Episodes

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
And I’m Stef. And we’re both Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that.

Ariel Landrum 0:18
I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist who uses my clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma.

Stefanie Bautista 0:24
And I’m an educator who uses my passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them. Here at Happiest Pod, it’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:36
Why? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. So what Disney the media are we dissecting today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:44
Today we are talking about something we were both super excited about. And it is the movie Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings!

Ariel Landrum 0:54
What what what!

Stefanie Bautista 0:57
The song that came in my head is ‘Like a G6’, because I just heard it the other day. And it took me back to like 2010 when Far East movement was like the only Asian representation we had in mainstream media. And it was like, it was like all of my cousins who liked racing and DJing. They like made a big and I was like, “Is this the beginning? Like, this is so weird, but this tracks such a banger like what’s going on? It’s not cheesy.”

Ariel Landrum 1:30
A little fun fact, I had to perform that song at Stef’s wedding. So I can do that. I have a dance move and a breakdown and the rap. Good to go.

Stefanie Bautista 1:41
Who would have thought for you. What’s what a cultural significance it had. And fast forward to 2021 we have a Marvel superhero in a movie that represents Asian culture. Like that’s wild.

Ariel Landrum 1:55
Yes, it’s absolutely crazy. And the fact that this movie came out during a pandemic, and it is it is making box office hits.

Stefanie Bautista 2:04
Yeah, it’s nonstop right now. It is so far the box most the biggest box office success story of the pandemic. And as of yesterday, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings has grossed $152.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $112 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $264.6 million. That’s major.

Ariel Landrum 2:30
Oh my goodness.

Stefanie Bautista 2:30
That’s major.

Ariel Landrum 2:31
That’s absolutely major. And then if you think about it, because we’re not including Disney+ subscription streams or premieres, because it’s not premiering on Disney+, you can only see it in theaters. At the time, Luca and Soul were the only ones that skipped theaters entirely. And then Disney had released like five movies in theaters and Disney+, with Free Guy actually being the first one that is just theatrical only. But so this is the first Marvel theatrical least set- release only since the pandemic.

Stefanie Bautista 3:06
And there was a whole controversy about how I don’t know if it was Disney or some executive tweeted that it was like an experiment and Simu Liu came out on Twitter and was like, “We are not an experiment.” Like, “Don’t talk that way about something that’s so culturally significant to us.” And although they might have been talking about the release as an experiment, I think that totally downplayed what Shang-Chi means to us in the AAPI community and, you know, I, I thought that it was right for him to kind of speak up against that because we were we don’t want people to focus on the way it’s being released. But we want people to focus on the content and the storytelling itself.

Ariel Landrum 3:47
Yes. Yes. The really, really interesting thing about this movie is it does make me also think of the live action Milan in the style that the story is portrayed and the filmmaking it’s very reminiscent of Wushu. Close to ‘woo-saw’.

Stefanie Bautista 4:09
Some people say ‘woo-shoo’.

Ariel Landrum 4:10
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 4:10
Some people say, ‘woo-shoo’ or ‘woo-saw’.

Ariel Landrum 4:12
And that is a traditional form of specifically popular Chinese fiction that contains like a very specific formula. The elements include usually honorable warriors, powerful swordsman or swordswomen, powerful swords, and a lot of magical and mythical beasts. And before the movie had come out, of course, you know people do somewhat spoilery spoilers which we will also say you have not seen this movie do not listen to this podcast. Do not listen to it. Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 4:42
Pause right now listen to our good friend Billy and his podcast spoiler free on The Movie Grader, or I’m sure there’s other GT podcasts that you can listen to that might be spoiler free, but we are not it so please pause. Because there are going to be many spoilers ahead.

Ariel Landrum 5:00
Yes, so my spoiler was actually a spoiler but it kinda was like I knew there would be mythical creatures, but there were a lot of pictures online being shared with the creatures and they’re like very close representation to Pokemon.

Stefanie Bautista 5:14
Oh yeah, I did not see those spoilers but the way I like screamed and gasp because my favorite Pokemon, fun fact is Vulpix. And of course Vulpix evolves into Nine-Tails.

Ariel Landrum 5:19
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 5:27
However knowing that I’ve watched many anime and other like, of course Wushu films and I’m like a little bit educated in Asian history and mythological history. We know that the Nine-Tails is a mythological creature that goes way way way back before Pokemon.

Ariel Landrum 5:43
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 5:43
I just think the way that they did it look so much like a Nine-Tails…

Ariel Landrum 5:47
Yeah!

Stefanie Bautista 5:47
That you couldn’t not think, “Oh my gosh, are we getting the crossover I never needed right now is like somebody’s gonna pull out poke ball?” No. And then you saw and then you saw the lion. And you’re like, “Okay, this is where tradition. This is what I was expecting.”

Ariel Landrum 6:02
And and specifically the ‘Aloha.’

Stefanie Bautista 6:04
Oh yeah.

Ariel Landrum 6:05
Yeah, that that Nine-Tails.

Stefanie Bautista 6:07
Yeah, yeah, the Alola Nine-Tails for sure.

Ariel Landrum 6:09
Yeah, yeah. Aloha? Alola!

Stefanie Bautista 6:12
ding ding ding We have one everybody!

Ariel Landrum 6:15
Ah, I tried so hard.

Stefanie Bautista 6:19
I get it. But yeah, you’re right. I think now that you mentioned Mulan, although I did like, I didn’t hate the film. But I didn’t love it for those that for that specific reason. It didn’t remind me of Wushu film. It didn’t remind me of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon didn’t remind me of Ip Man. It didn’t remind me of the level of martial arts I’m used to seeing in these Asian films. I feel like it fell short. The scenery was beautiful. I think the location was absolutely breathtaking. But Shang-Chi the way they did it and the flow of where the martial arts were placed, how intricate it was and the angles it just made me feel like I wasn’t watching a Marvel movie in those moments.

Ariel Landrum 7:06
Yeah, my only disappointment with that film had to be the fact that there was no singing.

Stefanie Bautista 7:12
It holds a special place in my heart for sure for sure.

Ariel Landrum 7:16
But if you think of like the the comparing the two films in regards to the martial arts, it was really only the main character that had these you know, fantastical performative choreography. Everybody else seemed to be you know, fighting with martial arts, but it wasn’t an in a way that that looked like the the sudden magic, I guess you would say that the the whole entire film would take or the variety. Whereas this film through like, from the beginning, all the way to the you know, the big boss fight scene, we saw a variety of martial art styles. And we including a lot that involved more fluid motion versus hard stances and low to the ground, which is the the kind of the work that we’re introduced with the specific villain or main character. These sort of powerful hits. But if you study martial arts in general, there are so many style styling disappearances, that have been taught by, you know, different monks, that it made sense that an older tradition or an older, more magical one involved fluid motion. Really replicating like the wind and being able to always stay within balance.

Stefanie Bautista 8:35
Lots of elements of Tai Chi, I know Fala Chen, who plays Ying Li the mom. Sahng-Chi’s mom, she studied Tai Chi for the role, because she does Tai Chi in one of the scenes with the young kids. And that’s like one of the ways that she’s able to connect with her village of Ta Lo is through those simple movements of Tai Chi and like, that was just so beautiful to see.

Ariel Landrum 8:58
And seeing the imagery of a mother teaching their children but teaching their children a essentially a form of fighting and usually we don’t see women in that role. Even even a daughter and like lots of warrior films is being taught by a male.

Stefanie Bautista 9:16
Yeah, yeah, it’s usually the male passing down to another male or you know, wait like a grandfather per se like doing that. I mean, it even makes me think of Avatar The Last Airbender. I mean that was very much in that same pattern of you know, males teaching males and the women were just kind of outliers or you know, they did something else which was obviously a theme in this movie that yes, decided to break which was also refreshing.

Ariel Landrum 9:43
Yes, and really interesting how, how, I would say blatant they called out essentially like the the male heterosexism and patriarchy in regards to both the the mother and and the the daughter Shang-Chi’s sister. Because I would say in other films, it’s always tiptoed, it’s suggested, it’s never like affirmed and put in your face and the same way this one has.

Stefanie Bautista 10:13
And also I like the way that they it was it it was in your face but it wasn’t thrown in your face, I think of Birds of Prey was one of those movies, a DC movie with Harley Quinn, that was one of those movies that I was like, it’s a little too much in my face. I think they did it beautifully and Shang-Chi, because we all know that in Asian culture, it is normally a male dominated family, like, you know, the father is the head, and everything. But for those of you who are living that reality, you know that the mother is just as strong, if not stronger than the father, because there is so much burden on the mother to be so many different things were so many different hats on top of also working and also, you know, being a caregiver. Like providing for the family in many, many ways. So I think, also like speaking as a Filipina American, a lot of the heads of our families are actually the mother because the moms are the ones just hustling and busting just for their family to have a better life in America. And we do look up to our moms almost the same way as we do for our dads. And I think they did that beautifully here because they it helped Shang-Chi realize that both sides of his ancestry plays a part in his future. And also kind of moving on to the whole second generation Asian American not knowing what they’re doing in America, living down to every expectation that was given to them. Wow did that hit home.

Ariel Landrum 11:46
Yes, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 11:48
Oh my gosh.

Ariel Landrum 11:50
So before we get started on the movie, where did you see it?

Stefanie Bautista 11:54
Okay, so I saw it at a new theater actually. There’s a new theater here in the San Fernando Valley. It’s a Regal Theater.

Ariel Landrum 12:03
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 12:03
Normally, like I said in the previous podcast, I go to Burbank, which is kind of like a big hub for movies, because they have like three different movie theaters that have like six to 16 theaters each. This one’s a little closer. It’s like a 10 minute drive instead of like a 20 minute drive. And it was reserved seating reclined seats. And it was brand new so not a lot of people actually know about this theater, which was a plus, because I did take that into consideration every time I go to watch a movie because I’m not 100% like comfortable being in a movie theater at peak Saturday night, Friday night movie times.

Ariel Landrum 12:41
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 12:41
I’m still picking the Sunday, the random day off that I have from work. And I watched this actually early matinee. So there wasn’t a lot of people and popcorn was fresh.

Ariel Landrum 12:54
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 12:54
It was popped. Hallelujah. And it was overall really good experience because everything was new. And there weren’t a lot of people in the theater probably, I would say less than 50% capacity.

Ariel Landrum 13:08
And who would you go with?

Stefanie Bautista 13:09
I went with my husband and I went with one of my best friends Jason, and he is a huge movie, Marvel movie fan. We have seen many Marvel movies together. And he brings a very fresh and funny take to a lot of things that we watch. So hopefully maybe one day he’ll be on the podcast, because it would be really fun to hear his take on a lot of these things.

Ariel Landrum 13:31
Yes, yes. Okay, so it definitely sounds like this movie theater experience was way better than your Black Widow?

Stefanie Bautista 13:40
Black Widow. For sure, for sure. Yeah, I had to I had to kind of scale it back and was like, You know what, let’s just go back to our roots and pick something. Pick something that’s a little bit better and planned in that way. But where did you watch it?

Ariel Landrum 13:55
So I watched it at a drive in theater. Its Mission Tiki Yheater. It’s about an hour drive away.

Stefanie Bautista 14:05
Not close.

Ariel Landrum 14:06
Not close. And the reason why and maybe we’ll go into more detail about this in another podcast episode. But my partner caught COVID. And I had to take care of him and it took about a week and a half for him to be fully better. And then of course we did full isolation just to ensure that he was well. But when we went to the theater, he was no longer contagious, however, that didn’t mean that we felt that he should be out and about so we thought drive-in theater I could. I had I was testing negative and I was past my essential quarantine period which by the way, for those who don’t know, it’s doubled when you’re the caregiver sharing a bathroom in a home. Because you are increased in the amount of time that you can be exposed. Yeah, so we thought okay, we’ve done Mission Tiki Theater before we did that one other time, when we saw the second Trolls Movie, so we can go there again and I had had some people tell me that this time the kitchen was open. And so I went, the tickets are $10. $10 per adult and you get two movies they’re back to back if you’re willing to stay late. And so it was a Shang-Chi and Black Widow.

Stefanie Bautista 15:22
Oh.

Ariel Landrum 15:22
Which were the back to back movies. They have four screens and technically if you like pivot in your seat you can see the other screens.

Stefanie Bautista 15:29
You can see the otehr screen yeah.

Ariel Landrum 15:31
And so we paid $10 for a ticket each that’s $20 and then we bought three street tacos. One thing of loaded nachos one thing a medium popcorn, pretzel m&ms and sprite.

Stefanie Bautista 15:47
So you’re not hungry.

Ariel Landrum 15:50
Oh I was starving and it all cost about $32.

Stefanie Bautista 15:56
I love Mission Tiki. The time that I went recently was to watch the Tax Collector with Shia Labeouf. And only because I had my baby with me and he was brand news so we went and it was quite drive but yeah they they had the kitchen open but I didn’t get to eat anything other than popcorn and hot dogs because I think it was limited because it was still like kind of like locked down time at the time it was playing so yeah I love how old school it is where it has the pavement is angled so when you park your car you’re like kind of watching it from below up you’re like slanted.

Ariel Landrum 16:35
Yes and that that means that you’re always facing the screen you don’t have to worry about the vehicle in front of you being too big. The other thing is like the the two times I’ve gone and I’ve seen that I was trying to think of other drive-in movie experiences I’ve had and I had one in Palm Springs. It was not angled parking and it was in a dirt parking lot and then the only other like image in my mind about drive throughs was Grease. And in Grease there it’s also it’s a paved parking lot but it’s flat it’s not angled and they have poles at each car I don’t know if you notice so I thought that’s like your your designated spot?

Stefanie Bautista 17:06
Also I think back then remember when we went to Walt Disney World and we went into that cool restaurant…

Ariel Landrum 17:11
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 17:12
It looks like a drive-in?

Ariel Landrum 17:13
Yeah I love that restaurant.

Stefanie Bautista 17:15
I know about restaurants Oh great. Those poles sometimes our speakers because back then they couldn’t broadcast the movie movie back then so those were speakers because I remember the one here in the valley that closed long long time ago it was super old school like that and like in the 50s like during Grease and they had boxes and that was that speaker

Ariel Landrum 17:35
Okay well there there you go there you go. I just the few times that I’ve gone I just remembered I assumed I’d have like quote unquote assigned seating with my car because of the that movie and the way it looked Now. I know that that speakers thank you thank you.

Stefanie Bautista 17:50
You’re welcome.

Ariel Landrum 17:51
In this case the the audio comes straight from a radio station and they tell you the station number and all of the like all of the commercials so there was only vit there’s very few trailers but there are a lot of commercials beforehand.

Stefanie Bautista 18:09
Isn’t it weird?

Ariel Landrum 18:10
Yes and they were all car themed commercials either insurance or buying a car which you know apropos were there that made sense.

Stefanie Bautista 18:18
In your car? Yeah, I think I when I went there I turned back into a playing Nightmare Before Christmas. That was kind of cool.

Ariel Landrum 18:25
Nice.

Stefanie Bautista 18:26
Yeah, but that place was really cool. I know that there’s more driving theaters across America. I think there are just so many of them closed here and they been turned into swap meets. So Mission Tiki is one of the ones that is still around but is quite a drive from the Metropolitan Los Angeles area.

Ariel Landrum 18:43
And it is tiki themed even the the ceiling panels which you know you’re usually like those white foam panels you’d see in office buildings. Those have textured bamboo woven like tapestry type pattern. There are certainly tikis throughout. So if you are if you are into the tiki vibe very much like I am and I know Stef is that would be also a fun place to go simply for that.

Stefanie Bautista 19:11
Yeah, absolutely. But overall good experience for you at the drive in?

Ariel Landrum 19:16
Absolutely good experience. My partner fell asleep and not because he didn’t like the movie but…

Stefanie Bautista 19:23
Your man was recovering from COVID ya’lll.

Ariel Landrum 19:24
He was recovering from COVID so he’s you know that that lethargy it lasts. And also at the time he hadn’t regained his sense of taste. He has now still can’t smell worth anything. I can fart and if I if he can’t hear it, he’ll never know. He’ll never know.

Stefanie Bautista 19:43
He’ll never know okay.

Ariel Landrum 19:44
But um, yeah, so I I very much enjoyed it. And the one thing that you have to remember to drive in theater if you haven’t gone you have to shut your car lights off.

Stefanie Bautista 19:52
Yep.

Ariel Landrum 19:53
You have to know how to shut them off. And of course, always always there’s somebody who doesn’t know this or doesn’t know how to shut them. Lights off. People will like hang blankets over their car lights because they don’t know how to shut them off. And I don’t know if like the newer ones just don’t allow it because they have like fog mode or whatever. But every time I’ve gone to Mission Tiki I have not I’ve not had the experience where someone hasn’t had the security guard like bicycle up to them and be like, “You gotta turn your lights off.”

Stefanie Bautista 20:21
I that didn’t happen to me when I was over there.

Ariel Landrum 20:24
Oh lucky.

Stefanie Bautista 20:24
I mean yeah, I also Well, I mean we got the real like the second row so I guess I would have seen but also how many people are going to watch The Tax Collector? Not a lot. I was one of those people watch it. It was I did it. There was a thing that I did. That’s all I gotta say about that movie.

Ariel Landrum 20:40
Yeah, I would say that. There were it was a Thursday so there was there was like nobody. I would say there was maybe 12 or 13 cars there is and there was one couple that was seeing it from the truck bed of their vehicle and they just had pop up chairs on the truck bed with blankets that was adorable. And you’re not supposed to turn your car around and lift the trunk and sit from your trunk if you have like a hatchback. Unless there’s not a lot of people which they weren’t or as long as your trunk lid doesn’t go over your vehicle. Like isn’t higher than your roof?

Stefanie Bautista 21:17
Yeah yeah.

Ariel Landrum 21:17
Ceiling?

Stefanie Bautista 21:18
Yeah, yeah.

Ariel Landrum 21:18
What is car language?

Stefanie Bautista 21:20
That’s actually I was gonna ask you, because I remember that rule. And then I saw people just like posting up like with their, with their trunks up. And I was like, “Wait, isn’t that not allowed?” But also there weren’t a lot of people. So I’m like, “Okay, well, I mean, I guess if there’s not a lot of people, no harm, no foul.”

Ariel Landrum 21:36
Yeah, they’ll let you get away with it, if it’s not busy, but like on Saturday, it’s usually more busy. And if it’s during like a movie release, the security guard will bicycle around and be like, “Yo, no.”

Stefanie Bautista 21:47
“Cut it out.” Oh, man, that’s awesome. So we all hope that your partner gets better, that he’s recovering.

Ariel Landrum 21:55
Thank you.

Stefanie Bautista 21:56
And I’m glad that you got to have this experience, even during his recovery period. Because for anybody who has taken care of somebody who’s had COVID before it just doesn’t end when they get better. It’s it’s an ongoing thing. And it’s you know, like, kudos to you Ariel for going through that. I know, it’s not easy. And we all wish you the best.

Ariel Landrum 22:15
Thank you.

Stefanie Bautista 22:15
And you know, everyone out there stay safe. I know we’re all doing a lot of these things going out and about but please stay safe because COVID still really real.

Ariel Landrum 22:24
And I am pro vaccine. I’m gonna say that right now. My partner was vaccinated, I was vaccinated. He had a breakthrough case and I given what symptoms he did have, I think it would have been a lot worse if he had gotten vaccinated. So that’s my stance, I fully own it. I don’t I’m not speaking for anybody on the Geek Therapy Network. But I say get the vaccine if you don’t have a medical reason not to, do it.

Stefanie Bautista 22:48
Absolutely. So back to Shang-Chi, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 rings. There’s a lot of big themes in this movie right?

Ariel Landrum 22:59
Throughout the film. The narrative is propelled by the fact that Shang-Chi’s mother died, she was murdered by essentially a rival gang felt like done wrong by his father who is a what three 3,000 year old…

Stefanie Bautista 23:21
3,000 year old…

Ariel Landrum 23:22
Dictator?

Stefanie Bautista 23:23
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 23:23
Emperor?

Stefanie Bautista 23:24
We see him in the beginning of the movie. Essentially leading an army conquering a certain village certain I guess. Maybe it’s even like a city from what I remember. So he’s clearly on this warpath very akin to many conquerors in Asia. And we see him in historical garb. So we know that this is like pre industrial era everyone’s on horseback and he’s basically become now because of his long life that the rings give him this warlord.

Ariel Landrum 24:01
Yes, yes, that’s the perfect word.

Stefanie Bautista 24:03
Yeah, total warlord in in modern sense to like kind of like the way the Triads were introduced in modern Asian films, he would be a part of that world.

Ariel Landrum 24:15
So, throughout the film, how we notice death is treated is it is in the forefront and and is not something to be feared. Even though we have this warlord who is essentially immortal, we don’t see any of the cast or characters looking at death as as essentially mortality or or the end of purpose or belonging. And I would say this is very typical of more Asian cultures and communities, that we have a reverence of death and not so much a fear or an avoidance of it being around us and so prominent in our culture. Oftentimes if you’re thinking of a Western or more Americanized culture, it’s very hard to say someone’s died. It’s very hard to say the word death, burial. Like the, if we can, we’ll say, “They passed. They’re no longer with us.” We will we will avoid calling it what it is. And with this particular movie in regards to the Chinese culture, we see that they have a variety of ways that they put honor towards death. We see shrines as part of ancestry veneration. Shrines are made to honor the dead, they’re often you can find them in places of worship, such as temples, or in households. For the specific scene or at the time, his name is Shawn, and we’ll go through that later. Shawn is speaking to Katy’s grandmother. She mentions the Day of the Dead. This is a specific festival that happens in China around April. If I pronounce this wrong, please someone correct me, but I think it’s Qingming.

Stefanie Bautista 26:08
I think you’re right.

Ariel Landrum 26:09
And this festival, often, families will go visit their grave sites, deceased loved ones to pay respect, they will provide offerings, they will leave fruits, they will leave flowers. And as grandma said, alcohol in this case, I think she was gonna leave them whiskey.

Stefanie Bautista 26:24
Yes, she did. He was like, you know, “Why are you gonna leave him that?” She’s like, “Well, he enjoyed it last time.” Which kind of implies that she was probably drinking the whiskey instead, on his behalf.

Ariel Landrum 26:34
On his behalf. Well, or…

Stefanie Bautista 26:36
The dutiful wife that she was.

Ariel Landrum 26:38
Or that this is common, right that she had she goes and visits the grave, either fairly regularly or during every festival season.

Stefanie Bautista 26:44
Yeah, absolutely. And it is something that you will see in Chinese restaurants as well, they will have like a little shrine dedicated to either the loved ones that have passed or also to different deities that they pray to. So this is a very common thing that we see in Asian cultures, specifically Chinese cultures.

Ariel Landrum 27:05
And the really interesting thing about death in the movie is because Shang-Chi’s mother was murdered. He feels a loss of sister feels a loss. His father feels a loss. Though his father’s the powerful one. His father is the one who essentially gets duped. He’s he is manipulated and coerced by a voice that sounds like his that his wives and saying, essentially, “I’m not dead, I’ve been stolen away. And I’ve been locked up and you need to save me.” And yes, he is the most powerful character. So it makes sense that this creature who was attempting to coerce him knew that he would be able to let him out because he is the bearer of the 10 rings. However, it’s really interesting out of everyone’s character arches, the individual who was used to being immortal, who is used to never even considering death, being the one chosen to attention essentially trying to reverse the death. And not believing in an end.

Stefanie Bautista 28:10
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 28:10
It definitely makes sense, I think because he his association with death is now very different than that of anybody in the turn, just in a traditional Chinese family, because he has eluded it so long.

Stefanie Bautista 28:25
Yeah. And there’s a running theme that uh, Wenwu himself was never satisfied. He couldn’t be satisfied with the armies that he has the places that he’s conquered. And he only found solace in finding his wife and finding a family that was essentially his.

Ariel Landrum 28:41
If anybody else was singing Hamilton when she said he would never be satisfied, please tweet us because I know I was in my head.

Stefanie Bautista 28:49
Only because you saw it not that long ago.

Ariel Landrum 28:53
That’s a whole nother story. That’s a whole nother story.

Stefanie Bautista 28:55
Mm hmm. And for that, to be taken away from him, just gave him another sense of purpose. I’ll be it a sort of villainy purpose. But it was his weakness is one weakness was that he couldn’t attain something. And that thing changes all the way until the end, because he couldn’t attain getting his wife back. Because he was duped and because he couldn’t even see past the fact that it wasn’t his wife anymore. There were these like, gnarly creatures just coming out of the the barrier that he was essentially trying to break with the 10 rings. Because he wanted that so much like so goal oriented and that very Asian theme that went all throughout the movie and resonates so well with us. You just laser focus, you hone in on one thing and you get it you grab it no matter what. And this because it was an illusion essentially, he could never attain it anyway. So I mean, in my opinion, I think the way that they developed his his villain origin story was almost, it was so tragic. It was a very tragic, almost anti-hero, I guess…

Ariel Landrum 30:08
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:08
Because I found myself towards the end. And as he’s looking at Shang-Chi, in one of the final scenes of the film, I really felt for him, I was like, “Oh my gosh, you know that you went 3000 years of your life searching for something. And then when you found something, it was taken away from you. And now you have this, this chaotic war that’s like brewing and it could like essentially lead to something way worse. And you kind of go what, what’s in it for you like, what do you I guess this is where you end, essentially.” So I think it was really, it was really beautiful and sad. And it really made me feel for the depth of character that they created with Wenwu we’re which we will see it wasn’t always this character. Right?

Ariel Landrum 30:53
Okay, so, um, Marvel Comics history. Director Destin Daniel Cretton and his team they rewrote the comics character, the Mandarin into Wenwu. So originally, this bad guy in the comics is the Mandarin, which is an orange.

Stefanie Bautista 31:14
Yes. And they address that.

Ariel Landrum 31:18
And this character was developed during essentially a resurgence of yellow peril. And so yellow peril is a term that was coined in the 1800s when Chinese laborers were brought to the US to replace emancipated Black communities for cheap labor. White workers saw them getting paid it but even though they were getting paid less believed that that meant that they were a threat to the livelihood of, you know, these workers that resulted in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. And for those who aren’t aware, this is actually the first law to restrict immigration based on race. So when we’re talking about a, you know, anti-Asian violence for our country, it’s in went all the way back to the 1800s. Interesting that the director, and again, his team for this movie, the reason they essentially symbolically chose “wen and “wu” is “wen” means intellectual depth, and “we” means Marshall, Marshall, Marshall, Marshall…

Stefanie Bautista 32:27
Martial…

Ariel Landrum 32:28
Mar, yeah, martial prowess. Okay. Yeah. And that, I think shows more honor to that specific character. That we are now seeing that he’s supposed to be, you know, revered in multiple ways, both in his his intellect and his his, you know, physical strengths. And we see that throughout the movie, he was he knew, despite his children running away from him, and under the belief that they’ve, you know, eluded him. He knew where they were the whole time. He knew the right things, and right moves to get Shang-Chi to reunite with a sister.

Stefanie Bautista 33:05
Yeah. So such a classic Asia parent to always know where their kids are, and where they would be. And also for him having so much power and having essentially, hands in every gang probably in the world. He had this network of spies, just kind of making sure that his kids were alive, at least, because he knew he needed them later on.

Ariel Landrum 33:33
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 33:34
So and I wanted to add when my classroom a couple years back was learning about the Chinese Exclusion Act. Many of my students were surprised that because they’ve seen Chinatown’s, they know there’s a huge Chinatown in Los Angeles and San Francisco, they could not believe that there was propaganda with making Chinese people seem evil. And a lot of them were asking, you know, “Didn’t they help build the railroads? Didn’t they help build the cities? Weren’t there so many Chinese immigrants? So we see, like so many old Chinese relics in these big cities?” And I said, “You know, yes, essentially, they were a huge part of the makings of these major cities in California specifically, however, the United States government did not see them as such, even though they did so much for the development of Western civilization’s here, especially during the Industrial Revolution.” So it’s, it’s something that I hope that they continue to introduce in schools because it is a big part of history, especially if you live in big cities like Los Angeles, San Fran, San Francisco, and I think that the way that Marvel Studios decided to own up to their mistakes…

Ariel Landrum 34:49
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 34:50
You know, including such a, such a character like the Mandarin, which if you look up his his design, he is like Fu Manchu like that. You know, long beard like super long mustache looks like some sort of sorcerer, a lot like in the Kill Bill movies. Her, her trainer was very much in that style. But it was more of like, let’s not, let’s not see this as something that’s relatable, but something is like super foreign and scary to our readers. And…

Ariel Landrum 35:27
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 35:27
I think it’s great that Marvel decided to address it. Even in the movie. There are some lines in the movie that yes, poke fun at the Mandarin and also brought back the version of the Mandarin that we saw in the MCU, which was in Iron Men.

Ariel Landrum 35:44
Yeah, Iron Man 3.

Stefanie Bautista 35:45
Iron Man 3. And just even addressing the fact that you’re disguising something in order for it to look like something else was kind of like an even bigger theme in the movie.

Ariel Landrum 35:57
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 35:58
And even in the Marvel Cinematic Universe themselves, like we are dealing with a lot of themes of being duped and being tricked into something and not realizing that something is real, even though it’s fake. So I think the addition of our friend, the Mandarin, who we did see, so who would have thought that he was going to be…

Ariel Landrum 36:18
An actor. A thespian.

Stefanie Bautista 36:22
A humorous part of the movie I was dying at. Oh my gosh, what is Ben Kingsley?

Ariel Landrum 36:28
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 36:28
He is fantastic as the Mandarin and his inclusion was such a surprise to me, because I was trying not to spoil myself before the movie at all. And I knew that they were going to bring a character back and it ended up being him as the Mandarin, who was also duped because he was locked away.

Ariel Landrum 36:46
Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 36:46
In this basement in China.

Ariel Landrum 36:49
In China. Character’s name is Trevor Slattery.

Stefanie Bautista 36:53
Trevor.

Ariel Landrum 36:54
Trevor.

Stefanie Bautista 36:58
Who is just like every theater kid.

Ariel Landrum 37:00
Yes, yes. Every theater kid and I think it’s a it’s worth it to go visit Iron Man three, I see the the, the big differences between the that sort of like, way they represented the the 10 rings and the way they do it now.

Stefanie Bautista 37:17
Yeah, definitely, you really see the evolution of the way that Marvel is thinking about representation. And I think we do have to give credit to Black Panther for paving that way. Because it was such a commercial hit, and it hits home for so many of our Black and African American friends and fans that, you know, without that Shang-Chi wouldn’t have addressed these things. And I think we wouldn’t be consciously thinking about the way that our the viewers are watching these characters come to life.

Ariel Landrum 37:46
And you know, in speaking of Black Panther, the music, they’re all written and all inspired by Black and African sounds, and beats and creators. And you were telling me a similar thing was happening with this movie?

Stefanie Bautista 38:03
Yeah, absolutely. So for Shang-Chi and The Legend of The 10 rings, we had two separate soundtracks just like Black Panther there was one score. That was the orchestral score that was made, but there was also a contemporary album that was also made as an accompaniment. And that was curated and produced by 88 Rising which is an all Asian recording company. And they are dedicated to the promotion of up and coming Asian American artists, not necessarily music artists from Asia that are singing in their native languages, but Asian Americans who are producing new music for audiences today. So it was really great to see people, even people who are part Asian like Jhené Aiko, and Anderson .Paack and so many great artists that contributed to the film and a lot of Asian artists that are actually from Asia were included in the film as well singing in their native languages and rapping in their native languages. And like you said, for Black Panther of the way that they incorporated African sounds, they did the same with Shang-Chi. But they also gave the paid a little homage to Chinese Pop, Korean Pop, Japanese Pop, which has been around for decades now and has evolved into a style all their own. So as a fan of all of those different genres of music, I felt that when I was listening to the album. And it was just like, I can’t believe this is something that people are listening to.

Ariel Landrum 38:03
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 39:01
Usually is something you kind of have to keep secret to yourself and like get through different platforms. But here it is on Spotify for everybody to see and they incorporated a lot of those songs in the film.

Ariel Landrum 39:50
I think they we were also noticing what we were or I guess dubbing Asian Easter Eggs.

Stefanie Bautista 39:58
Yes. Asian Easter Eggs.

Ariel Landrum 40:00
There were a lot of, I mean, specifically Chinese customs, but some of them, you know, Asian that were featured throughout the film. Right in the beginning when we see, well, I guess, first arch I guess, we see Shawn visiting his friend Katy at her house, and he walks by the breakfast table and you see something called breakfast porridge. So instead of bacon and eggs, very Chinese traditional breakfast is a rice porridge known as congee, or jook. And I don’t know if anybody remembers the animated Mulan. But that is exactly what Mushu served her on her like first big day.

Stefanie Bautista 40:46
Yep, yep. I really loved that. And I loved just his interactions with Katy’s family.

Ariel Landrum 40:52
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 40:52
He greeted them all like they were his Aunties and that is like a big thing. Even though they’re not really your Aunts like by blood or your Uncle’s by blood, you treat them like they’re your Aunties and Uncles. Because, you know, it’s just a collective sense of family and the way that he just sat down to eat with the family kind of chop it up with them, the way they kind of, like took shots at each other. So….

Ariel Landrum 41:14
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 41:15
You know, not living up to their expectations is a very common thing in Asian households. It’s kind of like, “Yes, you got an A? But why wasn’t it an A+? When are you going to figure it out?” That was resonated with so many of me and my friends. And yeah, like I think, even just like the subtle of the subtle scene of him taking off his shoes to go inside. That’s just was a very important thing to highlight, because that is an Asian custom.

Ariel Landrum 41:44
Yeah, it’s it’s a traditional custom, meant to show respect and honor to the home but also to prevent just tracking in you know, dirt and grime and the nastiness. And even in greeting the family he calls Katy’s grandmother, wàipó, which is maternal grandmother in Chinese, and he says it like it’s his maternal grandmother. And, and again, in many, particularly Asian cultures and communities, because we have a collectivism mindset, we do not differentiate kin by blood. Although we have hierarchies within our family inregards to kin, one when someone has become close in our circle, we have them use those same four informal names those those like caregiving names that we would our blood kin.

Stefanie Bautista 42:35
Yeah, absolutely.

Ariel Landrum 42:37
You will also notice, if you looked around that kitchen, that there was a rice cooker and a hot water dispenser, something that you will again find in a very traditional Chinese household. And the rice cookers specifically in many Asian households. I’ve got one. Stef, I think you have one too.

Stefanie Bautista 42:52
Oh yeah. I have levels of them. We have one for parties. We have one for fast rice cooking, we have one for special rice. I’ve had many rice cookers, and I think even a rite of passage for me, being an adult was to buy the Zojirushi like $100 one. And when I bought that I like was you know had a moment where I’m like, “I’m an adult now. I am ully an adult and I can do adult things because I can cook brown rice and I don’t have to wait forever in like the dinky little $10 one that I got from Target.” So yeah, it was great to see familiar things.

Ariel Landrum 43:26
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 43:27
And I think even like kind of going back to when they introduced Shawn and Katy at their jobs, I’m sure many of these people who were watching Shang-Chi also watch Crazy Rich Asians…

Ariel Landrum 43:37
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 43:38
And crazy rich Asians was groundbreaking in itself and it was the first time we saw an all Asian cast and the way that they portrayed the luxury car and the person stepping out. It was like, “oh man, it’s gonna be another Crazy Rich Asians!” And it was not that at all. I think that was such a humorous moment where they portrayed Shawn because he is the valet and Katy is too. And also the fact that Katy was a valet and there’s that stereotype that Asian women can’t drive well. She drove that bus and did not kill a person. So…

Ariel Landrum 44:07
She did not kill nobody. Under duress. It was literally falling apart. Her life was a in her hands along with like with everybody else’s. Yeah, that I think, definitely broke some stereotypes. I think something again, talking about those Easter Eggs, specifically Shang-Chi naming himself Shawn.

Stefanie Bautista 44:34
Very important to note that because there are a lot of people that I’ve known in the past who have a traditional name in their native language, whether it be Chinese, Japanese, even Filipino, sometimes our names can get kind of crazy, and they decide to go by a nickname and it’s become something that my fellow educators have to kind of check themselves on sometimes because on the roster, you will see a different name than what they are called. And sometimes now I’m seeing that parents aren’t doing that anymore. And they are choosing to have their birth name be the one spoken and the one that they are called on, which is a really good shift that I’ve been seeing lately in classrooms. But yeah, Shang-Chi not wanting to have that identity and that connection to his father and his past. And not only…

Ariel Landrum 45:23
Because he did run away.

Stefanie Bautista 45:24
He did run away. And because it is not an Americanized, it’s not an English name. It was just easier for him to call himself Shawn. And a little bit where they were Katy makes fun of him and says “Of all the names you picked, you pick Shawn.” And if you guys listen to that bit, it is hilarious. I’m not going to say the whole thing because I don’t want to spoil that part. That’s one of the things that you need to experience because her name is Katy. And Katy is not a Chinese name whatsoever, but I’m sure if we eventually find out her real name she might have had a different one. I don’t know we we do know that…

Ariel Landrum 46:01
She did she she shared it looks like her name is Chen Ruiwen.

Stefanie Bautista 46:02
Oh, okay.

Ariel Landrum 46:02
And, and her. She goes by Katy Chen.

Stefanie Bautista 46:06
Ah okay. Yeah, Ruiwen is her her given name.

