and share his knowledge. Santa says he'll see what he can do if Edwin promises to be good and keep this little adventure to himself.
And with that, Santa andn Theiels take off, ready to save Christmas. Ali, who hasn't caused enough trouble yet, has one more favor to ask and whispers in Santa's.
Ear the longest sentence of life. Yes, his whispering for whole monologue is like I.
Just wanted to like Santa as he's doing it to just be like right, Okay, yeah, it just took forever. You're right, it took forever, but it was pretty funny. Back at the Thompsons. Now, with the perfect weather outside, it is Christmas. Michelle tells Ali that she couldn't find the roller blades and with all the chaos, it's gonna be kind of a yucky holiday. Ali says it's okay, she forgot all about the roller blades. Don't even worry
about it. Ali and Joey want to wait for their dad to get home to celebrate, even if it takes a few days. They don't even open a single present without him. But with that, a Christmas card magically appears on their pathetic little tree. It bears a picture of Santa and his two elves and says your gifts should be arriving right about and she opens it up and it says now. Then a car honks. It's their dad
being dropped off by a red Hummer. They embrace outside and he explains that he has to thank the two people that helped him get here. We get to see that it's Sparky and Crumpet who gave him a ride. You think they would pick a more climate conscious car than the giant hummer, but Santa, I guess, likes to stop for gas every twenty five feet. Steve then hands his wife a jewelry box, continuing a tradition of getting her a charm for her bracelet every December. This year,
it's an appropriate one. It's a snowflake. Steve professes his love to his family and says that the storm was wait for it, everybody the ultimate Christmas Present? What they use the title? Ali looks up to the sky and thanks Santa. We pull out to see a small black and white TV displaying the unfolding scene. It is Santa and missus Claus snuggling up and at what they see. The Thompson's now joined by Sam and her mom, but not Michell's Assisant because I remember he was killed horribly
in a crash. Play in what's left of the snow. As we fade out, then we find ourselves in a very snowy Antarctica, surrounded by penguins. A man in a big jacket is teaching a class. It is Edwin. He has his own school now teaching meteorology. Also was the guy whose snowmobile he stole? Was he in class two? Did I miss that? Or was it a different guy?
It was a different guy? I think I didn't.
I think, okay, okay, I thought there was I thought snowmobile guy was there, but I guess not. His students are so excited. It appears that Santa made Edwin's dreams come true as well. And folks, Merry Christmas. That is your movie we got there? Can we do some real reviews?
Yes we can.
I think I have the five star this week and it is. It is from Susie, and Susie says, this is one of my favorite Christmas movies. I've seen it many many times. I would have love to have a weather machine just so I could control the weather. That's it. Five stars, love it? I love it. What do we got for our one star this week?
Star?
One star is from yash b Yosh. I don't know.
I think, yeah, I think it's your.
First time for me for this this name? What kid would even want to change the weather as a kid. I guess I still enjoyed it, okay, all right?
Yeah, I love that. I guess I still enjoyed it. One star all right, I love that and now as I say this every week, but I know that this week is absolutely the truth. This is Sabrina's favorite part of the program. Where we are doing our feature, which is called Santa Claus or Santa Nas, thank you very much. I tried to make it sassy. We will be given the name of an actor and we have to guess if he's played Santa Claus or an impersonator at some point in his career. For example, if we get Tim Allen,
that's obviously a yes from the Santa Claus movie. Okay, that makes sense. So three out of five win. Okay, again, I say this every week. We have not looked at these We do not know. So we're gonna get the name of five actors and either they've played Santa Claus or they've played a Santa Claus impersonator. Yeah, like a mall, like a mall sent right, all right?
Like Fordton, Billy Bob Thornton would have been a yes.
Thank you. Okay, wait, no, Phil, he would have been a.
Yes, yeah, Billy Bob Thornton. Santa He's a Santa Okay.
So oh wait, so it's either okay, I misunderstood the game. I thought it was yes if he played Santa Claus or know if he played a Santa Claus impersonator. Just if he's been either gotcha?
Gotcha?
Gotcha? Yes? Okay, so here we go. Number one Leslie Nielsen. I'm trying to think none of the Naked Gun movie. I can't think of one. But that doesn't mean anything. But I'm gonna say no.
I'm going to say no too.
