Alright, I know what you’re thinking. I am indeed back on my nonsense again. I couldn’t get through this without acknowledging my bias towards the subject of this post. That being Deborah Anne Ryan, or Debby Ryan to the common folk. Okay, enough joking.
I’ve been covering some random Disney sitcom episodes tied together with some theme. Our first couple cases involved guest stars, so why not keep it up? Disney likes to tie these together and one way is to have their actors appear in other shows. They want a lot of these stars everywhere so of course it creates synergy to create an actor cross over of sorts. They even had a theme weekend all about this called What The What weekend.
They did it twice and the 2015 edition is what we’ll be touching on here, for at least the first one. The latter aired in 2014 so it can be seen as a tie in for that first edition of sorts. I don’t need to say a whole lot for Debby Ryan at this point, known for her acclaimed starring role in Fast X. We’ll see how she fared when guest starring in some Disney sitcoms. Should be a fun filler post that totally isn’t being done now due to her birthday being in May.
I feel like it’s time we tackled something that has been a long time coming. We talk plenty about Disney Channel Movies here and one series that fascinates me is Descendants. I have reviews for them that go into more detail but because they aren’t exact good due to being overcomplicated and not having the strongest stories. Yet due to the cheesy concept, usual mild DCOM charms and the songs/acting, they became somewhat enjoyable.
I put them all as Average, but they still have some charm that makes me enjoy hyping them up ironically. There is something to these characters that gives it enough of a sincerity to make them okay despite the obvious corporate element to all of it. That and I have more respect for them after the Zombies stuff, even if some of what I said can apply to those too.
Speaking of corporate, Disney clearly had these big plans for this franchise. They’ve made those Wicked Worlds shorts and even after the series ended and one of the actors sadly died, they’ve been trying to keep it alive. They had the Royal Wedding special and soon we’re getting a spin off, The Rise of Red. I’m not totally sure about keeping the franchise around but at least the spin off element can make it a fun side story.
But before that, we had the novels. Stating in 2015, there were a series of YA-ish novels that took place basically around the movies, like before and in-between. That stopped when the movies did but of course a new one is coming for Rise of Red. The author for these is Melissa De La Cruz, who had her share of notable works like Blue Bloods as well as another Disney Channel tie in novel, for High School Musical the Musical the Series.
They really wanted to expand this franchise. I can’t imagine things getting too deep but these novels proved to be popular enough to warrant 4 going on 5. I have been curious about these, as I feel there is potential for someone else to do more with these characters. The only roadblock is that these are 300 pages for some reason. Guess that’s the standard now but come on, the main audience is a bit younger than you think lol.
Still, I found the first a while back and have been wanting to cover it. Now is the time. This is a prequel that will hopefully give some further backstory and perhaps show more of the characters. The movie struggled to balance everyone so maybe the page space will allow for improvement on that front. Either way, it should be fun to see this is all handled in novel form.
That said, I guess we can dive in since there’s plenty of ground to cover. Let’s find out the wacky world of Descendants translate to a novel format.
This, is The Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel
I’m putting for show, as there’s not much to say about the cover. It sure is an apple.
Last year I went into R.L. Stine’s Just Beyond, Stine’s attempt at a middle grade horror comic series. The one I reviewed turned out well and while the brand didn’t last too long, Stine clearly enjoyed doing comic work. That’s why he came back but this time he aimed a bit higher…audience wise at least.
In 2022, Stine launched Stuff of Nightmares with Boom Studios, an adult horror comic series inspired by the EC Horror comics he grew up with. That’s right, adult. Stine has tried some adult novels before to uh…mixed results that maybe we’ll cover someday. But after a break, he entered the adult comics world.
Having it be an EC type thing was a smart move. Those comics are mostly just known for being gorey fun, usually deeper stuff wasn’t too expected. So Stine can get away with being as basic as he usually is, provided it’s still fun. I was curious when this was announced and we’ve since had 2 full entries in this series and one Christmas one shot.
