Episodes

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everybody, welcome to The Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:15
And I’m Stef. And we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that.

Ariel Landrum 0:19
Like I’m a licensed therapist, and I use my clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:26
And 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 0:32
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.

Stefanie Bautista 0:42
And so today Ariel what Disney media or experience are we dissecting and sharing on this episode?

Ariel Landrum 0:49
So we’re gonna take it back a similar to what we’re dissecting we are going to dissect Wandavision

Stefanie Bautista 0:58
Wandavision lately got so many Emmy nominations, did you know that?

Ariel Landrum 1:04
Hey yes. Worth it.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06
Worth it. I don’t know exactly how many maybe we can get that number by the end of the episode. But I think it’s super awesome that these, The Academy or whoever is recognizing the work of Disney, not just Disney, but the work of comic book material, because I’ve always felt that comic books themselves as readable mediums have; their storytelling is so much more advanced than people take them for face value.

Ariel Landrum 1:36
Absolutely. Absolutely. And the appreciation that it’s becoming more than I think, I think we consider comic books and comic mediums very childlike or immature. There, there seems to be a stigma about the culture of people who consume comics and and even Disney media. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 2:02
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 2:03
So I think that now it’s, we’re gaining more recognition, it shows that it’s become very mainstream. It’s becoming a part of the general populace’s palette, but also that were given the way that Wandavision is created in regards to both honoring the comics and old sitcoms. It’s showing that that that projection and growth and evolution in regards to how we consume medium, but also the things that are still classic and timeless, and how that molding together is, I would say worthy of praise and are worthy of an award. But just something that we’ve known all along as as the audience; the consumers.

Stefanie Bautista 2:50
Yeah, absolutely. And I think in the time where I guess not a lot of people are so focused on getting those awards. I know, there’s so much controversy around like Emmys and the Oscars and the Grammys, I just think the recognition from a wider audience not just you know, our geeky audience and people who consume that media, it means a little bit and I think it just shows that the people running these shows are true professionals and the people who are producing the episodes and who are writing these scripts, they’re really taking the time to elevate the storytelling that we’re we’re used to seeing in our previous Marvel movies. So I do have the statistics, Wandavision earned 23 nominations, including outstanding limited series at the next Emmy Awards. They also get a nomination for “Agatha All Along,” the song…

Ariel Landrum 3:48
Heyyy!

Stefanie Bautista 3:48
For outstanding music and lyrics because you know that was an earworm for everybody who listened to it. It was like everwhere.

Ariel Landrum 3:55
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 3:57
And Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany have Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress nods as well. So I think everybody from I think also the, the cinematography maybe. There’s definitely directing, Outstanding Supporting lead actress in Kathryn Hahn as Agatha because she was crazy good in the show. Outstanding production design outstanding period and our character hairstyling which they fully deserve. I hope he wins. I do say here they have outstanding sound editing and sound mixing. Yes. That was the even got the the crackling of the old timey TV down. Yeah. And the visual effects. I’m talking about that were fantastic. They really got that old bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie style animation in the beginning of the episodes so perfect. But yeah, that just leads into what we’re going to talk about. And like we mentioned whenever we talk about a TV or movie. It’s full spoilers. So if you haven’t seen one division, pause and listen to any of our other podcasts or any other Geek Therapy podcasts and come back to us because we are going to be diving into the very nitty gritty details of wandavision and pulling all of our pop reference cultures and knowledge to make connections and how we can use that to further our practices.

Ariel Landrum 5:25
And if you have already seen one division after listening to this episode, I would encourage you to go to GT Radio and listen to their review on Wandavision and its notes to grief and loss.

Stefanie Bautista 5:38
Yes, yes. So where are we going to start with this Ariel? It’s a lot.

Ariel Landrum 5:43
So there are so many ways we could have taken really talking about and dissecting this medium and something that Stef and I have an affinity for is definitely retro vintage and and things that are stylistic. We, we like we like to have a nice aesthetic. Even with our straws like you know, no more, you can get your paper straw, but if you use a reusable straw, obviously way better. So for us, we were thinking very much artistic visual design, the sound of really much of the consumption of this medium, a little bit in the story arc of Wanda, but really more in its nods to other other shows other mediums and sitcoms, and very how it was so retro, but now it’s considered very avant garde. So I think umm starting off with obviously, the classic episode one, which if you remember watching it the first time was like “What is going on? Why is black and white? Why? This? I don’t I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. Is this where it’s gonna be at?”

Stefanie Bautista 7:00
Normally when we watch any sort of Marvel beginning, it’s like a flashback, there’s a child, things are happening. We’re going to follow this child and they’re gonna discover something or, you know, Peter Parker’s gonna get bit by spider. I know that didn’t happen that way. But that’s just what we’re expecting. So we’re expecting to follow a character and a journey, but it totally threw a wrench in our expectations where it started off exactly like how the not Dick Van Dyke we’re going way, way way further. We’re going like, I Love Lucy, black and white opening sitcom like animation…

Ariel Landrum 7:37
And they definitely did in the first episode.

Stefanie Bautista 7:39
Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 7:40
Some Dick Van Dyke Show. Yeah, tropes. Yeah, so definitely, but but even had, you know, some a little bit of Bewitched in there. Yeah. Especially in the the special effects.

Stefanie Bautista 7:52
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 7:53
And I was, we were used to fast pace.

Stefanie Bautista 7:58
Yeah. And we were used to like, not just, I don’t even know how to explain it. Like, I know, we mentioned Michael Bay, and like, the whole Transformers trope I like blows everything up. But we’re so used to action Marvel movies that were just like, okay, there’s gonna be some sort of Chase, or we’re gonna just like follows a movie, some crazy cinematography. And it completely grounded us and took us back to an era of TV viewing that we don’t see anymore. Where it is, you see credits first. You see an animation, you see something silly. And then you see a hard opening of a show where they open the door, and you see a set. And even in modern sitcoms, you don’t see that anymore. It’s it’s a totally different way of storytelling. So you find it’s more of a linear, I guess….

Ariel Landrum 8:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 8:51
Way of viewing it, especially because it’s, it’s an open set in clearly what looks like a stage, you know, homes that look like that. And yeah, it was, it was like what is happening. And I do want to mention, before we go on that not only are we lovers of retro style, and going to Dapper Day and everything, but Ariel here knows a lot more about art than I do, because she is an art therapist. And so she definitely engages in this medium and this visual medium so much more than I do. So it’s gonna be really fun to see your take on just visually consuming what they put on the screen in this very different way.

Ariel Landrum 9:32
Yeah, not so much in one division. But I never saw Knives Out when it came out. And I watched it on streaming with my roommate. And in the opening scene pne of the main characters is holding a mug that says, “My house my rules,” and I was like, “Oh, I wonder if this person’s like very controlling.” And I read it out loud. And I was like, I was like “That’s probably an important mug,” and the mug makes it in the end and has a very specific meaning in regards to |My house, my rules.” And it and he was like, “How do you just notice something like that?” But I’m like, “How do you not notice something like that?” Again? props, the props. I’m very into zooming in on props.

Stefanie Bautista 10:10
Yeah. And it’s great to to have that perspective. And this is one of those mediums or this is one of those shows that because everything was so retro, we didn’t use we weren’t used to finding Easter Eggs in small props like that. Back in the day.

Ariel Landrum 10:27
Yeah, like the commercials they had, right like, the very first like, it was it was a toaster commercial. I was like, “Oh, look, that’s Vision.” Like it’s like there’s it has a red dot says it says it says a Stark on there somewhere. And everyone’s like, “What are you talking about?” But if you freeze frame it like it’s a robot toaster, like made by Stark Industries and as a red dot in it’s head.

Stefanie Bautista 10:50
And we’re used to trying to find these Easter Eggs at this point, because we have seen so many different Marvel movies that inject these either just like playful props or playful visuals, but also some of them are foreshadowing. So they did a little bit of both in Wandavision and using those commercials, as vehicles to to show how scary the world she was, you know, weaving together was because in the later commercials, they were featuring the same people. And you know, those people were actually townspeople of Westview. And they were trapped. Because this was all just her orchestration, spoiler alert. Super spoiler alert. But yeah, we’re now seeing a 30 minute format write of a Marvel show. And we had feelings around that.

Ariel Landrum 11:46
Yes, so something we’re not used to, right? We I mean, not only before the pandemic, we were used to just seeing Marvel movies, and obviously, a movie format is a lot longer than a TV format. But additionally, because of the pandemic, we’ve been given more and more movies that are even longer because they can stream longer. And even with TV shows, we’re given the entire series. Like you can binge it all up front. But with these series, I mean, we didn’t see this until the Mandalorian. And now I think is going to be more common on Disney+ where it’s just like watching TV back in our day where you had to wait, you had to wait a week for the next episode. And it it’s not as easy to find those continuity errors what like now is with bingeing. And so it it force it, you mentioned being grounded, it forces us to have to really consider what we were consuming, it forces us to have to pause, and it gave a lot of opportunity to try and predict, right? Like “What who do we what do we think this Easter Egg means or what do we think is going to come in next?” And if you weren’t going on IMDb, then you were doing a lot of just your own guesswork and your own fact finding and weaving things together. And I think that builds excitement and anticipation that we don’t have to necessarily feel when we can consume an entire series in essentially a weekend.

Stefanie Bautista 13:16
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it keeps the the mysterious things that Marvel likes to keep under wraps, because you know, all of their cast all of their crew is tight lipped on anything that they’re doing. And I’m feeling that if I was a Marvel Disney executive, they were already doing that in the larger sense with their movies, they had to wait months on end for Avengers Age of Ultron Avengers Endgame so why not do that in a smaller scale format? And in not releasing everything all at once? They know the fans are going to wait for them. I’m gonna wait for them. And I’m gonna wait and maybe not all the time. But I know some of you will wait till midnight 12 pm or 12 am on the dot to, press play and see it over everybody else’s so that the next day when you’re at work or at school, or wherever you are, you can talk about oh my gosh, did you watch this? Like I watched that this morning and so many of our friends and in our group chat said “Oh my gosh, I just watched it,” it’s like freaking three in the morning.

Ariel Landrum 14:16
Like what you guys doing?

Stefanie Bautista 14:18
But that’s that’s the hype that they that they’re really good at, at projecting and, and coming up with because they know that we’re going to wait for it. So might as well keep keep people guessing, keep articles coming keep the buzz, like at the top of everybody’s feeds, because even when we were talking about Loki, we were guessing every single week what was going on because we didn’t know how it was going to end. So I think with Wandavision it being so far out of what we’re used to seeing. I think people were just either stumped; mad that they didn’t know what was going on…

Ariel Landrum 14:56
Straight up upset.

Stefanie Bautista 14:58
Totally like turned off to the series because it’s not what they were expecting. Definitely a lot of the action heads in our communities were just like, “What the is this? Like? I didn’t tune in to like see some old timey whatever blah blah.”

Ariel Landrum 15:15
Black and white what?

Stefanie Bautista 15:16
Yeah, if you weren’t invested in the storytelling of Wandavision, you probably were totally turned off by it and didn’t tune in again until the Malcolm in the Middle episode maybe where the cosplay happens.

Ariel Landrum 15:30
Yeah, I think that like you mentioned you know, some execs they took a risk with this they took a huge risks because you know, in watching Falcon and The Winter Soldier and in watching Loki those felt like, quote unquote, traditional Marvel media that we’ve been consuming. This was very unique and different. And I think you know, because of its uniqueness stands out in regards to to these other series. Give it to the girls.

Stefanie Bautista 16:05
Give it to the girls to make it stylistic, classic and also smart. I think Wandavision was very smart. You really had to think about what was going on and like, detach yourself because they didn’t detach themselves from the Wandavision world until Episode Two right where we see Monica.

Ariel Landrum 16:26
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. until until then we’re, we’re not really sure what’s going on. And I think that that eeriness, that confusion… I really liked it I liked not being able to to predict and guess what was going on it made it more exciting and I think is pretty much the ambivalence we feel about Wanda or the because it’s… Is she a good guy or she a bad guy? That is how she’s been introduced in the series very back and forth, and her journey in regards to that, that decision, we need to decide at some point whether this character is going to be villainous or not. And I think I think this series answered that and it answered it in the in very much the way that we felt her which was, we would see, we would see her against the Avengers. We’d see her with the Avengers, we’d see her split up with the Avengers like it, we’d see her alone it that that common theme is represented in all these episodes in regards to her story arc.

Stefanie Bautista 17:31
Yeah, absolutely. And I think what you mentioned about it being creepy. I think that’s a sentiment that you can feel for a lot of retro TV and a lot of retro movies. Because you see this world portrayed so perfectly, and so well thought out, everybody has hair is coifed clothes are totally iron, like all the way everyone’s dressed to the nines all the time. In our reality that’s just not true. We wake up out of bed not looking cute, no makeup on, like, “I woke up like this,” is like a real thing. You know, there’s something creepy about everything being so perfect like The Stepford Wives and that trope of being the perfect wife and being the perfect mother and being the perfect house, house woman caregiver to everybody. Having it all together just waiting for your husband to come home and have everything perfect than laid out there’s something creepy about that. And I think that was definitely translated in the way that Wanda wanted to make everything so perfect. So she can shield herself from the world around her and shield the sadness and the loss and the pain that she’s still actively going through. Because it was the only way that she could cope.

Ariel Landrum 18:49
And and very dreamlike, right like when we’re talking about using it as as a coping mechanism living sort of in a fantasy a full on fantasy that she was able to create with her powers. Those beginning episodes are dreamlike because everything is perfect. And then we find out that the mishaps that do happen they’re from Agatha not from her. So

Stefanie Bautista 19:09
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:10
Agatha had not noticed her powers and not inserted herself in Wanda’s world. I’m I would think that it would be even eerier than like looking back at old sitcoms because there probably would be no plot and there probably would be no quote unquote struggles. I don’t even know if we would have moved past you know, like the 1950s….

Stefanie Bautista 19:33
Oh probaly note.

Ariel Landrum 19:33
In her in her timeline, I think that she would have still been very curled hair coifed and even the costuming they had it forced her to sit up right. They they talked about in assembled if you watch that series on Disney Plus, the costumes definitely had a course that type feel to force everybody to sit up straight and just that very like 90 degrees. You’re sort of like her correct angle kind of gives you the sense that this world isn’t supposed to be off balance. And how is that possible? And then it isn’t until near the end of the episode, when we get very much they use the Twilight Zone effect of tilting the camera zooming and changing the music that we were like, no, yeah, this this world’s off.

Stefanie Bautista 20:22
Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about what it takes to recreate something so accurate, right? In order for them to really capture the feel of these sitcoms in their respective areas. They had to do the same things that those exact shows did. And a couple of those things is that episode one was taped in front of a live studio audience. And that is something that is very rarely done nowadays, especially COVID, because you don’t have live studio audiences anymore. And you won’t have a laugh track, right? And can we explain a little bit about what a laugh track is, and like using that in, in TV shows? I think I can definitely speak to that, because I’ve seen a lot of old old old sitcoms, and the laugh track was used as a break for the script, basically.

Ariel Landrum 21:13
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 21:13
And they use that for the people who are acting to play off of and use that to kind of project and move their emotions forward. So they would pause, they would know when the audience was going to laugh because it was put in the script. And there was a little light in the audience that turned on that says “laugh” or “audience.” And then the audience was then laugh because they are part of the experience, and they are part of the taping. So in order to create that field, they did that in the first episode. And I would have loved to have been one of those people.

Ariel Landrum 21:48
Yes, I wish I’d known there was a call for that to be part of this live studio audience taping. I think even when you’re thinking of the the laugh tracks, the other thing is it’s training the audience to know what’s funny.

Stefanie Bautista 22:01
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 22:01
And the and for me in regards to thinking of the the Marvel Universe, like we’ve seen them shifting more and more towards jokes and humor. But it’s hard to tell when something’s supposed to be funny. Given that, you know, like, everybody has very different humor styles and kind of laugh at different things. That the again, these these beginning episodes are telling you, “You are only allowed to react this way. Or you’re only supposed to.” That again…

Stefanie Bautista 22:29
It’s so limiting.

Ariel Landrum 22:30
Yes. So limiting. It shows you not only how limiting those errors were in regards to just emotional depth and the ability to be expressive. It also, again, gets that eerie vibe of like, “Wait, why is this funny? Why is that funny? And why is everything funny?”

Stefanie Bautista 22:49
Yeah. And even when vision is like, I’m going to work doing the computer things…

Ariel Landrum 22:54
Oh hello kitty.

Stefanie Bautista 22:55
Hello kitty. When he’s typing and doing the computer thing, he’s not even 100% sure of what he is doing. So I mean, he and I think that that’s really interesting that we’re going through this world through Vision’s mind? Vision himself is kind of like the audience in where he’s not sure what’s going on. So the only person that we can relate to his Vision because he’s been dropped into this place. Without knowing what happened to him previously, or what is going to happen to him in the future. Everybody else seems to know what’s going on. Especially his um, his desk mate at work is just like, “Oh, you know, we’re doing these things and computing the stuff,| and he’s just like, Oh computers. What is what is this?” And you’re just like, “Wait, what the heck is going on?” Even he doesn’t know what’s like happening. And then he doesn’t know if it’s their anniversary, or if they’re celebrating something. And then when, like, that is scary in itself. Imagine waking up and not knowing what day it was what your agenda was for the day. We’re so used to planning things out digitally and in our minds and months, weeks in advance, that being present, which is a very common thing in retro TV and also just in the world of our past being present and just going through your day. And letting it unfold like that is something so foreign to us and scary.

Ariel Landrum 24:20
So foreign.

Stefanie Bautista 24:22
But yeah, I think seeing the world through Vision’s eyes really made at least me feel a little bit comfortable because it was starting to get really creepy and not exactly knowing what was real and what was not. And in a world where everything was so obviously fake. It was kind of like a mind trip to go on because the lobster that pure old and clearly fake. They could have made that really really

Ariel Landrum 24:46
Clearly fake. Yeah, I think that was the other thing is they decided to not only shoot in the frame that TVs were back in those days. So that so they had to they had to find very specific type camera framing and cameras to shoot at that format. They use special effects until it was an era where visual effects were created. So they match that era. And the special effects and props artists were, some of them had worked on Bewitched, so they were able to recreate, you know, those those recipe cards floating on a string. But looking at it from our perspective, we clearly know this, this is fake. Like “I can tell that this is not she’s not really using her magic.” So what exactly is going on that they are, you know, really stepping back in the way that they’re visually creating things? And it was because they were replicating that experience of sitcom. The, I mean, and even being acknowledging some of the, I guess, tropes of those sitcoms and like Agatha coming in and she was like, “You know what modern life nowadays wouldn’t have a full like dinner ready on hand?” That was an expectation back then that that women, very again, Stepford Wives that you have a specific role and your role is to feed the familym you roll is to keep this house clean, your role is to look cute. Somehow, make that lobster in your heels.

Stefanie Bautista 26:18
Yeah. And you know that Wanda is sort of a foreigner still. And we know that Wanda herself. Her character is a foreigner. She’s from a Sokovia, Eastern European made up nation. And you see that there’s an element of if you’re an immigrant, or migrant, or child of an immigrant, you know that these things are familiar, but still foreign. So the idea of having dinner on the table having like a spread and all of those fixings together for this dinner with the boss is still sort of a not so familiar concept. And she’s just like, “Wait, I need help with this. Because I don’t exactly know how I’m supposed to do this.” And you you then see, “Oh, my gosh, Wanda is still trying to figure out what this exactly looks like.” Because as real as it seems. And as like onpoint as we see it to be, there’s still something quite off about it. And as you were talking Ariel, I was thinking there was definitely some Disney Magic involved in this show.

Ariel Landrum 27:21
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 27:21
Because we know going to the parks and we know with very old, old, old Disney movies, animated and live action, there’s a certain style that comes with it. There’s a certain like Disney Magic that I don’t know, can’t really explain. But when you’re watching old movies like the old Parent Trap, and you’re watching old movies, like I think the one that they shot at Disneyland, I don’t know if the Disney movie, but they shot it at Disneyland. I forget the name. But I know a lot of you Disney fans know about it. It’s there’s just this feel to it. That is a little bit magical. And I think they really captured that in one division. Because they got it so right. But like a little too, right?

Ariel Landrum 28:04
Yeah, yeah, they did just they turned it all the way up. So that’s how you knew something was wrong. But it I mean, if I hadn’t known this was Wandavision, and someone had just shown me like some 1950 shows and then that I again, I would have assumed.

Stefanie Bautista 28:20
Wouldn’t have known.

Ariel Landrum 28:20
And even the rest of the areas; when we got to the 70s. And when we got to the 90’s. Like if you had shown me some sitcoms there and then this they matched. And they match not just in special effects not just in wardrobe, not just the set and propping but they matched in music. The two writers of all the songs they picked a specific melody to input in all every episodes’ theme song, but they only use instruments that were very common in those areas. And they only used a sort of songwriting and beats that you would expect in those areas. So it was a completely immersive experience.

Stefanie Bautista 29:01
You’re not hearing no trap beats 808 music in these early episodes and you totally see that and it became really evident to me during the Malcolm in the Middle Halloween spectacular episode because it felt super 90’s to me. The graphics that they were using in the beginning, the iconic like stretching of the background behind the the text title was so iconic of Malcolm in the Middle. Like the the fisheye lens where everybody’s just kind of getting in the camera. It was very early 90’s. Such a such a big step, I think from the previous episode, which was still kind of Brady Bunch inspired. I feel like it was like a…

Ariel Landrum 29:47
Definietly Full House and I’m trying to think… Umm.. Ah was it there’s one more? I’ve gone blank, but that happens. But yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:05
Are you thinking like of another?

Ariel Landrum 30:07
Oh, Good Times good times.

Stefanie Bautista 30:08
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:08
Yeah. Good. Yeah. It was very Good Times and Full House and a little bit of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Stefanie Bautista 30:15
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:16
But…

Stefanie Bautista 30:17
I think there was just over that period. And…

Ariel Landrum 30:19
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:19
I was surprised. I was really surprised because when we think of 90’s sitcoms, yes, of course, I do think Malcolm in the Middle, but that’s why I’m like 99 almost like borderline millenia area millenia era. Because I think a Full House, I think of Family Matters, I think of Step By Step. I think of all of the TGIF; Sister, Sister. Like…

Ariel Landrum 30:39
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 30:40
Those are the things that I remember, from 90’s sitcoms, and I’m wondering, and I don’t have the answer to this, why they decided to kind of skip that, like, stylistically.

Ariel Landrum 30:52
Yeah. I feel like maybe because it’s not as stylistic as like, like, iconic. Like we’re shifting from vintage to retro, right.

Stefanie Bautista 31:01
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 31:01
And now we’re, we’re, when it comes to sort of like 90’s, that has become at least some of the 90’s styles has become more present and modern now. It’s being sort of reclaimed. And not the the shirts over jeans. No, it’s like the crop tops. So like, the glowing part of the 90’s.

Stefanie Bautista 31:21
Seriously, I know.

Ariel Landrum 31:23
Y2K era.

Stefanie Bautista 31:25
We’re gonna we’re gonna digress a little bit because I know we’ve been having conversations of as women. I struggled in the 90’s to find any sort of, well, I mean, I was like, what, 11 right? So that kind of shows our age a little bit, but I was not feeling cute in the 90’s. I was so frumpy, like, I think I could barely afford going to Limited Too at the time. End like you would shop from a catalog remember Delia’s?

Ariel Landrum 31:52
Yes, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 31:52
Yeah, everything was like, but then everything then was harkening back to the 60s, because everything was like very flowery and tie dye and like block colorings.

Ariel Landrum 32:02
And they did have bell bottoms.

Stefanie Bautista 32:04
Yeah, bell bottoms. So it’s like, do I stick with my cargo baggy jeans, cargo baggy khakis with the super crop top that like I A. feel comfortable in and B. would probably get a dress code violation at school for. Or do I just stay looking like a tomboy, and I just stayed looking like a tomboy. Because that was just easier for me.

Ariel Landrum 32:26
Not only was it easier, but I for me, I was raised by a single dad and I had a brother. So at a certain point, we were all going to kind of dress the same.

Stefanie Bautista 32:36
And I mean, I come from… Excuse me, from a migrant household. So I didn’t really have the money to keep up with trends. And I thought about that, actually. Before we filmed this episode, I knew so many of these sitcoms, because I didn’t have cable. I don’t know if you didn’t grow up without cable. But I was…

Ariel Landrum 32:59
Oh there was no cable on the military base.

Stefanie Bautista 33:02
Really, they don’t pamper you for you know serving our country and laying your life on the line for the goodness of our borders?

Ariel Landrum 33:11
Nah fam. I had like six channels. Disney Channel was one of them thank goodness.

Stefanie Bautista 33:15
See and I didn’t even have Disney Channel, so I was living in 13 channels. For those of you in LA know, 2 a CBS, 4 was NBC. 5 was KTLA but then they always showed reruns, so if you were sick at home, you would watch things like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The Brady Bunch. I loved and I think that’s why I have such an affinity for retro TV. And vintage TV is because I, that was the only thing that I watched. Being, you know, working class and not being able to afford cable not to like way way at like later on in life. I could only consume media that was limited in what they showed in the mornings and in the evenings. And I think tying back to the way Wanda was viewing American culture in another country and that is a… That’s a journey that a lot of immigrants and migrants and foreigners consume American media. Some is going on in my voice. But they only see what VHS shows them. They only see what their family in America sends to them. And they only see what is pirated and sold for pennies on the street. So many of my cousin’s in the Philippines only know American culture through the Brady Bunch and through I Love Lucy. I Love Lucy is so popular in other countries because of the way that it’s connected different people in different countries to what the American dream was.

Ariel Landrum 34:54
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 34:54
And if your journey is to get out of your country and go to America, that is the ideal. You want to be in a nuclear household with a loving, you know, male and female relationship. And that is what’s portrayed. And that is what you you aim for. And anything outside of that is considered out of the norm. And so I think that’s really, I really like the episode where we see Wanda and her DVDs, and her holding onto her DVDs for dear life because that is what her hobby is. That is what her love is. And that is what she connects to. Because she’s so, so so wants to get out of her situation. And you see that is it’s not a good situation.

Ariel Landrum 35:38
Yeah, and in regards to like talking about that medium we consume like that, that was what she was consuming in regards to an ideal life. So of course, if she has the actual powers and ability to recreate that she’s going to recreate that. There was there were levels of safety. I think the the other thing in regards to just how her experience was growing up with with this, this imagery in these films, I was… I noticed that a good chunk of them had, you know what she was emulating really like male leads. And it wasn’t until she sort of created literally, her own episode that we then became the Scarlet Witch that we saw her actually claim her show, right? Like, like, actually claimed this world as her own. She was letting things even unfold for herself, despite the fact having the control. And I think that that very much shows her her shift of how control and chaos are a fine line. People think that they are binary in that they are worlds apart from each other. And their next door neighbors.

Stefanie Bautista 37:02
Yep, they’re so close. They could be sharing a wall.

Ariel Landrum 37:05
Sharing a wall. I, I always relate it to you when I’m talking to clients about like integration, like integrating different parts of ourselves. My dad has OCD. And he has OCD where he has to check things. And so you can say that’s very controlled, he has to you know, check the locks at least 20 times. That’s it’s a high number, right? And that’s very chaotic to have to go back and check something 20 times and not trust or what your what you saw what you touched what you felt. Your mind telling you, you know, essentially gaslighting you and saying like, “No, you need to check it again.” So that’s that, that fine line. And I feel like because she’s essentially she has chaos magic, like we’ve already identified it cah…, as actual chaos. It really shows how controlled she’s actually been this whole time.

Stefanie Bautista 37:59
Yeah. The whole time, in not in just what we see her in Westview. But also, when you’re looking back at that scene with like her parents, she only had a limited amount of DVDs that she could take and only a limited amount of choices that she had. And also she had to be told when and where to watch it. They had to you know, she wanted to wait for her family, obviously. But they were so limited in what they could see when they could watch it, that every single step was calculated for her. And you see that already in the beginning. And then when everything gets blown out of the water, and they’re left to just her and Pietro, she then becomes the decision maker. But she doesn’t quite know how to do that. So she somehow and we don’t see this part. But I know in the comic books, she finds herself in her brother in certain situations where she has to kind of attach herself to larger male figures in order to go on and survive in her life. And also in the comic booksm she’s seen as Magneto’s daughter. So that way is a little bit and very much different from the way that they decided to portray her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also it it draws parallels from there is a higher purpose and she is just kind of like a pawn in that. And that is how she is used in the original story. But you also see that when she’s introduced in the MCU, as somebody who’s just used to following directions.

Ariel Landrum 39:32
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 39:32
And really looking out for her younger brother, and that’s a very older sister, sort of sentiment that I can relate to. I’m an older sister, and I see a lot of that.

Ariel Landrum 39:46
And common even in twins. People forget that there’s still an older and a younger and they vehemently know it. And so for her like she and then to lose her younger sibling… So so the amount of grief and loss she can tell us experience right we’ve got we’ve lost parents we’ve lost an entire country so so no no actual home to sort of go back to. And you know now is essentially losing her life partner… It it’s it’s very much understandable why she would want to escape to these mediums and even going back into her childhood. There was war going on and Sokovia and that the people were having to try and like ignore what’s going on in their outside walls to keep themselves safe and essentially emotionally safe. Right? We we fully divulge or digest our mediums. We we fully immerse ourselves because that’s the only way that you can ignore sort of like these bombs going off. I know. For me, I lived in the safety of a military base. But, you know, depending on how close you are to the armory, like you, you heard those things all the time, you sort of started to get jaded and and not not be able to tell the difference between what was considered unsafe and what was considered safe. Or even like, when my dad retired in Kansas, you know, we had an alarm that went off at noon to tell us, it was our tornado watch alarm, and it’s just just the test it. But after a while he got so used to it that when there was actual tornado coming, it was hard to tell the difference. And when we should go underground, which anyone can tell you in Kansas, they still don’t go under the ground. Everybody wants to see it. But that’s neither here nor there. In talking in regards to just knowing what’s considered safe, detaching ourselves from the moment is, is a is a level of safety. It’s a coping skill that we that we need when when things are out of our control. And for Wanda, her grief was literally out of her control, there was there was no way that she was going to be able to summon up enough magic to even recreate Vision that that was Vision because he was very autonomous. And her Vision was not. It took them a while to get there.

Stefanie Bautista 42:06
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 42:09
But I think, yeah…

Stefanie Bautista 42:10
it took them a while to get there. But we, we still see him as vision, the amalgam of Tony Stark’s AI, you know, just him being frankly, a robot. And I mean, for me, I always wonder like, “Wow, like she found love in somebody who isn’t fully human.” Like it really takes a special person to find a life and a heart in, in something that we see as just a creation of technology. Right? So we already know that there’s something special there that something that we don’t see in quite understand, but we still see it as very beautiful. But Vision himself he as he’s discovering himself through this series, he’s stuck in the middle of “Am I supposed to act like a human? Or am I supposed to act like what I’m feeling, which is more of Vision, as you know, AI Vision fully, you know, realized.” But I do want to go a little bit backwards in what you were saying when you were in Kansas and living on a military base. I feel like being a teacher in pretty much downtown Los Angeles, like we’re downtown Los Angeles adjacent. We’re always hearing sirens, helicopters, we’re always going into lockdown. That is just like a normal thing for us. We’re we’re, you know, used to hearing people on the street kind of yelling. Transients. We’re used to seeing, you know, people who are displaced, just like not knowing where they are. We’re used to that sort of chaos in and around our schools. And so our kids are jaded to some extent into just focusing on school. Us as teachers, we put on media, we do all sorts of things in the classroom to distract ourselves from letting them know, Hey, we’re in a lockdown based police activity just right across the street, probably either a domestic dispute, somebody has like a gun. Those things are normal to us. And I think that is very relatable in the way that Wanda as a child decides to cover herself and shield herself from all the chaos around her. Because that’s what children are really good at doing; their imaginations are so large, and they’re so eager to find comfort in anything. Whether it be in storytime and closing the blinds and putting on a short film or closing the blinds, listening to storytime just like totally detaching yourself because you just want to feel safe.

Ariel Landrum 44:33
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 44:33
And in some ways, I feel like switching gears we did that during the pandemic.