We're off to a good start. It was a yes. He was in All I Want for Christmas. He did play Santa.
Oh I All I Want for Christmas? Okay. Number two Chris Rock. Yes, Yes, Chris Rock did one.
I don't know what the movie was, but I don't either. Yes, I have a picture of him and.
Me too with the Santa stuff on.
Yes, I probably also imagine Sinbad as a genie. Because this is a no, you scared yourselves. Chris Rock has never played Santa.
Come on, I thought so too. This sucks.
Number one.
Number three Wilford Brimley, Diabetes, the guy who right Diabetes. Brimley, Yeah, yeah, cocoon. No, you don't know. No, Okay, with Bread, I'm gonna say just because he looks like Santa, I'm going to say yes. Just because he so looks like Santa Claus.
I'm going to say, no, well that's a good producer because he has never played Santa, but he he does look like.
Oh Jensen went and picked all these people that look just like Santa Claus. I haven't got a single one right yet.
Okay, no, you're you have one to get the next two right, but you're I lost.
But you have to get the next two right. Number four George Went. Do you know who George Went is?
No?
From Cheers, Norm from Cheers Cheers?
Wait, which guy?
And Norm? The big guy? Norm? Oh?
Yeah, he's a male man.
No, Cliff is a mailman.
Oh right, right, he's just a drunk.
Yeah, yes, he looks like he'd be a good Santa.
Yes, I mean will have to answer guys.
Oh do I I can't win anyway. Oh I'm gonna then just say no. I'm gonna do the opposite of whatever Sabrina does to try to get one right.
So no continues as Goosegg he in a movie called Santa Buddies.
Oh my god, Santa Buddies.
Okay, and number five Kurt Russell. Kurt Russell's yes, even I know.
That, all right?
So he I gave you one. Chris A Chronicles is Kurt Russell. Butrina won the Christmas Challenge.
It's a Christmas miracle.
Christmas miracle.
Yah, I did I got I was over five. Ho oh is what I just got? There? Well, thank you for producer Jensen for throwing in people like Wilford Brimley who should totally have played Santa Claus and didn't didn't. Yikes, Okay, well there we go. Uh wow, well you wont Sabrina. I think we should just end on a high note. Never do one of those again.
I know, I think I'm out. We're here on out. I'm just gonna do that.
Never All right, can we do a Sabrina Sees please? Yes?
This one is probably just my eye of just I couldn't stand it. She had it for so long and Brenda's song, and I love Brenda, so I'm upset it the hairstylists who did this to her. She had the world's worst part for her pigtails. It was like it wasn't even like a zigzag. It was literally like the hairstylist went like this once and then just put it in pigtails, didn't care center to set, like come on Lady.
That part was was jarr Or man Or man Orman drove me crazy and she wears them for good twenty minutes of the movie.
I love this stuff that I would never see that you see. This is like one of my favorite segments.
Because I just care about that. I know I'm the only one that would care. But that was absolutely awful. I had to put down how horrible this mom was about the earthquake that definitely needed yeah, set nothing, So I wasn't sure if we would get there and actually say it or not. Is it me? Was Santa and missus Klaus kind of in a weird fetish mama papa situation.
It seemed like there was something going on, like it's like Santa had an only.
Fand me feel a little uncomfortable. It's like, ah, oh my gosh, like mama, mama. It started with a mama and then mama, Papa, bye, papa, stop it, cut it out, get it, get it off.
Stop.
And then the last thing I will say was I really did love how it was. It felt really real. Again. I'm obviously traumatized that I didn't get a lot of snow days when I was young, glowing up, but I really loved how true they set. They stayed with it being like La where they didn't have a bunch of sleds out on the set or in the snow. It was boogie boards and blow up like cool toys, and the kids were in jeans. They were not in snow gear. You know, it looked crazy because that's just not what
you'd wear in snow. But if it rained or if it snowed here, that's exactly how ella. I mean, you know, so I really did. I absolutely love that. However, I have to say this, and I feel terrible. The set design of what the North Pole looked so fake. It also looked like it was eighty five degrees outside with all this snow in the North Pole. It was not great. And I love Christmas movies and part of what I love the most about them is seeing these snowy sets.
And you either have to go. You either have to go like it's awesome or so cheesy like Elf like that, like it's supposed to look that bad as Elf like it's supposed to look like the old Rank and kind of movies, which is great.
