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In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun and Patricia start a new month looking back on the adaptations of the Super Mario Bros. franchise by Nintendo. They first they look back are the three animated television shows animated and produced by DiC Entertainment: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. All 3 shows involve Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool defeating the evil King Koopa from taking over the land they're residing in. In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, Toad is alongside the group preventing King Koopa taking over the Mushroom Kingdom. In Super Mario World, Yoshi is alongside the gang preventing King Koopa and the Koopalings taking over Dinosaur World. All 3 shows have lived in infamy due to being prominently featured on parodic videos, reanimation projects, and YouTube poops. How do they hold up in their own merits?

In this episode of PixMix, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 2026 Pixar animated film Hoppers. Co-written and directed by Daniel Chong, the creator of Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears, Hoppers focuses on a 19-year-old young adult named Mabel who has a love and passion for animals and nature due to her grandmother. When she passed away, the forest glade that her and Mabel would go to often is in danger of being replaced by a freeway led by the mayor of her town. One day while trying to lure one beaver to the glade to restore it, she sees a beaver wandering around. She follows it and learns that it's a robot beaver created by her college professor Dr. Sam Fairfax under the project Hoppers to have their human consciousness into robotic animals to observe them. Mabel places her consciousness into the robotic beaver to find beavers to save the glade. She meets up with all the animals in a small, crowded part of the forest led by a beaver named King George who knows everyone and sees the good in everyone. When the film premiered in theaters, it made over $164 million dollars with a $150 million dollar budget. It received positive reviews from critics and fans calling it a hilarious, insane, yet heartfelt film that was a refreshing change of pace from the previous Pixar films. It became the highest grossing opening for an original Pixar film since 2017 when Coco premiered. What did Arun and Patricia think of the film?

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 1993 animated film We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story based on the 1987 book by the same name by Hudson Talbott. Four dinosaurs consisting of a Tyrannosaurus Rex named Rex, a Pterodactyl named Elsa, a Triceratops named Woog, and an Apatosaurus named Dweeb were fed a cereal called Brain Grain by Captain Neweyes and his alien companion Vorb to make them smart. They're tasked on heading to New York City around the Middle Future to meet up with Dr. Bleeb, the main curator of The Museum of Natural History. The dinosaurs meet up with a boy named Louie who ran away to join the circus and a girl named Cecilia who is alone due to her parents not being around. When Louie and Cecelia reaches the circus, they later learned that it's run by Captain Neweyes' brother Professor Screweyes whose main goal is to scare people. When the film premiered in theaters, it made $9.3 million dollars out of a $20 million dollar budget with mixed to negative reviews. Patricia covered this film during her lookback of the Amblimation trilogy while Arun hasn't seen the film since he was a kid. What did they think of the film?

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 1987 live action film Masters of the Universe based on the 1983 animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated and produced by Filmation based on the toys. In the planet Eternia, He-Man, Man of Arms, Teela, and a new character named Gwildor are fighting the evil minions of Skeletor to prevent him from taking over Castle Grayskull. Gwildor's invention, the Cosmic Key, is able to travel to different dimensions across the galaxies. Skeletor sends his soldiers to capture them to retrieve the device, but Gwildor uses it for them to escape to another planet in another dimension: Earth. Meanwhile, a teenage girl and her boyfriend get caught in the fight of He-Man and Skeletor finding the Cosmic Key.When the film premiered in theaters, it made $17 million dollars out of $22 million dollar budget with negative reviews from critics calling it a Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian ripoff with He-Man plastered on it. Over the years, it has gained a cult following for its campy humor and offbeat depictions of He-Man and Skeletor. What did Arun and Patricia think of this film?

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 2025 Disney animated film Zootopia 2, the sequel to the 2016 animated film Zootopia. One week after the events of Zootopia, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are continuing their work at the Zootopia Police Department as partners, but Chief Bogo sees their destructive actions to capture bad guys. It doesn't help that their personalities were the complete opposite of one another. He states that they have to work together if not they would separate them. Meanwhile, a gala celebrating the city's 100th anniversary is being held at the estate of the Lynxley family, whose ancestors was Ebenezer Lynxley, the founder of Zootopia. All of the sudden, a snake named Gary attempts to steal the journal which contains information on who the founder of Zootopia really is and who created the weather walls controlling the temperature of all of Zootopia's sections. Judy sees the good in him and after inadvertently attacking Chief Bogo and rendering him unconscious from a venom bite, Judy and Nick escape with Gary and the journal making them fugitives. When the film premiered in theaters, it made $1.4 billion dollars in the box office receiving critical acclaim from critics and viewers calling it a film that's just as good as the first one. What did Arun and Patricia think of the film?