Ariel Landrum 44:38
Yeah we did.

Stefanie Bautista 44:38
I remember during the protests and during civil unrest here in an I’m in the valley, so I was far away from where I work downtown, but Van Nuys was like one of the places that was really hit with the looting and a lot of protests and just people just like fed up and upset and just like going through all of the businesses and destroying them. So at one point, I was just hearing explosions, maybe like, every 30 minutes. I didn’t know what they were.

Ariel Landrum 45:09
Yeah. Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 45:09
And at that time, my son was about four months old. So I was trying to shield him as a parent as well, from hearing all of these sounds. He doesn’t know yet if they’re scary, or real, or whatever, but I didn’t want him to feel my fear. So we would distract ourselves. We would put on Disney+, we would watch things and try to just make sure that they felt safe in any way, shape, or form. So we I definitely can relate to what you were saying. But I know that we talked a lot about not just grief, but creating this world that is your safe space, right? Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 45:55
Yeah, I think in therapy, we ask clients to create comfort corners, either like in the real world or in their mind. Safety corners, safe spaces that you can go to in your mind’s eye when you are feeling anxious. And for for Wanda, she was able to do that with these sitcoms. And again, because I think sitcoms were a smart choice. They’re formulaic, they’re predictable.

Stefanie Bautista 46:21
They so comforting.

Ariel Landrum 46:22
They’re so comforting. And then even thinking about the way the comedy is, it’s very slapstick. Right, like if we think of Queen of Slapstick, I Love Lucy. Like we saw some of that in Wandavision in the the way that she was, you know, moving the ingredients around. Yeah, it was very Nick at Night.

Stefanie Bautista 46:43
Very Bewitched.

Ariel Landrum 46:44
Very Bewitched.

Stefanie Bautista 46:45
And I Dream of Jeannie so cute.

Ariel Landrum 46:48
It was a good respite. Because a lot of the humor is often very sarcastic, snarky, right?

Stefanie Bautista 46:57
Dry.

Ariel Landrum 46:57
We don’t get that…. Dry. We don’t get that until we get to like the 90’s. Yeah, the the Malcolm in the Middle sort of inspired episode. And we we start to see her, let her guard down there. And that’s why the humor changes. And I think that that’s also when we start to see her world unravel.

Stefanie Bautista 47:24
Yeah, in the classroom as well. We have a piece corner in every classroom for kids to just take a break because sometimes learning is really stressful. And you know, you you can feel some emotions that you just need to learn how to self regulate. And Wanda was the Queen of Self Regulation because she was creating all this magic to create her piece corner. But yeah, definitely the the humor and the comfort that we find in just the sitcom structure where we know it was every Friday, at 7 pm. We knew that there was gonna be one story that we followed, and that we are going to laugh and we’re going to find a little twist at the end. We’re going to end the episode resolving whatever problem that was presented in the beginning of the episode. And then we get to rest and then look forward to the next one. There wasn’t too much of an underlying like, larger story arc in many of these sitcoms. It was just very… Problem. Resolve. Happiness. Let’s have dinner. You know? Not Not until we see the interweaving of storylines in Modern Family, which they touch upon in the later episodes. And I have to shout out Elizabeth Olsen for her Claire Dunphy impression, I am such a huge Modern Family fan and the way she looks at the camera and does that like mom stare? Like, “Are you freaking kidding me?” I love that. That was like the best and I was just like, “She freaking nailed it.” Like, I love it. So we didn’t see those interlocking story lines until then. And there was there was no, there was no comfort there anymore, because now you have the kids who are grown. And they’re kind of thinking of their mom. And we’re not quite sure if they’re figments of her imagination yet at that point when they’re introduced, because the weird way that they aged, and that kind of creeped me out. Did it creep you out? It creeped me out.

Ariel Landrum 49:31
Which it also made me think of sitcoms when they were like replace younger kids and siblings and all of a sudden they’re just older but everybody else isn’t as older because they’re not like kids aging. That rapid aging thing is something we’ve seen usually doesn’t happen in that episode.

Stefanie Bautista 49:46
No. It happens over seasons.

Ariel Landrum 49:48
Next season, they’ve replaced this person with someone who’s like way older that somehow supposed to play younger. I think that also the like the knowingness that they knew that they were aging like I’m going to make a decision to be 10. Because I want a dog.

Stefanie Bautista 50:03
That self-awareness so weird. But speaking of kids, the way she gave birth, let me just say, if I could give birth that easily, I’d have a ton of kids at this. Because I was like, how are they going to show this and then I, as a mother, who had just given birth, was like, I’ve seen so many different ways that sitcoms portray this. Mainly, the one that sticks out to me is the one in The Office or a Pam is. She, her water breaks, and then she she gets, you know, sent to the hospital with Jim and it’s just like total chaos, because like, Michael’s tried to record it, but then when she’s in the delivery room, you hear her screaming, and you hear her just like in pain. And then Michael steps in and he’s just like, “Oh, God, that baby’s gonna have a lot of hair.” And that is the first time that that kind of grossness of of childbirth in a sitcom was, you know, portrayed to me. But back then we didn’t we never saw Lucy give birth to Little Ricky we never…

Ariel Landrum 51:04
Well so in The Mary Tyler Moore Show…

Stefanie Bautista 51:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 51:08
Georgette gives birth at Mary’s apartment. So yeah, that’s sort of what they were harking to.

Stefanie Bautista 51:13
I think so too…

Ariel Landrum 51:13
Because it is the 1970s.

Stefanie Bautista 51:15
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 51:16
And just as a as hilariously goofy as that.

Stefanie Bautista 51:20
Yes just as hilariously goofy, and anyone knows any woman any real like 21st century being knows that, childbirth is not like that. It is not cute. It’s very messy. And that’s all I gotta say about that. And to keep this prestene world it would not have happened.

Ariel Landrum 51:39
And the only mess they sorta had was her magic sort of like being in and out, right? But yeah, babies were came out clean.

Stefanie Bautista 51:48
Like fully grown almost like?

Ariel Landrum 51:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 51:51
They look like they had lived a couple weeks at least. Because we all know in creating a perfect sitcom, babies are not going to follow your stage directions. They’re not going to know their cues. So whenever we saw babies in sitcoms, they were fully grown.

Ariel Landrum 52:07
They are fully grown. Or they’re plastic.

Stefanie Bautista 52:10
Yes. Or they’re plastic. Oh my gosh, the plastic baby. It’s always fun to see and point out “Oh my god that baby’s fake!”

Ariel Landrum 52:15
“Fake baby!”

Stefanie Bautista 52:16
Fake baby. But we touch there’s so many things I think in one division to to tackle stylistically. Emotionally with Wanda’s female, female, I guess gaze, you can say in somebody as an outsider looking in. But at the same time creating her world she’s kind of laying out the tracks that she goes. And how I feel like many women do that in their everyday lives, especially as mothers and as wives and just caregivers, we’re kind of laying out the tracks as we go. Because if we don’t know what’s going to happen, chaos can ensue. I feel like every mother and wife has a little bit of or any head of household, that’s a woman really, you don’t have to be a wife or a mother to know that. If you’re keeping the house together, there’s little chaos magic that has to happen in order for it to make it to the next day.

Ariel Landrum 53:10
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 53:10
So I think there’s there’s a lot of things to be said about that, that we can, you know, tackle in a whole other episode. But I guess with every medium, maybe we can talk about what we loved and what we didn’t love, I guess because we really loved Wandavision.

Ariel Landrum 53:27
Yeah, I did. I really loved Wandavision in regards to the evolution of her hair.

Stefanie Bautista 53:37
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 53:39
So we know that it represents different areas of television, but it’s also very symbolic of her mental state throughout the series and that be wanting to control her identity and forcing a very specific presentation of self, and the unraveling of it. And literally the unraveling of her hair showing that. Because in the 1950s episode, again, we mentioned it was curled and coifed and had, you know, Stepford Wives vibes shorter pressed towards her head. And if I think of, you know, The Hex it was smaller at the time, it was still sort of being crafted. It was pressed close to her. There wasn’t other narrative being that we were aware of. But still, there wasn’t other narrative being brought in at least on Vision’s part, right? Eventually we see him sort of go off on his own. And then her hair continues to lengthen as her powers in The Hex grows.

Stefanie Bautista 54:35
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 54:36
And once sort of the town mirage comes undone her hair is shaggy, it’s loose, it’s messy, it’s uncapped.

Stefanie Bautista 54:45
It look like I’m done braids. Like when youdo your braids.

Ariel Landrum 54:49
Undone braids? Yes. Like I I need to let this out. I need to breathe. Yes, until it became a main once she was fully Scarlet Witch, it was red. It was. It was wavy, it was…

Stefanie Bautista 55:01
Big.

Ariel Landrum 55:01
Eluding fire was huge. It was a huge main. It was her chaos magic coming off of her. And a part of it was her embracing her full self. If we think of tight like coifed curls, you’re you’re not embracing really your full self, what you’re doing is you’re creating a presentation of self you want others to digest. In this case, it was like “To hell what you think,” right? ” Will literally sennd you there.”

Stefanie Bautista 55:28
“I’mma be me.”

Ariel Landrum 55:28
“I’mma be me.”

Stefanie Bautista 55:29
And it takes time to do hair like that. So you already know that there’s, oh my gosh, if anybody’s done pin curls, it takes for ever in a day to get them right.

Ariel Landrum 55:38
For-ev-ver.

Stefanie Bautista 55:38
And it takes practice, you got to do it every single day until you get them right. And I think that is something that it’s a very vintage personality trait of women back in the day to get themselves ready in order to be presentable for the males and for everybody else in the world that they’re going to go out and see when they go to the grocery store. So I mean, her being her full self just shows that you know what, “I don’t care what anybody else thinks I’m not living for anybody else. I’m living for me and what makes me happy.” Which she’s still trying to figure out.

Ariel Landrum 56:10
Yeah. Yeah, I I know that this is probably a moving towards her being a villain. So I’m wondering how her hair will change in that sense because there’s no way it’s going to stay even with with this because this embracing yourself that’s her embracing her power and and that it may actually also be just naturally an innate to her, not just given to her by the mind stone, but I also think that as she starts to become more villainous, it’ll probably become like those tendrils like we saw in Agatha, right? Like, these sort of like, has has its own arms and legs even. Could reach out and grab you. The other thing I really liked, obviously, I loved the music choices. And in the in the 90’s episode for the what was like the Malcolm in the Middle, the singer of that theme song is Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill. From the Riot Grrl music era. For those who don’t know, the Riot Grrl music era happened in 1990’s, and it was an underground feminist punk movement. In this subculture had music that was for feminism and politics. And at the concerts, what Riot Grrl bands like Bikini Kill would do is they would tell the women, “Come to the front. Men you go to the back. We’re going to make space a safe space for women, they’re going to be able to mosh they’re going to be able to be themselves and you’re going to cheer them on, you’re not going to make noise at them, you’re going to make noise for them, you’re going to lift them up.” And it was interesting because in this episode, we see her at the end like really assert herself in regards to Pietro her her fake Pietro.

Stefanie Bautista 57:55
Her fake Pietro. Which we could talk so much more about fake Pietro and… I was like “That’s not Aaron Taylor Rogers.”

Ariel Landrum 58:03
“The goofy uncle err.” Yeah. I think that that was that was really reminiscent of her saying like, “I am not just a mom. I am not just the wife.” This is an even in her costuming. right this is this is symbolizing that, “I am going to be the Scarlet Witch.”

Stefanie Bautista 58:19
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I totally got that right girl vibes. I grew up in music discovery, listening to Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre and like thinking, “Oh, I can totally be a tomboy still, but I could be a girl while doing that. And, and it’s okay to be a girl and be a badass.” And that was totally something in the 90s that a lot of girls went through where they were just kind of tired of being pop princess. And the dichotomy of seeing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the time, but also knowing that there were these girls who could rock out and be punk rock badass. Totally his maybe it shows a dichotomy of what Wanda wanted to be and who she was before. I feel like every girl has a bit of a transformation when they grow up. When they go through those formative years. I know I had many stylistic choices that were very, very different and still are changing to this day. But I think that that was really fun to see. And also really touching to see that she was going through these real life emotions, even though she is somebody that has a lot of power to control her own universe. She’s still going through these things. And that really made her way, way more human and way more relatable, especially to women.

Ariel Landrum 59:38
Yeah, so I would say that those were some of the things that I really loved. And then certainly the episode where the beds get combined for like a foreshadowing of them having kids.

Stefanie Bautista 59:48
Babies yeah.

Ariel Landrum 59:49
I thought that was that was very clever and again that moving of the eras because we did only see couples sleep in separate beds. And then apparently, Mary Kay and Johnny was the first show to feature a couple in a bed together and be pregnant.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:04
I never saw that.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:06
I’ve never seen it either. But there you go. There’s some history for ya’ll to put in your trivia night. Yeah, I think the thing that bothered me, which I don’t know if it quite bothers anybody else the same is that Scarlet Witch is, is that character is inspired off of the Romani people. But it does not really show the honoring of them. In fact, Romani people are presented as being chaotic, as being emotional, as being uncontrolled. And even in her having her classic Scarlet Witch costume in the Halloween episode, even though she is saying that this is, you know, Sokovia fortune teller, they didn’t have to sort of insert that sort of type of language. She could have just said that she was a made up comic book character. But the more that they kept hinting towards her Romani pass, or or at least what is inspired by the Romani people, the more it was the stereotype of, of these individuals and not so much their their actual heritage.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:15
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:16
And so I wished that we hadn’t gotten that close to it, I felt like we could have pushed the narrative slightly different in in regards to her past, especially because she’s already not Magneto’s kid.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:27
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:28
And now, I would say that was the only thing that bothered me because even her sort of exploding and her grief, Romani people have experienced a lot of grief because they, they’ve been removed from their lands, they, they have had a lot of harm and trauma to their people. But that’s being made fun of as, like, “You just don’t know how to control yourself, you just don’t know how to be controlled.” So that’s where the history of the like the chaos magic comes from inspiration wise. And I feel like if we kept it in with the mind stone, and I feel like if we had not inserted that line about a fortune teller, I think I would have liked that liked it even more, it would have been a full nine. It’s like an 8.7 for me.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:11
Yeah, I totally, I totally understand that. And like they portray them as such outlandish, kind of almost comical type of people, but it really is part of their culture and something to, you know, be respected and honored. So I totally see that. For myself. I love Wandavision. I love the mystery of it. I love the unknowingness and kind of like, “How are they going to? How are they going to immerse me in classic television, but also make it creepy and mysterious, like the Twilight Zone.” And I love the Twilight Zone. I actually probably watch more retro TV than I would like to just because I was so used to it. And it’s comforting to me. So I I really liked the way that just the the style choices and the way that they were so they were so true to the era. They like took things from the Brady Bunch like you saw staircases that look like the one in the Brady Bunch house. You saw, like you said, I mean like the the set for the first episode was almost exactly like I Love Lucy set where the kitchen was on the right, the dining room and the dining room and the living room are in the middle. And then they had their bed somewhere else. I think that that was really smart of them to present it in that way that was familiar, but also foreign. And I think whenever they played with that all throughout the series was really fun to kind of just like go back and forth. Because I like watching something but also having a hidden agenda of like, like, “How is the production thinking about this every single time?” And that’s why watching Assembled really, really helped because I saw like what they were thinking of and I was like, “If I were to recreate a whole scene,” kind of like how sometimes we do theater in the classroom, like “how would I wow can I make this real?” Like what do I tell like my students, the actors, what mindset do they have to be to make this feel tangible and make this feel like how it’s supposed to? I love the breaks the commercial breaks as creepy as they were. I love that they brought back Randall Park as Jimmy Woo because I love Jimmy Woo in Ant Man and The Wasp. I think he’s hilarious. I love Randall Park. He himself was on a sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, which was based off of Eddie Wong’s life who is a chef and entrepreneur and that sitcom was so important to me because it was the first time since I think Margaret Cho’s sitcom where you saw an Asian family going through their life in America. So I really love Fresh Off the Boat. So I’m pretty sure that Randall Park was really excited to be part of Wandavision being that he was also in a sitcom himself. even talking about a Darcy who is from the Thor movies. She…What is her anem?

Ariel Landrum 1:05:06
The ultimate Sass Queen.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:07
The ultimate Sass Queen.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:08
Kat Dennings.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:09
Kat Dennings is also in a sitcom Two Broke Girls on CBS.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:14
And..

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:14
She.. Yeah, and she’s also

Ariel Landrum 1:05:16
The dolls one?

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:18
Yes. Dollface.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:20
Yes. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:20
It was yeah fun show on Hulu and has a fantastic set of girls that are just so weird. Quirky. And is part of everybody’s girl group I guess girl group of friends of anyway watch Dollface it’s hilarious.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:36
It’s hilarious. Particularly the brunch episode.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:41
That whole series is just so funny. So she brings a little bit of her snarkiness and sassiness from Two Broke Girls and Dollface into the MCU as Darcy and she did Darcy before she did those sitcoms. And and being in Thor and seeing the comedic style in Thor change from the first Thor to Ragnarok. I think she brought a little bit of that too. So that was really cool to see because it’s familiar. Seeing those two characters pulled from a Marvel Universe into now Wanda’s world and introducing Monica Rambeau who is from the Captain Marvel movies, who is played by Teyonah Paris who is beautiful by the way. She…

Ariel Landrum 1:06:25
Grog. Gorgeous.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:26
A gorgeous human being. Everything looked fantastic on her. And…

Ariel Landrum 1:06:31
Yes, it was it didn’t matter what outfit home girl was wearing grog.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:35
I mean, everybody looked amazing. But she so gorgeous Teyonah Paris, shout out to you. Did an amazing job becoming Photon. Who will we will probably see in the later movies. But yeah, there’s just like, overall the feel the vibe, the the tone of Wandavision and the unknowing and mystery of it I loved. What I would have liked to see was more episodes because I feel like they were so honed into the Bewitched and the I Love Lucy and the I Dream of Jeannie eras, that they didn’t give that due diligence to other eras. And I think it could have maybe she could have used those 80’s 90’s sitcoms to interact with the townspeople more.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:25
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:25
And I would have liked to see what their perspective was because as they were sort of becoming self realized that they were in a world that wasn’t theirs. And they were you know, trapped essentially, I think those instances would have really made it difficult for Wanda to want to continue, because she was juggling, “Do I do this for my family? Do I save these people because they also have families that they are missing. And you know, I’m changing their world in order to make my world better.” I think that would have given a lot more depth to her dilemma. And not just throwing Agatha in there right away. But also I wanted to see more Agatha and Wanda interactions.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:05
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:05
It was so electric seeing them on screen. And Kathryn Hahn, who has been in so many different sitcoms, the first time I saw her was on Parks and Recreation as the no nonsense lawyer that is funily on enough representing Bobby Newport who is Paul Rudd, who is Ant Man. So all of these all of these fun connections that I was making, in my mind, being an avid consumer of pop culture.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:31
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:32
Seeing her step into Agatha and being really scary and just like controlling and that that ultimate portrayal of a witch who is just out there to just destroy. She played that really well. And I think that witch versus witch. “Who is good who is bad are they both bad? Are they both just gonna destroy this earth?” I wanted to see more depth in that so more episodes would have been greatly appreciated. I hear that they’re not doing as season 2 is that correct?

Ariel Landrum 1:09:01
That’s what I hear as well. Hopefully that’s just a rumor and that there or or that it’s gonna be titled something different right? Like Falcon and Winter Soldier who is no longer the Falcon is Cap.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:14
Captain America.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:15
Uhh I don’t know.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:16
Scarlet Witch Vision?

Ariel Landrum 1:09:18
Scarlet Vision.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:21
Hey, you know what? That could be a play on her seeing red, and that symbolism of her’s. She’s just now we see her in her remote village somewhere is it probably there’s the Sokovia I don’t know where it is…

Ariel Landrum 1:09:33
Some kind of Eastern Europe area yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:35
She’s in the Himalaya somewhere. She has red eyes. She’s controlling her projecting of herself in front of the house and she’s trying to get her babies back. So you can see that she is fully seeing scarlet because she is just laser focused on getting her family back. So Disney if you’re listening… Marvel if you’re listening… We have an idea for you, which is probably an idea that you probably thought of already.

Ariel Landrum 1:10:04
Yes. Probably an idea. We will we will only take 2%.

Yes we will only take 2%. Hey, but that’s a big chunk though. I’ll take it. take what I can get.

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:16
But yeah, is there anything else you want to say about one division? Oh, I didn’t get my rating, right?

Ariel Landrum 1:10:21
Yeah, what’s your rating?

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:23
Man. I think just this is my favorite. Did I did I say Loki was my favorites. I love Loki so much. But Wandavision. It just speaks to my vintage retro heart and all of the things that I love about pop culture growing up. So if I gave Loki… Did I give it an 8.5?

Ariel Landrum 1:10:47
I think you were in the middle between Rachel and I.

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:51
Yeah, I was in the middle. I put it at an 8.5 to maybe even an 8.6. Just because the styles were just so true in the beginning, and they really got the costume down. And it really pissed a lot of people off, which I loved. I love that I got the the Neck Beards shaking. It’s always fun to see that and it’s always fun to see the fandom shock because if the fandom shock, then you know you did a good job, because you really. You are really onto something, and it’s usually a hit with Marvel. Sometimes it’s a miss, but we haven’t seen a mess since I think the Incredible Hulk?

Ariel Landrum 1:11:37
What? There was no Incredible Hulk movie that doesn’t exist.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:40
Edward Norton that wasn’t Oh, that was Fight Club. That’s right. It was all it was all a figment of his imagination.

Ariel Landrum 1:11:46
Yes, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:47
That’s right. That was part of Fight Club. Yeah, it was really good to see that.

Ariel Landrum 1:11:54
I think for me, the only thing is, again, in regards to the music, and I really loved the scene where they had “elped Me Rhonda playing to then all of a sudden Help Me Wanda.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:06
Yeah. So good.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:07
I think that was a good sort of like narrative shift.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:12
So good. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:14
But yeah, I think that I don’t know if we’ll get something similar to this again. In regards to any of the the Marvel movies or shows. I think we’re gonna get very traditional back to the Marvel Marvel formula. And so I I’m okay with that. I’m okay with this being it’s it’s you it’s unique thing, I think that there’s no way to recreate this and have it just be as magical.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:43
The timing was so right, we were coming out of the pandemic, sort of, right, we weren’t out of it, we’re kind of back in it. But everybody was still at home. We were still consuming media, mainly through our television screens and our computer screens. And I think the timing was just right to reintroduce the Marvel Cinematic Universe in this way, because we haven’t seen anything since everything shut down. So, it was a perfect way to launch Disney+ Marvel media.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:12
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:14
Because they saw how successful like you said the Mandalorian was. And because they knew it was successful for Star Wars, they’re like, “Hey, we have a whole new phase to introduce. And it’s gonna take a lot of details.” So now knowing that they’re using this in tandem with the movies, it really kind of conditioned us to consume this sort of media in this grand world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And get ready to dive in and analyze alongside each other with movies and TV.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:49
So Stef, the Happiest Pod on Earth universe. What will be up on our docket next? What do we have coming up?

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:58
What do we have on our docket next? I know that we are done with Well, we’re not done with talking about all the shows. Right? We still have to talk about Falcon and Winter Soldier which I loved so many things about.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:11
Yeah

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:12
I love Sam. I love Sam and I love Bucky and they’re they’re like, they’re like the boyband that exists in my Marvel heart.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:26
The bromance.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:27
The bromance, and you guys will come to see how much I love buddy cop comedies.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:33
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:34
I have so many favorites, but I’ll talk about that later. So we are going to be talking about Falcon and Winter Soldier pretty soon. But I know that we’re gonna have some special guests, right?

Ariel Landrum 1:14:44
Yeah. So yeah, yeah, we’re gonna have a guest tell us their experience on webslinger. We we have a friend who got in.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:53
He did it.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:53
He did it. I also know that we’re going to talk about AIA combining our music passion with our passion Disney karaoke.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:04
Yes. Disney karaoke which is the thing, guys. So don’t don’t believe the memes.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:09
Don’t believe the memes. It’s real. It’s real.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:10
Yeah, we’re gonna talk about karaoke. And the ways that we use karaoke to connect and the ways that we’re going to use karaoke and music, especially Disney music, to, to relate to other people, other fans and the way that the uniqueness of Disney music connects us and our kids too. Yep, so a lot of things to look forward to. I will be going to the parks hopefully soon.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:38
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:39
So you’ll see that in an episode. Hopefully, I have a good experience. Fingers crossed.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:44
Fingers crossed.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:44
Because I want to have at least experience that you had Ariel because you had a really good experience.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:51
Yeah, okay. But once again, thank you for listening to the Happiest Pod on Earth. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at happiest, @happiestpodGT, and on Instagram @hoppiestpodGT, where we will be updating you on all things happening in the Disney Marvel Star Wars universe.

Ariel Landrum 1:16:11
Absolutely. Bye, everybody.

Stefanie Bautista 1:16:13
Bye.

• Wandavision
• Wanda Maximoff
• Vision
• Pietro Maximoff
• Monica Rambeau
• I Love Lucy
• I Dream of Jeannie
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Bikini Kill
• Riot Grrl

• Style
• Identity
• Grief
• Trauma
• Safety
• Safety corner
• Presentation
• Caregiver
• Chaos
• Control

Stefanie Bautista 0:11
Hello, everybody, welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:15
And I’m Ariel. And we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that.

Stefanie Bautista 0:19
Yep. 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 0:25
And as for myself, I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and obtain mental wellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:33
Happiest Pod is a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why do we do this? Because just like you we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums that we consume every day.

Ariel Landrum 0:43
So Stef… What Disney medium or experience are we dissecting today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:51
Today we are talking about Black Widow.

Ariel Landrum 0:54
What!?

Stefanie Bautista 0:54
The movie that we have been waiting for for so so long.

I feel like…

Ariel Landrum 1:00
So long.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01
Not only because the pandemic made it longer, I feel like we’ve been waiting for this for what is it more than a decade now? Marvel celebrated its 10 year when again? Like a year ago?

Ariel Landrum 1:12
Yeah…

Two years ago?

At least that that long.

Stefanie Bautista 1:16
Yeah. I mean, when they took that picture, Scarlett Johansson had brown hair.

Ariel Landrum 1:22
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:23
She had long brown hair. So definitely not Endgame. She didn’t have the short blonde bob right?

Ariel Landrum 1:31
No.

Stefanie Bautista 1:31
She had. I mean, she changes her hair all the time. But I don’t remember seeing that after or before I saw the 10 year anniversary. But Black Widow back to the movies, Marvel really stated that this was their big return to the movies. And how did you feel about that?

Ariel Landrum 1:50
Yeah, I was actually really excited. I genuinely miss our theater experiences. Well, in the before times…

Stefanie Bautista 2:00
Yeah. Yes.

Ariel Landrum 2:01
We used to get those midnight showings, we would we would stay up late, we would stay all the way to the end credits to make sure we got every scene that they put in there and every Easter Egg and I often I would rent an entire row. And so it was it was a gang of us. Like we had we had the squad 20, 30 seats.

Stefanie Bautista 2:21
Deep.

Ariel Landrum 2:22
It was great.

Stefanie Bautista 2:23
We would hang out beforehand, have dinner and drinks. Pregame. Kind of like we were tailgating for a game or you know, pre gaming before a concert, we treated it exactly like that. So I’m sure many of you guys did the same thing. Preparing for all of these movie releases these Marvel releases that were so important to us. Are so important to us.

Ariel Landrum 2:43
Yeah, yeah. So it’s so it was, it was nice to sort of have that back, but not really. And since since I lost I last saw this movie versus like what’s happening now. The LA has mask orders again.

Stefanie Bautista 2:59
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 3:00
And wearing them inside. We were that delta variant is no joke.

Stefanie Bautista 3:05
Yep. It’s no joke.

Ariel Landrum 3:05
So this was a pause in the pandemic that I got to embrace.

Stefanie Bautista 3:10
It was a hard pause. A positive that was gonna be a longer pause. But you know, we we had a little too much hope for that. But I know both Ariel and I saw Black the Black Widow in theaters, but we sought separately due to our schedules and everything else that’s going on in our lives. So we would like to share with you guys are 2 very different experiences, apparently, of going back to the movies, because, I mean, this was not my first movie back in the theaters. Although this is my first large movie back without there being many restrictions. Was it the same for you, Ariel?

Ariel Landrum 3:48
So this is my This was my first movie back during the pandemic. I did go see the Trolls movie? I hadn’t even seen the first one. But it was playing at an outdoor movie theater. So I saw it in my car.

Stefanie Bautista 4:02
Oh, right. Yeah, yes.

Ariel Landrum 4:03
Um, other than that, I had not stepped foot in a movie theater the entire shutdown.

Stefanie Bautista 4:09
Yeah, I went to see a drive-thru movie too. I saw. I’m forgetting the name of it. It’s the one with Shia Labeouf and he’s like a cholo?

Ariel Landrum 4:18
Oh, yeah. I don’t remember the name of that.

Stefanie Bautista 4:21
No, it’s not the negotiator. It’s something like that.

Ariel Landrum 4:26
Help us Dr. Google.

Stefanie Bautista 4:27
Yeah, help us doctor… And I saw it at Mission Tiki just like you did.

Ariel Landrum 4:31
Yeah MIssion Tiki.

Stefanie Bautista 4:31
You went to Mission Tiki. Yeah, pretty far away. And it was technically the first ever movie my son went to as like a 6 month old. Which is really funny. It was not very memorable. Shia Labeouf was cool. And I’m glad that he had a lot of dedication to this movie, but it was it was not it y’all. Definitely not my first movie back. My first movie back was Demon Slayer. And for all you anime fans out there, that was a fantastic movie to see in theaters especially for it being an empty theater at the time. But Black Widow was definitely my first big Marvel movie release full capacity theater. Back to the movies and yeah, I saw it at Burbank 16 which is a very popular place in LA to watch movies. It’s a huge cineplex. Very central to a lot of people who live in LA Valley area, and plenty of parking and we would normally see our Avengers movies all of our Iron Man’s, Captain America’s, Batman vs. Superman, all of our real big comic book theaters. If we couldn’t dish out the money to go see it at Arclight and the Cinerama, we would go to Burbank because a little bit more affordable and it was part of the AMC A List that many of us were a part of.

Ariel Landrum 5:45
And they had Dolby so…

Stefanie Bautista 5:47
They have Dolby

Ariel Landrum 5:47
You’re not missing out too much.

Stefanie Bautista 5:48
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 5:49
And and now everywhere you choose seats, so…

Stefanie Bautista 5:53
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 5:53
That was that was we… We used to go see it at the AMC that was the one in Winnetka maybe?

Stefanie Bautista 5:59
Oh my gosh, yes. Ariel would drag us all the way over there way out yonder in the deep Valley.

Ariel Landrum 6:05
Because of the prizes and the fact that I could get tickets.

Stefanie Bautista 6:08
Yes, but we could have done the same thing at Burbank, which we started to do. So

Ariel Landrum 6:12
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 6:13
We we live in we learn. And more people showed up because you started choosing Burbank, which is great. So yeah, Burbank normally is a solid theater, because it accommodates so many people and it’s usually always busy. They’re pretty on top of things. However, that was not my experience this time. This is not a theater review by any means necessary. But you know, for it not being my first experience back, but it was for many other people. I mean, there was just things that were kind of amiss. The great thing about Burbank is you don’t have to pay for parking. And I think that’s why a lot of people choose it. So parking wasn’t so bad. I watched on a Sunday night. And it was a 7:50 showing so not super late not super early, pretty prime time to watch a movie.

Ariel Landrum 7:01
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 7:02
We were able to purchase our tickets early. So we were able to reserve. I was in the Dolby Theatre, which was great. Been in that theater so many times. But my friend decided to get us our popcorn and drinks before we got there because I was running a tad bit late. And so I’m getting these texts from my friend and he’s like “Ah Stef, they ran out of Coke on all the machines and every single machine be routed with Coca Cola.” And they also did not have Ginger Ale, which is like my second choice. And so he had to get Diet Coke and I am not a fan of Diet Coke. It has that taste that I’m just like bleh afterwards. I don’t know what it is I do they sweetened with Stevia or something?

