On the Bechdecast, the questions ask if movies have women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy. Zeph and Beast start changing with the Bechdel cast. Cluck cluck, full clutch cluck. Queen, how are you?
I'm doing so great? How are you.
Never been worse? And I cannot overemphasize that. But today we are here to release I think kind of a banger episode. Oh yeah, we're unlocking an episode from our Patreon aka Matreon. If you enjoyed this episode, you should obviously be subscribing. It's five bucks a month and it'll give you access to over one hundred and fifty episodes, plus new ones every month with Caitlin and myself. But it's Chicken Run Week. It's Chicken Run Week.
Yes it is.
Oh, you didn't think it was Chicken Run Week.
Well it is.
Well it is.
Take that and there's a reason.
There's a method, Yes there is.
So this is an episode that we originally released on the Matreon in February twenty twenty one as a part of a theme that we didn't have a good title for. But the theme itself was I think pretty solid, which was movies with animals in the title, because we did Chicken Run and Coyote Ugly, Yes, which has nothing to do with animals.
Yeah, and two movies that are really like, couldn't be less in conversation with one another, true, but two fun episodes to do and Chicken Run I mean an all timer movie film. There has since been a sequel released on Netflix that I have not watched yet, what about yourself.
I just watched it yesterday.
My niece loves it and she's four, So there you go.
It was fun, I would say, not as good as Chicken Run the original high bar kind of nothing, hy Barticlear exactly. Anyway, you released this episode like three and a half years ago, so if you hear some references that feel a bit dated, that's why. If you're like, why are they bringing up the sonic the Hedgehog movie? Why are they talking about pandemic stimulus checks as if it just happened, Well, that's wild.
I guess what. We weren't even vaccinated. Like, really, take yourself back there. We were in the thick of it, and we're in the thick of it now. But it's in a different way. The reason we're doing this is if you're in the Los Angeles area, you're in freaking luck because we are hosting a screening of Chicken Run at the Low's feel As three with American Cinematech on August twenty fifth. We're so pumped. We technically hosted as screening with them last year, but neither of us could
go this year. Things are a little different because you had COVID last year. I have COVID right now, so I'm not gonna have it in three weeks. So yeah, we'll be there.
We'll be there presenting Chicken Run. Yes, this is part of American Semitech's Friend of the Fest podcast festival, where they have podcast hosts introduce one of their favorite films, and we have the honor of presenting Chicken Run. And we're like, hey, what better way to promote that screening than to unlock our Matreon episode on Chicken Run. And
that's what we're doing right now. A men, Now, if this is your first episode of the Bechdel Cast or you know, you don't really know who we are and what we are, we well, first of all, my name's Caitlin Deronte.
My name is Jamie loftus.
This is our podcast where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens, using the Bechdel Test as a jumping off point. But Jamie, what's that well?
The Bechdel Test is a media metric originally created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel, often called the Bechdel Wallace Test because it was co created with Alison Bechdel's good friend Liz Wallace. This test was created as a joke, a bit a lark an idea, a passing fancy by Alison Bechdel for her iconic comic Iconic Comic Likes to Watch
Out for Great Comic. She's basically commenting on how infrequently women talk to each other in a queer context originally, but the way it's been adapted for the mainstream is that it's looking at how infrequently people of marginalized genders are allowed to speak about not men. So there's a lot of versions of the test. The test we use is this, two characters of a marginalized gender with names must speak to each other for more than two lines of dialogue about a character who is not a man,
and I honestly forget with Chicken Run. I honestly forget you're gonna have to consult with us three and a half years ago because they they know.
Yeah, well, if you want me to spoil it for you right now, they definitely pass the Bechdel test.
I mean it is mostly about Yeah, this is a chicken matriarchy in any case, that is what we're releasing. And if you are in the LA area, we would love, love, love for you to join us on Sunday, August twenty fifth, at four pm. We're going to put the link in the description of this episode. We're also going to be plugging the hell out of it on social media, and please join us.
It's eighty four minutes long, and it's been eighty four minutes minutes and I can still smell the chicken chickens.
Yep, I can still smell the chickens.
The chickens had never been used.
Which is the whole point, Which is the whole point of Chicken Run, which is the whole point. They're trying to escape with their lives exactly. Yeah, just a perfect movie. We would love to watch it with you. I you know, I want to dress up like a chicken. There I said it. I want to dress up like a chicken do it. I don't know, like I've never really made I believe in myself that I can make this happen. I don't know what that's gonna look like, but you should come and see see if we pulled it off.
Yes, definitely, so yeah, grab tickets for that. You can also find the tickets on our link tree link Tree slash Bechtel Cast and Yeah, we are so excited to present this movie and we hope to see you there. And in the meantime, enjoy this unlocked Matreon episode of Chicken Run. Jamie, what's your relationship with Chicken Run?
Chicken Run's one of my favorite movies ever. I love Chicken Run. I remember seeing it in theaters with my family and being like, wow, look at this chickens run and not really understanding you know, feminism, patriarchal structures or or you know, workers live, and yet Chicken Run really hit. I loved it. I thought. I remember being scared when
they go into the Chicken Machine. It was like for me right up there with Toy Story three, where it's like, oh my god, these adorable characters are entering a doom machine and I'm so scared. I just love I just love Chicken Run, and I watch it probably about once a year for fun, depending on whether it's streaming places.
I just watched it a couple months ago because I remember texting you about it, like fairly recently, and then you came up with this brilliant theme, You're welcome, and here we are back at Chicken Run, and yeah, I think, I mean, there are elements of it that don't hold up for me, but I think by and large as a movie, as a product, as a story, as a romp, as a romp, I mean, I think it holds up
extraordinarily well. And I still love it. And I tweeted about loving today, and then you get five trillion people be like, but what about mel Gibson? As Like, I am aware that mel Gibson is in this movie. We will talk about it, but I'm not gonna let mel Gibson take away Chicken Run from me. I really love this movie and fuck mel Gibson. Two things can be true. What's your history with Chicken Run?
I haven't seen it as often as you, but I too love this movie. I saw it when it first came out in two thousand. I think I saw it like a couple times. I think that was my first introduction to that type of like stop motion from that studio specifically, because I don't think I saw anything Wallace and Grammt until after this.
Yeah, I think that I didn't see any Wallace and Grammat until unless they I don't think they showed the short and I don't think I saw it until like Curse of the were Rabbit, and then I went back and saw the short cartoons. Right, everything from this studio is so fucking beautiful, Like all of the Arden and Studios stuff is just like incredible.
Yeah, And I always get so I get and people might drag me for this, but I get this studio's content sometimes confused with Laika content.
Oh, I mean they also do could blame you thank you so much ascept a bully. Yeah no, I mean like the because Leika is like Coraline and shit like that.
Right, Yeah, but like similar, like especially with what did I see recently missing Link that came out like twenty nineteen or something. Yes, I was like, oh, this is probably the same studio as Chicken Run. And then I was like, oh wait, no it's the other one.
So looks very similar yeah, Thelika movies do like quiet, and I feel like there's a lot of like they're also all very British, yes, and so I feel like it's also the tone to the movies, or I'm sure that there is some overlap app creatively, but they're like, yeah, they're very British stop motion movies. If anyone's if anyone bullies you about that, launch me out of the chicken what is it the catapult? Yeah, the chicken catapults.
I'll attack them more like the chicken polt.
Oh god, the sheer resourcefulness of these brilliant chickens.
I know. Oh, I can't wait to talk about it.
There's so much to talk about. Even in it's the areas where it is not amazing, there's still a lot to talk about, Like this movie. Now that I was paying attention to the politics of the movie and not just being like I love these chickens, which is usually where I'm at when I'm watching Chicken Run. I'm eating a plate of nachos and I'm like, these chickens are so cool. But this is like this movie is like if Animal Farm had gone right basically, yeah, like it's
animals like seizing the means of production. I have a whole thing about it. But like they're seizing the means of production, they are overthrowing the oppressive force. But there's no like there's not enough infighting that the whole operation gets sabotaged, like they liberate themselves. It's beautiful.
It is beautiful. It's also what So we recently were guests on the podcast Creature Feature talking about B Movie, and I feel like this is what B Movie was like maybe trying to do and then like utterly fumbling and failing every step of the way.
Yeah. B movie just ended up being like, Wow, capitalism it's awesome. No, no, no, its it rocks. Although I was thinking I was thinking about B Movie when Larry King died, because I'm like, wow, what was his name?
Me, Larry King?
Be Larry King. That was like maybe his best maybe his best work, his best credit, Yeah iconic. Yeah. No, So Larry King's not in this although I wish he was instead of Mel Gibson. Seriously, the Mel Gibson of it all. It's so it fucking sucks that he's in this movie, man, because other than that, it is like such a fabulous.
Movie. At least we don't have to see Mel Gibson's face.
It does make it easier to I mean, it's I hate that he got paid to be in this amazing movie. Yeah, at very least he's playing an evil fraud. But then also he's forgiven at the end.
Oh, don't get me, Sack.
There's a lot to be taught. I'm just like, you know what, he should have just left and stayed gone.
And stayed gone exactly.
I don't know why, Like I thought, I really thought, because I've been thinking so much about when we redid Beauty and the Beast and we had that whole conversation about like the burden of forgiveness on female characters, and I didn't totally. I don't know. I just I'm never paying super close attention to the plot points of Chicken Run.
And so I was like, she, Ginger comes so close to like subverting that and being like, fuck you get out of here, you coward, right, But then he shows up and then she I'm like, Ginger, I mean, live your life, don't let me tell you how to live, Ginger. But like Ginger, I feel like we can just do better. We can do better.
Ginger can do something.
