He's a tramp, he's a scoundrel. He's a rounder, he's a cad. He's a tramp but I looooove him, and even I have got it pretty bad. Tonight we watched Disney's Lady and the Tramp from 1955! An oldie but goodie that's all about class differences in the dog world + how life really is better if you have owners to feed and house you. Sure, the racist portrayal of the Siamese Cats really needs to go, but in general this movie still holds pretty strong as a foundational dog movie from our childhood. We'll talk about the time Sweetie stumbled upon a recording on the family answering machine of little Sweety doing her best Peggy Lee impression and singing He's a Tramp, debate whether Lady was knocked up after a night on the town with the Tramp, and why does cartoon spaghetti and meatballs look so damned tasty?!
From 1988, Mystic Pizza is the coming of age story about three women growing up in a small Connecticut town with your typical young adult problems. Okay, so yes most of them are about boys, boys, boys, but it's the PIZZA and Julia Robert's fiery personality that is the star of this movie for us. And while this is the first time the Sweeties have seen this movie all the way through, we loved it! A great story about the importance of girlfriends and trying to find your place in the world and your future, even when you're only in your early 20s. We talk about PIZZA of course, Julia Roberts' eyebrows, and how Vincent D'Onofrio was a huge hottie back in the day but we think he got tired of it and decided to play bloated serial killers instead.
This month the 1997 version of Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella starring Brandy and Whitney Houston finally made it's way to Disney+ and we've never been happier! This was the EVENT of the late 90s, as us young girls were so happy to watch an updated version of this classic musical starring a pop star and George from Seinfeld! But truth be told - this music is rad, with loud, tacky storybook level costumes, a cute prince, and lots of great diversity casting. We love all the songs and had fun warbling through them tonight, as well as talking about the peak Brandy years (The Boy is MINE! Moesha!), how we wish they would do more stuff like this, less remakes of cartoons into shitty live action versions that are uninspired, and why the hell is that glass slipper so god damned ugly! You won't want to miss!
Happy belated Valentine's Day from The Sweeties! We're going late 80s rom com this week with When Harry Met Sally, the 1989 Rob Reiner directed, Nora Ephron written gem of a film. Starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as a couple who start out as enemies, then move to friends and then finally lovers as they realize men and women can be friends, but sometimes that friendship can blossom into romance. A very New York City film that captures some fun hair styles through the decades, lots of chunky sweaters and interesting facial hair choices for Billy Crystal, and teaches us baby fish mouth is actually not a common phrase and that most women do fake orgasms from time to time. Join The Sweeties as we talk about love and dating and what the best cookie in the world is. Sorry Harry, can't agree with you on the Mallomars front.
With the passing this week of Samuel "Screech Powers", aka Dustin Diamond, we thought we'd pay tribute and do a bonus episode on probably our favorite show from the 90s, Saved by the Bell. Running from 1989 to 1992, but with many specials, spin offs, etc., the Saved by the Bell gang was in our lives for a majority of the 90s and we loved it! Following the hijinks of Zack Morris and the kids at Bayside High was a blast - and we're proud to have it as such an important part of our childhood. We each pick two episodes and dissect them, talk about all the great 90s fashion, and some of our favorite high school cliches, and warble through a sweet rendition of that Michael Bolton hit, How Am I Supposed to Live Without You. Yo preppy!
From 1991, Nothing but Trouble is a Dan Ackroyd written, directed and starred in movie that is nothing but a big old creepy mess! Winner of several Razzies and probably one of Roger Ebert's worst reviews, the movie stars Chevy Chase, Demi Moore, and John Candy and features yuppies getting pulled over in a podunk town on their way to Atlantic City, only to be taken to the local justice of the peace to be arraigned for their crimes. Chaos ensues because the justice of the peace is some weird dude with giant babies who wear diapers as his grandkids and also has this weird pseudo horror house that they must escape from. This movie is a little bit comedy, a little bit horror movie but not enough of either of those to make a successful film. It's also one we don't recommend watching while you're eating because yeah it's gross. We'll talk about where good ole Danny boy went wrong with this one, early 90s GPS systems and our thoughts on the fruit punch concoction Hawaiian Punch!
1986's American Tail is one of the few non-Disney cartoons that we remember from childhood, though one we weren't totally game to watch often since it's A. kind of scary B. kind of sad! Starring the voice talents of Dom Deluise, Christopher Plummer and Madeline Kahn, American Tail is an immigrant story about a little Russian Jewish mouse who immigrates to the US but gets separated from his parents when he gets swept out to sea on the way there. Luckily they all make it to New York, but they have the means streets of the Big Apple, killer cats, and really mean orphans to contend with before they can be reunited. We'll talk about the history of Don Bluth - aka the alternate to Disney cartoon guy from the 80s/90s and how his movies differ from Disney's, how scary the Mouse of Minsk was, and how if only mice were this cute in real life (and wore hats, and shoes and played the violin), Sweetie wouldn't hate them so much.
1996's Matilda is a pretty great adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's book that the Sweeties held near and dear to their hearts, the little bookworms that they were. Starring Mara Wilson, the IT cute girl of the mid 90s, Danny DeVito (+ he directed it and provides the narration, yo give someone else a job Danny!), Rhea Pearlman, and Embeth Daviditz as Miss Honey, the best teacher you never had. This movie does a great job combining the whimsical, grossness of most Roald Dahl stories but also made us never want to eat chocolate cake again. Poor Brucey! We'll talk a lot about Roald Dahl, telekinesis, and the importance of bathroom books.
Happy New Year! Our big announcement this week is Sweetie is pregnant and we'll be welcoming Sweetie Jr. to the podcast in early July! In celebration, we watched She's Having a Baby, a not often thought of John Hughes film that should be called He's Having a Breakdown, because Kevin Bacon's Jefferson "Jake" Briggs is having a mid life crisis ... and he's just 25! This movie was weird guys, and really wasn't about babies at all! It was about a not great marriage with not great people and many, many dream sequences that really took the movie to a bad place. However, you'll enjoy lots of John Hughes' movie alumns in this, enjoy Kevin Bacon's cool 80s wardrobe and the soundtrack wasn't half bad! Plus Alec Baldwin is at his sleeziest and man it is gross. Tune in to us talk babies and Bacon!