Culturezoo: A mighty guild of geeks!

This time on Culturezoo, despite a bad internet connection at the beginning, we talk about the 2000 classic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, by Ang Lee.

The recap is over, time for some discussion. On this episode we have a special guest, Steve, who bares his Oz-scarred soul for us.

On this episode we tackle the forgotten 80s gem, Return to Oz. This is a film released by Disney that Disney tried to bury in their vault. It’s actually pretty cool in a very 80s sort of way. In Part 1 we do a recap. In Part 2 we discuss the film.

This week on Culturezoo we discuss the gorgeous 2010 animated film, The Secret of Kells. We’re joined by special guest, Jack on this one. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

It’s the inaugural episode of our Bad Book Blitz where we read the Amazon excerpt of a “bad” book and decide if we would keep reading. Tonight we read the lengthy prologue and first chapter of “The Days of Elijah, Book One: Apocalypse” by Mark Goodwin.

Our final Out of the Silent Planet episode! We chat about the literary framing device that Lewis unveils in the final chapter and then give our final thoughts on this novel. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

In our penultimate Silent Planet episode, we reach the climax of the book in which Weston confronts Oyarsa and has to take some tough medicine and we return back to Earth and England and finish up with a “pint of bitter”. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom makes it to Medilorn and comes face to face with Oyarsa. Misunderstandings abound and humans come out not looking all that great. The short story we reference in the discussion is called “Forms of Things Unknown”. It’s released in the collection “Of Other Worlds”. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom engages in something between a hunt and a battle with an extraterrestrial shark and ends up finally meeting the dreaded Sorns. We talk a bit about the mythology of Malacandra and non-heroic protagonists. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

In these chapters Ransom gets to know the “natives” and discovers a culture that is both remarkably similar and different from anything on Earth. Conversations about life, death, religion, and pleasure ensue. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom makes it to Malacandra and promptly flees. After wandering through the Malacandran landscape and fighting off fits of madness, he has his first real encounter with one of the native, sentient species, a Hross. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom goes from terror to courage, Earth to Malacandra this week and things get theological as we tackle the next three chapters of Out of the Silent Planet. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

It’s time for our Culturezoo summer series! For the next seven episodes we’re going to do a bi-weekly book club where we read three chapters of a book and… um… talk about it. The book we’ve picked is Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis. In this episode we cover Chapters 1-3 where we … Continue reading Out of the Silent Planet: Chapters 1-3

In what may be an act of extreme foolhardiness, Levi, Rosalyn, and Zach attempt to review the entire Star Wars Disney canon, even movies that haven’t come out yet. We spend most of our time talking about The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Solo.

This is a special Culturezoo episode where we are joined by Sam (11), Jane (9), Lucy (8), and Charlie (6) and talk about one of our family’s favorite comic trilogies, Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke. We cover all three books Zita the Spacegirl, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl and Return of Zita the Spacegirl. … Continue reading Culturezoo Junior: Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

This podcast about Princess Kaguya is being released on the day that it’s director Isao Takahata passed away. This is his final film and maybe his best. We spend a lot of time trying to wrap our heads around this beautiful, thought-provoking film and things get theological towards the end. Some of the things we … Continue reading Princess Kaguya

The circle is now complete and just in time for the Last Jedi. The Culturezoo team tackles the final act of Revenge of the Sith and give our final thoughts on the series as a whole.

On today’s Culturezoo Levi, Rosalyn, and Zach cover act 2 of Revenge of the Sith. Does this film finally break our and become the shining exception of the terrible prequel trilogy or does it crumble into mediocrity? We certainly have our opinions…

Back after a long absence, Levi, Roz, and Zach finally dive into the final film of the Star Wars prequel trilogy: Revenge of the Sith. In this episode we cover the first act from the opening to the end of the space battle.