I'm not opposed to Ginger finding love, but like Rocky really literally it sounds like my mom of just like my mom's like, you're gonna go off with some guy from Rhode Island, which is literally who Rocky is. He's some guy from Rhode Island. True, Ginger, do not just go off with some guy from Rhode Island. I mean that whole thing. We'll get there, but.
Yes, yeah, we'll get there. In the meantime, should we recap it?
Yes, I'm sorry, I'm getting like so excited. I have like a full glass of wine and I'm so excited to talk about chicken run.
Oh my goodness, I love it. Uh, let's take a quick break and then we'll come right back for the recap. So the story is as follows. We open on a chicken farm. The chickens are, they talk, and they're they're people, But their chickens.
The most horrifying thing. I mean not horrifying. I don't know how the animation gets away with not being scary, but giving a farmful of chickens full sets of human teeth is such like a decision that it should look scarier than it does, and I feel like it speaks to the animation that that is not extremely because wasn't that like the reason that they completely reanimated the sonic the Hedgehog movie is because they're like, why does he have human teeth?
Oh? I thought it was because his like proportions were all wrong.
Wait let me oh, hold on, Maybe it was a combination, because that sounds right as well.
Because he was like, his like proportions were just like, like his leg the length of his legs and arms were just like really bizarre. And they were like, this looks terrible.
So we're both right and and I forgot how scary the first sonic was. Yeah, so he both looked too much like an animal and his proportions were like two Uncanny Valley photorealistic, Like he just looks like a blue cat, but he has like a full set of like Joe Biden viniars, Pete Davis whatever, whoever, Walton Goggins vinyars like mm hmm, just really scary stuff. For some reason, the chickens and the roosters they're allowed to have full sets of teeth. It doesn't bother me, Yeah, why not.
I'll allow it. So one of the chickens, our hero Ginger, is organizing a mass escape for her and all the other chickens to basically do a prison break. And I also read that when this movie was like being developed, they were just like, let's do the Great Escape but with chickens.
Which is like, holy shit, right, what a what a wide swing?
Why didn't I think of that? You know?
Yeah, exactly.
So we meet some of the other chickens. There's Babs, who is always knitting. There is Mac who is the brainy chicken in Stem.
She's a chicken in Stem.
A chicken in Stem, and you'd love to see it at last, at long Last.
She's also Scottish, which is constantly made a joke off, and I'm like, I can't tell if this is offensive or if I just don't live in the UK, but she's very Scottish.
She also wears glasses.
She wears glasses exactly. Yeah.
Yes, there's Bunty, who lays a lot of eggs. I think that's kind of the main thing that we know. She's very fertile, Yeah, very fertile, full bursting at the seems with eggs. There's also an old rooster named Fowler who's like a former military man and he's always carrying the world War two, yeah.
Or he says you did. He was actually just a chicken.
He's just a chicken this whole time. Yeah, but he's always caring on about his glory days.
Right.
So Ginger is trying to escape and she gets caught by mister Tweety, Mister Tweety's dogs and Missus Tweety.
Oh and iconic villains so scary. When I was a kid, I was so scared of her. But I think, you know, Jen, we'll have a more full discussion about her. But like where older women are so often fully demonized, with Missus Tweety, it's not because she's jealous of this. I think she's very logically motivated and true. And I also think that she is I forget where I thought this as I was watching, and I'm like, you're reaching, Jamie. But then
I saw someone else wrote about it. I was like, I think that she's supposed to be like low key Margaret Thatcher. Oh, she styled kind of similarly. I think she's supposed to be like rural Margaret Margaret Thatcher. That's my working theory that at least I have their name written down here, that at least one writer also thought. But she's at least she is an She is like, she looks kind of like an evil stepmother, but she is a very highly motivated capitalist villain. Yeah, iconic, iconic, scary.
And voiced by Miranda Richardson.
Yes, too amazing.
So Ginger gets caught and is thrown into solitary confinement, and as soon as she's released, she plans another escape, and another and another. We get a montage, each one ending in her getting caught and put in solitary.
They're all funny, Yes, I like when they dress up like missus tweety and almost escape. Oh and then it's just a dress full of chickens. Oh, I'm laughing.
The visual comedy in this movie is outstanding genius.
It's so good all Yeah, Like these chickens, they are cracking me up eighty four minutes straight.
Even the scene where like they're trying to escape like a trough they're like covering themselves up with it, and then they flip over and all their legs are just sort of flailing about. Like just the visual of their legs is the funniest thing I've ever seen.
Yeah, Like anytime they're on, the chickens are on like stationary bicycles. I'm laughing like it just chickens are funny and and they're also you know, maytriarchy seizing the means of production, so they're also very inspirational. Here is it's true, Oh dressful of chickens, Like, who's gonna no, I can't write a joke that good dressful of chickens hilarious.
So mister and missus Tweety this is an egg farm, not a poultry farm yet, but they're keeping track of the chicken's egg production, and if a chicken doesn't produce enough eggs, the Tweeties chop that chicken's head, which we see not like the gory details of it, but so sad though, Like a chicken gets murdered within the first ten minutes of the.
Movie talk about steaks, I mean, yeah, immediately that it's life or death for the chickens because of what's her name? Her name is Edwena Chicken Edwena at this on this view, at least, I'm like, at least she didn't like it would have been even because this is a g rated movie, which is wild for how many times they almost knife the chickens, right, But at least Edwena didn't. I was worried that she was gonna go like, ah, like, but it's just silent.
You just hear like the thunk of an axe.
I wonder if they're like if she clucks when she's beheaded, it's PG or something. I don't know. That's too much.
Right, Oh my goodness. And also missus Tweety is sick and tired of the farm's minuscule profits, and she sees an ad to turn her egg farm into a gold mine by producing chicken meat rather than chicken eggs. Meanwhile, Ginger is trying to hatch a new plan to escape. Get it hatch.
Ginger in these scenes reminds me of like every DSA meeting I've ever been to, where there's like one highly motivated person trying to get like fifty well meaning people to pay attention to a good idea, and everyone's like, wait, huh what huh. It's literally Ginger is a branch leader of the DSA, and no one on the zoom call is listening to.
Her exactly, so basically, she just keeps pitching ideas to escape because her whole thing is she's not happy with the expectation to lay eggs every day until she is what is it plucked, roasted and turned into chicken dinner or some some I forget the quote exactly.
Right, because it's like the Tweeties, even before they sell poultry. Once you don't lay eggs, they will just eat you.
Correct. Yes, So she's not satisfied with this being her fate and that's why she is longing to be free. But the other chickens are like, well, you know what if we don't try to escape because it never seems to work.
Right, it's exhausting, I'm tired. And then that line where Ginger is like, there's not just fences outside of the coop, there's fences in your mind, and you're like, well, like exactly, Oh, she's amazing.
She's a what a speaker, truly, and yeah there's stuff to talk about with the complacency of the other chicken.
I love, it's literally it's just it's a Marxist tail.
Okay. So the other chickens are like, well, let's maybe not escape. So Ginger is hopeless until a root stur named Rocky this is mel Gibson boo yeah, flies into their farm and Ginger gets the idea for the chickens to escape by flying over the fence and out of the farm, and she wants Rocky to teach them to fly, but Rocky is not interested in that. But he cannot leave because he broke his wing crash landing into the farm.
And then there's a great scene where they have to like negotiate of like what services he's going to provide, because at first he's like, no, I'm not gonna help you. He kind of reminds me of like Chicken Han Solo a little bit where he's like, screw the collective. I'm just a I'm just a guy, and I'm just a horny guy wandering the earth, and screw you. And then she,
you know, she kind of she's got them. She's like, I'm not just going to This is where I feel like there's a really cool something set up that the ending doesn't really follow through on of like she does not have sympathy for him, just because he says that she should like in to establish their relationship, which is such a strong way to establish a relationship between like in a kid's cartoon. Right. Oh, I just wish it
stayed that way, but I love that. I love that first scene where he's like what, You're not gonna help me because I'm cute and she's like, fuck you, right to the guillotine, sir.
And then I mean this is like, this is just like a good screenwriting comment. But he's like, okay, fine, I'll teach you everything I know, which he doesn't know anything because spoiler alert, he doesn't know how to fly, but he just like omits that, which is the same thing he does to the two rats that we.
See Timothy's more. Timothy's spall like, let this man play not a rat for once in his life.
He might as well have been playing scabberds. Yeah.
Literally, I'm just like, this man is being typecast as a literal rat, and that's not nice. He was a really good mister Poe in Series of Unfortunate Events, which I am. I think I am going to choose that for my birthday this year on the Matreon ooh yeah, but yeah, poor Timothy's ball when I was like, wait a second, it can't be and I'm like, god damn it, they're still making Timothy's Ball play a British rat. Maybe this is how he got cast in Harry Potter.
Ye, this was before the first Harry Potter movie.
That would be really yeah, because he doesn't even come in till like the later movies, right, like the third or fourth or something.
The third one.
Yeah, so that would be really sad but also kind of funny if they were like, well, you know he can play a British rat, well, Timmy's ball weird.
Yeah. So back on the farm, So some men show up from the circus to collect Rocky the rooster, so like he's a runaway from the circus. Ginger realizes this, so she makes a deal with him that the chickens will hide him if he teaches them to fly, and he agrees.
Amazing negotiation by Ginger.
Incredible. Yes. Then the next day Rocky starts training the chickens to fly by not doing anything related to flying, and they don't seem to be making any progress because chickens can't fly.
Yeah, it's kind of like evokes I think that these movies were made too close together, but like it evoked the be a Man sequence from Mulan for me of just like an insecure man leading a group of soldiers for a mission that they will fail at. I guess that's where I was coming from.
Sure, Yeah, I mean a training montage is a training montage is a training montage. You know they're I.