Ariel Landrum 46:16
Changing names and having multiple names is actually very common for immigrants or descendants of immigrants. And in the past, in a few episodes, is family names when you’ve immigrated sometimes get lost because they have been changed to sound more Americanized. We, we find that we lose entire histories. For our family. When you do your genealogy, you might real you might not know, there might be a hard stop for how far it goes because of how much the last the surname has sort of been changed. And when it comes to, like you were saying in regards to your students, with my clients, I asked them, you know, what name do they want me to use in session? What name do they want me to sort of note in my documents as a therapist, because I want to give honor to how they want me to call them like, like, what, what is the actual name you want me to use? And oftentimes, a lot of the clients will prefer their their given name over a nickname, because they want to reach back to that heritage and that root.

Stefanie Bautista 47:24
Yeah, definitely. And I think even kind of going a little bit further in that for us, Filipino Americans, it’s kind of hard to trace all the way back to our ancestry because many of our surnames were erased.

Ariel Landrum 47:36
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 47:36
When Spanish when Spain ruled over the Philippines for hundreds of years, so it’s kind of been an identifier for Filipinos to have Spanish last names. And it’s very, very rare to see one that is traditional Filipino, or another dialect. So it’s really it’s really great when I see those names, because I know that that history is preserved. And I hope that maybe in the future, they’ll have technology that we can help trace our ancestors a little bit better. But yeah, I think it’s great that they addressed language as a huge part of the movie and the fact that many of the characters spoken Mandarin for a good chunk of the movie,

Ariel Landrum 48:17
Good, good chunk.

Stefanie Bautista 48:18
I loved it. I was reading subtitles and I felt like I was watching a movie that was due doing due due diligence to Asian cultures, specifically Chinese cultures.

Ariel Landrum 48:28
But in some areas, they weren’t speaking Mandarin. They were speaking ABC.

Stefanie Bautista 48:33
They were speaking ABC. Yup. Yeah, Jon Jon says he speaks ABC after he does this whole spiel in Chinese in Mandarin. And because Katy and Shawn don’t speak Mandarin very well as many second generation, Asian Americans realize when they go back to the homeland, they just can’t communicate with the people around them because they don’t speak the same dialect or they don’t speak the same level of language.

Ariel Landrum 48:59
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 48:59
I know, I felt that when I went to the Philippines or when every time I go to the Philippines, they speak a different sort of Tagalog that I can never keep up with and I out myself with the small amounts of Tagalog that I know and in America, I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I’m super like, super fluent in Tagalog.” And then when I go there, I’m like, “Ah, how do I say how much is that?” But yeah, he Jon Joh reduces, Ronny Chieng’s; his character reduces the English language to just ABC because essentially, it is simplistic compared to Mandarin and so many other Asian languages because they have a different character, style, a different writing style, they have multiple writing styles. And you can’t say the same about English that way.

Ariel Landrum 49:47
And an ABC stands for American Born Chinese. And so this term can sometimes be used as like a put down to describe children of immigrants who speak English as their first language. It’s meant to basically say that you either don’t know Chinese Chinese customs and therefore you’re not Chinese enough. And I will say that that is a common experience for second generation children. For children of mixed races like myself, where you do not feel like you are enough of you’re sort of like home culture or primary culture. If your mix that you’re not enough of either or, and it was and was used lightheartedly was used as a joke. But I think that it was really important that they put that in the film, because that’s an experience that many Asian American children have. And it was I don’t think anybody would have caught it if they weren’t in the community.

Stefanie Bautista 50:44
In the community. Yeah, not at all. And even like, just just that, that struggle of not being Asian enough. And that struggle of not living up to that expectation of you, of being of your heritage, but also an American, and what that means to be an American, but also what it means to be whatever heritage you are, whether it be Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, you’re always just like in this weird limbo, where you’re like, “I don’t really fit into anywhere, but I don’t want to go all the way back and be Fresh Off the Boat. I don’t want to be a FOB. But I also don’t want to appropriate any other culture, because that’s also not me.” So it’s just this tightrope walk that you do.

Yeah, but I don’t want to be seen as like a Twinkie or a banana where you are yellow on the outside and white on the in. And that is another sort of like put down or derogatory term. And I would also highlight this isn’t unique to an Asian American experience. I don’t know if anybody saw the first Selena movie with Jennifer Lopez. But there is a scene where Selena’s father’s saying,

Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 51:53
“We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans to be accepted by both communities.”

Stefanie Bautista 51:59
Yep. Man, Edward James Olmos. Everyone’s dad at that moment. I felt that I definitely felt that.

Ariel Landrum 52:07
You know, to go back to what you’re saying about appropriation. We do want to acknowledge there has been a lot of backlash in regards to Awkwafina. The actress who plays Katy, Shang-Chi’s best friend. And that is because Awkwafina has made her persona on on YouTube and then in various movies, using a Blaccent, which is an accent that is known to have like colloquialisms that hearken to the Black community or culture and in a stereotypical way. And that is very common, I will say, in regards to the appropriation of Black culture, and people who are trying to like sort of rise in the entertainment industry. You know, we were someone will take on this form and feature, use it. And then once they’ve reached a certain level of fame, they will, they will end it. And I mean, one example that comes to mind is Justin Timberlake. So we want to mention it, because we don’t agree with it. But we we also know as Filipino Americans, specifically, we were raised in a community that was so colonized, we have lost a lot of our heritage, I would say that a lot of the things that we consider very Filipino, we are, unfortunately things we borrowed from other communities because we had to.

Stefanie Bautista 53:35
Yeah, and even when having the realization that so many of our words are Spanish words, it’s like well, then what even is a Tagalog word or a Subanon word or an Ilocano word? We don’t, we haven’t had the chance to explore that. And I think many of us Asian Americans might even put ourselves in Awkwafina’s shoes, especially since she is somebody who is an outlier in the community, making it as an actress making as a comedian, even. I mean, her Wli Wang, Margaret Cho, these are women who probably pissed off a lot of their ancestors, and a lot of their family members to do what they love. And they have each had to take on different personas and navigate the entertainment industry in their own ways. So we do want to acknowledge that although we don’t agree with the way that it might have been done in the past. We also do want to acknowledge that every story has two sides, and Awkwafina is doing a lot for Asian Americans now in the entertainment industry. Even just her presence as well as many of the powerful women in Shang-Chi are giving little Asian girls something to look up to someone to identify with, I think is worth noting. But we do know that it is without controversy. But we hope that like how Marvel is planning to do better we also hope that these actresses and these entertainers do better as well.

Ariel Landrum 55:03
Yeah. And and, you know, again, we’re speaking from our experiences Filipina Americans. We are not in the Black community. So we understand this does harm to the Black community, but and we can certainly empathize with that pain. And we would love to have a further dialogue. But I don’t want to speak on the Black experience.

Stefanie Bautista 55:23
Absolutely.

Ariel Landrum 55:24
In regards to someone’s appropriation of their culture. Or not speak on I would say, speak for.

Stefanie Bautista 55:30
Speak for. Yeah, we are definitely not speaking for that community as Filipina Americans, and we are really just trying to reach and understand as best as we can. But we know that there are some things that we just will never be able to experience and that it is a real thing. And it is, these are real, valid feelings to have.

Ariel Landrum 55:48
Yeah. I would say that the final two sort of like Asian American Easter Eggs were that of the Guardian Lions, you will see them their Imperial Guardian Lions, you’ll see them throughout the movie. They’re often Chinese architectural ornaments. And they were made popular by Chinese Buddhism. And they are lions usually one is a male with a ball and another one female with a cub that are meant to protect the building from harmful spiritual influences and harmful people that might be a threat to it. And you see one of them essentially come to life…

Stefanie Bautista 56:26
Yup. It’s kind of scary. Not gonna lie.

Ariel Landrum 56:29
Kind of freaking scary. So as this too essentially suddenly suggests because this is ancient magical village that that that this community that these lions actually existed.

Stefanie Bautista 56:43
Yeah. With dragons.

Ariel Landrum 56:45
With dragons. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 56:48
I feel like it was so funny that yet again Awkwafina is in a movie with dragons, but she’s not voicing this one.

Ariel Landrum 56:53
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 56:54
I think I saw TikTok of a little girl saying “Wait, that’s that’s Raya or that’s Raya’s friend that Sisu. But…”

Ariel Landrum 57:02
Yeah…

Stefanie Bautista 57:03
That’s not Sisu, but it looks like Sisu.” So I think she might have been confused, because she was both in the movie Raya and also Shang-Chi. But I think it was beautiful. It reminded me of Spirited Away that the way that the animated the dragon and the way that the dragon helps him to accomplish his goal and save the universe, essentially. But these mythical creatures, even the little one without the face, he was so cute. What was his name?

Ariel Landrum 57:33
Oh Morris!

Stefanie Bautista 57:35
Yeah Morris! Yes, Morris the cutest little thing. But even the the bamboo forest and how that is like a mythical creature in itself, it comes to life.

Ariel Landrum 57:46
Yeah the labyrinth.

Stefanie Bautista 57:47
Ah huh. It has a mind of its own because it is protecting the village, but also draws from Chinese elements of being one with nature and nature having its own soul and having its own character. Was a big part of this film as well. Because without that they wouldn’t have secluded this, this town and also the use of water was so beautiful.

Ariel Landrum 58:09
Yes. And then even when it comes to protecting the village, and throughout the whole movie, we see a lot of different martial arts weapons.

Stefanie Bautista 58:17
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 58:17
We see throwing knives we see hook swords, and we see a rope dart. A rope dart is a hybrid weapon that is used as both a dagger and a whip, and we see Shang-Chi’s sister using it.

Stefanie Bautista 58:31
Yep. And she was a big badass in the movie. She was like one of my favorite characters.

Ariel Landrum 58:36
Yes!

Stefanie Bautista 58:37
Man, having having that image of her in her room. I so many of us can relate to that room of like a young Asian American girl just like rebelling. And those same posters, those same aesthetics. Like we all went through that phase because we wanted to identify ourselves as different. We didn’t want to be that poster model minority myth child. We wanted to pave her own way and her losing her mother just, you know, made her become all that much independent. And I think her saying the line. Oh, I think when she was telling Katy “Yeah, I created an underground fighting ring at the age of…” 11 it was?

Ariel Landrum 59:20
Oh no, it was 16.

Stefanie Bautista 59:22
16! “Yeah, I was a runaway and then I made an underground fighting ring.” Yes, she did accomplish that.

Ariel Landrum 59:31
Yes she did.

Stefanie Bautista 59:32
That was a thing she did and because she’s such a badass and she I think her parallel story would Shawn’s was very interesting the depth that we went with her character

Ariel Landrum 59:43
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 59:44
Even though she was a supporting character. You’ll you’ll find this as for me, especially as a sibling, an older sibling, like there’s so much that rides on whoever the girl is it within the siblings. Whether you’re the oldest or whether you’re in the middle or the youngest, there’s always some expectation of you that you can almost never attain. And I think that was one of the struggles that she went through and even identifying herself after being the leader of an underground fighting ring. She was still longing for that acceptance and that validation that she never got from her mother because she never really knew her like that. And she was definitely not getting it from her father, even though she could probably go toe to toe with him. Business wise.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:27
Yeah I would say the final Easter Egg which is one that we have an entire episode that we talked about here on this podcast, Happiest Pod on Earth is a karaoke!

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:44
Karaoke! Boy were we seen. It’s like oh heard our episode. I\m pretty sure they did it. But in our episode…

Ariel Landrum 1:00:54
They had Disney karaoke on there ya’ll!

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:57
They did they sing Part of Your World. And there were so many times that I was like that is literally me at 12 o’clock in the morning saying, “I could go home. But I can also go to the karaoke bar, which is open until two o’clock in the morning.” I we are very privileged to get to live in LA, where we have a huge Koreatown, a huge Japanese enclave community. And we have karaoke places that are open until two o’clock in the morning for you to sing your heart out. On another level, we are Filipino. So we have Magic Mics, and we have things to sing karaoke with until God knows when. I think my brother and his friend were singing karaoke last night until like five o’clock in the morning in the living room, because we can do that. And I mean, I guess I could talk about like one of the extra scenes.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:50
Yes!

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:51
So please, please, please, as we wrap this up, please stay until the end all the way till the end.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:58
This is a Marvel movie. If you haven’t learned this by now, y’all.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:03
Check yourself. Because not only is there a mid credit scene, there’s an end credit scene. And in one of those scenes, they see Captain Marvel and they see Hulk and you see Hulk’s arm in a sling because he obviously snapped everybody back into existence. And as they’re, you know, getting really into it. Like, “Where is the technology for these rings coming from?” Like, it’s so serious. Like, it’s almost like holy crap Avengers again. And then they go, “Okay, well, you know, rest up your lives are gonna change because you know, you are now the protector of the rings and your friend also.” They’re like, “Well, we could rest but….” And then you see them going to the karaoke bar with Wong.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:46
Yes. Oh, I love you Wong. I missed you.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:49
I’m gonna be calling him Uncle Wong From now on, because he’s Uncle Wong. He’s just that Uncle. You don’t know where he goes. You don’t know what he does. He doesn’t have a family, but he somehow survives. Everybody has an Uncle like that. And you see them all singing Hotel California at the top of their lungs. And it was so delightful to see. And just like I think the same effect that the shawarma scene had…

Ariel Landrum 1:03:13
Yeah…

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:15
It really brought them down to earth and made them so relatable because, yeah, they’re your superhero saving the world, but they can also go to karaoke bars and get swasted.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:24
Yes. And and it’s really interesting, the song choice for Hotel California because the theme of that specific song is about the loss of innocence and the cost of naivety. And when we hear the story of how Katy met Shang-Chi she didn’t know that he was new to US soil. So he was essentially young and naive. And but he also lost his innocence because he had lost the death of his mother he had essentially killed somebody on by the orders of his father. He had he essentially that songs embodying that experience and then when we revisit it, we see Bruce Banner who is no longer Professor Hulk so that is interesting.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:12
That was interesting. dun dun dun

Ariel Landrum 1:04:14
We see him saying like, “Welcome to the circus.” And that is almost a note of like checking into a new life just like checking into the Hotel California. And then of course, this whole place takes place in California right so this is this is like this is Shang-Chi’s life now that he is integrated into this new Americanized lifestyle and now he’s integrated into the MCU as a Marvel superhero, and then we we noticed that the the song ends with, you know, all of them singing with Uncle Wong, and it’s almost an invitation now for all of us in regards to this new Marvel Cinematic phase.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:54
That is apparently gonna to blow our minds or they keep saying that and this is already like the parallels I’m kind of connecting with this and Eternals and Spider-Man, and we can talk about that in another episode. But there are so many connections that I was making with the film and what’s coming up.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:12
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:12
I think it’s really exciting to know that we are in a new era of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. And now TV shows with the introduction of all of our favorite Disney+ shows. So it’s really exciting to see. So overall, for me, I love the movie. I think the only unrealistic part was Katy shooting that arrow, magically piercing the the dragon thingy. But other than that, I think it just did so much for me as a Filipino American. For many of my Chinese American friends. I see little kids with, you know, Shang-Chi merchandise, which is really cool. Seeing figurines at Disneyland, and pins representing different cultures is so beautiful. And I think that Marvel is going in the right direction. And I hope they continue to go in the right direction from now on.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:08
Yeah, I really loved it, too. I love the symbolism of really, again, Shang-Chi, integrating his two different parts. As someone who is of mixed race. It I see those different cultures inside myself battle each other. And so this was a great representation of them, being integrated, working together and essentially helping me formulate my new path, which is exactly what he did. The rings were surrounding him in a way not like his father’s they weren’t, they weren’t hard. They were different color. They weren’t harsh grounding. They they weren’t used in, just pushes and punches. They they were expanded, they grew, they shrunk, he he was able to wield them in such a different way than his father, because he was embracing the martial arts from his mother or essentially embrace embracing his mother’s culture.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:05
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:06
And so I think that really, that representation for me is not something that I see often and, and really laid out so beautifully.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:19
Yeah. And if you’re not gonna see it for all those things that we mentioned, watch it for the martial arts.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:24
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:24
It did it justice. It is like watching a Wushu movie. It is beautiful in itself. I did not know that Simu Liu was not a martial artist. However, he absolutely crushed it in a lot of these maybe stunts that he did, maybe his son of coordinator did and the person who fun fact the person who played the Death Dealer, the one in the mask, he is a Southern California native and he is Vietnamese. And he made a name for himself doing YouTube videos because he loved martial arts so much.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:57
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:57
So for anybody out there who thinks you know being a Jackie Chan and Jet Li is out of your reach. Look up his story. His name is Andy Le and he has a fantastic story about the his journey to being in Shang-Chi.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:12
Even the martial arts was paying homage to Jackie Chan. There was one scene where Shang-Chi is fighting a bunch of goons on a bus and he wraps his jacket around an assailants arm and knocks him back with it. This is a parallel to a Rumble in the Bronx where Chan is a Hong Kong cop fighting off enemies and he uses his windbreaker to disarm a man with a knife. And then there was even another scene where Katy is hanging off of scaffolding made out of bamboo. And this was essentially paying homage to rush hour to where Chris Tucker’s character, Carter is hanging off bamboo and Jackie Chan’s Lee has to save him. So if you saw this movie if you connected to it, not even because you’re Asian American, but just because you love Marvel movies. Go ahead and tweet us @happiestpodGT or DM us on Instagram @happiestpodGT. And let us know your thoughts, your feelings, we want to hear them all.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:18
Yup. And we can’t wait to cover more of a lot of these Marvel Disney things that are coming out because we are being bombarded with stuff. So we’re excited to go over all of that with you.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:30
Yeah. All right, buh-bye everybody!

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:33
Buh-bye!

• Shang-Chi
• Simu Liu
• Spider-Man
• Wong
• Hulk
• Captain Marvel
• The Eternals
• Katy
• Awkwafina
• Xu Wenwu
• The Mandarin
• Tony Ceung Chiu-wai
• Leiko Wu
• Fala Chen
• Wong
• 88 Rising

• Asain representation
• Culture
• Kin
• Asian culture
• Chinese culture
• Ancestors
• History
• Yello Peril
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Ariel Landrum 0:03
Hello, everyone, welcome to The Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:07
And I’m Stef, and we are Disney fans. But we are really so much more than that.

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Like I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:16
And I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them. Here at Happiest Pod, it’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum 0:27
Why? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. So Stef what Disney media experience are we dissecting and sharing today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:36
It is definitely an experience. And it’s one that we’ve heard before and many of you might have been going through. But we are going to be talking about my first trip back to Disneyland with a baby. It’s been a while. First time with a baby of my own. I was thinking about this, and there have been many times that I’ve gone with my nieces, my nephews, other kids, friends of you know, friends of mine to have kids, but going yourself with the baby, your own baby is kind of a whole different ballgame.

Ariel Landrum 1:09
Did going with those other babies give you at least some idea of how to prep or what you needed to to like consider or because they had other caregivers, maybe you only focused on like small certain parts?

Stefanie Bautista 1:21
Oh, absolutely. I think I always kind of watched like, how many bags did they take? Are they overpacking? Did they have enough food for them? Are their kids picky? I always take those things in consideration just because for me, it’s like going on a field trip with other kids. So whenever I’m on a field trip with my students, I have to make sure that you know I have their emergency stuff like I have kids medicines, I do a head count, which I always did when we traveled with a big group of kids at Disneyland. We always made sure like “1-2-3-4-5. Okay, we have everybody, we’re good.” Thankfully, I was just responsible for my one child who is mobile, but still can be in a stroller. When I go with my nieces and nephews, many of them are walking now they are you know elementary school age. So for them, it’s more of you know, what rides are they scared of? What rides do they like? What experiences and characters do they identify with, as opposed to bringing a baby, which is really what is safe? And what won’t upset them throughout the day, because you want to have a good day to.

Ariel Landrum 2:28
You’re talking about, you know, a baby that’s non nonverbal. So, it really and because this is, you know, your son’s very first time very, very first time, everything is a is a reaction. None of his like recall memory or response to like, “Oh, this is something I’ve seen before and it’s familiar and comforting.” It is brand new, like sensory information for him.

Stefanie Bautista 2:51
Mm hmm. And even during the pandemic, I know we mentioned in another episode that we had visited Downtown Disney before when he was much, much younger, maybe a couple months old. And we were able to do a Taste of Disney, which was the food event at California Adventure. So many of these sites might be the same, but because his eye development wasn’t there yet. So he might not even have remembered that he was watching Cars Land or he might not even remember that there was a big ferris wheel that was in front of him.

Ariel Landrum 3:22
Because the visual perception is up close, right? And even color recognition.

Stefanie Bautista 3:27
Yeah. And on top of that, there’s no real like character interaction. So there wasn’t anybody getting into face, or I wasn’t bringing him into anything that was in front of him that he might have recognized. So really, it was a new experience for him overall, aside from the fact that he was maybe used to the noise. I think that was the only thing that was familiar to him.

Ariel Landrum 3:48
And this is slightly different experience. I think that you’ve had but probably similar because you’re a military wife, one of the experiences that I have had with other military wives who’ve had infants and you know, their partners returning is that theirs “stranger shock,” even though this is their parent, because they don’t recognize that face and and even if they met them as an infant, even into two or three now because they have the ability to recognize faces. This one doesn’t look familiar. It’s scary.

Stefanie Bautista 4:19
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 4:20
I mentioned that because the reunification process with families is like really informing the service member that that this is a likely thing to happen and it has nothing to do with a rejection to you. It has everything to do with the baby doesn’t know you doesn’t know your face.

Stefanie Bautista 4:37
It’s just not familiar. And those are the things that he was experiencing during COVID because his dad was on mission and he was traveling to different parts of California. So there were stretches of time, weeks, months that he didn’t see him and then when we were reunited together, he was really only going by his sense of smell, I think. And it took maybe like a couple minutes, maybe sometimes an hour. Sometimes a couple hours for him to really get used to the fact that this is not a stranger. This is somebody who I can trust. And somebody who kind of smells like me, but not really. Especially since he’s had been, you know, my husband had been living in a hotel for a lot of these months out of the year. So he kind of have that hotel smell? For a while. And um, you know, it wasn’t necessarily that skin to skin smell that they probably that my son was used to right after birth. But yeah, that’s a real thing. And this, this could have been a very different situation had, we had not set up the correct parameters. And I think just to set up for our listeners context, my son is 14 months old. So he’s a little over a year. He’s beginning to say some words, not a lot, he knows some sign language when it comes to food. So he knows when to ask for more. He knows when he’s done, we know his nonverbal cues when he’s finished eating, when he’s cranky. We’ve we’ve kind of gone through these routines with him, not just at home, but when we eat at restaurants outside. So really, that was a lot of context that I was bringing into coming into Disneyland. And thankfully, kind of thankfully, that we had been traveling so much during the pandemic, visiting his dad over at his hotels, I was used to putting him in the car, those things don’t bother him anymore, because he had been conditioned to know that that’s a normal thing. So that in itself was easy for me to transition to because he had had those experiences.

Ariel Landrum 6:37
Yeah, I think that’s a really good thing to note. Because sometimes, and particularly new parents, or parents that haven’t been around a lot of children but just their own, forget the awareness of essentially desensitizing your child to some of the things that are going to be normalized for them, like being put in a car seat, like long rides. Some kids like those rides, put them to sleep, and it’s fine, but others it’s too much noise from the freeway, it could be like the sound of the air conditioning or unable to like regulate their body temperature. And so caregivers have to really like zero in on those cues.

Stefanie Bautista 7:12
Definitely. And I always wonder now, why don’t they make car seats more breathable? My son is a sweaty mess, sometimes, and it’s been like 100 degrees here, in LA.

Ariel Landrum 7:23
Sweaty baby!

Stefanie Bautista 7:23
He is like, you can see the sweat marks just like they’re forever in his car seat. And, you know, they recommend that children are rear facing up until 20 pounds, or until they’re like two years old. So he’s going to be rear facing for quite a bit, but I don’t have a vent that goes to that side of my car.

Ariel Landrum 7:44
From the chair.

Stefanie Bautista 7:45
From the chair. And I’m like, “How do I pick my son not a sweaty mess?” But, you know, hey, people who make car seats, please fix this.

Ariel Landrum 7:54
Yeah. And it’s not like you could really put a fan near him because for some kids, the fans very fascinating moving thing and they want to touch it.

Stefanie Bautista 8:01
Oh my gosh. Yes. And I will mention it. I’m going to talk about fans portable fans later.

Ariel Landrum 8:06
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 8:07
One of the experiences we had.

Ariel Landrum 8:10
So in essentially, in planning for this trip, what exactly did you have to do?

Stefanie Bautista 8:16
Okay, so I really had to, like take myself out of I was a former annual pass holder, I have my routines in the park, I know which rides I want to go to, I haven’t been on these things since before I was pregnant. All that out the window.

Ariel Landrum 8:32
So so the managing the expectations, and not only using memory recall and history, because this is new experience.

Stefanie Bautista 8:40
A brand new experience, not just because you know, we’re coming at a pandemic, the parks are different now,. The way you navigate the parks are certainly different and seeing the cues that you had, for me last time. And also the experience that I’ve had going to Downtown Disney frequently, just, you know, curb my appetite for Disney stuff. I had to put all of those experiences together. And also, knowing that we were at a theme park, we are not going to be in the comfort of having a hotel like right next to us. We can’t just take a break when we want. So the comfort level definitely had to be as amped up for my son as much as possible, which means that I had to give up a couple of things. But it was totally fine. Knowing that this was like a trial run for us. Like if, if I were to maybe do like a Disney World experience that would all ride on how he reacted at our trip that day.

Ariel Landrum 9:36
And then even even further further back in prep. Did you consider your you and your husband’s vaccination status as part of prep because you obviously can’t have your son vaccinated? He’s not 12 or older.

Stefanie Bautista 9:49
Yes, absolutely. I mean, my husband was working a vaccination mission so he had been vaccinated one of the first ones when they originally opened it up to military servicemembers, and when they opened it up to educators, I was one of the first ones to get it right away. So that already was a layer of comfort that I had for myself knowing that there are people at the park that were not vaccinated. And also, the fact that Disney is making it necessary for you to reserve tickets at the park for capacity that made it easier. And I knew that I was going to be going on a weekday. Had I known all of the experiences that many of my friends had on the weekends, and because we follow Disney blogs, we follow Disney YouTube… There was just too many people there for my comfort. So I knew in that preparation and even buying and reserving our tickets that I was going on a Monday, after many of the school districts had gone back to school, I was me and my husband were both taking a day off and making sure that there were not that many people at the park.

Ariel Landrum 10:54
Okay. And, and I’m curious, because some of this sounds like prep for you. Did you share these ideas with your husband? Did he come up with ideas like how did that sort of partnership go? Because sometimes when people vacation or go on theme parks, they really just rely on one person to be sort of the planner. And sometimes it’s a joint effort. So for the two of you what’s comfort, and what what made this process at least a little bit easier?

Stefanie Bautista 11:20
I mean, for us, we were both annual pass holders for so long. So going to Disneyland is kind of like second nature to us now. Sunday’s were our day back then, Sunday’s were a day to just like hang out be at the park. This was on their way less people going to the park at the time, like you were never at capacity. Even with like, Oogie Boogie Bash happening during Halloween, or maybe even like the holiday season, we as passholders and also having military passes for the last couple years. We knew what days to go and what days not to go. We always knew never to go on a Saturday or a Friday night, because we would probably never be able to go on the rides we wanted to. It was always a Sunday or a random day that we had off. Sometimes I have random days off at school that allowed me to go to you know, the parks or go somewhere else. And our planing is always 50/50. We don’t really have a designation of who takes care of what, but it’s mainly whoever has the capacity to be on their computer at the time is going to be booking the tickets, or whoever has like the information normally, it’s an event that one of us sees on social media and say “Hey, why don’t we go to Disneyland at this time?” And then we go from there.

Ariel Landrum 12:36
And then I’m I mean, I’m curious. So for your planning of your trip. Did you like set some goals or visualize for yourself what you wanted to do? Or how how did the two of you kind of decide like Disneyland with baby?

Stefanie Bautista 12:54
Yeah, I mean, a lot of it really had to do with me initiating what I wanted to do. Last time I was at Disneyland I was six months pregnant, and I couldn’t ride like any of the rides I basically had to treat myself like I had a child already with me. Because a lot of these things made me so nauseous I think one of the rides that I didn’t think was gonna make me nauseous but did was the Inside Out like balloon ride at California Adventure. It’s not that crazy, guys. It’s just, it’s just you go around. It’s like the it’s like Dumbo. It’s like, what’s in like the Rockets in Tomorrowland. You just go around. It’s last maybe two to five minutes. And I felt like I was going to throw up everything in existence. It was the worst feeling and Ariel knows like I have a pretty strong stomach. I can go on roller coasters. No problem. I don’t get motion sickness very often. The only time I really like that bad is when I have probably way too much to drink. But it’s been a while since that’s happened. So really, my husband was like, “What do you want to do? Because you haven’t had a full Disney experience in more than two years. So what what do you want to experience?” And I definitely wanted to do the new rides. Rise of the Resistance over at California are at at Batuu Star Wars Land. And Webslinger is at Avengers Campus at California Adventure.

Ariel Landrum 14:19
Okay, okay, so um, got your two rides. And those rides involve queues.

Stefanie Bautista 14:26
Yes, they involve queues which is a new thing for me. I had no freaking idea what I was doing. I was only going over what Ariel is telling me like how to like go and then our friend Billy who had gone and his experience. So I was like, You know what, “Jesus take the wheel on this one because I’m gonna need it.” And so that morning. Okay, so let’s let’s go back a little bit. My, my husband, he works over in Orange County, basically Los Alamitos, which is a base that’s not that far from there.

Ariel Landrum 14:57
And for for our listeners who aren’t from California or SoCal? How far away is that from where you’re living and where Disneyland is?

Stefanie Bautista 15:07
Yes. So we’re from I’m living, it’s about a 45 to an hour and a half drive depending on traffic every single day. So he drives quite a bit. And because we knew we’re going to Disneyland on a Monday, he has a buddy that lives in Garden Grove. Garden Grove is like two townships over maybe one township over. And it takes about 10 to 12 minutes to get to Disneyland from his place. So in order for us to maximize our experience, because it was our first time going back, we stayed at his buddy’s place, and it made a world of difference.

Ariel Landrum 15:40
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 15:41
A world of difference. I did not have to get up at five o’clock and butt cracked a dime to get all my stuff ready. And like…

Ariel Landrum 15:48
Wake the baby.

Stefanie Bautista 15:49
Wake the baby, all that put him in the car, like crying and screaming, none of that happened. I opened my eyes that 6:50 waited on my phone for 10 minutes to the dot, and I tried to get on Rise of the Resistance through my Disneyland app. And I was freaking out. Why was I freaking out? Because that crap was not working.

Ariel Landrum 16:12
Was it crashing on you?

Stefanie Bautista 16:14
It wasn’t crashing on me. So the app was working fine. I was able to go when you go into join virtual queue it says “Oh, you don’t have a queue available.” You press a button that says join virtual queue. “Oh, it doesn’t look like there any tickets linked for today?” What?

Ariel Landrum 16:28
What?

Stefanie Bautista 16:30
“What are you talking?” I’m like, “So you’re telling me that I this reservation that I had made a month in advance is not there? Is that what you’re telling me right now Disneyland app?”

Ariel Landrum 16:41
Does not exist.

Stefanie Bautista 16:42
And so all of a sudden like. “Ding ding ding ding ding!” Like all of these like warning signs like pop up in my head. So I have like, I close the app I open it again I close the app, I open it again and it just kept giving me that message. 7:01, 7:02, 7:03. And I knew how like intense this gets sometimes and like I watch people who are like and you were telling me everyone was on their phone at 7 o’clock like trying to get in their boarding passes. And I’m like what is happening so I was like, You know what, let’s just shut off my phone. And you guys know when you shut off your phone it’s about like a 2 to 5 minute process.

Ariel Landrum 17:15
Oh you restarted your phone.

Stefanie Bautista 17:17
I had to restart my phone. Make sure I was on Wi Fi and you know, we have pretty strong Wi Fi at my husband’s buddy’s place so I waited like in silence while everydody was still sleeping. And I’m like “Okay, let’s try this one more time,” and finally at 7:11 it recognized my tickets and I was able to join a boarding group and it was only boarding group 66.

Ariel Landrum 17:42
Wow!

Stefanie Bautista 17:43
We weren’t even in the 100’s yet.

Ariel Landrum 17:44
Oh my gosh. Okay, well I guess it was it was a Monday. It was a week day.

Stefanie Bautista 17:49
It was a Monday. It was a week day.

Ariel Landrum 17:51
And school started so other so all the young youngins are in school. Okay, so probably a lot lower capacity so less people you’re attempting to try and beat to the queue. Alright.

Stefanie Bautista 18:04
So yeah, so I finally got in, and then because I’m like waking up my husband like, “Something’s going on. Like I don’t know what’s happening. This is not. Ah!” And he has no idea of the process. Like he doesn’t even have like a minuscule amount of the knowledge that I have heard from you and from our friends about this so he has no freaking idea what’s happening. And “he’s just like, “Ugh just try again. Just try again.” And I’m like “I am trying again!” So…

Ariel Landrum 18:27
Okay so the anxiety that I usually gifted to you yeah and again AJ is just cool cool as a cucumber.

Stefanie Bautista 18:37
Cool as a cucumber. Not even awake. My son was like not even awake either. And and the place we were at our friend’s house. They have central air. We do not have central air at my personal house because it’s a much older house so they were both sleeping so soundly so nicely enjoying like the air and cool breeze. Here I’m like sweating bullets because I don’t know what’s happening and like you know all of this like rides and I only had two goals everyone. So if one of these goals didn’t work it was kind of going to dictate what was gonna happen at 12 o’clock when I tried at Webslinger. So we got in and “We’re like okay, it’s all good we can get up start to get ready and everything.” And yeah, I mean we we had we had the idea to get Mickey waffles, because I remember… Okay, so a little bit of backstory. We have not had breakfast in the park for a very long time.

Ariel Landrum 18:47
Oh yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 18:49
Because we live so far.

Ariel Landrum 19:32
And and even if you were going the most of the joints are closed.

Stefanie Bautista 19:35
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:36
In the park. It was really just breakfast on in Downtown Disney. When I went I found no breakfast places that were open. And I think the only one that was at a had already had all reservations is full.

Stefanie Bautista 19:49
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 19:50
And then and then it was just like two that were in Downtown Disney and they were serving like a limited menu.

Stefanie Bautista 19:55
Mm hmm. Exactly. And even before All of the new mandates at the park, we never ate breakfast there because we always woke up. And by the time we got there like that hour and a half of traffic, it was already brunch. So we couldn’t even make it even if we tried unless we stayed at a hotel nearby or a hotel at the park. So I was like, “Oh my gosh, we’re early. Let’s get Mickey waffles.” I go into my app, and I look at all the dining, literally nothing available. Nothing at all. I’m like, “Of course. Why did I even try?” And then I kept looking at the app because you have an option on the app. There’s like a bar at the top it says “Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner.” or you can select times for when you want to reserve. So I was like, “I wonder what’s available for lunch?” And lo and behold, I saw a reservation for Carthay Circle Alfresco Dining. And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I…” The last time I went to Carthy Circle is for a bachelorette party, like years ago, and I remember how fantastic that dinner was. So I was like, “Oh, heck yeah.” So I click 1:30 reservation for 3. And they even ask you like, “Do you need a high chair? Do you? Are you with any infants or babies? Like what other accommodations can we make?” So it was pretty thorough. It was like making a reservation for a restaurant. Because I don’t remember it being like this for the bachelorette party that I went to I think it was just a call in service. So I was really happy to see that there was something because I had not seen any dining reservations for those weeks of planning up to this trip. So I was like, “Okay, I guess somebody had canceled,” which I guess happens a lot due to you know, people being sick people having work. X, you know, reason, so I was able to get a reservation and I was really happy about that.

Ariel Landrum 21:43
And for listeners who haven’t actually been to even this theme park or maybe really only go to the one in Florida, what is Carthay Circle?

Stefanie Bautista 21:53
So carthay circle is at the Disney California Adventure. And it’s the I think it’s the one big fine dining restaurant aside from another one and Pixar Pier. That is Old Hollywood themed, very much like the Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios in Florida. So it has a lot of beautiful art deco it is modeled after the I think the Fox Theater in Westwood. If you look that up, that’s what is modeled after and it’s called Carthay Circle for named after one of the areas in Hollywood that many movie stars used to live. And I love Old Hollywood. Me and my husband both do and it’s been a place that was very special to go to and it wasn’t an everyday kind of thing and they had opened up the outside dining area for alfresco dining due to COVID restrictions over the lockdown and the eventual opening up of the parks and the restaurant. So it was really nice to see that there was something available because those are one of those things that I always think “Oh people are just booking this in advance like way way in advance.” So I was not expecting to see that I was really only expecting to see La Brea Bakery.

Ariel Landrum 23:06
Which is what I saw. And for those who maybe want to do Dapper Day this year or any Dapper Days, that is a restaurant that is very photogenic for your Dapper Day outfit. And they are very accommodating to the Dapper Day crowd. They do allow people to sort of take pictures with different backdrops and areas and I believe there’s some a lot of people take a picture by the stairs. So it’s a it’s a really lovely restaurant. For those who are able to go get the food is amazing.

Stefanie Bautista 23:42
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 23:43
The atmospheres is lovely. And it’s not like there’s a dress code though you do probably want to dress up in that. And that’s why a lot of people go there during Dapper Day.

Stefanie Bautista 23:53
Yeah. And for anybody who’s wondering about the food, it’s very, it’s like a steakhouse almost, but they do have pastas. Very, umm, I guess, relaxed sort of dining. They have options for kids, and they have a wonderful drink menu. They have a full bar that is all of their drinks are named after in themed after many Hollywood stars and many of Walt Disney’s work. So that’s always fun to see. And it’s one of the small details that they put into the park that make it very magical.

Ariel Landrum 24:25
So then that means that your day started off at Disneyland…

Stefanie Bautista 24:30
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 24:30
If the reservations because you have to choose which park you’re going to first.

