Podcasts in Review

December 18, 2014 at 12:00 am | Posted in Celebration, Disney, Episode VII, Movies, Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Television | Leave a comment
Tags: Freddie Prinze Jr, genese davis, ian doescher, jake lloyd, ryder windham

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review which includes some catching up and a whole lot of The Force Awakens discussions.

Assembly of Geeks: “Legends of the Knight and Cancelling Star Wars” covers the usual range of geeky topics. They talk about the Age of Ultron trailer, the Legends of the Knight Batman documentary, Jeff’s thoughts on the title for The Force Awakens, and other tv and movie news.

“The Flash Injuries, The Trailer Disappoints & The Force Awakens” features guest host Bobby Blakey who fills in for Jeff as they talk about the Marvel and DC movie announcements, Big Hero Six, Toy Story 4, favorite animated movies, the cut content for Ernie in Ghostbusters, the physics of the Flash, whether movies trailers show too much or too little, their thoughts on The Force Awakens trailer, and the rumor that Luke might be a bad guy.

“Marvel Mayhem: Inhumans, Captain Marvel & More” starts with a LEGO discussion then covers The Flash movie, Supergirl, Terminator: Genisys, other Marvel films as well as more off the wall topics like Star Wars crocs and sarlacc bunt cakes. Fun episode with lots of movie discussion.

The Dark Assembly Meeting was their Halloween episode (I know, I’m catching up). They cover the end of Saturday morning cartoons and reminisce about some of their favorites. Taylor Lymbery joins them for that segment. Then Dan Zehr joins them as they talk about a new Harry Potter story, scary movies, and darkness in storytelling. There’s some weird music playing throughout this episode, but there’s also some fun discussion so it’s still worth checking out.

Bonus Points with Genese Davis is a episode for MMO players. Genese talks about how she got into MMO games, her and Scott share what the first few days are like in an MMO, then they dive into an array of acronyms and I had no idea what they’re were talking about. I guess there’s a bigger divide between gamers and MMO players than I thought. That said, if you’re into MMO games, World of Warcraft and the like, this may be an episode you’ll want to check out.

Bombad Radio: Episode 176 starts out with Jake Lloyd who stops by to talk a little bit about his current endeavours, then they head into an interview with Star Wars author Ian Doescher. Ian talks about meshing William Shakespeare and Star Wars, tackling the prequels and more. It’s a good interview and, for anyone who has read the William Shakespeare Star Wars books, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Episode 178 starts out with some news–The Force Awakens character names, BB-8 being a practical effect, Mark Hamill returning to The Flash–then dives into their interview with Star Wars author Ryder Windham. Ryder talks about doing the droid comics, the difficulty of finding anyone who wanted to do a kid friendly droid series, transitioning to books, his background in graphic design, working as a freelance cartoonist, working for Scholastic, the junior movie novelizations, the Secret Missions series, doing reference books, naming species like Vuptereens and Zabraks, how Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force started with just a title and how he went about coming up with an idea for the book, The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett, and blood drives. It goes without saying that they covered a lot of ground which resulted in a really awesome interview with Ryder.

Coffee with Kenobi: Rebels Reactions – Rise of the Old Masters features guest Mike Pilot from Full of Sith as they break down the episode and discuss the Inquisitor, Kanan, lightsabers, Hera and the manta ray things, and more. Then they break into an interview with Kanan voice actor Freddie Prinze Jr. who talks about Han as the reluctant hero and Luke as Alice in Wonderland, Kanan’s level as a Jedi, his relationship with Hera, fatherhood and Star Wars and even some comments on Batman. Truly a great interview and one you will not want to miss. One of the best–if not the best–Freddie interview I’ve heard yet.

Rebels Reactions – Breaking Ranks features guest Joe Taylor as they cover the ethics of the Empire, their training facilities, why stormtroopers are such bad shots when they’re trained to hit such small targets, AT-ST’s versus AT-DP’s, stormtrooper helmets versus trainee helmets, and the characters of Sabine, Kanan, the Inquisitor, Zare and Jai.

Rebels Reactions – Out of Darkness features guest Adam Watson. They talk about Star Trek references, gas and light metaphors, Zeb and Ezra’s goofing around being a dangerous mix, the precarious balance of Zeb being a gruff honor guard and an immature eight year old, a homage to Aliens with the mother-daughter like relationship between Hera and Sabine, the waves of aliens attacking, and being saved by a drop ship. They also cover how it was a female centric episode but not a damsels in distress situation as well as the failure of technology theme.

Rebels Reactions – Empire Day features guest Craig Dickinson and covers topics like the lack of repercussions for the anti-Empire comments in the bar, the music cues with the Imperial march and Leias theme, Kanan’s overplaying it, the new TIE, the names of Ezra’s parents, and speculation on what caused them to become anti Empire.