Guess I just don't watch many movies with trade. I think these are the These are the only two movies I've ever seen with a group training montage.
Oh my gosh. Really I have seen are.
Other movies with training montages that are like a big group of people, because I'm like, I've seen movies with training montages, but I just feel like these movies two years apart. I think that's why I'm just like, uh huh oh yeah. Insecure guy leads a group of soldiers that don't really know what they're doing.
I mean, just like any sports movie where like the whole team is training, there's you know, dozens of those.
I've seen, remember the Titans. I haven't seen many sports movies. I think that's why I'm like, Wow, look at these two iconic movies borrowing from each other, Mulan and Chicken Run. There's no way, but that was what I thought.
Sure, Well, gotta watch more training montages.
They're great, apparently, I guess.
Okay, so the chickens are trying to learn to fly, no progress is being made, and then the equipment for turning the farm into a poultry farm arrives and we're like, wow, those steaks that we thought were all ready pretty high, guess what even higher?
Who Now they won't stop rising.
They really won't. So some of the chickens, including Ginger, are growing skeptical of Rocky because nothing seems to be happening. She wants results, but he's also this like pompous, shitty guy who's just like being dodgy about everything. Classic. Then missus Tweety doubles their food rations to fatten the chickens up so they produce more meat, which Ginger figures out and tells the chickens, and then everyone is all sad
because they realize they're about to be murdered. And then Rocky, to cheer everyone up, throws a party, right, and Ginger's like, wait a minute, maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe he's actually this good, nice guy after all, and his wings seems to be better. So she's like, Okay, tomorrow you can fly for us and show us how it's done, and he's like, yeah, yeah, definitely, I can definitely sure definitely do that. Uh huh huh.
God, he's such a coward. I always, I always forget that he never even like admits. There's no scene in which he's like, Okay, I actually can't fly. At least then he would have a shred.
Of like integrity.
Yeah, but he's just a total like weak coward.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm it's nice, you know, for our purposes. It's it's interesting that like Ginger figures out that he's a fraud. She finds in the next scene, she finds us the other half of the poster that basically says he's a circus act. He can't really fly. So it's good that she discovers that. But I'm like, this fucking guy from Rhode Island is just lying, lying, lying, and then he bails. He never even he never has to face the music.
It's he's there. There are like one or two moments where it's clear that he's like trying to work up the nerve to tell her, but then doesn't he You might say he chickens out.
He chickens out. He's the biggest chicken in the movie, not just physically because he's pretty tall, but he's a cat. He's a cowardly he's a chicken chicken. Yes, he bails, he gets his little chicken bindle and he gets the fuck out of there.
Also, does he ever apologize to her at the end? No, he doesn't, didn't think so she there.
There are a few elements of like very girl there. For the most part, I feel like Ginger's character like manages to skirt around late nineties girl power feminism, but there's a few moments where it's like he never apologizes and there's that classic I feel like this happens in every Mary Kate Nashley movie where he calls her like
a diminutive thing. He's like dollphace, angel beak or whatever, and then she goes, my name is Ginger, and it's like that edit some if you said a sentence like that, that that's feminism, And like there was a time where I feel like there's that happens in like Disney's Hercules as well, where it's like, at least with Ginger, she genuinely is like I think, a really feminist iconic character. Yeah, but I feel like sometimes that's a shorthand for men
writing quote unquote empowered female characters. It's like, that's not my name, this is my name, and you're like that's all we get.
It's like, don't it happens in my name? Yeah, it happens in Transformers with Megan Fox, where like her boyfriend is like, come on, little bunny, and she's like, I can't tell you how much I'm not your little bunny. Meanwhile, she's like humping the hood of a car.
Don't ask me, don't ask me why. This is the only thing I remember about New York minute starting Mary Kate and Ashley. But that happens, for sure. I think Dean from Gilmour Girls is like, hey, kid, and then Mary Kate or Ashley is like, my name's not Kid, it's.
Mary Kay or Ashley.
Whatever the fuck? Yeah, I'm Mary kay and or Ashley and he's like, whoa. What you said back there really made me think, like you're just like that. So that happens. But at least other things happened in Chicken Run, you know. Sure, But that whole thing that was like my little nineties feminism Antenna went up when she's like, the name is Ginger, mister, like that whole thing whatever, Yeah, it's still Chicken Run.
Do you think Ginger was named after Ginger Spice?
I was thinking about as tohold by Ginger and then I looked, did you ever watch that cartoon?
No?
Oh my god, it was a really good like, Okay.
Who is is someone me owing?
Yes, there's this cat. It's not Flea hungry.
For his chicken dinner. Oh it's a different cat.
No, it's Flea sitting at the window. Because there's a lot of alley cats in our neighbor feeds and fixes and relief, like it's like a catchabuili system. But there's cats around, and Flea will talk to them. But there's this one cat that we have checked on them multiple times and they seem fine, but they just keep They just kind of yell and then we're like, are you okay? And we're like if given him food or her. I
don't know what the gender of the cat is. I like, I secretly, I'm like, what if the cat is pregnant?
Oh?
Gregs and just is like uncomfortable because she's full of Gregs. I don't really know what's going on, but it's been going on for a week and every time she starts screaming, flee gets stressed out. Oh I don't know.
I'm just thinking of a bunch of little kittens named Greg.
The little Greg's running around five hundred. Anyways, chicken run right, Yes.
So where do we leave off? Oh Ginger, Yeah, he's a fraud, but she doesn't Ginger doesn't know that yet. Meanwhile, missus Tweety has gotten the equipment together, the U and it's basically just this machine that turns a chicken to a packaged chicken pie, and she wants to test it out. So they grab Ginger and put her in the pie machine. Rocky goes to save her. The two of them go
through the machine. They managed to escape and fuck up the machine, and now everyone's like, wow, Rocky, what a hero, even.
Though he does nothing at least because I was like, oh god, we're damseling Ginger. But then it's like Rocky truly does not help in any significant way, and that he just kind of joins the distress, Like.
You mean, like when they's inside the machine.
Yeah, I mean mainly, I mean, I guess it seemed more like a group effort and it wasn't like she was damseled and now, oh no, he has to like single handedly rescue her, and it was at least like a group effort to get out of the machine in one piece.
Sometimes well, I was I was like paying super close attention to this because I was like, okay, is it like he saves her sometimes she saves him sometimes, Like how how does that dynamic play out? And it felt to me like he does do a few things to save her from certain death, she does one thing to save him. But it felt to me like the scales were tipped into like she is being damseled territory and he does have to save her a few more times than she saves him, or that she's able to save herself.
Interesting, I was, I was not doing the exact math on it. I was, at least I guess I was more expecting like, oh, we're damseling her and then it's going to be a clear cut like end of The Little Mermaid, like I'm gonna defeat the villain, and then you know it's at least a little more subtle than that. But yeah, I mean I totally trust that. I wasn't. Yeah, I wasn't keeping counts. Yeah, I just love Chicken Run too much. Disappointing, disappointing Chicken Run, do better, Chicken Run.
Seriously, So he he emerges like this heroic you know, Wow, I saved her and then he and Ginger have a little moment and we're like, uh, oh, don't like where this is going.
But you know, you know, I'm like in the year two thousand. You know, it's so fucked up. She doesn't need him.
No, no, she really doesn't. But the next morning it's time for Rocky to show them his flying abilities, but he's nowhere to be found. And this is when he leaves behind like the rest of the circus poster showing him being shot out of a cannon, revealing that he cannot fly and never could. And we're like, oh, wow, have we arrived at the low point of the movie much?
Yeah, it sounded like a second And what's more, Ginger's lost all hope the end of it.
Until Ginger gets the idea, inspired by Fowler's time in the Royal Air Force, to fly out of the farm by building an airplane slash giant flying chicken apparatus. So they get to work on building this while mister Tweety gets to work repairing the chicken pie machine and he finally fixes it, so now it's like a okay, and it's now or never. The chickens roll out their flying chicken plane. They take off Rocky comes back to help, but missus Tweety is there trying to stop them. She
grabs on They have to scary, very scary scary. They have to fight her off, and they do and then they you know, finally fly over the fence toward their freedom. And then the movie ends with the chickens living in like a grassy nook paradise.
Like Chicken Themyscira basically like yeah, except that there's like a few men allowed to be there. Yeah, they end up in chicken paradise the end.
So let's take another break and then we'll come back to discuss where do we want to begin.
I think, I mean, I would like to kind of get the you know, touch on the mel Gibson stuff at the top and as well as the stuff we've been just like alluding to the whole time of like for me, two of the most crushingly bad things about this movie are the fact that mel Gibson is involved.
And I don't don't I don't even want to like rehash his crimes here, but he's I mean famously his career has been more or less like unfortunately not stopped, but you know, impeded significantly by the number of anti semitic and missile is and violent things that he's said over the years. And so unfortunately we've had a discussion of this sort in our What Women Want episode as well, because I think that's the other big mel Gibson movie
that we've covered. Yeah, but nothing, it's it's fucking inexcusable, and no matter what we say about this movie, there's there's no excusing mel Gibson and the fact that he's still cast and shit today like is inexcuse, like inexcusably bad. He should not have a fucking career at the very least.
So I just wanted to touch on the mel Gibson stuff at the top, Like, no matter how much love that we have for this movie, doesn't excuse anything mel Gibson related, Right, But going off, I guess the number one thing, or not the number one but up there of like the things of this movie that don't hold up for me, is the the chicken love story. You don't need it.
Why is there a chicken romance?
Why? Yeah, it's also not like I feel like it's interesting because recently on the show, I think we've encountered actually like a few different heterosexual love stories that felt earned. Yeah, but this is not one of them. This is not earned. This love story sucks and it feels very It feels very studio notesy to me because it doesn't really fit into the story.