Stefanie Bautista 24:35
Yeah, we wanted to do Disneyland first because California Adventure is the park that we had been frequenting because it was open for dining and shopping over the shutdown. So we definitely wanted to do Disneyland and also because Disneyland has a way more many baby friendly rides then California Adventure and because Rise of the Resistance is there and we’ve been hearing that queues for that ride were a little bit harder to get into than the Webslingers, ride.

Ariel Landrum 25:05
Okay, okay.

Stefanie Bautista 25:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 25:07
So in now heading heading to Disney it’s your morning what what exactly did you end up bringing or packing like how did you how did you prep for the day in that sense?

Stefanie Bautista 25:19
Yeah, so I have two different friends very close friends of mine that both have children. They both pack very differently. I have one friend who packs for her three kids with one tiny backpack that we bought from Tokyo Disneyland years ago. I don’t know how she does it. She is like a wizard. I she has like some crazy magical mommy powers that allows her to be so minimalistic.

Ariel Landrum 25:46
And like Mary Poppins bag.

Stefanie Bautista 25:49
Exactly. And she always has the right amount of diapers. Always the right amount of snacks like she has like the thinnest stroller in existence so that they can pack it up, put it in the tram, like back in the day. And it I don’t know how she does it. I am not at that level yet. She has surpassed this, like she unlocked so many other levels that I haven’t even unlocked yet. But we have another friend who packs bags on bags on bags. And she has two children. And so I take so many of my mommy cues from them, and I take what works for me and I put it together so I was able to bring just one backpack. It’s like a medium sized backpack that you would take to school filled with diapers, plenty of snacks that my son likes in case that he doesn’t want to eat anything there. He drinks cow’s milk now, he doesn’t really exclusively breastfeed anymore even though he does sometimes. So I didn’t have to worry about bringing a nursing cloth or knowing you know where I could nurse and where I needed to because I didn’t have to worry about that. However milk does spoil, so I needed bring a cooler to put that milk in.

Ariel Landrum 26:59
And at this stage, you’re not breast pumping?

Stefanie Bautista 27:02
No, I’m not. So I didn’t have to bring my pump. I I actually stopped pumping quite a while ago. But I do have friends who still pump during the day because they they need a pump to relieve. And they have portable pumps. And they also have ones that don’t have to plug in anywhere. But those are pretty expensive. So…

Ariel Landrum 27:22
Yes they are pricey.

Stefanie Bautista 27:23
I’ve seen mommies in the parking to that and who like all the power to them, because babies need their milk. So we had to take one thing into consideration which wasn’t a baby thing. But the fact that my husband has class, he’s going to school right now.

Ariel Landrum 27:40
He’s a student.

Stefanie Bautista 27:40
From 5 to 7 pm. He had a two hour class and it was a Monday so he had to attend class. So that means we had to bring his laptop. We have had friends who are in school who used to study at the parks. Actually they would go to Plaza de la Familia, which is like an eating area at California Adventure kind of secluded, away from all of the other rides. There’s Disney Wi Fi and you can also tether to your phone. So we knew that this was possible because our friends used to study at the park that was like their happy place to study and they got through school fine. So we’re like, you know, “We can do that too!” So we knew you were gonna get a locker rental because we had to pack extra clothes. We knew it was going to be around 90 degrees that day kind of humid. But knowing Orange County and knowing that it gets really cold at night, we brought extra clothes for the baby and we also brought extra clothes for ourselves because we were wearing shorts and like a T shirt. So we had rented a locker outside of Disneyland not inside. Because we knew we were going to be going back and forth through the park during the like noonish one o’clock hour when we were transferring over to California Adventure. So we got a we got a regular sized locker. There’s a couple sizes you could get. The regular sized lockers, I think $7 now and it fit his backpack perfectly with his okay 17 inch laptop. So it’s not a small laptop, but we fit everything just like exactly. So one bag was in there and then we kept one bag for us. And that was the bag that we put in the stroller and that was it.

Ariel Landrum 29:14
Okay, okay. So I mean a couple things. You mentioned the cooler. How big is this cooler?

Stefanie Bautista 29:21
So we call it like a regular lunch bag.

Ariel Landrum 29:23
Okay, okay.

Stefanie Bautista 29:24
Average I would say maybe no more than 10 inches around 10 to 12 inches. And just one ice pack inside.

Ariel Landrum 29:32
And it was the bag that you brought with you into the park? It wasn’t in the locker?

Stefanie Bautista 29:36
Um, yes. So we had two bottles of milk. So we were contemplating on keeping one of like the main cooler in there because he doesn’t really like cold cold milk. His, you guys have to imagine he only has I think eight teeth. So it’s mostly gum. And every time I’ve given him cold drinks, he makes this face and he’s like “Oh my gums are like frozen.” So we kind of have the temp the milk. So if I put cold milk in my backpack, I know it’s gonna be warm by the time he drinks it. So those are the little things as a mom, you have to really prepare for. And these are the things that had not taken into consideration back then when I didn’t have kids. So I knew that I could either bring the cooler in and keep the milk cold and wait for it to warm up. Or I could just keep the cooler in there. However, this tiny tiny locked could not accommodate both. So it was a backpack and the cooler.

Ariel Landrum 30:31
Okay, okay.

Stefanie Bautista 30:32
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:33
And then even in talking about how your two different friends who are mothers like pack and how it’s different. I think I just want to like, shout out that there’s no right way.

Stefanie Bautista 30:44
No.

Ariel Landrum 30:44
I think that whenever you follow it, at least my friends who are mothers, whenever they follow mommy blogs or Instagrams or Pinterest, it’s always like, “This is the only way you can do it. Otherwise, you’re the worst mother in the world.”

Stefanie Bautista 30:55
“You’re the worst mother in existence.”

Ariel Landrum 30:57
“You’re harming your child.” And in reality, it’s like whatever fits for your family.

Stefanie Bautista 31:02
Yeah, absolutely. And I’m not a big mommy blog follower, because I can’t have too much information thrown at me, because then I start to question myself and my methods and practices. So that’s why I turn to my mommy friends, because they have been my best friends for a very long time. I trust them. Their kids are fantastic. I am Godmother to many of these children. So I take the best of what you know works for me that they do and kind of created my own way of doing it. So that’s where I landed. One backpack and one cooler.

Ariel Landrum 31:33
I the other thing is when you’re mentioning just like the cold milk and the the face that your son makes were you talking about how attune you are those needs. For people who aren’t around infants or toddlers. They they’re like, “What are you saying what do you want like, like, I need more, I need more data, I need more information!” But when you look at those subtle cues and you’re actually attuned to your child, you’re going to be able to figure out what their wants and needs are intuitively simply because you are actually caregiving for them. You’re giving them attention, and attention to detail in a way that someone else who isn’t their primary caregiver isn’t going to give.

Stefanie Bautista 32:12
Exactly. And on top of that mom was at Disneyland. So mom is going to do whatever she needs to do to make sure that she has a great time.

Ariel Landrum 32:18
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 32:18
And if that means me making it okay for you so that I have a good time. These are the things that are going to be happening right now. Because this is my first time back I was like so so much. I want to ride these rides and there’s nothing going to be in my way. It’s kind of like that, like, very intense mom trope, I guess. It’s a real thing. You have not done these things for so long. You put yourself in the backseat for this ride of motherhood, that something like this, for me had to go really well. Or else it would have just I would have been devastated. I mean, as a mom, you are used to taking the L on a lot of things. Like you know, I know I can’t go out with my friends late night until one o’clock I know that’s not going to happen. But it’s those little things that you know, if you take the W on some of those things, it could just carry you for weeks and months.

Ariel Landrum 33:16
And we’re saying mom, but you can make it synonymous to any primary caregiver. You having to put yourself in the backseat to take care of someone and they don’t have to even be an infant someone they can definitely be aging parents. That’s a very difficult caregiving strategy. Definitely. Children or adults with disabilities again, a very tough caregiving strategy. But we’re going to we’re going to use moms specifically because that is your experience.

Stefanie Bautista 33:46
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I mean, even when I used to go to the parks with my nieces and nephews, you had to kind of take a backseat to what they wanted to do. I wasn’t the hugest fan of Frozen in the beginning but it was everywhere when we went and so we had to do all the Elsa and Anna experiences. Like Disney Jr. I had no idea what was going on at Disney Jr. But the dance party is something that those kids love. So of course I’m gonna not go on one of the rides to make sure that they have a great experience because this is everything this is their world to them right now.

Ariel Landrum 34:17
Yeah, creating some compromise.

Stefanie Bautista 34:19
Absolutely.

Ariel Landrum 34:21
So it sounds like then potentially this experience went well?

Stefanie Bautista 34:26
Yeah, overall I went well I think being that we had prior experiences at the park and we were able to at least go on Rise of the Resistance. And Webslinger is actually… We…

Ariel Landrum 34:39
Are you going to tell us about both?

Stefanie Bautista 34:41
I can tell you about both because I mean overall was a great experience. I’m gonna end it at that

Ariel Landrum 34:48
Which which rides did you go on? And it sounds like you got to go on those two. Did you have to did you get to go on others? And because you have a baby, what is this thing called like a Rider-Switch?

Stefanie Bautista 34:59
Okay. So there’s different words for it. It’s Rider-Switch, Rider-Swap. These are things that I had heard of in my vicinity, but never had to ask about. Because obviously, you’re not always going to as a family, go with people who can watch your children. So there are rides like Rise of the Resistance, and you know, the Incredicoaster, many of those big rides, you have to be at least 40 inches tall. My son is not even 25 inches standing up. He’s tiny. Very small human being. So he doesn’t cannot go on these rides. There are plenty of rights he did go on, and I’ll list them off later. But they’re. Okay. I had to kind of put myself into the mindset of there’s Rider-Switch, but also we’re in a boarding group. So there’s like, two layers of things that I did not know about, that I had to kind of navigate. So I had to act like a newbie and ask one of the cast members. “Hey, I have a porting group. Here it is. I’m not lying.”

Ariel Landrum 36:00
“It’s true!”

Stefanie Bautista 36:00
“It’s coming soon in 55 minutes. And I have to do Rider-Switch. How does that work?” So the cast member at Rise of the Resistance, say, “Oh, all you have to do is when we scan your app, we also scan your paper ticket.” So at the gate when they scan your ticket on your app to get in, they also give you a paper ticket. I don’t know if they did that for you. Did they do that for you?

Ariel Landrum 36:24
I we did get two park tickets, actual paper ones. And I remember putting them in my pocket because I thought I would need it to be able to get into the other park.

Stefanie Bautista 36:33
Yeah, so I did, too. I had no idea why I needed that ticket. And I still don’t know why I needed that ticket. I guess Rider-Swap is one of those ways? But there’s another story about that. So what happened was our boarding group was called, and it took about, okay, so from seven o’clock, it took about almost 200 minutes or so for our boarding pass. So about like two hours in something. So that’s why we knew you know, we were getting we wanted to get Mickey waffles, which we didn’t. So we ended up just going to Batuu to get a Ronto Wrap, which is the breakfast wrap. It’s like a hot dog with scrambled eggs on top and cheese. And that was our breakfast, and they have coffee there too. If anybody wants to get coffee over at Star Wars land.

Ariel Landrum 37:19
Shoot I did not know that they had breaks over there.

Stefanie Bautista 37:21
Yeah they have breakfast over there.

Ariel Landrum 37:22
I can do hotdogs and eggs. I’m good with that.

Stefanie Bautista 37:24
Yeah. And so we got one of those. And then we also got one of the veggie dogs, because we wanted something light. And while we were waiting for the ride, we were sitting at an area that was in front of the restaurant that they have at Batuu. And we looked over to the right and we saw Smuggler’s Run. The Millennium Falcon ride. And I looked and I’m like, “Does that really say five minute? Is that a five minute wait?”

Ariel Landrum 37:53
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 37:53
And it truly was a five minute wait. And you’re like, “Oh my gosh!” When we went on this? Let me tell you last time I went on this ride. I had a broken arm. So…

Ariel Landrum 38:05
Yes some Comic-Con shenanigans.

Stefanie Bautista 38:07
Yeah, Comic-Con shenanigans led me to a broken arm. So I was not even fully able to experience this ride before I got pregnant because I was handicap. So I’m like, “Oh, let’s let’s try Rider-Swap.” And so what they did is they, they you tell the person, “Hey, I’m going to be switching with my partner.” And then they scan your ticket, and then you wait in the regular queue…

Ariel Landrum 38:28
The paper ticket?

Stefanie Bautista 38:29
The paper ticket, yes.

Ariel Landrum 38:30
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 38:30
You wait in the regular queue. So it’s five minutes, he went in first. And then so when he left, they tell you, “Give your ticket to your partner and they can come in in the Fastpass line.” So when I went in, I went through the Fastpass line. I didn’t even have to wait in the regular queue at this point, it was 20 minutes. Okay, yeah, big whoop 20 minutes right. In, in, in this, you know, in the whole grand scheme of things, you’re essentially switching the exact same spot. So you don’t have to wait the extra time that you would have had to wait going through single rider because you’re switching with somebody who had already done that wait. So let’s say he went on and it was a 40 minute wait, he would still have to wait that 40 minutes, but when he switched with me, I wouldn’t have to wait that 40 minutes I would just go into the Fastpass line and that is how Rider-Swap works.

Ariel Landrum 39:20
Wow. Okay, okay, when the two of you actually switch is there because I think I’ve seen this at Universal but I don’t know if I’ve actually noticed this at Disneyland. Is there like an area where you stand or like a hidden room? Because there’s like or like where there’s a TV playing? I know I’ve seen that at Universal.

Stefanie Bautista 39:41
No.

Ariel Landrum 39:42
No. Okay, you’re gonna like shifting to the side? Or?

Stefanie Bautista 39:46
Or just in the area. You don’t have to be right next to the ride. So when he went on Smuggler’s Run, we just found a shady spot near the Millennium Falcon so that he can run around. If you’ve always ever been there. There’s like a huge space for people to take pictures. And because it was so early in the morning, still around nine o’clock, not a lot of people were taking pictures. And also the photopass people were on the other side. And we were like in the corner where there was the most shade. And I noticed that were there were a lot of younger, like babies there too, with their moms taking a break nursing some of them over there. And it was just a nice, shady spot to let your kids run around and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. So that was one of the places in Star Wars Land. If you ever need a place for your kid to get their wiggles out. You could just have them run around there. And it’s very picturesque. You’re right under the Millennium Falcon. It’s, it’s kind of cool. But yeah, we just waited for him there. And then he just text me, “Hey, I’m ready.” And then I told them where we were, and we swapped right away. And then I went in, I walked all the way in. And let me tell you when you go in, and you just say, “Oh, just one in my party.” It makes you feel a little lonely.”

Ariel Landrum 40:56
sings “One is the loneliest number.”

Stefanie Bautista 41:00
So I had to, and this is only because it was my comfort. Like I was just very nervously, “Oh yeah, my party is outside. I’m not by myself.” There was nothing wrong with going to Disneyland by yourself. I did it a couple times when I was, you know, just on my own. But knowing that you’re with a family and like you’re just kind of randomly there especially on a ride like Smugglers Run where you have to negotiate with your team who’s gonna be where and like, you have gunners, you have engineers, you have like, you know, the the pilot, it’s very interactive.

Ariel Landrum 41:33
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 41:33
So you kind of have to talk to your group.

Ariel Landrum 41:37
Okay, so slight awkwardness for you.

Stefanie Bautista 41:40
Slight awkwardness.

Ariel Landrum 41:41
I’m guessing, knowing AJ, there was no thought of any awkwardness.

Stefanie Bautista 41:44
No, not at all. And on top of that, he was his boarding his group at Smuggler’s Run, none of them spoke English. So there was no communication whatsoever.

Ariel Landrum 41:56
None okay.

Stefanie Bautista 41:57
None at all. And he was like, that was a very interesting experience. And they had all been first timers on the right and the mom was so scared to press the buttons because she didn’t want to mess anything up.

Ariel Landrum 42:08
Oh break the ride.

Stefanie Bautista 42:09
As an engineer, you only have to press one button and it flashes green. It’s very obvious because it is such a crazy ride? Like, she did not press that button. She pressed the one on top of it. He very nicely was like, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.” And she felt so bad. And it was it was really funny when he told me about it. But, um, yeah, so Rider-Swap. That’s exactly how it worked at Rise of the Resistance, even with a boarding group. So we had two different experiences, though, at the boarding group with Rise of the Resistance and the boarding group at Webslingers.

Ariel Landrum 42:46
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 42:46
So Rise of the resistance they’ve treated at the same way as Smuggler’s Run, “I scan your ticket, you come out, and then I scan it again, when your partner goes on the ride.” Okay, makes sense. But then I looked at my app, as I was reserving for Webslingers, they only scan one boarding pass. So that meant there was a leftover boarding pass, that was my partner’s. And I’m like, “Wait, they have to clear this one out in order for me to get on the next boarding group.” Which they didn’t do, because they only scanned one, since I decided to ride the ride first. And I’m like, “Oh, no, I can only reserve for myself for Webslinger.” So I did. And I was in boarding group, like, 160 or something.

Ariel Landrum 43:32
Okay. Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 43:33
And then, as I left, I was like, “Hey, can you clear this one out? Because I have a Rider-Swap, and he’s going to be using this ticket.” They’re like, “Yeah, sure. Okay.” And so they scanned it, and then I got another boarding group for him. And that was like, 179.

Ariel Landrum 43:45
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 43:45
So I’m like, okay, two different boarding groups. So essentially, in my head, “Would there be able to be a way that 4 people can go on the ride?”

Ariel Landrum 43:55
Finagling!

Stefanie Bautista 43:55
Because I had two differen boarding groups now.

Ariel Landrum 43:57
Finagling!

Stefanie Bautista 43:59
Cuz I’m doing the math in my head, because I finally have, you know, some me alone. Not worrying about the baby in line. Here. I am. And I’m thinking about this, in that first part of Rise of the Resistance, because there’s like a mini ride before the ride. And I’m not paying attention to anything at this point. I’m like, “How do I do this?” But then I’m like, “Okay, wait, and I got to be present.” So I finished the ride, and then I go, “Well, I guess we’ll just find out on Webslinger is later on after one o’clock.” because that did not make sense to me. Because then essentially, they’re not even letting two they’re not just letting two people ride. They’re letting four people ride. And all they need is a paper ticket. There’s no identification that they asked for. You don’t have to prove that it’s your ticket. It’s just the ticket and your one day pass. It doesn’t even have your name on it, that paper ticket. So I was like, “Okay, well, we’ll see what happens.” And by the time we went to Webslingers, they said “They were not supposed to do that.”

Ariel Landrum 44:57
Ah, okay. Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 44:58
So I was like, oh, But I didn’t ask I was like, “Oh, you know, how does…?” My partner was like, went over there and said, “How does Rider-Switch work?” And then they explained it very differently than when they did that Rise of the Resistance. They were like, “Oh, we have to scan both of your boarding passes. So she has to show me her phone and scan both of those digital ones.” But we had different boarding passes. And he had explained, “Oh, that’s not how they did it on the other side, they just scan my paper ticket.” And because they did that, they were like, “Okay, we’ll let it slide.” And then we actually were able to get two of our friends that we met at the park a boarding pass because all they had tod o was show my phone.

Ariel Landrum 45:38
Oh you finagled.

Stefanie Bautista 45:39
And I’m like, “Well, they’re my partner. So there it is.”

Ariel Landrum 45:43
There you go. Okay. Okay. So you got to gift a wonderful experience to your friends who sounds like they didn’t get the queue?

Stefanie Bautista 45:51
Nope. They didn’t even know about it.

Ariel Landrum 45:56
There are levels of Disney friendships.

Stefanie Bautista 45:58
Yeah. Yup. They didn’t even know about it. And they’re like, “Oh, there’s a queue?”

Ariel Landrum 46:04
Okay, so…

Stefanie Bautista 46:05
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 46:06
Tell us about the actual two rides. Umm we did get Billy’s experience on the episode ror Webslingers.. So as far as I know of all of us, you’re the only one who’s ridden Rise?

Stefanie Bautista 46:11
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 46:13
So hat is that like?

Stefanie Bautista 46:20
Rise was? Oh, my what a sensory experience that right is. I had had the privilege of going on to many rides at Walt Disney World. You and I both Ariel. And I forget did we Ride Ratatouille together?

Ariel Landrum 46:38
Oh, that one is in Paris.

Stefanie Bautista 46:40
Yeah. Yes, that one is in Paris, but they are building one in Walt Disney World.

Ariel Landrum 46:45
We did not.

Stefanie Bautista 46:46
We did not.

Ariel Landrum 46:47
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 46:47
Okay. It wasn’t open.

Ariel Landrum 46:48
In fact, when we were at Walt Disney World. the whole Pixar side was like shut down because they were building something.

Stefanie Bautista 46:54
Yeah yeah yeah. That’s right. That’s what that was. So all of these meld together. So on another layer, I’ve had the privilege to go to other parks in other countries, and Ratatouille is a trackless ride, which means it does not follow a track. So they included that ride and elements of Guardians of the Galaxy or a Tower of Terror, and they included Star Tours those elements of movement. That’s all to say that they put all of these elements together in one ride, you walk in you’re going through the queue and everything and there’s costumes from the movie. There’s like helmets and props very much like Star Tours where they have all of the droids around. And when you get there you are put into a holding group and they do a little bit of a like a small show. And they go “Oh you see Ray.” And she comes up as a holograph just like how Leia does when R2D2 projects her. It’s so cool. It’s very much like in Harry Potter when you go on that ride and you see the three of them talking to you in the classroom. It’s like that but way cooler. It looks legit. And Ray saying, “Oh you know like you’re you’re gonna be helping us and this and this and this.” And then you go into kind of like a vehicle where you’re standing as if you’re in a subway. So it looks like Star Tours where there’s a screen in front of you and then you see screens on the side like…

Ariel Landrum 48:29
Okay okay.

Stefanie Bautista 48:29
Where the pilots are and where the drivers are. And I forgot the guy who says it’s a trap who is general forgot his name, but it’s a trap guy it’s his species but it’s not it’s not. Oh Admiral Ackbar. He looks like he’s got like, tentacle-y things. Squid squid face.

Ariel Landrum 48:46
Oh. Species is Mon Calamari.

Stefanie Bautista 48:50
Mon Calamari. Yes. I’ve heard that.

Ariel Landrum 48:52
There you go.

Stefanie Bautista 48:53
Mon Calamari. Cause he’s a squid. So you’re in there and then you’re like to help them on this mission and then you get hijacked you even get to talk to Poe. He’s like one of your. He’s one of your like, escorts because he’s in a ship. But then you get hijacked. Your transport ships gets hijacked by the First Order. And then, knowing me I was like “I’ve ridden subways before I don’t need to hang on to a pole.” I should have hung on to a pole because I almost fell flat on my butt. ‘Cause it like starts to jerk and stuff when they hijack you. And of course, because I was a party of one I wasn’t really in any corner. I was like the last one to come in.

Ariel Landrum 49:34
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 49:34
Because I was like taking pictures and stuff of the ride. And where I was standing is where the door opens. And I was like, “Oh no, I’m gonna get hijacked I better move because what if they like grab me by the neck?!” Which they wouldn’t do. And I moved back but then like a First Order person like literally comes in and goes, “You are coming with me.” And I was like, “Oh!” And so all of us have to go and then we get walk through and that’s where you see the Stormtroopers like I’m sure a lot of people have seen that big huge room, kind of like a loading hangar full of Stormtroopers like maybe like 100 or so of them. And you literally have First Order Cast Members just watching you. And it’s like Tower of Terror where they’re all in. They’re all in character. So you’re being led to a prisoners’ cell.

Ariel Landrum 50:21
And wait. Are these are these Cast Members or is this hologram?

Stefanie Bautista 50:26
These are Cast Members. Actual Cast Members. So they are dressed in like full full First Order…

Ariel Landrum 50:32
So you get a show?

Stefanie Bautista 50:33
Kind of scary…

Ariel Landrum 50:34
Oh okay.

Stefanie Bautista 50:35
Yeah, so you go and you walk in and then you walk into where the First Order is like holding you and then they tell you a color. And so, “Your orange. “Your gray this and this.” And then so they put you in this hallway and it looks like you know really intimidating and then they have somebody go, :Okay you party stay on the gray. You party, stay on the orange. Do not move from your like places.” And they’re like really serious about this and then I’m like, “Okay, I’ll say my place. Like please don’t kill me.” And you stay in that and then the doors open and then there’s four different rooms kind of like Star Tours where you like load in but you’re not loading into the ride yet. You go into another holding room. And that’s where you see Kylo Ren and you see the other First Order dude. The one who the one who is like a second in command in the movie.

Ariel Landrum 51:26
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 51:27
I know he’s he played a Weasley. I forgot his name.

Ariel Landrum 51:30
Oh yes. Yeah yeah yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 51:33
Allright. Yes, he was Bill in Harry Potter.

Ariel Landrum 51:36
Way hotter in Harry Potter.

Stefanie Bautista 51:39
Harry Potter not he was like a little he was a little beeyotch in Star Wars. Yeah, so you get in there and then I think that’s when Kylo Ren like turns around you see his like animatronic and then they go like “Do away with the prisoners or whatever like that.” And then then they’re like, “Oh, you’re gonna keep either they’re gonna keep your they’re gonna kill you or something.” And you’re in this tiny room. It looks like a triangle. It looks like one of those like funhouse rooms. If any of you have ever seen Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory, like they’re really old movie and they all get shoved into this triangular room that looks smaller than it actually is.

Ariel Landrum 52:21
Oh yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 52:21
That’s what it felt like. And then so I’m like, “Wait there’s no way out of this room. How are we? Where’s the ride? And at this point, you’re like, “Where is the ride? I don’t see the ride.” And then of course because I’m a party of one I was standing right where the door opens. So Ray comes in and she goes, “We’re gonna break you out!” And the door behind me like starts to sizzle and it like makes an opening and then the door comes out and it slides to the side and they go and you see all of these resistance like pilots. “We’re gonna break you out! Come on! Let’s get inside!

Ariel Landrum 52:55
Again. These are cast members? Still?

Stefanie Bautista 52:56
These are cast members not holograms.

Ariel Landrum 52:58
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 52:58
Yeah, it was like such an experience. And then they go, “Okay, we’re gonna load in like are you guys ready to get out of here?” And everyone’s like, “Yeah!” We go in and then you get loaded into like it’s a six seater pod essentially kind of like a like a hovercraft I guess. And then three the front three in the back and then they take you through the like facility and then like you go and then you get stopped and then you go backwards and then you go around and then you go backwards again and then you get put into like, you stop in front of a screen and then you see all the Tie Fighters and everybody’s fighting and stuff. Like at this point like they’re trying to break you out and then it lifts you up the whole thing elevates you like, like Guardians of the Galaxy Tower of Terror. It moves you all the way up and then you see more fighting and stuff and then you like shift to the side and then you go back and then they drop you know when they drop you but they drop you it’s not like Guardians of the Galaxy like where they drop you up and down. But they drop you once and then you go into another part and then you see you see the lightsaber come down and then it like is Kylo Ren tried to kill you.

Ariel Landrum 53:00
Ohh!

Stefanie Bautista 53:04
Yeah!

Ariel Landrum 53:31
From like the roof?

Stefanie Bautista 54:12
From the roof! Stop you look up and then you see the lightsaber, just go shzoom and then it goes tssss and then like… As if you’re gonna die and then you eventually get to like the front of the ship or like Kylo Ren is and then he like turns around and he goes like, “No, you’re not gonna get away and this and this and this!” And then and then you go through the ride…

Ariel Landrum 54:31
Emo!

Stefanie Bautista 54:30
And then you go through the ride, and then explosions happen and like it was so wild. Like I had not seen so many elements of a ride just put all together. The vehicle itself was shaking like you were getting pulled back going forward to the side. You were being lifted up and down. And you’re putting a screen and then there were like other things that didn’t look like a screen but it wasn’t tacky. It didn’t look disjointed. It was very seamless in your experience to the ride. And the ride the ride probably lasted about like, five, eight minutes. Maybe more.

I mean that still the whole experience sounds immersive.

Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 55:12
Just even those little waiting areas.

Stefanie Bautista 55:14
Yeah, like multiple waiting areas because then you get your instructions from Ray you know you’re going to be on a mission then you get put in another vehicle that moves like Star Tours, but that’s not even the ride yet. And then they take you through like another area. And I can tell why when I was watching reaction videos when it first came out how people were like, so emotional because I never felt so immersed into the Star Wars universe until I road that ride. That was just and it’s already really immersive being in Batuu because everybody you know speaks to you like they’re in you know, Batuu and, you know, they they call people different things. Coca Cola is not even called the same thing there. And this was just like another level of immersiveness. And it was, I would totally ride it again in a heartbeat because it was so great. And it really puts you like in the Star Wars universe and it was beautiful the way they did it. I really loved it.

Ariel Landrum 56:12
And of course not a ride you could bring a baby on.

Stefanie Bautista 56:15
Not at all, then you know what, he’s gonna have to go through hoops like he’s got to watch the movies. He needs context.

Ariel Landrum 56:21
He’s got to earn, earn his stripes.

Stefanie Bautista 56:24
He’s got to earn a stripes. So when when I went I just had no words and I was just like, “You need a ride and I was like you experience it.” And we went over thankfully, my son was sleeping the entire time while we were doing this first Rider-Switch. That was another thing that I was very wary about like the waiting periods because he does get a little antsy. He’s very active now. He loves to run. But it’s a lot to watch a stroller filled with all of our belongings and watch a person not run into other people. So luckily, he was sleeping. And when we had switched, this is where the fan thing comes in. I have seen all of these moms with like multiple fans, just like you get these on Amazon. They’re like mini personal fans that have a little claw that can go on to the handle of the stroller.

Ariel Landrum 57:14
So okay, instead of like those neck ones? This is one that has a clip?

Stefanie Bautista 57:19
Yeah, it has a clip and it’s like a adjustable like cloth. Like I’m kinda like a squid. And it’s a you can mold it to however you want it to fit on your stoller.

Ariel Landrum 57:28
Oh bendable. Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 57:29
Yeah, bendable. So some families said one, some families had two some families had three. And I’m like, “I don’t even have one for my sweaty, sweaty child. Oh no!” It was starting to get hot at this point, because probably was like noon. And the lady next to me, her daughter was sleeping. And her daughter was a little bit older. They were both sleeping. And then I was fanning my son ’cause you know, I’m old school, and I have a fan. So I was fanning him. And she was so nice enough to be like, “Would you like one of my fans so that your son could get a little air and you can take a break?” And I’m like, “Thank you.”

Ariel Landrum 58:04
Ah!

Stefanie Bautista 58:05
“I. Thank you so much.” And she’s like, “No, no, we’re both waiting. My my husband’s on the ride.” and I’m like, “My husband’s on the ride too.” And so she let me clip a fan and he was a little less sweaty. And we were talking about where she got it. And she’s like, “Yeah, you could buy it here at the park. But it’s like $30 so I bought mine on Amazon for like $10 and this is what we use all the time when we go out.” And I’m like, “Thank you.” And she’s like, “Yeah, don’t even waste your time getting one here.”

Ariel Landrum 58:28
That is Disney magic.

Stefanie Bautista 58:29
It’s it’s a fan that has like very, very small holes for the air to go through so the kids can’t put their fingers inside.

Ariel Landrum 58:35
Good. There we go. Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 58:37
Yeah, so it’s baby proof. And we did end up getting him a fan there. But it was a Mr. Fan that had a foam blade. So he would put his hands in but he wouldn’t hurt himself. And that’s the one we ended up getting him. But yeah, the mom was so great. And yeah, like you said Disney Magic only. Only a Disneyland you’ll see something like that.

Ariel Landrum 58:58
Yeah, and there you go. And you paid it forward by gifting some people, some Webslinger tickets.

Stefanie Bautista 59:04
Exactly. So Webslingers is like a whole nother thing. When you go into Avengers Campus, it doesn’t look like much to be quite honest. It’s literally it’s kind of like a walkway. And at that time, Spider-man wasn’t doing any sort of like, web slinging.

Ariel Landrum 59:19
Oh he wasn’t doing his show? Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 59:20
You go into Avengers campus, and my son loved this huge stone Tony Stark’s heart, like a medallion looking thing on the floor. Did you notice that when you went?

Ariel Landrum 59:31
Yeah the a little arc reactor?

Stefanie Bautista 59:32
Yeah yeah/ The arc reactor. Thank you of like, forgetting all the words. So he loved it. He kept stepping on it. And it was really hot. And he tried to touch it. And he was like, “Ah, that’s hot.” It’s like metal. And I’m “Don’t touch that!” So he was there. I was able to take a ton of pictures of him. And then we walk through and I think maybe it’s because there wasn’t a show there. It just felt really awkward. The placing of everything as you walk through?

Ariel Landrum 59:58
Yeah, the…

Stefanie Bautista 59:59
Did I feel that?

Ariel Landrum 1:00:00
So the way that it’s sort of shaped is like hard angles and yeah, if you look at it essentially from above it makes you think of like a balloon.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:11
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:11
Right? we’re skinny and then goes out but because of where the little mini lands I don’t even areas I don’t know, call them there. They’re hard edges in each section and particularly we’re like Doctor Strange is like that. There’s…

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:25
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:26
Twists and turns, but it’s still a hard edge. So when there’s no interaction going on, I could see how that would just be sort of disorienting.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:34
Like when you go into Cars Land, you automatically see it’s like Radiator Springs is like one big thing and like a lot of the lines are like that, even with Pixar Pier like you have like a clear sense of direction of where you’re going.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:46
Yeah it opens up whereas this is narrowed in first.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:50
It’s narrowed in exactly. So we go into the Spider-Man like the Webslingers like merchandise area to the right of where the where the ride is, and the ride’s like a little bit. I feel like it’s hidden. I had to look for the arc and also like it’s a blind turn from where the queue starts like the actual physical queue. So I had to really look for it I’m like, “Where? Where’s the ride? I don’t know where the ride is.” Rise of the Resistance is sort of like that to where it’s hidden in like a corner. And I think that’s, I mean, I knew it was gonna be like that because of where it’s located on the map. And it’s like, an outlier and not like part of like the circular Disneyland Railroad…

Ariel Landrum 1:01:32
Yes, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:32
Shape of the park. So I knew it was going to happen there. But I was a little I was a little surprised that it happened here knowing that it was a Bug’s Land, and it was already in the park. So we went in there and I saw like all the little spiders that like Billy was talking about that help you with the ride. But I still know it was the ride… I don’t know how this ride works. I’m not I’m so like, lost. And so we went in there. And it wasn’t time for us yet. So we went and it was a Doctor Strange show.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:03
Oh, you got to see it. Okay!

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:05
I got to see it. But I didn’t get to go in and see it. I saw it from a bush from the Shawarma Cart because that was essentially where AJ ended up doing class at five o’clock.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:19
Oh, it was that late?

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:22
Yes, it was. It was already that late. It was it was getting up to there because we went into the park around two o’clock. It was after one already. And our reservations for Carthay Circle was at three. We ate and everything. And then by that time, it was around 4:30. So we knew he had to get into class soon. But our our Rider-Switch was already up. So it was actually perfect timing. We both got to get on the ride. And then he went to class in front of the Shawarma Cart with the characters behind him.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:52
Yeah, that sounds like Disney. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:55
Dr. Strange doing his like portal stuff. Like right behind it looked really cool because like you hear his voice. And then you see like the doors opening and then like he comes out of a portal.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:07
Nice.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:07
Because the screen…

Ariel Landrum 1:03:09
Did AJ record any of this or show his classmates?

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:12
No. Oh, he didn’t record it. But because it’s a zoom class.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:16
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:16
He was he’s doing his his class and everything. And then his professors like, “Why do I keep hearing the Avengers theme?” And he was like, and he had a background on the whole time so that he wouldn’t like ah out himself that he was at Disneyland. And he’s like, “It’s ’cause I’m at Avengers Campus.” And he’s like, “What? You’re at Disneyland?” And he’s like, “Yeah.” So he turned off his background. And then he’s like, “I am at Avengers.” And you just see this guy stand up with his laptop and just do a full 360 and then and then one of his classemates is like, “Is Loki behind you?” Because right behind is like an amphitheater kind of section. And that’s where the characters stand and like, interacting wave. So Loki was there, Black Widow was on the side. And then like, a couple like his classes two hours, a little bit later, like Captain America is like off the balcon saying what’s up to the people and his classeamtes are like, “What the heck is going on?”

Ariel Landrum 1:04:16
“What is life right now?”