Ranking an artist like Miyazaki’s work is an inherently stupid endeavor. But nobody said we were geniuses. So without further ado, we present Levi and Rozalyn’s rankings of the Miyazaki films. Note: We don’t include The Castle of Cagliostro for some reason. We really should have discussed it though. I guess we kind of forgot … Continue reading The films of Miyazaki ranked by Team Culturezoo

After a two month delay, which included bouts of sickness and trips across oceans and continents, Culturezoo is back to cover the last Miyazaki film: The Wind Rises. The Summer of Miyazaki has poetically turned into the fall and then Winter of Miyazaki. This is one of his stranger films and somewhat of a departure … Continue reading The Wind Rises

The Summer of Miyazaki has turned to fall and we discuss his penultimate work, Ponyo and this time around we’re joined by fellow Ghibli-fan, Sadie Hartmann. Where does Ponyo rank in the films of Miyazaki? It certainly an amazing artistic achievement but does the story hold up to his other work. Our answers may shock … Continue reading Ponyo

Well, better late than never. Work and sickness once again conspire to make this Episode in the Summer of Miyazaki late and actually miss summer altogether. Nevertheless, we had a great time discussing the later Miyazaki film, Howl’s Moving Castle. This one seems to rank a little lower in some Ghibli fan’s estimations but what … Continue reading Howl’s Moving Castle

The summer of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away podcast is finally here. Camping, sickness, and work all conspired to make this podcast extra late. Sorry about that. We dig into Ghibli’s big American debut and talk about how this blew our minds when we first saw it fifteen years ago, even though for some people the animation … Continue reading Spirited Away

After a bit of a delay we finally get to Miyazaki’s fantasy epic, Princess Mononoke: a film that is basically environmentalist propaganda, right? Err, not quite. Levi and Rosalyn discuss the intricate plot and end with some of our interpretations and observations as to what Miyazaki might have been getting at with this film.

This time on the Summer of Miyazaki we discuss a film written, storyboarded but not directed by Hayao Miyazaki: Whisper of the Heart. So maybe, technically, it shouldn’t be here but it’s such a great film, we couldn’t resist. In this episode we talk about love, romance, developing your gifts and end with a rant … Continue reading Whisper of the Heart

On this podcast we continue the Summer of Miyazaki by discussing one of his more personal, adult and idiosyncratic films: Porco Rosso. It’s the classic story of a dashing hero, an innocent young damsel, and a brute-headed villain. Except this is Miyazaki so everything is turned on its head starting with the hero being a … Continue reading Proco Rosso

On this Culturezoo we talk about the 1989 Miyazaki film, Kiki’s Delivery Service. We spend some time comparing the ideas and details of this film to other magical stories like Harry Potter and spend some time discussing the importance of vocations and finding and enjoying our place in the community we are in. Not exactly stuff … Continue reading Kiki’s Delivery Service

We’re back with the Summer of Miyazaki and this time we’re talking about the 1988 classic “My Neighbor Totoro”. Roger Ebert called this one his Great Films and we’re incline to agree. This film is a uniquely beautiful, subtle gem that comes with our highest recommendation. In this episode we talk about animation, childhood, and … Continue reading My Neighbor Totoro

The summer of Miyazaki continues with his second full-length feature and first with Studio Ghibli: Castle in the Sky. In addition to discussing the film, Levi and Rosalyn get existential and end up spending a lot of time talking about the world’s problems and who’s to blame: technology or human nature? We also compare the … Continue reading Castle in the Sky

Welcome to the Summer of Miyazaki! We’re doing something special on the Culturezoo Podcast this summer and we’re going to discuss all the films of animator/writer/director Hayo Miyazaki. Each week we’ll be going through his films in chronological order of their release date and examining common themes and ideas in addition to the unique details … Continue reading Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

On this episode of Culturezoo we discuss the Cartoon Network animated miniseries, Over the Garden Wall. It’s one of our favorite cartoons in recent memory. Heavy spoiler alert for this podcast. After going through the episodes we chat about the hidden meanings and allusions in this cartoon and finally wonder why more fantasy creators aren’t … Continue reading Over The Garden Wall

On this Culturezoo Rosalyn and Levi discuss one of their favorite comics, Jonny Crossbones by Les McClaine. In an age of Frank Millers, Rob Liefelds and countless imitators, Les McClaine and his wonderful Jonny Crossbones is a breath of fresh air. We open the discussion talking about how we didn’t see Superman V Batman and … Continue reading Jonny Crossbones by Les McClaine

It’s finally here after two weeks of sickness, plague, and business delayed this episode, it comes to your waiting ears as if delivered from the lips of friendly spirits: The final episode in our analysis of Attack of the Clones where Levi, Roz, and Zach return to burn the midnight oil and complete the circle. … Continue reading Attack of the Clones, Part 3

Cultruezoo returns with more in-depth analysis of the second act of George Lucas’s romantic space-opera: Attack of the Clones. On this episode we do expert exploratory surgery on each scene to under stand the root causes of why things just don’t work. Also, we ask the hard hitting questions, like: did the Kaminoians never get … Continue reading Culturezoo XII: Star Wars, Attack of the Clones, Part 2

Zach is back on Culturezoo and it’s for another prequel. This time we’re talking about the first act of the squirm-inducing, exercise in awkwardness named Attack of the Clones. This podcast covers from the start of the film up to Anakin and Padme’s departure from Coruscant.