Uh uh yeah, for a number of reasons. One that Rocky spends a large chunk of the movie lying to all of the chickens.
Classic two thousand rhetoric.
Yeah, and specifically Ginger because she's the one, you know, kind of orchestrating him, teaching them how to fly. She's negotiating with him, so he's like kind of directly lying to her first and foremost, he is nagging her and like you mentioned, calling her, you know, sexist names.
And it's kind of dealt with in a very I mean, I think unfortunately, it's dealt with better than a teen movie of this year would deal with it, because at least she doesn't like she I don't know. The first half of this movie. I like how she responds to his bullshit, like she is using him for a very specific purpose and wants nothing to do with him outside of his immediate use to the collective that she feels
beholden too. And then it's like the last half hour of the movie, that whole, like I thought really subversive setup just totally falls apart, and I'm like, and then it just becomes fucking like she's all that of like or ten things I hate about you? If like, oh, this person who like has been nothing but cruel to me actually loves me and I don't care to dielide and I don't and I do who care? Apology? Never heard of it?
Like right?
Just oh god, why does Rocky have a redemption arc? Like get rid of it?
Get rid of Yeah? He he abandons them in their like their moment of dire need, like he does everything wrong every step of the way, does not deserve redemption the fact that Ginger just like forgives him and yeah, that whole like burden of forgiveness applies here, Like why because again he doesn't even do the bare minimum. Really, he just throws a party to like cheer some people up.
But he does that selfishly too. He does that to distract from the fact that he can actually help them, right, I just it's so frustrating because it's like the burden of forgiveness thing bothers me even more in the way it plays out in this movie. Because this isn't saying much for Beauty and the Beast, But you know, when Belle meets the Beast, she's gonna forgive him one hundred percent, no doubt in your mind. There's never like, oh, is
she gonna go her own way here? Because bell is not beholden to collective there we have yet to see a feminist theme or her interact with a woman. We have no reason to believe that she wouldn't like.
And it's a fairy tale going in, so you assume that, Okay, the main woman, the title woman, and the title man are probably going to get together at the end.
Exactly. Yeah, it's like Beauty and the Beasts. It's not like Beauty like bales on the Beast because he's a fucking asshole. Like that should be the title though, Chicken Run, Chicken Run, Chicken Run, so waved toxic character like there. It just it would have been so easy and more more like I think, like thematically satisfying to have her.
It just seems like it doesn't make sense with her character, Like the way she said, she's set up so distinctly and so strongly as like a character who would not I keep almost saying a person she's a chicken. She's a chicken who would not have any patience for this kind of shit. And then the second that he like lies in a way that means he is no longer useful to her collective mission, she would never talk to him again. Like, it just doesn't make sense none at all.
It just doesn't make sense other than they talked on a roof once, which is another contrivance that it's like, oh god, come on.
Yeah, especially like you said, the way that she is characterized in the beginning is just like having these you know, strong values and wanting to be autonomous and not be a cog in the egg machine, right and not that like someone who you know, a woman who is like strongly convicted couldn't and wouldn't end up with a romantic partner. But like she seems to like have a good chicken
head on her shoulders. Yeah, you know, she doesn't tolerate bullshit from anyone, right, much less a shitty man who again lies and nags her and abandons her and like, just like all he does everything wrong. There's nothing about what her character had been established to be that would make you think that she would be at all willing to forgive him right, and yet that's what she does, even though he does not apologize or hold himself accountable at all for anything he did.
No, I mean in the way that he's like, I don't know, Yeah, the whole I want to give the writer of this movie, who's written a lot while committing the sin of being a sis man, has written a lot of like iconic children's movies that I really love.
Wait, what else has he done? I forgot to look him up.
His name's Carrie Kirkpatrick. He wrote James and the Giant Peach the movie. He wrote Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, he wrote Chicken Run, he wrote The Little Vampire, iconic like, He's written a lot of classic kids movies. And he also wrote and directed small Foot, which was one of the animated Bigfoot movies that came out a couple of years ago. And it is the good one?
Is it? The one that was? And Zendaia is me.
Chi, Yes, it is that one he wrote. I mean, had he not written and directed small Foot, we wouldn't have Sunday's Meat Chie. So there's a lot, you know, there's a lot. But he's like, he's written kids movies that at very at least have stuck with me that seemed to be like pretty different for their time at least or not just like you know, fill in the
blank kind of movies. Sure, I wouldn't be surprised, And maybe I'm giving Carrie Kirkpatrick too much credit here, but like, I wouldn't be surprised if, like in two thousand, Mel Gibson is this big star, if notes come back of like, well, we have to have the mel Gibson Rooster character redeemed by the end of the movie, and there should be a love story, because that's pretty standard for these kinds
of movies. But it just, I don't know, it sticks out extra unfortunately in a movie that it has so much like really power, Like the first half of this movie is like incredible, and then starting at the point where Ginger is low key Damsel, I feel like that's one of the first cracks you sort of see of like oh no, oh, no, contrivances are starting to happen.
But I don't know, like a good half of this movie, I'm just like, fuck, this is really cool, Like yeah, yeah, so the love story in this one, I can't can't defend it in any way doesn't make sense with the character. There's no earned redemption, there's no apology. I don't want to see chickens kiss period, and especially if those human teeth in their beaks are all clacking around nasty. Where are those teeth rooted? They don't have gums, you know,
hard to know why these dentured chickens are kissing. And I didn't.
I know why? Why? Well, I know why they have teeth? Oh, because go on, it's because Jerry Bruckheimer was like, get these chickens somephon ears.
Oh, that's great foreshadowing for our coyote ugly episode, Jerry Bruckheimer. That I mean, I knew. I wish I didn't know as a Jerry Bruckheimer movie going in, because the second you see someone's mouth, you're like, well, I know who's behind this, uh Bruckheimer teeth Lord Michael's and Jerry Bruckheimer like, someone's gotta someone's gotta hold these men to account about the whole teeth issue, Like what is wrong with you? Like sirs creepy old men being like why don't you
get a new mouth, young lady? Like get away from me, young man. I mean, they don't, they don't discriminate by gender of who they will force to get a new mouth. Anyone will get new mouth for these at least there's that, So that's yeah, they are god so creepy. Anyways. Yeah, the relationship aspect suck.
Hate it. Get it out of there. You could easily remove it. The movie would be even better than it is. And yeah, I hate the chicken romance.
No chicken romance please.
Another thing that I felt was in the same vein of like why is this here and why did you make this choice because it goes against everything that had also been set up about like Ginger especially was when they're rolling out the Chicken plane at the end of the movie, see where you go. They engineered themselves, They designed it themselves, they builded themselves. And then they're like, okay, we're ready to take off. Fowler, go get into the
pilot's seat because you have to fly this thing. And he's like, well, I don't know how to do it. I was I was a mascot in the in the Air Force, so I can't fly a pilane.
First of all, you're like, a chicken was a mascot for the Air Force in World War Two?
What you know what Sorry to all of the UK listeners, but I would not put it past.
That's really me. That's so funny, that's so funny. Yeah, sorry UK listeners, but you've.
Got some weird mascots.
Yeah. I also found this plot point really frustrating.
Yeah, okay, So what happens is basically they're like, Fowler, you need to fly this thing, and he's like, well, I don't know how to do it, and they're like, but you're our only hope, and it's like he has no more experience than any of the other chickens. Why wouldn't Ginger fly or why wouldn't Mac the brainy stem chicken fly it.
I thought Mac was the more logical choice for this, especially because it's like it's one thing like they could have. I don't know, it's just such a weird choice because on one hand, it's like, I like where that scene is going, where there's kind of this theme throughout Chicken Run of men overcompensating and like men putting their pride first and being deceitful because of their own insecurity and because of their own pride, and like that's the theme
with Rocky and that's a theme with Fowler. And I like that. I think that that's like an interesting dynamic to play around with. And so Rocky is exposed as being a fraud. He bails, right, Fowler is exposed as being a fraud, and it's like, Okay, I like that they made that choice because it's like his character kind of is reflected that the whole time. He's always like,
look at me, look at me. And then if he has to do anything, he's like, oh, I don't know, ask Ginger because she's the only as told by Ginger, it's the only like she's the only person that knows or chicken. She's not a person, she's a chicken. She's the only person chicken in the Oh my god, it's so stressful. She's the only chicken in the coop that like is she's like the organizer, right, And yeah, so I like that his character is kind of exposed as
a fraud. But then it's like, if you're gonna do that, why immediately in the same scene offer him a redemption arc Like that's such a weird choice. Yeah, this should have been like Mac should have been at I mean, Mac at least had an integral like it seemed like she was like command control inside of the plane. But she should have been driving the fucking plane.
Come on, Yeah, I would have liked it way better if maybe like Fowler sort of like of his own accord, gets into the pilot's seat, like realizes he can't fly, and then like Ginger's like, wait, you can't fly, Well, then get the hell out of there. Hey, Mac, you engineered this thing. Surely you know how it functions. You fly the plane. And then she's like, yeah, here I go.
I wanted to. I wanted to see Mac and Ginger in the front seat of the plane doing the damn thing like I it's it's frustrating because it's like and it's not I'm not even saying, like kick Fowler off the plane, like just put him on a bike. Just put him on a bike. Yeah, you know, like I think that you know Fowler, it seems like he is the kind of character. He is very flawed. He is like very pompous, but he can be worked with in
a way that I don't think Rocky can. Right, Like he has like loyalty to the chickens of the coop at least, and it's like, don't toss him off the plane. But don't tell him to drive the plane. He just told you can't drive the plane, like what? And then I feel like there that was another thing that, Like, God, most of my problems with this movie are in the last ten minutes, which is frustrating because I just like, it's such a chicken run is so good, but like,
if we're if we're if we're pecking it apart. Wow, I know.