Ariel Landrum 7:48
No I that Coke Zero isn’t it doesn’t have sugar right is a thing? I don’t know.

Stefanie Bautista 7:52
Coke Zero doesn’t have sugar. But anyway, it has this taste and I’m sure you diet drinkers. I’m sorry. If you like diet, I’m just not a fan. So I knew I was gonna go in having to drink that. And it was like a large. The popcorn was like it wasn’t popped.

Ariel Landrum 8:09
What?

Stefanie Bautista 8:09
We sat down and it was a huge bucket of popcorn. And we usually do that to share. Me and my husband normally do. And my friend got his own bucket of popcorn and the minute we sat down, he leans over and he’s like, “This is the worst popcorn I’ve ever had in my life.”

Ariel Landrum 8:26
So I mean, was it was it mushy? Or was it not all popped? Or was it cold?

Stefanie Bautista 8:31
They were tiny, uncooked kernels, like crumbs. And so the top layer because I had the fresh batch because my friend had been eating has already. The top layer was like maybe an inch of freshly popped popcorn. And then under that was all the not popped popcorn.

Ariel Landrum 8:49
No.

Stefanie Bautista 8:49
Like maybe I would say six inches down. So here we are, like trying to like not choke.

Ariel Landrum 8:59
Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 9:00
Eating the popcorn. And you know, I was like, all right, well, this is gonna be more work than I thought. And so we’re trying to get through the bottom of popcorn. But I think that was one of the things I was looking forward to the most about being back into theaters; theater popped popcorn. I love the smell of freshly popped buttered popcorn. It’s like my last treat that I like to eat before I leave the parks. Like I mentioned in our last episode.

Ariel Landrum 9:24
Yup. Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 9:25
And I don’t know like I really love popcorn. So this is kind of disappointing.

Ariel Landrum 9:30
Oh, man. Okay, so one of the things that we talked about in a previous episode in regards to my experience going back to the parks, like we really highlighted expectations.

Stefanie Bautista 9:42
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 9:43
How they can sometimes be a detriment to happiness. So it sounds like you were you were expecting what you considered even a traditional movie going experience not not even very, like you know, like you weren’t asking for the extra.

Stefanie Bautista 9:57
Nope. I just wanted my drink and my popcorn. Literally it I knew I knew the theater was going to be fine. I had a plan already to just eat my popcorn and drink as fast as I could, so that I can put my mask back on knowing that there was full capacity. So that’s really my plan going into the movie theater. And it kind of got jacked, because I was trying to navigate this popcorn situation, and in the dark. You’re not really trying to look inside of your popcorn bucket and trying to find things that won’t kill you. So I mean, at that point, I was like, “You know what, I’m just gonna use my my sense of touch, to find the ones that were popped, and enjoy the movie away.”

Ariel Landrum 10:41
Way to evolve and adapt.

Stefanie Bautista 10:43
Yeah, way to evolve and adapt. Just like, you know, how we do. The pandemic taught me a lot y’all. So I mean, it could have been worse. There could have been no popcorn, we could have been, you know, I couldn’t have I, I maybe could have had a friend who couldn’t get me popped, you know, so many other things. That you know, we we think about walking in and you know, there are certain privileges that I’ve had going into here, but it was just a little disappointing.

Ariel Landrum 11:08
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 11:08
The beginning of the movie, and it didn’t really set the tone for the movie just because the movie in in in itself, and we will talk about this in a little bit. It just pulls you from like, minute 1. So, you know, aside from that… It was okay theatre experience.

Ariel Landrum 11:28
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 11:28
I will try it again maybe not on a weekend. I’m you know, at that point in my life where I don’t have to see a midnight showing. I don’t have to watch things on the weekend, even though it’s very convenient for me. I will be A-Okay with watching on a Monday night so.

Ariel Landrum 11:45
Well I think part of it is like we have gotten older so maybe that’s not something that we need. You you definitely have family, a little one that you have to go home to and accommodate. But I also think like with the evolution of media, it’s a lot easier to avoid spoilers now. Umm even that term, I think in the beginning of my Marvel watching career wasn’t really even a thing. And it was like “How do I how do I read a movie review without somebody telling me like who the bad guy was and how they got destroyed?”

Stefanie Bautista 12:16
I mean, like a wise person once said, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” So…

“No buddy go time.”

“Ain’t nobody got time for that.” But I know you had a very different experience.

Ariel Landrum 12:26
Yes, yes, I did a very different experience. Um, so this was the first time that I went back to the theaters and like you said, I also wore my mask unless I was going to be eating popcorn or drinking Coke. Again with weird ticket buying situations, my partner and I tried to buy tickets to the El Capitan Theatre. The El Capitan Theatre used to be a playhouse theatre; is built in 1926. And it was actually balt, bought by Walt Disney Studios in 1989. And they did like a two year restoration with Pacific theatres. And so gorgeous. It has a Wurlitzer Organ, it has a street level walk up Box Office, and it’s actually marked as LA Historic Cultural Monument.

Stefanie Bautista 13:16
Yeah, it’s definitely a very touristy area to watch a movie.

Ariel Landrum 13:22
Right on Hollywood and Highland.

Stefanie Bautista 13:25
Right front of the Dolby theater, where they host the Oscars.

Ariel Landrum 13:28
Walk of Fame. Stars.

Stefanie Bautista 13:30
All of that. So Ariel, you really went for the Hollywood experience for this one?

Ariel Landrum 13:35
Yeah. So I told my partner I’d never been to the El Capitan Theatre. Never.

Stefanie Bautista 13:40
“Dun dun dunn!” Can’t believe that.

Ariel Landrum 13:42
And there’s like a list of LA things that all ‘LA-ers’ do and then there’s a list of LA things that all tourists do, right?

Stefanie Bautista 13:50
Angelenos.

Ariel Landrum 13:51
Now ‘LA-ers.’

Stefanie Bautista 13:53
No one ever calls us that.

Ariel Landrum 13:55
Does that, does that count as one?

Stefanie Bautista 13:57
No, I’ll let that slide just because you’re a transplant.

Ariel Landrum 14:01
Thank you. But I and so one of those things is going to the El Capitan Theatre. I had never gone because I didn’t have a partner that wanted to go that far. Which…

Stefanie Bautista 14:14
It’s not that far.

Ariel Landrum 14:15
It’s not that far but in LA traffic, it’s like far enough, right?

Stefanie Bautista 14:18
I work farther guys. Much farther.

Ariel Landrum 14:23
But so he said, “Okay, well, then, you know, we’re gonna go back to the movies. We’re gonna go see Black Widow. Let’s see it at this theater.”

Stefanie Bautista 14:29
Love it. Yes.

Ariel Landrum 14:30
So we tried to buy tickets online. And they they make it so that you have to reserve there, there can’t be a seat on either side of you that’s filled as part of spacing.

Stefanie Bautista 14:41
Okay.

Ariel Landrum 14:42
For social distancing, and the system would not let us do it. Like it would not let even if we had like three seats on either side, like it was not letting us buy it. So then we called the Box Office, and they were telling us to just use the app. And then we’re like, “We tried the app. We tried the websites, it’s not working.” And then they finally let us buy tickets. And we were supposed to go in the at like 3:30, where it was supposed to be a matinee. And we ended up going at 10:30. We had to switch the tickets twice to 2 different times

Stefanie Bautista 15:16
Oh my gosh.

Ariel Landrum 15:18
Because my partner’s job and a shoot came up

Stefanie Bautista 15:22
Oh okay.

Ariel Landrum 15:22
And all that nonsense. This will be a common theme and a lot of these episodes where I will have plans that change because my partner’s job schedule is not consistent as he works in the industry. So there you go.

Stefanie Bautista 15:34
And like you said, area we are learning to adapt and, and learn about our expectations and our realities.

Ariel Landrum 15:43
Pivotting.

Stefanie Bautista 15:44
Pivotting. It’s just part of our it’s part of our MO now.

Ariel Landrum 15:47
Yes, yes. So um, my first time so if anybody has not been there. Totally worth it to go.

Stefanie Bautista 15:56
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 15:58
The there’s an intro show before your previews before your movie. So the the intro show was just just some lights and music but it’s Disney Magic lights and music. So there’s a stage in front and the music turns on. And there’s sparkly lights that are glowing all over throughout the theater. And the stage has a curtain and the curtain lifts. And then there’s a beautiful scenery of animals with a peacock in the middle. That’s just glittering and sparkly. And then that turns out to be a curtain and it lifts. And there’s a crystal beaded curtain that’s just sparkling with a cityscape behind it. And it turns out that beaded curtain and the cityscape are also a currtain and they lift. And then there’s a tensile shimmery curtain that gives you like a cool holographic effect. And that’s a curtain and it’s the final curtain. So that that was that made my freaking night. I did not expect it. I know that in one of our episodes, we talked about a Disney short that involves jobs. And I did get to see the guy who plays a Wurlitzer. I didn’t see him in person here, but I saw it on that.. In in that show. So I just thought that was the only performance and if he wasn’t on stage, then I wouldn’t get anything. But it was the lovely theater. No no lifting of the curtain.

Stefanie Bautista 17:26
Yeah, he’s not always there. And I think I’ve seen quite a good amount of movies there at the El Capitan. I probably only have seen him once or twice over the years. And I don’t even know if that’s the same guy who is on One Day at Disney. It might even be like a long time ago, because the first movie I ever remember watching there was Mulan in like, ’94.

Ariel Landrum 17:47
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 17:47
So who knows who was playing at that time?

Ariel Landrum 17:51
So not the remake? Not the live action one.

Stefanie Bautista 17:53
No, no, no, no, no, this was this was Ming-na Wen. Mulan, like not live action, animated.

Ariel Landrum 18:01
Yeah. So um, I think something that I think probably was at your theater because and so I know it was mine. And I think is a very Los Angeles thing, because we are so close to the film industry was they had a lot of the props and costumes that were actually in the film. And for us it was in 2, like, opera boxes?

Stefanie Bautista 18:23
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 18:23
And then throughout the theater. Were there any for you?

Stefanie Bautista 18:26
Yes, it wasn’t for Black Widow. But they did have the costumes from Jungle Cruise at Burbank. I know, when you watch movies at the Arclight, either in Hollywood well, as they’re preparing to open it up, whoever’s taking it over. Any Arclights will have a bunch of costumes from many different movies. And it is a very LA thing, just because you know what to do with all of these beautiful costumes after they’re done doing their job? I mean, they’re just gonna sit in storage in all of these places in the Valley that store them. So what they do is that they do put them on display for long periods of time at theaters all throughout the Valley. So I hope they continue to do that.

Ariel Landrum 19:06
Yeah. And and then it’s something else that I and this is where I don’t know if… So, so again, I was I’m a military brat, and I moved around a lot. A lot of the theaters I went to where the free theaters on the military base. They are by far not snazzy or glamorous.

Stefanie Bautista 19:23
No.

Ariel Landrum 19:24
But they they never had trailers. It was just you saw the movie at the time that you were going to go so. And then and then my dad retired in Kansas. And that’s not really a big film industry area. There was I even remember there only being one theater and one in the city that I went to. So this is something that you’ll have, you’ll have to Tweet us if it’s changed in the Midwest. But I know one of the things that I loved when I started going into theaters out here in LA was was my swag. Had no idea that gave out swag and so at this theater, I got a tin popcorn bucket. It was tin and it has the El Capitan on it. My my drink cup, I could get a topper that also just stands on its own so I can put it on top of the drink or I can. It’s a figurine. So I got Taskmaster.

Stefanie Bautista 20:14
Nice.

Ariel Landrum 20:16
And I also got a poster at the end.

Stefanie Bautista 20:18
Yeah, I know that, from all the, you know, experiences that I’ve had at the El Capitan, because you’re paying slightly higher price for your movies, you are always going to get some sort of souvenir; a pin, a popcorn bucket, a little poster, what have you. It’s just all part of the experience of going to the El Capitan. I can’t say the same for a lot of AMCs, Pacific Theaters around LA. Sometimes they do, but they normally have that as a disclaimer before you buy your tickets.

Ariel Landrum 20:45
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 20:45
So if you do want to get some swag, there are plenty of opportunities to get that swag, you just kind of have to read the guidelines on the specific showing that you’re going to. But yeah, I think that is like an LA thing that we do have those opportunities. I don’t even know in, in New York or other major cities if they do this sort of thing. Maybe now with the rise of, you know, the popularity of Comic-Con and you know, comic book movies, especially, you know, incorporating Disney movies into this sort of category. Swag is a really big part of the experience of going to see a movie.

Ariel Landrum 21:21
It’s definitely part of the culture. Like you expect swag when you go to the cons.

Stefanie Bautista 21:25
Absolutely. So I think they’re really starting to incorporate that with the movies. But I know, for the El Capitan specifically, it is something that is included, as well as sometimes I don’t know, Ariel, did you get to go to the basement of El Capitan?

Ariel Landrum 21:37
No, we didn’t go to the basement.

Stefanie Bautista 21:39
Okay.

Ariel Landrum 21:39
And again, we saw the movie at 10:30 at night, and it was showing and when we got our popcorn, they gave us our refill right away because they’re like, “After, after this we gone.”

Stefanie Bautista 21:49
Yup. It’s closing time.

Ariel Landrum 21:52
But I’m, I’m curious for you. I know that some of our friends, when they went to AMC, they were able to get a comic book.

Stefanie Bautista 21:58
Yes. I think that was for some showings. It wasn’t part of my showing, unfortunately. But I think it was a part of the IMAX showings. I only went to a Dolby showing. So I know IMAX also does a promo because you know, they, they want people to spend that extra money. And I know that there’s an IMAX at City Walk next to Universal Studios. However, you do have to pay for parking there. And that’s why, although it is fun, and I suggest going for like a really special movie that you want to see. It is going to cost you a pretty penny, knowing that movies are not cheap nowadays. But yeah, I asked if you went to the basement because I remember watching Finding Dory there and a lot of other Pixar Disney movies, and they always have a really special exhibit downstairs. For Finding Dory they had an aquarium. And they had yeah, like they had Dory. And you know, all of they had an octopus for Hank. And they had like the different characters. And I know they’d done it for Frozen as well. They had like a whole behind the scenes of how they made Frozen downstairs. I don’t know because of COVID if they’re trying to limit the amount of people that are in an enclosed space, but I know pre-COVID they always utilize that basement for some really special thing. And then they would actually have people exit out from that bottom entry. So that..

Ariel Landrum 23:18
Nope. went out to the main lobby.

Stefanie Bautista 23:20
Got it. Got it. Yeah, so I’m sure things have changed since the pandemic and I’m sure that they’ll adapt moving forward, but I’m glad to see that they’re using at least the opera boxes.

Ariel Landrum 23:30
Yes, they’re using the opera boxes, we got to go upstairs and there was a Jungle Cruise like backdrop but no actual items. And so again, because the tickets got changed 3 times so did our seats. And it was because it was so late at night. Even though it was a Saturday, we had the entire right side of the theater to ourselves. Like talking about social distancing. I don’t I’m a I’m a bad aim, but I don’t think I could have thrown popcorn at the next person. ‘Cause they were so far away.

Stefanie Bautista 24:07
I’m sure you wouldn’t want to throw it because your popcorn is probably really good.

Ariel Landrum 24:10
Oh my popcorn is amazing. So fulfilling.

Stefanie Bautista 24:12
Their popcorn is always amazing. That’s I was thinking about I was like “Oh man Ariel probably really good popcorn. She’s at the El Capitan.”

Ariel Landrum 24:19
However, we did have a Mickey pretzel; again owned by Disney. So there was a Mickey pretzel and it was just okay. It was not Disney park good. I could tell a difference and so I don’t know if that’s common for that, that theater or if it is…

Stefanie Bautista 24:34
They use that hard LA water. I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do to mask that I’m sorry.

Ariel Landrum 24:42
And then the other really crazy thing about the experience was they raffled off 3 gifts and it was like a bag full of Black Widow swag. I did not win, or I would have said that. But er ahh. Yeah I’m mad that I didn’t win because there was only like, what 5 other people? It was like, there was nobody there. And there was 3 in my aile, and there was 2 of us, I thought our chances were, were high, but they were not. But it was just really cool. They they, they did the raffle. And they actually handed the items to the guests, the guests and a half to get up. And again, owned by Disney. So their cast members, and the they they started the intro with, “Ladies and gentlemen,” and I don’t know if you guys have been following some of the Disney news. But a lot of the parks have changed the intro to their firework show to, “Welcome all dreamers,” to be more inclusive of individuals who are nonbinary. And so we were wondering if that’s going to change there too. I’m just gonna take note and keep an eye on that.

Stefanie Bautista 25:50
Yeah, I’ll definitely take a look at that too. Because now, I want to make up for this theater experience of mine. And the next movie, I’m gonna watch it, I’m gonna dish up the extra books to get me my fresh popcorn. But I’m glad that you had such a fantastic first time at the El Capitan. That’s really great to hear, especially, you know, coming from an Angeleno, myself, I always want people to have the best experiences when they go to touristy places like this. I know it’s always a hit or miss when you go to Hollywood, because it’s just, it’s a wild place out there, also, but the El Capitan does have that Disney magic. So they will go the extra mile to make sure you and your little ones have a really good time. Because, you know, we’re always bringing kids to the El Capitan because they’re always showing Disney movies. So so many things can go wrong with watching a movie with kids. So I’m glad that you had that fantastic experience.

Ariel Landrum 26:46
I’m not glad that you didn’t.

Stefanie Bautista 26:48
No. It’s all right. I mean, it be like that sometimes.

Ariel Landrum 26:53
It be like that sometimes.

Stefanie Bautista 26:54
It be like that sometimes. But let’s dive in to the movie itself.

Ariel Landrum 27:00
Okay, um… You go first.

Stefanie Bautista 27:04
Yeah, again, this is not a review podcast…

Ariel Landrum 27:07
But there will be spoilers there. Will you want a spoiler free pod review in a podcast We do have a friend named Billy he’s not part of the GT Network. But he is The Movie Grater. That says podcast, he grades movies, and none of them have spoilers.

Stefanie Bautista 27:23
Yes, none of them are spoilers. They have really great conversations about different perspectives on the movies. And you’ll laugh a lot. Because Billy is a very, very fun person and a good friend of ours. So check his podcast out if you want spoiler-less review or commentary. So if you haven’t seen Black Widow, put a pause on this. Listen to any of our other episodes. And we will see you back after you watch Black Widow. Go see it ’cause we liked it.

Ariel Landrum 27:54
We liked it a lot.

Stefanie Bautista 27:57
Yes. Um, I don’t know, Ariel. Maybe we can just kind of riff off of each other of this one? Just because I know that we can take this movie in a lot of different angles. Now, Black Widow was supposed to be released. And not this year.

Ariel Landrum 28:12
Oh, no.

Stefanie Bautista 28:13
Not last year. But way before we really went forward with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, right?

Ariel Landrum 28:21
Yeah, believe 2019 or 2020? Yeah, that was. Okay. So other experience in talking about Comic-Con earlier, Stef and I went to Comic-Con in 2019. And she was able to attend the Marvel Hall H, ah, and she got some swag. And she gifted it to me because she’s the most loveliest friend ever. And it was a Black Widow ballcap um, it has her silhouette. And it says Marvel 2020 on the back.

Stefanie Bautista 28:55
Yes, Marvel 2020 because it was the big reveal of all the things that were happening in 2020. They hype this up. I was in tears. Everybody in Hall H was just like losing their minds. You can see Scarlett Johansen comes out and then you see Florence Pugh come out and then you see Hopper I’m forgetting his name David Harbour come out.

Ariel Landrum 29:17
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 29:18
And then you just see all these you see Simu Liu. I mean, it was just like, all of the YouTube videos that you see of Comic-Con.

Ariel Landrum 29:26
Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 29:26
It was just it was major. And as they all were like, introducing the movie they put on these hats facing facing the stage and not facing the audience and they turned around to reveal Black Widow’s silhouette and her, her monogram, and it was it blew everybody’s mind and then as they turned around all of the all of the Hall H workers started giving hats out. And we again hats. Oh my gosh.

Ariel Landrum 29:56
And you get a hat and you get a hat!

Stefanie Bautista 29:59
I think correct me if I’m wrong, Ariel the popularity of the Marvel panel at Hall H has gotten so large that they don’t give away too much swag recently. Right?

Ariel Landrum 30:11
Yeah, they’ve Yeah, they’ve cut the variety of swag. So the final Game of Thrones panel Hall H, I got to see it and that that was a bag full of swag.

Stefanie Bautista 30:25
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:25
There was a poster. There was a pen.

Stefanie Bautista 30:27
There was a tote bag.

Ariel Landrum 30:28
There was a water bottle there was I think of a…

Stefanie Bautista 30:31
A shirt.

Ariel Landrum 30:32
A shirt. Yes, yeah, sure.

Stefanie Bautista 30:33
I still wear that shirt.

Ariel Landrum 30:36
And the the Marvel ones have slowly started not giving as many things I think not just because of the popularity, but also because they are not wanting to reveal anything. Everything. Is Marvel’s all locked down tight lipped. I mean, unless you’re Spider-Man.

Stefanie Bautista 30:53
Yep. Yeah. So we’ve been waiting for this movie for a really long time. And so I if we’re talking again, about expectations, and what we as women wanted to see out of Black Widow, I feel like over the years, it has changed for me, how about you?

Ariel Landrum 31:12
I, I think it definitely has changed. I if you look at her evolution, she certainly changed. I am looking at an image right now at me and I will I will link in the show notes of the evolution of her wardrobe. And this is what caught me when I when I was watching this movie. And and now even more so as I’m looking at the evolution of her wardrobe. So like black latex Iron Man 2 Black Widow. Very low cleavage. I think at some, I learned that apparently they they do a lot of special effects even on the clothes when things bend a certain way. So so certainly the special effects on this clothes like there’s just tightness. So just really hyper-sexualized, and going into the outfit she’s wearing here, the zippers hire so there isn’t as much cleavage and there’s actual padding. Like you see it on our elbows and her knees and on her shoulders. And even on her gloves. She looks like a fighter to me. And her hair isn’t like in these ring like curls. And she is wearing a vast amount of makeup. She actually looks. Now we know everybody’s wearing makeup on set even the men. But her makeup is toned down it is more natural, and even her hair is sort of more free flowing. Like she has some braids in a few different areas. But they aren’t tight knit they aren’t curly. She doesn’t look like she’s meant to be sexually digested. It looks like she’s meant to, you know, whoop some ass. Yeah, exactly. And I know that that’s always a point of contingency when it comes to looking at female fighters and female characters in action movies. As a woman, you’re always thinking to yourself, “How in the heck are you fighting with just the latex suit on, hair all up in your face? Makeup, you know, full, full face makeup all the way done? How are you not realistically sweating and uncomfortable in that? And not everybody is Catwoman because Catwoman is, you know, otherworldly. She has you know, cat like reflexes. Not everybody’s Michelle Pfeiffer

Different franchise has different magic. Quote unquote.

Stefanie Bautista 33:28
Yes. Different franchise. And, you know, I always thought about that whenever I played Mortal Kombat. Whenever I played Street Fighter. I mean, clearly, these are video games. They’re not supposed to represent real life. However, you got to have a little bit of realism when it comes to it. And especially if you’re doing a movie like Black Widow, which is more of you know, she doesn’t necessarily have superpowers per se. She’s not a mutant. She’s hasn’t been injected with any sort of super serum.

Ariel Landrum 33:57
Isn’t a sorcerer

Stefanie Bautista 33:58
Isn’t a sorcerer. So she has no abilities, aside from the fact that she’s highly trained and skilled in what she does. So, I mean, I think realistically, she looks a lot more suited to the work that she’s doing.

Ariel Landrum 34:13
Yeah, and, and even in talking about her being highly trained, like we’ve known that throughout all of these movies, but I feel like this is the first time where I was able to really appreciate her training, even when she was fighting Taskmaster. Like, like in the comics, and even in this iteration, Taskmaster, Taskmaster learns your moves and mimics you, essentially mirrors you. You’re you’re like fighting yourself. And she kind of picked that up right away and was able to adapt her fighting style instead of going to like her common go-tos. That’s just difficult. That’s that’s not an easy thing to do. As as a therapist, I work with a variety of people and I have a large caseload of people who are MMA fighters. And we talk about how it can be easy to default to a fighting style, but that makes you more predictable to your partner, or I mean the person that you’re attempting to fight. Your opponent. And in this case, Black Widow is always learning and always growing. We do see her sort of couple of her same signature moves. But she in this movie has shown even more wider variety in her stance and her fighting style. So I, I think, like, again, she’s not she. So so when we meet her an Iron Man 2, she’s a spy who attempts to infiltrate Tony Stark’s operation, but she’s a femme fatale. She uses her sexuality to get men to drop their guard and trust her. Now, we’re a decade a little over a decade later, and she is no longer a spy, she actually gets to be her full self. I think that’s, that’s a very different approach. Like we we actually accept her as a hero, and not sort of like having ulterior motives. And she she isn’t a sexual object, and she doesn’t use her sexuality as a weapon. And then even Scarlett Johansson has said in many interviews that she no longer comfortable playing with this character as someone who’s objectified.

Stefanie Bautista 36:14
Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think the first time when I saw her in Iron Man, she was like a Bond girl to me. She could have been somebody that I knew was working for somebody else, not somebody who was working out of their own volition, but somebody with an ulterior motive that was working for the man behind the chair. And ultimately, that is who trained her however, like you said, the evolution of her character started to become more and more independent over the films.

Ariel Landrum 36:45
More autonomy.

Stefanie Bautista 36:46
Yeah, more autonomy. Exactly. Every time we saw her in all the other various movies, she was attached to Hawkeye. They were working as a team more of like a duo where, I don’t know and I can’t really say that I saw one leading the other, but I kind of knew that one worked in tandem with the other and they always talked about, you know, their, their previous jobs. And you know, how…

Ariel Landrum 37:10
‘Buda-pesh.’

Stefanie Bautista 37:11
Budapest. Buda-Budape-sht. And that was such a wild thing in the movie, but anyway. But yeah, she was always working with Hawkeye. And they were always paired up together. So I was just like, “Okay, well, we haven’t really seen Hawkeye by himself. But we also haven’t seen Black Widow by herself. And then when everybody split their separate ways during Civil War, she was now Cap’s right-hand woman.

Ariel Landrum 37:32
Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 37:32
And so we didn’t really see her as her full hero self she was more of, you know, Cap’s confidant, which was great, because, you know, he was so nice to her and, you know, always respectful to her, but still, she kind of took a backseat. Definitely the second tier of the Avengers.

Ariel Landrum 37:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 37:50
So it was really nice to see her, you know, act on her own volition and also find about find out more about herself because us as an audience, we want to find out more about her and where she’s coming from.

Ariel Landrum 38:06
And in and that she has, she has leadership qualities. She took a leadership stance in this movie, and when we remember her RIP in End Game, she out after the 5 year Blip, she was the one running the Avengers. She was the one giving people orders. She was the one who really tried to keep it all together. And that seems even more believable now after seeing this film.

Stefanie Bautista 38:31
Yeah. And not just motherly, where we’re expecting her as the woman to be like, “Okay, everybody, let’s get it together.” Like “We got to save the world,” kind of thing, where it teetered on that I don’t think it was fully realized. And this movie definitely shows that her empathy as herself as Natasha was shown more above anything that we’re expecting out of her as a female superhero.

Ariel Landrum 38:56
Absolutely, absolutely. So I think like really highlighting those those big changes in differences. I mean, I I’m trying to imagine how I would feel if this was how I was introduced to Black Widow versus the previous versions. I remember trying to buy those those costumes and outfits and, and I’m a I’m a well-endowed woman, I have rather large breasts, so I could fill that part of the costume if I wanted to. However, I wasn’t always comfortable. That that costume is not easy to wear a Comic-Con. It apparently, it gives permission for people to to grope you. And as someone who cosplays fairly regularly, it’s one of those things of, “How do I like make sure to set that boundary?” And why I tend to, quote unquote, have a ‘Comic-Con guard’ with me so that people won’t,. This costume I could see being respected. I can see people seeing me as the fighter of Black Widow and not so much as this hot thing I can take a picture with. Like a like really much like, “I’m taking a picture of Black Widow like this is the character and the hero that I love.”

Stefanie Bautista 40:10
And on top of that you’re carrying weapons on your back. You are carrying weapons on your back. So I really hope that if they are looking at your backside, they’re looking at your weapons and how you will use them on them. But absolutely, I think the the playing field for cosplay has gotten larger, especially with having her sister having Iron Maiden there. I mean, even having a Red Guardian, Red Gaurdian right?

Ariel Landrum 40:42
Yes. Right.

Stefanie Bautista 40:43
His portrayal of kind of this fallen male icon, especially Soviet icon where us as Americans, we view you know, Cold War era 1980s Soviet Russia as this big, you know, iron curtain. Everybody’s you know, stoic, of course, like with the Tocky films like you think of I know, Drago and you know, you have this, like very macho sense of all men, all Russian men. But then you meet Alexi. And he is definitely fallen from grace since he was kind of pushed aside after his undercover mission in Ohio with the girls and you see him struggling to fit into his his suit. And I thought that that was a really great moment for men. Really.

Ariel Landrum 41:31
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 41:32
Dad bods everywhere. And I think that David Harbour played that role just so nicely, because he’s so loveable.

Ariel Landrum 41:40
And that scene of him trying to fit in that suit is that scene of me trying to fit into the Black Widow costume. It ain’t happening in the same way that I think is.

Stefanie Bautista 41:50
Yeah, I mean, for me, I I’m not as well endowed as Ariel. However, I don’t have the typical Asian slender body. I am much more Moana and Nani than Raya.

Ariel Landrum 42:03
Thicc.

Stefanie Bautista 42:04
So you know, I can’t really find a one size fits all costume. I have the make er actually adopt many male costumes to my suiting and I normally go that route just because it’s a little easier and more comfortable for me to attend cons that way. So I think, yeah, it was it was really great to see the differences in body types and the realism of getting into a suit that is meant for fighting and meant to you know, get hurt in. Because there was a lot of getting hurt In this movie and I

Ariel Landrum 42:38
Oh, the hits look hard. The you know those…

Stefanie Bautista 42:41
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 42:41
Who the stunt actors I applaud to them because it looked..

Stefanie Bautista 42:45
They deserve an award.

Ariel Landrum 42:47
I was cringing all the times that any of the characters got, you know, hit up because it It didn’t look just like a big explosion or that Star Wars kick that never quite hit.

Stefanie Bautista 43:01
Yeah, it wasn’t. it wasn’t Michael Bay blowing up everything. Like Natasha was getting thrown off a building. Yelena was like, you know, falling and rolling all over the place. All of the Widows that were doing their stunts. They were so fantastic. It reminded me a lot of Justice League and seeing all the Amazons on Themyscira, but harder. Way harder because they were falling. They’re getting stabbed. They were you know, she’s you Yelena stabs herself in the leg to get out her little transmitter. And it looked real.

Ariel Landrum 43:34
Looked so real. So real. She barely flinched too.

Stefanie Bautista 43:38
Barly flinched. And you could hear it squelching. Like, you could hear the bones like I don’t know I mean, I heard an Dolby, obviously so I heard everything. But I liked how they didn’t go soft on the women. And because they were doing such big scenes and also car chases that involved women.

Ariel Landrum 43:56
The best car chase scene I have ever seen and I have seen except for the the new one, which I haven’t seen yet I’ve seen every Fast and Furious. And you know, they start to get the same where we’re trying to get away and we’re coming up with some stuff. I have never seen what Yelena did in regards to the car chase scene and I was thoroughly impressed with the ingenuity and literally, like Black Widow was saying like “I’m trying to get away and escape.” Like she acknowledged that that was her plan.

Stefanie Bautista 44:31
I love the banter, too. That was that same I think just the overall banter between sisters is something that we don’t see. And the only other way that we’ve seen it is Frozen.

Ariel Landrum 44:41
Well I guess Lilo and Stitch?

