Podcasts in Review

November 26, 2015 at 12:00 am | Posted in Books, Interview, Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars, Star Wars Books | Leave a comment
Tags: adam gidwitz, alexandra bracken, tom angleberger

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.

Bombad Radio: Episode 216 features an interview with voice actress Abby Craden covering her work in Guild Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic and the expansion Uprising, as well as the challenges and experiences she’s face in the field of voice acting, working from home versus a studio, and the difficulties with pronunciations. Bombad Radio interviews a lot of voice actors, to the point that it’s almost become their niche, and as such, they’re pretty good at it. It’s worth a listen if you’re interested in that field.

Bombad Radio: Episode 213 features an interview with voice actor Quinton Flynn who talks about voicing Johnny Quest, Raiden for Metal Gear Solid, Axel in Kingdom of Hearts, Timon in the Timon and Pumba, and more. It’s a pretty good interview. Flynn keeps it fun, does some voices, and covers a lot of territory.

Brews and Blasters: Episode #7 is their film commentary for Battle for Endor. As an Ewok fan, I couldn’t resist digging back in the archives to listen to this one. Roll out the kill wagons!

Fly Casual: Episode 64 has them playing with the Sphero BB-8 and hitting the news which includes the international trailer, Nien Nunb, the Lucas museum, William Shatner hating on Star Wars, Gwendoline Christie, Carrie Fisher interviewing Daisy Ridley, and a toy report on the Amazon figure packs and more. Solid episode of Star Wars news and the usual bits of entertainment and humor that make it a fun one to listen to.

Full of Sith: Episode CXLI takes on an interesting topic – managing expectations for The Force Awakens. They talk about dealing with the trailers and tv spots, tickets not being sold out, critics seeing screenings and Abrams’ expectations. Rounding out the episode, they review Star Wars Rebels “Wings of the Masters” and Amy talks about Season of the Force at Disneyland and the fun things they have there. Cool episode, be sure to check it out.

Dead Talks: Episode #46 is a quickie as they share some quick thoughts on “Always Accountable.” There’s not a lot of clear thoughts on this one yet, so you might want to hold off for the full review episode as this one is more of a tease.

Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Episode 33 is a great interview with Star Wars authors Alexandra Bracken (The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy), Adam Gidwitz (So You Want to be a Jedi?) and Tom Angleberger (Beware the Power of the Dark Side!). It’s a very awesome interview as they have all three authors on at the same time as they bounce off each other and talk about how they approached the project of retelling the films from the original trilogy with a new spin. The conversation covers how they got the job, slipping stuff in from the Star Wars Holiday Special, the Brian Daley audio dramas, passing the Bechdel test, what ideas didn’t make it in, Ewoks and more. This one easily wins pick of the week. I highly recommend giving it a listen whether you’ve read their books or not. It’s very entertaining and as always, they top it off with great audio quality.

Rebel Yell: “Relics of the Old Republic” features just Steve and Teresa as they cover the episode and provide their thoughts on the clones, the almost A-Team (which I agree, that would make a great spin-off series), the interconnectivity between the show and recent books, the two edge sword of canon, Kanan dealing with Rex and the clones, Order 66, Anakin, feeling like The Clone Wars, where did Gregor and Wolf go, what will happen with Kallus being left behind, Ahsoka and the inquisitors. Great episode and one of my favorite podcasts for Star Wars Rebels episode reviews.

Rebels Declassified: “Brothers of the Broken Horn” features Jason (no Jimmy), David Sparks and J.C.Reifenberg as they break down the episode and how great Hondo’s lines are. Jason holds his own without Jimmy and between the two guests, they do a good job of covering the episode and all the fun moments.

Rebels Reactions (Coffee With Kenobi): “Always Two There Are” features Dan, Jeff and Mediocre Jedi as they provide critical analysis and enjoyable insight into this episode of Star Wars Rebels. If you’re going after Star Wars Rebels podcasts, Rebels Reactions is definitely a good way to dive a little deeper into the episodes with some intelligent coverage.

Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 100 is pretty awesome as they do something I’ve never heard any other podcast do – they feature 100+ guests as each shares their favorite fan moment in a minute or less. Guests range from friends and celebrities to us ordinary listeners. It’s a great idea that turned out really well. Lot of fun to listen to.

Star Wars Bookworms: Episode #48 goes back to comics as they review the first trade paperback for Marvel’s Darth Vader series. While this is a spoiler review, I don’t think there were any major spoilers that would ruin the comics if you haven’t read them yet. Interesting review in that neither of them were really sold on the comic or the characters.

Star Wars Report: Episode #195 announces their new daily podcast and gives listeners an idea of what to expect and the idea behind it all. Mark and Riley also talk about the new tv spots, Leia being a general now, the Disney UK behind the scenes special and some listener email.

Star Wars Tonight: Episode #01 kicks off a new daily podcast for The Star Wars Report as they’re counting down the last 30 days to The Force Awakens. This means rotating hosts for their daily specials. Things start with Justin Roberts and his State of the Star Wars Union as he and Riley talk about the lack of story with the Star Wars trailers. Clocking in at 22 minutes, it won’t take long to listen to, but it is an interesting conversation.

Star Wars Tonight: Episode #02 brings in Steve Glosson as he and Riley try to talk about whether critics matter. It’s in regards to the early press screenings for The Force Awakens not happening and whether the opinions of the critics are needed to drum up interest. I say try because this episode is really short, just 18 minutes, and if you’re a listener of Steve and his podcasts, you know Steve can talk so 18 minutes isn’t enough. He was just getting warmed up as the episode was ending and I really wanted to hear Steve go on longer. Definitely ended too soon and I’m wondering if maybe the short format might not be working. Will have to wait and see how the future episodes go.

Steven and Stephen on Steven: Episode 8 starts with some recent movies they’ve seen, then they head into the main discussion – E.T. Interestingly enough, one of the hosts liked the movie and one didn’t. Fun review and worth checking out for movie fans.

Who Shot First: Episode 06 features the hosts of Coffee With Kenobi as Dan and Cory face off against each other. Beyond the fun Star Wars trivia, Dylan talks with Dan and Cory a bit to find out how their podcast Coffee With Kenobi came together, how Dan uses Star Wars in the classroom, as well as how they met. If you haven’t checked this podcast out yet, give it a try. It’s very different, has great production quality, and is always entertaining to listen to.