It's catching cocka doodle do, cock a doodle do? Tell more one of the cockodoodle doos and cocka doodle don'ts of chicken run?
Oh my god, Wait, now I forgot. I was gonna say, I'm so sorry for no, We're just making so many perfect, hilarious jokes. Wait, there was something. Wait, I'll get a.
Chicken pun chicken instead a chicken run.
Okay, wait Fowler. Fuck. I don't know. I don't know it had something to do with Fowler. I don't know. Sorry, Oh, I'll figure it out of Itally, I just I got so taken in. Yeah, I don't know. I guess. It just seems like this movie was making really interesting points about masculinity and the expectations of masculinity, but then they just kind of offered all the male characters who had displayed those traits in immediate redemption arc at the very end for no reason, for.
No reason, completely under like they did nothing to earn.
I think, like, honestly, I think that like I would have accepted a Fowler redemption act if he had had to work for it, and if he had had to like accept Oh I remember, I was gonna say, but if he had had to like be humbled in some way instead of being constant like that was his arc, was that he was not humble even though he didn't know how to do anything right, Like, so that should be the resolution of like, Okay, we don't hate you Fowler, but like sit down, you know, like yeah, that's but
that doesn't happen. Oh, so that was okay. So what I was gonna say is, in the majority of this movie, I thought it was interesting and like generally kind of cool how the chickens. The chickens are not like Mary sued at any point where it's not like they suddenly know how to get out of the coup. They suddenly like they pick up a whatever and all of a sudden they're superheroes and they like you see them working closer to their goal. You see them try and fail,
you understand kind of what their journey is. But then at the end, Fowler is Mary Souon where all of a sudden he's like, I don't know how to ride a plane. Two seconds later he's like, I'm driving the plane right. How though, Like it's for a movie that seemed pretty conscious of like showing the character arcs of like how they're getting closer and closer and closer to
knowing how to do what they need to. Hm, it's such a weird last minute choice to just be like, all of a sudden, this character that never gets his ego checked once, even though it seems like that's where the character is going, right, can suddenly magically drive a plane. Like it's just weird.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like you said, Mac, we it's established that Mac is the brainy chicken and stem she does complex you know, calculus and physics equations and all you know, geometry. Who knows what all she's even.
Doing bits of shit. It's out of my pay grade.
I don't know, right, But they're like, yeah, byye, but she she understands thrust, you know, she like designs this catapult and then she's put in charge of engineering this thing. Babs, who is seen constantly knitting, is in charge of manufacturing. And like other chickens are you know, getting the material. They're like all doing something in contributing.
Which I appreciated that that was paid off on too. That like her because the knitting thing, it's like, oh you could. I was like, is this a reductive thing? What's happening? What's happening? What's happening? But then like that that plant and payoff baby, she's like she's a textile manufacturer.
She sees the.
Means of productions in her little chicken hands.
M h.
I love her.
Yes, So yeah, that was disappointing to me that they did that whole thing with Fowler. And then the the other thing that we already talked about a bit and we don't need to reh too much was just the you know, women need to be saved by men, even when they're all chickens so like.
Which is frustrating because it's like Ginger is so set up to be able to do it that there's really like I was, I was able to get as far as like, Okay, I understand why Ginger would enlist Rocky's help, but the second she finds out he's a fraud, I have no like we no longer have any narrative excuse to like have him even in the story, Like right.
Yeah, I don't I don't mind that she enlists his help because he seems to be able to fly and they need to learn how to do that, and.
We've already seen them try and fail so many times that it's like, oh, okay, Like narratively, it like she will you know anything that seems promising, she will try mm hmm.
Yeah, So I don't mind that at all. I'm talking more just specifically about the she gets put in the chicken pie machine and Rocky like goes in after her, and yeah, like her feet are stuck in the dough. She he has to pull her out of the dough before she gets crushed. They're about to get splatted by gravy. He takes like a vegetable and like crams it into the gravy machine. At the very end of that sequence, she does pull him out of the pie and get
him out of the oven. So she does one thing, but it's mostly him rescuing her.
And the thing is like there, see I wasn't. Yeah, I mean we already kind of ash. I wasn't keeping track of like who is doing how much in that scene. But the whole time I was watching that scene, I was like, this should be like Mac, or this should be like I guess that it's that's okay. I guess that.
That's kind of like the last kind of issue I have with how the Chicken Collective is written at times, right, they are sometimes written too and it's like, God, everyone take this with a grave of salt, because it is funny, like a grain a chicken feed can feed. But like the chickens are I think framed as being like quote
unquote hysterical at times where they are put in. I mean, the thing is like the steaks are very high, and so it's not like they're overreacting, but they are often like ah, like they're they're always panicking, which which makes sense.
Very funny to look at.
It's so the thing is, it's so funny to watch the chickens panic, and so I'm like hah. Then I'm also like, but wait a second, wait a minute, this podcast has destroyed my brain. I can no longer enjoy cartoon chickens running around I have to be like, but what are the implications of the cartoon chickens running around?
Let's the inherent sexism here?
Yeah, but I think there is something like there is like the chickens are sometimes made out to be like I think like humorously overreacting, right, if we're saying, you know that a lot of these like these chickens are drawn from life, human life, so that we were to imagine a group of women panicking and running around, and
I think that it's kind of most egregious. And when Rocky is like I've got this and no one kind of stands up to be like, well, Gingers are like leader, like she's our leader, Like no one offers to go with him, there's no like it just seemed almost.
Like they like volunteer him, right, They're like, you have to go do it, Rocky.
Which strikes me as like a little cowardly of the chickens of like Ginger is addicted to putting her life on the line for all of you chickens, Like why are none of the chickens like let's make sure, Like I just kind of wish that in that scenario, I don't even like hate. I think that it's like plot wise, seeing the how how dire the chicken machine is and how scary it is, like that is a valuable plot point.
But you know, it's like maybe Fowler could have been kidnapped or one of the chickens could have gone to like navigate their way out with Ginger. Like I just ultimately the fact that the chicken knife machine pop pie scene ends up serving the romantic narrative. I just didn't like. I don't hate that the scene happens. Yeah, I was so scared of it when I was a kid, and I would have been just as scared if it was
like Mac or Babs or like whomstever else. And it also makes more logical plot sense to me that one of her like lifelong chicken friends would go I don't know.
Yeah, I think my fix would be if well, then mister Tweety is like I know, oh, I know, just the chicken because he has a vendetta against Ginger, so it makes sense that Ginger are in solitary right exactly. I think my fix would just be like Gingers able to save herself, because we've seen her be very resourceful
this whole movie. Can't she just for self and get herself out because yea, the function it serves in the story for Rocky to save her does sort of ignite their romance, which doesn't need to be in the movie.
Their trauma bonded chickens. You're like, I don't need this, or even if we need to have Rocky show up, maybe he shows up and he's completely useless because that's kind of his thing. And then she's She's like, oh great, now it's twice as hard for us to get out of this chicken machine. You fucking lose her like there. I don't know. I just like, yeah, I don't like because it's I think that that's such a scary effective scene and to have it service this like I don't know,
romantic subplot that we both hate. I was just like, man, don't love it. Should we talk about things we love about? Yes? Kay? Okay? I read a lot. There's like kind of a stunning amount of think pieces about Chicken run oh, which I do love because I had all these that I'm like, are these irrational?
Am I?
And And some of them were and I won't bring them up, but others were. Okay, So I do feel pretty confident and I'm pulling I'm gonna be reading from
uh two pieces. One is from Bitch Media by Dehan Jotanovic and the other is from Film School Rejects by Brianna Ziggler that kind of comment on the either the like hyper feminists or because I kind of went into Chicken Run being like, oh, this is like a really feminist movie, but it's also a really like I'm gonna quote the piece because I always like it's a very anti capitalist piece of g rated children's art, which is so fucking cool, like yeah, yeah, And and Brianna Ziggler
in particular gets like full on into like Marxist theory, which is like locate out of my pay grate, but like she is, she is right where it's like I did you read Animal Farm in high school? I did, so, Like there we were confronted with kind of an Animal Farm style situation here, right, And it's based on literally a movie called The Great Escape about people like escaping a prisoner of war World War II camp, and so
it's like pulling from some pretty dark stuff. So I just want to read a section of Brianna Zigler discussing the Marxist themes in Chicken Run because I truly do firmly. Like, Yeah, Ginger reminds me of every DSA chapter leader I've ever interacted with. Like, Okay, So here's what Brianna says. Quote the Tweeties farm and their chickens mirror the oft maligned working environments and practices of our modern day capitalist society. We're only valuable to our bosses as long as we
can provide them with labor and therefore profit. As soon as we aren't profitable, we're disposable and reply. Thus this idea of Marxist theory inherent within chicken run, the objective of Marxism being the self emancipation of the working class i e. The chickens. German philosopher Karl Marx believed in a socialist revolution in order to bring about control of political power for the proletariat. The dictatorship of the proletariat, as he called it, would give the proletary public ownership
of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. I'll skip down a little bit. It gets pretty dense. Part of Marxist theory also includes this idea of seizing the means of production. Means of production being what is used to produce goods and seizing them, as in taking control and using them for the greater good instead of personal gain as with capitalism. Thus, the chicken's entire bodies are the Tweedy's means of producing goods as well as being the
goods themselves. In the end, the chicken's ultimate way of the escape relies entirely on their bodies hand powering a plane they built all by themselves unquote. So it's like, also this incredible labor story where like, you know, I feel like missus Tweety is kind of like a classically evil hyper capitalist villain, right, and I think that it
framed even slightly differently. She's basically a girl boss, right, where she's like, I'm going to start my own business and like, yes, ladies, let's grind these chickens to death, like that kind of vibe where she is motivated by personal profit. And then the chickens like they are basically performing some form of like unpaid prison labor. They are
held captive. They are used strictly for what they can produce, which at first is their eggs, which are immediately sees from them, with the only exchange being food, you know, the ability to continue to live and produce, which already you're like, okay, this is a labor story. And then when they are no longer useful to produce eggs, they are then harvested for the personal profit of missus tweety.