Stefanie Bautista 44:43
Lilo and Stitch, which is more of a motherly approach because you know Nani is her caretaker. But yeah, I think between sisters who are working and sisters who haven’t seen each other for a really long time. I don’t have a sister myself, but I do have cousins who have sisters and I know, and I see the struggle between you know, I’m just we’re trying to one up each other I guess you could say. And if you’re a trained assassin trying to one up an Avenger who is your sister figure. I mean, hilarity ensues. And I think that was a really great move to insert humor into there. I died in a half when Yelena was trying to be like, “How do you how do you do that pose when you go down, and you.” Wow.

Ariel Landrum 45:29
“Such a poser.”

Stefanie Bautista 45:30
“You’re such a poser.” And I didn’t know that she was going to use that word poser, but I love that she did use that word poser, because she is just essentially taking down this Avenger who we have seen do so many great things for the universe. Work alongside Captain America, Iron Man. You know, calm down the Hulk. And now you’re reducing her to a poser there just because she looks at the camera.

Ariel Landrum 45:53
And really humbling her right when it comes to siblings. So not just sisters, your siblings can humble you in a way that nobody else can.

Stefanie Bautista 46:01
Like nobody else can. Nobody.

Ariel Landrum 46:04
‘Cause you are an older sister.

Stefanie Bautista 46:06
Yeah, I am an older sister. And my younger brother can humble me in ways that, you know, I do humble him too, because he is my younger brother. But I mean, there’s just this dynamic when when you’re an older sibling, you always try to keep it together. And I felt that with especially Natasha because she’s trying to keep it together for her family. She’s trying to just get the job done. By any means necessary, because this is just what she does. And she’s just gonna go at it however she can. And you know, even even in her laser focus of a job doing this. You get your Yelena who is the youngest. She is you know, blonde, and she’s more sprightly I guess you would say?

Ariel Landrum 46:47
Yeah. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 46:48
She has a spark. She has this fire in her. And she she’s got a mouth on her too. It’s just awesome.

Ariel Landrum 46:55
She feels like the new generation of Avengers. Like like a completely different take with different experiences that is is even just it’s just fresh and and really wonderful. I fell in love with her honestly.

Stefanie Bautista 47:10
Oh the best.

Ariel Landrum 47:11
Just amazing. Actress of Florence. Is it ‘pew’ or ‘few’?

Stefanie Bautista 47:17
I think it’s ‘pew’. But correct me if I’m wrong. I haven’t really this is what I’ve heard on interviews, but I might be wrong. Uhh I think she’s British.

Ariel Landrum 47:25
Yeah, I feel like I’ve heard ‘pew’ of the most.

Stefanie Bautista 47:27
Yeah, I know she’s British. So if if that helps, I’m not familiar, but she is a fantastic actress. If you look up her IMDb, she has done it all y’all. And now she is the future Black Widow as we are going to see in the future. So I think they picked the fantastic person to play her and…

Ariel Landrum 47:48
And I think that when we’re talking about banter, the funniest scene, which I didn’t think I would ever see in a Disney movie, I never thought I would hear the words. ‘hysterectomy’. I never thought I would hear the words ‘fallopian tubes.’

Stefanie Bautista 48:04
Yes. They went there.

Ariel Landrum 48:07
The word ‘uterus’ and and the great thing about that she adlibbed that scene.

Stefanie Bautista 48:12
I love that.

Ariel Landrum 48:13
She ad loved it. It was just hilarious. Again, I felt very seen. Because again, if we’re talking about girls, young girls who have been taken from their families or or taken off of the streets, this is this is a real life issue issue when it comes to trafficking and sex trafficking. Women and girls statistically are the majority who are trafficked. And those are things that do happen to them so that they can still be considered a marketable object. You know, “If you don’t get pregnant, it’s easier for me to market you and that.. can be see have it put it plainly on on a in a Disney movie, though, was a joke. Like it made the characters more real, because I’m sure that there’s been fandom questions in regards to how come Black Widow doesn’t have any kids? And it’s like, well, this is why this is part of the horrors of of her of her trauma and her past experiences before an Avenger.

Stefanie Bautista 49:10
Yeah, and as a clap back to, “Is it your time of the month?” Which is every woman’s just who loves to hear that? Absolutely no one. No one loves to hear that.

Ariel Landrum 49:22
Every every woman and every person with a uterus.

Stefanie Bautista 49:25
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 49:25
Just like really?

Stefanie Bautista 49:26
Yeah. And as a clap back to that I applaud that whole entire scene, because you know what, it’s not just a matter of us being on our time of the month, and nor does it have to do with any of your concern if you’re asking. So maybe you should walk that all the way back and he walked it all the way back. So…

Ariel Landrum 49:46
All the way.

Stefanie Bautista 49:48
All the way and it was liberating without burning a bra and it was liberating without using any of those, “this is a feminist movie trope,” which you know, has been played out over the last couple of years. So…

Ariel Landrum 49:59
Yeah, yeah, again, a different way of looking at feminism and older way. And I think this, this is very much how this current generation and I think our generation is, is accepting the openness around feminism, which is that these aren’t things we’re going to be afraid to talk about. But we’re not. I mean, we’re bringing them up in a moment. It is, it’s a shutdown to you, but it isn’t a weapon. It’s the truth.

Stefanie Bautista 50:22
Yeah, and I really want to highlight the fact that you mentioned Yelena being more of the new generation representative of the Avengers. I think that really worked well parallel to Rachel Weisz’ character as the Iron Maiden, because she lived her entire life being cycled through the Red Room 4 times, as she said, and she is the classic example of conditioning. And she is an example of having been used as an object as a woman under under the spell of.. Why am I forgetting his name right now?

Ariel Landrum 50:55
Oh, Dreykov?

Stefanie Bautista 50:56
Dreykov. Yes, Dreykov. I didn’t want to come Alexi that’s not him. Yeah, under Dreykov rule. And I think by her breaking away from that, to open doors to the younger generation is just, I think symbolic of Marvel’s way of opening that door from female superheroes that we’ve seen in the past and female superheroes like Black Widow, who this story is about and how she was portrayed in the past and how we are going to introduce her and every other female character after her now. Because although that, you know, it might not have been the best way to portray female superheroes. It still exists in the past, and we’re going to acknowledge it, but we’re going to take that and learn from it.

Ariel Landrum 51:39
Yeah, we’re not we’re not going to hide from it and we’re not going to minimize it. So it’s going to be presented as as factual and truthful, but it’s not going to be presented as the always in will be.

Stefanie Bautista 51:50
Yeah, and in fact, we need that perspective to move forward. Which is exactly how we needed Iron Maiden to help you know, kind of orchestrate that one explosion that ended up taking the entire island down?

Ariel Landrum 52:07
Floating Red Room.

Stefanie Bautista 52:09
Yeah, I don’t know what…

Ariel Landrum 52:11
Flying ship thing that somehow Iron Man miss every time I… Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 52:17
Okay, so now that we’ve talked a lot about what we loved, I’m sure there’s things that we could have improved on, right?

Ariel Landrum 52:26
Okay, this is my first and biggest gripe that I as soon as I found out after that’s Stef had finished finished watching the movie. I texted, did you notice that thing? Okay, I think you guys can hear my cat. I apologize.

Stefanie Bautista 52:43
Hello.

Ariel Landrum 52:43
She says, “Hi, feed me for the fourth time,” and I won’t because you’re on a diet. But anyways, as soon as I found out she’d watched it. I texted her immediately. And I was like, “Did you find the mistake? The continuity mistake in the beginning when they were in Cuba?” And she was like, “What are you talking about?” And now I am a huge Disney fan. But I will also say that I am a My Little Pony fan. Yes. I love my ponies.

Stefanie Bautista 53:18
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 53:19
And so when they land in Cuba, Yelena is holding a stuffed animal. And this stuffed animal gets passed around at least 4 times. So I got lots of views of this stuffed animal. And it is a My Little Pony. And it is an Alicorn Twilight Sparkle. So that’s the name of the character. However, Twilight Sparkle did not become an alicorn until February 16, 2013.

Stefanie Bautista 53:47
Oh, no. Way after.

Ariel Landrum 53:49
An this animal was was featured in time where it’s supposed to be 1995. So I don’t know. If Loki and Wanda had done some kind of multiverse thing and somehow Twilight Sparkle was put in this 1995 because that’s what got messed up in this universe. I’m thinking not but I was upset for the rest of the movie about this. I was… I don’t know what prop person done messed up that. And I and I had I went online I had to confirm that I was not I was not crazy. And I found all kinds of Reddit threads from other My Little Pony and Brony fans.

Stefanie Bautista 54:24
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 54:25
Yes. Yes, this was the Twilight Sparkle that did not exist in 1995.

Stefanie Bautista 54:31
Yes, I am not a big My Little Pony fan. I do love My Little Pony. However, I’m not that big of a fan. I, so now that you said that, what if there was a Nexus event that had to do with Sylvie? ‘Cause we know how old she is. And. No. I know there’s nothing nothing, somebody messed up.

Ariel Landrum 54:50
Somebody messed up.

Stefanie Bautista 54:51
in that in the opening credits. Me and in my attempt to connect the multiversus of all the fandoms that I love. I was like, okay, so David Harbour is in this movie. I’m a huge Stranger Things fan. And I’m like, “Are they in Indiana? Why are they always in Indiana? Oh, no, they’re in Ohio, which is next to Indiana. Why do they always have to pick? Is that Hopper’s house? Is that?” And I was just trying to find all of these Stranger Things Easter Eggs for whatever reason.

Ariel Landrum 55:19
Evemnthe name ‘Alexi?’

Stefanie Bautista 55:20
Even the name ‘Alexi’. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, Alexi, just like Alexi. Poor Alexi.” And so, you know, if you’ve watched Stranger Things, every 80s reference, I think, because Stranger Things has done it so so so well, I always think of Stranger Things whenever I see something 80s now because I think they kind of hit the benchmark of what it is to portray the 80s in, you know, the 2020s. So I don’t know why my brain went to that. But I was trying to connect those things, which is probably why I did not notice that My Little Pony stuffed animal. And, you know, I think everybody goes through that when they sit down to watch a movie. Especially when it’s in a multiverse like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We are so trained to find Easter Eggs now. And

Ariel Landrum 56:04
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 56:04
I talk about this all the time with my students, especially when Endgame came out. I remember, and my coworkers can attest to this. I remember watching Endgame, midnight showing, and I had to work the next day because it was Thursday. And of course, you know, Friday, we still have school. So I came into the classroom and the first thing I said to my students was, things just be dropping everywhere today. It’s okay, this is real life, guys. I walk into a classroom and I said, “If you guys don’t behave today, I will spoil Endgame for you. And I am not joking.”

Ariel Landrum 56:39
Ohhhh. So you put down there, hammer. You put down’s Thor’s hammer.

“Your Have a Good Friday. Today, you are going to get your play time you’re gonna get your free time. But if somebody slips up, I am spoiling Endgame for you.” And we had the most fantastic day in my class. So and they always love talking about Easter Eggs. And we always try to one up each other like , “Oh Miss Stefanie, did you remember this? Or do you know if you saw that?” So I think we all go through that as Marvel fans and Disney fans now. We always try to find the Pizza Planet Truck. But I think…

Yeah, that really shows you how much like when we’re talking about dissecting medium like that gives you such a good critical lens and also being observant, right? Like that’s probably I know, for my clients, and I’m assuming for your students, like being more observant of the moment is a critical skill to obtain.

Stefanie Bautista 57:27
And it’s a really, it’s pretty high level skill when you’re thinking about it because you’re accessing memories that you’ve had from previous experiences in previous movies, and you’re making those connections. And I love it when you know, kids make those connections and what stands out for certain students and what doesn’t stand out for certain students. For you, for example, the My Little Pony thing totally stood out for you.

Ariel Landrum 57:47
Instant rapid processing. Executive functioning boom, there it is.

Stefanie Bautista 57:53
For me, it was the time period and I love time period, everything I love how Marvel and really any sort of medium decides to portray any sort of time travel, any sort of retro imagery, because I feel like as technology is evolving, we’re getting so much better at it. And our understanding of prior eras has gotten so much more clear. So I mean, I think that was good, but we’re talking about things that you know, we could have fixed, right.

Ariel Landrum 58:19
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 58:20
So I think for myself really quickly, Taskmaster could have been done a little bit better.

Ariel Landrum 58:28
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 58:28
I think it was kind of Oh, I know it was kind of like a guise for who the real villain was. And we all know that. The real villain of course is the red the Red Room and I’m gonna keep forgetting and Dreykov.

Ariel Landrum 58:44
Forst time I’m saying things right.

Stefanie Bautista 58:45
Yeah. I think it’s because they don’t want to mess up the pronunciation. Dreykov.

Ariel Landrum 58:49
Yeah. Ohh.

Stefanie Bautista 58:52
Dreykov. So I know he’s, you know, kind of a Wizard of Oz thing again, where he is the man behind the curtain. He’s the person who we really need to take down. However, with the original Taskmaster, I knew that it had more of like a skull face. This one had more of a Daft Punk robot looking face.

Ariel Landrum 59:10
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 59:11
It was like, “Are we gonna see him behind the DJ booth?” Like it looked really Daft Punk. And Deadmau5 to me. And the hood didn’t quite make so much sense because she was already wearing like a skin tight, like, cap.

Ariel Landrum 59:27
Yeah, it was just kind of some extra.

Stefanie Bautista 59:31
Yeah. And I don’t know like, it was fun to see the different fighting styles like clearly claws came out Black Panther. Shield came out Captain America. It didn’t get large like the Hulk? That didn’t happen. But I think even even when you’re tying who that character was and their relationship to Natasha, it wasn’t fully fleshed out and I know that wasn’t the goal of the movie. And that was kind of like part of the journey for her. But I think that was a little bit wasted.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:05
Well, they, they, I mean, if you if you remember Black Widow was always talking about wanting to, she’s got read on her ledger and she’s wanting to wipe it clean. Like, that’s just some of the common quotes that that she has. And this was one of those reds. And unfortunately, it didn’t it didn’t quite meet expectations. Now, I really liked that they did change the gender and they connected it in the story. This wasn’t just a random person who teamed up with Dreykov like that seems to be a common thing like weird superhero team ups that don’t make sense or supervillain team ups.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:39
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:40
But it didn’t seem like this was something that she regretted as much as she probably should have. And it was too easy of a of a forgiving, I think, because it was so instant. All that I don’t remember that Taskmasters daughter’s name is Valentina?

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:04
No, no Valentina is

Ariel Landrum 1:01:05
No that’s who came out at the end. But a task, it was really that Taskmaster asked, “Is he gone?” She she wanted to get away from from her abuser. So that totally made sense. How, however, given the amount of trauma, given friggin jumping out of falling ship, and then and then being unprogrammed, I just I feel like it would have made more sense if if she was just disoriented and it wasn’t really quite speaking or or engaging and wasn’t there. I don’t I know that I would want Black Widow to have redemption. But I don’t think in this case that she should have had it. Not that easily.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:48
Exactly. Umm her name is Antonia.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:51
Gah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:51
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:53
We were close.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:54
We were not very close. But yeah, I think with her especially being one of the actors who’s truly of Russian descent, she is, you know, Olga Kurylenko, who is she’s an action actress. And she’s been in other films. It was it was kind of a miss to see her not highlighted in that way. But also, I’m sure it was hard to do that because Taskmaster already has such a reputation in the Marvel Universe in the comic books. So I know they were trying to just pull in characters probably where they could. I could be wrong. I don’t know. But yeah, I think it could have been fleshed out a little bit more. However, I know, we were teetering on what a 2 and a half hour movie at this point.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:42
Were you surprised that she was Taskmaster? Or did you figure it out?

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:47
Um, I knew Taskmaster was gonna appear at some point. Like you said, spoilers are kind of unavoidable at this point in time, so I knew I knew that character was gonna come out and the only way it could have been her. So and like, there was major foreshadowing when Yelena was talking to her and said, “Did you I did you recover the body?” And when she said, “Well, there was nobody to recover.” It was kind of like “Well, clearly she is MIA. So she’s gonna pop up somewhere.”

Ariel Landrum 1:03:14
Yeah, I I knew instantly that that moment one of 2 things and that I leaned towards it was gonna be Taskmaster or that she took over the Widows. I thought that was that could have been a take or twist. But at once I actually saw a Taskmaster fight. I was like, “Okay, yeah, this this has to be Dreykov’s daughter.” If we’re talking about him dabbling in bioengineering him dabbling in you know, conditioning mind control. Yeah, I don’t see him having any qualms doing that to his daughter. So it was it was somewhat predictable. But I thought I was going to appreciate the predictability. I didn’t as much in this case.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:01
Yeah. Fun random fact, the woman who played Taskmaster, Olga Kurylenko, was a Bond girl. Or she was in a James Bond movie. So she was in Quantum of Solace. And that is the last time I saw her. And she, yeah, was a Bond girl named Camille Montez, for all your Bond fans out there. So yeah, I think that is just one of the things that I, you know, kind of had an issue with. But other than that, I think the linear progression of Natasha finding her roots using that to kind of wipe her ledger clean and in the process, liberate the Widows, was fulfilled pretty straightforwardly. Um, yeah. And I think the end just because of when it was released, you really had to reach back. I’ve heard from a lot of my friends who have watched it who do follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe, maybe not as closely as you and I do. Or if you know our listeners do, they just said “I wish maybe I could have been prepared in watching some of the prior movies again, just to kind of freshen up.” like watch civil war again to see you know, “Why is she on the run? You know, why is you know she living out in a trailer with her version of M or Q in the Bond movies, who supplies her with all of her necessities to live. Which I like that character. I like…

Ariel Landrum 1:05:32
Mason is the character and the actor. His name is OT Fagbenly and he is also British, and he went to the same elementary school as Florence Pugh but just like 10 years earlier

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:45
That’s wild. He reminds me of Craig David.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:49
UK be small.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:51
Oh, yeah. I kept looking. I was like, “That can’t be Craig David. He’s not an actor. He sings. He sings ‘7 Days.’

Ariel Landrum 1:05:59
I guess he plays Luke in The Handmaid’s Tale, but I’ve never saw that show.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:01
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:02
The Handmaid’s Tale.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:03
That’s one of the ones I’ve yet to see. I know it’s on my list of things on Hulu that I have to watch. And I don’t watch Hulu very often anymore.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:11
So some of the other sort of small nitpicky things, because I think we’ve gotten to the point where, at least I have, I can be nitpicky in regards to Marvel movies.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:21
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:22
Okay, so the the scene where you Yelena is calling Natasha poser. They’re doing that a convenience store. They they didn’t confirm what are the convenience store person spoke English or not. Understood what they were doing or saying. They’re talking about people they’ve killed. And now she’s on the ground like whipping her head back forth. Wipe her hair back and forth. And that and he had no reaction. That extra if his his line or direction was do nothing, say nothing. They could have put a mannequin in there. And I wouldn’t have known because literally no, no response to…

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:55
None.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:56
This woman on the ground whipping her hair back and forth. Umm.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:00
And just taking things from the shelf. I don’t know if they have any intention of paying for them.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:06
But I didn’t see them stealing them in their outfits. So..

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:09
No. Also just them hanging out in that gas stations front or in clearly it’s a family owned gas station. Yeah. And they’re in like the boonies of this country. Are they in Budapest? Their in um…

Ariel Landrum 1:07:23
I don’t remember.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:23
I don’t remember, but very in like a very remote town and in remote towns everybody tends to know each other.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:30
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:30
Quite well.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:31
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:31
Look at these 2 Russian slash white women talking.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:36
Yeah just sitting here talking to each other.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:37
Super cas’

Ariel Landrum 1:07:38
Enjoying some beers with no like, no other party, no chaperone like just, you know, I, it was odd, right?

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:47
Yeah a little odd.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:47
Like there would be there would be a response. Like, I don’t think the kids would be out playing. Yeah, if these strangers in this random town are chilling. Yeah. And then the other thing was at the very end, the not not the end credit, but the very end Black Widow, rolls up in a motorcycle, and then jumps out, and then kicks Mason, and he wakes up. And I’m like, “He didn’t wake up from the sound of the motorcycle? But he wakes up because she nudges him.” I don’t buy this, I get that this trope is that he sleeps because he’s worked on a bunch of time zones, but but they should have done that better. She should have been driving a Prius and like rolled up on him sneakily.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:25
Also why wasn’t his sleeping in the quinjet?

Ariel Landrum 1:08:28
I’ve no idea.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:29
Isn’t it comfortable in there. And I mean, we’ve seen the inside of that thing. It’s pretty state of the art.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:34
And how did she not notice it? Like why was it “Oh, thanks for this jet.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:39
“This gigantic quinjet that all the Avengers are gonna fly in one day. To save the quantum universe.” Yeah, you know, those? Yeah, I think we can nitpick on those things. And I, I’m right there with you on that. So I think in the grand scheme of things, I mean, even and I this is probably the last thing I’m going to, like contribute to this part of the conversation, but the whole subway part of them just like going in. Have you guys been in a subway station? Anything goes down. I’ve been in many subway stations in many different countries, and the smallest thing goes down. Everybody turns and no one is just watching to see what goes on. You will see them scatter like roaches.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:27
Scatter. And there’s a shutdown, like it reported to them the metro authority.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:35
Yeah. Especially in Europe, because it’s such a small enclosed space like. Do not tell me.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:40
And there have been plenty of, you know, in reality, terrorist attacks that have happened in those areas. So the response time is instant.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:47
Yeah, I even think that was a better response time in the Italian Job way back in the day with Mark Wahlberg. And Charlize Theron because I love that movie. It’s one of my favorites. And when they shut down Hollywood and Highland right across the street from where you watch Black Widow, shit goes down it goes.

Ariel Landrum 1:10:04
It goes down.

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:05
So yeah, that’s the last thing I’m gonna say about that. But oh, I enjoyed it.

Ariel Landrum 1:10:11
I think like a couple of things before we end. I think The Cap would disapprove of the language. I counted I counted. So a bitch was said in English once. Shit was said in Russian once. And in English three times. Bullshit was said twice in English and ass was said three times in English. So watch your language. Language. Watch your mouth. Cap would disapprove. And I think really the only other thing that I would want to touch on is I there was some foreshadowing in the beginning with the fireflies, right in regards to like bioluminescence, and that sort of like illuminating darkness. And if we think a Dreykov off, he’s operating in the shadows. He’s hiding. I think. And then when we talk about the serum, it used light, right? Like it seemed a sparkle. Very much similar to the fireflies. I thought that was really lovely. But I feel like in the writing to the completion, something was missed in like connecting that.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:10
Yes, yeah, it didn’t come into full fruition. And yeah, I they spent so much time on that scene with Rachel Weisz explaining it to her that I thought it was going to come up again, maybe even in the scene where Yelena visits her grave afterwards. I would have liked it to be at night maybe where they would revisit that. And then we could see, you know, fireflies, but again, it did not happen. It was more symbolic, I guess.

Ariel Landrum 1:11:11
Yeah, definitely foreshadowing for the, the the way the story is supposed to go, which is like illuminating this, this person operating in the dark and in the shadows, but I, I think it should, it seemed more like it was going to be talking about their sisterly connection. And I agree with you. Like if we saw the fireflies in regards to like at her grave that would have felt like very healing as part of just grief and loss. We do tend to look for the ones that we’ve lost in the symbols around us. So I think there was a hidden amiss there.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:13
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I definitely agree. And I think that, you know, minus those little snafus, I think Marvel did a pretty good job considering that this is a release, not just in theaters, but also Disney+ as premiere access. Again, as a big theatrical release, it’s pretty hard. But I know that they’ve done quite well. Making I’m not sure hundreds of millions at this point 5, 7 or whatever.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:44
Yeah, yeah, domestically and internationally, this is broken, broken the records. And I think I think what we expected and even broken records in regards to premiere access and new subscriptions. Totally worth it overdue for this character.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:01
Definietly.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:03
And really just makes me sad that we aren’t going to see her again. I’m hoping maybe flashbacks? Or like a variant?

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:10
Who knows like it like we’ve said before, the multiverse will probably surprise us in ways that we can’t even figure out yet.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:18
Can’t even figure out.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:19
Yep.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:21
Well, if you want to hear more about Black Widow, go ahead and check out GT Radio’s episode where they talk about more of the family dynamics.

Yeah, definitely.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:31
I know that there’s much to explore with that with the dynamic of what is considered a family and what they define as a family and what Natasha, all of those people go through because of their experience as this undercover family. And yeah, it’s a must listen to.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:51
Yeah. So thank you, everybody for listening to Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:58
And I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:00
And we are Disney fans. But we’re so much more let us know how much more you are than just the Disney fan by tweeting us @happiestpodgt or dming us on our Instagram @happiestpodgt.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:12
Yep. And let us know how you like the movie and maybe some of the things that you noticed or had gripes with also. We would love to hear there is no judgment here. Okay, bye. See you next time.

• Black Widow
• Captain America
• Thor
• Iron Man
• Iron Madien
• Loki
• Sylvie
• Red Gaurdian
• Yelena
• Stranger Things
• My Little Pony

• Trauma
• Objectification
• Human trafficking
• Sex trafficking
• Childhood trauma
• 80s themes
• Anatomy
• Continuity error
• Leadership skills
• MMA fighting
• Cosplay
• Costumes
• Body image
• Body types

Stefanie Bautista 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Stephanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:14
And I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:16
And we are Disney fans. But we are really so much more than that.

Ariel Landrum 0:20
This place. This Happiest Pod On Earth is where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Yep, exactly.

Stefanie Bautista 0:27
And what are we breaking down today Ariel?

Ariel Landrum 0:30
We are going to talk specifically about jobs. I was actually reading an article this morning from The Wall Street Journal called “Forget Going Back to the Office-People Are Just Wuitting Instead.”

Stefanie Bautista 0:44
Hmm.

Ariel Landrum 0:45
Yeah, very good, good title. You know, if you want you it’s if you want some clickbait that’s, that’s it right there, right.

Stefanie Bautista 0:52
Clickbait with a little bit of info. Actual info.

Ariel Landrum 0:55
Actual info. So it was really interesting reading this article, which is behind a paywall. But I think you’re allowed to read like one Wall Street Journal article a day for free or something like that. So I was able to read it on my phone. And a specific talent consultant in the article name, Steve Catagen. We will say that they’ll totally prounce it unless someone corrects me. He, he said that previously, security was stationary. And a new job security now means that you’re more on the move, the more that someone moves, the more famous they are and the bigger their network is. And the closer they get to essentially using the movement as a career buffet to find out what they really want and how to get the best pay. The article really talks about how the pandemic has shifted things for individuals not only wanting more separation, and fluidity when it comes to work, home life balance. But he also talked about how people are really seeing that diversity in their skill base and in their their job hunting and in the way that they they navigate and work, work has been more rewarding.

Interesting. Interesting.

Stefanie Bautista 2:14
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 2:15
Yeah. And it’s really it’s really resting because it’s it’s doing this versus of like the idea that some longevity means you’re not reliable versus that it means whereas instead, having more fluidity makes you a more experienced.

Stefanie Bautista 2:33
Oh, that’s very interesting. And you’re all probably wondering, what the heck does this have to do with Disney? Obviously, Disney is a big reflection of our real life lives that we portray a little bit more fantastical sometimes.

Ariel Landrum 2:47
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 2:47
But the reason why we wanted to talk about this is because on Disney+, there is a series of little shorts called “One Day at Disney.” And it describes the different jobs that people have at Disney and like what Ariel says, kind of can add to your ‘career buffet’ of sorts. I’ve never heard that term before, but now I’m probably going to use it forever. buffet as in, there’s a lot of different jobs out there. And I think for us mainly growing up, I guess you could say as Millennials…

Ariel Landrum 3:17
Hmmhm

Stefanie Bautista 3:18
We were taught to pick a career, one of the big I guess, 5, be a doctor, be a teacher, be a, you know, somebody who works in the hospital, at least be a lawyer.

Ariel Landrum 3:30
This also may be like more Asian parents.

Stefanie Bautista 3:33
Yeah, perpesctive.

Ariel Landrum 3:33
Toting some of those jobs. But…

Stefanie Bautista 3:36
But I think many of you who might, you know, have been born somewhere in the late 80s or early 90s can relate to this notion that you need to be able to hold down one job and pick it at an early age and kind of stick to that. And there are certain I guess you could say tropes of that reflected in many classic Disney movies. Following your dreams, of course, very positive, but also it doesn’t show that there’s there’s something to learn about trying new things, different things. And I think maybe many of the newer Disney movies are reflecting that. I, I think of “Soul.”

Ariel Landrum 4:15
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 4:15
And how you know, his journey from being a jazz artist, but then also kind of stepping back and figuring out exactly what he wanted to be because, you know, he had this dream that he never really quite achieved. I know super spoiler alert. And he’s a jazz music teacher which is just as fulfilling as you know being a musician on stage. So watching those 7 minute shorts, and if you guys have any just extra time to see behind the scenes Disney stuff. I know a lot of you guys are fans of that. You will love the “Imagineering Story” like us. One day at Disney kind of brings it to the forefront of how workers are making the magic now. Not super now because of the pandemic but definitely updated. So if you’re familiar with the parks, if you’re familiar with Imagineering, you’ll love seeing these 7 minute clips of real life people describing their real life jobs and how much they love working at Disney.

Ariel Landrum 4:15
Yeah, I think and it really this article, and then just watching some of the narratives of different people, these, these jobs in the Disney shorts. It’s interesting how you could see it as like, some of these people were flighty. Something we say Millennials are that they’re inexperienced, or that they’re not reliable. And in reality, it was the networking, the variety and skill building and the desire for personal development that created career development, just like this article is saying is what drove a good chunk of these different individuals, real people, to find some of the the careers and path they were going for. And a lot of them it was, you know, taking a variety of odd jobs, I would say, or, or just taking a risk, just just trying something different that got them to this, this dream job. This this dream opportunity that has been satisfying.

Stefanie Bautista 6:15
Exactly. And on top of that, I think it’s really interesting how people tell us that, you know, you need to stay at one place in order to gain experience, but how do you gain experience when you’re having the same experience every single day.

Ariel Landrum 6:29
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 6:29
And I think seeing the journeys of some of these cast members at the park and some of these animators and the way that they’ve navigated, landing, a job at Disney is so different. Every single one is vastly different from the others. And they go through the same things that we are. You know, choosing our job has to fit in, or maybe vice versa with our lifestyles and the way that we decide to grow our families. And, you know, it’s it’s very insightful for a very short amount of time, it’s only 7 minutes. But there’s a lot to take away from it. And I think that’s what’s so great about this series.

Ariel Landrum 7:05
Yeah, speaking about it being 7 minutes. You know, if you have a job or career that’s very demanding and time consuming, if you aren’t able to binge things, or watch a whole movie, it can feel like you’re missing out on a lot of experiences. So you know, these shorts only being 7 minutes. The narrative is bite sized. It’s digestible. It’s fun. It’s wholesome. It does feel like Disney. It does feel magical. And it really is a great way to have like a breather. So for me, I do as a therapist 45 to 55 minute sessions, and they’re back to back. And so these 7 minutes segments are really good. Like, I would say, palate cleansers, particularly for me if there was a really hard session, or if I, a client and I were really processing some deep work, some some trauma work. Like I need to sort of reset before my next session. This makes it possible.

Stefanie Bautista 8:03
Yeah, it’s a great. It’s a great release. And I think, and I was telling Ariel about this earlier, when we were talking about talking about this, the series that it definitely feels like a long commercial. Disney, which you can say, with a critical lens, since we are being you know, skeptical of everything that we consume, specially media wise, you could say that everything Disney does is a commercial. But this one feels a little bit more just because it is 7 minutes, you could definitely place it in between YouTube videos that you’re watching. However, the quality and the production of it is a little bit more than a commercial. And I think that’s it, it provides us with an escape. And for you, Ariel using it between therapy sessions, it’s that really quick Disney escape that we need to kind of reset breathe, and be like, “Okay, cool. Everything’s right in the world. People are achieving their dreams. Let’s go help some people.”

Ariel Landrum 8:59
Yes, yes. It’s structured. It’s formulaic. And it’s it’s fun. It’s very Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 9:04
Yes. It’s very.

Ariel Landrum 9:05
It’s very commercial. But I think that’s what, what makes it easy to digest. I don’t have to focus on a narrative. I don’t have to follow character development when I don’t I don’t have time for that.

Stefanie Bautista 9:18
Yeah. And you’ll learn a little bit more about the parks specifically, and the media that we consume. And so the next time you go to the parks, you could be like, “Hey, I know that guy in the Nemo submarine.”