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:18
“What is? Why are you? There’s Avengers literally behind you? What is happening?” It was really funny to see. ‘Cause he didn’t tell anyone. But yeah, when we went on Webslingers, that’s when the lady told us “Oh, they weren’t supposed to do that. But we will honor it this time.” And then like Billy said, when you go inside, it’s like you’re in a testing lab. It looks like you’re in a classroom for kids. There’s crap everywhere.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:43
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:44
Just like small things, trinkets. And this one is a lot like Guardians of the Galaxy where you get put in one holding room. And then Peter comes out and says, “Hey, you know, like, I’m testing this new technology. Like we’re highlighting these young scientists.” And you see like, you know, pictures have actual kids. I don’t know, if they’re actual scientists, I really hope they are. That’d be super cool.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:04
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:05
Because they’re supposed to be, you know, sponsored by his school and like all of their technology. And, you know, he says that, you know, “Mr. Stark is helping me like develop this new technology and this and this.” And then essentially, that technology is the little spider bots. And they’re supposed to, you know, help you do things, but then they start to multiply, and they multiply as Peter is talking about stuff. And he just like, “Oh, no, like what’s happening?” And he’s like, “Oh, I gotta go. And somebody is calling me,” and so clearly has changed into Spider-Man at that point.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:36
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:36
And he like leaves. And this process was so much quicker than Rise of the Resistance that I couldn’t, I couldn’t like. And I was the second one to go on this ride. So I didn’t really get to like pause and wait, because I went through the Fast Pass line.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:49
Oh, yeah. Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:50
So I didn’t really get to see a lot of things I Billy might have seen, I went in a whole different queue. So I went like right into like that first holding area. And then you walk through, and then you get loaded into those big vehicles that Billy was talking about. That’s like, okay, so he described it like, Toy Story Mania, which is small, and it only holds two on a side. This holds 4 people. And it’s a huge vehicle, like I think twice, maybe three, maybe two and a half the size of the Haunted Mansion…

Ariel Landrum 1:06:24
Oh buggies.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:25
Carriage.. the buggies, the doom buggies. It’s like huge. And the way it works, is you’re just sitting there, there’s no, there’s one lap belt. And you have this like control panel in front of you that looks like like very flat and like thin. And you see an outline of yourself. And I was like, “Wait, this is like the Kinect.” Do you remember when you’re trying to like orient yourself with a Kinect. It’s like a stick figure that sees and senses you. That’s what the technology is.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:30
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:32
So you are a little stick figure. And you could see and I started putting up my hands and I looked like a little stick figure like doing this. There was a little boy next to me could probably be around like five years old, his two parents, and we were all like trying to figure it out. And then they say, “All you have to do is thwip.” Like you have to pretend…

Ariel Landrum 1:07:15
Ah okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:15
You’re shooting a web. And that’s how you’re going to get the nanobots. And so I’m like, “Okay, easy enough.” And as awkward as I am, I look at my hands. And I’m like, “How do I even?” Like…

Ariel Landrum 1:07:26
“What is this shape is this?”

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:28
“What is the shape? Is this an ‘I love you’? Is it like a ‘Rock-On’? Like I don’t know?” See then all of a sudden, like, I’m like, “I want to do this right!” Because a Toy Story like Billy said, it’s like an actual motion, you have something tangible in front of you that you can, you know, like shoot things with. But this is just your hands. So you don’t really know how far up or how far down like your comfort level is like, all out of whack. And you go through and it’s like Toy Story Mania. You go through different screens, and then but this one is like, when you go through Toy Story Mania, it’s like a little curtain that opens and it’s like a carnival….

Ariel Landrum 1:08:06
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:06
Attraction, right? This is like Guardians of the Galaxy, where it’s like a huge screen and you’re in a lab or you’re in the street or you’re in, like the top of the building or something. And there’s so much going on, like…

Ariel Landrum 1:08:22
Is this on a track? Or is it trackless?

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:24
This is on a track. This is on a track just like Toy Story, you don’t go up and down or anything. It’s just you’re you’re being moved through, through just like one flat surface.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:33
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:33
So you’re going through and then like, you see how accurate I guess this technology is because you literally throw your hands out and you see a web just like shoot out from like your area. You just see it. It just happens. And you first have to get over that. And you’re like, “This just… how is this working?” And then I had to remember this is like Kinect. So you really just have to like use your body and like your motions. For those of you who haven’t played the Kinect, it was basically an add on to the Xbox. And it’s ued sensory motion, I guess you could call it. Right?

Ariel Landrum 1:09:09
Yeah. Yeah, and the camera would also it was looking for certain blocks of shapes can tell if this was like a like a furniture object. And the problem with it was the color of clothing you’re wearing. So if you were wearing black, it could not recognize you.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:28
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:28
You’d miss parts of your body.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:31
Yeah, you would like be missing an arm or like if you’re very like dark skin and it was like not well lit, it would also not recognize your face. So your stick figure would have like no head. But this was way more advanced. And also because you’re leaning against essentially a blank screen. It could recognize you a lot better and…

Ariel Landrum 1:09:50
It didn’t have to try and sense the space. It knew that there was nothing by you.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:54
Yeah, there’s nothing by you and there’s so much light in front of you because of not just the projections, but also like they had effects, and things like kind of spinning at you. It was able to recognize you very clearly. But yeah, you just like kept going like your arms are just like flailing around like trying to like throw like these bots. And then there’s different colored bots that you could get more points with. There’s a huge bot that like you all have to work together to like kind of like a boss, that you have to work together to like take down and that happens a couple times. And it stops every so often to like, calculate your total. And this kid next to me was like, killing it. I only have like, maybe, like 80,000, he was already on like, 150,000.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:54
Woah!

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:55
“What, what is going on?” And so I looked over, and he was just punching the air. And I’m like, “That’s so much easier than like, thinking to the thwip.” Because you don’t have to thwip. He was literally just punching the air and he was hitting so many bots by punching the air. ‘Cause the technology is not going to recognize if you have like a thwip motion, it doesn’t care. It just needs you to move. So that’s like it was like, destroying us in the rankings. But I was like, “Okay next time, I’ll know how to do that.” But I think the right is have ample amount of time again, like maybe around five to eight minutes. By the time your arms are. And it totals all four of your scores, but then it combines them together. And then it gives you a ranking. I don’t remember the ranking right now. But you don’t really get like any sort of prize. It’s just, you know…

Ariel Landrum 1:11:26
Bragging rights.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:26
It’s symbolic. And then yeah, that’s that’s basically the the ride. So it was pretty cool. Very, I guess one level when you compare it to Rise of the Resistance, just as immersive, I think with the story, and I think I would have to ride it again to get more details. And I’m sure that there’s a lot of Easter Eggs for the next movie that I just could not see. It was bots everywhere and things…

Ariel Landrum 1:11:56
Sounds like mayhem.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:57
It’s mayhem, it’s absolute mayhem. So be prepared.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:03
So you both rode your rides. AJ is essentially he spent all of class at Avengers Campus. So did you all move to the plaza?

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:12
All of class.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:13
Okay,

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:13
All of class. And then I ended up ordering ahead at Pyms kitchen.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:19
Oh nice.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:21
Yeah. So I realized a lot of people did not know about mobile ordering. There’s just the big group of I think Disney goers that are not used to it. So they always have another line, which only probably has one cast member to wait and order food. And that line was all the way almost to the Quinjet. That’s how long it was. But I knew about the mobile ordering system since the morning. So I had ordered and we just waited for class to end and then I picked up my food and that was it. Ummm.. The food was okay. I don’t know if it was the time of day. It was like night time. The I ordered the chicken sandwich which I really wanted to get because it was just so funny.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:08
Oh, The Not So Little Chicken Sandwich.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:11
Yeah, The Not So Little Chicken Sandwich. The chicken was dry. The bun was dry. The tater tots were the saving. Um, the bar looked cool, but we really weren’t into drinking any alcoholic drinks at the time. And because we had already had alcoholic drinks at Carthay Circle, we were like, “Oh, maybe we could just skip this one.” But my friends got shawarma. My friends that we ended up meeting up with. They had shawarma and they loved it. So I think they said in comparison to the chicken sandwich, they much rather have the shawarma and that’s a walk up. You don’t have to preorder for that one.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:50
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:50
So maybe next time I’ll try the shawarma instead.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:54
And then was that the end of your Disney day?

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:57
It was not the end of our Disney day. We kept going

Ariel Landrum 1:14:00
Okay!

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:01
So while while he was in class, and we had both ridden our rides, my son was getting really sleepy. So what we ended up doing is he likes movement to fall asleep.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:12
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:12
So I took a very strong walk around Hollywood Studios. It was a power walk for me. Normally I would walk him around my neighborhood to have him fall asleep. But this time I was like, “Hey, I’m at Disneyland. So here we go.” So I went through and I hadn’t gone through Hollywood Studios for quite some time. And we went through Guardians of the Galaxy, they were still doing their show with Star Lord and Gamora. So they still had their dance party and everything. And then I don’t know if many of you remember but during the shutdown, they had little Disney+ photo ops for the new Disney shows. So they had one for Wandavision. They had one for Falcon and Winter Soldier and then they had one for Loki which used to be Legacy Passholder exclusives. Now they’re all out. They’re just in different areas of the park. There’s one like right where Captain America used to stand. There’s the Wandavision one is where the stage is and you can put your phone right in front of the TV monitor and take a selfie a time selfie. And it’ll be like you’re in their TV monitor. It was really cute. And then there was a Loki one in the corner where Black Panther used to be and then they moved Black Panther to the left, almost where the the theater is. Where they would screen stuff. And then they had this area that called Backlot 39? 36? Something like that. It is essentially a soundstage where they had a lot of merchandise, when you couldn’t go into the World of Disney. It was like a adjacent. And they had a lot of holiday stuff during the shutdown last year.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:51
Okay?

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:52
Now they turned into a whole Marvel Avengers Store. It’s just all Marvel Avengers. And everything Marvel, I went in there, and it was cool. Cold in temperature. So the AC was blowing, it was nice. And they had figurines like actual collectible figurines, they have costumes, they had props that you could buy exclusives. They had a different Avengers campus merchandise, because they only had that one Webslingers store. So they had much more their stuff there. And what was curious for me to see is when I was looking at the figurines, is that they had one huge Wolverine on…

Ariel Landrum 1:16:33
Oh?

Stefanie Bautista 1:16:33
They had a huge Gambit one.

Ariel Landrum 1:16:36
Oh!

Stefanie Bautista 1:16:36
They had the Fantastic Four. And me being the conspiracy theoriest Marvel person that I am, and I’m like, they’re definitely preparing for something because…

Ariel Landrum 1:16:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:16:50
I’ve never seen any X-Men….

Ariel Landrum 1:16:52
No.

Stefanie Bautista 1:16:52
Mutant in any way shape, or form in the Disney Parks whatsoever. So either they’re using this as a marketing opportunity for them to sell more merchandise, or they’re actually telling us Mutants are coming in one way or another…

Ariel Landrum 1:17:06
Mutants!!

Stefanie Bautista 1:17:07
Which I’m really excited for.

Ariel Landrum 1:17:09
The forbidden word.

Stefanie Bautista 1:17:11
The forbidden word, which is, you know, gonna be in our lexicon very, very soon. So I was really excited to see that and, yeah, my son fell asleep. And I went around to Animation Academy got myself a cold brew smoothie….

Ariel Landrum 1:17:25
Yeah!

Stefanie Bautista 1:17:26
Smoothie area, and then we just chilled there until it was almost seven. So I had a little moment of Zen there. And then I went back, and he was almost done with class. And then we were able to go to Pyms Test Kitchen and all that stuff. But we had heard that there might be fireworks.

Ariel Landrum 1:17:45
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:17:45
Maybe.

Ariel Landrum 1:17:46
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:17:46
So we all headed over, we went to get our change of clothes, I changed my son into his warm clothes, I put on some pants because I was going to get cold. And then my husband’s able to put away his laptop in the locker on the way back to Disneyland. So when we got to Disneyland, we already saw people lining up on Main Street for the fireworks, I guess. But I noticed that a lot of the lights on Main Street were off. And I’m like, “Okay, they used to do that. But they used to do that all at once before fireworks.” So I was like this is kind of weird. So we started asking around because we were getting mixed signals from people around the ys saying there wasn’t fireworks, there was fireworks. There wasn’t fireworks. I’m like, which one is? Is there fireworks because people at California Adventure was telling us, “Yes, there’s fireworks.” People on Main Street were telling us, “There’s no fireworks.”

Ariel Landrum 1:18:33
And people do you mean guests are cast?

Stefanie Bautista 1:18:35
Both.

Ariel Landrum 1:18:37
Oh.

Stefanie Bautista 1:18:37
We were hearing it from people. And then we asked cast members and even the cast members were telling us two different things.

Ariel Landrum 1:18:44
Okay all the people were confused.

Stefanie Bautista 1:18:45
All the people were confused. So we’re like okay, it’s around 8:30. Let’s preorder a corn dog because we’re hungry now and we want to kind of erase the dry chicken that I just had. So the corn dog cart which is my favorite place to get a snack it usually has a line nd it still did have a line because many people again did not know about mobile ordering. But we ordered when we were in California Adventure so by the time we got there, you press the button they make it ready. So we got our corn dog and we go, “Oh it’s only 8:40! Let’s go to the Tiki Room!” Because at this point my son had not gone on a ride aside from Winnie the Pooh.

Ariel Landrum 1:19:26
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:19:27
So Winnie the Pooh was the first ride that he went on and that is dark ride. It’s just you know, very simple. A lot of black light. And he was he enjoyed it but I don’t know if he was freaked out by it. He wasn’t scared by any means. But I was recording him because I couldn’t see his face. He was sitting in front of me. And it was only us two because and I’m sorry, but I’m backtracking throughout like earlier in the day before we even went to Avengers Campus. It was really hot that day. So right when we parked our stroller to go in, my husband gets a nosebleed. He’s like dripping blood, like oh, seriously dripping blood like it was a lot. And he’s like, “It’s not stopping. It’s not stopping.” And I’m like, “We’re gonna go on this ride. Maybe you can go over to the shop over there and maybe they can help you maybe they have first aid?” It’s like, “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

Ariel Landrum 1:20:17
Oh no.

Stefanie Bautista 1:20:17
As he shoves a bunch of like tissues in his nose. But it was really hot that day and humid and he was probably really dehydrated and dry because we didn’t have a lot of water.

Ariel Landrum 1:20:28
And that happens. You do get nose bleeds…

Stefanie Bautista 1:20:29
It happens!

Ariel Landrum 1:20:29
When you’re at that level of extreme heat. And…

Stefanie Bautista 1:20:32
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:20:33
And if, if you both have a have a child and a stroller and backpacks, you aren’t, you aren’t light. In what you’re wearing are not things that are pressing on your body.

Stefanie Bautista 1:20:44
No, not at all. And so he went to go take care of his nosebleed. And then we went to we went on the ride and he enjoyed it. It was it was really cool. And I was like, “Okay, he did find it and cry.” There was a point where there’s like lightning, because I think he Pooh is caught in a lightning storm. And he didn’t get scared or anything. He just kind of was like, “What is this?”

Ariel Landrum 1:21:04
Okay…

Stefanie Bautista 1:21:04
“Why are there things coming at me? What is that? Who is Pooh?” He doesn’t know who Pooh is. He doesn’t watch anybody. But um, like, I think this is a safe right to go on. So we went on that when you liked it. So when we went back, and then, you know, fast forward to nighttime already. We’re gonna go to the Tiki Room. He’s used to dark stuff. And we love the Tiki Room, and we can eat our corn dogs before the show. And yeah, it was like the show was at 8:50… 8:55 actually. So it was five minutes before the fireworks and or projections were supposed to start because at this point, we heard no fireworks just projections on the castle and Main Street that explain the no lighting on a lot of the buildings. And I’m like, “Okay.” Sometimes they do both. I think you and I have seen a show where they did fireworks and projections.

Ariel Landrum 1:21:50
Yes. Gorgeous.

Stefanie Bautista 1:21:51
I’m like it could be either or at this point. I don’t know. I wasn’t given a paper agenda for the day.

Ariel Landrum 1:21:59
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:21:59
Because they don’t give those out anymore. It’s on your app.

Ariel Landrum 1:22:02
Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 1:22:02
So I had I had have no idea what’s going on. So we went to the Tiki Room. He loved it. He kind of got scared from the big boom of lightning.

Ariel Landrum 1:22:09
Ahh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:22:09
But he was he enjoyed all of the singing flowers and stuff. He really loved the birds. And you know, he was able to dance a little bit. But I think now he probably thinks all plants can talk.

Ariel Landrum 1:22:24
Just outside waiting for the lemon tree to talk.

Stefanie Bautista 1:22:26
Waiting for the birds of paradise start talking at him. But yeah, he enjoyed it. And then we went towards the castle. And we were like, “Okay, let’s see if there’s actually fireworks because we’ll start at 9.” It was just a projection. It was like a dance party that they had before with like remixes of Disney songs. So it was like EDM remixes of Let It Go. And, um, yeah, it felt like a Disney Channel dance party.

Ariel Landrum 1:22:55
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:22:56
So it was cool. But we knew he wasn’t going to pay attention to that. So we went, let’s go to Frontierland. And let’s see if you know, AJ loves to go shooting at the shooting gallery. So we did that. I went shopping for pins, while he did that. And then after that, we were like, “We can go to the castle.” Because at this point the fireworks were done. And everybody was going home.

Ariel Landrum 1:23:22
Like the projections?

Stefanie Bautista 1:23:23
Yeah, the projections. Thank you. mass exodus of people. Normally after the first show, they all leave.

Ariel Landrum 1:23:30
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:23:30
So everyone left. And we took this as a good opportunity to get a photopass picture in front of the castle because it was nighttime. And earlier on we just propped our phone up in front of a pole. And we got our picture there because those three of us, but because there was not a lot of people now we were able to get a photo pass with our friends also. So that was easy. Then they lifted up the gates, right when we were done with the picture we went through and then we took him on the carousel, which he really liked. And then we went on Dumbo, which he loved!

Ariel Landrum 1:24:09
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:24:10
No fear whatsoever. He was pulling the lever up and down. He he went all the way up and he I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t have a sense of height yet.

Ariel Landrum 1:24:21
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:24:22
But he wasn’t scared at all. He was just focused. And then then we went on It’s A Small World which he really, really liked because you know they’re singing everything’s bright. We literally walked on the boat at this point, there was no wait time whatsoever.

Ariel Landrum 1:24:40
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:24:42
We could have written it twice if we wanted to. And then after that we had ridden Storybook Land Boats earlier on in the day. And there was a mini parade. It wasn’t a parade. It was like a vehicle with multiple tiers, kind of like The River Belle during Fantasmic that all the characters go on. There was a lot of characters on that little…

Ariel Landrum 1:25:08
Okay!

Stefanie Bautista 1:25:09
Maybe I think it’s called a cavalcade.

Ariel Landrum 1:25:11
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:25:12
Right? Is that the word?

Ariel Landrum 1:25:13
That sounds right.

Stefanie Bautista 1:25:14
Yeah. cavalcade and it was just very short. So it wasn’t really like a parade that people were gonna wait for. It just happened. And then there it goes. So you got to see a little bit of that, before we went on the Storybook Land boat rides, but yeah, he was just sitting the entire time, no big reactions.

Ariel Landrum 1:25:32
Okay okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:25:34
Earlier on. Also, since I’m on the subject of what babies can ride, we tried to go on the the Mater like tipping cow ride, were like, the tractor ones. He was not tall enough to go on that ride. I thought he was.

Ariel Landrum 1:25:48
Oh okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:25:48
But they were like, “Oh, no, he doesn’t reach 30 yet.” That’s the minimum for that one. And I think the only one he could go on was the Dancing Cars.

Ariel Landrum 1:25:56
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:25:58
But we didn’t go on that ride. Instead, he wanted to run around. And for parents who want another place for their kids to run around, there’s a little walkway between Avengers Campus and Cars Land where normally they have Mater and Lightning McQueen come out before they go to the Cozy Cone Motel and take pictures. That little area is barren all the time. So we just let him run around. We took pictures, and he was able to get his wiggles out there. And you know that way he could sit back in a stroller.

Ariel Landrum 1:26:30
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:26:30
So yeah yeah yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:26:32
So all in all, how would you rate this Disney experience?

Stefanie Bautista 1:26:36
I had a fantastic time. I think it’s because we set pretty good parameters for ourselves. And we weren’t expecting much. I mean, normally I have to go on Pirates and AJ has to go on Haunted Mansion. We didn’t do any of that stuff. We didn’t go on any big rides. We didn’t go on Matterhorn. We didn’t go on Splash Mountain. We didn’t go on Incredicoaster. Normally, those are the rides that we go on. We did we just for went any of those things. We were like, you know what, we’re just going to take our time and chill and go with the flow. If we get to do stuff, great. But if we don’t, that’s okay. And I think it was that, you know, managing those expectations of coming back and knowing that there will be another time for us to go back really helped out

Ariel Landrum 1:27:22
Well, and it also sounds like you both enjoyed living vicariously through your son’s sort of experiencing all of these things be new, right? You both have. I mean, it sounds like you’re really attentive to like paying attention to “Okay, what is like, how is he responding? What is he thinking? What is he looking at, like where his reactions are?” And that, that level of attentiveness. Probably not things that you were checking when you ride rides and friends?

Stefanie Bautista 1:27:51
No, not at all. We don’t check those things whatsoever. And also, we know what he is responding to now as a young one, and he’s a little bit expressive now. And he has a sense of, you know, what is one thing and what is another. He isn’t just a little potato child like he was a couple of months ago, just sitting there not doing anything. He’s he’s kind of, you know, tuning himself into the world around him, which was, I think, a really good place in timing wise for us to go because it wasn’t a total loss in just watching something.

Ariel Landrum 1:28:23
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:28:23
While we were at the park, he was experiencing things too, which was great.

Ariel Landrum 1:28:27
Well, is there anything else that you want to let our listeners know about your experience or just like prepping to go to the parks with an infant?

Stefanie Bautista 1:28:35
I think my advice is just listen to your baby. Also have mini experiences. See how they do at Downtown Disney, if they like those sights and sounds and noises? Also, like how do they act when they’re at an outdoor mall? That’s another way to gauge if you can’t go to Downtown Disney. How long are do they have to be in the stroller before they start wilding out? I think that’s a good… Are snacks helpfu? Like normally my son has a pile of snacks in front of him as long as he’s munching on something he’s fine. Just really knowing like, if you need to go home early, go home early, it’s not a total loss. If you know let’s say it didn’t go as well as mine did. I know I have a lot of prior knowledge that I can build upon and I’ve gone to the parks with many different ages of children so I kind of can expect what is to happen or what doesn’t happen. And I also like to push my son a little bit. I don’t try to shelter him from a lot of things. So I let him experience things that you know, maybe other mothers or caregivers might not have that same comfort level. So I would just say whatever is comfortable for you and for your baby. Just listen to yourselves and you should have a really well you know, rounded experience. And like don’t worry about getting the perfect picture. That is not going to happen. I think the picture that we ended up picking was one out of probably 50 burst and pictures that we took, maybe even 100. And also thankfully, one of our friends is a photographer and he came along and took pictures for us that I’m so thankful for. And he knows my son very well so he knows what angles to get him in. So if you have a friend that can do that for you all the better but if not, Photopass does a wonderful job to at getting angles and getting kids attention, because that’s all they do all day.

Ariel Landrum 1:30:30
Yes, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:30:31
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:30:32
Well, for anybody else going back to the parks, please DM us on our Instagram or Tweet us on our Twitter @happiestpodGT. And let us know what your experiences were like in the park. Did you bring kiddos? What like, how did you navigate the virtual queues successfully as Billy and Stef or as unsuccessfully as me? Just let us know.

Stefanie Bautista 1:31:04
Yep. And if you have any other tips and tricks for us, feel free to let us know. I am one to always find new things because my son is growing and taking a 2, 3, 4 year old is different than taking a one year old. So I would love to hear everybody else’s thoughts. on bringing kids to the park.

Ariel Landrum 1:31:23
Alright Bye everybody.

Stefanie Bautista 1:31:25
Buh bye.

• Spider-Man
• Ray
• Kylo Ren
• Poe Dameron
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Gamora
• Star-Lord
• Tiki Room

• Rise of the Resistance
• Webslinger
• Avengers Campus
• Online school
• First time
• Managing expectations
• Attunement

Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello everyone! Welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth!

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:15
And I’m Ariel.

Billy Madden 0:16
And I’m Billy.

Ariel Landrum 0:18
And we’re all just me fans, but we’re really so much more than that.

Stefanie Bautista 0:22
I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:27
And I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them heal from trauma and mental unwellness

Billy Madden 0:33
And I am a content creator who shares my passion for film by reviewing movies.

Ariel Landrum 0:37
Happiest Pod is a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why? Because just like we are more than just fans we expect more from the mediums we consume. So what Disney experience are we dissecting today everyone?

Stefanie Bautista 0:48
Well today is a fun episode because not only are we going to discuss something that is of recent events when it comes to the Disney Parks but we’re also going to be joined by a very special guest today. We will be talking about the virtual queue process. I know many of us have been seeing and following the news whether or not you have been to the parks, about the new virtual cube process and how all that works. But more importantly we are going to be talking about the new ride, Webslingers Ride at Avengers Campus. And our very good friend who will be sharing this experience with us today is Billy Madden. Welcome to the show Billy!

Billy Madden 1:24
Thank you guys so much for having me. It’s an honor.

Ariel Landrum 1:27
Yeah! So Billy or better known as the movie greeter that it is a friend who has grown up his whole life in the industry. He knows the ins and outs of movies and he has a podcast of his own called The Movie Grader and it comes out…

Billy Madden 1:41
The Movie Grader and Friends.

Ariel Landrum 1:43
And friends. He has guests I shouldn’t…

Stefanie Bautista 1:46
This Movie Grader has friends guys. Don’t forget that.

Ariel Landrum 1:49
And it comes out with spoiler free reviews of new movies and he actually does them fairly regularly almost like next day.

Billy Madden 1:56
Yeah, I mean I try to be as timely as possible but you know now that I do have a job…

Ariel Landrum 2:02
That J-O-B.

Billy Madden 2:04
The schedule is kind of hairy… So like you know like as Ariel said I am Billy I am the Movie Grader. And in a nutshell I’m just an avid movie goer and I enjoy I enjoy reviewing movies on my podcast and occasionally on the website. Which is you know, getting less and less love because of time in life. But um the whole Movie Grader idea was actually born from an idea that a friend of mine, Adam Goldberg had. He used to go see a movie and on Facebook simply give it a letter grade without any other any other explanation. I figured heck I mean my mom’s is a teacher and I at the time was actually considering considering going into the education field, you’re welcome kids that I didn’t…

Stefanie Bautista 2:48
They say “Thank you!” Just kidding Billy.

Billy Madden 2:51
So I thought like hey, you know what, I can add a little more to it you know, and just just start writing reviews. So I started writing reviews for you know, People of Con, which we have… Had, had I hope.

Stefanie Bautista 3:02
Have.

Ariel Landrum 3:04
It’s achrived.

Stefanie Bautista 3:05
Archived.

Billy Madden 3:05
Archieved. So I started being a writing for people con and then I thought you know what, I kind of want to do this on my own. So I created my website and then I after the website, I started up the podcast because I love podcasts and it’s been a lot of fun and I have friends and come on and do the show with me… And it’s not nearly the level of production that you guys do on this show. But I’m a total amateur amateur but um you know I just have fun with it it’s it’s it’s been a lot of fun I mean it’s been going on for… Jesus over over a year now I think actually so yeah, it’s it’s it’s simply that I mean I just I just grade movies and we talk about it discuss and you know, spoiler free zone. And yeah, that’s that’s pretty much it. I’m you know, I’m not a hero, like you guys are who actually change the world. A therapists and educators. Much respect.

Ariel Landrum 4:01
However you do bring the humor. I will say this to anyone who is listening to the podcast or just like follows Billy on Twitter. He’s just hilarious. He puts a smile on your face. He’s a really great friend to have.

Billy Madden 4:16
Oh I love you guys.

Stefanie Bautista 4:17
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 4:17
So I think like you’re the you’re the type of people I tell my clients to make friends with.

Stefanie Bautista 4:23
Absolutely. And on top of that, Billy, you know, you and the podcast were really instrumental of catching me up on movies that I did not see when all the movies were coming out.

Billy Madden 4:33
Right. right.

Stefanie Bautista 4:34
And I it gave me like an insight because as you know, coming out of the pandemic as a new mom, I just wasn’t readily available to go back to the movies right away. And it was great to always get those updates from The Movie Grader And Friends because I knew should I waste my time and money on this or not. You guys are just honest opinions and I love it. So thank you for that.

Billy Madden 4:56
There’s no problem. There’s that you know, that’s it slogan you know, “We watch it so you don’t have to.”

Stefanie Bautista 5:04
Thank you for your service.

Billy Madden 5:08
Oh please yeah you’re very treacherous going to the theater. I’ve sank many hours into movies that I’ve liked and yeah so it’s it’s it’s been fun I mean I just do it for for fun I mean. I don’t make a dime off of it it’s it’s it’s really just for my own entertainment and I guess it’s it does serve a use a purpose to people who like to go to the movies but are you know I guess a bit more timid to go see a movie. Like I don’t care I’ll go see anything really so…

Ariel Landrum 5:44
No prejudice. “It’s a movie I’m watching it.”

Stefanie Bautista 5:46
Yeah.

Billy Madden 5:46
Yeah, it’s fine.

Ariel Landrum 5:47
The really funny thing is we brought Billy on here to not talk about movies.

Stefanie Bautista 5:53
But low and behold The Movie Grader’s gonna movie grade.

Billy Madden 5:56
Yeah I went on assignment.

Stefanie Bautista 6:01
Yeah, I love how we did that we kind of we threw a curveball at you. We’re gonna take you a little bit out of your element but at the same time talk about something that you had a I guess a good experience with I guess we’ll find out the next couple minutes.

Billy Madden 6:16
Oh yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 6:17
Yeah, so Ariel, do you want to kick it off?

Ariel Landrum 6:19
Yes, I do. So again, our subject today is the virtual queue on the phone and specifically Webslingers. So I think it was Episode 12 or maybe 13… I don’t really remember 12 or 13 somewhere around there I talked about my experience of returning to the park and virtual queue crapped out on me multiple times. And I missed both chances to get into either of the rides, Rise of the Resistance and Webslinger. So I had nothing to report except for that it crapped out on me and I was sad. However, our buddy Billy was messaging us and just doing of course the very Billy thing which is selfies in the frickin line for an Instagram, was like “Hey yeah, I made it in haha look at all this stuff. You can see from my phone. Haha haha.”

Billy Madden 7:09
Not to toot my own horn but I’m free for three with with the what do you call it, the boarding passes.

Stefanie Bautista 7:15
You averaging.

Billy Madden 7:17
For 100% baby!

Stefanie Bautista 7:18
now I’m psyched because now you both have been to the parks and I’m going to be going very soon. So like Ariel’s experience was like, “Wah wah.. I’m never gonna get it.” And Billy is just, “I got all the things.”

Ariel Landrum 7:31
Well and I went again with my family same thing, got in none of them.

Stefanie Bautista 7:34
Dang.

Ariel Landrum 7:35
I mean none of them.

Billy Madden 7:36
It’s kind of like a I guess you could say like a two edged sword because yeah, I mean you feel bad for the people that don’t get so lucky. But like if you do happen to luck out the process is freaking phenomenal. You… I can’t complain because I’ve never been denied a boarding pass so it’s like I don’t know what that’s like. I can only imagine.

Ariel Landrum 8:02
Rejection. It’s like rejeciton Billy.

Stefanie Bautista 8:04
We know this hill that you’re preaching on now for context.

Billy Madden 8:08
I’ve standed on the shoulders of giants so it’s like.. It’s really honestly it’s a matter of luck I mean, like I if there’s any tip I could give I mean like you know, I had my Apple Watch and like I had it down to like, where it shows the time in seconds. So like, you know, if it was like, it was the 7am one you know, I would literally watch my watch for like 5 seconds till then count in my mind as I watched it and then you scroll down to refresh the page. And that’s just go for it.

Ariel Landrum 8:43
I did not do that.

Stefanie Bautista 8:44
That’s a good tip. Yeah, maybe, maybe we can walk through it. As you were like getting ready because I know for some people, Disney days start at different times some people..

Billy Madden 8:55
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 8:56
Like to do the 7am thing so they’re up by 6 getting ready. Some people just like to kind of be a little bit more relaxed about it where they kind of just mosey into the park whenever they want to. I guess now in recent times, because you have to have your reservation and if you’re park hopping, you have to do a lot of pre-planning just like how we mentioned in Ariel’s episode, but maybe I guess we could start with Billy what time and you live in the San Fernando Valley like we do.

Billy Madden 9:19
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 9:19
What time did you start getting ready to head out to Anaheim?

Billy Madden 9:24
Well, like I showered I woke up at like I think 6 I want to say then I was showered and ready to go you know in case it did happen at 7 o’clock and which it did so like I immediately left for Disneyland right after I got the reservation. So like it took me I think like hour, hour and some change to get to Disneyland and like during I think like when I was like 20 minutes out I think they called my boarding group. You have an hour to get to the line.

Ariel Landrum 9:53
And an hour.. Oh, that would have start panicking.

Billy Madden 9:57
No no, you have an hour. So it’s like… But I was kind of confused too because like on the website it said the California Adventure didn’t open till 9 and my boarding group got called at 9 I think it was… Like it was supposed to be at 9 there I couldn’t get there earlier than 9 or something and I was confused. So like I go and I parked like off site where…

Ariel Landrum 10:21
Toy Story?

Stefanie Bautista 10:21
Is it like the Toy Story Lot?

Billy Madden 10:22
Over by the hotel like further down like they have…

Stefanie Bautista 10:25
Like the near Hilton and the Marriott?

Billy Madden 10:27
They have like a Churrascaria over there and stuff. It’s across the way. It’s a pretty short walk basically it’s like

Stefanie Bautista 10:33
Like across Harbor? So you crossed….

Billy Madden 10:35
Yeah Harbo, that’s what it is yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 10:37
Okay okay.

Billy Madden 10:37
I parked over there and you know just jammed over to Disneyland I mean like I was getting there and I was like thinking, and you know what I asked the guy the security guy there’s “What time do you guys open? “Oh, we opened at like 7:30 or something…” I was like….

Stefanie Bautista 10:52
You were lied to.

Billy Madden 10:52
It worked out.

Ariel Landrum 10:54
Okay, wait, wait. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you get two tickets for both parks and did you have to choose which one you were going to go to first because I that I know that’s what I had to do.

Stefanie Bautista 11:04
Yeah.

Billy Madden 11:05
Yeah. I The deal was I had a Park Gopper.

Stefanie Bautista 11:08
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 11:08
Oh okay.

Billy Madden 11:08
Gifted to me by my brother. So like yeah, and like I tried to use it previously when I went before like was it a month or 2 ago? Or 2 months ago? And that specific ticket it was blocked out for reservation so I actually had to buy my ticket the first time. But anyways, this ticket like it was it all dawned on me to go and I was listening to your podcast about we’re returning to, to Disneyland. On a whim I was like “Oh my god the reservations are for Friday I can go on Friday! Boom! Book it! Okay.” So you know it just happened to be available so I had this ticket…

Ariel Landrum 11:45
Okay, so you already had a ticket you just reserved. Got it. Got it. Okay.

Billy Madden 11:49
Yeah. So you know I reserved it as soon as I couldn’t you know when I saw it and then like I had to start off at California Adventure which wasn’t a problem that’s fine I want you know, my main goal was to go and Webslinger as anyways so I wasn’t crying about that that’s fine and yeah, I mean I just got there and it’s it was a very smooth process. I mean like, I got into the park and you know, I just made a beeline straight to the Avengers campus and you know I found found the ride and you found that the the cast member who who has taken you know she took your phone I think. Like I had to hand her my phone or share my reservation for my board my boarding pass sorry and you “Okay go on that line.” And I got into line and you know, I honestly like we walked right on I mean you. You don’t you don’t have much time to really like take pictures of the line I mean in the pictures that I showed you that the quality of them was pretty bad because I was in motion. You don’t have time to smell the roses you know…

Ariel Landrum 11:57
Walk and snap. Walk and snap.

Billy Madden 12:59
Which is cool because you get on the ride really quickly but like bad because you can’t really like drink it all in you know.

Ariel Landrum 13:04
Yeah okay.

Billy Madden 13:05
And there’s a lot to see so it’s like.

Stefanie Bautista 13:08
Yeah, and I totally understand that I feel like for for ride so I’ve been on that have been like very high high volume like the Avatar Rid and Walt Disney World there’s so much to see inside the line. Because they want to make that..

Billy Madden 13:22
Oh yeah Pandora.

Stefanie Bautista 13:22
Yeah, in Pandora Yeah yeah yeah.

Ariel Landrum 13:24
Yeah yeah yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 13:24
But when we went we had also had fast passes so I couldn’t see everything like they had the lab and they had you know all of these little Easter Eggs and stuff and I was just like walking through and like you said like you don’t have time to like, I mean you are excited because you’re going on the ride like you’re not waiting forever playing heads up and what have you with like 5 of your friends but yeah, you’re gonna be on the ride soon. It’s just like you can’t soak in those details that you know Disney’s already like setting up for you.

Billy Madden 13:53
Oh yeah.

Ariel Landrum 13:54
It’s really interesting because when I had I had recently gone again to Disneyland because I had family fly in from out of town, my, my dad and my stepmom and my niece. And my stepmom kept talking about how just like wonderful the line in Indiana Jones was and how immersive. And she was like, “Are we going underground? Are you sure we’re not in a cave?” Because it just felt like that.

Billy Madden 14:23
It’s such a cool line.

Ariel Landrum 14:23
And I had taken it really for granted. And then that just like that moment stuck in my mind and then recently I got free tickets to go to Universal Studios. And I was on the like the Jurassic World line and it’s literally a rope and some TVs. Not immersive at all. It hadn’t even occurred to me that’s like, “Oh yeah, here’s another way that the Imagineers like really cater to us.” And that when you’re standing in line, you have things that you’re looking at and you feel like you’re in that world. You’ve been taken out of like a specific part of the park and you’re just in just completely immersed in this space that like is meant to amp you up. Really.

Billy Madden 14:59
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 14:59
Yeah.

Billy Madden 15:00
Oh yeah. it’s I mean Disney has always been about the details I mean like the the brief period that I was in line that I got to see stuff I mean it was cool like they have like I think they were like plans… That were in like the lab. For um as a Doc Oc’s lab or something that that Peter’s in.. That you’re supposed to be in there and I mean like it was kind of hard to understand what like what the story of the ride was. But I think like it’s about like a Peter in a spider bots and like the spider bots something goes wrong and like I guess they there’s more of them than there should have been. So it’s all about controlling the spider bots and like I think just like decimating them to a controllable population.