So yeah, I just thought it was like a really heady but fascinating point that, like the means of production at first are the chickens' abilities to produce eggs, and then eventually the means of production once it becomes clear that it's actually more profitable to just mercilessly harvest the chickens, the means of production becomes their actual bodies, and so then using their bodies to escape is also seizing the
means of production. Like strictly by having bodily autonomy, the chickens of Chicken Run have reclaimed the means of production and they can self determine what they want to do with their lives on Chicken Island. I just so shout out to Breonna Ziglai. I will send you this link so we'll have it in the description as well. But it was phrasing things that I didn't quite have like the Marxist vocabulary to say. But it's like, fuck, yeah, It's like on top of the fact that we are
living in a chicken matriarchy. They literally like liberate themselves from capitalism.
It's yeah, it's amazing, it's amazing. I like the commentary too on. So not only is Missus Tweety this like, you know, capitalist stooge bourgeois owning and controlling the means of production villain. She also she's like explaining the branding that she wants to do for the chicken pies that she intends to sell, and she's like, yeah, they're going to be called Missus Tweety's chicken pies and her husband her husband is like missus and she's like, yeah, a
woman's touch makes the public seem more comfortable. So she understands like marketing, but also like she understands like the patriarchal structure that her chicken pies are going to be like distributed and sold to.
She's literally a girl boss. She's a chicken girl boss. Like she understands the patriarchal structure, and instead of using that understanding to liberate herself and other people she's operating, she's continuing to operate inside of it in order to turn a profit for herself. Personally, she's a girl boss, and I really like that her downfall is underestimating the chickens, like she That's where I'm just like, Okay, Carrie Kirkpatrick,
are you a socialist? Because like the especially with how the tweeties talk like the chickens the chickens do, they are the chickens are socialists, but it's kind of like worded a little more ambiguously for them. But when the tweeties are talking, I'm like, this guy took a couple courses because like mister Tweety is made out to be really paranoid for saying like the chickens are organized, like
the chickens are going, they're like plotting their escape. And the reason that missus Tweety ultimately or part of the reason the chickens are able to seize their bodily autonomy and build a plane, is because missus Tweety doesn't believe that the chickens are intelligent enough, like the underclass chickens
being beneath humans. Yes, that the underclass is like intelligent or motivated enough to organize and rise up, And so I liked that that's like that's made explicitly clear, like a bunch of times that missus Tweety does not believe that people, not people with their chickens, that living creatures she views as lesser than and less intelligent than her could possibly outwit her, which I feel like you can apply that. I mean, that applies to a wide array
of historical risings. But right, I like, how I I think that missus tweety and and mister Tweety, I mean they're both kind of villains in that you get kind of two kinds of capitalist villains. You have like the super motivated one and then you have the kind of the bystander.
Right, so just sort of like passively participating, and.
Like, to mister Tweety's credit, he does notice that the chickens are organized. It's just no one believes mister Tweety.
Yeah, missus Tweety's gaslighting him the whole time. She's like, it's all in your head to her own detriment. Yeah, yeah, she should have just listened. Believe mister Tweety.
Believe mister Tweety's believe. How did you feel when mister Tweety? Okay, this was kind of I was like, oh, how did you feel when mister Tweety was very willing to let his wife die. At the end, I was like, kind of always just like, I guess she's not nice to you, but you're like benefiting from everything she's doing. Like I kind of didn't. I was like, mister Tweety, that's like fucked up. You're just gonna let your wife get all ground up.
I think he is. He's had it up to here with her gaslighting him and just being cruel to him and making unreasonable demands of him the whole movie, and she's and he's just like, you know what, I've had enough.
Off of their head. I just like, I guess I don't know, not that I have this like well of sympathy for missus Tweety, but I'm like, damn, the one person who she thought was her ride or die was very willing to let her get turned into a pot pie. Yeah she does live. That also felt very g random. She doesn't get ground up. She lives, but then she also gets crushed by a wall, so maybe she does die.
So maybe she does die. Hard to say, I have three jokes that I love in particular in this movie. One of them is toward the end when mister Tweety goes to all the chickens to put them through the chicken pie machine. They're like, what's the plan, Ginger, and she's like attack, so they all attack him and he's like in the background flailing around like all covered in chickens and he's like, the chickens are revolting, missus tweety, and she says, finally something we can agree on.
The wordplay that is really funny, Yeah, amazing iconic.
And then also my two other favorite jokes are when the chickens are trying to learn to fly and they're just sort of like falling everywhere. One of the rats is like, it's raining. Hen hilarious, right, I love I love a pun. And then this one unfortunately works because mel Gibson being cast as Rocky. So I'm but after Rocky is exposed as a fraud, I think it's Bunty
says I knew he was fake all along. In fact, I'm not even certain he was a mayor, which is funny because mel Gibson is also not American, but he's doing an American access.
Oh I didn't realize that that.
I don't know if that's intentional, but I was like, so God, that's such a peak Mel Gibson joke that it's like, yeah, to be there there.
I also had a whole section that about how Rocky the Rooster represents the hollow promises of the American dream enlighten me. I won't take as long as I did for the chickens being socialists, which they were.
But that's fine. I have my own little allegory that I'd like to share.
But okay, great, go on. Yeah. I also had a little thing that I wrote down and I was like, Okay, if I can find one writer that has mentioned this, I will say it on the show. So okay. So you know we're on a chicken farm somewhere in England, right, We're in the UK. At least we know that there are Scottish chickens there, so it's kind of ambiguous where
it is. Anyways, an American chicken shows up, right, he kind of flies out of the sky quote unquote, and he promises all these amazing things, and he's like, I can do this, I can do that. I've seen everything, I've been everywhere, I've lived this really rich and satisfying life.
It turns out that he has been deceitful and that there's nothing behind all these huge promises that he's made to them, and he's kind of like made off on this, you know, reputation of being this like intrepid American when in fact, you know, he is completely lost in his life and he is strictly running on this like hyper masculine American image and it ends up being false and all the layers are pulled back. So I wrote down Rocky the Rooster better example of false American dream than
Great Gatsby. Oohoo, hot take, Oh wow, hot take. I think you know goodness eighty four minutes and you get the message way easier than reading The Great Gatsby.
I like all of our references to orwell, we've read above. We've got an f Scott Fitzgerald in there. Okay, we haven't readst in.
We went to an American high school.
Okay, but don't get used to it, because I won't be reading any more books I've read.
That's why we're not doing Jane Austin January, because we don't want to read a book. Don't make us Oh my god.
No, I yeah, I like that. That works for me.
What was your allegorical connection? I'm excited this is maybe
me reaching. Okay, I'm perfectly willing to admit that, but because you know, I was rewatching this through the Bechdel lens, I was also thinking that the chicken farm could be interpreted as like an allegory for the patriarchy, and by that I mean like the institution of the farm, like not its occupants, but the farm as an institution, and how it's like physically made to be very restrictive, like a prison, especially because the expectation for the chickens is
to use their bodies to produce something that this institution wants, much like the way the patriarchy historically for millennia has expected that the role that women take on in society is to bear children and raise them. And that's not exactly what the chickens are doing in this movie, but it's still this like patriarchal expectation for anyone with eggs in their bodies to use their bodies to incubate either like the eggs themselves or like human babies that come
from egg cells. And you know, for human women, historically, that's been the role that we've been ascribed and that's what value we have been seen to have in society. Yeah, and not much beyond that. And obviously that's less true for human women today. But I still think this allegorical patriarchy argument works. Oh for sure. I think it's like run by a woman, but it absolutely is a patriarchal structure. Like, yeah, just because a women's at the top doesn't mean it's feminists for the last time.
People, Right, women can still uphold patriarchal standards. We've said it before, we'll say it again.
And that kind of echoes like turf ideology too, of like defining womanhood by the ability to reproduce, which is how a lot of you know, like turfs kind of continue to perpetuate harm towards trans women and like, you know, saying that being a woman is defined by your ability to reproduce, which obviously intentionally excludes trans women and it excludes people with wombs who don't want to have children. Like it's just such an absurd Yeah, and I totally
agree with you. Like it goes back to like, oh, your value is determined by your ability to perpetuate X y Z in this case food life, right, whatever, and then if you're not deemed useful enough, then we'll just eat you.
Yeah, so that was my whole thing, because like, the chicken farm is extremely restrictive. It is sort of like based on these very rigid gender roles and expectations for the chickens. And I was like, what is this but the patriarchy it is.
Yeah, it's also like the turf patriarchy on that, like where it's like, you know, if you only define an animal by their ability to reproduce, your excluding so many out of sheer you know, does either prejudice or desire to profit or often both. Yes, So you know we should have you know we I think that they should have. You know, let missus Tweety die. She should have died.
She was she was.
You know what if nothing else, I'm like, we've gotten this far, Like, let's do the guillotine. Yeah, we're here. I don't care if it's PG. Make it PG and drag out a chicken guillotine.
Yeah.
One thing I liked in this movie was and that I wish we had more of, and I think if Rocky, had Rocky's storyline up been treated differently, we would have gotten more. Was Ginger and Max friendship and their collaboration. I really thought that there was kind of more to kind of mine from that relationship, because you do get a few scenes with them. They are like they're both friends and they are like co organizers, where I liked.