Ariel Landrum 9:29
And these jobs aren’t just the Disney parks. It is literally it is Disney Corporation. So that was that was a surprise to me, because I think like the third or fourth episode, and we meet at ESPN anchor.

Stefanie Bautista 9:42
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 9:42
And it just did not occur to me…

Stefanie Bautista 9:44
Stage Steele. She’s so cool.

Ariel Landrum 9:46
Yes! And I’m like, “How is this Disney?” But it’s the Disney Corporation.

Stefanie Bautista 9:50
Umbrella.

Ariel Landrum 9:50
They essentially own that network.

Stefanie Bautista 9:53
ESPN. Yep, yep. Yeah, and I love that episode, particularly since I’m a big sports fan and as a woman…

Ariel Landrum 10:00
She is.

Stefanie Bautista 10:03
I am. Seeing Sage talk about her story as just a girl that loves sports, but wasn’t particularly great at them. For all of you, girls and guys who play sports, but never really make it into the big leagues, that’s okay. Because you can find other things within the industry. And not just Disney. But I mean, you could apply her story to any sort of sports broadcasting or sports medicine. There’s, you don’t have to be an athlete, an Olympian to have a career in sports. And I think that’s one of the things that I really liked about hearing her story is, she was able to find something passionate. She just gets to talk about sports all day. And that’s super cool. And she, you know, opens up that door for young girls of Color also, because she is a Black woman, as a sports center anchor, and that’s huge. It’s really big.

Ariel Landrum 10:56
And it was also really interesting to see like, how much of a variety was even in her job. She writes, what she’s gonna say she writes her own scripts. If there’s breaking news, like she’s just got to pivot and make that that breaking news be integrated into that segment for the day. Again, that that networking and diversity, she must have built some skill sets to be able to, to learn and navigate and do that. Or, you know, essentially, like “Show show your worth, show me like what you can give me besides like that you can read a prompt.” It’s like, “No, I’m even writing them.”

Stefanie Bautista 11:31
Yeah. Because I mean, who wants to hear somebody talk about sports that doesn’t actually know the game and actually love it? You just sound kind of..

Ariel Landrum 11:40
“Anchor Man” it.

Stefanie Bautista 11:40
Anchor Manning. Yes. Although that is a great satire. I don’t think people want to listen to that daily on ESPN. So yeah, and I think that’s great that you mentioned that Ariel that it’s the Disney umbrella. And I don’t think that they mentioned Star Wars in this one yet. Right?

Ariel Landrum 11:59
So okay, what you should know with because there are 7 minutes segments, Season One has like 50 episodes. Over over 50. So I’m, I’m in the I think I’m in the 20s? I don’t know…

Stefanie Bautista 12:14
I’m in the 10s. I skip around and I think that’s what’s great about this is that you can skip around. You don’t have to watch them in succession if you don’t want to.

Ariel Landrum 12:22
No, no, you don’t. They do mention they do mention a specific guy. Okay, so this I can’t remember his name. But a homeboy introduces himself as “Even my parents don’t really know what I do.” And at the end of the 7 minutes segment, I still don’t know what he does. But he somehow is involved with the live events that Star Wars has. So he was helping run or was running Celebration, the the Star Wars Convention.

Stefanie Bautista 12:51
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 12:51
And he has a remote control like BB-8 that he’s like, engages people with in the hallway. And so I can’t tell if he helps craft the robotics if he manages people if he’s…

Stefanie Bautista 13:03
He does it all.

Ariel Landrum 13:03
And he, he seems, again, like his background seemed to have so much variety, not just in like tech, but in networking and like passions that he said, this job was essentially like “Made for me, because of like, the way that like my, my CV, my background is.” So so he has something to do with Star Wars and BB-8 and live events for Star Wars.

Stefanie Bautista 13:27
And he loves his job.

Ariel Landrum 13:28
And he loves his job.

Stefanie Bautista 13:29
Yeah. That’s really funny. By the end, I didn’t even know what he actually does.

Ariel Landrum 13:35
Just like his parents. I don’t know what you do, either. But you seem so happy doing.

Stefanie Bautista 13:41
I think that’s like, the biggest takeaway from this series is that, you know, even if you can’t even put a job description to it. I think that’s also limiting. Don’t you agree?

Ariel Landrum 13:49
Yes, yes. I think that when it comes to bigger corporations and organizations, they’re starting to see that people want and need not only in their career development, diversity. But up… That the monotony is not only boring, but you you are going to lose a worker in that sense. And that when you individualize a job, it makes someone want to stay because it is tailored for them. And it allows their their own growth and development. Now, you know, again, looking at a critical lens. When it comes to work, you know, workers do, or employers do ask workers to do more with a lot less. So you so there’s that fine balance of like, when are you essentially abusing your employees and when are you really highlighting their growth and development?

Stefanie Bautista 14:44
Mm hmm. I can definitely relate to that. And I’ll leave it at that. But I think what we also wanted to do is kind of talk about our road, in our careers. Because for us, like I I mentioned earlier we were taught that we should hold down a really stable job no matter what it is, like demonstrate longevity, demonstrate that you can be reliable and that you won’t just leave. But me and Ariel have had different experiences, albeit similar. I don’t know if that makes sense now, but you could be the judge of that. Before we came to our professional careers now, so, Ariel, do you want to start off with the type of jobs you’ve had in the past?

Ariel Landrum 15:28
Yes, so I’ve been a babysitter. I’ve been an after school aide. I worked in the yearbook; editor and photographer both in high school and college. I was a columnist for my high, my college school newspaper. And then also in college, because I was in the art department, I was a human life model. So I was naked. I was butt naked and got paid to do it and people drew me and sculpted me. If you go to

Stefanie Bautista 15:59
TMI-TMI

Ariel Landrum 15:59
TMI. If you go to Bethany college and Lindsborg, Kansas, Little, “Little Sweden,” as it’s called, you will see a naked statue of me as “Mother Goddess.”

Stefanie Bautista 16:11
Ah.

Ariel Landrum 16:12
So there you go, um, I was an intern at a methadone clinic.

Stefanie Bautista 16:18
Wow, hard left left.

Ariel Landrum 16:20
Hard left. I worked at a coffee Juice Bar at Whole Foods, where spoiler…

Stefanie Bautista 16:25
That’s where we met.

Ariel Landrum 16:26
What! I contracted with the Navy as a therapist, I was a crisis counselor. Now I’m a clinical director of my own practice, and I do QA supervising at an agency.

Stefanie Bautista 16:39
So safe to say, whatever she started off with, did not end up being what she ended with.

Ariel Landrum 16:45
Sometimes I feel like I’m babysitting adults.

Stefanie Bautista 16:47
I think thats every job girl. Food service, man, it’s all babysitting. It is all babysitting. That is so interesting that you’ve had like this super squiggly line, not even it’s not even linear. It’s just like this weird squiggly shoe lace of a line of different types of jobs that you had. But I mean, I have to ask you the question, do you still use the skills at least from 90% of your jobs in everyday practice?

Ariel Landrum 17:17
Yes. So being a columnist for the school newspaper, I write blog posts on my practice website in order to increase SEO, Search Engine Optimization. In order for people to find me on Google, I need more words that are searchable. So I have to write stuff and I don’t want to write nonsense. No, I want to write blog posts that people are actually going to read. With the yearbook editing and the photography, you know, again, some the the pictures in the article I need in my blogs, I need to be able to incorporate those things. Anything in the mental health field. So like working at the methadone clinic, being a therapist, a contracted therapist, for the Navy, even a crisis counselor, those my career path was to be a therapist. But having those variety of experiences allowed me the opportunity to see not only a variety of clients, but to better understand them at different stages in their lives. I had, you know, because oftentimes, if you’re going to be a mental health, you need to accept that a crisis will happen. But I was able to see what even that word ‘crisis’ meant in a variety of ways. Because you can have a client who who loses their partner suddenly and unexpectedly that’s that’s a crisis. And so being able to know how to how to address that and support my my clients. Definitely useful. When it comes to the the the naked modeling, I don’t have an Only Fans, sorry. But as as an artist, I have a huge appreciation for for the arts. And I tend to now living in LA live, surround myself with a lot of creators. And I do have lots of conversations about inspiration and musing. And that has led to you know, me getting referrals of other people who are creatives in therapy. When it when we’re talking about networking. that’s that’s it. Like as searchable as I can make myself on Google without paying ads, the biggest thing is referrals from networking.

Stefanie Bautista 19:19
Yeah, for sure. And I love that you said that it just expand your network. And that is like the one thing that is not taught in schools that you need to not only carve your own path, but you have to create a good network around you so that you’ll always have opportunity. We hear so many stories of people being stagnant and yes, them not being happy. And that’s also shown in many Disney movies where that person is just living in a cloud and you know, not loving life anymore, and they need that breath of fresh air and I think that’s where you know, your friends come in your network.

Ariel Landrum 19:58
And even talking about like Some of the episodes in the shorts, you get to see the “Modern Family” that shows.

Stefanie Bautista 20:06
Yes. Oh my gosh.

Ariel Landrum 20:07
They highlight the importance of the table read because that’s maybe the only time they get to see everyone at once doing the different scenes. And and that desire for connection that isolation was not was what made the show thrive. It was the fact that they got to see each other. That they get to sort of ping pong ideas and shift and change, like the script. That it’s it’s essentially the same thing, like some of the therapists I know who have had a huge burnout in therapy is when they really feel sort of isolated in the experience.

Stefanie Bautista 20:40
Yeah, 100% can agree with that. And I think that if you guys are not familiar with the show, “Modern Family,” which is now over, it was a very, very successful long running show on ABC. And the way it works, it was kind of like a documentary, sort of like the office and Parks and Rec, where they interviewed this family and their everyday lives. But many of these stories ran parallel to each other. Sometimes they never intersected. And so that’s why I think table read was so important is because they never got to see each other as a whole family. Because their stories ran in different times throughout the episodes. Sometimes you wouldn’t even see one of the families, you would only see maybe 2 out of the 3. So yeah, I think that’s super important. And now that you mentioned, super burnout.

Ariel Landrum 21:22
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 21:23
I’ve mentioned before that I am an educator, but I didn’t always want to be an educator. So ever since I started working at the age of 16, I got a food service job. My first job was at Jamba Juice.

Ariel Landrum 21:35
Yum.

Stefanie Bautista 21:36
Here in Studio City, Sherman Oaks area. And it was a job that I got without any experience I like, didn’t really know anyone, I just went into the interview. Very scary. And because I landed that job, I was like, “Oh my gosh, like I need to be here for a long time while I go to college,” because I was studying and going to work at the same time. Y’all know college is not cheap. So I had to put myself through college. And so I worked there for quite some time. I think I was there for I think, 5, 5 years.

Ariel Landrum 22:10
Wow.

Stefanie Bautista 22:10
A long time.

Ariel Landrum 22:11
Oh my gawd. So a baby was born learn to walk and talk and went to like preschool, the whole time you were working Jamba.

Stefanie Bautista 22:18
The whole time I was working a Jamba but and I was working and going I was working, like 30 hours a week going to school full time. So I had like 12 units. And so I needed to be at a job where I could kind of shut my mind off. And just makes smoothies. Because I was focused so much on my schooling. But at the same time, I did not know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do journalism at one point, because I had, you know, done journalism in high school here and there. But my parents just did not want that for me and was like you need just…

Ariel Landrum 22:18
That’s not a doctor.

Stefanie Bautista 22:19
So they were like, “Just find,” literally what they said. I’m not knocking on them and I love my parents, but they said “You could do anything you want to do after you become a nurse.” And I was like, “How does that make sense?” That doesn’t make. “So you’re telling me I have to do like 2 plus 4 years of my BSN. And then I can do whatever I want. Uhh okay?” And so what I did, I just a reclined to just doing the UC route. Everybody in California wants to go to UC school, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Francisco, UC San Diego. There’s like a set requirement that you have to, you know, make in order to go to those colleges. So I just did that. Just prerequisites the whole entire time. I worked from one soup for food service job to another. And then I ended up as a barista in like many, many different places. But I was also a barista at Starbucks for a long time, just like many people here in Los Angeles and around the world. And working at Starbucks really opened my mind to different ages of people that were at different parts in their lives. A lot of them were in the film industry, the TV industry.

Ariel Landrum 23:54
Okay. And so the dual job.

Stefanie Bautista 23:56
The dual job was a real thing. Mostly Starbucks.

Ariel Landrum 23:59
The side gig is the fact that you have a 9-to-5.

Stefanie Bautista 24:03
Exactly. And a lot of these people were working on scripts. They were in commercial. They were, you know, grips on set. They were just so many different things. And I was just like, “Oh, just because I work at Starbucks, should I be in the entertainment industry? You know, I’m a huge pop culture consumer.” And I was like, “Oh, no, no, no, no, push that out of your mind because your parents will never accept that.” So here I am going through all these jobs creating this big network. Because I know we talked about people jumping different jobs, and almost looking down on them because you just like “Oh, you know, they don’t have longevity. They don’t have you know what it takes to stay with a company.” But on the flip…

Ariel Landrum 24:40
“Flighty, unexperienced, ungreatful.”

Stefanie Bautista 24:44
“Ungrateful. Aren’t they happy that they just got hired and are working?” And so I learned a lot from the people who came in and out of those jobs as I stayed stagnant for X amount of years that I was at those jobs. And seeing their experiences, I was like, well, there are able to make it, and they’re able to survive. So why can’t I do the same thing? Not you know, I didn’t just quit my job the next day, that just wasn’t my MO. Like, it wasn’t that I was gonna do. But it may be…

Ariel Landrum 25:19
Still gotta pay.

Stefanie Bautista 25:20
Still gotta pay the bills and go to school. But it gave me an opportunity to say, “Oh, I can just do something else and try it out and see if that works.” And that’s actually how I got into education. I mean, I always volunteered to help take care of kids and be a teacher of some sorts, and every foodservice job, I ended up becoming a trainer. So I was already teaching without even knowing it. So when I had the opportunity to go teach overseas in Japan for a little bit, it kind of solidified that I was like, “Oh, these are all the things that I’ve done already working food service, it’s just I get to focus on education. And, you know, y’all know teachers don’t make a lot. So. But it was a traditional job.

Ariel Landrum 26:01
As they should, but…

Stefanie Bautista 26:02
As they shouldn’t, but that’s a conversation for another podcast. Disney hire me.

Ariel Landrum 26:09
Disney U.

Stefanie Bautista 26:11
Disney U. So yeah, that brought me into education. And then I was able to go back, finish all those things do the credential. And now I’m a Programs Coordinator, which is a position that’s not even in the classroom. I helped create programming for after school and for sports.

Ariel Landrum 26:28
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 26:28
And for arts.

Ariel Landrum 26:29
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 26:30
All the things that I loved about being in school. I love the basic subjects don’t get me wrong, and I can teach the hell out of them. But my favorite parts of the day were art, or music. Where technology, computer classes, how they called it in the early 2000s. I love teaching all of those things and finding talent to teach those things better than me. And I feel like that is because I was introduced to so many different talented people working those food service jobs. That now I use that networking and that knowledge to seek out talent that can do their jobs way better than I could ever because I can’t do everything.

Ariel Landrum 27:09
And then I’m curious for you, because this is definitely what it is for therapists. And I think it is this way for teachers. There’s a large amount of interning that we have to do that we don’t get paid for.

Stefanie Bautista 27:21
So much. So much interning.

Ariel Landrum 27:22
So like that methadone clinic. When I was an intern and not licensed to work there. I got a stipend for $100. I so I had to do the double job. I had to work at Whole Foods with you because I also had bills to pay.

Stefanie Bautista 27:36
Yeah. Definitely.

Ariel Landrum 27:37
And I think that’s the same for teachers. Correct?

Stefanie Bautista 27:39
Totally. So when you’re doing your your student teaching, it’s either you’re very fortunate that you don’t have to focus on anything else except your lessons and your plans and doing your exams. Or you could be like the other 99% of the population who has to work at the same time. So at that point in my life actually was, and I can’t even wrap my head around how I did all this. I was working at Whole Foods for 40 hours at a new store. This is when you and I weren’t working anymore together.

Ariel Landrum 28:07
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 28:08
It was a new store. I was working there 40 hours as a barista. I was finishing up my master’s program and my credentialing and at the same time making; so I was making lesson plans. I was tracking all these I was basically like the second teacher in the classroom. And on top of that, I decided to get married? And plan a wedding? Without a wedding planner?

Ariel Landrum 28:29
Okay, so technically, she was already married.

Stefanie Bautista 28:31
I was already married. Yes.

Ariel Landrum 28:33
But you decided to get your wedding on?

Stefanie Bautista 28:35
Yes. Because you know, every little girl’s dream is to have her dream wedding. So that’s what I was achieving my freaking dreams damnit.

Ariel Landrum 28:42
All of them.

Stefanie Bautista 28:43
At the same time, and honestly from an from a mental health standpoint, that wasn’t not okay. Because I crashed and burned so bad after that. And I think I took maybe a year or two of just doing just going through the motions and just you know, finding a job that had me grounded for a little bit. Because we don’t think about the ramifications of working yourself that much. Like those are three really big life events.

Ariel Landrum 29:14
At once.

Stefanie Bautista 29:15
At once. And so you know, like lesson for you all out there if you’re young please don’t burn yourself out. Take it easy.

Ariel Landrum 29:24
Don’t

Stefanie Bautista 29:24
Take it easy please because you will have a better quality of life and you will be able to enjoy stop watch a 7 minute Disney short. Be able to do those things and you know, just just be.

Ariel Landrum 29:36
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 29:37
And I wish I had known that.

Ariel Landrum 29:39
And even like as stuff saying you know some of us have a level of privilege. So if you have the privilege to do your student teaching without worrying about finances. Without you know having to juggle marriage and family in there with it. Use it to uplift your peers man. Be very grateful for that level of privilege because I I remember witnessing Stef do this superhuman stuff at the time. And I was I was just shocked that she she still had the energy to also try and enjoy life. Still went to the parks.

Stefanie Bautista 30:11
Gosh, I still went to so many concerts, I think that was like a one time I couldn’t stop.

Ariel Landrum 30:15
So many concernts.

Stefanie Bautista 30:17
And I went to Disneyland all that time, I think at that time because the Annual Pass or yeah, the Passholder program was affordable. It didn’t skyrocket to those, like prices at the time. That was my release. Excuse me, um, that was totally my release, I would go to Disneyland. Sunday’s are my Disney day. And it was like time for me to just go to the park, decompress, not think about anything, turn off, unplug, and just sit on Main Street and eat my churro in peace. Me and my husband, my fiancé at the time, and we would just, we wouldn’t even ball out guys like we were so on a budget. And I think this could be an episode for another time on how to do Disney on a super super budget. Because

Ariel Landrum 30:59
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 31:00
You guys, I have gone to Disneyland with just $20. And I was able to make it stretch the whole entire from 8 am to midnight. Because I was balling on a budget apparently. But anyway

Ariel Landrum 31:15
We digress.

Stefanie Bautista 31:16
We digress as always.

Ariel Landrum 31:18
To to pivot back to our original shorts. I’m curious for you, Stef. In regards to the job shorts, was there a job that you were like, “Yeah, I want to do that?” O like a story that really hit you?

Stefanie Bautista 31:29
Yeah, definitely. I do want to mention something else right afterwards? Well, actually, no, I can mention it now.

Ariel Landrum 31:35
Do it now.

Stefanie Bautista 31:36
So in in my journey of self discovery, I actually applied to Disney University

Ariel Landrum 31:42
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 31:42
And I got rejected.

Ariel Landrum 31:45
Aww. Why would they do that?

Stefanie Bautista 31:47
So what happened was after like, decided, “Oh, you know, I want to, I want to do something different. And like, let’s just, like throw things at the wall and stick.” I found about Disney University. And if you don’t know about it, it’s basically a Disney internship, like huge internship program, you have to be enrolled in a either community college or a State University. And you apply for the Disney University, and you get to work at the parks. See behind the scenes. And you know, for those of you who might not want to know what they want to do yet, you can do that internship. Disney University, get those credits, and then maybe find a job that you like. Network at the same time. So you have to go through this interview, right? And then so everything was all cool. I was like, I got this in the bag. I go Disneyland all the time. And then I think it was the question that said, “Have you ever lied on the job?”

Ariel Landrum 32:32
Oh.

Stefanie Bautista 32:33
And that is such a tricky question. If you guys have worked different jobs, it’s such a weird question to ask too.

Ariel Landrum 32:38
Yeah. Of course.

Stefanie Bautista 32:39
Because there’s so many…

Ariel Landrum 32:40
We worked as baristas, of course we lied.

Stefanie Bautista 32:42
We lied a lot guys.

Ariel Landrum 32:43
“How are you? Oh I’m good, how are you?”

Stefanie Bautista 32:45
Isn’t just working in job lying the entire time, especially if you want to do it for the rest of your life? But anyway, they asked me that, and I was just like, “Well, it’s Disney. So I have to be honest, or should I just lie just to get the job?” But then that would be me lying. And so then I went…

Ariel Landrum 32:59
To the question about lying.

Stefanie Bautista 33:00
So then I decided to tell the truth. And I was just like, “Yes, I did.” And then it gives you an opportunity to explain and I said, “You know, I lied in order for you know, a customer to choose something different.” And it wasn’t like a bold faced lie. It was one of those, “Let me check if I have it in the back.” And then you go and check, but you already know that you don’t have in the back. And you just report like, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Like, maybe can we offer this to you instead?” That kind of situation I explained. It was like such a full explanation. And then I got my results. And it said, “Oh, we are so sorry. But unfortunately, you do not fit the role of what it takes to be a participant in to Disney University you can try again,” in I think it was like 12 months, or a year? And I’m like, “I ain’t got a. I don’t have a year to spare.” So I was just like, “well, Disney doesn’t want me anymore. So what am I gonna do?”

Ariel Landrum 33:48
Heart crushing.

Stefanie Bautista 33:49
Super heart crushing. Because I was like, “Oh, you know, like, I’d be in the parks and everything.” And I was like, “Maybe I can move Anaheim.” It was so disappointing to me. Like, “Am I not worthy?” And then…

Ariel Landrum 34:02
How did you how did you handle that rejection? Because if we’re talking about

Stefanie Bautista 34:06
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 34:06
You know jobs, I think that, okay, statistics show that apparently, women, particularly Western women will only apply to a job if they meet 100% of their criteria and Western men have been raised to apply if they only meet 60%. And the big chunk of it either way, is fear of rejection. So for particularly for women, we expect it apparently from the psychology standpoint, so we don’t apply unless we know that we’re going to get it and so in this case, you felt like you really knew.

Stefanie Bautista 34:38
Oh I thought I had it.

Ariel Landrum 34:39
So rejection like?

Stefanie Bautista 34:41
It was devastating. It was so devastating and I think I probably had to process it over a couple months and I think I think at that time too, I think back to it. I consider just going into the medical field because I was like, “If I can’t even qualify for Disney, some thing that I love that I’m definitely not worthy of doing anything else other than what I was told that I needed to do in my life.” So I had applied to like those vocational colleges. And if you go to vocational colleges, all the power to you guys are doing just amount, the same amount, if not more work, then people are doing at universities, for jobs that we really need. But I went to one of those orientations, I think to be a, I think it was just like a medical assistant. And it just wasn’t for me, I, I, I was interested from a scientific standpoint and as an educator, but it wasn’t something that I thought that I could do every single day. And I think that’s, you know, what set the spark to really finding something else. And that’s kind of probably how I made it to Japan. Taught over there because I just wanted to get away. And I think you know, that that Disney University failure in my life is what really set me on that trajectory of like, “You know, what, let’s just take yourself out of everything that you have been going for, and reset and put yourself in a new environment.” And it was totally refreshing for me. And I was able to figure it out.

Ariel Landrum 36:10
Yeah, I think the the importance is that it’s that continued taking a risk, right? If you if you don’t apply if you don’t try, it’s already a no, because you didn’t create the opportunity for a potential yes. And I mean, soul crushing, because it’s Disney, right?

Stefanie Bautista 36:28
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 36:29
But it doesn’t sound like it would determine what you knew was right in your heart for you. And I think that’s the other thing is sometimes we get rejection from, I was rejected to so many agencies that I wanted to work out. Really big name agencies that I thought were going to, you know, be where I was going to have my longevity. And I could have let that deter me from continuing on in my career to become a therapist. But it was like, “This is where I know I fit in. This is how I want to develop.” And it sounds like for you once you knew education was potentially something that you wanted, once you went to Japan, it solidified that and then you realize that even education the way that it was presented to you it didn’t even have to look that way.

Stefanie Bautista 37:13
Yes, exactly. And I’m still continuing to find that out. And I always tell people who are teachers associates and people who are doing their student teaching that you know, expand your horizons. Because sometimes your talents can take you elsewhere in the field

Ariel Landrum 37:28
A whole world.

Stefanie Bautista 37:28
A whole new world.

Ariel Landrum 37:30
How many times am I gonna sing that song?

Stefanie Bautista 37:32
So many? At least didn’t miss name thing today.

Ariel Landrum 37:37
So far, so far.

Stefanie Bautista 37:38
So far. But, yeah, that was a, you know, short little story that I actually forgotten myself, because like I said, it was probably so traumatizing that I just pushed it out of my mind. But I think the overall message of the Disney shorts, there’s so many gems in in these 7 minute episodes. Like the animator who migrated from El Salvador had to be away from his family. I love that story so much and how his mom just like never gave up on him and gave him that opportunity. And also, yeah, Sage, Sage Steele, and you know, her doing her thing as a sportscaster. I do wonder and Ariel talked about this, why they inserted Bob Iger in an episode. Like guys, he is the CEO, I’m pretty sure that although it’s attainable to be the CEO, we can push that episode back a little bit. But yeah, I love seeing how the park works. And I love seeing the people. I’m way too shy to ask any cast member, you know, how they’re doing. And so this is a really great way to, you know, see everything through their eyes as Disney fans and Disney workers.

Ariel Landrum 38:44
And you know, I think in regards to the commercialism, like this could be seen as a recruitment video.

Stefanie Bautista 38:54
Yeah. But are we really mad about that for young kids?

Ariel Landrum 38:57
No, no, I think like, again, in in jumping and take, and how you took the risk to apply? It’s like, well, what, why not? Like, if we can inspire someone to say like, “Hey, I think I think I’m an animator let me try and animate,” like and “let me just apply.” Because again, the worst you’re gonna get a no and you can continue to find other no’s till you get a yes. But if you don’t put yourself out there, if you don’t create that network that fluidity, then it will always be a no. I think for me, like one of the stories that kind of stood out. That also makes me think is very similar to that. I think we talked about like, almost almost doing more with less, but it actually being good is there’s a ranch hand woman who is a horse rancher who takes care of all the horses at Disney World. And so she shows and that, that it’s pretty much a majority of women, which is very unusual for the ranching industry. It’s usually a male dominated industry. So majority of the ranchers are women taking care of the horse. And she also dresses up as the carriage driver for Cinderella for the weddings. And she has to be the one who, like, steers the horses.

Stefanie Bautista 40:11
How magical.

Ariel Landrum 40:11
Yes. And then she also gets to play the the trolley conductor with the trolley horse that pulls the trolley. And that that is essentially that’s part of our job. That’s an expectation of our job. But it makes sense because it’s all her taking care of these horses. And she gets to play around and be in makeup and costume and engage with like guests. And also make sure that the horses are safe that they’re getting their needs met. And it’s like all she’s ever wanted to do was like work with horses. And it’s like, now you work with Disney horse.

Stefanie Bautista 40:42
Yes, yes. And that is a huge theme throughout a lot of these episodes where they just know what they want to do. But they didn’t even think about Disney in the first place. And they end up doing it there anyway. And there’s so many different, I mean, if you really take a big step back, you’re creating many worlds in one place. And to order in order to create those little worlds, you need to have people who have expertise in those worlds. We’re else it’s just gonna look super fake.

Ariel Landrum 41:12
And it was interesting to hear her narrative because it was like she met this person who essentially gave her the opportunity. While she was working, I think it was either at the bar at the feed store. It was something weird like that. And someone, he was like buying feed for the horses. And she was just talking about her passion for horses. He’s like, “Oh, come see the Disney stables.” And then that was it. And she’s just been working there forever. And no one thinks like, “I’m gonna be a ranch hand

Stefanie Bautista 41:38
“At the resort.”

Ariel Landrum 41:40
“And then also dress up in costume and be Cinderella’s carriage driver.” Right? So that’s part of that, like your dream sort of expands when you don’t make it so small.

Stefanie Bautista 41:50
It makes me think of those little questionnaires that we have, like kindergarteners fill out. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And they give you like the tiniest line. And you know, these kindergartners they write super big. Can you imagine a kid writing, “I want to be around China, Disney and you know, drive Cinderella around.” It would have to take like 3 different, you know, 4 different pages of paper…

Ariel Landrum 42:10
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 42:11
To explain it. And I think that’s, I think that’s really what we should take away from, you know, talking about our jobs. And, you know, doing this through the lens of “One Day at Disney,” is that you don’t have to fit yourself into a small box. Your description does not have to be 16 characters long.

Ariel Landrum 42:29
Nope. Nope.

Stefanie Bautista 42:30
It can be whatever you carve it out to be, because everybody’s super unique, individualistic, and we all have amazing talents. And “One Day at Disney,” is just one of those reflections of that.

Ariel Landrum 42:44
Yes, yes. I think that that it’s almost like a breath of fresh air to hear that people can be more than just the one career title, the one hat, and that, that you have the right to live your life as expansively as possible. And essentially calling back to that original article we mentioned, that that was it. People wanted to live a more fulfilling life that meets multiple areas of their needs. We’re talking about basic human needs. Like it’s more than just a paycheck that pays my house and food.

Stefanie Bautista 43:19
Yeah, yeah, definitely. It doesn’t have to just be a means to an end. Yes. For lack of better words. But yeah, I mean, thank you guys for going on this journey with us.

Ariel Landrum 43:33
We got deep we shared some stories.

Stefanie Bautista 43:34
We got pretty deep. Yeah, we really did. And I think you know, as we talk about how Disney plays this role in our lives, we’ll we would love to hear you guys and your stories. Definitely because we know our stories are just, you know, what is it a blip in the universe?

Ariel Landrum 43:50
Hmmhm.

Stefanie Bautista 43:50
And, you know, everybody’s Disney journey is so different. But yeah, if you have any interesting jobs, either at Disney or not Disney, Disney related, go ahead and tweet. Tweet at us @happiestpodGT, or also, DMS. Let us know your story on Instagram @happiestpodGT.

Ariel Landrum 44:10
Everybody have a Disney day.

Stefanie Bautista 44:12
You too.

Ariel Landrum 44:15
Bye.

Stefanie Bautista 44:15
We’ll see you next time.

• Disney
• Disneyland
• Cinderella
• Disney Parks
• Finding Nemo
• Submarine Voyage
• Modern Family
• ESPN
• Sage Steele

• Jobs
• Career Paths
• Following your dreams
• Diversity
• Networking
• Burn-out
• Animators
• Imagineers
• Rejection

Stefanie Bautista 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to the happiest pod on Earth. I’m Stephanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:15
And I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:16
And we are Disney fans but really so much more than that.

Ariel Landrum 0:19
So much more.

Stefanie Bautista 0:20
So much more. Today we’re going to be talking about our visit. Actually Ariel’s visit, I did not go. Ariel’s first visit back to the park. She did a park hopper a couple days ago. So she’s going to give you the lowdown on how that was like, so that you’re all prepared for your trip back home. Back to our parks. First and foremost, Ariel, how are you? How did it feel to go back to Disneyland?

Ariel Landrum 0:47
It was amazing. Like, in retrospect, it was amazing being there too. But I mean, just it, it did feel like going home. It it felt very shiny and brand new. And some of it was shiny and brand new. So but there was the nostalgia was immediately there. I rode all my familiar rides that are my comfort rides, and I, I didn’t realize how much I missed the parks until I was there. I, I did have like, like a little catch my throat moment. Just like “I’m here!” And, seeing Mickey. Like just walking in. I saw Mickey and Minnie and Goofy right away. And I was just like, “This this is this is this was supposed to be how life is meant.”