Ariel Landrum 15:47
It’s this like like the Mickey Sorcerer with all the brooms.

With all of the little brooms?

Billy Madden 15:54
I mean like it’s like do you have the right is it’s a game really and you know they have like a whole bunch of different like movements for your hands and like you could like apparently grab stuff and…

Stefanie Bautista 16:04
Oh okay cool the good part like pause.

Billy Madden 16:07
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 16:07
Okay so we’re okay we’ve gone through like the line What does so you know how whenever you’re going to a new ride you see all the people board and you’re like “Oh that’s how it’s gonna look.” Like what did you see? Like what does the vehicle look like? Can you describe that to us?

Billy Madden 16:24
The vehicle is.. It’s big it looks like I don’t know how to describe it really? Okay…

Ariel Landrum 16:30
If you think of the other rides it Disneyland?

Stefanie Bautista 16:32
Yeah.

Billy Madden 16:32
Okay yeah it’s comparable to like the the ride the cars from like Toy Story Mania I guess so.

Stefanie Bautista 16:39
Like a duel like you’re you’re facing back to back with someone?

Billy Madden 16:43
Bigger. Yeah, yeah, there’s like I believe there’s spots for 4 people on each bench. They put you back to back but like it’s bigger than like Toy Story Mania. It’s like this whole like

Ariel Landrum 16:55
Contraption?

Billy Madden 16:57
Cargo thing. I mean it’s it’s big.

Ariel Landrum 16:59
Like is there a bar, a lap bar?

Billy Madden 17:03
A little lap bar that you know goes over your over your lap and…

Ariel Landrum 17:06
And you said that it is a game so do you have like a gun or do you put something on your hands?

Billy Madden 17:11
Um there’s something to that so like… I you know like I heard that you could buy like these these actual webslingers you know and it’s like a pay to win type a deal thing. Whoever I don’t know they have whole bunch of different webslingers you could buy to put on your hands and I guess it multiplies your score so like..

Ariel Landrum 17:32
Oh.

Stefanie Bautista 17:33
Interesting.

Billy Madden 17:33
It’s very pay to win you know, it’s Disney, they like to get money.

Ariel Landrum 17:37
Oh this is the cheat code I didn’t know about.

Stefanie Bautista 17:41
See okay I’m gonna look out for this if I get on.

Billy Madden 17:43
I think they’re like 25 or 30 bucks or something. I didn’t spring for that because I didn’t care about my score. I just wanted to experience it, you know what I mean? Like I wasn’t going for a high score but does kind of slow down right before you get into the line where it does allow you an opportunity to read the like the brief little message of all the different moves you can do during the ride to play the game.

Ariel Landrum 18:06
Okay. Okay. Tutorial.

Billy Madden 18:07
Yeah, tutorials. Like you could use like one hand for like a web sling or you could use two hands and like you know, it’s like the…

Stefanie Bautista 18:15
Thwip-Thwip

Billy Madden 18:15
Yeah, yeah, you have to position your hands and stuff I mean like It’s nuts. I mean like the crazy thing about it was it’s in 3D and you have glasses but like prior to getting on the ride, I forgot to mention this. It’s like the story that they do they do show you it’s like a hologram but it’s like in 3D and you’re not wearing 3D glasses. You’re kind of sitting there is like, “How did they do this?”

Ariel Landrum 18:40
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 18:41
Disney magic!

Billy Madden 18:43
You see a cool movie before you get on the ride you know. But like it was just so much get you know going on at that time and I was just super excited and I wasn’t really focusing on it I was trying to look at everything I could possibly see before they you know I ushered us into the ride. And yeah I mean the technology of this ride was was just something else,

Ariel Landrum 19:03
Well oh so so because because of the amount of people you mentioned were you alone or did you go with other people to Disney? This was the sounds like it was huge was there like single rider?

Billy Madden 19:13
It was a solo mission. I mean I’m not sure if they offer single rider. It’s just like the group you with other people I mean in my in my row. There was only 2 of the girls to my right.

Ariel Landrum 19:23
Okay okay

Billy Madden 19:23
And I beat them both with that stay on the record. So yeah, I mean I wasn’t really trying I mean one girl one girl wasn’t that good at it but one girl you know she gave me run free money but I managed to eke her out.

Stefanie Bautista 19:38
So is it like Toy Story Mania where you see your score on like your screen in front of you?

Billy Madden 19:43
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 19:43
Okay.

Billy Madden 19:44
there’s a little screen in front of you. And it shows you everybody’s score in your row. And like everything is I think it’s everything is like color coded. And like, and honestly like when you’re experiencing your ride. It’s chaos, man. There’s so many spider bots on screen so many explosions going on I mean. Honestly I have to read it again in order to like really like see what what’s going on because it’s pretty chaotic and it’s cool but it’s very chaotic and like it’s just like so much stuff it’s like. You shoot at stuff and like you don’t know if you really hit anything or not but like you see your score go up and like and it’s exhausting man. It’s like it’s a workout you’re constantly moving your arms and like yeah, your arms hurt by the end of it.

Ariel Landrum 20:35
Is Spider-Man following you throughout this or talking to you, or are you?

Billy Madden 20:38
Yeah he kind of he kind of dips in and out of the scene.

Ariel Landrum 20:41
Okay.

Billy Madden 20:42
Yeah he like he…

Stefanie Bautista 20:43
Ohhh. I like that.

Billy Madden 20:43
Yeah, I don’t want to give away the story because like I’m not sure if I…

Ariel Landrum 20:48
Oh you can give it away this is not a spoiler free zone.

Stefanie Bautista 20:50
This is not. Disclaimer.

Billy Madden 20:53
I don’t want to give out misinformation because like…

Stefanie Bautista 20:56
Oh I see. I see.

Billy Madden 20:56
I said you know I don’t want to get it wrong. Like…

Ariel Landrum 21:00
There’s a Spider-Man.

Billy Madden 21:01
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 21:02
Yeah.

Billy Madden 21:02
Spinder-Man is in the ride of course so but he dips in and out and he he does I think it kind of helps you. Like he says “Oh look over there spiderbots are, are jumping onto that box. Get them!” And like he he’ll he’ll give you tips basically.

Ariel Landrum 21:16
Okay.

Billy Madden 21:17
As you play the game.

Ariel Landrum 21:18
Okay.

Billy Madden 21:18
It’s like, “Oh look at those explode look at those gasoline cans. If you if you if you hit those they’ll explode and you can take out more spiderbots at once.” Basically, he gives you there to kind of give you tips.

Stefanie Bautista 21:32
That’s cool that’s so cool. I love that. I’m excited for that because I think seeing Tom Holland like in real life but not really real life, it’s a definite pull for me I think.

Billy Madden 21:45
It’s a great time I mean it’s exhausting. It is fun.

Stefanie Bautista 21:48
Would you say it was like would you say it’s sensory overload?

Billy Madden 21:51
Yes yes.

Stefanie Bautista 21:53
One thing little spiders coming at you are a little creepy right and I mean luckily their robots…?

Billy Madden 21:59
They did it in a cute way. It’s not bad.

Stefanie Bautista 22:01
Okay that’s good because it’s not like you know the part of Indiana Jones where like all of the bugs come out and then they’re like doing that like pressure thing to you like that’s creepy

Billy Madden 22:11
No, it’s not like that. It’s kind of cool that they gave the the spiderbots a cute personality.

Stefanie Bautista 22:17
Okay.

Billy Madden 22:19
You’ll see during the line like air duct basically with with vent and you can see the spiderbot crawling along the vet and like you kind of look at the crowd, and then go on his way. It’s pretty cute. I mean it’s like it’s one of the things that you could easily miss you know what I mean? So it’s you know again details but yeah.

Ariel Landrum 22:37
What is the spider so it sounds like the spiderbots are friends?

Billy Madden 22:40
Yeah, they’re friends but like…

Ariel Landrum 22:42
They’re like bud, they’re like your buddies? Your helpers?

Billy Madden 22:44
You have to like control them I guess contain them. And like because they get out of hand basically…

Ariel Landrum 22:50
They’re my dog!

Billy Madden 22:51
Yes. Yeah, it was like an experiment gone wrong I think something. I could be wrong and it was like I said I don’t really understand the whole gist of the story but that’s what it was like too many spiderbots. Population control. You know?

Ariel Landrum 23:06
It sounds like the story is chaos.

Stefanie Bautista 23:10
And I think Billy you mentioned something that is very common with Disney rides where you already said you have to ride it again. So there is already an incentive to want to experience it another time.

Billy Madden 23:21
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 23:21
So you can grab those details and I think what Disney does really well with rides like that is that there’s tiers to experiences. So there’s like your first time brand new experience you’re just like “Oh my gosh, what is happening?” Very basic, scratch the surface level. And then when you do like as you keep riding the ride, it’s like you get a different experience which kind of makes it more. There’s longevity it’s it’s sustainable.

Billy Madden 23:47
It is no it’s, yeah, it’s not only you know, like it has replay value I guess you could say…

Stefanie Bautista 23:54
That’s it yes. If we’re talking about video games, yes.

Billy Madden 23:57
I’m not sure if you get a different experience. I’m not sure if the AI changes at all at any given time that I don’t know. I would have to maybe do some research on that. But I can say the experience is very cool. I mean, like, I mean, I know Ariel, you’ve had the Xbox Kinect you know and…

Ariel Landrum 24:14
Yeah

Billy Madden 24:15
For your because a dancer does a Dance Central? Or what game do you like on there?

Ariel Landrum 24:21
Oh Just Dance?

Billy Madden 24:21
Just Dance. That’s it.

Ariel Landrum 24:23
Yeah.

Billy Madden 24:24
Like the technology is insane because like it could tell if you know your hands are in the correct spider sling a spider web slinging kind of position or if they’re up and trying to grab something. Like it’s crazy how accurate the camera is and like all your all your wearing is glasses. I mean it’s pretty nuts.

Ariel Landrum 24:42
The Millennium Falcon Ride the ummm..

Billy Madden 24:45
Smuggler’s Run?

Ariel Landrum 24:46
Yes, Smuggler’s Run. Yeah. So I remember the first time I was on that, like, just just crash just crashed horribly. I think like what the pilots were because we didn’t know anything about the ride we of course stupidly let the 2 children who can’t even drive pilot the frickin ships…

Billy Madden 25:07
No you kick those kids back to engineer, come on!

Ariel Landrum 25:10
It was huge chaos and I couldn’t I couldn’t if if you interviewed me after that ride I wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything I’d been like, “There’s some buttons… I think heard Chewie. We died. Right?

Billy Madden 25:21
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 25:21
Now I’ve been on it so many times I’ve gotten the idea.

Billy Madden 25:23
Course.

Ariel Landrum 25:23
I know to set my gun to automatic so like oh like actually aims for me I don’t like I don’t even know how I was supposed to aim but I’ve never figured that out just doing the automatic thing. But yeah, that’s that’s the same experience in regards to it sounds like this ride is just like there’s just so much sensory overload there’s no way to really prepare yourself.

Billy Madden 25:42
A lot going on. Yes. No doubt.

Stefanie Bautista 25:44
It seems like from the beginning like from the moment you step into the line there’s already a lot going on.

Billy Madden 25:49
Oh, yeah As far as like stuff to see and stuff to like secrets to fit to find I mean, there’s, there’s a lot in there. They’ve they’ve done a fantastic job.

Ariel Landrum 25:59
Did you happen to find any Easter Eggs? Or could you tell?

Billy Madden 26:02
Um, well, like what I did spot was like, there’s a mural, like where Spider-Man does his show? And like I mean, this sounds kind of obvious, but like the the artists who does the meet the mural is Miles Morales because he has his name Miles on it.

Ariel Landrum 26:22
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 26:22
Yes.

Billy Madden 26:23
But there’s a lot more I’m sure I saw but like I’m not sure if I would count them as an Easter I don’t know. There’s a lot there.

Stefanie Bautista 26:31
That’s so cool. And I think um, I guess what I’m wondering is how long do you think the ride lasted?

Billy Madden 26:36
Oh god um, I would say it’s about 5 minutes around there. 3 to 5 minutes I would say.

Stefanie Bautista 26:42
Okay, do you think it was too short too long do you think it was like a good amount of time for what was happening?

Billy Madden 26:46
Your arms say it’s just right.

Ariel Landrum 26:51
Okay, so so basically, you’re gonna have to do some workouts.

Billy Madden 26:54
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 26:56
I guess it’s kind of like I mean, Toy Story Mania is a workout like I know my forearm is like especially at the end when you’re trying to like hit all those targets like right away in succession like yeah, I go all out and I’m like, “I don’t care if this hurts right now it’s worth it.”

Billy Madden 27:09
Well with with Toy Story Mania it’s just like one basic you know motion the paddle there and the ball.

Stefanie Bautista 27:14
Yeah yeah yeah.

Billy Madden 27:15
With this there’s more you can do I mean, they’re all the different motions you could do. There’s more combinations. So…

Stefanie Bautista 27:21
Okay, so I guess there’s like it’s not just one motion because that’s what made my arm hurt and Toy Story Mania is that you’re you’re pulling that little like lever with the ball. And I’m just like, there’s only so many ways I can do this without getting a cramp in my arm. But so I guess I mean Webslingers for you was a grand old time?

Billy Madden 27:43
Yeah, it was it was worth the stress to you know, hall ass to get to Disneyland on time.

Stefanie Bautista 27:50
Because I mean really, if you think about if we pulled back a little bit for a 5 minute ride, you prepared hours in advance.

Ariel Landrum 27:58
Hours.

Stefanie Bautista 27:58
To be able to do that. And I think that like ties into your tech savvy, you know, your you know, like, you have your timeline for Disneyland. You knew to park across Harbor. I know for Ariel, like one of the things she mentioned about going to the park is the fact that there is no tram. So when you park at Mickey And Friends, you’re already getting a workout walking from there to the parks. And that Harbor kind of crosswalk is maybe a fraction of that walking time. I mean, I think we’ve talked we’ve touched upon how, you know, because Disneyland has been so popular and that, you know, Avengers Campus is their brand new attraction with Webslingers. We know how popular and successful the Spider-Man franchise has been, especially with the Tom Holland reboot, and I think they knew and they anticipated that you know, everybody was going to flock to it, which they did.

Billy Madden 28:50
Of course.

Stefanie Bautista 28:51
And so they put all of these hoops I guess you could say to jump homebrew, and Billy, you were able to jump through all those hoops sucessful?

Billy Madden 28:58
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 28:59
Unfortunately, not for Ariel, but…

Ariel Landrum 29:01
You were an Olympic champ. And I was a kindergartener.

Billy Madden 29:05
It will happen Ariel don’t worry. Don’t worry. I got faith in you it’ll happen I mean I’ve been fortunate fortunate for me I mean like Spider-Man honestly is my favorite Marvel character so…

Ariel Landrum 29:17
Awww..

Stefanie Bautista 29:17
Yeah.

Billy Madden 29:18
This was just like awesome to me. Like I mean like I’ve loved the Spider-Man.. The newer Spider-Man movies. I thought the ones with Andrew Garfield were PFFT

Ariel Landrum 29:32
What grade would you be giving those?

Stefanie Bautista 29:33
Yeah!

Billy Madden 29:35
I don’t want to say.

Stefanie Bautista 29:38
N/A. It’s N/A.

Billy Madden 29:39
On the second one actually was the first movie ever walked out on I can tell you that much.

Stefanie Bautista 29:45
Interesting. I don’t even think I saw the third part of that like trilogy. I think I only stopped at the second one.

Billy Madden 29:51
I think there was only two actually

Stefanie Bautista 29:52
Was there. Did it stop at 2? Maybe. Okay.

Billy Madden 29:55
It should have.

Ariel Landrum 29:57
any of them I was on a cruise ship. Once. And it was playing in the background. So that would be my only experience with Andrew Garfield Spiderverse.

Stefanie Bautista 30:07
I mean there was nothing memorable about it like when you think about other than the fact that he was Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire was such a more memorable Spider-Man to me.

Ariel Landrum 30:16
Way more memorable.

Billy Madden 30:17
And Tom Holland is the best honestly, I think he’s my favorite.

Stefanie Bautista 30:20
He just he like the Peter Parker in him is just like, it’s kind of one person to me. Like, it’s always what I envisioned when I read, like, read the comics, and he brings like, a modern twist to it. Because you know, Peter Parker nowadays is like, you know, Tom Holland and his friends in tech school.

Billy Madden 30:39
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:40
Yeah. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:40
It makes sense.

Billy Madden 30:41
It does. You know, what’s really great too is like, you know, Miles Morales and like…

Stefanie Bautista 30:46
Oh yeah.

Billy Madden 30:46
I thought into the spider verse was such a phenomenal movie but yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:50
But was made by Sony and is not a Disney franchise.

Billy Madden 30:52
Yeah, that’s true. Disclaimer sorry.

Stefanie Bautista 30:54
But holds a special place in Marvel and Disney fans hearts. Yes, it’s earned. It’s earned at stripes.

Ariel Landrum 31:02
I think Disney needs to finish their Infinity Gauntlet and go-ahead and buy Sony.

Stefanie Bautista 31:06
Seriously. Seriously. I guess from you, Billy, what advice would you give me as you know, me and AJ are going to the parks. And we do want to ride Webslinger is however, we have afternoon tickets to a California Adventure. What would be your advice to us?

Billy Madden 31:23
Oh, pray? I mean, literally, it’s it’s it’s honestly just luck. I mean, I’ve been fortunate where I’ve been able to score boarding passes for the rides that I’ve wanted to go on. And, you know, it’s like, I can’t say one way or another that there’s anything to it. My, to my success. It’s just I just been lucky. I mean, like I’ve you know, I’ve seen like the faces of other people who aren’t so fortunate. And believe me, I felt bad for them. But like, sorry.

Ariel Landrum 31:56
I think I really do have to believe this luck thing because umm Billy, I think you’re the only person I know who’s won anything from those Taco Bell.

Billy Madden 32:06
I won two Xboxes from Taco Bell.

Ariel Landrum 32:08
2!

Billy Madden 32:08
Without eating a single taco or purchasing anything from them. So…

Stefanie Bautista 32:13
I on the other hand, I’ve had so much Taco Bell, never won a thing.

Billy Madden 32:17
Thank you so that litterbug for the first one, by the way. Shout out to whoever you are threw your box on the ground.

Stefanie Bautista 32:25
Billy is one lucky individual and we’re always in awe whenever he goes, “Hey, guys, guess what happened to me today? Like I have a thing.” Okay, cool cool cool. But also it gives us a full sense of hope that it will happen to all of us.

Ariel Landrum 32:39
Yes yes, we can visualize it now. Because we have something in our mind to mind’s eye to look at.

Stefanie Bautista 32:47
We can just manifest it.

Billy Madden 32:48
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 32:48
Into the universe.

Billy Madden 32:49
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 32:49
Into the Spiderverse I guess.

Billy Madden 32:49
Yeah into the Spiderverse. It makes total sense.

Ariel Landrum 32:54
So I know that we were really just focusing on Webslingers and we were really just focusing on the virtual queue. But Stef and I will be shooting an episode on the new Magic Key System. And even the the Genie Genie Plus that we’ve heard about. So we won’t give away full details. But we’re just curious for you, Billy, The Magic Key System. Yay or nay for you?

Billy Madden 33:22
Well, I wish I knew more about it. Honestly, I haven’t taken the time to really study what it’s about. So I don’t understand the Magic Key System. I mean, it sounds like to me it’s it’s just like another Annual Pass but with like stricter blackout dates, I want to say,

Stefanie Bautista 33:43
Yeah, well, you’re not wrong.

Billy Madden 33:47
I mean, yeah, I mean, I don’t understand. I mean, it’s, that’s what it sounds like it sounds just like it’s it’s just blackout dates galore. And I guess I might consider in the future. I mean, I don’t know. I mean, my situation is different. Because you know, my brother works for Disney. And usually he just hooks it up with a free Disney ticket for me. So like, I mean, like, would I spend that massive amount of money if I didn’t have that hook up? Probably. You know, it’s like I don’t know how the common family can do that. But But Disney fans are different or different breed I mean, you see families go to Disneyland. I mean, they’re they roll like 8 people deep or something. Like, I mean a just if you figure just like for a basic ticket, it was like $200 or something. I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s more than $1,000 before you can get into the door.

Stefanie Bautista 34:48
It’s true.

Billy Madden 34:48
It’s insane. I don’t know how people do it.

Ariel Landrum 34:50
Yeah, I think I think you really bring up a good point in that. That I think is what makes a Disney fan is they just kind of find a way to make to spend the money to get there out of the park to have their experience they just they literally just find a way and… And shout out to Jamie who just got married, Billy’s brother!

Stefanie Bautista 35:12
Yeah!

Billy Madden 35:12
He’s getting married in October 23. Not married yet.

Ariel Landrum 35:14
No just got married like he has been with his woman her likes since they were toddlers basically.

Billy Madden 35:19
Over 10 years now I think yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 35:21
Wow fantastic.

Billy Madden 35:22
It has been a long time but anyways back back to those Disney fans. I mean like you guys mentioned in the previous podcast about like the those families that were the matching, you know, t-shirts and stuff like that.

Stefanie Bautista 35:36
Yes.

Billy Madden 35:36
Those guys are the diehards and like…

Stefanie Bautista 35:39
It’s true.

Billy Madden 35:39
Yeah, well I agree. I think it’s pretty stupid matching t shirts. I wouldn’t be caught dead doing that. I do give those families a lot of respect I mean those guys you know they do whatever they can to make it happen for the family to go to a public park that you know the common family can’t can’t afford to go to I mean it’s. It’s not an easy thing to get to get into Disneyland. It’s it’s quite a Herculean task.

Stefanie Bautista 36:05
It is and I think that also speaks to the different ways that we have been able to experience Disney I mean like like for you Billy like you have a family member who works for Disney. I was privileged enough to be able to get the military tickets because I have you know, I haven’t I’m part of a military family and so that they would have discounted tickets packages that you could buy every single year. Just to thank you know, service of men and women but aside from that, I hadn’t had an Annual Pass and so long because it was starting to get really pricey and just seeing the prices of the Magic Key kind of brought up those feelings again… About you know, “Oh my gosh, like I have to set aside money and you know, I know I’m gonna be buying things because they have discount for merchandise.”

Billy Madden 36:54
Oh super crazy.

Stefanie Bautista 36:55
Like there’s so many incentives that make you want to spend more but if you still want to be smart with your money and not be you know, just throwing bills around you do have to take a step back and really assess like, what tier is good for you? And so for so many Disney fans is like, “Obviously I’m going to get the highest tier because I don’t want to be seen as any less of a Disney fan.”

Ariel Landrum 37:18
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 37:18
However, it’s like that it’s it’s that just a personal arguing back and forth about you know, what do you need and what do you want?

Billy Madden 37:26
Yeah, of course.

Ariel Landrum 37:27
And for me, I I don’t have anyone in my life that works for Disney and my dad was in the military. You don’t get discounts anymore, I guess when you’re a veteran for Disney. So there you go for that.

Billy Madden 37:40
Somebody should fix that.

Stefanie Bautista 37:42
They should fix that.

Ariel Landrum 37:43
They should.

Stefanie Bautista 37:43
They should.

Billy Madden 37:44
That’s not right.

Ariel Landrum 37:45
But I did get the highest tier I paid for it last time when they were Annual Passes. And really, it’s because I almost am always working 3 jobs. I just left one and now I’ve started another one. So I’m currently working 4. And I don’t drink alcohol. So I don’t spend a lot of money when I go out to like my friends. Who one drink cost my whole salad.

Billy Madden 38:08
Oh yeah, I’m sure alcohol drives the price up of any meal. I didn’t. I didn’t drink any alcohol at California Adventure or the Avengers campus. I mean, I should have because that bar looked pretty awesome.

Ariel Landrum 38:24
I know you went to Pym’s Test Kitchen I thought you bought the drink there.

Billy Madden 38:28
Oh why it was the soda the Pingo Doce.

Ariel Landrum 38:31
Oh I didn’t know they had a fancy soda I didn’t get one!

Billy Madden 38:35
And apparently like it has a story behind it it was crafted apparently by The Hulk.

Stefanie Bautista 38:40
Oh.

Ariel Landrum 38:43
Oh, where does the name come from that has anything to do with The Hulk?

Billy Madden 38:46
I don’t know it was it’s apparently a Bruce Banner creation and…

Ariel Landrum 38:50
Okay.

Billy Madden 38:51
Like, I think that was the story behind it. It was delicious. I can tell you that.

Stefanie Bautista 38:58
I heard a lot of things at Pym’s Test Kitchen were really really good. Can you share with us what you ordered besides the drink?

Billy Madden 39:05
I had the I forget what the official name of it was but it was the it was the chicken sandwich. The fried chicken sandwich and like…

Ariel Landrum 39:13
That’s right the giant chicken!

Stefanie Bautista 39:15
The big one!

Billy Madden 39:16
And the whole thing with Pym’s Test Kitchen I guess you may or may not already know is like they play with their food to like shrink it or or increase it. And like in this case, the bun is an absolute joke compared.. I mean it’s like this little tiny like bun. I don’t think it’s even the size of a hockey puck I would say. And you get this huge piece of like giant chicken and like it’s not a sandwich. It’s like chicken fried steak you know.

Stefanie Bautista 39:50
Which I love. Oh, so it’s called The Not so Little Chicken Sandwich.

Billy Madden 39:54
That’s it. Yeah I couldn’t remember.

Ariel Landrum 39:56
It is not so little.

Stefanie Bautista 39:57
It’s not so little. I swear. I saw the picture and I was just like, “That is hysterical and I needed in my life right now. What is this?”

Ariel Landrum 40:05
I cracked up laughing when you posted that in the group chat.

Billy Madden 40:10
It really was delicious. I mean, like a fan of spicy food. And you had like the sauce had a little kick to it, which I really liked. And like the chicken itself, it was it was cooked, you know, great. And like it was good. And again, like the bun was a complete joke. I mean, like, when I finally got to the bun, like the bun was kind of like hard. The bun wasn’t so great. So like, you could really just tossed the bun to the side and you’re fine.

Stefanie Bautista 40:34
It’s there for photo opportunities, I guess.

Billy Madden 40:36
Yeah it’s there as a joke I mean it’s…

Ariel Landrum 40:37
So really going with with more of the phone app. Did you have to reserve this food on your phone?

Billy Madden 40:43
Yeah, that’s the only bummer I could really say about it. I mean like you can’t just go and order it you have to you can’t go to the counter and order it. But actually I think you could but like the wait for that was astronomical so I just went with the phone I had I had that for lunch. So yeah, I ordered that on the app and I think the wait for that wasn’t that half hour so it wasn’t terrible. So I just kept myself busy. What did you do other things until it was my turn to go back to the Pym Test Kitchen and pick up the food. But then like for dinner, I went back to California Adventure and I wanted to get the shawarma off the cart.

Stefanie Bautista 41:21
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 41:22
Yeah.

Billy Madden 41:22
Which you do, which you do when you go you walk up and you order it and like any other food cart you don’t have to order, okay.

Ariel Landrum 41:27
Oh okay.

Billy Madden 41:27
So..

Stefanie Bautista 41:28
Okay.

Ariel Landrum 41:28
Okay, that was the shawarma?

Billy Madden 41:30
Very good. They were both really good. That Pingo Doce say soda. It’s really good.

Stefanie Bautista 41:36
I have to remember that.

Billy Madden 41:37
Yeah, it was kinda like..

Stefanie Bautista 41:38
That is not something I’m gonna remember but…

Billy Madden 41:39
It was kind of like I want to say like a citrusy Mountain Dew with like vanilla. It was it was delicious. You can only get there which pisses me off. Because you know, they had like those awesome Coca Cola freestyle machines, you know?

Ariel Landrum 41:59
Oh okay.

Stefanie Bautista 41:59
Yeah.

Billy Madden 42:00
Which they have like AMC theaters and stuff. It’s like they could so easily put it there in the theater too. They could program those machines do anything any flavor you want. It doesn’t have to be just at California Adventure.

Stefanie Bautista 42:13
It could be everywhere else. Make it happen Disney.

Billy Madden 42:17
I mean I get why it’s only exclusive to there but…

Ariel Landrum 42:20
We shake our fists!

Billy Madden 42:23
Like I kind of cheated to me. I guess I could make this on the podcast. They give you a cup and like I just saved my cup and I went back for refills. I just had my backpack and stuff like I just you can walk right in and refill your cup as many times as you want… So there’s another tip!

Ariel Landrum 42:40
There’s a tip!

Stefanie Bautista 42:41
There’s a tip. There’s a tip.

Ariel Landrum 42:41
Save your cup. What you did was you lowered your carbon footprint.

Stefanie Bautista 42:45
That’s it thank you Billy.

Billy Madden 42:45
Exactly. I wanted to save cups okay.

Stefanie Bautista 42:50
So I guess here I looked up Pingo Doce a and what it is it’s a guarana soda beverage bottled in Rio de Janeiro. So guarana is kind of like yerba mate guayakí. And during the time Bruce Banner lived in Rio de Janeiro he worked in the Pingo Doce a bottling plant. After Banner was cut his gamma era dated irradiated blood dripped into one of the bottles where it was eventually drunk by The Watcher Informant in Milwaukee. So there is a story to this.

Billy Madden 43:18
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 43:19
Wow.

Stefanie Bautista 43:19
I guess Bruce had a job over and the plant. And and I wonder if now they will incorporate the story into the new movie because that’s something that I don’t remember in in the previous Ant-Man movies. But it’ll be I will now be looking out for this soda in the new movie.

Ariel Landrum 43:41
Look at Disney throw in Easter Eggs in there food and drink line the lineup.

Billy Madden 43:48
Well like I said you know Disney’s all about the details. Even the soda has a backstory that’s pretty nuts.

Stefanie Bautista 43:53
Yeah. And I know this is probably this will probably be discussed in another episode but watching behind the attraction on Disney+ lately has really given another element of how much thought goes into these rides and like the making of the rides not just here in Anaheim but also in Hong Kon,g Shanghai, Tokyo hopefully we can have an episode about that but I think this is definitely one of those.

Billy Madden 44:20
Well i think that the new episodes drop on the 25th right?

Stefanie Bautista 44:23
Oh fantastic! I watch them all they were so good.

Billy Madden 44:26
I watched all of them too. There’s so well done. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 44:29
You burn right through them they’re great.

Billy Madden 44:30
Yeah, they’re so great. I think I think there’s more to come on the 25th. I could be mistaken.

Ariel Landrum 44:36
Okay, okay.

Stefanie Bautista 44:37
yeah, cuz I’m wondering how they’re going to do because I know they opened up Avengers Campus in Florida as well. And I wonder if it’s identical or if they changed a couple of things because they have a bigger area to work with out there.

Billy Madden 44:48
I’m sure it’s bigger I can I can imagine that.

Stefanie Bautista 44:51
I another one a one off like a question just for me because I love The Bugs Land because I love A Bug’s Life. Is there any trace of it looking like A Bugs Land at all when you are is it completely so transformed that you like if you didn’t know it was A Bugs Land you like wouldn’t even think about it.

Billy Madden 45:14
It’s got trees.

Stefanie Bautista 45:17
Cool cool. Cool, cool, cool.

Ariel Landrum 45:20
Foliage.

Stefanie Bautista 45:22
‘Cause I know some people were devastated like I wasn’t like heartbroken but ’cause I love both.

Billy Madden 45:27
You would you would never know Bug’s Life, Bugs Land existed. Sorry.

Stefanie Bautista 45:32
Okay.

Ariel Landrum 45:32
I don’t remember seeing any, any remnants of it. And I think like, I know you mentioned that some people were heartbroken, but I feel like when it comes to Disney fans of the parks, specifically, any change and it’s like everybody goes upstrel, upset. Sleepless nights doing Tweets and comments on the Facebook.

Stefanie Bautista 45:54
Keyboard warriors.

Ariel Landrum 45:55
Unliking and, and hashtags. And then it comes out it that last for the noise lasts for like a week, and then all of a sudden, it’s a beloved national treasure of a change. So…

Billy Madden 46:08
The fact of the matter is, no matter what they do, you’re never going to please everybody. There’s always gonna be some critics about something. Sometimes it’s something so insignificant, it’s stupid, but it’s important to them so they raise a stink about it.

Stefanie Bautista 46:22
Yeah, I think the cycles of they use this term in behind the attraction where they’re not repurchasing. But like refacing something just like he did with Tower of Terror. I think enough time passes were like, you know, A Bug’s Life was big when we were much younger like my brother was a kid when it came out and like he is now obviously grown 20 something and I think like those feelings would probably not be so strong like if you had changed the ride that a kid loved five years ago and that kid is still a kid that would be pretty devastating to them, to like not being able to see you know, it’s like right on flicks ride you know

Billy Madden 47:03
It’s part of the fabric of their life. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 47:05
Exactly.

Billy Madden 47:07
That would be devastating to anybody.

Ariel Landrum 47:09
That is really interesting though, that we I don’t think we’ve ever seen the Imagineers put like an homage to what was originally there like a hidden Easter Egg somewhere that reminds you of what used to be in that ride or that area.

Billy Madden 47:20
Yeah, I’ve never heard of that before.

Stefanie Bautista 47:21
Yeah. I wonder if anybody out there would know because I feel like they would do that in Guardians of the Galaxy mission breakout. Because Hollywood Tower of Terror was such a beloved ride and it still exists in Florida but because the structure of it is kind of there’s so many details especially in the line. Maybe there is something in Tivan’s collection that alludes to Tower of Terror who knows. I don’t know if you all know please let us know.

Ariel Landrum 47:24
Someone knows.

Billy Madden 47:25
I haven’t been on the Guardians of the Galaxy mission breakout because honestly Tower of Terrer, the Tower of Terror terrified me. The last time I went on it right I seriously thought I was gonna die. I walked out of that ride like, “Oh my god I dodged a bullet man.”

Ariel Landrum 48:07
Well the last time I went on that ride was when it was Guardians and Stef brought me.

Stefanie Bautista 48:12
Yeah it was awesome!

Ariel Landrum 48:14
And I threw up.

Billy Madden 48:15
You threw up, oh my god.

Ariel Landrum 48:17
I enjoyed it walk to the nearest trash can vomited.

Stefanie Bautista 48:22
I have a love hate relationship with that feeling you get of near death so I love the fact that I know that I only scream bloody murder on that ride. Like I that is the only ride that that would happen but…

Billy Madden 48:37
It’s so scary.

Stefanie Bautista 48:38
If there’s so many like instances where like so I I’m a pin collector so I would wear my pins. I’ve been hit in the face by my pins. I have like my popcorn like my Sulley popcorn bucket that like I saw rise up next to me as we were going down. Like “Is everything here?” And I’m definitely gonna wait until Arlo’s much older and like maybe even almost my height because I would be clinging on to him for dear life wondering if he’s just slipped out of that belt and like ended up in the front of of the tower. But I mean it’s it’s a very unique ride and now that I know how it works because of Behind The Attraction. It the mechanics makes so much sense to me now.

Billy Madden 49:20
It does.

Stefanie Bautista 49:20
It totally I nerd it out hardcore.

Billy Madden 49:24
It still terrifies me.

Stefanie Bautista 49:25
It still terrifies me which is great. It’s great because I feel like sometimes when you go to like Six Flags and you ride those roller coasters, like after a while becomes like a chore and your body just hurts going for that but this one doesn’t do that.

Billy Madden 49:39
I can’t do Six Flags anymore.

Ariel Landrum 49:43
There’s an age and a season

Stefanie Bautista 49:45
Oh yeah.

Billy Madden 49:45
Like I wrote that. That one is called X I think the one…

Ariel Landrum 49:49
Oh yeah the fast one.

Billy Madden 49:50
Yeah, you’re you’re…

Ariel Landrum 49:51
You rotate.

Billy Madden 49:51
Spinning every every which way at any given moment. I mean, I think my brain is still trying to get unscrambled from that.

Stefanie Bautista 49:58
I guess keeping with the theme do you all think that other theme parks are going to go down this route of reserving and just being all technologically you know base? Because i know I mean Ariel you said you went to Universal not that long ago like did you see some of these things implemented there?

Ariel Landrum 50:22
Yeah the the new Secret Life of Pets ride.

Stefanie Bautista 50:24
Ah okay.

Ariel Landrum 50:25
It’s a virtual queue that you have to you have to get on which I didn’t even know. That’s the place where I do know somebody that works there I know I know a few people and they all told me that yeah, that’s that’s the only one that you have to have like a queue reservation for. And even even there now they’re also building the Nintendo Land and so I expect that there’s going to be probably more phone type app and and queue and game things.

Billy Madden 50:57
It’s a sign of the times. I mean, like I you know like like you Ariel. You know, we have common friends that work at Universal Studios and one of my friends who works for security for Universal Studios because he’s the hadd a security. He says that basically they copy whatever Disney does. Like in the know if Disney raises their prices universals prices go right up to. In order to keep people out of the parks. But that really doesn’t work because Disney paint fans pay anything so. They got they got to re strategize that angle.

Ariel Landrum 51:30
I think the phone which stinks because like like the app does just eat up so much battery life.

Billy Madden 51:35
Oh god yeah.

Ariel Landrum 51:36
But I think that the way that Disney has like they have they have a game in there that you can play in different areas of the park and throughout the park like I was… When when Batuu had first opened I was like scanning all kinds of stuff and trying to switch weird light buttons to try and like win for the for the Jedi I don’t know. It was I can’t… I don’t know why. I was… I paid all this money to be at a theme park and here I am on my phone but it’s it is the sign of the times. It I think like augmented reality. I mean we play Pokemon Go like it i think that that that kind of advancements going to stay.