Gee, I wonder what I’m doing this December.
I’ve heard some good things about this first one so I figured I’d cover it. While the issues came in late 2022, the trade was 2023 making this the most recent subject for one of these I think. I like having vareity in these so yeah let’s pop in. I also needed something easy.
The art for is by A.L. Kaplan, who seems to have a bunch of DC works and his website says he is ” focused on telling queer narratives in sci-fi/horror settings”. Let’s hope this is one of them! With that all, let’s just get into it and see what horrors are in store for us.
(Happy April Fools! Have a guest review. Been a while, eh?)
I would like to turn back the clock and take you back to when Emma was small, Little Emma if you will, the kind of girl that danced to Junior Senior on the weekends and wouldn’t want anyone to know about it (it got so bad that I snuck their CD into class so I could listen to it while we used the computer lab). It was my first experience really having something to myself, an album I could spin again and again, something to obsess over I was ecstatic.
But I was not one of those cool kids who discovered music by sifting through the rack of CDs, it would have to come to my attention through something else. It was always a mystical experience when I found a new song I loved in a movie but not knowing who or what it was but thankfully I got wise to the fact that the songs were always listed towards the end of the credits (props to little me).
Looney Tunes Back In Action was the first instance I heard one of their songs but it wasn’t until How to Eat Fried Worms that I actively sought out their debut D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop the Beat. It’s only through retrospect that I realize why out of all the songs in all the movies THIS is the one I bought the album for; How to Eat Fried Worms is a ADHD product, Junior Senior is a ADHD band when you put them together it creates the perfect fusion of aesthetic appeal.
I would rent How to Eat Fried Worms from my local video store over and over again, it was probably one of my most rewatched kids flicks. When I pressed play the intro cartoon segment was such a empathetically warm image, it was sensory heaven, it was something that was so flippant and raucous that it charmed my little heart, it was something that was actually FOR kids and if I didn’t know any better made by kids.
Coming back today watching it for the first time in years it has not been divorced from its impact, it knows what kids want to see and gives it to them without being judgemental of their interests (to give you a picture think Richard Linkater meets Disney Channel meets Nickelodeon meets Looney Tunes, a confluence of all different kinds of stuff yet distinctly itself the entire way through).
If anything I appreciate it more because while it’s recklessly committed to its “gross out” it draws parallels to the adult world that I absolutely could not have foreseen. At its core the film concerns how both kids and adults deal with their individual conundrums, both freaking out in their own distinct ways but while adult will eventually snap out of or deal with the emotional headlock and see the situation for what it actually is (Billy’s father fears of making an impression to his coworker and then realizing that the situation has no actual stakes, you know it’s just fun) kids will actively snowball deeper and deeper into emotional purgatory.
They have to prove to the naysayers that they’re wrong, there’s no convictions in “I exist outside of other people’s perceptions and I don’t need to prove myself” no when your reputation is at stake and someone challenges you have to do the dare (in this case like its namesake would indicate….eat worms, this is how low you will go to impress people). Rightfully this is framed within a system where Joe (the “villain”) is the head honcho, one where he has put in place the arbitrary rules by which all kids should live by.
No empathy or even signs of clear communication just words that dictate what others should do with themselves, how others should think about themselves. Billy gets the brunt of this and willfully goes along with this unsuspected and why wouldn’t you at that age, when you’re otherized and made to feel lesser you have to fight back somehow even if it’s out of fear.
But it’s never fatalistic, even in the boys world eating the worms is seen as some vehement actualization of self against the powers that doubt you, the gross is very much a facet of our lives and confronting it makes us braver, kids understand this better than we can and know how it can make us connect. And none of this is ever sacrificed for them, it doesn’t try to talk down from the adult vantage point if anything it’s getting parents to see (and me) what our lives used to be like.