Yeah, and the snow didn't look real at all, like it was just kind of that part made me a little sad that that the budget didn't go a little bit more towards the set stuff of just the north pole, the play stuff. I didn't care the north pole. If you're going to put a north pole in, it's gotta look.
Make it the north pole. Make it.
And that's it.
Okay, well, thank you, well. We we now come to the wonderful part of our feature presentation this week where we we rate our film. And we do this all the time. We do this every week. You know, one
is one is bad, ten is good. And this week, should we do one out of ten terrible bet proposals, one out of ten, boring meteorologists, one out of ten poor Jennifer love Hewitts, one out of ten, pitiful looking Christmas trees, one out of ten, one out of ten meteorologists, carjackings, yep, one out of ten, awful d com siblings, one out of ten Ricky Martin secrets, or one out of ten dead catering assistants.
We gotta go with that one yet.
All right, so we're gonna do one out of ten dead catering assistance. I think I went first last time, you did, so you have to go first. This time.
Okay, like I said before, you guys obviously are catching on that I love Christmas movies. Yeah, my bar is set pretty high for these Christmas movies.
I get that.
Like I said before we started, I just felt like Disney Channel does things so right. Christmas movies is not one of the things that I felt like they did that great. So I'm going to go with just like a five. It wasn't a horrible movie. The actors made it what it was, which was, you know, their acting was so great, but the movie itself, I was exhausted, and I love Christmas movie so it was really just kind of a middle range that was just a movie for me. It was a five for me.
Five catering, catering assistance. It's so good, you know, I said, I was never going to give a ten, but then I saw this. No I'm kidding, of course, don't you dare.
Good at it?
Ear? No, you know what's funny is I agree with you one. This was a movie. I saw a movie, and again I really liked the cast, all of them. Bill Fagerbaki who plays with the the one of the tall elves, the tall el They went in John Sully and I love Peter Galary. The kids were great that they weren't bad. None of the acting was bad at all. It really was not. There was not like, wow, they were terrible. I did. I still don't understand what the message. I know what they were trying to do. The ultimate
Christmas present is being with your family. Weird way to do it with the weather machine, and everybody has plans on Christmas Day, and none of that made any sense. Who buys? No one buys their Christmas tree anchors. So there were little things where it was like, what is I didn't understand it. I agree with you one thousand percent. It is five dead catering assistance. Just saying that sounds awful, it makes it so much better, but it does. It
is better five dead catering assistants. If you want to see a movie, this is definitely one of them. Thank you so much for joining us. And before you leave here, by the way, a couple things first. Our next movie is going to be us returning to a place we love, which is the wonderful world of Disney. For the nineteen ninety seven fantasy comedy star in Kirsty Ali, It's toothless, Yes, this one, it's a tooth fairy thing. It sounds like it might be a tooth fairy.
Yes, I think Christy Ally is the tooth fairy.
Oh, she's the truth fairy.
Okay, if it's hitting me correctly, she might actually be.
The tooth fairy again. After thirteenth year, I don't even pretend to know what anything is about. So great if that's what it is. And that's not all. For our park Opper episode on the dedicated magical rewind Feed we talked to I was really excited about this. A Disney legend, someone who has come up multiple times in this podcast, and without him, high School Musical would sound an awful lot different. But he has been in a ton of great stuff for the channel. It is the one and
only Drew Seally. We've been waiting for this because we've talked about him so many times. I can't wait times. So let's take a listen for what you're in for this time.
I've never been given an explanation of why they kept my voice on the soundtrack, and I don't think zach Was has ever been given that explanation of why they didn't, So it just sort of came out the way that they came out and yeah, reporters started calling me. I was still working at PF. Chang's the first time High School Musical aired. I was watching it on the bar top. Monitors like telling people, Hey, that's my voice, and they're like, yeah, yeah, get me my Rice.
So yeah, it was pretty crazy. It happened very suddenly. So thank you so much for joining us, and remember to subscribe to our feed. You just search Magical Rewind wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to see who will be talking to next. And of course you can follow us a Magical Rewind pod on the Instagram machine. Thank you again. Everybody, don't make a ton of plans for on Christmas Day. It doesn't make any sense, okay, and we'll see you later.
Bye bye