I always love when there is I mean there there is sometimes internal conflict at the Coup, but it is not it's it's I don't know, it is, like I thought, pretty logically driven conflict. It wasn't just like, well, there's a lot of women in this area, so of course they're going to be arguing with each other.
Like right.
I really liked that, especially with Ginger and Mac. They both brought something different to the table. Ginger was like an ideas person. Mac was a logistics person. Chicken I keep saying person.
I mean they're personified chickens. They're base, they're people. Chickens are people too. I'm peta now, oh my god, streful.
There's like, you know, we have our right brain chicken and our left brain chicken and they're colaborating. And I like that they sometimes disagree with each other, but it's never like and now we're fighting and like everything is over. Like there's even one scene where Ginger is kind of like, well, Rocky's going to teach us how to fly, so don't worry about it. And MA'X like, I believe that, but
has he flown? Like the way that they approach conflict to each other is very respectful, Yeah, and seems true to their friendship. And I just really liked it. I felt like that could have been an example of like a needless argument between two female characters in a a story that is treated in a pretty grounded way of like Max sort of knows that Gingers drinking the rocky kool aid too much, but isn't you know, isn't aggressive about it? You know, She's like you definitely could be right.
I believe you, but like, but considered, they don't need to know it, but like, have you considered, we've never seen him fly? Like, I just I liked that. I thought that was like a really positive, subtle dynamic that I wish we had gotten more of a look at.
Yeah, but like you said, I appreciate that there wasn't just like all this chicken infighting because oh women, female chickens be petty, so they have to be constantly arguing. Any conflict within the chickens felt justified, And that kind of brings up that the complacency thing I mentioned earlier of like, again, if you're looking at this chicken farm as like a capitalist machine or as the patriarchy, and honestly,
what's the difference. You know that there's often complacency with it, like among the masses, because when oppression is normalized, as it often is in capitalism and the patriarchy, you don't often have the tools or resources to break out of it, or you know, sometimes you don't have the full awareness of what's even happening because you know, maybe the oppression is kind of subtle, or again, like it's just been so normalized and you have yet to unlearn the toxic ideology.
Or it's just like a conflict a verse, like it's you can't not see where the chickens are coming from there, because it's like their fear is like if we quote unquote overreact to this, maybe we'll just get killed, or like maybe our predicament will somehow worsen exactly. Yeah, I
don't know. I was like I was full like galaxy brain meme watching that can play some chickens because it does like it almost I got into an argument with someone for reasons right like a few weeks ago about the two thousand dollars checks that we.
We here in the US were supposed to have.
Received, and then all of a sudden, the Biden administration was like, actually you got six hundred, so now it's gonna be fourteen hundred. Fourteen hundred plus six hundred equals two thousand, so shut up, like you should be happy.
And how there was like a lot of kind of infighting online about like, you know, people who are like, just take the fourteen hundred dollars, like, just take it, and then other people are like, but we were promised a lot more, and like we feel justified in arguing that we should get at very least what we were promised instead of having to accept these kind of piecemeal things.
And I know that that's not exactly what's going on in Chicken Run, but I did think of it because it's like, you know, the chicken's legitimate fear is like if if we rock the boat too much, we are putting ourselves in danger, which is true. And they even like say that explicitly towards the end, where like gingerfull On like beating her chest battle cry like we're gonna die oppressed, or we're gonna like we're gonna like die trying in this effort, and then she's able to like
get the energy she needs to get the chickens to revolt. Yeah, but it makes sense that it's like I always appreciate because I feel like a lot of times, every every day like the e your everyday chicken type character is made out to be like not smart, when that's very often not true, and I feel like it's not even productive to tell a story that way of like anyone who is like oppression is normalized is not smart, Like that is kind of a ridiculous precedent to set.
Mm hmmm.
I like that as far as the chickens go, we at least do understand in story why they are, you know, nervous, because they've seen what happens to chickens who step out of line. They get fucking beheaded.
Uena gets her head chopped off.
So I don't know. Yeah, I found that like that part to be like really affecting of Yeah, of like they're not just like sheeple, you know, in the way that I think some like large groups of people or like towns people in movies are made out to see them.
They're not total sheeple, like they're they're chickens with the legitimate concerns, right, and just because they are like it, I agree that they should rise up and that the time has come, and I'm glad that Ginger was able to motivate them, but you also see where they're coming from. At the beginning, I'm just like, oh, these are just people who are like, let's take the fourteen hundred dollars check. Why are you so mad? And it's like, right, I
don't know. I was like, okay, fourteen hundred dollars check, chickens, got it, wrote that down. Fuck.
But and then also just like it reinforces Ginger is this like is this feminist icon? Like she's the one who's like, you know what, yes, the steaks are high, Yes we might die, but we are going to die regardless, exactly.
Like it was just so bleak.
Right right, But yeah, I think her the quote was like we're gonna die free chickens, or we're going to die trying. And then Babs is like those are only options.
Hilarious.
Yeah, it's uh, she's like, you know what, I've had enough of this, fed up and we're gonna revolt.
Yeah, yeah, and it's like and by that point it's like they are so they're like literally, if they don't do anything, they're only extending their lives by a short amount of time. And so it's like, okay, the time has come, like uprising, we're building a plane and then the one man here is gonna magically know how to fly the plane. Don't love that, but the I don't know. I just the way that the uprising was like orchestrated. You're just like, shit, I got all I got all
worked up. I was like, damn, she's right, She's right. Yeah, Ginger is amazing. Ginger is so amazing. I hate that she has to date Rocky, some guy from Rhode Island at the end. It's so not okay, you have nothing going for him. I liked how we kind of alluded to this earlier. But I like how Babs is seen
doing like she's knitting. She's like a nervous knitter, and she's doing kind of like traditionally domestic and I feel like that's another thing that sometimes we see in movies that are like trying to present themselves as feminists, where they're like fuck domestic work, when that's actually really reductive
to people who perform domestic work of any gender. Like I like that it's not just a joke of like the work, the traditionally feminine work she's doing ends up like being a big part of the reason that they're able to fly.
Yeah, that's great. Love it.
I love that this, like this coop, this revolution is inclusive of all sorts of women and all sort of like any everyone is welcome to the revolution, including Rocky, which is like, well, let's where are we going to draw.
The line, but like draw the one somewhere.
But I do like I like that the we haven't really talked about the rats because who really cares, but like the rats sort of redeem themselves to some extent.
They sacrifice something that's important to them in order to join the revolution, and there is some sort of like like hesitate to say there's like restorative justice applied to the Timothy's Ball rat, but it's like kind of true, like they they are welcome to the revolution if they are willing to contribute in a meaningful way and not be assholes, and like that is kind of it seems like that's kind of the line of like who's welcome and who isn't is like, will you act in favor
of the collective if you will get on the plane, baby, jump on a bike. I love it. Yeah, let's build a plane and get out of here.
Seriously, Here's something else I like, which is that Bunty is voiced by Emelda Staunton aka Aunt Lucy from Paddington.
Aka She's gonna play the Queen. And the last season of The Crown.
Oh cool, cool cool? Yeah, you have watched The Crown yet.
But it's boring. It's boring, but I've seen every episode, which is a lot of things.
Also, how is Fouler not voiced by John Hurt?
Yeah?
I was like, oh, that's for sure John Hurt. And then I looked it up and it's like it's not John Hurt and you're like, what.
It's whoever you call? When John Hurt is an.
Available Benjamin with throw I guess that's very British sounding. Yeah right, And then speaking of voice acting, okay, so oh yeah I saw this or not. But the sequel of Chicken Run is in development. I think it's slated to come out in a couple of years this year.
Actually, it comes out in twenty twenty one.
Oh, no kidding. Oh my goodness. I looked it up on IMDb and it said that it was tentatively to be released twenty twenty three, but also, IDK maybe maybe the pandemic has pushed Maybe it was originally twenty twenty one, but the pandemic pushed it back.
Aandemic has pushed back. All I don't they're fun industry insider info because I work in stop motion animation. Stop motion animation that makes sense, yes, not which the animation is kind of impossible to do without people in the same room, so yeah, makes sense.
But anyway, so the A sequel is in development, and the voice actor who plays Ginger, Julia Sawala.
I have never tried to say her name out loud.
Yes, so apologies if I got that wrong, But she revealed in July twenty twenty that Ardman, the animation studio behind Chicken Run, intended to recast her, saying that her voice now sounds quote too old, and Julia said, in response to that, I have officially been plucked, stuffed, and roasted, which is the quote from the movie that I butchered earlier, butchered loved that.
She was like, listen, you think I don't deserve to be in Chicken Run. Here, I am quoting Chicken Run. This is such a bullshit thing. Yeah, that there, And it seemed to be done because it sucks because it's like Mel Gibson is rightfully not coming back for the next Chicken Run movie, and so they kind of use this as a blanket excuse to get rid of Julia Sowalha as well, when it's like, but she didn't do anything like she this is her. This is an iconic
I always like it's it's so frustrating. How like if there's any area of acting where agism should particularly not come into the mix, it's fucking cartoon voice acting seriously, like that is a level of agism that is just like almost inconceivable because you're just it's there was like
a similar discussion going on for it. This was like five or six years ago, but when the new Powerpuff Girls cartoon was coming out, they were like, we're getting the old Powerpuff Girls are not coming back because they're forty now, and it's like, well they were twenty five when they were the Powerpuff Girl, Like what are you
talking about? It's so it is so like bizarre and frustrating that there's ageism in any area of entertainment, right, but like in particular voice acting, it's like on what grounds.
Yes, not that any of it makes sense, but like that makes the least amount of sense.