To entertain our previous notions while being able to show us revelations; maintaining the kids’ way of life yet coding it in a way that is more introspective for adults. I feel like it goes beyond that because yes there’s a point we reach we reach that we need Joes reign to end, to put an end to the tyrannical rage that has been festering inside, it’s not enough to operate within the binaries you have to confront and create alternatives; the future is screaming dammit!!!
The dividing line and middle point between the kids and the adults is Erika, the coolest, swaggiest, raddest girlie this side of the west. Firstly she’s ultra duper super mega chill about everything, always able to be the calm rational being at the center of it all and she promotes growth and change amongst the boys too. She’s the one who tells Billy that “you don’t have to go through this whatsoever just because they told you to”, the almost entire reason why Billy and Joe make up towards the end is because of her influence.
Its clear to me that the true perspective of the film is Erika; “Boys are weird” she says like it’s the new hip mantra, the girls are just cooler and there is something about boys huh (I would say the one boy who is secretly one of the girls is Adam, he’s the first one to side with Billy and not Joe, his Dance Dance Revolution moment is a dead giveaway he gives me weirdo non binary femme vibes). Why do they shame each other, always getting on each other’s back for the most trivial things and the film answers this.
Joe is a product of his brother’s thoughtless persecution, when your young (boys are also taught not to be open with their feelings especially back then) you’re more susceptible to internalizing these behaviors and taking it out on others. It would’ve been easy for the film to toss Joe aside when Billy eventually brings down his system but he reaches out his hand to him, forgives and even gives his brother a talking to! Ending the cycle of abuse forever, now that’s boy power!!! (and a little girl power hehe),
The only obstacle really is the ones we put on one another, kids do this unknowingly, cage each other but imagine if they provided the opportunity for exit. What was originally meant for the loser both Billy and Joewalk down the hall together with worms in toe, the final stand for the collective union of the kid empire cue the “Move the Feet” needle drop; the kids dance into the sunset immortalized in pop song lyrics and cartoon caricatures.
The cooking, the eating, the friendship, the lessons learned none of us will ever forget, a perfect exercise in simplicity done with complex tact, ADHD nonsense and grounded slice of life hijinks, you could not make tried and true gene fare like this now that is this steeped in the kid brain (I didn’t know where else to fit this in but I am certainly a combo of Erika and Adam, which says so much about me the more and more you think about it).
The least worried about how it’s being perceived yet I feel there is something for everyone here if you only let it in. If the kids can do it then so can we, think for a second if kids are well and truly not up to our level, our standards then how come they were able to get there before we did? They may be different from us but it doesn’t mean lesser; they found their own way.
We have got it made more than we realize, I have seen that conviction in so many eyes, shatter your own mystique, fiction is the ultimate reality, all we have to do is choose.
Thanks to my friend Emma Chantri for the guest review! You’ll see her again for the 2024 Retrospective to talk more lol. Until then, Happy April Fools!
DISCLAIMER: This post involves sequels to a film written by and featuring Dan Schneider. This ended up going up at basically the worst time. His involvement in these was minimal but he’s still enough of a part to warrant this. I didn’t think it was worth canning or moving with how light this post is. Just had to say that to make sure you know I’m aware of the unfortune timing of this. That is all.
Hello, Spongey here.
Cinema was changed forever in 1997 with the release of Good Burger. Based on the All That sketch and starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, it is known for it’s amazing artistry that made people weep. Well, okay it’s really just a goofy Nickelodeon comedy movie. I didn’t grow up with it despite watching All That, and didn’t get to it until a few years ago.
Critical reception was on the negative side but it was a hit and plenty of people cherish it to this day. I think it’s alright. It has a nostalgic charm and both leads are talented enough to carry it. It can just be a bit much for me given I didn’t see it when I was young enough to find it all funny. As an adult it’s not all great but has its charms.
And when you get a hit, of course you have to milk it. They were happy to do so twice, sort of. I don’t know the full details, but a Good Burger sequel took a while to hit screens. The one we know today finally came out in 2023 was a nostalgia grab for Paramount+. It had enough hype to get an Arby’s meal, they knew that this mattered more than any other movie that year.