Stefanie Bautista 1:43
That’s awesome. I mean, I guess with all of those emotions, how about we kind of backtrack a little. And tell us about your experience buying the tickets. I know that it’s a whole new process. You can’t just go to the parks and go up to…

Ariel Landrum 2:01
A whole new world!

Stefanie Bautista 2:02
A whole new world. You can’t just go to the parks and like stand in line at the kiosk. And pretty much set your day up there. You have to do it months in advance. Right?

Ariel Landrum 2:15
So what? So we first called to see if we could order ticket. We were like, “No one’s gonna call, let’s do this old school!”

Stefanie Bautista 2:25
No one is gonna call girl. What? And you got somebody on the other line?

Ariel Landrum 2:29
We did, we got someone and she told us to sign up for the email blast, because there was going to be some changes in regards to the Legacy Passes what they’re calling it now.

Stefanie Bautista 2:42
For previous Annual Pass Holders, right?

Ariel Landrum 2:44
Previous annual pass holders. I kept calling it the ‘Legendary Pass,’ but it’s Legacy.

Stefanie Bautista 2:49
So for all of our listeners out there, you’re gonna, like hear Ariel call things just one notch off of what it’s supposed to be.

Ariel Landrum 2:58
Always.

Stefanie Bautista 2:59
It’s supposed to be a Legacy Pass. Just case in point she called it; what did you call it?

Ariel Landrum 3:03
A ‘Legendary’…

Stefanie Bautista 3:04
A ‘Legendary Pass.’ So maybe we can keep a tally of the things you say? Because I feel like it’s a common occurrence. But anyway.

Ariel Landrum 3:14
Yes, just tweet at us @happiestpodgt, “I found another one!”

Stefanie Bautista 3:19
Yeah, we’re gonna keep tabs. So that’s one Legacy Pass is the previous Annual Passholders. Ariel you have been an Annual Passholder for quite some time. Right? I know I was but since I am privileged enough to be able to take advantage of the military passes. I haven’t been one. So whenever we do go to the parks, I go, “Oh, I am not getting 10%. But my friend here can get 10% so she can get these things for me.” So what did they tell you about Legacy Passholders?

Ariel Landrum 3:55
So what she said specifically is that when you check your app, you will see that that there’s an end date on it, and it just renews every month. That’s just the way that they have to set it up in the system. So it doesn’t mean it ends in that like you have to be at the park and use it before you know the end of July otherwise you won’t have it again. No, it’s anybody who was an Annual Passholder they have this Legacy Pass in and it’s broken in A and B so those tiers of the how much percentage you get off. And really it can only be used for merchandise and, and food areas that could have been used for the Annual Pass. And sometimes at the park they would have little Annual Pass like, like corners or nooks or events. They have them now for the Legacy Passholders and they had a food event a specific wine tasting food event at in…

Stefanie Bautista 4:52
California Adventures?

Ariel Landrum 4:53
Yeah, what was the restaurant? Yeah, it was the one wine country? Torta…?

Stefanie Bautista 5:01
Trattoria.

Ariel Landrum 5:01
Yeah. So I ate there, I was able to get food reservations there. But I couldn’t do the wine tasting event there. It was all sold out. But I thought maybe like if I already had reservations, and I showed them, I thought I could do something sneaky.

Stefanie Bautista 5:15
You thought you could finagle it? But nope, Disney knows.

Ariel Landrum 5:18
They knows.

Stefanie Bautista 5:20
It’s okay, you tried.

Ariel Landrum 5:21
Yeah, but so so to get the emails for that, so that you can start booking those things. That was one thing, that there was going to be those little special nooks. So when we went to and we’ll talk more about this later, but the Adventure Campus, there was a specific photos that we were allowed to take that was just like only for people who this pass. And so the other thing that she said was, if you try to buy the tickets on the app, for some reason, the app doesn’t load as fast as the website. So you want to get your tickets on the website.

Stefanie Bautista 5:52
The go fast.

Ariel Landrum 5:52
So she wasn’t gonna sell us any on on the phone call. But she said, One thing you’ll see is you’ll see like maybe all these days taken that you want. She said, “Actually refresh it throughout the day or the next day, because people have been canceling their tickets very last minute, often.” But the the app isn’t going to get it as quickly as the website.

Stefanie Bautista 6:12
Good to know.

Ariel Landrum 6:16
Yeah. And there have been other issues with the app. And we’ll talk about that some more later. But that that was the ticket process. And so I…

Stefanie Bautista 6:24
And you went It’s July 3 right now you went? How long ago?

Ariel Landrum 6:33
How do I know? I went last weekend, didn’t I?

Stefanie Bautista 6:37
Last weekend? Yeah. So okay, so she went the last weekend?

Ariel Landrum 6:41
I went on the 27th.

Stefanie Bautista 6:43
Yeah, on the 27th in June. And you bought your tickets when?

Ariel Landrum 6:52
I bought my ticket May 4th.

Stefanie Bautista 6:55
May the 4th!

Ariel Landrum 6:56
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 6:57
You bought it on May the 4th. Okay. For additional context. I am going at the end of August. But I bought my tickets early June. But that’s just because I want to go when all the kids go back to school. Yes, I know I mentioned I’m an educator. Yes, I will put the proper people in place for me to do that. But I wanted to, and we’re gonna have this in another episode, I’m going to have the lowdown on how to go to Disneyland with an infant. I have a toddler, he’s not an infant anymore. I have a toddler now and I am so used to going to the parks, just me and my my husband, and my friends. Not with a little tot at my shoulders. So we’re going to talk about that next time. But anyway, so that was the ticket buying process. Tell me what happens when you park? Are there any differences there?

Ariel Landrum 6:58
Okay, so one parking was a little easier because they have lower capacity right now. However, the tram isn’t running.

Stefanie Bautista 8:05
Yes, these are one of the things that I myself did not know. So tell me about how that set your day up.

Ariel Landrum 8:13
So the the park hours were 9 am to 9 pm. So not as early as they used to allow and definitely not as late. And so we we got there and and literally got into our parking spot at like 9:02. We were wanting to get there sooner, but there was a whole car situation thing that involved like us taking two separate vehicles because my partner might have had to work after Disneyland and then he didn’t even need to so whatever.

Stefanie Bautista 8:43
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 8:43
That’s something. There’s always drama when you had to Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 8:46
Always. Before and after. It’s I mean, please share with us your stories tweet at us, let us know your craziest Disneyland befores and afters. We would love to hear.

Ariel Landrum 8:58
So we get there we park and we follow everybody into where you go into the tram to then go back out it and that was just the check your bags. And then it was a walk on the street where tram normally drives to Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 9:17
Making my way downtown!

Ariel Landrum 9:20
It was bad. And yeah, so I did see they had new banners they were all blue with the different characters with the exception of Sorcerer Mickey who is in his red cloak, but otherwise everybody was in blue.

Stefanie Bautista 9:38
And you’re talking about the banners in like the Plaza in between the parks right?

Ariel Landrum 9:42
No the walk to.

Stefanie Bautista 9:42
Oh, you’re talking about the walkway. Okay

Ariel Landrum 9:44
Yeah, so they gave us some stuff to look at.

Stefanie Bautista 9:46
Okay, cute. Cute.

Ariel Landrum 9:47
There were there were signs that said like, Almost there!” Or something. I was gonna take a picture of it.

Stefanie Bautista 9:52
Almost there! They should have been playing that on repeat.

Ariel Landrum 9:56
They had no music playing. It was just it was just this, this strut.

Stefanie Bautista 10:02
So case in point play music on ‘your little stroll’ aka. I mean, how is it like, like, how long is that stroll? Or how long is that walk?

Ariel Landrum 10:12
It was a hot minute. I’m gonna It was not…

Stefanie Bautista 10:15
And it was also hot because we were going through a heatwave, y’all like the whole West Coast of the United States is going through this crazy heatwave. And I guess for context, how hot was it that day?

Ariel Landrum 10:27
Oh, it got to around 103, I think. You know, someone can correct me Google me if I’m wrong, but I think there was a nice breeze it said, “Feels like.” So I think that got…

Stefanie Bautista 10:41
That real feel.

Ariel Landrum 10:41
Yeah. So I think it got about as high as 103 at one point, but but stayed down pretty much in the 80s throughout the whole day. And there was the the nice Anaheim breeze.

Stefanie Bautista 10:53
Nice. Yeah. Because yes. The Orange County has that breeze, but it does get pretty humid at times there. And I’m sure you felt that. So when you finally got to the plaza after that walk. Were there lines? Like coming out of the entrances? And oh, I know you had mentioned to me when we had talked about this earlier, but you have to choose a park to first go to right?

Ariel Landrum 11:19
Yes. So part of the ticket buying was if you got a park Hopper, you had to tell them which park you were going to visit first. And then you couldn’t go to the other park until a certain time. So for us it was 1 pm. We also tried to do another different finagling there. So there’s a Disney secrets if you go to Downtown Disney in between two different shops is an entrance that leads you to the resort.

Stefanie Bautista 11:49
The Grand Californian hotel. I know. I know this trick.

Ariel Landrum 11:53
Yeah. And so then going through there, then there’s an entrance into the park. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 11:58
Into California Adventure.

Ariel Landrum 11:59
Yeah. So we tried that. But given how long it took for our Starbucks to be made, and the walk to get there. By the time we got to that gate, it was 1 o’clock. And, and of course, we had a family in front of us that was like having problems with the app and bringing up their ticket. We ended up with…

Stefanie Bautista 12:19
Disney gods were like, “Nope, not today. Not today.” Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious.

Ariel Landrum 12:25
But I know they’re the line into California Adventure. They separated out the people who are park hoppers. And and that line was pretty significant. So I do think we still beat them.

Stefanie Bautista 12:36
Okay, that’s good. That’s good to know. So were the lines like long getting into Disneyland? ‘Cause I know they had, and we’re all have I guess the portals open for you to go in?

Ariel Landrum 12:48
So all the portals were open. And it was really interesting when we did the the first park they just scanned our ticket but the the second park I don’t know if it’s because the old school person who was doing it, they took our photo, which is usually what happens right? They take your picture if you have to like this one ticket. And they didn’t do it the first time but they did it this at the other park. So I don’t know if the first park was just kind of like overwhelmed and had forgotten.

Stefanie Bautista 13:21
Maybe he was just making up for the mistake of both?

Ariel Landrum 13:26
So that was just that was just interesting, because I was expecting my photo to be taken and I was just kind of standing there looking doffy. And then like

Stefanie Bautista 13:33
“I’m ready.”

Ariel Landrum 13:35
Okay, I’ll just keep walking.

Stefanie Bautista 13:38
That’s a really funny. Oh my gosh, that’s so funny.

Ariel Landrum 13:41
But okay, we’re gonna we’re gonna rewind this. So you have to get on the app by 7 am to reserve tickets…

Stefanie Bautista 13:53
Yes. Okay yes.

Ariel Landrum 13:54
To one of the two revered rides. Rise of the Resistance and Webslinger, er Spider-Man Yeah. Webslinger something-something… So the ‘Spider-Man’ ride.

Stefanie Bautista 14:08
I’m gonna look this up just because I’m not 100% sure this could be a number two.

Ariel Landrum 14:11
I remember the word “web”.

Stefanie Bautista 14:19
I think Webslingers is correct though.

Ariel Landrum 14:21
Yeah. Okay, you keep looking so so I was on the app. I was on the app at 6:45 just refreshing refreshing. And I saw at 7 am when it’s switched on. It said, “Join a boarding group.” I clicked and so I I did the Webslinger one because I knew that that I hadn’t even seen Avengers Land, I was like, “I want Avengers Campus!”

Stefanie Bautista 14:44
Number 2. But see, you got Webslinger is right. And now it doesn’t even matter because you said ‘Avengers Land’.

Ariel Landrum 14:52
So yeah, so ‘Avengers Land Campus,’ I am I I select it. I hit “join group,” and it said, “We’re sorry, there are no boarding spots, or queues left.” And I checked the time it was still 7.

Stefanie Bautista 15:10
Like 7-0-0?

Ariel Landrum 15:12
Like yes, I didn’t even make it to 7:01 I was that as quick as lightning. Taken. So as we’re doing our happy jaunt, what would normally be the tram. We see this couple that was wearing a really cool graphic t-shirt that had comic book images of Spider-Man, only the one partner he was wearing a colored version and then the other partner is wearing black and white. So they were wearing the exact same shirt they got on Etsy.

Stefanie Bautista 15:44
Like Wandavision almost.

Ariel Landrum 15:45
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 15:46
How cute.

Ariel Landrum 15:46
So you know, we had to comment on it simply because I’m always trying to convince my partner to wear matching things. And I was like, “This is slightly matching, but not really.”

Stefanie Bautista 15:55
It’s cordinating.

Ariel Landrum 15:55
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 15:55
Coordinating,

Ariel Landrum 15:57
Coordinating. So they gave us the info on that Etsy, I will not share it until I purchased those things. But they were like, “Yeah, we’re gonna, we hope that Spider-Man likes it. I was like, “Oh, did you get the did you get in?” And they’re like, “Yeah, we did.” And I’m like, “How?!” “We’re just lucky.”

Stefanie Bautista 16:15
“We were here at 7 what the heck?” So did you pick their brain?

Ariel Landrum 16:20
So they just said that they they only did one ticket to California Adventure because they’d already they already did Rise of the Resistance the day before. So this magical couple with this awesome coordinating outfit has gotten both rides. And I think maybe that was it. Because they only had one ticket instead of a park hopper. It was easier to try and squeeze them in. Like,

Stefanie Bautista 16:44
Oh…

Ariel Landrum 16:45
It just made it because it wouldn’t load it just it’s not going to load the other park. It is Yeah, do it. So that I think just makes you go in quicker. That’s that’s my scientific theory. Because they didn’t know Spider-Man. They didn’t have an ‘in’. Yeah. And and…

Stefanie Bautista 17:05
Interesting. I’m gonna have to try that. And I think because I only need one ticket, because we’re going to have to do a rideer-switch. We can’t ride these rights at the same time. My husband and I, so I’ll see and I’ll report back and we’ll figure that out. But if if that stuff that crap does not let me in at 7, I will throw fit. And you will hear that fit. Okay, cool. So you’re in Disneyland. You’re walking under the train tracks.

Ariel Landrum 17:39
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 17:39
Like that. For me. Even on a regular pre-pandemic like, that gives me so much joy, like walking around the flagpole. Seeing the fire truck seeing you know, Walt Disney’s apartment, just all of the shops, you hear the music smell the popcorn. Did it feel like that?

Ariel Landrum 17:59
It did feel like that? The smell was amazing. And I think it’s because I’ve remembered but I forgot if that makes sense. And the olfactory senses, strongest memories. So as soon as I smelled like all of my that’s that’s why like Main Street is really where the like your emotions rush. “Oh, the memories, the wonderfulness.” And then it was like this cherry on top, that entrance experience because what they did was the middle section of the train station. They made people load on the train on either side. And they put a rope in front of there and they just had characters.

Stefanie Bautista 18:00
Oh…

Ariel Landrum 18:01
Like I don’t think every time we passed it. I don’t think I didn’t not see a character.

Stefanie Bautista 18:47
A character.

Ariel Landrum 18:50
Yeah. And so Mickey and Minnie were there and Goofy and they were waving. And you and so and you didn’t even have to line up to take a picture with them because technically you’re not touching them. There’s at a distance. So there was like three different families taking a picture with all of them and their little angles. Kind of like you see when when they’re taking a picture of the castle.

Stefanie Bautista 19:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:09
And then and then within like the span of how long it took me to not join the group in the queue. Like there was Chip and Dale that came out and and Donald Duck and I was just like, “Okay, they’re just filling this whole,”

Stefanie Bautista 19:26
Yeah

Ariel Landrum 19:27
“Whole front entrance with with all the characters.” So, so really lovely. And I would say that that was probably the best experience in regards to both parks was that there were characters everywhere. And I didn’t I didn’t miss not being able to like put my arm around them or be next to them because I always feel awkward doing that anyways, it’s like “What do I do with my hands?” Like “Am I, do I look at you? Do I look at the camera?”

Stefanie Bautista 19:52
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:54
Yes, along with the naming things inappropriately. It’s very, if you see all the other photos before the ones I actually post on Instagram, you will see that my eyes never quite make it…

Stefanie Bautista 20:06
They never quite make it to the lens for whatever reason. And this is not even like with your phone. This is like with a camera lens like this happens with the Photopasses, y’all. I might have to comb through all of our Photopass pictures over the years, and just see like, “Oh, where is she looking?” Every time, it’s always just like, “What were you thinking at that moment? Were you in deep thought?” But that’s definitely something that I’m gonna look out for. But yeah, Ariel, you are a huge fan of taking character photos. So I’m glad that Disney was able to accommodate for that safely and you know, protect the cast members who are our lovely characters and also our park guests. So that’s really, really great to hear. I love that.

Ariel Landrum 20:49
I saw I saw Oswald like, yeah, nobody ever sees Oswald.

Stefanie Bautista 20:54
You saw Oswald at Disneyland and not California Adventure?

Ariel Landrum 20:58
At California Adventure.

Stefanie Bautista 20:58
Okay, okay. Yeah,

Ariel Landrum 20:59
I did see Oswald at California Adventure. Along with Daisy.

Stefanie Bautista 21:05
The cow?

Ariel Landrum 21:05
They were only. No no,

Stefanie Bautista 21:07
No, sorry, not..

Ariel Landrum 21:08
Daisy Duck.

Stefanie Bautista 21:08
Clarabelle.

Ariel Landrum 21:09
Yeah, yeah, no, they were together. I’m not sure why. She wasn’t a little bit slight. I didn’t get that picture of her. She was moving really fast. I think she was an older old school outfit, but they were palling together and then just like palling off the route.

Stefanie Bautista 21:24
Random but cute Also, I’m I have no problems with that. How did the park look? Did it look like it got a makeover? ‘Cause I’ve been hearing that there’s some parts of it. I mean, even when I went right before the pandemic, they had already updated so many graphics. Little things but not huge. So how did it look to you visually?

Ariel Landrum 21:46
Yeah, so umm Home Girl , got, you know her glow-up on.

Stefanie Bautista 21:51
Eyy.

Ariel Landrum 21:53
The Pirates Ride, I noticed that the costumes on all of the animatronics. They looked fresh. I mean, they still look like quote unquote “worn down pirate outfits,” but it just seemed like they were new or they were cleaner. Even like the one pirate with his foot hanging down. Like it did not look as grody as I remember it. It was it looked more real. And it did look dirty, but it didn’t look dirty old. I don’t I don’t know how to explain it better then that.

Stefanie Bautista 22:24
Maybe the colors were more vibrant?

Ariel Landrum 22:27
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 22:28
Okay.

Ariel Landrum 22:28
Yeah. Oh, all the hues. All the hues were pumped up. Everything.

Stefanie Bautista 22:33
And interesting that you say that in pirates, because it’s such a dark ride. So very little like bright color gets through. But I guess maybe the vibrancy of those dull colors really came through? And do you think maybe they changed some of the lighting?

Ariel Landrum 22:49
I know they must have because it was it was a lot brighter. And one of the things I really love about the Pirates Ride specifically is the part where you’re going through like a building right before you go to the jail cell. And you see like burnt wood. And it’s sort of crackly and glowing. I as just as a sculpture major, the fact that that looks so real to me is like the most amazing thing. And it was it was even more. It was just so amped up. And then we definitely rode the train and the going from the Grand Canyon to

Stefanie Bautista 23:25
To the Primeval world.

Ariel Landrum 23:28
There was there was a double rainbow that was just just so lovely and beautiful. And lightning, the whole backdrop looked like it had gotten some touched up paint. And it was just everything was glowing a lot more. And and and I thought maybe it was just me and nostalgia. But my partner pointed it out. We had, oh, so there was a group of women, the Hijab Crew that went and all all matching hijabs and they they were commenting on how much like everything was amped up. Even though the line weight to pirates was only 5 minutes. Let me let me rewind, even though it was only 5 minutes. The there seem to be some confusion of where you’re supposed to enter because they had changed the roping. And so the the Hijab Crew was slightly confused and I just pulled the rope up and I said, “Oh you’re with us, right? Hey, hey, hey Jane!” And then,

Stefanie Bautista 24:34
You just make up a name?

Ariel Landrum 24:35
Yeah. And they were like “Oh, you’re so sweet.” And so about like 10 women just lined up behind us. And normally you’d get snares and a lot of angry people when it comes to line jumping. Yeah. or or or when you’re holding the spot for your your family. In this case because it was only a five minute wait. Everybody just thought it was endearing and funny. And they and they got to sit with us and took a picture of them.

Stefanie Bautista 25:01
Oh, that’s so nice of you.

Ariel Landrum 25:03
But because the boat was moving. Right? Well, there is no way. It is the ugliest photo, but they loved it.

Stefanie Bautista 25:10
Maybe they should ask your partner to do it? Ariel, you are like a semi-photographer. I don’t understand how this happens.

Ariel Landrum 25:20
Every time. Every time someone wants me to take a photo. So yeah, I would say that that was the other thing is you could tell everybody else at the park was where people who often went to the park. So those instant connections that I’m talking about, it was literally instant, it was easy for me to talk to this crew. It was easy for me to talk to that couple I, we were all just kind of smiling. There were masks. There was mask wearing and lots of people were wearing masks. As it got hotter. You saw less and less masks. Yeah. But I like I don’t think I saw people upset or angry, or families that are having sort of their tiffs or arguments, which, you know, parklife is overwhelming. So it makes sense. I just saw a lot of like, it seemed like gratitude.

Stefanie Bautista 26:05
That’s nice. I love that. And that actually brings me to my next question. We’re is in a post pandemic world will not super post because we’re still in it, guys. How are the crowds? I know, there has been some viral Tik Toks of you know, ever since the park opening up to the general public, how it’s just gotten insane. And, you know, like, unbearable, and like, why even go to the park now? I mean, even for myself choosing the date that I did. I did have my apprehensions about going to the park so soon. So how did it feel for you? And I know that you mentioned that you hadn’t been around crowds for a while. So from that perspective, how was your comfort level at Disneyland and California Adventure?

Ariel Landrum 26:51
So it it was surprisingly really comfortable. I think because I hadn’t gone to the parks when it was just people who in live California who could go because there was there was a time period of that. I I noticed how empty it felt in comparison to all the other times I’ve gone. I even when I looked at the app and kept refreshing it to look because I just I couldn’t believe the numbers I was seeing.

Stefanie Bautista 27:18
With the waiting times right?

Ariel Landrum 27:19
I only saw one 90 minute that was it. Everything else was the the longest that I saw at like in the morning was like 25 minutes for Indiana Jones.

Stefanie Bautista 27:31
Wow.

Ariel Landrum 27:32
So there was not an I was actually really grateful for that simply because you know, the Annual Pass like allowed me to have a Max Pass like I get I can I can get that.

Stefanie Bautista 27:43
Max Pass was as my life y’all. I planned out my whole day from Max Pass.

Ariel Landrum 27:50
Which I don’t know, do you want to explain what the Max Pass was? Because it may there was rumors with the with the nice woman on the phone that could or could be a replacement?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, for those of you who hadn’t gone to the parking quite some time before. You, everybody knows that there’s Fast Passes. Basically, you reserve a time prior to when you’re actually going to go on the ride. And normally what you would do is in front of the rider to the side of the ride, there’s a little kiosk, you scan your ticket, it gives you a time return anytime between 2:10 to 2:40. To ride your ride. Max Pass however, with the use of the Disneyland app, you pay an extra $10 to do all of your reservations without even going to the kiosk. So it was another level of Line Jumping the legitimate way per se. And what I would do, and what we would do at every park visit is immediately go $10 max pass not a big deal. We’d pay for you know, me and everybody else who was with me at the time in our party, and then we would just reserve the first few ones go get something to eat. And that way when the window would open again to get another Max Pass boom, get another one. And then you just kind of went, as you know, your day went by and you never had to stand in that 75 minute wait for Indiana Jones or that 124 Guardians of the Galaxy because you already know that you were going to go later on. And you could even reserve all the way up until the end of the day.

It wasn’t just the rides you could reserve the actual firework shows.

Stefanie Bautista 29:29
And World of Color. Fantasmic. Definitely those shows. I know they didn’t do it for the fireworks because that’s open for everybody in the parades were exempt.

Ariel Landrum 29:39
But oh yeah, but there are fireworks in the shows. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 29:45
So yeah, I mean, Max Pass was like my life and now that there there isn’t a Max Pass. I was myself wondering, “How am I going to go about planning my day?” And we’ve mentioned this, I think before but throughout this whole pandemic was to give ourselves grace. And I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, Ariel, that’s a big part of going to the parks for the first time is giving yourself grace.

Ariel Landrum 30:11
Yes, there were things that we were really hoping for that didn’t occur. And, and we just, we, we just kind of forgave ourselves. That, like, there was no way to like, kind of finagle or make it better, or ways to like prep. There are some things that now like, I want to tell our audience so that they can better prep. But I knew that that there was just some things that I wasn’t going to expect to happen that that, that we’re just gonna happen. Because that’s how it is, even before the pandemic, like, like, eh, well plan, Disney-planned trip usually has at least like 4 snags.

Stefanie Bautista 30:50
For sure, for sure. And it could be even the smallest thing as waiting a little too long for your food. And you know, that goes with the crowds. And that kind of plays into everything. And I think, because you did mention that everybody was just so grateful. There were less opportunities for that high anxiety, high stress to happen. Because everyone’s just really grateful to be in the parks and have the opportunity to go. So yeah.

Ariel Landrum 31:14
I think the thing that I didn’t prepare for that I don’t even know if I could have prepared for, was, you could you’ve always been able to order food from the through the app. There were now it was you could only order food through the app. And, and there were timestamps. So it’s so so for me, I’m used to… So I have my non negotiables. And these are the things I have to do to know that I had a really great Disneyland trip. Tiki, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Mint Julep, beignets. And churro. If those things are in my Disney trip, like even even 3, like top like top 3, like I had the best trip. It was it was worth the expense for me. So we went to the Mint Julep stand thinking like, Oh, well wait in line, and that’ll be that’ll be faster. There was no line to wait in. Okay, so we went on the app to order it. And it was like, we got at the Mint Julep Stand, like, I don’t know, 10:30 maybe. And we couldn’t pick up our Mint Julep until 12. So, so I’m used to doing the order, like “ASAP,” or “in 10 minutes,” or “5 minutes.” But because everybody was ordering that that’s that was unexpected virtual weight that ended up being a real weight. And that transferred over into California Adventure when it was like there was any food ordering. Thank goodness that we had already made the reservations at that restaurant. Because definitely in we didn’t get to try anything at the the ‘Testing Lab,’ ‘Pym’s Testing Lab,’ because…

Stefanie Bautista 32:56
Pym Test Kitchen.

Ariel Landrum 32:57
Noo! Was that 4? 3?

Stefanie Bautista 33:04
Umm that’s 3.

Ariel Landrum 33:06
Okay, okay. almost 4, but it was 3. Okay. So Pym’s. I was there I saw with my face.

Stefanie Bautista 33:13
You always are you’re literally there but you’re not really there. Like the multiverse in

Ariel Landrum 33:20
It is the multiverse in my head. So yes, at Pym’s. I’m just gonna say Pym’s now. We couldn’t order any food. We couldn’t even order alcoholic drinks. Nothing. And there was a there was a line for to order a mobile order if someone cancels. So there were people in line to be able to like order the food like and I guess confirm it in the app. I was a little unsure of this. So that if you didn’t get a chance to someone else cancels or doesn’t pick up or they have extra I don’t know. It was odd.

Stefanie Bautista 33:55
Interesting.

Ariel Landrum 33:56
So if you if any of you go back and watch my my Disney story, you will see that I took pictures of food. I did not purchase them again in the camaraderie, a very nice Filipino family ordered the $100 sandwich.

Stefanie Bautista 34:12
I you legitimately ate that thing? And I was like “Dang she went in.”

Ariel Landrum 34:16
Nahh. That was that was some Disney magic. And I said, “Oh my god, you got the sandwich. And you got this cool, like teeter totter thing?” “Can I take a picture?”

Stefanie Bautista 34:25
Yeah. The one in the spoon, right?

Ariel Landrum 34:24
Right? Yeah, I was like, “Can I take a picture?” And they’re like, “Yes, we already set it up for us.” And so we’re like me, and this other Filipino family and we’re all like taking snap snap snaps and then I was just like, “Thank you!” And we waved bye and they had a mixed drink. I took a picture that. I don’t think I don’t know if I posted, it but they they they went they went all out and they allowed me to to fake that I went all out.

Stefanie Bautista 34:28
Believable to me. I believe it. 100%. But yes, those are on our highlights in our on our Instagram page. So if you want to take a look. Everything was so bright and vibrant and that’s probably because it was like scorching hot that day.

Ariel Landrum 35:03
Scorching hot. And so speaking of bright and vibrant. Oh, oh my god Avengers Campus is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen, particularly the door area where Dr. Strange comes out. So the way they designed the Campus is that there will be ongoing small like skits or shows. And and then they had a lot of characters throughout the park as well and but the small shows are essentially planned regularly throughout the day. And I didn’t get to see Dr. Strange’s show. He had a close up magic.

Stefanie Bautista 35:41
Close up magic? Like a magician?

Ariel Landrum 35:44
Something like that. I didn’t get to see it. And my partner didn’t get to see it. So my partner was not worried too much in regards to seeing Avengers Campus because he already saw it.

Stefanie Bautista 35:58
Oh, yes, yes.

Ariel Landrum 35:59
So now Now I can say because it’s open, he got to shoot the commercials for it because he does work in the industry. And so he saw all the routines over and over and over again. The beautiful thing about that, and he couldn’t tell me anything. Right? He signed the NDA. So I just know that he went to Disneyland, I didn’t even get to find out why. And turns out didn’t even go to Disneyland. It was California Adventure. But okay. And so he knew that secret corners to like watch the shows the best. So if you watch the re- our IGTV to rewatch the live of the…

Stefanie Bautista 36:36
Spider-Man show?

Ariel Landrum 36:37
No of Black Widow.

Stefanie Bautista 36:41
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 36:42
Yeah, Black Widow and Black Panther to like essentially taking on Taskmaster. You will see that I I kind of pan the camera a little bit before some of the things that are going to happen because he’d already let me know where to look for things.

Stefanie Bautista 36:59
Yeah. And from what I remember, you were like off to the right side, I believe, right?

Ariel Landrum 37:04
Yeah. Now because I’m I’m short, I had to I tried to pass on the phone a little bit, because my arms are really small. But there were like, I literally, I can see everything. Yeah, both those angles. And so there was so there was that experience. And then where some of the cast were going to come out and take pictures. He let me know. Now he got to see something that I didn’t. There is a ship? Yes. Like a jet.

Stefanie Bautista 37:34
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The Avengers Jet.

Ariel Landrum 37:37
He actually got to be inside that up there.

Stefanie Bautista 37:39
Stop it. Don’t let me I don’t want to be around him.

Ariel Landrum 37:42
Yeah, yeah. So like, so a lot of the experience for me was like, “Ohh ahh,” and a lot of him was like, “Yeah, that’s cool.”

Stefanie Bautista 37:50
Got out. Got out. He doesn’t exist. Get out. I don’t want to be around that. Don’t need that negativity in my Disney trip.

Ariel Landrum 38:01
But yeah, so the Spider-Man one. If you guys listen to our next episode, where we talk about a very specific Disney show that talks about jobs. This Spider-Man is real until certain point and then that point, the Spider-Man is a robot.

Stefanie Bautista 38:20
Yep.

Ariel Landrum 38:21
Spoiler alert. I won’t tell you what point but I did get some really good photos because of it, and again, I knew sort of where to stand. Um, that was something else that he saw repeatedly as well. The only thing that he didn’t see, and we didn’t see, was the Webslinger. So I I’m, I’m happy. That is a missed experience for both of us.