We're in such a level of fantasy where it's like she is voicing a claymation, Chicken. How are you too old to voice a clamation? Chicken? Yeah? That was That story is so fucking fry, especially because it's like we should just now. It's like we can't purely be thrilled for a new Chicken Run because it's like what at first when I remember when that came out, when it was like, oh, Chicken Run, but this time no Mel Gibson,
sign me up? But yeah, but you can't. I really I'm curious if there's ever gonna be especially if it's being pushed back to twenty twenty three. I wonder if that prompted any discussion in the right direction, because it's like there's no reason to recast Ginger, absolutely none, especially like a movie going to Netflix where you don't need to promote it like on what grounds. Yeah, Ginger is an icon, And I'm also very glad that Julias Sawall has spoke up yea for herself because.
There was backlash. I mean, I'm reading I read this on Wikipedia, our favorite scholarly journal, of course, and it didn't go into a whole lot of depth about like the backlash that the recasting received, the people saying that, you know this is extremely ageis why is this happening? Yeah, so I don't know a lot of details about it, but there was I mean, maybe the studio will listen and be like, sorry, we goofed, Julia come back.
I really hope so, because it's like I don't know, I know that it's like foolish. Just I just I have such a strong love for Ardman animation, like all like, don't recast Ginger, you fight?
Like yikes.
Yeah, I was disappointed to hear that. I was interested. Did you know, Caitlin that Chicken Run is the highest grossing stop motion movie ever by like a lot.
I did also read that on Wikipedia.
I forgot how like Chicken Run was like a moment Chicken Run was fully I was curious, but like this this movie came out the year before there was an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Yes, which was such a Bummer. I was just like, Wow, Chicken Run. I feel like would have had it on lock.
So yeah, I was reading that it got snubbed for like because it was like it could have been a contender for Best Picture.
But that just doesn't happen in animation. Yeah.
Right, So basically everyone's like, g whiz, kind of sucks that Chicken Run didn't win anything. Let's make a Best Animated Feature categor the following year, which was won by Shrek.
Never forgot there's, I mean, of all the iconic things about Shrek, the fact that it won the first Animation Academy Award is like wow, just wow. Chicken Run walked so Shrek could run, and that is a beautiful thing.
That is a beautiful thing.
I wish the Chicken Run had more trophies, but the fact that Chicken Run was so rawly powerful that people were like, we need a new oscar so we can give it to to Shrek.
That's so bleak.
Oh my god. Shrek is funny though, So you know, what can you do?
While we're covering Shrek two this year? Sometime on the matrix, we spoke it. We spoke it in reality, we manifested it. Chicken Run is really.
Like so iconically good and I want to marry Chicken Run.
I love Chicken Frun.
It's amazing. I saw I was a PlayStation game, and I was like, what, whoa? I know? I want to play the PlayStation Chicken Run game.
Damn too.
Yeah, did you have anything else? Anything? That's about everything?
I know? That covered? I'm pretty sure Yeah, that was everything I had. So this movie does pass the Bechdel test.
Not between many many chickens, so many chickens. Chickens talking about seizing the means of production passes the Bechtyl test.
Period when chickens talk to each other about the laws of physics such as thrust passes the test.
I wonder if that's like it sounds like that's the sort of thing that I'm like, it sounds like science. I wonder if we have any any any listeners in stem? Was the Chicken science accurate? Because I just want genuinely curious. It sounded real to me, But everyone saying science and movies sound real to me. Let us know, Yeah, how many nipples were given this thing? Hmmm?
I would give it? I can. I want to give it like three or three and a half. It definitely gets points taken off for you know, those like early two thousand era, like hetero romance getting wedged into the story for absolutely no reason, several male redemption arcs that are completely unearned and undeserved, female character having to be
saved by a male character, that kind of stuff. Yeah, but it's like this society of chickens who like form their own matriarchy even though they are living within this like these oppressive confines of this like capitalistic patriarchal structure. They're like, not for me, not on, not today, We're gonna kape out of this, and they do, and they are extremely motivated, they're extremely active. They're iconic, absolutely iconic.
I think I'm going to give it three and a half nipples, and I'm going to give one to Ginger, I will give one to Mac the chicken, and Stem, I will give one two Babs, who's knitting saves the day. And I will give my half nipple to Edwina, who does unfortunately get murdered maybe before we even meet her, but I.
Feel like she kind of ends up being like I feel like I wish that Edwina's name was invoked more of like she's kind of a martyr for this cause like her, like that is the last straw. They're like, Okay, they're taking Edwena, Like there should be a statue of Edwena on Chicken Island, and I hope there is because she like she literally that she's kind of the inciting incident in a lot of ways of just like we had, like the steaks have never been higher. It's we're not
bucking around anymore. They took it Weena from us, and yeah, now I'm like, damn it Weena should be like literally like a cultural chicken icon.
Truly. Yeah, she's like the Joan of Arc of the Chickens exactly exactly.
I'm gonna I'm gonna maybe overdo it a little. I'm gonna get this four nipples because it is literally a feminist, socialist movie that is g rated for children and it's about chickens, and so uh there, I totally agree. I mean, we've we've hashed out kind of the shortcomings. Most of my issues with this movie are in the third act.
Feels like a lot of studio notes of like we gotta have these chickens with teeth kissing, which nia don't, and like we have to have all these last second male redemption arcs, even though they're not set up in any way, and it's actually set up for a way more interesting ending. But all that said, it's literally like it's a story of a matriarchal chicken society seizing the means of production, demanding bodily autonomy, defeating capitalism, and moving
to Chicken Island. That is amazing. That is so amazing. I wish that there were more women involved in the production of this movie. I will say, like Ardman is a company that I fully love that is a bunch of old white British guys, and I hope that that is no longer the case. I own. I haven't been keeping up with their roster of people. It seems to usually be the same couple of guys, much like Pixar. But all that said, I mean it's this, It's like powerful,
and it got me all worked up. Even now when I watch Chicken Run, I want to join a revolution, and I think that's a great thing for children and to rise up against their oppressors and build a plane. So I'm going to give Chicken Run four nipples and to give one to Ginger. I'm and to give one to Mac and give one to Edwina, and I'll give one to Babs because she makes the textiles that make the plane fly. Baby. Yeah, yeah, shout out. Chicken Run really a cultural moment.
This movie also, in addition to you know, inspiring me to revolt more, yeah, I also am like, yep, I think I might have to fully commit to veganism. Now there you go.
You don't that's beautiful.
Thank you so much. I'm on My current food intake is I get one meat cheat a day. Sorry for a day. I get one meat cheat a month where I can eat meat once a month, and then the rest of my meals are vegetarian or vegan. But now I'm just like, damn, Chicken Run might push me over the edge and I might have to just commit. We'll see. I'll keep everyone posted.
Ginger is an absolutely, I mean an inspiration. She really is. She's a feminist. I think she's entering my pantheon of all time feminist icons because she's not a feminist that just works to liberate herself, which I feel like if.
She's uplifting other chicken women.
That which is, which is like one of the most core important things is like, you're not just working to liberate yourself, because then you're just a girl boss. You're working to liberate the collective of the oppressed. Now we're fucking talking and that's what Chicken Run is saying. And I love I love Chicken Run. Yeah, it's it's almost a perfect movie. Let me rewrite the last, you know, half.
Hour seriously, like end of AC two onward. There's just some changes that could be made and then it would be perfect and.
They wouldn't even need to be big changes. You can still on like a plane of flight and Chicken Island just sea the things. Oh, anyways, an amazing piece of cinema.
Wow, Well there you have it, folks. That was our unlocked Chicken Run episode unlocked from the Matreon, which, again, if you like this episode and you're not yet a Matreon subscriber, you should do that immediately by going to patreon dot com slash spectal Cast and subscribing for a mere five dollars a month and that gets you two bonus episodes every single month that are always on a brilliant, genius, incredible theme.
Yeah, we've never missed. I actually and I sometimes speak sarcastically randomly, But I actually do think of the Matren we have rarely, if ever missed in one hundred and fifty one hundred percent hit rate.
Only hits, Yeah, only the hits for our Matrons.
There's only one time on the in the history of the Matreon where we accidentally did not cover a movie at all, and it is one of our best episodes we've ever recorded, So we've.
Never Yes, are you referring to the episode where we tried to talk about the shape of water and instead got carried away talking about the three eleven cruise.
Yes, and all of the hilarious ways that it would be funny for it to sink like the Titanic, Like I just the band is already on the boat. The point is, and that could happen again at any time. Yeah, So join us at the matreod. It's fun, it's it's it's still the discussion you love, but more of a more vibes. There's vibes over on the matred.
Tons of vibes.
Yeah, and if you want to have even more vibes still again, if you are in the Los Angeles area, please come and join us on Sunday, August twenty fifth at four pm at the Lowsphilas three. Thank you to American Cinematech for inviting us to participate in Friends of the Fest even though we aggressive we both did not show up at our screening last year.
We had good reasons.
We had good reasons. My dad was in chemo and you had COVID and this year neither of those. They're non issues. They're no issues. And so please join us for Chicken Run. It's been eighty four minutes.
It's been eighty four minutes, that's right, And you can grab tickets. We'll have the link in the description of this episode. You can also go to link tree slash Bechdel Cast and get those little.
Tickets, those little tikies, those.
Little chickens, those for Chicken Run. Is that anything?
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The Bechdel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted by Caitlin Derante and Jamie Loftus, produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited by Mola Board. Our theme song was composed by Mike Kaplan with vocals by Katherine Voskresenski. Our logo and merch is designed by Jamie Loftus and a special thanks to Aristotle Assevedo. For more information about the podcast, please visit Linktree slash Bechtelcast