The Massive Attack Podcast

Today I am joined by my other Shooting the poo podcast show host from days gone by Ian Mond and we head to Colorado to to celebrate a non-denominational character who visits everyone each Christmas whose maintained a balanced high fibre diet throughout the year, and the 1995 AFL Grand Final.

Today I am joined by 3 very special guests, my 2 children, Jax, & Gee and our cat Maxwell Paws and they share their opinions on Christmas...well the kids do, Max became tight lipped as soon as we pushed record.

I am excited to be joined by Julia Svaganovic today as we chat about Christmas and the Christmas toy from the brilliant mind of Jim Henson with a little extra Muppet talk thrown in for good measure,

Today I am joined by Brett from the Thoughtless Casual Gaming podcast and he's here to talk about the night and the vengeance of the first Christmas episode of Batman the Animated series.

Today I am honored to have Wrestlerock Commentator and friend of the show Big Daddy Julian James come to the Krytpton Lounge, Driven by the power of Zyrtec and Natter on about Christmas, A couple of Henry's and the New Disney+/Marvel treat, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.

Today I step into a big blue box and travel back in time to Podcast with my original Podcast co-host and we bang on about A Christmas Carol, Doctor Who Style.

Today Rachel Holkner joins the Podcast and we talk love, Death Robots and questionable acquisition of Christmas tress.

Today I am joined by the Dave of Daves Video graveyard podcast to chat about iconic wrestler Bill Goldberg as he dons the robes of Father Christmas and murders his way through Christmas eve in the criminally unheralded classic film Santa's Slay

Something feels strangely familiar as Joe makes a welcome return to the Massive Attack podcast to talk Christmas and cartoons

Today, Nick Evans Joins me to talk Christmas, Knives, Gift vouchers, Smugglers and we have a good look at the Ronnie Barker Classic TV Series Porridge

Massive Attack returns for its annual Christmas tradition of annoying you with daily podcasts about Christmas.   Mitch couldn't do it alone so put the call out for help And Mitch's co-host from Hey Hey it's the podcast and WrestleRock Commentator Christmas tragic Criss Fresh stepped up to the plate to talk about one of his favorite childhood films, Santa Claus: the movie.  

Massive attack is back! Well, sort of. Mitch is back and he's flying solo and by the seats of his pants. the first episode back is a short one.  It's all about He-Man and a couple of other cartoons that may sound a little familiar.   thanks for sticking by and checking it out and welcome to any new listeners. Hope you like it.   Please send any feedback to the Facebook page or to themapodcast@gmail.com and don't forget to review and rate us wherever you can.

As we kick off 2022 we look back to the dumpster fire of a year that was 2021. There were some shining lights though, so in this first part of our double header we look at our favourite gaming and television moments. Be warned, as there may be a couple of spoilers in there as we discuss Tiger King 2, Clickbait, Squid Game and Ted Lasso. Plus Mitch tackles the plethora of Marvel related shows on Disney+.

We'd like to think we've saved the best for last with this offering for Day 12 from the cartoon series "The Real Ghostbusters" from 1986. What happens with a team famous for catching ghosts meet up with Jacob Marley and his spirit friends? Christmas chaos obviously. 

In one of the very first syndicated television specials, Vincent Price narrates today's version of the classic tale, dubbed "The Christmas Carol" from way back in1949.

Just to be confusing we have another movie just titled "A Christmas Carol" again today, however unlike the traditional style we saw yesterday, this is anything but. Starring UK soap star Ross Kemp as Eddie Scrooge, an unscrupulous loan shark, who meets three ghosts who show him the meaning of Christmas in this contemporary telling of the classic tale.

We've seen cartoon mice and excessive backstory, super heroes and tenuous links and super quick silent versions, but for toady for Day 9 we find a very traditional telling of the Christmas Carol story. Made by an Australian production company back in 1982, there's not much we could find wrong with this one featuring the voice talents of Rod Haddrick in the Scrooge role.

A Christmas Carol is usually a story of a not-so-nice man's redemption. In our episode today, "Blackadder's Christmas Carol" from 1988, we turn that on it's head in a way only Rowan Atkinson can.

We continue with our 80s bracket today as we take a look back at one of the most popular sitcoms of that decade, "Family Ties" where they do their take on A Christmas Carol in this episode from December 1983. Everyone's favourite yuppie republican, Alex P. Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox learns the meaning of Christmas thanks to some ghostly persuasion and early 80s special effects.

80's cartoon/toy tie-ins are probably our favourite genre after Christmas Carol variations, so when Mitch found this episode from 1987 of "Bravestarr" that puts a Filmation spin on the Dickens classic, it got added to our short list very quickly. Was it worth it, or did it disappoint?

Quantum Leap was one of those shows where, in concept, sounded like something we both would have been into back when it originally aired, yet for some reason neither of us really watched. Today for Day 5 we rectify that with this episode, "A Little Miracle" from 1990.

Today we go a little more recent and lot more traditional than yesterday with this animated version of A Christmas Carol from 2001.  Having Nicholas Cage as Marley seemed like a good choice, but is that overshadowed by too much backstory and the addition of cartoon mice?