Stefanie Bautista 52:13
And I just hope that you know they don’t go too fast too soon with a lot of these changes. Because I mean people are not only trying to gather the money to get to the parks but also they’re trying to navigate a new way to be at the parks. And although I know that they’re kind of widening that gap with people who just go, “I’m just not going to deal with this maybe I’ll just wait a little bit,” and then they’re like when they like pander it to ultimate Disney fans. I just hope that they don’t make that gap too big that it discourages people who are you know just there to enjoy being at the parks and not necessarily you know, make it a big thing?

Billy Madden 52:53
I agree.

Ariel Landrum 52:54
Yeah, I think it’s part of that you know digital divide in regards to generations but I think it also encompasses what we’ve talked about is like the the technology access and means versus really that… For maybe our generation definitely the generation that’s growing up now it’s it’s ingrained in the culture. But if we’re talking about socioeconomic status and access and means you know I I think my my dad saw as a flip phone.

Stefanie Bautista 53:28
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 53:30
And if he if I hadn’t gone to the park and known about reserving the food on my phone like how was my family supposed to eat? I mean they couldn’t pack something but that was taken a lot of for thought because when the carts were still really down and people were lined at them to get food when all of the the virtual food was had already been reserved. So if the experiences right now it’s because of COVID right? But experience starts to stay that way where you’re going to have to have some mobile device there are going to be a substantial amount of people who are going to be disenfranchised by the experience.

Billy Madden 54:08
Oh yeah absolutely. Didn’t the CEO of Disney say like he said something about like virtual queues are here to stay. Chapek? Bob Chapek? So it’s I don’t know I’m not a fan honestly. Even though it has worked out for me every time I don’t mind waiting in a line.

Stefanie Bautista 54:28
It’s true old school. You know, and I mean, who knows, like I think all of these added layers of like I said, all these extra hoops that you have to jump in order to have a memorable and positive Disney experience. I mean, thinking of it as a parent now like I have a child that has very little to no patience. And if he wanted a Pingo Doce a soda or if he wanted a not so you know what is Not So Small Chicken Sandwich. If he had to wait for it and I wasn’t prepared for that that could have made or make or break you know your Disney experience and multiply that by a lot of children you know. iIt could be very very frustrating and I just hope that they keep like the shawarma cart I hope they keep you know, yeah, churros. Like if I have to get my butt into a virtual line for a corn dog, I don’t know I would have to like kind of, like weigh out my options at that point. Like, “Do I really have to be here for my corn dog or not?”

Ariel Landrum 55:28
Yeah, and I think the other thing is that we’re talking about our experience at Disneyland. I really don’t know what it’s looking like at Walt Disney World in regards to some of the changes they’ve made because they are just bigger and they have more space maybe they don’t have the same struggle in regards to the virtual ordering of food and virtual queue everything you know.

Billy Madden 55:51
I imagine they do because I think it has to do with like the COVID mandates and stuff like that. I would I would imagine they’re gonna be the same thing.

Ariel Landrum 55:59
Well, it’s Florida.

Billy Madden 56:00
Yeah, that’s true. This word I but it’s, you know, it’s Disney’s rules, you know, I mean.

Ariel Landrum 56:05
Touché.

Stefanie Bautista 56:05
And also before, I mean, Ariel, you and I were able to use magic bands, which is their virtual system for checking in and out. Paying for things it’s basically like a RFID wristband that you wear and then you sync it to your Disney app. And that’s how you pay for things. I thought that they were going to bring that over to Disneyland one day but then now they’ve relied solely on the app which eliminates using a wristband but also like you said there’s the navigating of another app on your phone. Not to mention you know you’re taking pictures you’re looking around the parks you’re playing Pokemon Go like all like these open tabs and open windows that you have.

Billy Madden 56:49
They just eat up your battery life.

Ariel Landrum 56:52
Yeah, I would have really liked it if they brought the bands which made sense cuz like people spend a lot of money customizing just those bands.

Billy Madden 57:00
Oh yeah, I heard that’s a thing. I don’t know much about it. But I’ve heard that is a thing so.

Stefanie Bautista 57:05
Yeah. So I’m curious to see if they’ll keep that and I’m just I’m just hoping that..

Billy Madden 57:10
I think they will I yeah, unfortunately I think they will.

Stefanie Bautista 57:13
But maybe if one of us makes it out there we can report back but um, unfortunately we do deal with our Disney culture here in California and that is such a unique niche for fans of Disney for Los Angeles Southern California fans of Disney. It like you said it’s a different breed when you’re dealing with Disney fans. It’s an added layer of a different breed when you’re dealing with Annual Pass Holders from Southern California so. We can only hope for the best when it comes to the future of virtual queue but definitely like for me as an educator keeping in mind that Disneyland isn’t as accessible as it used to be I will be more mindful when I talk to students because you can’t just always go, “Oh you know you haven’t been to Disneyland?” That’s something that you know some kids haven’t just because it’s it’s so unattainable for some families.

Billy Madden 58:11
It’s not easy to get into. It’s the reality of it.

Stefanie Bautista 58:14
Something yeah it is the reality of it and you know I hope Disney continues to be inclusive as much as they can be. It’s getting hard.

Ariel Landrum 58:24
Yeah as much as a large conglomerate corporate can.

Billy Madden 58:27
Yeah, I mean like of course they want to get everybody in the park but like they try to manage it to a safe capacity I guess like you know, they try to piece price people out which sucks. But like I get it. But then again it really doesn’t work. So I don’t know how they handle that problem. But definitely the price inflation doesn’t help.

Ariel Landrum 58:54
Well to try and on on better terms on our Happiest Pod On Earth.

Billy Madden 58:59
Yeah

Ariel Landrum 58:59
Billy? I’m curious. Do you have anything lined up for your podcast with Movie Grader And Friends?

Billy Madden 59:06
Um, yeah, we’re gonna record I think our podcast episode tomorrow. And we’re pretty behind on movies so it’s gonna be a big episode much I honestly forget which ones we have to cover. It’s been so long. Like we got I got backed up because I wasn’t I wasn’t able to go to the movies last week because I did go to my brother’s bachelor party. So

Stefanie Bautista 59:33
Which is a good excuse.

Ariel Landrum 59:34
Had to go to his brother’s wedding part 2.

Billy Madden 59:38
I had to play movie catch up so I went to go see what did I guess the I saw? Oh, Respect and I saw Free Guy so.

Stefanie Bautista 59:50
Yes, I was gonna say probably Free Guy. Any of those stand out to you.

Billy Madden 59:54
Free Guy was excellent. It was probably like, I would say it’s probably the best video game movie I’ve seen.

Stefanie Bautista 59:59
Nice. Oh excited for that. Yeah we me and Billy have gone to Retro Gaming Expo before…

Billy Madden 1:00:06
Oh yeah!

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:06
Had such a blast doing that so…

Billy Madden 1:00:09
I missed that so much!

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:10
I know I missed that so much.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:11
That convention needs to come back.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:13
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:14
Fricking COVID!

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:15
But anything video game related Billy’s your guy so I trust you to say that Free Guy is good so

Billy Madden 1:00:20
And like the crazy thing is it’s not even based on a video game.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:25
But all of the promotional like posters that they have that mimic existing games are so good.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:30
Like Animals Crossing one.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:32
Yes the Animal Crossing one. So good!

Ariel Landrum 1:00:34
Minecraft!

Billy Madden 1:00:36
They totally play on like different genres and stuff like that obviously the biggest one being the open world type deal that’s like kind of Grand Theft Auto or whatnot but yeah it’s it’s really well done go check it out.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:49
Well thank you Billy for joining us here on Happiest Pod

Billy Madden 1:00:54
Thank you for having me.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:56
Where can people find you and follow you?

Billy Madden 1:01:00
Um, let’s see on Instagram I basically @TheMovieGrader and my websites www.themoviegrader.com and you could find me on any podcast platform you listen to, you know, let’s see Google, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Just search for The Movie Grader And Friends podcast and it’ll come right up.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:23
So we hope all of you follow our, our best bestie Billy and then if you have any, any information in regards to the Easter Eggs and the Webslinger ride that we that are our friend Billy might have missed go ahead and Tweet us @HappiestPodGT and or message us and DM us on Instagram at @HappiestPodGT.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:47
Yep, we’d love to hear your experiences at Webslingers and Avengers campus. I feel like everybody’s had a different one so far so it would be great to hear from you all. Thank you Billy. We had so much fun and hopefully we can all do this again soon.

Billy Madden 1:02:03
Oh, God. Yeah. Please. Any time. Good luck to everybody out there trying to get a boarding pass!

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:09
I know. Including me.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:12
Good luck, everybody. Bye!

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:15
Alright, bye!

Billy Madden 1:02:16
Bye!

• Spider-Man
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Tower of Terror
• Disneyland
• The Imagineering Story
• Toy Story Mania
• Jurassic World
• Universal Studios
• Secret Life of Pets

• Socioeconomic Status
• Disenfranchised
• Pricing out
• Signs of the times
• Digital divide
• Augmented reality
• Technological advances

Stefanie Bautista 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to the happiest place on earth. I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:14
And I’m Ariel. And we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that. Like, I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental wellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:26
And I’m an educator who uses my passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:32
And Happiest Pod is a place where we dissect is the mediums of the critical lens. Why? Because just like we are more than fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume.

Stefanie Bautista 0:40
So today, what does the media or experience are we dissecting and learning about and sharing with our listeners?

Ariel Landrum 0:47
Don’t believe the memes there is such a thing as Disney Karaoke.

Stefanie Bautista 0:51
Dj horn soundeffect

Ariel Landrum 0:51
Dj horn soundeffect

Stefanie Bautista 0:54
Yeah I don’t know where that meme came from that mean really pissed me off. Let me just say like, I woke up and chose violence when I saw that meme because I was like… It was a meme that said, “Why isn’t there a thing called Disney Karaoke?” And it confused me… Because it is part of my DNA.

Ariel Landrum 1:14
There is.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15
I don’t…

Ariel Landrum 1:15
We will share this meme.

Stefanie Bautista 1:17
Yeah

Ariel Landrum 1:17
Some memes are funny. This meme was not funny. Like, what are you questioning right now? I don’t I don’t understand.

Stefanie Bautista 1:25
I don’t understand.

Ariel Landrum 1:25
I do not compute.

Stefanie Bautista 1:27
I was like, so you’re telling me when you start karaoke. none of those songs are Disney songs?

Ariel Landrum 1:34
None? None on the docket?

Stefanie Bautista 1:36
Not even one?

Ariel Landrum 1:36
Not on the playlist?

Stefanie Bautista 1:37
Not even A Whole New…? Like None? I don’t know. I don’t understand. Which is why we decided to do this episode and talk to you all and share with you the wonderful therapeutic educational practice of karaoke. I know many of you guys don’t think about it that way. But we sure do.

Ariel Landrum 1:59
We do. It’s so ingrained in us I think, I would say more accurate meme as you remember the theme to emes where it was like “Showering is easy.” And there was like step one is this and this. And then like, “Showering as a Filipino is easy step one step in the shower. So to turn on the water. Step three and get out karaoke mic.”

Stefanie Bautista 2:16
Yup. Pretty much. Yep. See those memes I can get on board with not only and we have mentioned before that we are Asian American, we are Filipino descent. So karaoke really is ingrained in us.

Ariel Landrum 2:30
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 2:31
We love karaoke. I’ve grown up with it. I think. Just being in and around my Aunts. Having a karaoke machine just readily available in… And people a Magic Mic to me did not mean half naked men on stage. A Magic Mic to me, man, a mic that you had a keypad on, and it came with a large book and you browse through that book, put in the number and sing your song. And it rates you. I don’t know how it rates you. It was such an archaic system back then. Like…

Ariel Landrum 3:04
Yeah?

Stefanie Bautista 3:05
Is it just reading your participation? Or is it actually rating your your level of talent when it comes to singing? I don’t think it was the latter…

Ariel Landrum 3:13
Accuracy of words?

Stefanie Bautista 3:14
I don’t think it was the was the former because like if you’ve ever done karaoke at somebody’s an Auntie or Uncle’s house, like you know, that thing is not accurate.

Ariel Landrum 3:25
No, and especially when you put that reverb on there. That echo.

Stefanie Bautista 3:30
That everybody loves so much because it makes them sound like Whitney.

Ariel Landrum 3:33
Yes, yes. Essentially, the pre-autotune.

Stefanie Bautista 3:38
Yeah, yep, it was the pre It was like a filter for your voice.

Ariel Landrum 3:41
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 3:41
That made you sound super professional. And I know that even when you go to the Philippines, sometimes in the local bars, they’ll have the reverb all the way up. And you’re like,”Yyou need to tone it down a little bit.” But karaoke and its origins is not Filipino, as much as many of you might think. It is Japanese, hence the ‘ka-ra-o-kay’. Umm, karaoke, which is the way we say it is an English form of entertainment from Japan, where an amateur singer sings along with instrumental versions of their favorite songs. Karaoke is derived from two Japanese words, ‘kara’ from the word ‘karappo’, meaning empty and ‘oke’ means, ‘okesutura’ or ‘or-kes-tra’. ‘Or-kes-tra’ is a Roman, or it’s a Japanese way of saying a Romanized word, which is why it’s phonetic in how you say it. So it’s really literally you in front of instrumentals.

Ariel Landrum 4:36
Yes, yes. Empty, empty room of orchestra.

Stefanie Bautista 4:40
Yes. And I have had the privilege of going to Japan and singing karaoke there. And it is a whole experience.

Ariel Landrum 4:47
It’s a whole new world?

Stefanie Bautista 4:48
It’s a whole new world they, it’s not just you and your Auntie’s backyard, with like a bunch of drunk people around you. You originally and Ariel will explain noraebang in Korea, but in Japan, it’s very, very similar. Where do you rent a box of essentially a room with your friends, you have a system in front of you with a TV, you put in your songs queue up. You sing on 1 or 2 mics and you gather around, eat and drink and have like the best time. And you rent it by the hour or if they have a package, they have all of those details there. So I know it’s very similar in Korea, which I have also had the pleasure of doing noraebang but it’s a little bit different there.

Ariel Landrum 5:31
Yeah, so um, Stef has visited Korea. I have lived in Korea. In Korea, you might hear the word karaoke because there’s an understanding that the this is interchangeable. But really, it’s a noraebang. So ‘no-rae’ meaning singing and ‘bang’ means room. And though ‘bang’ could refer to any room when it’s used as a suffix, it signifies that the room has a significant entertainment function. That it’s meant to entertain you in a specific way. The bang culture in South Korea, it’s in cities, it’s in villages. There it’s really a variety of private rooms that are curated to meet entertainment needs of the community. These rooms can be found really anywhere in South Korea and some examples include PC Bang, which is where I would go all the time to regularly game, MSN Messenger and AOL messenger my friends. I’m dating myself. There’s, there’s a Gamebang for board games, there’s a piece PSbang for PlayStation games. Like this is ingrained in the culture. That you and your friends would go to these bangs. And now it’s actually a lot more popular to go to a coin noraebang which is that instead of renting the room for the hour, you rent it for the song, you pay per song. So even like my memory of the experience is old. I’m old. Because now people don’t spend a whole hour there. Now it’s like, it can even be an individual experience. Whereas these bangs are meant to be entertainment for you and your friends, or really, for business engagements. A lot of business deals are brokered in the noraebang. And…

Stefanie Bautista 7:07
Bonding over music…

Ariel Landrum 7:08
Bonding over music and drinks and food. Yeah, we’re as the coin one, you might go for yourself or with a partner and sing a song or two, just to kill some time while maybe you’re waiting for the metro, the train, or on your way from one sort of event to another to have like a just a moment of relaxation.

Stefanie Bautista 7:27
Exactly. And luckily for us, especially living in a city that has a large Japanese and Korean population, and not to mention, there’s a lot of us Filipinos here too.

Ariel Landrum 7:37
Lot of us!

Stefanie Bautista 7:37
We’re contributing to the karaoke scene playing out here. Now, we first I mean, you may first know karaoke as something that you have to do on stage. That you have to present yourself be vulnerable in front of a lot of people as an amateur singer. I know I have friends that participate in karaoke competitions with their friends that there’s actually like Facebook groups and different types of events where you get together with people you know, and then you perform a song. You get prizes. It’s kind of like trivia but with karaoke.

Ariel Landrum 8:11
Shout out to our friend Daisy who won a Selena impersonation karaoke contest who both dressed like her and sang the songs. So umm, there you go.

Stefanie Bautista 8:20
Love it. And she’s beautiful. Just like Selena, and I’m not surprised that she won because… Dang…

Ariel Landrum 8:26
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 8:26
The best cosplay ever. But yeah, like there. And normally, if we probably didn’t live in a big city, that’s how you would do karaoke, you would just kind of put yourself out there, me and myself, I am not that person. Even though…

Ariel Landrum 8:41
I am not that person either. And I lived in the Midwest, and that was the only karaoke available, which was you went to a bar and sang in front of a bunch of people. And they would do a game where you would like choose the song for your friend and your friend would not know what song playing and then you sing it?

Stefanie Bautista 9:00
It was like karaoke roulette. It’s the worst and why would you…

Ariel Landrum 9:02
It’s the worst.

Stefanie Bautista 9:02
It’s the worse and the way it is, is because how we explain it is that you are literally singing in a room, probably like you shaped and then the TV is your focus here. Since the audience is your focus, your TV is to the side. So you can still see the music but you could really just see the people judging you. And even though like I have performed in front of people, karaoke is a whole different like way because they are judging you from the minute you open your mouth. So that is anxiety I don’t need

That type of karaoke. Even here like if you go to North Hollywood and I’ve I would not sing because everyone in North Hollywood is a live performance actor or actress. They sing in front of an audience for a living and it was like… It It definitely bruised my ego. Yeah, like super not not be able to participate because I was too afraid I’d be judged by these people who do it professionally.

Yeah. So since we knew karaoke from before. And also like, as I got older, I knew that there were different Japanese enclaves like Sawtelle in West LA and Little Tokyo in Downtown LA, where they had karaoke rooms. Every time I would ask like a coworker or something if they want to do karaoke, they’d be like, “Oh, no, like, I do not want to be in front of people. Like, no, I’m not gonna do it.” I’m like, “No, there’s another way. Let me let me show you the way. This is the way.”

Ariel Landrum 10:25
“You’ll be part of my world!”

Stefanie Bautista 10:27
Yes, there’s places like my favorite, Max karaoke in Little Tokyo. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, they had a West LA one on Sawtelle that’s closed, that I just saw a couple days ago, actually a couple weeks ago. But the one in Little Tokyo still going strong. You rent by the hour. I don’t know if it’s BYOB. It used to be. But I know, things get a little rowdy. So it might not be anymore. But it’s really cheap. Especially if you go on the weekdays. It’s like $13 per hour or something. Don’t quote me on that. But it’s really affordable. They give you a punch card. Me and AJ my, my husband used to fill that punch card back in the day when we had time. And we would just go and have fun and sing songs like anything. And I know in The Valley, we have another one, right?

Ariel Landrum 11:13
Yeah, so I live in Reseda, home of the Karate Kid.

Stefanie Bautista 11:17
Cobra Kai. Never dies.

Ariel Landrum 11:18
Cobra Kai. Never dies.And so the one that I go to is called Carnival Karaoke. It’s a little bit smaller. It’s not as glamorous. But the food is amazing, because the family that owns it, and the restaurant next door. They make amazing Korean food. So if you do not want to sing, you can definitely stuff your face when people are bellowing out. It’s great.

Stefanie Bautista 11:40
Yes, there’s another level to that there are in Korea Town because we have, I think the largest Korea Town either in America in America, I want to say. We have plenty of plenty of noraebang out there. However, I like to reserve those for big events, because normally they have an alcohol package where you buy the room or you rent out the room for X amount of hours. And it comes with a bottle of Petroleum, a bottle of Grey Goose and like unlimited appetizers and water and all that stuff. But that’s more for like a birthday or like a celebration, because you are going to be spending a lot. However, if there’s a lot of you, it always kind of balances out to like $15 a person. And it’s a really, really fun way to celebrate with, with people you’re familiar with and are comfortable.

Ariel Landrum 12:25
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 12:25
Especially during You know, this time. And I know that that’s something that I would love to do with friends that I know that are you know, being safe. And it’s like one of those things that was pre pandemic that can still happen as long as you are all being safe with each other. So yeah, that one is like, third tier of karaoke. Because that’s the one that you get dressed up at and everything and it’s just so fun, especially when you have friends that love to sing. And as you continue to sing your confidence level rises and your your… What do you call it?

Ariel Landrum 12:36
Inhibition drops the more you drink.

Stefanie Bautista 13:02
Inhibition drops with every single drink. But it’s really fun. So plenty of places here. I know. Like in bigger cities like New York, they have a couple that I’ve been to. But yeah, like maybe we can, maybe we can come up with a list of places on our Instagram and our Twitter to link. Hopefully lot of these places are still around. But if there’s any that we don’t mention, we would love to hear suggestions if you all have some as well.

Ariel Landrum 13:30
Yeah. So I’m I’m, I’m curious for you, Stef, when it comes to karaoke, what… You mentioned doing it at home with family, and and you sort of mentioned doing it with coworkers. And you’ve even mentioned doing it with your partner. For you, how do you decide sort of like, whiches is kind of the best for what kind of environment if that makes sense?

Stefanie Bautista 13:58
I think I think I understand your question. I guess it really like you said it depends on the environment. I mean, I have a Magic Mic at home. And I, every time my parents go to the Philippines or I go I make sure to get one from there. Not only because it’s cheaper, but because it’s really high quality. If you go to the Philippines, they have updated versions of home karaoke systems that they sell in Japan and Korea, but they’re in English because the main language, one of the main languages in the Philippines is English. And we can use those same systems here in America. So I if I just want to unwind… Even if my parents just want to unwind, they put on the karaoke, they just sing in their room. I know I did that a couple times during the pandemic, which is why I am glad I bought one. Because if we’re having like a party in the back or something, or if my friends having a party down the street, we could always bring it. It’s portable, and it’s something that we can do. But, you know, I think if you’re being introduced to karaoke, if you have a way to do it, at home, do it at home.

Ariel Landrum 15:01
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 15:01
Because I think that’s how you get familiar with the types of songs that you like, that aren’t too hard for you. Because as much as we all love Bruno Mars, his songs are not easy for everyone.

Ariel Landrum 15:12
They’re not easy. They are not easy.

Stefanie Bautista 15:14
And I think a big part of karaoke is knowing the types of music that work for you that you also love. That’s a big part of it.

Ariel Landrum 15:22
I think you’re even also mentioning, sometimes we think we know the lyrics, and then we see the lyrics.

Stefanie Bautista 15:29
And you’re like, “What?”

Ariel Landrum 15:31
“What am I’ve been singing this whole time, just nonsense.”

Stefanie Bautista 15:35
Yes. And I think going back to like, this is a Disney podcast. Many of our experiences of karaoke are Disney songs, first and foremost. As kids, especially growing up in the 80’s and 90’s. My first foray into karaoke in itself, not taking away the fact that I am of Filipino decent, is the Disney sing alongs that they had on the VHS is in the 80’s and the 90’s. There were these VHS tapes. If you don’t know what a tape is, it is a big cassette, basically, that holds data on ribbons. And you put it into a VHS player that almost every household had in the late 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. We had music, movies, concerts on them. This particular one, Disney Sing-Along, started in the 80’s. And the one that I had was specific to Disneyland. So they would start off on Main Street as if you were going into the park. So they would sing a song where as you’re going into the park, I think it’s called ‘I’m Walking Right Down The Middle of Main Street.’ And I loved watching it. I watch it over and over and sing with it over and over because it reminded me of going to Disneyland all the time, even though I couldn’t go. So you would watch the video, it would have the lyrics on the bottom and it had this little like bouncy Mickey Ear, that will it would go on every syllable. And that was my first foray into karaoke. If you’re our age, that probably was yours too.

Ariel Landrum 17:01
And now like if you’re if you’re looking at the lyrics and karaoke, they do the syllables by filling up the word right?

Stefanie Bautista 17:07
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 17:07
Like it’s like, slowly lights up like a bar. And so that that bouncing Mickey it’s just harking to that, that essentially loading of the song and how long you’re supposed to hold the note, right?

Stefanie Bautista 17:19
Yeah. And then it went down and up and down on the same syllable. It reminds me a lot of just doing Nursery Rhymes in kindergarten in class. That’s how we get introduced to music is looking at words, figuring syllables out, going one by one by one. Following along. And music is such a great way to get kids used to you know, phonetics, and how to not just sing things but pronounce words. That’s why I think a lot of these Disney music songs that were on the karaokes were kind of essential in helping kids understand how to read and how to speak and how to sing eventually, because music is such a powerful tool for for phonetic education in the early stages.

Ariel Landrum 18:03
And in therapy. When I’m working with with youth, one of the things we talk about is like reward systems. And I’ve been doing online therapy since 2016. So my rewards aren’t going to be physical tangible objects, they’re usually rewards that involve relational building. So if I have a client who has to stop teasing their sibling for 3 days, right? Because that’s that’s doable whole week is not doable, especially if you’re still learning. But if 3 days they didn’t tease their sibling, in our next session, we would pick a song to sing together. I would let them choose that that Disney song. We would we would look it up, we would practice it, we find the version that we liked, that was always something fun. And that that was a reward a lot of my youth even to this day still want to earn. Now, some of it’s not just Disney music; it definitely is popular music, and songs that they themselves gravitate towards. But that’s singing along together that joining experience is such an amazing reward.

Stefanie Bautista 19:06
Yeah, absolutely. And kids response so great to music. Whether it be young kids, older kids. I know that there’s some middle schoolers that like say they’re too cool for something, but if you put on like, you know, “Zippity Doo Da,” they’ll sing right along. So it’s very nostalgic for them as well. I think you could say the same for us. And when they hear and see these musics on the Disney Sing-Along songs when you go to the parks, and then when you listen to these things in the movies and music.. It’s familiarity to them and so they feel comforted by the fact that they can sing the along to the songs. And then when you see live performances at the park, you can engage and participate and I think that’s just like the full circle beauty of these home videos that were so popular in this the 80’s and the 90’s.

Ariel Landrum 19:56
Yeah, and now even during the pandemic, specifically, ABC and Disney collaborated together to do a Disney Family Sing-Along. So they had Volume I and II and a holiday special. Ryan Seacrest was the host of all of them. And they what they did was they had star studded performances. With a lot of inventive at home choreography and sets. A lot of people were shooting at home because we were in lockdown and Disney and ABC had decided, “Well, what’s the way that we can sort of bring some some hopes and magic for people, particularly in a time where we are in mentally emotionally drained, struggling, you know, doom scrolling?” And they brought the the singalong back. And, and the best thing about that singalong was the fact that we got to see inside celebrities’ homes. And a lot of the creativity in creating the each segment was dependent on each celebrity. We got to see their individuality, their uniqueness in editing… And really some homemade styles in regards to shooting on the iPhone. You could just tell that these were more intimate video settings then like from a studio. They definitely had the two choreographers from…

Dancing with the Stars Dancing?

Dancing with the Stars Dancing…

Stefanie Bautista 21:21
Yeah Julian and Derek Hough. Yeah

Ariel Landrum 21:22
Yes, yes. So they did an amazing routine. They had lots of costumes with shows you, at their house.

Stefanie Bautista 21:29
They needed the outlet just as much as we did.

Ariel Landrum 21:32
Amazing kitchen, by the way, so I’m seeing my inside of their kitchen and it was like kitchen jealous dreams here.

Stefanie Bautista 21:38
Yeah right?

Ariel Landrum 21:39
Um, they even did like fisheye lens. And they did like the the cup challenge where you have like a cup on the pyramid and you like, see how fast you can sort of like, take it down. So that was that was hilarious. And then for me, it was probably like, like, I had some questionable choices on on some of the people they chose because it’s like, “I’m not going to be able to sing like Beyonce. Why Beyonce singing the song?”

Stefanie Bautista 22:06
Because Beyonce has a contract with Disney+, because Black is King. And…

Ariel Landrum 22:12
Yeah, yes, I get it. But I was singing the song but also like, “I don’t sound anything like you’d Beyonce and I don’t want to sing along with you. But I also do…” It was like it was a conflict.

Stefanie Bautista 22:22
It’s a low key concert. And I know that’s what happens sometimes when you do go to karaoke with somebody who can really really sing. I mean, like I can sing, but like I have friends who are really, really saying…

Ariel Landrum 22:31
No Stef can sing she’s just not boastful about.

Stefanie Bautista 22:34
I’m not and I mean, I’m not seasoned also, I don’t do it regularly. So it takes me a while to get to that. You have to turn your voice and everything. So I have friends who are really really good singers and I’m just like, “I’m just gonna do your harmonies. I’m just gonna be in the background.”

Ariel Landrum 22:48
“With my tamborine!”

Stefanie Bautista 22:49
“Oh, the ad libbing leave the ad libbing to me. Oh, the rap part. I got the rap part.” I don’t know about these, like, you know, the bridge and everything. Like, I’m not sure about that.

Ariel Landrum 23:00
So yeah, so they had 3, The Disney Family Sing-Alongs, 2 Volumes, and then a holiday one. On Disney+ right now. I think it’s just the holiday one that’s left. But you can actually go on YouTube and watch these. And so the one that I watch fairly regularly and I have done with my my clients is a Halsey singing part of your world. They do such a beautiful rendition. They also have amazing red hair that I was trying to figure out if this was a wig or if they had found time to dye it. The vibrancy was beautiful. But I love every version of that song obviously because Ariel is my favorite Disney Princess so I’m hearing Halsey’s version. Chefs kiss.

Stefanie Bautista 23:42
Yes. I’m so excited for the live action, by the way, because Chloe, is it Halle or Chloe? Yeah, Chloe. I think Halle. Yeah, she her way to her and her sister have amazing, amazing voices. They were discovered by Beyonce. So seeing that and their rendition. I’m so excited for it. I’m pretty sure.

Ariel Landrum 24:02
And Halle and Chloe were even on the Volume II.

Stefanie Bautista 24:06
They were…

Ariel Landrum 24:06
Of The Disney Family Sing-Along.

Stefanie Bautista 24:07
They were. They were. Yep. I apologize. I know. There’s music going on in my background. My brother is playing. He’s a musician. And also now my dog has started snoring so apologies for that. It is soothing. And as we talk about music, how soothing it is. It’s soothing for everybody animals and humans alike. So not only can you do karaoke at home, you can do karaoke in a karaoke room, noraebang. You can do karaoke Disney style. But there’s also other places that we’ve seen karaoke. What are the other places that we’ve seen opportunities to do karaoke?

Ariel Landrum 24:43
So and maybe we’ll share this on our social media, but on long road trips, my partner and I do Carpool Karaoke. So actually, you can you can buy the Carpool Karaoke mat, mic. James Corbin comes on and says, “Let’s see sing a song…”

Stefanie Bautista 24:58
Corden?

Ariel Landrum 24:58
Gahh… James Corden comes on, and you play… I can’t. I can’t.

Stefanie Bautista 25:05
Corbin is a street in the San Fernando Valley. There’s also a there’s also a bowling alley on Corbin.

Ariel Landrum 25:12
Yes. James Corden?

Stefanie Bautista 25:14
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 25:15
Yes. I the Carpool Karaoke Guy. Whatever.

Stefanie Bautista 25:18
Yeah yaeh yeah.

Ariel Landrum 25:19
So he comes on when you turn it on. And then you can sing. And what it does is it actually connects to the Bluetooth to your phone, and then uses your your, your phone, your cell phone, and then it uses a radio signal on like a radio station that isn’t working..

Stefanie Bautista 25:40
Yes…

Ariel Landrum 25:40
In your car. So the the downside is that you have to keep changing the radio station as you get further along in your road trip.

Stefanie Bautista 25:49
Because the frequencies might be taken up by other things.

Ariel Landrum 25:52
Yes, yes. But it is something that we My partner and I do every road trip, particularly we drive to Vegas often and we sing Disney songs on these trips. When we were up north and we’d picked up some of his friends when we were staying at a cabin up north. I had them sing Disney songs with me in the car when we were driving around in between just destinations and stuff just just something fun to do.

Stefanie Bautista 26:20
Nice. I love that. Yeah, and also like at different events that we would go to like conventions they always have karaoke at Comic-Con.

Ariel Landrum 26:29
Yup. I I definitely did the karaoke bus at Comic-Con again maybe a video we’ll share. I am I am in cosplay as Ariel as a nerd or I don’t know like modern Ariel and I do sing “Part of Your World.”

Stefanie Bautista 26:43
Love it. I I love on brand your were that whole time. And everybody loved it too. Your costome is so cute. But also the the funnest karaoke is when you go to, it may be fun. But also comical. Is when you go to comic to go to Anime Expo and do karaoke there. Because you have a ton of people that don’t sing in Japanese don’t even understand it, don’t even talk or speak it. And they’re singing full force in Japanese. Because they love the music so much. And like I’ve done it, it’s just like, my best impression of the Japanese language. It’s a beautiful language. I’m so sorry if like I did it so wrong, but it is hilarious. And I know they’ve done it also at concerts, like if you go to like a BTS concert, or if you go to any like K-Pop concert, they have places that you can do karaoke outside. And sometimes they give prizes out if you are brave enough to do it in front of people. There’s also TikTok.

Ariel Landrum 27:41
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 27:42
TikTok. Social media. I mean, like you can always find like either a filter or some sort of thing that helps you like either sing with someone or sing along with like words. Those are always fun, if you want to put yourself out there.

Ariel Landrum 27:56
And again, another really good therapy reward is not you as the therapist, but how like recording your client or helping your client create a Lip Sync Battle or a Sing-Along or a karaoke song on their TikTok. It’s something they’re going to do either way. So to make it an earned reward, helps with not only a therapeutic alliance, but helps them reach any goals in their treatment plan.

Stefanie Bautista 28:21
Yep, definitely. And there’s also a platform for teachers. GoNoodle is like the one that we use all the time. Not only do they have get up and move like wiggle breaks, they also have karaoke for the kids to do that safe. I know Kidz Bop has like a version of that, that you can look at on their website, but GoNoodle.. Umm I love it because it has like a lot of really good visuals. And there’s a variety of different lip sync or have them sing out. And they’re really good at call and responses. So chants, things that you can use in the classroom, things you can use outside the classroom, when you’re on the yard. Those like little cahnts and things can be utilized in so many different ways. And the kids love them. And it’s something musical that they can remember because it’s so much easier for them to remember something if it has a rhythm to it.

Ariel Landrum 29:04
Yeah, yeah. And then you know, we we mentioned and you mentioned celebrations. The the last time Stef and I together went to karaoke was for our best friend Malaysha on her bachelorette party.

Stefanie Bautista 29:19
Yep, that was so fun.

Ariel Landrum 29:22
It was one of the best bachelorette parties one of. And it was we just ate and we sang. That was like there was no pressure. I didn’t have to buy a shirt that’s a, you know, Bride Gang,’ or whatever.

Stefanie Bautista 29:35
Because I’m not for that. And I will never ever wear it again. I’m not a fan of those.

Ariel Landrum 29:40
We may maybe we will do a segment on this. But there are parts of bachelorette and bachelor parties where it’s just like, ‘Why are we spending this money?’

Stefanie Bautista 29:49
Also, by maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I am not a big fan of matching family shirts at Disney.

Ariel Landrum 29:57
Oh, no.

Stefanie Bautista 29:58
That’s kind of like. I don’t know maybe…

Ariel Landrum 30:00
In that Disney font. Mom, dad, brother, little signer….

Stefanie Bautista 30:04
I know there’s an industry on Etsy for it, I get that. But as a kid, I hated singles because I did not want to be that person that was like, outted. And I know it’s such a more prevalent thing at Walt Disney World. And maybe we can do an episode on different Disney fashions in different Disney parks. Because what we do here in Anaheim is so much different from what they do at Walt Disney World, which is different from Tokyo, which is different from Paris. It’s like the culture of just dressing yourself to go to Disneyland and doing Disney events is so different in different parts of the world.

Ariel Landrum 30:38
So different.

Stefanie Bautista 30:38
I’d love to explore that. But yeah, like doing the whole Disney font and shirt thing was not my cup of tea.

Ariel Landrum 30:46
No, no, not mine as well. I do like being coordinated. We did mention that on one of our episodes. That’s not the type of coordination though that I’m going for. It’s not my vibe if it’s your vibe, you know, do you but I’m not joining that. And I don’t want to join that in in a bachelorette party. I think that’s I’m cool with if like you know we do the thing where like the bride or will be bride wears white and will wear black. Like I get that I get that. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 31:16
And I did one where we all had our like, it was a black shirt, but it had like a Minnie Mouse logo with our names in the front like at the front pocket like portion. And then on the back it was like a more like a bachelorette thing. But that was more subtle and I love that and like I can go along with that but not like… Like Bautista Family Trip 20… Like I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.

Ariel Landrum 31:41
And I know my my friend Kae had us have a shirt that said, Kae’s Golden Girls because she loves the Golden Girls. And then it had the Golden Girls on it. Like if I wear it, it does like nobody really thinks like, “Oh, this is a bachelorette like tank top,” because it was a tank top. “Just tank top with the Golden Girls on it.” And like, “Who doesn’t want to wear the Golden Girls?”

Stefanie Bautista 31:59
Exactly. Their the best. Their golden. The GOATs.

Ariel Landrum 32:03
The GOATs.

Stefanie Bautista 32:03
The GOATs. But I mean, just like karaoke is kind of almost a cringy thing, just like shirts are. I think, too, when we go deeper into the benefits of being able to sing along with our favorite types of music and also because Disney music in and of itself is very singable and it’s geared really towards, of course, children. But the musicality of it is is so so digestible, that it’s easy to just be like, you know, what, if I don’t have a popular music, artists that I want to sing right away, you can always fall back on a Disney song. And that could be a great way to segue into whatever karaoke experience you’re gonna have for the night. So I know a level of that is a lot of emotional safety, right?