In this episode of DreamMachine, Arun and Patricia take a break watching DreamWorks Dragons to watch the 2018 Netflix animated series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Based on the 1985 series She-Ra: Princess of Power, a spinoff of the 1983 series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra focuses on Adora, a soldier of the villain Hordak's army The Horde who wishes to conquer the planet Etheria to bring peace to the land. One night, Adora and her friend Catra sneak out to the Whispering Woods and she finds a sword. After picking up the sword, she becomes She-Ra and is destined to stop Hordak from his evil plans. She leaves the Horde, joins two companions named Glimmer and Bow, and together they reunite the princesses from the other lands and stop the Horde from conquering Etheria.When the series premiered on Netflix, it received critical acclaim from critics and viewers with its engaging story, memorable characters, LBGTQ representation, and making necessary updates to the original source material. It has been called one of the greatest animated series of the 2010s and one of the few times a remake to a classic show is better than the original. What did Arun and Patricia think of this new incarnation of She-Ra?

In the final episode of Casual Chats for 2025, Patricia and special guest Jesse McAnally from Musicals with Cheese discuss about 10 musicals based on the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens. They go over the pros, cons, and best songs that encompasses each key moment from this classic Christmas story. The musicals we covered for this podcast are as follow: The 1954 adaptation of A Christmas Carol from the anthology series Shower of Stars.The Stingiest Man in Town from the anthology series The Alcoa Hour that aired in 1956. The 1962 animated television special Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.The 1970 musical film Scrooge.The 1978 animated adaptation of The Stingiest Man in Town produced by Rankin/Bass.The 1992 film The Muppet Christmas Carol.The 1994 Off-Broadway show A Christmas Carol: The MusicalThe 2010 stage show A Christmas Carol: A New MusicalThe 2022 animated adaptation of Scrooge: A New Musical that was released on Netflix.The 2022 Apple TV+ film Spirited.

We're now entering bonus territory in Puppets Go BOOM! Arun and Patricia discuss about the 2004 live action adaptation of the 1965 British sci-fi action series Thunderbirds created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Alan Tracy is a 14 year old teen who wants to be a Thunderbird just like his father Jeff and his four older brothers Scott, Virgil, Gordon, and John. But he has to go to school before he could even think of joining. Meanwhile, a man known as The Hood wishes to steal the Thunderbirds vehicles so he can break into the banks around the world and steal all the money and wealth. With Jeff and his older sons trapped in Thunderbird 5 up in space and his scientist Brains captured by The Hood and his assistants, it's up to Alan, Brains' son Fermat, and a young teenage girl named TinTin to save the day.When the film premiered in theaters, it made $28 million dollars out of a $57 million dollar budget. It received negative reviews from critics calling it a terrible adaptation of the show with awful characters, terrible CGI, and a story geared towards kids. Even Gerry Anderson himself called the movie "the biggest load of crap I had ever seen in my life". What did Arun and Patricia think of the film?

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun and Patricia conclude their lookback on childhood movies that aren't as good as they remember it being. It's Arun's turn where he talks about the 1992 movie Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala. Based on the 1933 book series by Dorothy Wall, Blinky Bill is a koala who plays pranks and does a lot of mischief to his teacher, friends, and his mother. One day, loggers destroy the forest they call home and Blinky Bill has amnesia. When told about his life from an old wombat named Mr. Wombat, he remembers and learns that his mother wasn't with the animals who escaped the destruction of their homes. Blinky Bill, together with his friends, head to the loggers' home to see if his mother is still trapped in the tree they were living in.This movie served as a pilot to an animated series called The Adventures of Blinky Bill that aired on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and distributed in multiple countries, including the UK where it aired on Cartoon Network. The Blinky Bill series is a classic for Australian kids who grew up with it. But Patricia has never read the books or watched the series. What are her thoughts on it?

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia looks back on one of the animated movies she grew up with: the 1989 animated film Happily Ever After. Taken place after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White and the Prince travel to the forest to invite the dwarves to the wedding. However, The Wicked Queen's brother Lord Maliss wishes to take revenge on Snow White and the Prince after learning of her death. So, he turns into a dragon and tries to attack them, but Snow White got away and captures the Prince. Snow White meets up with the dwarves' cousins The Dwarvelles who has elemental powers from Mother Nature. Together, they travel to The Realm of Doom to rescue the Prince.When the film premiered in theaters, it was a box office bomb making $3.3 million dollars out of a $6.8 million dollar budget. In addition, due to the numerous lawsuits from The Walt Disney Company claiming that Filmation's previous film Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night and Happily Ever After were trying to call themselves "official sequels" to their films, it ended up bankrupting them and shutting down. When it was released in theaters in America in 1993, the film bombed in the box office, especially when Disney re-released Snow White and the Seven Dwarves around the same weekend to counteract Filmation. Nowadays, the film is forgotten by the general public and has become reviewing material for online critics calling it a bad Disney ripoff. What did they think of the film?