On paper, the idea of wrestling legend "Rowdy" Roddy Piper taking on the role of Scrooge in a WWF produced version of "A Christmas Carol" sounds great. Unfortunately this segment from the short lived wrestling talk show "Tuesday Night Titans" from December 1985 really didn't deliver.

We jump forward just over 100 years from yesterday to bring you Day 2, and this time we look an an episode of Ultimate Spider-Man from 2014 called "Nightmare on Christmas" that took inspiration from A Christmas Carol, rather than being a direct re-telling.

It's December 13th, so that can only mean one thing... it's time to start dropping our 12 Days of Christmas mini episodes. This year we go back to that old (roasting) Chestnut that is the Charles Dickens classic tale, A Christmas Carol. Why not, it's been 5 years since we last did it, so for the next week and half each day we'll give you a different take on the story. Today we start off old school, with the 1911 silent film version, aptly titled "A Christmas Carol".

As we get closer and closer to the end of our second round of A to Z's, this episode we look at another music related movies, the 1982 film "The Wall" based on Pink Floyd's iconic 1979 album of the same name. We dive into our histories listening to the band, and first seeing this film, as well as the production behind it, and our feelings nearly 40 years after it's first release. We even lament the passing of the whole concept album idea too.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s he was one of the action/martial arts genre's biggest names, so for our V episode we couldn't go passed the Muscles from Brussels himself, Jean-Claude Van Damme!   We go over some of his more memorable roles, some run-ins he had with other celebrities, and Mitch goes on a tangent about how he hates Steven Seagal.

Back in the 1930's Universal Studios pioneered the idea of a shared cinematic universe after creating a series on now iconic horror films including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf-Man and The Mummy. These became known as the Universal Monsters, and over the years ended up being some of the most well-known depictions of the characters that are still recognized today. So, seeing as it's October and almost Halloween, this episode we delve into the Universal Monster world, looking at some of the more popular films, the remakes and copy-cats they have spawned, and even the failed attempts to re-boot the franchise.

Back in the early 80's, just a few years before He-Man hit our TV screens, there was another blonde muscleman with a sword gracing our Saturday mornings. That man was "Thundarr the Barbarian", and is the topic of our T episode of the A to Z. We discuss our memories of the show, discuss the plot and characters, as well as a bit of history of the creators and the Ruby-Spears Productions story.

Ska is one of those musical genres that you either love or hate, and thankfully both Mitch and Joe love it! This episode we go on a deep dive and trace the roots of ska through it's three waves - the origins in Jamaica in the 60's, the 2-Tone era of England in the 80's, and third wave of ska punk from the US in the 90's - including some clips of Joe's favourites, as well as a few of our usual tangents too. Joe has even put together a companion playlist on Spotify of a lot of the songs we discuss too if you want to check it out here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4QniLlNzMXva58Ouenk5YA?si=3459caf018d94718

He was a massive star in the world of wrestling in the 80's, who also went on to star in a number of cult movie classics, so we bend the A to Z rules a little this episode to talk about the "Hot Rod" himself, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. From his incredible Wrestlemania moments, to his long list of B-Movie credits, he truly was an icon, and a huge reason Mitch and Joe became wrestling fans as kids.

Based on the album by The Who of the same name, this month we look at the 1979 film "Quadrophenia". Set in late 60's England, It's the story of an unlikable young Mod named Jimmy, who seeming has it all. However it's not all tricked out scooters, high fashion and a party lifestyle, as it all come crashing down around him thanks to drugs, failed attempts at love and the ongoing war between the Mods and The Rockers.

We've cover some pretty obscure stuff on this podcast, but possibly nothing more obscure than the Norwegian Stop-Motion film "The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix" that we watched this month for the letter P of our 2021 A to Z list. Originally released in 1975, it boasts as being the highest grossing film from Norway, and held the record for highest grossing stop-motion film of all time for many years too, and in our opinions is not half bad either.  

We always enjoy when we get to do a music themed episode, so seemed like an easy choice to pick One Hit Wonders for our O episode. We discuss what defines an artist as a One Hit Wonder and go on a little tangent about Australian TV's iconic "Countdown" with Molly Meldrum, but then came the hard part... choosing just one song per decade from the 60's until 2010's to be our picks as stand out examples.  

The 2021 A to Z rolls into the second half of the alphabet with the letter N, and this episode we look at the 2001 parody (or is that spoof) film, "Not Another Teen Movie". A homage to those teenage high school flicks we grew up loving in the 80's, we look at the movies and characters is parodying, the awesome soundtrack of late 90's bands doing 80s covers, and whether it still holds up today.

We've officially made it to the halfway point of the alphabet, so this episode we look at another iconic TV show from our youth, "The Muppet Show". Seeing as this could have been a huge topic, we just looked at the original series that ran from the late 70's to early 80's, and not any of the multitude of spin-offs. We discuss the format of the show, the characters and of course the guest stars. ** We had some feedback that Mitch's audio was a little low, so have re-uploaded it with a bit of tweaking **

We go back to the 70's this month for our A to Z, and everyone's favourite TV show about a cruise liner (maybe the only one, we're not sure, we didn't research that)... The Love Boat! We discuss the show, our memories, and spend a bit of time going over the plethora of guest stars that graced the show over it's 250 episode plus run.