Rebels Reactions – Gathering Forces features guest Justin Bolger. They compare Ezra and the Inquisitor, examine the use of masks, Kanan’s use of a blaster during a lightsaber fight, the Inquisitor trash talking Ezra, and just tons of insightful discussion on the characters and story elements. All of the Rebels Reaction shows are fun ways to dive deeper into the episodes, but Justin is certainly one of the highlight guests with his sharp eye and intelligent analyzation of the episodes.

Disney Vault Talk: Cinderella episode starts out with some listener feedback, Disney news, then the usual history and fun facts on the Disney film they’re discussion. However, this time around they’re joined by Star Wars Rebels voice actress Vanessa Marshall as they talk about Cinderella. Good episode for Disney and Cinderella fans. Post show, they do some Disney quizzes which you may or may not want to skip out on.

Full of Sith: Episode XCV kicks off with a discussion of The Force Awakens character names–from the lack of last names for certain characters to the variety of pronunciations–and also touches on Mark Hamill’s comments about BB-8 being a practical effect. For their main discussion, they cover Star Wars Celebration. Mike talks about his expectations for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim which will be his first Celebration. Bryan and Amy Ratcliffe share some of their Celebration experiences, their favorite moments, their worst stories, and Bryan goes over his Celebration I story again. Capping off the episode they talk about the new Star Wars Disney park news and ask listeners what they’re looking forward to with Celebration as well as mentioning the possibility of a Full of Sith meet-up (personally, I think that would be really cool and I’m sure a lot of fellow listeners would agree). All in all, another great show with some fun Celebration stories and lots of good discussion.

Episode XCIV features Bobby, Bryan and Chris Taylor as they discuss The Force Awakens trailer and fan reactions. They also delve just a little into rumors and speculation. Fun episode and worth checking out. Chris always has a lot to add to the conversation. Add to that Bobby’s extensive rumor knowledge and Bryan’s viewpoints and you get a well rounded trio of hosts for this episode.

Hyperspace Theories: Episode #3 covers a range of topics. They start with Kathleen Kennedy, covering her decisions to bring in Kasdan and J.J. Abrams, the creation of the story group, and her success and career as a producer. Then they delve into the Force and it’s appearance in the title of the new film. They talk about Force philosophy, the Unifying Force, the Living Force, whether it’s self-aware, etc. Pretty cool discussion. The Force is always an interesting subject to explore. Afterwards they delve a little into storytelling.

The Force Awakens Teaser Special Report covers their opinions on the trailer. They ponder if the bad guy will be played by two actors, one doing the voice and one doing the acting. They cover the stormtroopers, Daisy Ridley and her early McQuarrie look, the look of the pilot with the rebel symbol on his helmet, the lightsaber and of course the Falcon. It’s an interesting discussion with nothing too spoilery.

RebelForce Radio: Episode 12.12.2014 is hosted by Jimmy Mac and Steve Glosson, so you know you’re in for a treat. In this one they cover The Force Awakens character names as well as pet peeves with Star Wars names in the past. They also cover the multitude of TFA trailer parodies, stormtrooper complaints, and some listener messages which leads to quite a bit of discussion. This one’s a good episode, so don’t miss out.

Rebel Yell: “Spark of Rebellion” episode features hosts Steve Glosson and Teresa Delgado as they cover Star Wars Rebels. Guest Erich Schoeneweiss from Del Rey publishing joins them for this episode and it’s a lot of fun. Erich always makes for a great guest and with Steve and Teresa already being the deadly duo of podcasting, you get three extremely entertaining hosts. Rebel Yell is actually an offshoot of their other podcast, Disney Vault Talk and it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for Star Wars Rebels podcasts.

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 57 is joined by guest host by Dave Skale who adds an extra bit of comedy to the show. In this episode they talk about The Force Awakens trailer, seeing it in a theater, the elements they liked, some of the controversies that have popped up, plus they play some audio reactions from James Arnold Taylor and Kevin Smith. C-3PO shows up to read some letters to Santa Claus, they talks about the Star Wars Weekends announcements, listener feedback, then head into a Tim Burton discussion before ending with some Frozen news. Very fun episode to listen to.

Star Wars Report: Episode #156 covers The Force Awakens character names and the fun of trying to pronounce them. As for their thoughts on the villain, I really dig the idea of a dark side Indiana Jones. Interestingly enough, Riley had some strong complaints about how the names were released, primarily using Entertainment Weekly as an outlet. They shifted gears a bit as they covered the negativity toward the prequels, and wrap up the show with some listener feedback. I was onboard until they started bashing EW. I’m not sure if there was something I missed, but I wasn’t sure why they were talking badly about EW. Might have been helpful if some more context could have been provided. Otherwise a good show.

Episode #155 is a discussion of The Force Awakens trailer with some serious speculation as well as their thoughts on the feedback from fans. I have to admit I wasn’t too sold on some of their ideas about the trailer and where the film might be going with what we saw, though I haven’t been following rumors so I could be completely wrong.