In this episode of Casual Chats, Arun looks back at one of the movies from his childhood he grew up watching which is the 1985 animated film Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer based on the 1984 Hallmark cards and animated series. Rainbow Brite is trying to bring spring all over the world, but her rainbow powers aren't working. It turns out that an evil princess is attempting to steal a planet sized diamond called Spectra to keep it for herself. Together with a boy named Krys and his robotic horse On-X, Rainbow Brite travels to the princess' palace to prevent her from stealing Spectra.When the film premiered in theaters, it made $4.9 million dollars in the box office with mixed to negative reviews from critics. Today, Rainbow Brite is seen as a forgotten part of 1980s pop culture that has been overshadowed by its contemporaries. How well does the film hold up 40 years later?

In this special themed month of looking back on nostalgic animated films that aren't as good as Arun and Patricia remember. Patricia starts up with a movie she grew up with which is the 1993 animated film Once Upon a Forest based on the Welsh story "A Furling's Story" by Rae Lambert. Three furlings named Russell, Abigail, and Edgar are tasked of rescuing their friend Michelle after she inhales deadly gas caused by a truck that crashed outside their home, a forest called Dapperwood. They only have two days to journey to another meadow to find the plants to cure Michelle or else she would succumb to the gas. When the film premiered in theaters, it was a box office bomb making $6 million dollars out of a $13 million dollar budget receiving mixed to negative reviews. It was the last animated theatrical film that was produced by the animation studio Hanna-Barbera. Since then, it has garnered a small fanbase from the people who grew up with it in the 90s. How well does it hold up over 30 years later?

The Roald Dahl Retrospective is back after an almost two year hiatus. In this episode, Arun, Patricia, and special guest Eli a.k.a. The Hero of Tomorrow discuss about the 2025 Netflix animated film The Twits based on the 1980 film of the same name starring Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Emilia Clarke, Natalie Portman, and Alan Tudyk,. Mr. and Mrs. Twit are an evil, gross couple who play pranks on one another. They open a theme park called Twitlandia to attract people into giving them money only for it to shut down immediately. They also drive a truck filled with hot dog filling and shove it into the town's silo to make a huge mess everywhere. A young orphan girl named Beesha and her best friend Bubsy learn about Twitlandia and want to go there, but then learned it's ran by the same people who covered the town with hot dog filling. They get them arrested and find out they have been locking up and abusing a family of monkeys called Mugglewumps into using their tears to run Twitlandia. They set them free, but then things turn for the worse when Mr. and Mrs. Twit are out of jail and are running for mayor when they promise to make the town great again by reopening Twitlandia to generate money and convince the townspeople that Beesha is bad for stealing the Mugglewumps, the only source of power to make Twitlandia run successfully.When the film premiered on Netflix, it received mixed to negative reviews from critics and fans criticizing its gross humor, its strange art style, its forgettable musical numbers, its social and political commentary, and not fitting into the spirit of the book. What did Arun, Patricia, and Eli think of this film?

In the final episode of Old Spook Lane Creepy Chats of 2025 covering spooky stop motion animated films, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 2022 Netflix animated film Wendell & Wild directed by Henry Selleck and co-written by Selleck and Jordan Peele. A teenage juvenile delinquent named Kat Elliot returns to her hometown Rust Bank to a private Catholic school. Her parents had died in a car accident 5 years prior and she still carries the guilt that she was responsible for it. Meanwhile, two demon brothers named Wendell and Wild wish to start their own theme park after being punished to care for their father's hair. When they learn that the hair cream can raise people from the dead, they see a vision of Kat and believe they can convince her to make their dream a reality. Kat wishes to use them to get her parents resurrected using the same hair cream.When the film premiered on Netflix, it was given decent reviews by critics for its animation, characters, and atmosphere, but was criticized for the story being too overstuffed and convoluted. It was also overshadowed by other stop motion animated films that were released that year such as The House, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio. What did Arun and Patricia think of this film?

In this episode of Puppets Go BOOM!, Arun and Patricia discuss about the 1969 sci-fi espionage series The Secret Service. The show takes in a small English village where a parish priest named Father Stanley Unwin is a secret member of the British Intelligence Service Headquarters, Operation Priest (BISHOP). Together with his partner Matthew Harding, they are giving assignments by the head of the organization The Bishop to uncover secrets while under the guise of a regular vicar. By shrinking Matthew small using a device called the Minimiser, Father Unwin packs him in his suitcase and has him learn the plans of various people of bribery, counterfeiting money, sabotage, or blackmail and reports it to Unwin to stop them. When the show premiered, it received mixed reviews. While Gerry Anderson and Barry Gray called it their favorite Supermarionation show they ever worked on, many people felt it was too eccentric thanks to Stanley Unwin's well known way of speaking gobbledygook, had far less action and adventure, and was too distinctly British to connect to a mass demographic compared to the other shows like Thunderbirds. It was cancelled after 13 episodes and is regarded as the weakest Supermarionation show ever made. The Secret Service would be the final Supermarionation show and Gerry Anderson wouldn't create another show featuring puppets until 14 years later with Terrahawks under the term Hypermarionation. Is it as bad as people say it is?