As the A to Z continues, this episode we look at the activity that makes every person who can't hold a note think they are a singing superstar, Karaoke! We discuss the history, our experiences doing it ourselves, some favourite songs to belt out and the dangerous side including Karaoke Rage and the "My Way Killings".

We've reached the letter J, which as Mitch correctly points out is not in fact the half way point of the alphabet, and this month we look at the movie that is often referred to as the one that started the idea of the summer blockbuster, 1975's "Jaws". We discuss the film, it's difficulties in the actual filming, the sequels, the copycat "deadly animal" genre that it spawned, and Mitch even goes off on Steven Spielberg and "Ready Player One".

For our I episode we go back to the 1980's again, and another of one of the cartoons that had a run in the prestigious ABC TV early evening timeslot, "Inspector Gadget". We discuss our memories of the cartoon, including it's iconic theme song, as well as the two live action movies that tried to re-spark interest in the character, and the 2015 CGI re-boot.

It's the letter H this month, and after dismissing the idea of covering He-Man, we choose the iconic toy brand, Hot Wheels. In what started as a discussion of their origins and our own history of having them as kids, turned into an epic confession session with Mitch going in-depth about his current buying obsession. Be warned, they may seem like innocent little toy cars, but they are so much more.

It's back to the 80s toy-cartoon crossovers this episode as we look at the craze of robots changing into vehicles, but it's not the one you instantly though of. No, not Transformers, but the bastard step-child of the transforming robot genre, The Go-Bots, or as it was known here in Australia, Machine Men. We talk toys, the "Challenge of the Go-Bots" TV series, the absurdity of the Rock Lords, and Mitch gets a little off topic to discuss why Mekaneck is his favourite He-man charactor.

For our F episode of the A to Z we go back to a time when a brave, young adventurer could enter a dungeon or a misty forest, armed only with his trusty sword, and slay dragons and monsters in his quest for treasure... That's right, 1982. However, that adventurer was actually a spotty-faced teen, and the slaying was with the aid of a pencil, two six-sided dice and a Fighting Fantasy gamebook.

Back when we were young in the 80's, its an understatement to say Star Wars was huge. So, in 1984 when they released an Ewok movie it meant more quality Star Wars content, right? Maybe not so much. As the a to Z continues, for our episode this time around we're reached the letter E, so we go back and watch the two Ewok spin-off films, "Caravan of Courage" and "A Battle For Endor", plus a little bit of the 1985 Ewok Cartoon series. We must be gluttons for punishment!

For the letter D we go back to the swinging 60's, with the Dino De Laurentiis produced "Danger: Diabolik" from 1968. Based on the Italian comic series "Diabolik" it revolves around a spy and his girlfriend pulling off three spectacular heists, and features some very funky tunes, great cinematography and some very familiar scenes if your a fan of 90's Beastie Boys video clips.

As the A to Z continues, this episode we've reached the letter C, so that means its time to look at an example of one of our favourite genres, 80's cartoon/toy tie-ins, and the 1986 series "Centurions: Power Xtreme". The show itself didn't really hold up, but man do we want to get our hands on some of those sweet figures!

As we continue the A to Z, this episode we look at the 1968 sci-fi classic "Barbarella" staring the very attractive Jane Fonda. We discuss our connections to the film, how it works when viewed through 2021 eyes, and some of the crazy costumes and design featured in the film. * B is also for Bad Internet, as we had some skype issues for part of this recording, so  apologies for the sound quality at some stages. *

For the podcast in 2021 we have decided to go back to the A to Z formula we tried a few years ago, so for the letter A we went back to the icon 80's and a show that we both have fond memories of, "The A-Team". We discuss the history of the show, what worked and what didn't, the awesome van, the equally awesome toy tie-in, and the not so awesome re-boot movie. Mitch also discusses a doco he found on Youtube called "Bringing back...The A-Team" that is worth checking out too!

We've made it to the end of our 12 Days of a Cartoon Christmas, so why not go back to the idea that started it all, Inappropriate Source Material, although "A Very Troma Christmas - A Whole Toxic Affair" from 2015 is very much aimed at adults, and very much NSFW. Think South Park, but not as clever, this is the story of how Toxie and his religious friends save Christmas from the evil corporations.

It's a little bit ironic that today is Festivus, yet we are watching the most religious of our Christmas specials, the 1977 Rankin/Bass claymation "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey". It's your classic underdog story of how a ridiculed misfit becomes an unlikely hero, but was it any good? And does it still have a place in 2020?

We jump forward to 1995 today to watch this strange story of Wolverine, Jubilee and Storm breaking from their Christmas shopping trip in New York City to help a sick Morlock, as we watched Season 4 Episode 12 of X-Men: The Animated Series, titled "Have Yourself A Morlock Little X-Mas." Not only does it have Gambit cooking Christmas dinner and Beast working out the chemical formula for the best cranberry glaze, it scores much higher than yesterday's effort purely by not featuring any crappy songs or Smurfs!