Ariel Landrum 32:51
Yeah, so there’s, there’s comfort in the nostalgia of using a song that you remember from childhood. Using a song that’s been around for a while. Using a song that even like, if you’re a parent, your children may also sing. So there’s comfort in the familiarity. There’s definitely a comfort in singing in front of your friends and family when they’re affirming. I do want to say that because again, there’s this whole I’m going to choose a song roulette thing. So some people some people like to rag on their friends. And if that’s your relationship, and you know it’s your relationship and teasing is part of it, then maybe you’re going to pick like a villain song that like is not very good, right? But if you if you’re intentionally trying to do emotional harm in regards to making fun of versus teasing, then yeah, probably not the crew you want to do karaoke with. So when you have family and friends are very supportive who cheer you on who sing with you, who’s who like sing with the with the chorus…

Stefanie Bautista 33:51
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 33:51
That is so self affirming, that really helps build self esteem. And even you know, again, like in going into like the therapy room, just like cheering your client on in regards to their singing. And, and being affirming that they got the words right. That they were on beat. That they got the rap, solo, whatever it is, that that creates such therapeutic alliance, and it gives them such a boost in self confidence. And when it comes to singing, that’s so vulnerable. You’re at a really vulnerable stage when you’re opening up your mouth and and trying to be on melody on tune. When you are trying to remember the words. And so doing it in a space where people aren’t staring you down. And the people are your friends who you probably are singing the songs in the car together that you’re probably you know, like back in my day, wishing that MTV would play the whole song.

Stefanie Bautista 34:48
Oh my gosh, seriously. Those are the days.

Ariel Landrum 34:54
And then you you mentioned potential physical safety right now in regards to the pandemic because of the fact that you are renting a room for just you and your individuals. No one else.

Stefanie Bautista 35:04
Yes, you have, you can control the level of sanitation that you do. I mean, a lot of these places, now we’re taking extra steps to sanitize. Like, I know that you would probably be sharing mics and everything because there’s only one mic, not everybody can have a mic. Even as much as 2 mics are still sharing. So you might want to disinfect that like to your comfort level. There’s also especially in Asian karaoke places, they have disposable papers that you put over the mic. They’re like cloth, almost like cloth paper, much of same material that you would find on a mask. That is replaceable, and like disposable. So if you want to use multiple of those every time you pass the mic, then that’s fine. So I think that physical safety is so very important, especially when you’re going to be vulnerable, because not only are you sharing, you know, the emotional state of singing something, you’re also in very close proximity to people. You’re drinking, you’re eating, you’re singing, so saliva is going everywhere. And like once you get into it, it can get even more intense. And I think that’s why I remember CDC guidelines saying that you couldn’t really sing out loud. That’s why like concerts weren’t being performed, because everybody would be singing and you’re sharing the same airspace as people inside. And that necessarily wasn’t safe in containing the virus. So definitely that and I think also not just, you know, thinking pandemic times, but in the classroom, when you have all the kids participating and seeing together, it’s such a great sense of community that you’re building with your classroom. And it could even be like, I remember me and my room partner, so like my classroom, we had a door that conjoined our classrooms together, because we were in a bungalow, we would have kids intermingle with each other, back before all of this. And so they would have different times to play games together whenever like that. And sometimes we would have them either watch a movie or you know, do a sing-along. And it would be a great way for them to make those connections outside of their own classroom too. So you can even have like a karaoke club for kids who just love to sing that necessarily can’t do theater, because that also comes with a level of privilege to be able to be in theater and to be in choir. So if you want to create that same experience for them, karaoke is such an easy way to do that. And YouTube has so many different ways of doing kid friendly karaoke if you’re in the classroom, or regular karaoke with obscenities when you’re at home with your friends.

Ariel Landrum 37:36
And, and definitely when it comes to these spaces where you can rent a room, like the safe, the other safety, emotional safety is there’s no hecklers, right?

Stefanie Bautista 37:45
Yes, oh my gosh.

Ariel Landrum 37:45
So if you go, if you go to a bar, and you’re singing, there’s people who might heckle you. And if you definitely go to, again, a bar in North Hollywood, where everyone is a performer, you are not allowed to be bad. So…

Stefanie Bautista 37:56
Not allowed to be bad. Can’t suck.

Ariel Landrum 37:57
You can remove that sort of like, negative experience of the audience. There’s also no judgment on music choice, when it’s friends and family. They brought they want to think Disney songs to like no one, no one is going to… I think umm… There’s a dueling bands piano bar that I used to go to at City Walk. I knew one of the performers there. And there would be certain artists where they would encourage the audience to pay more to get them to stop playing the song. And it was like, “I don’t want someone to hate on my artist just because they hate on the artist.” And that’s less likely to happen when you’re going with people that you are, can be emotionally vulnerable, vulnerable with and feel safe with.

Stefanie Bautista 38:40
Yeah, definitely. And like we mentioned earlier, just singing in itself is so vulnerable already, that you want to set yourself up for success, and not for a traumatic experience. Because I know, that’s why a lot of people that I’ve talked to didn’t want to do karaoke. Didn’t want to have that as an option, because they probably had a really traumatic experience, being in front of people who they didn’t know and, you know, like messing up on a song messing up on a note, in a song getting a word wrong, even though it’s in front of you. Like these are human errors that happen all the time.

Ariel Landrum 39:10
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 39:10
We’re not professionals. I don’t know why there’s this assumption that if you get on the stage, automatically, you have to have a stage presence. We’re all like beginner level here.

Ariel Landrum 39:20
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 39:20
And I think that’s the beauty of, you know, box karaoke, or at home karaoke. You could still enjoy it, but you don’t have to check all of these boxes in order to have a good time.

Ariel Landrum 39:31
It removes the pressure and particularly with clients that I have adult clients and you have clients who have anxiety, this is a great way to do what we call ‘distress tolerance.’ So if you think of being able to be to sit in uncomfortableness, that emotion of uncomfortableness, it’s a muscle, even though it’s not an actual muscle in the body like it is a emotional muscle and we need to be able to practice stretching it. And so having 1 song that we love. So we have some emotional connection to it, and singing it in front of peers, even if we mess up if we get that audience participation and support, and we can sort of sit in that uncomfortableness get through the song and realize that like, “Wow, if the song is about 3 to 6 minutes, I was able to tolerate a level of anxiety for 3 to 6 minutes and transitioned out of that anxious state, sit back in my chair, cool off, shift my focus towards someone else.” And that then becomes a learned ability when it comes to managing the diagnosis of anxiety. And, and and especially with social anxiety. You start to create this muscle memory of like, “Oh, I can sit in this uncomfortableness for just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer.”

Stefanie Bautista 40:45
Yep. And that is such a big thing, like social anxiety is I think the number one probably most biggest deterrent of karaoke. Is that social anxiety and it’s a real thing. And it’s okay to have that, which is why I think us sharing these different ways to get around it, but also be able to enjoy just singing Disney music with your friends and family is so important because like there, there is such a level of therapy when it comes to not just listening to Disney music, but to engage and sing it out as a form of release.

Ariel Landrum 41:17
Well and definitely, unlike, again, those bar karaokes is in front of people that everyone puts their name in, but we don’t know who gets called right?

Stefanie Bautista 41:25
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 41:25
It’s really up to you who’s ever MCing it. And even when I was doing that, SyFy Comic-Con SyFy Fan Karaoke, again, it was like everyone on the bus put it in, but it was random out of the hat. So I wasn’t even guaranteed that I was going to be able to sing. With with karaoke that is in an actual room, everyone chooses their song, so there’s no surprise, and it goes in the order of choices put in. So if you’re someone who needs to get comfortable to the environment, you don’t have to be the first second or third song. You can wait, you can put yours in like maybe fifth or six, right. And it shows you the next one that’s coming up. So you get that prep time of being forewarned. And you can even start off with a duet. So you can sing with a peer that you feel comfortable singing with. So you don’t feel like you’re singing alone. When we sing again, community singing your voice, a little bit drowns out with the community, and that feels a little bit more comfortable. And you can build up again, that that muscle that ability to do it. “Okay, I’m right now by myself on stage, which is not really stage, I’m just kind of standing in front of the chairs.”

Exactly. And what I like to do with my friends, too, is like when we get in there, we never know what song we’re gonna sing first. So we just pick a random song that has a good instrumental that we all know and let it play. And then we automate like we naturally just start singing along with it. So that already breaks the ice.

Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 42:48
So we don’t even have the mics up. We’re just already singing in the room. And then once we go through the book and go, “Oh, I want to do this song.” We start queuing it up all the way. And what actually ends up happening is that as we get more comfortable with it, let’s say we only have an hour, we choose too many songs. And we have speed karaoke for the last, like 10 minutes. And we’ve done this so many times with me and Ariel and our friends. We just have to do like the first verse and then the chorus and then end it and then go next. So that at least we get a little snippet of the songs that we want to hear and sing, but we don’t necessarily have to finish out the song. Because we are we do want to be a little frugal.

Ariel Landrum 43:28
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We can’t go past that hour mark.

Stefanie Bautista 43:31
Exactly. So going into song choice. We are now going to share our favorite song choices Disney song choices when we do karaoke. So Ariel, we’ll start with you. What are your favorite Disney songs to sing? And maybe tell us a little bit about why you like these songs.

Ariel Landrum 43:48
So definitely Part of Your World. Animated The Little Mermaid.

Stefanie Bautista 43:53
Typical. Just kidding. No. It’s so you.

Ariel Landrum 43:55
So typical. So me. Obviously favorite princess. My name. And also it’s I think it’s a good heartfelt song. I like it if I want to to sing alone. And I’ll definitely sing it like when everybody’s eating or even when they’re looking at their own music. I don’t even though it’s it’s meant to be a solo performance. I don’t even need eyes on me to sing it. It’s really me singing to myself. So I that’s why I love it.

Stefanie Bautista 44:22
I love that.

Ariel Landrum 44:23
I love singing Un Poco Loco by on, from the animated Coco. And that’s one that I like to sing with a group. It’s such a fun upbeat song. It’s one of the songs I made James’ friends, our friends, sing in the car when we were driving around town. And a good chunk of it is even if you don’t know the words, it’s a good clapping song. So that’s, that’s a great way to get like, I guess you’d say community or audience participation.

Stefanie Bautista 44:50
There’s a lot of repetition in that song too, which is great.

Ariel Landrum 44:53
Mm hmm. A Whole New World as a good duet song. My partner and I have have sung the song together in the car. We haven’t done it in karaoke and so that’s that’s a hope of mine.

Stefanie Bautista 45:05
I’mma hold you to that. I’mma hold you to it.

Ariel Landrum 45:07
Another one I like to sing with friends that’s just a big hit, I Just Can’t Wait to be King animated Lion King. And Zero to Hero animated Hercules. Now that song is it’s hard to get on karaoke so there are just a lot of like if we go into K-Town I know that songs there. If I go to… And same with bare necessities also one that’s not on many karaoke setlists. And so another just sort of like audience participation song. It’s one that’s easy to clap to. The the final 3 are I’ll Make a Man Out of You. Again, a group song.

Stefanie Bautista 45:46
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 45:46
Again who doesn’t like Donny?

Stefanie Bautista 45:47
Who doesn’t like Donny? Who doesn’t like Shang?

Ariel Landrum 45:52
Funny story, the first season of The Masked Singer, when they Donny Os, Danny’s character came out he started singing I was like, Is that Donny Osmond? That’s Donny Osmond? And I was right. I was right. It made me so happy to be right. And it was only because I noticed his voice… His singing voice from this movie. And this song.

Stefanie Bautista 46:10
I mean, how else would I mean, we’re not big Donny & Marie fans. So…

Ariel Landrum 46:13
No. No.

Stefanie Bautista 46:13
We’d really only know it from there.

Ariel Landrum 46:15
Just from there. That’s How You Know from Enchanted. Another difficult one

Stefanie Bautista 46:21
Deep cuts. That’s a deep cut.

Ariel Landrum 46:21
Deep cuts. That is hard to find. Usually it’s not at a karaoke bar. It’s me singing it from pulling it up on YouTube or Spotify. And with the Carpool Karaoke Mic, if you’re doing it from Spotify, like you’re playing the song with the singer. So that’s another way to like feel a little comfortable because you don’t hear yourself. You hear them. And then the song that I wish I could sing at karaoke, the song that I wish I can find, have not seen it is ‘The Tiki Room’ song.

Stefanie Bautista 46:54
Yes. Well, actually, now that you’ve… Well, not only as ‘The Tiki Room’ song, a great song, it’s one of Ariel’s favorite places to visit. And it’s on her must do list whenever we go to Disneyland.

Ariel Landrum 47:06
Must do.

Stefanie Bautista 47:07
I’m actually really excited to take my son into The Tiki Room, because he’s becoming more aware of like lights and like moving things. And I think his mind is going to be like blown and when he goes into The Tiki Room.

Ariel Landrum 47:20
Yes!

Stefanie Bautista 47:20
I’m so ready to record all of that, because like he, we have like a there’s like an Oscar like life size puppet at the doctor. It doesn’t move. It’s just there. But this last time we went, he was staring at it for like 5 minutes. And he was just like, “Is it gonna move? Is it gonna talk to me. So he’s making those connections, which is hilarious. I can actually give you a little bit of a solution to The Tiki Room song.

Ariel Landrum 47:45
Oh yeah?

Stefanie Bautista 47:45
I know, earlier that you can pull it up on YouTube. And I think you only pulled it up on YouTube when you’re doing Carpool Karaoke, right? So when I went to a family party not too long ago, it was on the Fourth of July. My sister in law, she doesn’t have a Magic Mic and I didn’t get to bring mine. But another one of their relatives brought their portable boombox, like the ones that you get from Costco. And they have an auxiliary cord that you can plug in a mic to. Very much like the mics that we use here for podcasting. All you need is like the universal auxiliary cord. And what we did is because they have a TV outside, we just pulled up the YouTube karaoke.

Ariel Landrum 48:23
Oh yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 48:24
And we just plugged in and we sang, and that we would just turn down the volume a little bit on the TV and turned up the mics on the boombox. And that’s how we were able to pick any song. I mean, we were able to see…

Ariel Landrum 48:36
So The Tiki Room’s gotta be on the YouTubes.

Stefanie Bautista 48:38
Yes, it’s gonna be on YouTube. And it probably even has the visuals and all of the sound effects too. So…

Ariel Landrum 48:45
Yeah!

Stefanie Bautista 48:45
I think next time we do that, we can definitely make it happen for you…

Ariel Landrum 48:48
Yes!

Stefanie Bautista 48:49
And it’ll be safe. And you can sing your Tiki Room heart out.

Ariel Landrum 48:52
Yeah! Oh I would. I would love that. And and I have the perfect mic. So I’ve joined a group on Facebook called Buy Nothing Reseda. Buy Nothing is a grassroots social movement which is in 44 nations. You can find your local group on buynothingproject.org. The purpose of the group is to develop a gift economy with your local community. Their mission is to allow communities to share in their abundance, create community connection, and to divert materials from filling landfills and oceans. And so my partner recently picked up a pink microphone that’s connected to my karaoke machine at home. And this microphone has Disney Princesses on it!

Stefanie Bautista 49:31
Cute!

Ariel Landrum 49:33
Ariel, of course, and Belle, and Aurora.

Stefanie Bautista 49:35
Yep, all you need is a boombox with an auxiliary cord and most like a lot of them have it now because they become popular to bring on the beach with you. They have their own sustained battery. There’s the one that I’ve seen has a charger on it. It’s connected to Bluetooth so you can even hook that up if it’s a computer like there’s so many different ways to connect technology now that…

Ariel Landrum 49:57
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 49:57
I think is is really good when we’re all Trying to, you know, guess distance ourselves away from people. But also, we do want to implore you to support your local karaoke place, whether it be a noraebang or Kbox or Japanese karaoke because they’re struggling to stay alive during the pandemic and we want these places to survive until all of this has blown over. So yes, we will definitely link those places if you want to go

Ariel Landrum 50:23
Stef, what is your list?

Stefanie Bautista 50:25
Yes, my list is… I didn’t want it to overlap yours because a lot of the songs you sing I love singing too. So I tried I’m glad that you wrote your list first because I was like, “Okay, she already said that one.” I’ll overlap a little bit but not a lot. But my favorite one first and because it’s such a short version of the song the original version of Reflection from Mulan is like A kind of hard to sing. I struggle because Christina Aguilar is not like you know, and even Lea Salonga who’s sings the original animated one. She is a Broadway singer and she is fantastic. She sings most of Disney Princesses song, but I love Reflection because it’s short.

Ariel Landrum 51:07
Okay, okay.

Stefanie Bautista 51:08
It’s short and it’s emotional and everybody loves singing it at the same time whether or not you’re a great singer not. But I love that because it’s, it’s it’s a good icebreaker. My favorite Little Mermaid song is Kiss The Girl because I love the ad libbing from the frogs and everybody in the back. And the “Whoa! Whoa!” And the, “Yeah!” Like a lot of those. I love those parts. The next is How Far I’ll Go from Moana. That’s also kind of hard song to sing. If you’ve been seeing a lot throughout the night, that’s probably not one you’d want to sing at the end because you’d be totally winded and your voice would hurt so much.

Ariel Landrum 51:50
Yeah so you lose voice a lot when you go for a whole hour and especially if there’s less people.

Stefanie Bautista 51:57
To fill in that hour you’re going to be using your voice a lot to have a lot of water on you have like snacks like sustain yourself because it’s a lot of energy. It’s a workout in itself. You’re literally putting out a concert for you and your friends for like an entire hour. So if you want a glimpse of you know what a musician is being like puts a little bit of it. I am not sure if I’ve ever seen Where You Are from Moana and that is the song that they sing with the whole village but I love that song because it’s beautiful. The harmonies are great Nicole Scherzinger who plays Moana’s mom sounds so great in that song. But I mean seeing multiple parts unless you have friends that know those parts by heart is kind of hard. So it’s kind of like singing N’Sync or Backstreet Boys where there’s multiple harmonies, but you’re doing all of them at the same time. That’s like, also something that you don’t really think about until you start singing karaoke. But if I find that through YouTube, I’ll sing it. One of my favorite songs that has recently resurfaced is I Won’t Say I’m in Love from Hercules.

Ariel Landrum 52:59
Aww yes.

Stefanie Bautista 52:59
It’s such a beautiful like almost 50’s kind of swing sort of love song. Very reminiscent of like The Supremes and Diana Ross. I kudos to the girl who sings it. I…

Ariel Landrum 53:13
Susan Egan?

Stefanie Bautista 53:15
Oh, yeah, I think she’s the voice of the actress herself of the character herself. So I guess she sings it. Yeah, yeah. And that one has really good harmonies for the background because it’s like a, like a 60’s Supremes kind of song. So that one’s fun to sing with your girlfriends. I’ll make fun of you is always fun. Um, the bmm part is just like the best part to just like hype yourself up. And next one is Beauty and the Beast, but the Celine Dion version and the Peabo Bryson version. I love that because I remember being a kid and Beauty and the Beast, coming out in like 1993 and it was the first time I heard a Disney song on the radio, because it was from 2 artists that were so popular already.

Ariel Landrum 54:00
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 54:00
And like the end like the way they both ad lib around each other during like the bridge and like the crescendo of that song is it’s so 90’s. It’s so great. Uhuh. And I overlapped on A Whole New World because I have to.

Ariel Landrum 54:15
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 54:15
It’s just part of it. I’m great, do it. I like singing also Somewhere Beyond the Sea from Finding Nemo.

Ariel Landrum 54:22
Aww.

Stefanie Bautista 54:23
It is actually an old song from the 50’s by Bobby Darin. And I think I want to say Michael Buble a covered it for Finding Nemo. I could be wrong, but I think it is him. He would be the only person who could cover that song for Finding Nemo.

Ariel Landrum 54:38
Not a lot of people can croon.

Stefanie Bautista 54:39
Yeah, because it is a crooner song. It’s fun to sing with a lot of friends too. And my last one Love is an Open Door because it’s so comical and the part where she says, “Sandwiches.”

Ariel Landrum 54:53
“Sandwiches!”

Stefanie Bautista 54:53
“We finish each other’s sandwiches,” is like so fun to sing and I love singing that with my husband. But yeah, I know there’s more. But that’s just like the short list of fun songs to sing not just for, like with yourself but with friends. Because I think, I mean, as much as I love to sing, like singing with friends is so much better. And..

Ariel Landrum 55:14
Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 55:14
Disney allows you to be able to do that, because everybody’s heard the songs before. It’s not like you’re finding like an obscure song that like is only played on like one playlist that you have on your Spotify. Everybody’s heard the song. So yeah.

Ariel Landrum 55:28
So as we started, we will end do not believe that meme. There is Disney karaoke that exists.

Stefanie Bautista 55:35
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 55:36
And even so much so as the way Stef described that you can just do it at home.

Stefanie Bautista 55:41
Yes. And if you have your favorite playlist Disney playlist to share with us, be sure to tweet us @happiestpodGT, and comment in our comment sections on Instagram or DM us. And maybe we can compile one master list of…

Ariel Landrum 55:56
Yes!

Stefanie Bautista 55:56
Disney karaoke songs on Spotify that we can share with you. Because we know that the Disney music catalog is just as big as its film catalog.

Ariel Landrum 56:05
Mm-hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 56:06
And I know we’ve mentioned instrumental songs before but if you guys have a favorite song to sing, or hum, I know we didn’t even like touch Marvel music.

Ariel Landrum 56:16
Nope we didn’t touch broadway.

Stefanie Bautista 56:18
We didn’t touch Broadway. And that’s a whole nother genre. I mean, even just like off the top of my head, singing All The Stars by SZA and Kendrick Lamar from Black Panther; one of my favorite songs ever…

Ariel Landrum 56:30
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 56:30
Ever, ever. And, and it’s from Black Panther. So…

Ariel Landrum 56:33
Yeah. I mean, even like I we didn’t even talk about all of the High School Musicals

Stefanie Bautista 56:39
No.

Ariel Landrum 56:41
Which is literally singing.

Stefanie Bautista 56:43
literally singing and literally whenever you sing the song that Troy sings when he’s on that golf course. It’s a meme in itself. And you have to be Troy in order to sing that song. But it makes for fun drunk times, for sure. And even if you’re not drunk, I’m sure you can find a drunk friend to entertain you.

Ariel Landrum 57:06
Or if you’re allergic like me, you can be the person drinking ginger beer and the one who drives everyone home safe.

Stefanie Bautista 57:14
Or the great thing about sometimes doing karaoke in places that have public transportation is that you can just all be either drunk from food or a drunk from alcohol and not even worry about that. But I think that’s for another time. I know I missed I missed karaoke days, for sure. I mean, I mean, just to wrap it up, I have not been to karaoke since. But I know friends who have and I think as long as you kind of do it within the parameters of safety and have that agreement with your friends. It’s the best way to do it. Even doing it at home, you are letting people into your own home too. So that’s another level of safety to consider. But hopefully we will get back to going to K-Boxes and celebrating with our friends at the karaoke place. And yeah, if you have any other tips for karaoke singing, let us know.

Ariel Landrum 58:06
Yeah. Thank you for joining us everyone.

Stefanie Bautista 58:08
Bye!

Ariel Landrum 58:09
Bye!

• The Little Mermaid
• Coco
• Aladdin
• The Lion King
• Hercules
• The Jungle Book
• Mulan
• Enchanted
• The Tiki Room
• MOana
• Peabo Bryson
• Celine Dion
• SZA
• Kendrick Lamar
• Finding Nemo
• Frozen
• James Corden
• Carpool Karaoke
• Cobra Kai
• Karate Kid

• Singing
• Vulnerability
• Community connection
• Familial bonding
• Karaoke
• Noreabang
• GoNoodle
• Buy Nothing Project
• Distress tolerance
• Reward system

Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to the happiest pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
And I’m Stef, and we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that. Ariel here is a licensed therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Ariel Landrum 0:24
And the lovely Stef is an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help her students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Stefanie Bautista 0:32
And here at Happiest Pod. It’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why do we do that? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. And so today, what Disney the media or experience are we dissecting and sharing on this episode?

Ariel Landrum 0:49
I think this is one that you are highly familiar with as an educator.

Stefanie Bautista 0:53
Yep. Yes, it totally is. And I’m really, really excited to talk about this. And we are talking today about recess.

Ariel Landrum 1:03
Recess!

Stefanie Bautista 1:05
And I’m sure all of you are like listening to that theme song from Recess in your head, because I loved it so much. I wish we could have it here on the podcast, but we probably need to license that. And there’s the gardener in my house. Low and behold gardeners are not part of recess, but we’re going to be talking about Recess the show, and also recess as it plays into how it works in our kids lives, lives of kids who we know if you don’t have any, and also the impact that it has in our lives growing up.

Ariel Landrum 1:39
Absolutely. So recently, I got to respond to some research in an article that talked about the importance of recess for students and their mental wellness. And some of the things that they identified was that recess offers an opportunity to support just the healthy development of children. So that they became come well, whole humans and entire experience of themselves. And that the biggest factor was quality recess; factors such as a safe play environment, sufficient play equipment, and even supportive adult engagement, along with student autonomy and minimal disruptive conflict. Would you agree with some of these findings?

Stefanie Bautista 2:24
Absolutely. I think recess as it has evolved over time, I know that us playing recess in the early 90’s looked a lot different than how recess is conducted today while I’m working at a school. But I remember recess being the time that you are your whole self. In the classroom, you’re in front of an adult, there’s expectations, academic expectations, mannerisms, that you kind of get used to as you’re going into school. But when you’re on the yard, you are really who you are outside, just without your family. And this is where interactions with your peers, interactions with different ages of kids, interactions with other adults who aren’t your teacher, those connections and those opportunities only happen on the recess play yard. And that’s why I think A. I love the show Recess, because it was such a fun way to describe that, obviously in a way more fantastical setting. I did not have a king Bob at my recess yard. But the sixth graders were hecka scary.

Ariel Landrum 3:24
They were.

Stefanie Bautista 3:24
Like I did not want to interact with them at all. But absolutely, recess is so integral in, you know, a child’s development socially. And I think this past year, having not had recess really had an impact. But I know we’ll talk a little bit about that later. I know for my school in particular, we do more of a structured recess where we have TAs leading different games, only because we do have limited space on my campus. But at the same time we realize that kids loved structured play. Recess doesn’t have to be a free for all, maybe in kindergarten, as we saw that there, you know, little unruly human beings in the beginning, not really knowing how to socialize yet. But definitely, as you see in the older upper grades, third, fourth and fifth grades, they’re longing for that structure, and they want to use those structured structures to learn more about play and evolve the way they play.

Ariel Landrum 4:18
Absolutely, absolutely. And research that was published in the Journal of School Health, titled Recess Quality and Social and Behavioral Health in Elementary School Students. And the article that featured my comments was in VerywellMind.com, and the title of the article is Quality Recess Gives a Boost to Children’s Mental Health Study Says. I’ll be sure to link both in the show notes. I agreed with some of the findings in regards to and and again, I think this might be something that you can talk to you because I believe this is maybe similar to your educational environment. But something new that when I came out here had not experienced; in the show Recess, they have a fixed building. And they have a fixed play yard. And there are a lot of schools here that the buildings are not fixed they’re not permanent fixtures.

Stefanie Bautista 5:11
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 5:11
Play yard is just asphalt there aren’t there is an equipment, there isn’t toys, there’s maybe just a chain Link fence that separates them from just the street. And it that disparity and access to just play is really disruptive to just the the mental wellness of youth and causes disengagement from adults. Though they’re finding that I definitely agreed with was when the anyone supervising the yard actually wanted to play with the youth and was very attentive, versus, you know, now, maybe on their phone when they shouldn’t be or talking to the other adults and not really paying attention, that that attentiveness created positive memories for for youth in regards to engaging with adults. That play is something important; its the way that they communicate and that it was a thing that was encouraged.

Stefanie Bautista 6:01
Absolutely, I think that there’s two really important things that you touched upon. The first part is that growing up here in the San Fernando Valley, and also other parts in LA, you have really old schools, and then you have schools within schools. That’s something that’s common here. Because we do have things like charter schools, private schools, and depending on which school you attend, sometimes they have a play apparatus. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, because they’re located on a school, there’s an apparatus there, but they can’t necessarily play with it. So you have to kind of be creative. And depending on the resources of your school, you can, you know, do structured play, like I mentioned before at my school, but other times I remember being probably in middle school where you don’t really see like a play apparatus, it was more so like you were participating participating in organized sport like soccer, or you know, basketball. And otherwise, you were just hanging out on the yard. And that’s where you see, like you mentioned ‘The Yard Ladies,’ which is like our favorite ‘Yard Lady’ on Recess being her grumpy self. And I remember that was so much more prevalent in public schools. We always called them the ‘LAUSD Yard Ladies,’ they were always frowning. They were super upset everything, they just wanted to, you know, share the gossip with their, you know, your their coworkers and they weren’t really paying attention. And when you went to them, ask them for help or something, they were just like, whatever, figure it out on your own. And that was definitely something that I experienced in public school, as opposed to now working for a charter school. And also knowing other kids, other friends of mine who went to private school, those yard ladies actually played with them on the yard, they were leading games, they were helping do arts and crafts on the side, they had those materials. And unfortunately, that’s just the reality of funding when it comes to public, private, and charter schools in the United States across you know, from coast to coast. But it really does affect the way that kids view play. And it’s no surprise that by the time High School rolls around, they don’t want to play outside anymore.

Ariel Landrum 8:06
Aboslutely.

Stefanie Bautista 8:07
Because they never really had those, like positive opportunities when they were younger.

Ariel Landrum 8:11
And you definitely talked about school funding, right? And one of the I think in the very first episode of the series, we see The Swinger; not not to be taken as a related to Austin Powers. The Swinger is a little girl dressed very much like Amelia Earhart…

Stefanie Bautista 8:29
Amelia Earhart yup.

Ariel Landrum 8:29
On a swing, who is wanting to soar to new heights, and getting essentially injured. And one of the characters says, “Oh, we’ll have to talk to her when she comes back to the school from the school nurse.” And I do know that a lot of American schools’, maybe the school nurse shows up two days, maybe there’s no one at all.

Stefanie Bautista 8:45
We don’t have one at all. And you know what, I was just watching that episode again. And now that I’ve been educated, I haven’t seen it since I was, you know, way younger. And I was like, “Wow, we would just give them an ice pack. But who knows where she flew to. She could have flown in a bush, she could have flown out a bunch of kids. She got a foam flat face on the asphalt. We don’t know that. But we could only give her an ice pack.” And, you know, that goes into the limitations of what you can do as a staff member. That’s a whole nother list of do’s and don’ts. What because we’re not medical professionals. We study education, not you know, minor, or at least, you know, a little bit more than first aid on the yard. But you know, like, I think the nature of play is getting hurt. And it’s just a part of it. But unfortunately, because of funding like we mentioned, kids experienced that in different levels. Could be in extremes also.

Ariel Landrum 9:44
I think the other thing in regarding to like funding in schools and disparity. Again, in that sort of first episode we see a discussion in regards to American school cafeteria food, which is not good.

Stefanie Bautista 9:59
Nope.

Ariel Landrum 10:00
And a joke about the good food being hidden and locked up and essentially for the adults. And sure, I can remember a couple of things that I enjoyed eating. But I mean, I’ve seen artwork of cafeteria food in schools around the world, right?

Stefanie Bautista 10:17
And it makes you feel so sad to be in America.

Ariel Landrum 10:19
So sad to the things that we feed our students. And these are disparities that are still happening today. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 10:26
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 10:26
And so the fact that there was kind of a nod to that in this show that was created in the 90’s…

Stefanie Bautista 10:31
In the 90’s, and you know what I think so our at our school for a little insight we, we don’t serve the same LAUSD food, even though we’re technically you know, under the LAUSD umbrella, so we’re not exactly serving like that coffee cake, and you know, those like weird calzones that tastes like rubber and feel like rubber. However, because I was so scarred from those things. The coffee cake was good, but the calzones I don’t know. Chalupas I guess I was trying to say. But it took me all the way up until this year to actually say, “You know what, I’m okay with eating a school lunch, because there’s extras I don’t want it to waste.” And that’s me thinking as an adult, however, “It’s not so bad.” But I think it’s because we have like a private vendor that we go to.

Ariel Landrum 11:17
Oh okay.

Stefanie Bautista 11:18
You know, that was it’s way different. Like it has vegetables it has, you know, like chicken nuggets that actually look like chicken. But I it took me you know, how many decades to be okay with even like thinking about touching that food. And consuming it just because we have, you know, these images especially perpetuated in media. Like shows like Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide on Nickelodeon, and, you know….

Ariel Landrum 11:43
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 11:43
Other school shows that it’s just basically slop. And it’s very reminiscent of the way prison cafeterias are. So many parallels there. And also…

Ariel Landrum 11:53
Yes

Stefanie Bautista 11:54
And mentioning that first episode, where essentially, TJ is kind of shamed for wanting to go inside ‘The Good Food Refrigerator,’ that like platform that they’re on totally looks like a jail type of platform.

Ariel Landrum 12:09
Yeah. Like this bars above in the cafeteria, where the adults can essentially literally look down at the youth. Yeah, definitely looked institutionalized.

Stefanie Bautista 12:22
Absolutely. Um, but yeah, I mean, like, the school lunches, and I must say, yes, there is always a fridge in the school that has the better food.

Ariel Landrum 12:31
This is true? Not urban legend.

Stefanie Bautista 12:33
But, but they’re brought by teachers, so you probably couldn’t eat it anyway. And even sometimes, the teachers don’t want to put their food in there ’cause they don’t want it touching other teachers food. And I’ve yes, I’ve had somebody eat my lunch and not tell me.

Ariel Landrum 12:43
Disrespect. Disrespect.

Stefanie Bautista 12:51
Super rude. But I anyway.

Ariel Landrum 12:55
So some of the other findings was that when children had quality recess, and so again, they used the factors of safe play, adult engagement, sufficient play equipment, student autonomy, and minimal disruptive conflict; when they had those criterias met, the students always returned to class with a better ability to have executive functioning, better emotional self control, and adaptive classroom abilities. Which all of these things were impacted if they didn’t have recess or if they did. And these things were vastly improved if they did have recess, and it was quality recess. And I think…

Stefanie Bautista 13:36
Absolutely.

Ariel Landrum 13:37
That when we go back to the show, we kind of see this, right?

Stefanie Bautista 13:41
Yeah, definitely. I think the kids first and foremost long for recess in the second part of that first episode, they change the clock so that the recess bell rings earlier than normal. And it’s a real thing, because you know what, wiggle brakes, just that outside, just getting up and moving. That is such an important thing to staying focused. I mean, even as adults, we need to get up at least once an hour, if you’re sitting at a desk, just so that you can get your mind right, like take a break from the screen. Even if you’re writing something you just got to take like that mental break, get your body moving, because your body isn’t going to, you know, the blood isn’t gonna go to your brain if your blood isn’t, you know, moving because you’re not using your limbs, you know?

Ariel Landrum 14:21
Yeah yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 14:21
And I, we incorporate so many wiggle breaks in the younger, in the younger grades for kids to get up and dance a little bit before they sit down and do some really tough math. All the way up until fifth grade. I mean, they’re not called wiggle breaks anymore, but we want to go just so that they don’t feel like little kids. If we want to go outside and you know, play a really quick game of, you know, foursquare or something. We’ll do that. Just because we know that if those kids get antsy in their seats, now you’re all of a sudden trying to play whack a mole. Like, as a teacher. You’re trying to keep one kid down and then you’re trying to keep another down and another kid down, and then you’re trying to keep another kid down. But if you just have them all do that mental break, take a walk, it helps so, so much. And you can essentially get more done out of the day and the week. And the kids feel like they have a well rounded experience not just being locked inside a classroom.

Ariel Landrum 15:18
Yeah, yeah. So getting into the show.

Stefanie Bautista 15:21
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 15:22
It is a 30 minute cartoon format is animated series, made in 1997, I believe. And it’s the format of 2 15 minute segments. So you’re actually watching two episodes in one. And if you go on Disney+, there’s actually more than just the original Recess.

Stefanie Bautista 15:45
Yes spin offs. And a like a movie.

Ariel Landrum 15:46
Yeah. Which I have no idea exists, right?

Stefanie Bautista 15:49
Yeah. Those were made like the early 2000’s, I believe. Right?

Ariel Landrum 15:54
So we’ve got Recess, Recess: School’s Out, Recess: All Grown Down, so this is them as kindergarteners, and Recess: Taking The Fifth grade. So that’s them growing up into the fifth grade.

Stefanie Bautista 16:07
Yeah, you know, what, and Recess to me was so like, I loved it so much, because it was very reminiscent of Rugrats. But they were just a different age, it was 2 15 minute segments, easily digestible. They had a problem, they were going to rally their friends to solve it, they solved the problem, and then we go on to the next day in their lives, or the next recess in their lives. And on top of that, as the show progressed, you see them getting older, but then they also toyed with “What happens if they were younger?” And Rugrats, we would, you know, they had a whole nother spin off of Rugrats All Growed Up where they grown up.

Ariel Landrum 16:40
Yeah. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 16:41
And I love that show, too. It was so successful. And I feel like recess probably took a lot of cues from Rugrats, because it was such a groundbreaking animated feature that, you know, we could grow with these kids and look into Child Development really in a different way. And see things through the eyes of a child, because I think also watching these shows as adults, we then think about, “How did I see things as a child?” And I think so many of us resonate with that, because we see these images, and we see like, the playground essentially is not a big place. But when you were in fourth, third grade, it seemed so huge and vast, like to the point where you had two kids digging on the side trying to get to China.