But before that, 1998 saw the publication of a book sequel called Good Burger 2 Go. Perfect title, no notes. I hear this was a script for a movie sequel turned into a book but I haven’t seen the concrete evidence. Let me know if that has a source.
It is possible given the cover says it is based on an idea by Dan Schneider. No comment. The actual author is Steve Holland, a writer on Kenan and Kel who also did some books for that series. Not to be confused by Savage Steve Holland.
I bet you never expected expanded universe lore of Good Burger. I am always fascinated by this sort of thing, especially when it’s one off examples. Book sequels to movies don’t happen often but it’s fun when they do.
This case is similar to Hocus Pocus, as that had a book sequel too before the “real” one. I’ve known about this book for some time and thought now was a good time to explore it. The movie had original writers Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert (who have plenty of Kidcom experience including creating Austin & Ally).
Original director Brian Robbins was busy leading Nickelodeon itself so in his place is Phill Traill. He’s mostly done TV with his movies including All About Steve which I hear is bad. I thought it would be fun to look at these and see which is better. The different times they came out and different mediums make them unique in interesting ways. How do they handle the epic legacy of Good Burger?
This is a different type of post for me but I wanted to mix up. This will be a test and we’ll see if I do more things like this going forward, beyond the usual movie/episode battles. This won’t be my deepest post but it should be fun filler.
So which one fares better? Are either any good at all? Let’s dig in and find out.
Something I like to do is watch random movies on Tubi. Aside from the animated ones, there are a lot of random direct to TV and DVDs from the 2000s on there. We’ve covered our share of 2000s movies that have someone notable that drew on me. I got a fair few on my radar. This time we got one I bumped last year that I thought would be fun to cover. I’ve seen it on Tubi and places like that for a while and only then did I pop it in.
It stays Ashley Tisdale and was even produced by her company Blondie Girl Productions, and was her first movie leading role following High School Musical. She’s one of my of og favorites so of course I wanted to watch it for her. This aired in ABC Family in 2008 but was made my MGM, with the DVD being released by Fox. I guess the MGM thing means Disney doesn’t quite own another thing.
An article from the time says this got a solid push from MGM, but I don’t recall hearing of it lol. The writer is Temple Mathews whose random credits include episodes of Extreme Dinosaurs, Little Mermaid 2 and the animated All I Want for Christmas is you. Mostly animation, interesting.
The director is Stephen Herek, who has frankly had an insane carrer. All of the following are him: Critters, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Mr. Holland’s Opous, The Mighty Ducks, and the Nick TV movie Jinxed. He even had a Lindsey Lohan Netflix movie coming this year and last year he had Dog Dog. If you don’t remember, that was about a dog, that is gone. This man can do anything.
So where does this rank in the tier list of 2000s teen girl movies? Is it at least fun? Let’s take a look and see what I found here.
The last time we visited the kid friendly side of Shadyside, we got a mixed bag of Halloween treats. I wanted to make up for that with one I’ve had on my list since I got back into these reviews. With that, our latest Ghosts of Fear Street adventure takes us to around the same time. Published in 1997, this was #23 so it was fairly deep in. I had been interested in it for a while but never could read it until around 2019.
I recall it being in the least interesting so I decided to pick it out for review instead of hitting the randomizer. The ghostwriter here is Nina Kiri Hoffman, who we’ve hit before with I Was a 6th Grade Zombie and Body Switchers from Outer Space. This will the last we see of her, sadly. While Switchers was standard, Zombies was fairly fresh so let’s hope this is too, even if it isn’t Sci-Fi. Actually, recently I read a story from her in Bruce Coville’s Book of Aliens and I liked it well enough.
She’s one of the more legit authors to work on this. Does she end on a high note for us? Let’s see.
I’ll make this short. We’re back with requested reviews, baby. I’ll do at least one round a year until I die, but that depends on how the afterlife works. That said, I got 6 this time as I forgot I already had 5 when I retweeted my call to action. What good stuff did you make me go through this time? Let’s see!