Me and Roz geek out in a big way over The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien. This is book that is responsible for kindling our imaginations as children and has only gotten better with age. Do you crave our dulcet voices reading passages from Tolkien? Look no further than this podcast. Also, we completely ignore the … Continue reading Culturezoo X: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

For this episode the guild of geeks goes on the road and records from the line and the theater as we wait for The Force Awakens. We chat with fellow geeks in line, we speculate (spoiler-free) about we think might happen in the movie, and finally we head to Denny’s to give our initial reactions … Continue reading Culturezoo IX: Waiting for The Force to Awaken

On this week’s Culturezoo, Levi and Rosalyn back away from Star Wars for a bit to discuss the 1987 mini-series comic, Batman: Year One, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. We open with a brief discussion of the various incarnations of Batman over the years. We cover the plot of Year One including David Mazzucchelli’s … Continue reading Culturezoo VIII: Batman, Year One

The final episode of our in-depth analysis, discussion, and group therapy on Star Wars, The Phantom Menace is here. Levi, Roz, and Zach tackle the four-part finale that even had George Lucas scratching his head in confusion. Finally we end the episode with thirty minutes of discussion on how we would fix the Phantom Menace … Continue reading Culturezoo VIII: Star Wars, The Phantom Menace: Act III

In this Culturezoo, Levi, Roz and Zach dissect the second act of Star Wars The Phantom Menace. We puzzle over the interesting direction this movie takes in the second act: namely, no direction. Over about an hour of screen time our heros accomplish nothing more than finding engine parts, betting on a noisy race, dabbling … Continue reading Culturezoo VII: Star Wars Episode 1, The Phantom Menace. Act 2.

Today we begin the run-up to The Force Awakens by discussing the Star Wars that broke a million geek’s hearts: The Phantom Menace.  Special guest Zach Glenn joins us to enliven the conversation. The recording of this episode literally took hours so we’re releasing it in chunks. This episode only covers Act 1 of the … Continue reading Culturezoo VI: Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. Act 1.

On this podcast we dive into the wonderful world of Herge’s Tintin, starting with his first masterpiece The Blue Lotus. We stumble over French pronunciation like true Americans. We talk about Herge’s unique “Linge Claire” style. We ponder the mysterious appeal of Tintin. Finally we dissect the plot of The Blue Lotus. Rosalyn fades into … Continue reading Culturezoo V: Tintin, The Blue Lotus

Back after a bout with the the stomach flu! On today’s episode we discuss the first third of Jeff Smith’s comic book masterpiece Bone. (There’s way too much to cover in one episode.) Outline: 8-year-old Sam gives his thoughts on Ant-Man. A quick detour into Force Friday topics. Levi and Rosalyn try to give a … Continue reading Culturezoo IV: Jeff Smith’s Bone

On today’s episode we dive into Berkeley Breathed’s award-winning, newly-revived comic strip: Bloom County. Show outline: 0-6 minutes: we chat about the comic All-Star Superman with one of our younger guild members Jack Nunnink. 6-60 minutes: we open Bloom County, discussing the characters, some favorite plot arcs, and what we think makes the strip so … Continue reading Culturezoo 3: Bloom County

On this episode the mighty guild of geeks discuss the 1985 classic film, Ridley Scott’s Legend, starring Tom Cruise, Tim Curry, and Mia Sara. Thrill as Levi and Rosalyn try to make their way through the simple yet somehow complex plot: unicorns are touched, english accents are lost, jokes fall flat, and everything looks gorgeous. Is … Continue reading Culturezoo II: Ridley Scott’s Legend (1985)

It’s the first episode of Culturezoo: A mighty guild of geeks! The podcast brought to you by One Drawing a Day where we discuss comics, movies, books from the perspective of geeks and artists. On this episode we discuss in detail Spider-Man Annual #1, The Sinister Six, which marks the first (somewhat embarrassing appearance) of … Continue reading Culturezoo I: Spider-Man, The Sinister Six.