Ariel Landrum 17:21
Yeah, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 17:22
You know, these these worlds within that playground.

Ariel Landrum 17:27
Yeah, that’s what made the playground so big. And even in the show, the playground is a character itself.

Stefanie Bautista 17:33
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 17:33
It has accepted laws and was lived through like a social hierarchy in regards to the the youth that were engaging with it, and had even its own moments of commentary. And when it comes to the actual core group core characters, and even with all the students, it was that anticipation for recess. I remember antas, like looking at the clock and counting it down for when this, like, I could just bolt out of here and go and just let myself loose on the playground. And when I think of my like moments at recess, I remember that having that autonomy, and I remember there being social rules and norms. And that, really, that my lived experience of socializing was on the playground, it wasn’t in the classroom.

Stefanie Bautista 18:26
No, not at all, especially when you were confined to your own desk. I mean, as you get into the upper grades, you don’t share a desk really anymore with other students. I mean, definitely now you would not share a desk.

Ariel Landrum 18:37
No definitely not now.

Stefanie Bautista 18:38
Not during the current COVID climate. But I mean, you didn’t have circle time anymore. You didn’t have rug time, as you know, an older student. So I mean, all the interactions you had were outside. And then you learned who hung out with who what type of kids hung out in a certain place. What type of kids hung out in the cafeteria? Where did eat? Did they even get school lunch? Did they bring their lunch from home? All of those social hierarchies and, you know, social challenges that kids need to navigate around, start at recess on the playground.

Ariel Landrum 19:08
So in talking about Recess, I know that you and I both watched it again to to get an idea. And I feel like for just to remind ourselves and I feel like for this show, it’s one of Disney’s most well rounded social commentaries.

Stefanie Bautista 19:23
Oh, yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:24
I find that the the social dynamics that they sort of displayed on the playground and the the stereotypes really of different kids. I could think back in my mind to someone that was similar to that. So you mentioned The Diggers digging to China. They had Upside Down Girl. I remember plenty of kids that always hung upside down. They really liked that that kinesthetic feeling of like feeling the world being the other way. Right? If we’re thinking of even just like now with a Black Widow.

Stefanie Bautista 19:55
Oh, yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:55
“Oh we’re both upside down.”

Stefanie Bautista 19:56
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:59
I’m thinking of King Bob totally made sense. He was he was someone of an older great.

Stefanie Bautista 20:05
He was a jock.

Ariel Landrum 20:06
He was a jock. There was the Ashley’s…

Stefanie Bautista 20:11
Oh my gosh…

Ariel Landrum 20:12
They were Valley girls, which you’re from The Valley. Does anybody talk that way?

Stefanie Bautista 20:18
You know, it’s funny because I feel like once the media started perpetuating how we, how they talk, I guess how I I don’t even know if I talk like this. I was hyper aware of how many times I say ‘like’ in a sentence at one point of my life. But like that, I there’s a word for it. It’s like that. The roadie like way of like elongating your syllables very much like how Kim Kardashian talks like, “Oh my god.” Like…

Ariel Landrum 20:48
Yeah very pulled.

Stefanie Bautista 20:50
Definitely know people who did talk like that, who totally bought into you know, “I’m like, Mandy Moore. I’m Britney Spears.” Or because it was the late 90’s you had these icons to look up to and The Valley, there were those girls who, probably richer than me, richer than most people about that hustle, you know, highest rung of the social hierarchy that only hung out together and probably didn’t talk like that. And the Ashley’s totally reminded me of another show, Daria, which had The Fashion Club also 4 girls who talked like they were from The Valley led by Daria’s sister and they were exactly like I was like “Oh the Ashley’s just grew up to be the fashion club. Cool. Cool. Cool.”

Ariel Landrum 21:36
Yeah. Yes. a clicker for wearing skirts. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 21:40
Yeah. Skirts.

Ariel Landrum 21:41
They were very, very Clueless.

Stefanie Bautista 21:42
Yes, very Clueless, very Clueless.

Ariel Landrum 21:46
And then, like, there were in the even in the first episode, we meet The Guru Kid, and I can distinctly remember in my mind, there was one kid that just seemed so like…

Stefanie Bautista 21:55
Zenned out.

Ariel Landrum 21:56
Yeah, like smarter. I was like, on another plane, and we will regularly seek out advice from this kid was a really good mediator. So…

Stefanie Bautista 22:04
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 22:05
But I have that I have that in my memory as like someone that to me, I like immediately when I heard guru kid because they they’re like, “We have a problem we need. We talk to Guru Kid,” it’s like, “Yeah, you do.”

Stefanie Bautista 22:18
Yeah. And it’s so funny how he literally gives the same advice to somebody who wants to make a great higher. And it was the same analogy, but like, so it wasn’t really The Guru Kid that was giving advice. It was just the interpretation of the person asking for advice ends up giving their own advice to themselves.

Ariel Landrum 22:33
Oh, very similar to how it happens in therapy, but thats a different podcasts

Stefanie Bautista 22:37
Interesting. We will definitely have to catch up on that one day. But yeah, I think those different characters that’s what I loved a lot about the show because like you said, you could identify other people but also you could identify yourself as one of the main characters because they were so diverse. And they were so different, but yet they all hung out together and all work together as a team. So Ariel, who did you identify with in the Recess crew?

Ariel Landrum 23:05
Okay, so in the recess crew, there are 1,2,3,4,5,6. There are 6, 6 people in the crew in the gang or posse, I don’t know whatever you want to call them. For the girls, there was Ashley and Gretchen. Ashley was more of a tomboy Gretchen is would be considered the smart kid I guess.

Stefanie Bautista 23:27
You mean Spinelli.

Ariel Landrum 23:28
Yeah, yeah. Ashely Spinelli. I apologize. Spoiler alert.

Stefanie Bautista 23:33
Spoiler alert.

Ariel Landrum 23:34
Her name is Ashley. But they call her Spinelli. My bad.

Stefanie Bautista 23:36
It was like, one of the best reveals I think of a show. I loved that. But anyway, go ahead.

Ariel Landrum 23:45
Yes, Spinelli tomboy. Gretchen smart kid. Then we have Mikey whose sort of like a big teddy bear. We have TJ who’s the leader. And I would say like, plan guy. I don’t know. Yep. We have Gus who’s coming along for the ride. Seems to just kind of absorbing everything. And it is it was the new kid. And then we have Vince who is the the sports guy or jock, right?

Stefanie Bautista 24:14
Yeah. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 24:15
So I think for me, I really gravitated towards Gus.

Stefanie Bautista 24:21
Yeah, I knew you’d say that.

Ariel Landrum 24:24
And the reason why is we get introduced to guest because he’s a new kid, and he’s a military brat. And he says, like, I think he says, “I’ve been to like 12 schools in 6 years,” or something like that. And I remember the distinct difference of going to school off base and on base. And on base, it was a way more healing experience because we all knew we were the new kids. And we all knew that we were going to move. Like it was it was actually easier for me to make friends with kids on base because we we were always trying to develop ourselves and create a unit and we knew that the unit was going to get disrupted. When I went to school off base, it was really those clicks. It was really people who had known each other since diapers. And I was the new kid. I was othered. I, in the episode, they talk about a rule where you can’t talk to the new kid for 48 hours, a new kid doesn’t get a name. And I remember a lot of people having trouble remembering my name. And I was like, “But it’s a Disney Princess, like, how do you not know who Ariel is?” And that like being not having anybody to sit with not having anybody to talk to you. And remembering the few times where someone reached out and someone talked to me and someone tried to be a friend. I know, it took, I would say months before I actually had a friend group and some of my off base schools versus going to school on base. And I knew that experience of like, consistently being uprooted. The other thing was the the trope of his military dad, introducing him is like a cadet. And like if you go to their house, he’s got barbed wire and a Humvee like that, that stereotype that is exactly what the off base off base kids thought my life was like. And thought my dad was like, and if any of you, and I know Stef has met my dad, he is far from trope.

Stefanie Bautista 26:20
No he’s more of like of The Guru kid.

Ariel Landrum 26:22
Definitely more like The Guru Kid. So yeah, I really resonated with with Gus and how much he just like he cried. So that to me was also important because we see a male figure crying, and being open about his emotions. And he cried, saying, “No one’s been so nice to me. Thank you guys.” And I remember that. So yeah, I’m wondering who you identify with?

Stefanie Bautista 26:46
Oh, my gosh, well, I love that Gus gave you a little bit of visibility in a cartoon. And I think that’s so important, especially for you know, all of our kiddos who are military brats, they are so special and you know, they go through just as much as their, you know, their parents do. And you guys do deserve that visibility, because it’s a real lived experience that a lot of people have. But for me, so I know straight out, I probably identified with Spinelli, Ashley Spinelli.

Ariel Landrum 27:14
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 27:14
Just because that’s how I look like when I was in elementary school, I was…

Ariel Landrum 27:18
No no no. Not just elementary school. I’ve seen that exact outfit on Stef with the combat boots…

Stefanie Bautista 27:24
Regularly.

Ariel Landrum 27:24
And the leather jacket and a dress and some sort of beanie and or hat, or coverage.

Stefanie Bautista 27:29
Literally throughout my life.

Ariel Landrum 27:31
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 27:31
Yes, I lived Spinelli’s outfit. I should have royalties for that. However, I actually identified a lot with each and every character because each and every character was a bit of me. So if we’re going down the list, I was Spinelli because I dressed like her. And sometimes I just didn’t care about stuff. And I was just like, “You know, whatever. I’m grumpy.” I was Gretchen a little bit because I really loved science. And I really loved figuring out things and that was one of my favorite subjects in school. I was a little bit of Mikey because I was like the mediator and also I was not the skinniest girl. I was very like, I guess athletic, you could say in my body type. So I didn’t really I didn’t wear like tank tops or anything like that during school just because I was so self conscious about my body, not being super super skinny as a girl. And leading into that I was a little bit of Vince because I really loved sports. I did dress like a tomboy.

Ariel Landrum 28:28
You do love sports.

Stefanie Bautista 28:30
I love sports so much. And then I think I identified the least with TJ just because he was just the troublemaker.

Ariel Landrum 28:37
Yeah scheming.

Stefanie Bautista 28:39
Without without Vince he was literally Zack Morris just causing just wrecking havoc on everything and…

Ariel Landrum 28:45
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 28:45
You know, Vince was like his, his his foil I guess you could say and…

Ariel Landrum 28:50
Moral compass like a Jiminy Cricket.

Stefanie Bautista 28:51
Moral compass, for sure for sure.

Ariel Landrum 28:53
Now, you could say that Vince is a essentially a stereotype and that he is a Black athlete. And that was a common stereotype especially in the 90’s. But then you miss a really some important part of regarding his depth of character. And that he was kind and calm. And then he had a lot of integrity and he was the reason that the group was grounded. So it makes sense that he was TJ’s is Jiminy Cricket. His conscience. I also want to just mark that one of my favorite episodes is where he is essentially teaching Spinelli what to do in regards to an upcoming beauty pageant. He spent all night watching some pageant videos and he learned how to sashay, how to walk and step. And I would say that was very forward representation of a Black male walking in heels and modeling with no embarrassment in regards to what he was doing. He just knew that this is a competition and this is how you win the competition. I’m going to dive in it headfirst and fully engage. Essentially, what could have been made fun of for walking around these heels, so shout outs Vince.

Stefanie Bautista 30:07
Gus I identified with not because I was a military brat I didn’t, you know, I was not introduced into being a military family till I was older. But I moved schools a lot in LA. So in elementary school, I think I attended 5 different elementary schools. So I was also the new kid, but in a different way. Like I was a local but also I wasn’t a local because I never had a peer group that I knew from diapers like you Ariel.

Ariel Landrum 30:34
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:34
And so I always had to find my way into these specific bs actual circles very much like Recess where it was just an amalgam of different people who were outcasts in their own I guess social ways coming together and just hanging out together. I remember my group of friends in late elementary just being you know, kids who back then guys, anime was not cool. You were lame for loving anime and, and cartoons, so I hung out with like five other kids, and none of us looked like we would ever be friends. But we all like the enemies. So we ended up hanging out together. But I think that was also the beauty of recess is that you… Just because you’re a jock, you didn’t have to hang out with just jocks. Just because you were a nerd didn’t have to hang out with just nerds. If you were, you know, Mikey, you didn’t just have to hang out with other kids who looked like you. You could be friends with different people. And it was okay. And you did great things together.

Ariel Landrum 31:30
And I think that you’re you’re also noting the difference between us following the narrative of like one character and sort of like our Disney media and a core group. Because you’re saying, like, “I identify with components of each and that’s okay.” And sometimes it’s one of the things that turns us off in regards to media is, “I just don’t like this main character. I could not be them. I can’t, I can’t find I can’t find relatability.” And in this case, you had options. And you could switch in episodes like, “I totally agree with Gretchen in this moment, or I totally agree with Mikey in this moment.” And that you that narrative change allows you to again, see more of a holistic kid, because there was definitely in this group, moments of infighting because of disagreements. And I think the really, again, beautiful thing about this group is that they were so diverse. What we did see was literally clicks on in the Recess playground. People only playing with people that were of similar interests. And this group accepted each other just because they were fun to hang out with. And then that was it. They didn’t have to have completely similar or same interests. And then they never seem to poke or make fun of each other for having differences. It was just we were automatically introduced to Gretchen being smart. And she was saying things that were smart, and no one questioned it. No one made fun of it. And no one tried to have her like, explain in a different way. If they said they were confused, she would and it was never seen as her talking down on them. And it was never seen as them telling her she was a dweeb, right?

Stefanie Bautista 33:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 33:07
It was like there was just like, “Oh, she just likes to be smart. And we like her. So let’s like learn a thing or two.”

Stefanie Bautista 33:12
Exactly, exactly. And, you know, like, seeing them as a group. It was it was so nice that I don’t know if you remember this, were they all in the same class? Were they all in Miss Grotke’s class?

Ariel Landrum 33:25
They were shout out to the best teacher.

Stefanie Bautista 33:28
Best teacher.

Ariel Landrum 33:29
More woke than I even I am today.

Stefanie Bautista 33:32
More woke in the 90’s, too. And I remember I think I had tried on a pair of like Harry Potter style glasses, and I had just cut my hair really short. And my husband was like, “You look like Miss Grotke.”

Ariel Landrum 33:43
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 33:45
And I was like, “Oh my gosh.” But then I was like, “That’s not like, that’s a compliment. She was the coolest teacher.” I wish. I wish that I had, you know, like a ‘woke teacher’ like that when I was growing up. Now I know teachers that are woke just like her, but I can’t be their students anymore. They’re my counterparts. But she was so compassionate and so loving. And I think with the chaos of the playground, it was such a nice way for them to come back and be grounded. Whenever they did come back in the class, even though they still wanted to be outside. They appreciated her and she always had their back.

Ariel Landrum 34:16
Yeah, and I remember having really good teachers, formative teachers and I remember teachers that did not like their job. Did not want to be there did not want to engage with kids like a like our Yard Ladies. And I feel like Miss Grotke was she was the maybe like the epitome of like what a teacher should be or how I imagined or hoped that they would be if I had kids that were being taught.

Yeah. Let’s I you know, it’s funny because when as we’re talking about adults in the school setting that you know, had their had their roles to play in our lives. Like you know, Miss Grotkewas the ideal teacher. What is the name of The Yard Lady? I literally just saw it like a couple minutes ago. What is her name Ariel?

Oh, her name is Miss Finster.

Stefanie Bautista 35:04
Miss Fist… Yeah, Miss Finster. Miss Finster was the grumpiest oldest lady that you could ever have on a yard. But for some reason, she was like built like a linebacker, and she could chase a kid down.

Ariel Landrum 35:15
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 35:17
there, lunch lady was just as miserable. Their principal was just as you know, they always paint the principal is so oblivious to what’s going on. And just always concerned about like, the administration of everything and not the actual happiness of the kids.

Ariel Landrum 35:33
Is that a trope? Or is that real from your knowledge as an educator.

Stefanie Bautista 35:37
Not in my school, however, more traditional schools that I have worked that there is definitely a gap between up and coming teachers who are my age who have just graduated, and also the tenured teachers who have been there when through you know, multiple generations of students.

Ariel Landrum 35:55
So bright eyed and bushy tailed or seen shit.

Stefanie Bautista 35:58
Seen some shit and you have the ones in the middle who have seen some shit but are still, you know, trying to bridge the gap between like the non technological and technological I think that’s the best way that I can describe it. And sometimes the principles just don’t follow that. Thankfully, for me, I have a boss that is way in tune with like a lot of things that are going on and she’s great. But I remembered student teaching on like other sites and the principal just kind of being aloof, or just being that figurehead and not much more else. And I want to know if you think this but I always thought that Randall Miss…

Ariel Landrum 36:38
Miss Finster.

Stefanie Bautista 36:38
Er, yeah, her her little pet. Miss Finster’s pet? Yeah, I always knew Randall. And I was like, “This kid always screwing up everything.” And the she treats him like a little dog because she gives him a treat like a puppy.

Ariel Landrum 36:53
Yeah she throw a cookie at him.

Stefanie Bautista 36:54
Yeah she throw a cookie at him. And I was like, oh, it was always just like, weaselly looking kid that just like, never really fit in anywhere. But I guess found safety and being next to an adult.

Yeah, I feel like the one of the things that this show does well is it gives you a way to simplify social challenges in regards to having characters identified in your mind on how to tackle these social challenges. So it’s like you think of Randall, he thrives at being used as a pawn to carry another person’s favor in order to maintain really social hierarchy, relevance, importance. He’s like a literally aligning himself with power. And if you look at that, you can look at it in a strength based way. And that is probably a kid who survives as a kid who can align himself with power.

Ariel Landrum 37:46
And if it means not having friends that are your age, and just align yourself with adults, then so be it.

I think like even in some of the other sort of character tropes, you can see like, are you struggling with someone who kind of, in your mind seems to match that of a sixth grader. They just want to maintain dominance, they just want to maintain control. And that’s their motivation. That’s the reason you’re having a social impasse with them is because somehow in this moment, they feel like you’ve removed control and you have asserted your own dominance, and they don’t know how to respond except to push back and be aggressive. And then even mentioning like The Swinger Girl, are you working with someone who has such daring desire and drive that they are doing so much, despite potential danger. That they don’t even see the risk or the potential harm that they’ve put themselves in? I feel like in watching the show, it gives you these snippets of the simple characterization that you can then use to tackle complex social engagements.

Stefanie Bautista 38:52
Yeah, definitely. And also the performativeness of Swinger Girl. Maybe she was doing it to be popular because you know what she maybe she just ended I want to know, the backstory of Swinger Girl now. Because you know, it’s wishing doing it for attention, like, did she not have anybody to go to and that’s why she was like, “You know what swinging is going to be my thing.” Just like Upside Down Girl, that’s going to be my thing. The 2 Diggers I’m pretty sure they’re brothers. Right? So they’re twins, I believe.

Ariel Landrum 39:19
I think they are. Someone correct us if we’re wrong, we haven’t actually like fully rewatched all of the episodes.

Stefanie Bautista 39:27
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 39:27
I was very young when I seented them. So my memory is but wasted.

Stefanie Bautista 39:32
Yes. Same here. But yeah, they I mean, they look exactly the same. They’re both digging and they argue like they’re siblings. So I’m assuming that they are siblings, and you know, maybe they just didn’t have anywhere else that they could fit into. So they were just like, “You know, we’re just gonna dig our way out of this.” And for some reason, no staff member decided, “Hey, there’s a hole in the ground. Next to a fence.

Ariel Landrum 39:55
This isn’t safe.

Stefanie Bautista 39:56
This is safe.

Ariel Landrum 39:58
Why do these kids have shovels in the first place?

Stefanie Bautista 40:00
Who gave them tools? Also, I mean, blathering safe. They have a hardhat. But, I mean, why are they in this hole? This is this is not okay, guys. Another one of my…

Very primitive ways of doing it. Not like an actual, like construction site with a sign that they made that says “China or Bust.” That was well thought out.

Ariel Landrum 40:21
Well thought out.

Again, it’s elementary, right? So I do remember in elementary school kids just randomly digging holes. Like that was that was like with objects with sticks, just like making digging sound effect

Stefanie Bautista 40:23
Very primiative ways of doing it. Not like an actual like construction site with a sign that they made that says, ‘China or Bust.’ That was well thought out. And without any notice, for whatever reason. But yeah, I mean, it’s so funny that you, you mentioned, just the ways that we perceive things now, as opposed to the way we perceive them before as kids. And I think that’s the fun part about looking back on shows like this, like Recess, especially one that kind of stands the test of time. And I think that there’s a there’s many things that we already said that, you know, hasn’t stand the test of time, because this is really how kids navigate their way socially in the world, right? But there are some things that don’t test, you know, stand the test of time, right? I think watching it, I was just like, “I don’t know about this.”

Ariel Landrum 41:13
So for me, that was the kindergarteners was that for you? So the kindergartners are, they’re described as being sort of wild and unpredictable, but they’re shown using really what’s called like an Indigenous Savage trope. So the this trope is in media, it’s used to show how Indigenous people are beneath Western white society by showing us that we need to fear them, that we need to fight them, and essentially convert them to our ways. And we see this by the kindergarteners having tribes having painted faces, having…

Stefanie Bautista 41:54
Feathers.

Ariel Landrum 41:55
Feathers…

Stefanie Bautista 41:56
Face paint.

Ariel Landrum 41:57
Face paint. Having rituals that involve tying kids up, and like saying they’re going to eat kids, like all of this is to portray that they’re primitive. And even Gretchen says in the first episode that these ‘primitive grades’ really saying like lower grades, and when when they go to visit, they say like, “We are from Big Kid land.” And “Here is shiny tinfoil we give you a few help us.” Like really just feeding into that trope. Now looking. I know, I know, seeing it as a kid when I was watching, I didn’t get that. I was not woke. I was not a woke ass kid. I was dead asleep. I did. I saw that as like, “Yeah, kindergarteners, like they don’t have… Their lawless. Like they just want to see the world burn.” But I didn’t see that they were portraying it using this trope. Now that I do see that, I know that that could easily be removed, and it would still be a good show. And I do know there’s an episode where TJ like goes and visits the kindergarteners and has a whole day there and enjoys a nap time. And so essentially realizes that they are not lawless, and they do have their own social norms and that they’re different. So maybe that was a little undoing of that.

Stefanie Bautista 43:08
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 43:08
But I would say that anybody who wants to pick this show up now that hasn’t seen it from childhood; that doesn’t have like maybe some nostalgia connection, those are going to be those, like points of disruption for you.

Stefanie Bautista 43:21
Yeah, I agree. Definitely the kindergarteners and working with kindergarteners, yes, there is an amount of lawlessness to them. They do like to bite each other. They do spit on each other. They are just learning and because they’re babies still like a lot, especially these ones coming from preschool. They’re coming from like daycare and they don’t have… They don’t know how to stand in a line. They don’t know how to hold their crayons correctly. They don’t know how to sit in a chair. So yes, there is a element of them not knowing but the way that they portrayed them as savages not knowing was you know, kind of probably the wrong direction. And like we said, it’s the 90’s it was a different time, we had different ways of perceiving other other norms, I guess you could say in other lands. However, I think now if you were to look at it, you would really have to look at it from a developmental standpoint, saying, you know, like, take away the, you know, feathers, we use feathers in arts and crafts, we use, you know, paint in arts and crafts, like kids are going to be messy. They literally look like that all the time. If you’re looking at it from an arts and crafts standpoint, and not an Indigenous people standpoint. You could always make that argument that you know, when TJ did go over there and was just like, “Oh my gosh, I love kindergarten like they got to take a nap. They get to do fun stuff like everyday seems like recess.” But also you know what, someone might bite you and like that’s okay, it’s normal.

Ariel Landrum 44:50
It’s normal.

Stefanie Bautista 44:51
It’s super normal. I think when I first was a teacher in kindergarten I literally thought of Recess. And I’m like, it’s scary, because you don’t know what these kids are gonna do. It is like being in a foreign country because you can’t really speak their language you, they don’t understand you. You have to learn the lingo of “Let’s all come together. Let’s clap, clap clap to pay attention.” Or, “If you can hear me match me. If you can hear me match me. Let’s shh.” And like you get this whole nother vocabulary and whole nother like way of talking to them. And sometimes when you don’t talk to an adult after being in kindergarten, for so long, you forget to form sentences. It is like being a foreigner in their land until you get used to being around them. So there are parallels to that. But I think as we are moving away from looking at Indigenous people, as people who are just never gonna get it, we can definitely form this in a way where it’s more true to child development, and not so much looking at foreigners in that way. Another thing that really, that I noticed watching it again, was the fact that a lot of the grades didn’t really interact with each other. The grade levels always stayed with their grade level. Like, if you’re in elementary school, now you have opportunities to talk to fifth graders, you have opportunities to talk to fourth graders as a first grader. And we actually encourage those connections, because then you can see where you want to be in the next couple years, like “Do you want to, you know, maybe you can identify with this person.” Like, or say, “You know, what, being a sixth grader is not so scary.” I think…

Ariel Landrum 46:34
Like do you guys assign like peer mentors or?

Stefanie Bautista 46:37
Yeah, we’re very much. And we also have a lot of fifth graders sometimes go into the younger classes, be a mystery reader, and say, “Oh, we’re going to actually hear from a fifth grader.” And they get to ask them questions like, “How does it feel to be in fifth grade?” Like, “How does it feel to be going into middle school soon.” Like, “Are you scared?” And you really get to establish those connections, and then now the younger kids have a wider, a wider vision of who they can be in the next couple years, as opposed to them just sticking with their grade. And because by the end of the year, you want them to grow.

Ariel Landrum 47:08
And removing some of that fear, right? Because there was definitely a lot of fear of the the older grades, because there was uncertainty, it seemed that they, they because they were bigger, they were stronger, they can bully you they can push you around. And that sounds more developmentally appropriate and that you are encouraging children to engage with diverse people. Including age as diversity.

Stefanie Bautista 47:33
Absolutely. And I think that’s the beauty of having different grades intermingle with each other is that you get those different levels of understanding that a teacher just can’t give them. They see each other as peers and not necessarily as enemies you don’t pit them against each other because I feel like that’s how it felt like being in elementary school. The the the scariness, the fear, it’s just it’s gone, essentially. And you don’t get those opportunities until you go to like a summer camp, or if you go to any extracurricular activities, so why not use the recess yard as one of those places?

Ariel Landrum 48:11
Absolutely. And I would say something else that was, again, just problematic, still very heteronormative. Again, it was the 90’s. There was a episode that involves kissing. First of all, TJ and Spinelli were like, forced to kiss each other out of peer pressure. And it was guise to science. And I think that sort of cohesion. And now I will say that, that on the playground, I remember levels of affection being performative. Like everybody gawking and watching.

Stefanie Bautista 48:46
So awkward.

Ariel Landrum 48:47
This case, it was we were accepting that they were doing this because because their peers are pressuring them. I think that that already is problematic. And then the reason that it all started was because a another youth was telling them that their future was girls were gonna like kissing boys and boys were gonna like kissing girls. So that just just that narrative, very heteronormative and then really wanting to explore if that was true, and what would happen, and “No, we’ll never kiss you.” I think that again, that’s another probably narrative that that doesn’t need to stay could be thrown out. I think talking about essentially kissing is a form of sex, sexual attraction, finding a way to show these elementary kids really uncovering that in a different, more safer way, I think would have been better social commentary.

Stefanie Bautista 49:40
Absolutely. And I think that knowledge just wasn’t there yet in that day. So I would love to see how people decide to portray that now if, you know they decide to do a remake or if they decide to do a show, similar to Recess. I think will be impactful to kids nowadays.

Ariel Landrum 49:57
Or even what these new episodes are like, right?

Stefanie Bautista 50:00
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 50:01
Because I think they were made in the 2000’s.

Stefanie Bautista 50:04
Mm hmm. Yeah. Maybe it’ll be interesting for us to revisit this topic again after you know, a Recess Part 2, or instead of just recess, it’s lunch recess now, which is always Recess Part 2. Because, you know, like, you know, we mentioned like we I was only watching the original Recess series. And like, when you look it up on Disney+, I did the same thing where I typed in Recess, and I’m like, “What are all these other things?”

Ariel Landrum 50:29
“What is this?”

Stefanie Bautista 50:29
“What is this? Feeling like an old lady here? What is all this new stuff these newfangled contraptions.” But I’m really interested to see if they did evolve from these tropes and stereotypes, because the knowledge of students and parents now are evolving so fast. And with recent events, were restructuring the way we look at play. The way we look at child development, the way we look at social interactions, not just with how we learned it in the past, but also how we’re teaching our kids how to do it. So yeah, maybe we’ll come back to this.

Ariel Landrum 51:04
I’m curious. What do you think recess is for adults?

Stefanie Bautista 51:09
Oh, recess for adults?

Ariel Landrum 51:12
Yeah. What do you think that looks like?

Stefanie Bautista 51:13
Happy Hour! You know, recess to me, as adults is like when you and I go, “Let’s get coffee.” That’s recess. Yes. Yeah, that’s like us just chillin, getting, you know, some snacks, nice cup of coffee sitting down, forgetting all of the things that we have to do for the day, just reserving that hour. And it doesn’t have to be 15 minutes, y’all. I don’t recess back then was just like 20 minutes of get out and get your body moving. But it can also be going to the gym. It can also be you know, having a picnic. It could also be engaging yourself in maybe some sports or with a league or something. I think that’s also considered recess. What do you think recess is?

Ariel Landrum 51:58
Well, I know if you’re thinking larger organizations and companies they’ve sort of embraced play, right? They, they have playing fields, I know lots of people who are on like a softball team at their job. And and take breaks for to practice or to prep for the next game. I think of when you’re talking about company and employee development, we have like here in the state of California mandated breaks, right?

Stefanie Bautista 52:26
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 52:27
You’re supposed to take every like your 2 15 minute breaks on your lunch. It and I feel like the the part that’s missing is the equipment and quality engagement. Like here’s a break for you. But I know that a lot of people will work. They’re not supposed to you into their lunch hour, they will check their email, they will respond to….

Stefanie Bautista 52:50
Me included. That’s so me.

Ariel Landrum 52:54
Yeah, yup. And so I feel like recess is that respite that we need. But we have to have some sort of equipment. I know. Definitely games, mobile, mobile phone games have become a way to create that, that respite and that release. I just I think that for that intentional break, just like when when you’re at school, like you had that intentional break, there needs to be intention to release to get out of your office, if you can…

Stefanie Bautista 53:24
Take a walk.

Ariel Landrum 53:26
Take a walk, walk your dog, if you’re working from home, you know, anything that you can do to remind yourself of your whole body. To remind yourself of the environment around you. I think that is what recess should be for adults. I definitely think that many of us have forgotten that we need recess that we need to play.

Stefanie Bautista 53:46
Or even translate recess into a vacation. I know sometimes we…

Ariel Landrum 53:50
Bing long recess…

Stefanie Bautista 53:52
A big long recess.

Ariel Landrum 53:53
Snow day.

Stefanie Bautista 53:55
I mean, whether it just be like a drive up the coast, if you live in California or drive, you know, to the park or National Park, if you’re near one or like just taking that day you actually use your weekend not to be productive. But to like we mentioned in self care, just do you is really important, because as you see, I mean, in other countries they have mandated vacations that you get paid for. An integral requirement. I know that you so…

Ariel Landrum 54:21
America do better.

Stefanie Bautista 54:23
We are sucky at that. The worst of. It is the worst. So I mean, as Americans, sometimes you have to equate having your recess as a vacation, and to intentionally be like, “You know what I’m going to unplug. I’m going to unwind. Don’t talk to me.” Put on that out of office message on your email, and really…

Ariel Landrum 54:42
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 54:43
It’s just it’s a little sad to say that we have to work so hard to create these little recesses for ourselves, but the frequently that you do that I feel like the more productive you’ll be. For myself, I totally look forward to planning all my vacations, whether it be like a drive away. I’m going to be driving pretty far in tomorrow. I’m going out to, yeah, I’m going on my reassess to a National Park just to get some air. So definitely those instances of play, of doing things that give you pleasure, are super important to maintain that quality of life and to maintain sanity.

Ariel Landrum 55:24
I’m curious for you, what have you noticed with students when they don’t get recess?

Stefanie Bautista 55:28
Oh, it’s the worst. It’s actually literally so hard to get A. kid focused if they don’t have recess. That’s why we never ever use no recess as a punishment at my school. Just because if you take away that play, you were actually adding work to yourself. You only don’t get a break, but the kid doesn’t get a break. And if you’re going to go through that 8 day, 8 hour day together, you’re kind of setting yourself up for failure. So definitely changing the way that you give consequences. Logical consequences is different. And I’ve seen back then, and other schools that I’ve worked at play being taken away, having them take a break from socializing, it isolates themselves so much more. And now they think you’re the enemy. And now they think that you are taking away their socialization, their play things that they love. And that really breaks that connection that you’re trying to make with your student, whether you’re the TA whether you’re the teacher, whether you’re the administrator, you’re not connecting with them in that way. You are severing the connection, essentially. So it’s something that I feel that all schools should be moving away from. Just because it’s it doesn’t do anyone good.

Ariel Landrum 56:44
Yeah, I think when I see it in adults, right, I get as a therapist, I’m seeing general mental unwellness. I’m seeing actual clinically diagnosed depression and anxiety. But I’m also seeing chronic stress. And people forget that the things that happen when we have chronic stress is we get irritable bowel syndrome, we get GERD, we get acid reflux, because it shuts down your digestive system. You’re not if you’re activating fight, flight or freeze, you’re not supposed to be digesting your food you’re supposed to be running away from like a tiger. In this case, you are feeling that sitting in your office, one on your break when you’re checking your email. Many of the things that I see are, you know thoughts of self harm, inability to engage with people, not wanting to socialize. Forgetting. Lots of memory loss, short term memory loss and inability recall, these are some of the things that we start to notice when we don’t give ourselves a break. And it starts off small we think we can sort of shake off these these sort of frustrations and I think once we we start to ignore them that much. We start to forget to you know, harken back to our previous episode, our self care. And recess is definitely part of lifestyle, it’s part of self care. Shout out to Simone Biles for her ability to recognize that she needed some self care that she needed to to ground herself literally.

Stefanie Bautista 58:17
Definitely. And for her because now that her form of play became her profession.

Ariel Landrum 58:23
Yeah…

Stefanie Bautista 58:24
I’m pretty sure as a young girl and hearing so many stories and learning about her story. Gymnastics is a way for kids to let loose and you know, just be in tune with your body and because she was so good at…

Ariel Landrum 58:35
Your whole body.

Stefanie Bautista 58:36
Your whole body and like push it to its limitations and like go above and beyond what you think is is possible for you know your sport. Now that this is her livelihood. And this is you know what the world sees her as her taking a break from it is actually normal come competitions are so stressful.

Ariel Landrum 58:56
So stressful.

Stefanie Bautista 58:57
I remember being in swim meets just like wanting to throw up in the pool, so that I could be disqualified. And you know, you never, ever really get used to that. And like I think as an athlete, her taking that time to ground herself and and still win two medals is still so impressive. She is still The GOAT. She is still amazing. She’s setting herself as like such a good role model for so many kids in sports, Kids of Color in sports, women in sports, there’s so much burden on her and you know what? Like I say to all these naysayers, you try doing all the things that they do. And do it in front of the whole world on a time difference. Being The GOAT and upholding that at her age.

Ariel Landrum 59:48
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 59:48
She’s a legend. She’s amazing. And I’m glad that you know, she did that for herself the ultimate form of self care and the ultimate recess for her brain.

Ariel Landrum 59:58
Yes. Yes. And harking back to recess and another Woman of Color who is The GOAT Miss Grotke.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:07
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:08
I want to read some of these quotes to end us with?

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:11
Nice.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:12
“I look forward to reading your thoughts on how the male authors of the Constitution helped shape our gender based society.” snaps Okay. “The founding fathers didn’t think twice about excluding an entire gender from their rants. I mean, where were the founding mothers?”

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:29
Where were the founding mothers? I want to know this. She’s asking the questions.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:33
She really is asking the questions. snaps “So the noble Native Americans share their bountiful food supplies with the undeserving European savages.” snaps “And then our hero Beowulf, ripped Grendel’s arm off and beat him with it. A metaphor for man’s cruelty towards endangered species.” Thank you, thank you. snaps Woke. Woke. Woke.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:55
Woke. Woke. Woke. Love Miss Grotke. She is The GOAT of for not only Third Street Elementary, but to all of us, you know, living as students and now adults. I strive to be like her as a teacher. And just you know, her calm presence. I love it.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:14
Yay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:15
Yay. I really like I hope that you all like our talk on Recess. It is, if you are our age, and maybe you are, you know how much this little show really shaped our outlook on being at school, interacting with our peers, maybe even outside of school too. Let us know who your favorite recess character is either on Twitter @happiestpodGT, or on our Instagram when we post about this, to remind you that the episode is out very, very soon. Let us know who your favorite character, whether it be part of the crew or whether it be part of the staff or maybe even just the one off child that was you know, in the background. Because all those kids on the Recess field made Recess, whether or not the remain character. They were all important. And I loved this talk. I really enjoyed it.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:07
Me too. Me too. Thank you everybody for joining us and we will see you next time. Bye everybody.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:12
Buh bye!

• Recess
• Spinelli
• Gretchen
• Mickey
• TJ
• Gus
• Vince
• The Swinger
• The Diggers
• Upside Down Girl
• 90’s Cartoons
• Mrs. Grotke

• Social-Emotional Learning
• Play
• Playground
• American school lunches
• Punishment
• Stereotypes
• Tropes
• School funding
• Developmental
• Excutive funcitoning
• Emotional self-control
• Student autonomy