Stefanie Bautista 38:42
Good. We need a little neutrality up in here. I’m gonna try to go so hopefully if I do if the Disney gods are with me, I am going to try to go to both Rise of the Resistance and Webslinger. Only because Rise of the Resistance happened in open when I was 7 months pregnant. So I’m like, “I can’t even go on this ride!” I think the last sort of tangent. The last ride I went on was the balloons that they had repurposed for the inside out ride at Pixar Pier. And I legitimately almost threw up because I was like, “Dope, this too much.” And if you guys know that balloon ride is like the most slowest. Go around. It’s not even intense. It’s just like little kids could do it. I think the height limit to that one is like the lowest, but nope, here I was about throw up on the ride beacuse I was just too pregnant for that. I was too pregnant. So I’m very excited to be on an actual ride because I miss it so so much.

Ariel Landrum 39:42
So speaking of Rise of the Resistance, okay, so this is a part of the Disney experience that was completely unexpected and unexpected and also anger inducing. Because that’s part of the expectation is you will find yourself feeling some type of way. 1, because anytime you go to a theme park stimulus overload. Yeah, that that just happens. And 2, because I had not been out for so long, like then being like, at a place that already gives you stimulus overload when you are prepared for it, that it was just a lot of energy, I would say. And what ended up happening was, as I mentioned, Mint Juleps at 12. Also at 12 is the second time you can try to queue up for Rise of the Resistance or Webslinger. So my partner and I, he that we realized the first error. Which was he didn’t have the tickets connected to his app. So he couldn’t also try to be there at 7 am. It was the task was on me. And I

Stefanie Bautista 40:48
Taskmaster.

Ariel Landrum 40:51
I was I yes, I absorbed and learned the move. And now I need to like distribute it appropriately. So I was like, Okay, here’s, here’s the thing, we’ll both get on. There were there were very limited seating. A nice couple was about to leave, let us share their table. And then another couple that was coming after that couple left, we let them sit with us. And the whole group around us knew that 12 was almost time.

Stefanie Bautista 41:16
It was time.

Ariel Landrum 41:17
Yes. And you could see it around us. And then and then my partner who has to be loud was like, “One more minute! “One more minute.” And so then everybody else was doing the countdown. And we all at the same time, I was going to try and reserve Spider-Man and he was going to try and reserve Rise of the Resistance. 12 o’clock hits, we all hit the queue, we all hit join, I get put in a reserved queue for Rise of the Resistance. I did not get Spider-Man. So I did Spider Man, it failed. He didn’t have my ticket on Rise of the Resistance. So I went back to try and get that one. So I got put on a on a hold. He got a ticket. Of course he did. Of course he did. He got a ticket. That’s that’s that’s what happens. Okay, so the ticket was the fact that I get to be in a virtual holding queue to be put in a virtual holding queue.

Stefanie Bautista 42:12
So it’s like queue ception.

Ariel Landrum 42:14
Yes, yes. And so while I had to hope that I could get into a virtual queue, my partner had the ticket. So he was like, “Well, you know, we’ll see when mine, my group gets called up and maybe we you know, we can go in together because we we are we are together?” like okay, we can see that. So the whole day goes by it feels like and apparently the ride was down for two and a half hours. So the queues weren’t up again until around 5:50. And so we went from the, where? Oh, we went on Star Tours just to feel Star Wars.

Stefanie Bautista 43:07
And there was no wait there at Star Tours. You just walked on in.

Ariel Landrum 43:10
I just walked right in. Yeah, that was like a no wait, and then that that ride was down for a little bit. So we were standing in line because of that. There was no wait. Well, yeah, so we went on Star Tours. I had taken my Dramamine. Some of you may not be aware, but I do have motion sickness, which is why the rides I listed are the ones I love. Because I mean, the Tiki Room isn’t even a ride…

Stefanie Bautista 43:33
It’s an attraction.

Ariel Landrum 43:34
But it’s an attraction. But yeah, so we we hustled over there, only to you. And by then, like the heat was getting to us and so my partner could not remember how to get to…

Stefanie Bautista 43:48
Batuu.

Ariel Landrum 43:49
To Batuu from Fantasyland-ish area and went instead towards the where the fantasy tent where they do the princesses..

Stefanie Bautista 44:01
Due that’s Toon Town.

Ariel Landrum 44:02
Yes. So we made it all the way to Toon Town. And I was like, “Where are you going?” And he was like, “I’m trying to get the Star Wars?” I was like, “There’s no way to get from,”. And we went Toon Town. And he was like, “Are you sure?” And I was like, “I’m pretty sure…” But then I started second guessing myself because the heat and..

Stefanie Bautista 44:21
The walk to Batuu is pretty long. It’s like hidden and there…

Ariel Landrum 44:26
It’s about as long as the tram.

Stefanie Bautista 44:29
I remember being tired. I am going to the first time but anyway.

Ariel Landrum 44:34
So by then I was I was beat and I was like well, we’re still not completely called up with the queue but your queue is up. So how about we take the train all the way to back…

Stefanie Bautista 44:46
Back around.

Ariel Landrum 44:47
Back around and just get off at the Haunted Mansion and walk from there because we know how to get to Batuu from there easy. A lot easier passing ‘Bear Country’. So we did that. And afterword.

Stefanie Bautista 44:59
‘Bear Country?’

Ariel Landrum 45:00
Oh no! Which one’s the bears? Is that California Adventure?

Stefanie Bautista 45:04
So it’s the Country Bear Jamboree, but it’s called Critter Country.

Ariel Landrum 45:09
Okay. Okay. Critter Country where the bears are.

Stefanie Bautista 45:14
All the bears and the creatures. Winnie the Pooh. You got off the train at Haunted Mansion and okay at this point you guys have been I feel like at the Mint Julep bar for-friggin-ever.

Ariel Landrum 45:25
Forever. Yes, yes, I didn’t get a second Mint Julep.

Stefanie Bautista 45:29
You might as well could have at this point.

Ariel Landrum 45:32
So we as we’re walking, right there is a a cast member who is holding hands with an adorable little girl who is they are this little girl’s aunt. I believe. I’m assigning gender but I’m gonna go with a little girl. And so holding hands in hands. And there’s a mom and or aunt figure on the phone very, very loud. Talking to another group and saying, “We’re headed towards Rise. We’re headed towards Rise.” like “Oh, they’re gonna ride the ride with us.” I was like, “Oh, that’s cool.” And meanwhile, the little girl is telling this cast member like “I went on everything. It is best day ever. I’ve never been on so many rides.” blah blah blah. And she’s like, “Oh, I’m so glad you’re having fun.” And the mom and/or aunt. Phone Lady. We’re gonna call her Phone Lady. Phone Lady was like, “Oh, no, we don’t have any tickets for Rise.” They’re like, “Oh, no, we’re good. We’ve got slots. They’re like, and we’re just listening. “What? Ohh is this like something secret?”

Stefanie Bautista 46:40
Like yeah, like, what this Disney secret is?

Ariel Landrum 46:41
What are these slots? Yeah. And they’re like, “No cast member so and so is gonna get us in.”

Stefanie Bautista 46:48
Uh huh.

Ariel Landrum 46:49
So we’re like, there’s no way this is gonna happen, right? Like the like, there know what the rides been down, like? So so my, my partner and I are expecting them to get a no. And they got to walk right into the line without checking anything. No, passes, not nothing. They did get to walk on. So my partner went up to the cast member who was checking the virtual queues and said the situation in regards to I was putting up a virtual virtual queue. And then it disappeared. It basically said, like, “You did not get chosen.” And so he did could could he could we go on the ride together? He said he didn’t want to go on the ride without me, which was sweet. I told him he should have but he didn’t. So the park member said, “Let me go ask. The rides have been down for like two hours. And we had to we had to really just bypass a lot of queues, which was not fair to some of the other guests.” He went asked and they said no. So we didn’t go on the ride. And so then my my partner wrote a survey about how angry he was that this family got to bypass everybody. And the justification that I couldn’t go on with him was because the ride had been down for two hours and other people in bypassed.

Stefanie Bautista 48:04
And that you were in a separate virtual virtual queue. And that therefore determined the fact that you couldn’t go on. And yeah..

Ariel Landrum 48:13
Sso it wasn’t like I didn’t get a ticket at all.

Stefanie Bautista 48:15
Yeah. And it was just two of you?

Ariel Landrum 48:19
Just two of us versus this was a family of apparently there were 11 slots. That was the number Phone Lady said on the phone. “Oh, no, no, come meet us. We’ll be there. No. Yeah, though. The whole group all 11.”

Stefanie Bautista 48:32
Wow. And it’d be kind of what she has a death wish.

Ariel Landrum 48:36
Yes, she was loud.

Stefanie Bautista 48:39
You’re gonna get and that is one of those things, ya’ll. Going to the parks, you’re going to have those people who like to taunt and loudly express their privilege at the parks.

Ariel Landrum 48:52
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 48:52
I know that many Disneyland goers, mainly my friends, people who I follow on Instagram and on Twitter. I mean, they’re, of course as influencers, they have certain things that they get to go to that, you know, not many of us do. However, I’ve never heard of any of those people openly, you know, touting that privilege. And openly saying that and I think that was important taste for that lady, especially being yet it is the first time many people have gone to the parks. There’s already a level of privilege that you were able to navigate the technology to even buy a ticket and navigate the queue and all the queues virtually. So I get that she was excited but I don’t think that it was in good taste. Like that was pretty tacky and kind of a D-I-C-K move.

Ariel Landrum 49:46
Yeah, it was. It was horrific. And that’s how we ended our day. We couldn’t even stay until until 9 o’clock because the thing the other thing I didn’t prepare for I brought tennis shoes knowing that I wanted to wear comfortable shoes. Knowing that it was in a walk a lot. I wore shorts so that I’d be cool. If you go on Amazon you can buy Chub Rub I just use deodorant between my thighs. So that like keeps them from getting all chaffe-y. So I was I was ready and set except I’d forgotten how stagnant I’ve been in the pandemic and that I looked at my my phone and I’d walked like 19,000 steps. And like literally the day before did like 4 so. That’s an exaggeration but still like

Stefanie Bautista 50:31
Like the less than 100 I’m guessing.

Ariel Landrum 50:34
Way, way less than 100, so I I hadn’t realized that I was going to be so beat. And I can’t even say that it was it was the heat. That heat didn’t make it any better. But I do think that I didn’t build up my stamina. So anybody else is doing their their planning that’s that’s the thing that I would say prep for the most. Is, you won’t be standing a lot because you won’t be in long lines, but it’ll be…

Stefanie Bautista 51:00
Moving a lot.

Ariel Landrum 51:02
Moving a lot. Moving around, moving around. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 51:06
I wouldn’t even suggest I mean, I’m going to be snack mom. So I’m packing snacks for the whole family.

Ariel Landrum 51:14
Just, most of the carts were done, and again, they ran out of churros.

Stefanie Bautista 51:19
Shut up no.

Ariel Landrum 51:19
One cart. One cart we were able to get a churro at. Almost, that’s that’s literally how we ended our evening. We needed to get a churro so we got a churro.

Stefanie Bautista 51:27
You were able to get that I know. Normally my end of day ritual is either getting a churro or popcorn on the way home. Just because the smell is just so good. But I’m glad that at least that didn’t run out. That would have been a super bummer. But I’m glad that despite that one off. Overall, would you say you had a great first trip back?

Ariel Landrum 51:49
Yeah, I got to ride the fire truck. I’ve done that one other time.

Stefanie Bautista 51:54
With your dad right?

Ariel Landrum 51:55
Right with my dad. Yeah, I brought him back to the parks. He hadn’t been in like 20 or 30 years. And then I got to ride the double decker bus. I mean…

Stefanie Bautista 52:04
I haven’t done that ever.

Ariel Landrum 52:05
I’ve never done that and I sat on the side that so I got to take some pictures of the castle at a higher frame than I normally would just gorge just gorge.

Stefanie Bautista 52:15
I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna do that.

Ariel Landrum 52:18
Yeah, they had a lot of smaller. I guess that you would say that was an attraction because they the trolley that’s being pulled by the horse that was happening all the time. The buses were there the whole time. The firetruck was there the whole time like just non stop. And I think it was to give park goers more to do because some things were just down. They just, they…

Stefanie Bautista 52:39
Yeah, and real quick. What was down what could you not go on? Do you remember?

Ariel Landrum 52:46
I don’t I don’t remember I think Space Mountain was open. But we didn’t I didn’t I would never go because…

Stefanie Bautista 52:53
I believe Matterhorn was down I think.

Ariel Landrum 52:57
Oh yes. That was it Matterhorn if she’s getting a facelift.

Stefanie Bautista 53:01
Probably.

Ariel Landrum 53:02
Maybe another Yeti but that was that was definitely down. And I don’t think anybody was on the Nemo ride, submarine. I think that might have been down.

Stefanie Bautista 53:13
I don’t think that is COVID friendly. Not COVID friendly. Love that ride. I know. It’s unpopular opinion. But I love that ride. But, I mean, despite everything I think that was a successful Disney trip from being 9 to 9, almost 9.

Ariel Landrum 53:31
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 53:31
And you know, you did all you could and I think that there are still a couple kinks that Disney has to work through in order to make it a enjoyable experience. Because now knowing that the virtual queue for the food is going to take a minute like I want to eat when I want to eat. So I haven’t gonna really have the time my meals for me and the rest of the family.

Ariel Landrum 53:55
Yeah, and even the there were. Well right when you walk into California Adventure and you’re like look to your right, there’s like that little marke? I was down. It was it was like there was nothing there was essentially closed. So a lot of even the snack carts that you would expect. They aren’t there. So I would definitely say as prep bringing like your own snacks. That’s that’s just good. It makes financial sense and lowers your your carbon footprint. But also, there’s nothing that you can eat if you can’t get your virtual order. Yeah, and there’s no carts anywhere that have food because everybody else who didn’t get their virtual order ransacked the carts.

Stefanie Bautista 54:32
I guess I’m gonna take it back to like back in the day when I would go with my mom and we would bring Subway sandwiches. We would bring our own food. We’d go to the picnic area and just make the most out of it without spending the most. But that’s really good to know. For sure. But yeah, thank you for sharing your experience. I hope that you guys all have a good experience when you go back if when you decide to go back. I know I’m really excited. And we really hope that you guys have great stories. And if you don’t have great stories, we’d love to hear that too.

Ariel Landrum 55:08
Yeah. And definitely check out our Instagram, too, to see some of the pictures, some of the videos and to see what merchandise I did end up buying. Yeah, there’s one piece of merchandise I never leave the park without. So see what I got.

Stefanie Bautista 55:24
Great. All right. Well, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Happiest Pod on Earth. Once again, I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 55:31
And I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 55:33
And we are Disney fans. But we are so much more than that. Please go ahead and follow us on Twitter @happiestpodgt and happiestpodgt on Instagram to find out what we have in store next for you.

Ariel Landrum 55:44
Bye everybody!

Stefanie Bautista 55:45
Alright bye!

• Disneyland
• Oswald
• Mikey Mouse
• Minnie Mouse
• Avengers
• Dr. Strange
• Spider-Man
• Black Widow
• Black Panther
• Goofy
• Chip and Dale
• Donald Duck
• Daisy Duc

• Legacy Pass
• Annual Pass
• Disney Parks
• California Adventure
• Disneyland
• Gratitude
• Expectations
• Preperation
• Privilege
• Enchanted Tiki Room
• Attractions
• Anger
• Joy
• Memory
• Olfactory Senses
• Food

Ariel Landrum (00:05):

*Bells and intro music* Hello everyone. Welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista (00:13):

and I’m Stephanie.

Ariel Landrum (00:14):

and we’re Disney fans, but we’re really so much more than that.

Stefanie Bautista (00:18):

I’m an educator.

Ariel Landrum (00:19):

I’m a licensed therapist and together this place is where we discuss

Stefanie Bautista (00:26):

And dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Ariel Landrum (00:29):

So I’m curious stuff. What are we breaking down today?

Stefanie Bautista (00:33):

Well, today we are breaking down self-care and Disney and mainly the ways that we use different Disney, um, forms of media to help us get through our everyday lives, um, help us get through everyday routines and how we can maybe give you guys some tips to use in your everyday lives and, you know, kind of connect in that way, because I feel that sometimes we use Disney as a form of just self-care and, you know, ways to just make us happy and grounded again. Would you agree?

Ariel Landrum (01:00):

I agree. Absolutely. I think, um, I think it’s important that we clear up a common misconception when it comes to self-care. Um, a lot of people, particularly, even my clients, my friends and my family, when they hear self-care, they make it synonymous with being self-indulgent or being selfish. Um, I don’t know. Does that, does that sound similar to the way that you’ve heard it represented?

Stefanie Bautista (01:24):

And I think self-care is one of those things that they preach in our professional developments at the school, but it’s also like, yeah, I would love to practice self-care, but can I even carve out time in my day and my week, seeing how busy we are with our schedules, with our students, with our home. Like, I feel like there is a level of privilege when it comes to being able to do self-care, quote unquote for yourself, because we think of getting a pedicure, getting a manicure, going to get a massage, those things take money and time and some things we just don’t have those things.

Ariel Landrum (01:59):

Yes. So that’s why I think like one of the things we want to challenge is this idea of self-care and how it’s been portrayed in mainstream. And even you bring up in professional development, like they scream self-care, but nobody actually defines it. Nobody actually says what it is and you can look up the word self and you can look up the word care and sort of cobble something together. Um, but essentially, uh, to give everyone a, a definition or at least the definition we’re going to use in this show is that self-care is a conscious act. It’s doing something to establish and maintain specific pillars of wellbeing that prevent illness or deterioration. Um, and these pillars may be different for everyone. Um, but the common pillars that at least I see in my practice are hygiene, lifestyle, nutrition, environment, medical care, mental care, and even cultural connection. I find that when we touch those different pillars in my clients’ lives, they are able to maintain mental wellness and, and even, um, their symptoms from becoming a mental health disorder or at least get reprieved from a current one.

Stefanie Bautista (03:05):

Yeah. I totally hear that. And when we break it down like that, talking about hygiene, nutrition environment, just putting yourself in these places that don’t really cost too much money, like remember to brush your teeth every day or remember to take a shower. When, you know, you just don’t feel like, you know, your yourself, like those little things could be self-care, it doesn’t have to be getting a make-over, it doesn’t have to be changing up your whole entire look. It could just make sure that you are healthy and living every single day. Not, not feeling like you’re falling or failing, um, the cultural connection to me, that’s something that I didn’t know about. And I think that really speaks volumes, especially when connecting as a second generation immigrant like me, like I, my parents came to this country and, you know, we were assimilated very, very quickly into American lifestyle. So every time I get to connect with my culture, it revitalizes me. And, you know, if you guys can agree with that, there’s just, it kind of, you can’t really explain it. Um, when you hear something that you resonate with with your culture. And I think that’s like a great way of defining self-care that makes it a lot more accessible to everyone.

Ariel Landrum (04:19):

Accessible and, and even considering it a practical maintenance, like there’s a difference between, you know, getting your car washed and then getting your car regular tune-up right. Like we know when we’re supposed to change oil, we know when we’re supposed to put gas in it, some of us will push the car till E, um, how, how often do we do that till the car starts to run down versus somebody who’s doing regular maintenance on the vehicle and maybe they polish and prime it every once in awhile, that’s, that’s more indulgent self-care to the car, but this is the same with us. We may dothings that make us feel more polished, but our regular maintenance, like you mentioned, just even personal hygiene. What I noticed with my clients is they will see that when they’re dipping into a depression, the first thing to go is they will skip a shower two. Or, um, they’ll, they’ll go to bed with, without brushing their teeth or, um, or brushing their hair. And that’s usually a sign that they’re, they’re starting to dip into mental and wellness. And so if they lean in on that pillar of hygiene, if I just kind of try and make, make myself, um, incorporate this a little bit better or find what I need to change so that I can incorporate this while I’m feeling unwell, it’ll help prevent deterioration. It’ll help prevent me from dipping into full blown depression.

Stefanie Bautista (05:32):

Right. And I mean, bringing it back a little bit to Disney area, what kind of self-care things do you do that Disney theme? I know we haven’t been to the parks in quite some time because of COVID, but what are like the little things that you’ve done to stay connected to Disney and also kind of to nourish yourself whether it be physically or mentally?

Ariel Landrum (05:58):

Well, be-before I talk about sort of like one of the newer big things, some of the little things, uh, are definitely, um, I Def I have Disney plus sort of running in the background. I have my go-to episodes, um, or movies that, uh, like hearing the voices, hearing the songs just gives me feelings of joy. I don’t even need to be actively participating in it to know that I’m giving myself some moments of self-care. Um, if, if, um, we’re looking at at these pillars, it’s, it’s my environment. I’ve now changed my environment of like, if I have to sit down and write notes and do like boring paperwork, um, it’s turned from, uh, being monotonous tasks to like hearing these soothing sounds of, um, uh, just music that I can actively or passively sing, or hear the lyrics to, or just inspiring songs of like my favorite princesses.

Stefanie Bautista (06:51):

Yeah, for sure. That’s awesome. I know for me, I started decorating my workspace and my room with Disney memorabilia. I have bought so many things at the park, but I never put them up or like, I just don’t display them because I’m so busy with all these other things. But then when I finally got a chance to just be in my room, because we all had to be in our rooms at one point, I was like, well, why don’t we just put up these posters? Or why don’t I finally print out these pictures of me and my friends at Disneyland? Um, it was a little bittersweet doing those things in the moment, just because I didn’t know when I was going to go back to the parks, but I think seeing those things kind of put me at ease because I’m like, you know what? Disneyland is my happy place and what it, all of these little trinkets have memories tied to them, which are happy memories, um, or at least sentimental memories to me. So, you know, seeing like my little pop figurines of, you know, the princesses and Mulan and seeing my vintage Disney posters, and finally going through my camera roll and organizing thousands of pictures from PhotoPass and you know, all of the things that we did. And I, I’m not sure if you know, a lot of you have iPhones, but since the new iOS update, it gives you memories on your little widget. So many of those memories are Disney memories because I think so many pictures, I random see like a Finding Nemo cake pop and, you know, just random stuff like that. And it makes me smile. It makes me go, you know what? Those were happy times. I’m pretty sure we’ll be back to those and no time and, you know, but until then I’ll just take these memories and kind of just stay connected to them. Um, and also reminisce with my friends about them. I I’ll like text message someone be like, oh my gosh, this picture just popped up. And that was a way of connecting with my friends, even though we were kind of far away so yeah.

Ariel Landrum (08:43):

Yeah. So another, another example of environment, right? Like you surrounded yourself with, with Disney, something that’s soothing for you has, has, um, strong connection to you. Um, and you took time of your day to do it. Like you decided that prioritizing your space to be comforting was important.

Speaker 2 (09:01):

Hmmhm. Totally. It was like mini Disneyland up in here.

Speaker 1 (09:08):

Like what, when it comes to, um, looking at some of these other pillars and at least connecting them with Disney, um, I was certainly like when I’m thinking of nutrition, um, I’ve, I’ve looked up recipes for things that I’ve eaten at Disneyland.

Stefanie Bautista (09:25):

For mentioning that. Oh my gosh. I think, did you try to recreate a Disney recipe over quarantine? I tried to

Speaker 1 (09:34):

Recreate churros. It wasn’t fast, but part of my self-care was trying to cook. Um, it did not, um, nutrition wise. It’s not that, so I guess it leans in more lifestyle for talking about just learning how to cook. I wasn’t trying to make the healthy churro, but it was just the sheer fact that I was trying to like, learn this skill, trying to do something fun and I didn’t put any pressure on myself. So the thing is sometimes we turn self-cares into passions or even monetized passions where it’s like, I have to be perfect at it. I have to hit a benchmark. I have to have an achievement. Um, and for me it was like, I just want to see if this is a thing I can do. It’s not a thing I can do. Um, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Stefanie Bautista (10:15):

Let me just take that a step forward or maybe even backwards. So I put, um, our family every year does a secret Santa for Christmas. Right. And for my, one of my secret center presence was the Disneyland Cookbook. The unofficial one, if you guys want to look it up, it’s on Amazon. It’s made by a super Disney fan just like us. And she has taken the time to like perfect these recipes. Right. So I got it. And then I was like, oh my gosh, I’m going to do all these things. And this is at the height of let’s all bake quarantine and everyone is making bread and all this stuff, I started from my starter bread. Oh, does anybody have like sourdough starter? So I was like, oh, the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to make the raspberry macaroon, not the Matterhorn one, but the raspberry macaroon and okay.

Speaker 2 (10:59):

I’ve never made a Macron in my life. I’ve consumed millions of them, but I’ve never made one. And I always tell myself, oh yeah, I’m going to make it. I watch every baking show and I go, I can do it better than that. Like, you didn’t get the foot on it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So ever since I got the book I have done none of them so far. Quarantine is done and over with, and I just moved it from one bookshelf to the other. However, I will, one of these days, maybe by the end of this year finally do one, and like you said, I think there was like such a big, I don’t know if it was backlash on, you know, wanting to say I accomplished so much during quarantine. And there were reminders that my friends and other people would say on their Instagram and their stories. And they were like, you don’t have to do that. Just the sheer, like want to do something different was more than enough. Like we were all going through it this past year. And the fact that I was like, “Ooh, let me even try and recreate some of these things.” I felt like that was a big enough step for me to even want to. Now I have the tools, I just have to do it. And I, that didn’t deter me at all, but I have yet to crack open that book and actually get ingredients and do something like that. But, um, yeah. I mean, for those of you out there who feel like you guys didn’t accomplish anything during quarantine team, you don’t have to. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum (12:23):

I think the, you know, what we want to acknowledge is every single person living in this earth right now has not survived a pandemic until we had a pandemic. So there was no, we have no right way. Right? Like there was no, there was no shared history or cultural consciousness that we could lean on and be like, this is how you survive a pandemic. Right. So if you made it on the other side and you’re here, you did it right. Like, that’s it, if you, if you learned a new language kudos for you, if you did the same thing going in and the same thing going out kudos for you. Cause the point was to survive pandemic.

Stefanie Bautista (12:56):

The point was to make it through. Oh no.

Ariel Landrum (12:59):

Oh speaking of making it through.

Ariel Landrum (13:02):

My son did not make it down the hallway clearly. It’s okay though. He’s okay. He’s okay. He’s got plenty of people watching him. Um, but yeah, I mean, going back to, I guess, using self-care and maybe even throwing in mindfulness in there, um,

Ariel Landrum (13:18):

Definitely that’s part of mental care and that, that pillar of, of mental wellness, we forget that our mind is a muscle that needs to be actively used in and um, an exercised.

Stefanie Bautista (13:29):

Yeah, definitely. And Ariel, do you mind just giving us a little bit of background of what exactly mindfulness is defined so that our listeners can kind of, you know, center themselves on that?

Speaker 1 (13:41):

Absolutely. So mindfulness is a practice it’s been utilized by many religions and secular traditions. Um, you can find this practice meditation and metadata prayer, um, in many secular traditions and the history of the practice can be found in Buddhism Hinduism and even has roots in Judaism. Um, Christianity and Islam also have hints of mindfulness and meditation specifically or mindful prayer. Um, but essentially mindfulness is the ability to be fully present and aware of the current moment and responding without judgment or reactivity. I’m going to repeat that again, responding without judgment or reactivity. Now I can tell you, there’ve been times where I’ve been fully aware of the moment, but I’ve been aware of my judgment on the Moment or how angry the moment. Um, so I would say that that’s what makes it an exercise. It’s an active practice to be able to, to gain that skillset. Um, oftentimes the practice does focus on breath or body or mind and environment. Um, and that’s where you, you can create that, that, uh, experience of being fully aware judgment because you’ve sort of focused your senses on things. Um, and man mindfulness has many benefits, uh, for all of us, including just decreasing stress, um, increasing treatment effectiveness for mental medical conditions. Lots of my clients who have chronic pain, mindfulness has allowed them to lessen those pain numbers. Um, it definitely improves academic success through increased attention and focus like making yourself focused on the present moment is such a strong ability to sustain focus just like later on in life. Um, and, and it really prevents burnout. And when it comes to helping professions and teaching professions, burnout is usually the first thing that comes that makes us want to go.

Stefanie Bautista (15:35):

Yup, definitely. And I mean, for me using mindfulness in my classroom previously, it was a game changer. Really. We integrated mindfulness practices every single day after we did like a really big outdoor activity like recess or lunch. Um, if it was a hot day, especially we would just turn down the lights, put some soothing music on and just let them do mindful coloring, just be with themselves, like no talking, nothing at all, no stimulation. It’s just a time for them to be one with themselves. If they didn’t want to color that’s okay. If they just wanted to sit and be quiet, those just 10 minutes, sometimes, maybe even 15, if they were really like wanting that quiet time was so essential to transitioning into the next activity. And, you know, we noticed as a school staff that implementing mindfulness practices was effective in deescalating situations like, you know, little verbal fights or maybe even physical fights. Um, when emotions were running super high, like two kids wouldn’t agree on the playground they’re playing soccer or something, we would just tell them to take a step back, take a deep breath and then self-regulate, and then more and more that they practice that. Especially if they started in the younger grades, like in kindergarten, first grade, by the time that they get to fifth grade, most of them were able to just hang out and deal with their situations on their own between themselves, without any adult intervention or, you know, any further escalation. Now, of course we don’t live in a perfect world. Like kids are going to be always, you know, trying to one-up each other, but there was always that one kid was just like, Hey, why don’t you guys take a step back, breathe, maybe call an adult, if you need that adult to, you know, help you find out your situation. And you know, just that little step could’ve prevented something big, you know? Um, so in the classroom it proved to be really, really important, practicing mindfulness. And it gave us teachers a moment of mindfulness too, before we transitioned into the next thing. Um, we always focused on the kids and letting them have their transitions and having them be smooth. But for us adults, it’s the exact same thing. We needed that like little breath before we started the new thing, because you know what we want to be in our right minds too. Um, switching gears a little bit as a mother, I use Disney+, um, as my son was in his early early months. Um, and one of the things that we really love to use in Disney+ was Zenimation and Zenimation

Ariel Landrum (18:01):

So you said you’re his early months. Wait, so how old is he?

Stefanie Bautista (18:04):

So now he’s one, but we practice.

Ariel Landrum (18:08):

So mindfulness is something you can do with infants.

Stefanie Bautista (18:10):

Yes, absolutely. Before they even know what mindfulness is, um, we would play Zenimation, which if you guys don’t know it’s on Disney+, and it is a series of beautiful landscapes from all of the movies. And, um, do they do TV shows Ariel or is it just movies?

Ariel Landrum (18:28):

Um, I I’ve only seen Disney movies specifically.

Stefanie Bautista (18:32):

And they would play either the soundtracks of the movies or nature sounds or any sort of, um, I guess audio effects that Disney uses for any of their movies isolates them and seamlessly puts them together in one, um, themed episode. So I think for one of the episodes, it was all ocean sounds. So it was Nemo, Moana. Um, I even think they did Peter Pan for like a little bit and did some of the aerial shots over the island. Um, but it was beautiful because it wasn’t quite using music and it wasn’t quite just using, you know, playing a movie in the background. It was like as if they were both honoring all of the audio specialties in all of their movies and just highlighting the amazing work that they do. And those soothing sounds helped put my son to sleep, um, every so often. So I’d just have it in the background and it was soothing for both of us and we were both zenning out, to Zenimation and it was awesome. And I think that was like a really, it was like a surprise that I saw it on Disney plus I didn’t know what it was at first. Um, but it’s great if you guys can check it out one day.

Ariel Landrum (19:41):

Yeah. I, um, I do to let my clients know, uh, about [inaudible]. Uh, so when, when it comes to learning a mindfulness based practice, one of the difficult things is if you are somebody who has, um, very strong anxiety. So, uh, the anxiety is almost your superpower when we want to make it strength based. Um, sometimes focusing on your breath or your heart makes you breathe faster and your heart pump faster. Cause like you’re hearing it and you’re noticing it and you’re thinking, wow, I can hear myself breathing. And that freaks you out. That’s that is so common. And which one of the reasons why, um, people with anxiety have difficulty learning, just take a breath, just do mindfulness, just be it, just be aware of the moment because they’re being told to focus on a part of themselves that is a trigger, a reminder for their anxiety. So with with Zenimation, um, and anyone else who’s attempting to learn mindfulness, uh, guided, mindful meditation is helpful when you hear script and someone talking, but mindful sounds and imagery would be the, the strongest sort of like transition or helper tool. Um, so with the Zenimation, I have my clients pick a, um, a specific theme and they have some really interesting ones, not just like, um, uh, environment like water or ocean, but they have, um, things that would make you think discovery and just like, how do you, how do you present that with sound and sight and no words?