This, is Requested Reviews #7: Penn and Omega Marry Godzilla
It’s time for our first scene by scene review of the year. I figured we’d start by catching up with a movie from last year. I tend to review a movie from each year since I started this although usually they come to me these days. In this case, we have one that went under the radar except for mine, of course.
We’ll be looking at a 2023 R.L. Stine adaptation. Naturally, I’m talking about the movie that didn’t get much of a release. What else could I be talking about? …Anyway, there’s been a few R.L Stine based movies and they tended to be based on his more obscure works and would go straight to video. You’d think we’d get more of those in the streaming age but not quite.
Then comes this which feels like one of those, yet it went to theaters. Kind of. In my Adventures of Shrinkman review, I talked about the 6 novellas Bob published in 2000/2001. There’s been speculation over how these came about but that’s for another day. They were reprinted in 2012 but otherwise aren’t talked about too much.
So it’s neat/odd that we got a movie of one of them in the year of our lord 2023. This came out of nowhere and got a limited theatrical release before making its way to Hulu. That release was by Viva Kids, who brought Amazing Maurice to theaters. These guys are saving cinema. The few people who reviewed it were mixed and there has been some dumping on by some. Mostly the kind of people who overblow everything, frankly.
I was interested in it, especially after it was given a PG-13 rating. Granted the writer said they weren’t aiming for it which concerns me. I did read the book a while back and I’ll mention changes as we go when I can, but I’ll save the big spiel on it for the end. I should note the book was less than 100 pages so I assume this will be very loose.
The writers I mentioned are Michael Samonek and Michael Schwartz. Samonek has a couple one off episodes of shows like Teacher’s Pet and Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Schwartz has Gnome Alone and a segment ABCs of Death 2.5. He also has at least one comic which Stine endorsed.
He did an interview that gave me the PG-13 bit I mentioned so that’s cool. It’s directed by Peter Lepeniotis, best known for The Nut Job. Yeah, this is his live action debut. Interesting choice, does it pay off? Is this a hidden gem and where does it rank among R.L. Stine movies?
Our last few R.L. Stine reviews have been on YA works, so it’s time to get back to middle grade with some Goosebumps Series 2000. I did yet another poll to let people pick what they wanted me to cover. Outside of the winner, our options were Invasion of the Body Squeezers, Be Afraid Be Very Afraid and Jekyll and Heidi. That last one has been on polls before but it lost again.
Invasion had a solid lead but later on Brain Juice got a leg up. It was rather cutthroat but this won out. I’m not too shocked by the results and I’m happy with it. This book is 12 in the series and came around the peak of it, I’d say. Around here is where Scholastic started to slow down with marketing, with this being the final book of 1998.
It seemed to be brushed aside at the time, and even when Blogger Beware covered it, it was seen as just sort of there. However, the man himself, R.L. Stine has said this was one of his favorites and he thinks it’s underrated. That seemed to be the case at the time but it’s gotten a strong following sense. Now, why is that?
Well, we’ll be exploring that. He certainly wanted to hype it even back then, as there was that whole Brain Juice contest that led to Dead Dogs Still Fetch. Check the Misc Goosebumps Stories post for info on all that. The full video has him reading from some of the book and he even gives away half the story. Nice.
I hadn’t paid much attention to it at first but in 2019 I ended up reading it. Did I get a big pleasant surprise or does it not deserve the cult following it has these days? Time to find out and see how smart we can be.
This, is Brain Juice
This cover is gross. I kind of like it though. You have this lovingly detailed brain with…well juice going over it. I can’t tell if it’s ejaculating or what. Either way, it is memorable with just how weird it is. Not the most pleasant image ever but certainly eye catching. It gets the job done as far as being memorable, I’ll say that much.
(I should mention there’s an alt version with the tagline “This is your brain. This is your brain on juice”. Can’t imagine why they didn’t want a drug reference)
A Taste of Spongey 