Stefanie Bautista (21:08):

They do it.

Ariel Landrum (21:08):

They totally do it. And so we, we, we focus on that. We focus on the sounds and the imagery for those seven minutes. Cause they’re were like seven minutes long. The very last one of each season is like an hour or 45 or something like that. But that’s like, once you’ve become like the mindful, the most mindful.

Stefanie Bautista (21:27):

The Disney mindfulness guru.

Speaker 1 (21:32):

But, um, yeah, so we, we choose a theme, we watch it and we, we focus on breath but we match our breathing to the sounds. We hear, um, and sometimes I’ll, I’ll tell my clients like outside of session, say the words out loud that you’re thinking in your head. So that allows you to, to notice them without judgment, because you’re acknowledge them by saying them, noticing them. Um, but you aren’t adding to them and you aren’t reacting to them. So it’s just like, I’m watching this scene from a, I’m watching the wave and I’m watching Lilo riding the wave. And that makes me think of my time when I was with my family in Hawaii. And I got scared and I didn’t want to go on a surf board and now I see a new scene and it has nothing to do with those things. I want to keep moving. Right? Like it makes the practice more active and gives a lot of grounding.

Stefanie Bautista (22:19):

That’s awesome. And you know, like, as I was watching it, I think I was so zenned out that I was like, just an awe of so much of the animation.

Ariel Landrum (22:27):

Yes.

New Speaker (22:27):

I was like, oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. And I don’t know if it reminded you, but it reminded me of, um, the animation academy at California Adventure. Um, if you go down Hollywood Boulevard in California Adventure, if any of you guys have gone, you can go to animation academy and then you can draw a character. And they change the character every like hour, every time they do it. But in that room, in the middle, they just play clips of Disney movies and they have different screens playing either the actual animation, the making of the animation or just the backgrounds and Zenimation was like, exactly that. And I was like, oh, I feel like I’m at California Adventure because that was the place that I would just sit on the floor and try to, just to get it like taking in the AC cause it was so hot out if you guys are like hardcore Disney fans, that was a place to just pass out because you were so tired. And that is one of the, I mean, I feel like that totally taps into self-care while at the parks, because it is visual stimulation, auditory stimulation, physical stimulation, you’re walking like 20,000 steps a day and you just need to find a place and sit that’s cold. And that was one of those places. And could say that, you know, that was maybe the precursor to Zenimation before it even like start.

Ariel Landrum (23:50):

Uh, yeah. I think that one of the things that you’re really acknowledging is that, um, environment makes it difficult or easy to, to be mindful, um, to have self-care. And, um, and that, a good chunk of it involves like what actually inspires you and what grounds you, cause you, you mentioned stimulation, auda, auditory and visual stimulation, but isn’t stimulating in that like, like being on the credit coaster, right. It’s not hard pumping and screaming. It’s, it’s being present, it’s being relaxed, it’s feeling your body and how it responds to these sights and sounds, and that, that feeling is comforting.

Ariel Landrum (24:29):

Yeah. It definitely is. Even though at the end of the day, you’re like, I need to pass out. It is comforting. And I think that’s, I think that’s the part of Disney magic where it could, you are like pulled sewing different ways emotionally and you know, in the end it just, it feels so fulfilling and satisfying. And you’re just like, “You know what? That was worth it.” Even though I’m like dead tired, my feet hurt the next day. I feel happy and fulfilled. And you know, Disney to me is just such a unique way of self-care because not only, you know, do the movies resonate with me, the shows resonate with me, but also being a part of the Disney culture is really comforting. Um, that sense of community with you, of course, Ariel.

Ariel Landrum (25:18):

Yay.

Stefanie Bautista (25:18):

With Josué and Lara who have, you know, so graciously given us this podcast, I wouldn’t have made these strong connections if, you know, we didn’t have that common ground. And I think, you know, building that community part of our culture again,

Ariel Landrum (25:33):

Yes.

Stefanie Bautista (25:33):

Is such a big part of self-care.

Ariel Landrum (25:35):

I think even in going into cultural connection, right. We’ve talked about Disney+’s Zenimation. I think, you know, what I’ve also noticed, um, is they’re curated. Um, uh, what would you call them? Playlists? Video suggestions? Um, AAPI appreciation month, Pride month this month.

Stefanie Bautista (25:59):

They did Black history month.

Ariel Landrum (26:01):

I think that, um, it’s not so much connecting to your specific culture, but it’s, it’s feeling a sense that your culture is included and important.

Stefanie Bautista (26:10):

Yeah, hmmhm. Definitely. Um, I mean, I didn’t quite get to look at the AAPI month um, curated, I guess, library, but I mean the fact that they could even have content like that is huge. Like I didn’t see myself until Lilo and Stitch, honestly. I didn’t see, you know, when I saw Nani, I was like, that is what my people look like. She is tan, she’s beautiful, she’s working hard and she’s thicc. She’s not skinny. And it’s great. And you know, seeing that culture reflected, even though I’m, you know, I don’t identify as part of the Hawaiian culture. I think just, you know, seeing myself represented was huge. Um, but yeah, I definitely agree that, you know, they’re, they’re really working hard to create not just Disney culture, but Disney culture reflected in who we identify as.

Ariel Landrum (27:07):

The diversity of the audience.

Stefanie Bautista (27:09):

The diversity of the audience. ‘Cause Disney fans come in all shapes and sizes.

Ariel Landrum (27:15):

I think, um, even noticing, uh, how the park celebrates like, um, like the Lunar New Year festival.

Stefanie Bautista (27:23):

Yeah, yeah. Um, Food and Wine Fest. There’s so many more cards now that introduce ethnic, um, cuisines

Ariel Landrum (27:33):

Wasn’t it like last, last year they had Adobo?

Stefanie Bautista (27:35):

Yeah. They had a Adobo and then I think they even had like a Pork Lechon like sandwich. I mean, they’ve always had like Banh Mi, which is awesome um, Vietnamese sandwiches and, um, they’ve of course done so many iterations of traditional Mexican cuisine. Um, and even just highlighting quote unquote, “California cuisine,” which to me as a California, I still kind of don’t understand. What? I mean, if you have any idea, Ariel, let, please like explain it to me because California cuisine is just like, I don’t even, I don’t know what it is.

Ariel Landrum (28:12):

You as, as a local and me as a transplant are both confused.

Stefanie Bautista (28:17):

‘Cause I mean, you’ve seen it right. Like in the Food and Wine Festival, they’re like, “Oh, this is like California cuisine,” or at the wine, um, the wine cellar, blue sky wine cellar, or like the restaurant behind it, it’s like, oh, California cuisine fair. And I’m like, but what is that? Yeah. Isn’t it just things that you can drink with wine or eat with wine?

Ariel Landrum (28:37):

Yeah. Like when, if I’m thinking California cuisine, I’m thinking like, “Oh, from local farmers and growers,” or like “Local wineries up in Napa. No.

Stefanie Bautista (28:45):

Yeah. Exactly. I don’t, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of like, oh, this is, you know, the, the most “Arizona cuisine” or, you know, “The Nevada cuisine.” Like that. I don’t hear that, but I did a lot of California cuisine.

Ariel Landrum (29:00):

I think it’s just a marketing gimmick.

Stefanie Bautista (29:02):

If you guys have any idea, please like tweet at us @happiestpodgt or, you know, comment on our Instagram, please let us know. Um, because I’m confused.

Ariel Landrum (29:13):

Wait, confused. I just want to see, okay. We talked a few different things in regards to the pillars. Can you think of anything essentially Disney related when it comes to, um, lifestyle really specifically nutrition and medical care? When I think a lifestyle, I think of, um, uh, your, your homies that do the Disney marathon, which isn’t exactly self-care, but like building that practice would be.

Stefanie Bautista (29:40):

I think, I mean, I think it is a, you know, a little bit of self-care. Like, so I have these two really good friends, best friends of mine who run all the Disney marathons. And they even did the dopey challenge at Walt Disney World.

Ariel Landrum (29:52):

Run them.

Stefanie Bautista (29:54):

Well, it’s like a run-walk. I mean, it’s a long distance. So the Dopey Challenge, they ran all four parks and even around like downtown Disney um, and they got medals for every single one. And these two are super busy individuals. They were both going to school at the same time. Um, one to be a physical therapist and the other to be a teacher. And they were like in the middle of their schooling and.

Ariel Landrum (30:17):

And they both working.

Stefanie Bautista (30:18):

And they’re both working jobs on the side and they found time to carve out for themselves, train and run these marathons. And they did it, you know, I mean, they did it.

Ariel Landrum (30:30):

Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista (30:31):

I don’t think I’d be able to do it. It’s something that I’m working towards. But I think for them, um, running is such a part of their lifestyle and they’re such huge Disney fans that it was just like, perfect. Like not only were they running at their favorite parks or got to explore parks at Disney World that they didn’t get to go to before, but at the same time they were doing it together as a couple and they were doing it also with their friends and they were doing it to better their, their running time, their, their physicality, and really just to clear their minds. So, I mean, like, that’s just one of the examples of self-care in, in the avenue of kind of hitting all your, all your goals in one, by, you know, joining a Disney marathon.

Ariel Landrum (31:15):

Yeah. I think one of the things that when it comes to self-care that we forget is that self-care needs to also be somewhat self-sustaining. And what I mean by that is that when we create goals, once you’ve achieved the goal, you check it off. When you create systems of habit. What you’re saying is that, um, this is essential and key as part of my daily living. And so for them to be able to, to make that accomplishment, um, I doubt that they were able to do the same routine every single day. Because they were so busy. Instead it was, “If my overall goal is increasing my wellness and being able to do this run, then that means maybe every day or maybe every other day, I just have to move my body more. But it doesn’t mean that I have to run like three miles every single day at 4:00 AM. And then again, in the evening at like 10, 10 PM.” Right? No. So I think when, um, a book that I always suggest to my clients called Atomic Habits. It isn’t specifically Disney related, but it, it really talks about how, um, if we create habits that are systemic, that are included in our system of our daily living, it’s easier to achieve. It becomes just, just part of our routine in our day for maintenance. Again, just bringing it back to that idea of maintenance.

Stefanie Bautista (32:32):

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I know when I was watching them train for these marathons, it would just be on the weekends, they were training because they were so busy during the weekdays and it was just, you know, they were, they had planned it so far in advance that they were just, you know, inching closer and closer to just hitting their PR or even creating a PR for them, a personal record. Um, they weren’t necessarily trying to win the race. Um, if anything, they were just coordinating what outfits they were going to wear at every park.

Ariel Landrum (33:00):

I think you’re also highlighting that, that self-care does have to be planned. Unfortunately, it doesn’t just happen upon you and there isn’t a perfect day for it to, to occur.

Stefanie Bautista (33:10):

And I mean it doesn’t even have to be months of planning could just, you know, you could say, Hey, I’m going to reserve 20 minutes plan on, or maybe even 7, if you were talking about like an episode of Zenimation may change, just those 7 minutes of just being with yourself mindful, um, can make a huge difference. And I think, I, I know, um, my friends who were running those marathons, just getting out there and like just running and it didn’t even have to be like the full marathon length because that’s really long. Just, you know, getting out there and getting their bodies moving every week was essential to them running that race. And, yeah I mean, they were planning so many other things. The race was just, you know, the overarching, you know, the overarching goal for, you know, all the other things that they accomplished in preparing for the race.

Ariel Landrum (34:01):

I think, um, looking at these pillars again, when I think of medical care, I shared on the Geek Therapy Community, Facebook Group, this tweet that I saw from, uh, a pediatrician that, um, said that, uh, a little boy that he was working with wanted to stay a little bit longer in the telehealth session to talk about dinosaurs. And, um, I, I point this out because I do have clients who are very fearful of going to the doctor for a variety of reasons and very valid reasons. Um, and sometimes having a quote unquote “human conversation” with your doctor has you see them as more of less lab coat, more person. So, um, a tip or self-care trick is I have my clients when they schedule out whatever their doctor’s appointment gonna to be, they practice asking a question. So in this case, if your fandom is Disney, maybe ask your doctor “Who’s, what’s your favorite Disney movie,” or “Who’s your favorite Disney character?” Practicing it will help it come out a little stronger, feel a little more assertive, um, and really taking the focus off of you. Because even though this is your medical visit, you want to feel comfortable with your provider. And for, especially for people who just got off, maybe their parents’ insurance and are learning how to build relationships with a primary care doctor, which I will say, um, for our generation and this, uh, for Millennials and, and, uh, Gen Z, we don’t really know what a general family doctor is. We don’t actually get one. We don’t go to one regularly. There’s a good chunk of it is, is systemic with finances. And, um, the way the system in the United States has healthcare. I don’t, you know, really just acknowledging that it’s a problem there, but a good chunk of it is also that I’ve never known how to develop a relationship. I went one because my parents told me to, we did have medical care.

Stefanie Bautista (35:48):

Exactly. Yeah. I’m the same way. Like when I was, you know, applying for insurance and doing all, like, you know. I didn’t know what a primary care manager was. I didn’t even know that was the same thing as a doctor. I was like, “Oh, manage your doc, wait, it’s not the same?” And this is me. And like my late 20s at this time, because, you know, I was finally put on like a steady insurance, but it’s a whole nother thing, but yeah, we digress. We digress, but definitely, I mean, you make such a great point when you’re talking about, you know, connecting with your provider and connecting with, you know, the people. I mean, I can even say the same thing as a teacher. I have to have a favorite Disney character lined up in my mind. I have to have a favorite, you know, like you said, dinosaur, if I’m working with younger students. It’s just those little things that you would make a world of difference when connecting with your students, with your community, with anybody really, when you’re entering a new community of, you know, let’s say Disney fans. I know, um, there are so many Facebook groups out there, uh, for soloist, for people who love Star Wars for people who are, you know, transplants in California. There’s so many different little, uh, groups that you can introduce yourselves to, um, because we’re all such huge Disney fans. But, you know, having those things in your mind is just, you know, those little icebreakers that help you connect a little bit smoother, I guess you could say.

Ariel Landrum (37:18):

Yeah. Yeah. And, and really, and giving yourself time to practice them again. Um, uh, and particularly when we’re talking about adults, it’s hard for adults to connect and it’s definitely hard for adults to create friendships if they weren’t their friendships they made at work or in, in youth. Um, otherwise it’s, “Oh, now my kid is in like a primary school and I have to be friends with their friends’ parents.”

Speaker 2 (37:44):

Oh boy, that dynamic I’ve seen that. I can’t wait till I get there. On the other side of, I guess, the curtain, because I definitely see it from like, you know, a staff point, you know, all of the parents that, you know, come to our school and it’s really interesting those dynamics, but definitely if, you know, the two kids have like that one special thing that they bond over, it’s so much easier for the parents to connect with each other. Cause they just want to see their kiddos happy. Um, but yeah, I mean, even at the parks sometimes like you see just random kids coming up to each other and making friends. Like when they’re in Toontown or when they’re, you know, just taking a picture or maybe when they’re in the line to take a picture with a character. Those are great opportunities for kids to talk to each other and connect with each other. Building that community of future Disney fans.

Ariel Landrum (38:35):

And really remembering that, um, because self-care is talking about, you know, maintaining, um, your own wellness, creating support systems is self-care. Um, when you, when you have, uh, individuals that you can lean on, just like, just like now we’re, we’re shooting this podcast and you can lean on your family to support you in this moment of, of self-care.

Stefanie Bautista (38:57):

Yeah. This is my self-care y’all we didn’t even make the 20 minutes and I got an interruption, but I mean, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I can count maybe on so many more fingers than I have on my hands and my toes, how many, you know, times I’m just like, “Oh, like I need a self-care day, let’s go to Downtown Disney.” And, you know, “Just go to the World of Disney and buy one thing.” Or, you know, I have like my set friends that I can go to, um, or even just going on social media and seeing how other people that I follow, who I’m not even friends with, how they’re expressing themselves during, you know, during lockdown, during the pandemic. Even now that you know, we’re not in the pandemic so much anymore, everything’s starting to open up all of the Disney influencers that I follow are dealing in different ways. And I think that’s so beautiful. Because that just represents the spectrum of our diversity is the fandom. Um, I know many influencers haven’t been back to the park because they’re not comfortable and that’s okay. Some of them have, and they have multiple times and that’s okay. Um, I think that’s what makes me feel comfort that I’m not going for quite some time. Because I had, you know, my reservations, I know Ariel, you’re going pretty soon. And you doing any mental preparation for that? I guess self-care wise?

Ariel Landrum (40:23):

Yes. So, um, self-care wise, uh, mental preparation is, or an emotional mental labor, uh, is something that you kind of have to do check-ins with. Um, and I was, I was regularly checking in if it was still something I was comfortable with. Um, uh, and so part of my, my self-care is I’m going with my partner. So we talk about openly, like if certain things occur, certain things happen, you know, how we’re going to address them or what we’re going to do. Um, he’s, uh, comfortable and fine with still wearing masks. Um, and having the hand sanitizer with us. I think that the, the new app system that they have in, in, um, sort of queuing up, I think that’s going to be very helpful. Um, but I also think like, I know right now Avengers Campus is open. I know I want to go, I don’t need to go. I want to go. So if the line is atrocious, um, I, it may be that I’ll do something else that doesn’t have as much, um, uh, people, uh, involved or lined up that one want to be involved. And I will see that as me actively choosing myself and my needs first, that’s my self-care. And not like that I’ve missed out on something.

Stefanie Bautista (41:36):

Right. That FOMO is huge. And it’s a double-edged sword ya’ll.

Ariel Landrum (41:41):

Yes. Yes. A lot of self-talk a lot of stuff.

Stefanie Bautista (41:44):

A lot of self-talk. And I think as a long time Disney goer, I used to be an Annual Pass holder. I know Ariel, you did too.

Ariel Landrum (41:52):

RIP.

Stefanie Bautista (41:52):

I know, RIP. As I got older, the more I gave myself a little bit of chill on the things that I needed to do that day, the more enjoyable it became to be at the park and get use out of that pass. I think one time, me and my boyfriend at the time. Um, he’s my husband now. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum (42:12):

Spoiler alert.

Stefanie Bautista (42:14):

Spoiler alert. Um, we just spent one day just going to the street to the show, to the stores on Main Street. We didn’t even go to any rides. I think it was like a super busy day. We usually tried to go on Sundays cause it wasn’t as busy, but for some reason it was super busy, but we were like, “You know what? Let’s just hit up all the stores on main street and go to the places that we’ve never really explored before.” And once I kind of shifted my thinking into, “Oh my gosh, I have to go on this ride! I have to go on that ride!I have to eat there!” Once I kind of threw all of that out the window. It was like, okay, I can still enjoy myself because Disneyland allows for that to happen. You can do certain things in the park without actually having to ride all the rides because, you know, sometimes it’s just not going to happen. Sometimes there’s just that many people at the park and, you know, you’re battling locals, you’re battling people who are on vacation. You’re battling people who, you know, have been reserving these tickets for a long, long time.

Ariel Landrum (43:10):

It is a battle.

Stefanie Bautista (43:10):

And, you know, have never been here. So you really are. There’s so many variables into going to the parks that just taking that step back, breathing and saying, this is going to be okay. I’m still going to have a good time is I think what it was kind of a game changer for me too. Um, and it allowed me to want to come back, even though I knew I couldn’t do everything I wanted to go to. It was okay.

Ariel Landrum (43:35):

Yeah. I think that, um, you know, obviously having my Annual Pass and being living close to Disneyland is levels of privilege. Um, I, but I even in talking about like making that mind shift, like it just shifting your mindset, uh, I had some clients, uh, you know, over the summer who are planning or have already gone to Disney World. Um, and, and having to, to actively shift out of the idea of like, “I spent all this money, I have to get, like I have to bleed this day. I have to bleed Disney. I have to get so much out of the experience,” to “The fact that I’m going out and spending time with my family is really all I wanted. I just wanted to go out, spend some time with my family. And if I leave this vacation, knowing that we enjoyed ourselves, then, then I did get my money’s worth. I did actually experienced myself. I was present in the moment.” But if you’re on that ride, thinking about like needing to jump off, to run to the next ride, did, you really get to enjoy Disney?

Stefanie Bautista (44:34):

Yeah. Right. And also like who, if everyone’s looking miserable and I have, I have to admit, I have seen families that just looked absolutely miserable at the parks. Are you at that point making lasting damage? Or are you really pushing for the best vacation ever? Um, now that I’m a parent, I, I say, you know, my son is super young. He’s not going to go on all the rides. He can probably maybe not even make it through one whole ride, but that’s okay. You know, like this is our foray into giving this as an experience to him and I have to be okay with that because I don’t want it to be such a traumatizing experience for him with all these people, um, that I never want to do whatever again. So.

Ariel Landrum (45:25):

And I think even like giving some reprieve, particularly again for talking about Western societies, who, I mean, in our cultural consciousness, the studies still show the mental loads on, on, on women, on mothers. Um, and so, you know, allowing moms to enjoy vacations means not, not putting the pressure on yourself or them to curate and schedule everything. I mean, some of the best moments at Disney are just random Disney magic. You can’t plan for when that character walks by and you get to take a picture. So maybe it means letting go of some of the itinerary in order to really enjoy that magic. And you’re talking about like your young son, like someone might be the bubble blower, maybe all he wants.

Stefanie Bautista (46:10):

Yes. Maybe he just wants to see Dumbo in the air, not even be in the ride.

Ariel Landrum (46:16):

And being okay, because that’s his experience like you’re, like you said, you’re gifting it to him. If it was your experience.

New Speaker (46:22):

Yeah. Things would be set in place if it was my experience, but I’ve had years of that to enjoy. And now it’s, you know, my turn as a mother to give that Disney joy to my son. And I do the same thing with a lot of my nieces and nephews, who I ended up meeting at the park, or I go to the park with them. It’s really the little things like they don’t have to have that princess dress. They might want it and you probably might get it for them. And it’s part of their experience. But you know, some other kids might not want that. Some other kids might just, you know, want to just spend time with their parents. Um, I think also the level of needing to get that perfect Disney shot has added like another, just like plateau of stress on parents. And you know, also the people working the PhotoPass and a lot of the cast members, other guests, um, I mean, let’s face it. We all want that perfect Disney shot, but we’re not always gonna get it, especially when there’s a crowded, crowded, um, there’s a crowded place like right in front of the castle.

Ariel Landrum (47:23):

There’s that kid picking his nose in the background of your shot that you cannot crop out right next to your face.

Stefanie Bautista (47:28):

He’s right there picking his butt, or, you know, somebody might be proposing right behind you. ‘Cause that happens all the time.

Ariel Landrum (47:34):

All the time.

Stefanie Bautista (47:36):

All the time. And we’re going to talk about that in another episode, but I mean, like I said, there’s so many variables and like getting that perfect shot is just one of those things. And I know that we have friends and we will probably talk about this on another episode is where to find really good um, photos and photo opportunities and the parks and what time to find those.

Ariel Landrum (47:58):

We gon’ spill the tea.

Stefanie Bautista (47:59):

We gon’ spill the tea on that, because we’ve done Dapper Day. We’ve done proposals. We’ve heard a proposals. Um, there’s a lot of different scenarios and parameters that need to be taking into account. Um, and Disney does a great job of accommodating those things. So there are ways to get that perfect shot, but just know that even though you don’t yourself get that perfect shot, it’s going to be okay.

Ariel Landrum (48:24):

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think, again, you’re, you’re highlighting that part of self-care is like really being present in the moment, but also letting go of, of certain expectations. Um, and that, that, that takes a lot of mental prep to be comfortable and okay with the unexpected. Um, and, and really cherishing the real moment versus our judgment of it. Right. So getting back to mindfulness-based practices, um, am I going to look at this, you know, kid in my background picking his nose as “This ruined my shot!” Right? Or am I going to look at this as like, “Oh my gosh, this is hilarious. I had no idea.” Um, and this is real Disney.

Stefanie Bautista (49:10):

It is real. Yeah. I mean, there is Disney magic, but there’s a realness that has to be like, there’s a, there’s a level of, um, what do you call it? A tough pill, a pill to swallow when it comes to being at the parks and, you know, curating all of these Disney magic photos and memories. I think that’s a great way to think about it. Just taking that as a specific memory, because who else is going to have a kid picking their nose in the background of a beautiful family picture?

Ariel Landrum (49:35):

They wish! He’s our kid now!

Stefanie Bautista (49:41):

Became the star of the show. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think we’ve discussed so many different ways that self-care, um, plays a role in being a part of the Disney fandom and living everyday life that, you know, it’s something to really take into consideration moving forward, as we’re beginning to reopen. Beginning to get back into our fandoms. Um, conventions are coming back. Concerts are coming back. So, you know, Disney is going to make those opportunities available for us to reconnect, um, consume all sorts of media. Um, not just with Zenimation, but with all the other things that sometimes, you know, when I log into Disney+ I’m like, “I don’t even know where to start.”

Stefanie Bautista (50:28):

Yeah. Oh, it becomes overwhelming.

Stefanie Bautista (50:30):

Yeah, it sure does. And I think maybe a part of that self-care is maybe going into a plan, maybe having a little preparation into, oh, this is going to be my theme. I know you did that, right?

Ariel Landrum (50:42):

Yes. Yes. And in, including in, um, you know, with any experience that, uh, some fluidity and flexibility. A plan doesn’t mean that, that it must be this way. So like, I, I, like I mentioned before when, um, Disney+ first came out, I just, I wanted to watch all the films that had animals. I don’t know talking animals seem to be something that I wanted in the moment. And then there was a, I was watching Aristocats and I, I finished it and I was like, “Oh, I don’t need another animal movie now. Like I, I think I’m done with that.” Um, and, and I remember talking to some friends and they’re like, “But, but you didn’t finish? And it was like, “But, I got what I needed. I didn’t need to finish.”

Stefanie Bautista (51:26):

Yeah, totally. I think when Disney+ first came out, I was like, “Oh, let’s watch Lady and the Tramp.” And I watched it and I was like, “Oh, this is so cool.” I have my, you know, questions about it, but let’s watch something else.

Ariel Landrum (51:38):

So so the new one?

Stefanie Bautista (51:38):

Yeah. The new one, the live action one and I’m like, oh. And then I went right back to my favorite, you know, Disney animal movie, which is One Hundred and One Dalmatians. And I watched that again and I’m like, “Okay, I feel better now.” And it was just like, not a palate cleanser and the way that I didn’t like Lady and the Tramp, but I had to go back to something that was familiar to me because there were so many changes. And I think Lady and the Tramp live action was one of those changes at that time. Um, but going back to One Hundred and One Dalmatians, it was just like, oh, I have this at my disposal. Let me just watch it. And that was my mini plan.

Ariel Landrum (52:12):

Yes. Yeah. Again, if we’re talking about self-care, um, knowing your go-tos, like what are the things that I know, uh, give me comfort and support that, that make me feel good that make me feel well or present. Um, and you’re like, “I like this, I enjoyed this, but now I need to go back to a familiar level of comfort.” Yeah,

Stefanie Bautista (52:32):

For sure. I guess maybe to close out, would you want to maybe share your top 3 or 5?

Ariel Landrum (52:39):

Oh woah.

Stefanie Bautista (52:39):

Um go-to, 3 or 5, just because I know 3 sometimes is not enough, but 5 might be a bit much. I’ll give you that option. And that’s the educator in me. I’m giving options to accommodate and differentiate.

Ariel Landrum (52:51):

Thank you.

Stefanie Bautista (52:51):

Um, what are your top 3 or 5 go-tos on Disney+?

Speaker 1 (52:58):

Oh, my top 3 or 5. Okay. So, um, uh, Mulan, I actually just, just played at this, uh, this morning.

Stefanie Bautista (53:05):

Nice.

Ariel Landrum (53:07):

Uh, the, the, uh, the animated, I was suppose to say animated Mulan, um, and animated Pocahontas. Um, so, so definitely two, um, Disney princesses. And then, um, uh, Disney Weddings. Okay. So here’s, here’s the thing, here’s the thing with Disney Weddings is like one, I know I’m not going to be able to have one. They are expensive, but two, like this

Stefanie Bautista (53:30):

Say never, you might win something.

Ariel Landrum (53:33):

But the sheer joy in individuals just like embracing their whole selves and their partners embracing their whole selves. And having it sort of like on display is, is just adorable, magical, wonderful, authentic. And then then of course, Disney being Disney always has a surprise or a magical twist. And I never guess it. I never guess what they’re going to do is like their little icing on the cake, a little chef’s kiss. Okay. So I’ve got those three I’m I definitely, uh, finished all of the first, there are seasons of Zenimation. So I’ve definitely finished all the first seasons does Zenimation. I’m on episode 3 of the second season. Um, and that one has, has imagery from, uh, Raya the Last Dragon.

Stefanie Bautista (54:19):

Ooh.

Ariel Landrum (54:19):

Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista (54:21):

Yeah. I haven’t seen it yet. So I’m super excited to play that and have a little Zen moment. Um, but yeah, I love the landscapes and the soundtracks, and I’m such a huge fan of, um, Alan Menken and Hans Zimmer who did so many of the soundtracks. I even did. I remember in high school, I did a project on Hans Zimmer because I loved his soundtrack so so much. Um, of course with like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, um, so many other things that he did. Uh, but yeah, definitely. That was what I loved about Zenimation. Um, but yeah, for my.

Ariel Landrum (54:52):

How about you?

Stefanie Bautista (54:52):

For my top three, I’m going to do three because like in the library of things that I watch, I’m just going to be like, “Let’s just pick 3.” The first 3 that I’d go to definitely it was One Hundred and One Dalmatians. That was one of the first things that I watch just because I love, um, the jazz and the representation, the representation of jazz in the beginning. And I love puppies and I’ve always loved that movie, um, from, you know, if you guys did listen to our last podcast with Josué and Lara, um, our conversation about Cruella like that, you know, just wholly played to my heartstrings cause I love One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Um, another one that I just played actually after watching Luca was, uh, Toy Story 2. It is my favorite Toy Story movie, um, with, you know, what he discovering that he is super famous. And I think that is my favorite Toy Story. Um biased. I think it’s the best Toy Story. I know the first one’s great, but the second one really like it was on that level.

Ariel Landrum (55:56):

The same company as my partner’s nephew, he says that is the best movie ever.

Stefanie Bautista (56:01):

It is the best one. All the way up until like the end in the airports. It’s just everything about that movie. Um, the whole, I am your father with there’s so many things I can quote the movie back and forth.

Ariel Landrum (56:09):

Maybe we should do an episode.

Stefanie Bautista (56:09):

I know, oh my gosh, I would love that. Um, but the third one that I always go to is Lilo and Stitch. It is something that I just play in the background. Um, I would, I used to memorize those songs, sing my heart out. I know no Hawaiian whatsoever, but I did one, you know, when that came out. Um, but I just love just Stitch and everything about his craziness. And um, I love Lilo and just her lying on the floor, playing her Elvis records, wanting to tell everyone to go away. That was me. Um, but I will always go back to that movie because I love it so much. So those are my top 3.

Ariel Landrum (56:55):

*Outro music* Well, we want to thank everybody for listening to this episode of The Happiest Pod on Earth. Again, I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista (57:03):

And I’m Stephanie.

Ariel Landrum (57:04):

And, uh, this is a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens.

Stefanie Bautista (57:09):

Yup. We will see you guys next time on our Podcast. Um, make sure to also follow us on Twitter @happiestpodgt and our Instagram at @happiestpodgt, where we are going to give you guys updates on all the Disney things that we are doing and also, um, updates on the upcoming events and shows and movies that are coming up because we are probably just as excited as you.

Speaker 4 (57:31):

Yay. Bye.

Stefanie Bautista (57:33):

Buh-bye!

• Zenimation
• 101 Dalmatians
• Mulan
• Lilo and Stich
• Toy Story 2
• Disney Weddings
• Pocahontas
• Disney California Adventure
• Disneyland
• Animation Academy

• Zenimation
• self-care
• mindfulness
• meditation
• Disney parks
• Disney+
• mental wellness
• family
• culture
• education
• environment
• Unofficial Disney Cookbook