
Holed Up
Holed Up is the nostalgia rewind for the millennial brain (and beyond). Each week Chase, Kyle, and Andrew are holed up together with the movies from their youth. How do they look under the lenses of fully formed brains? Find out each week as the gang rewatches movies from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s to see if nostalgia is truly a dangerous game to play.
Holed Up
The Indian in the Cupboad
Andrew and Chase open the doors to a childhood favorite, but is there still magic left behind?
Omri, a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, receives an odd variety of presents for his birthday: a wooden cupboard from his older brother, a set of antique keys from his mother, and a plastic Indian from his best friend, Patrick
Hello everybody and welcome to Hold up the show where we dive deep inside your childhood nostalgia. Pull the movies from your past out to see if they truly hold up. I'm here with Andrew and also, no, no, Kyle again. , Kyle left us. Kyle's gone. It's through the end of April. It's sad looking in his sea through the end of April and just seeing no Kyle, I don't know.
I don't miss the smell. It's the mustache for me. You know, I've gotten used to that mustache over the course of , the past few years. So it's the odor, it's the stench. Yeah. And just kind of the cloud that he brings that hangs over. It's like we're constantly being kind of pissed on. It's like being in a silent Hill game.
Yeah. Yeah. No one wants to be in it. No. But they're in it for certain reasons. They're trapped. They are trapped. Yeah. So, Kyle, if you're listening, you're a black hole. I kidding. I'm kidding. That's too mean. And that's it. That's the episode. Kyle is a black hole. Yeah. All three of his friends will let him know what we said on this episode.
Anyway, speaking of black holes and cupboards, , hey, nice segue there. Yeah. We watched Indian in the cupboard, which is the Indian in the cupboard, and it wasn't Indian and he was in a cupboard. Native American, you know, I don't even know how we're gonna, I mean, it is what it is. We're calling it what it is.
, and we're going to proceed. Indian was a commonly used word back in that time. Right. , you still had the Cleveland Indians. You had the Washington Redskins, , those which is used in this movie. This movie. Yeah. , no precursors here, , we're just gonna talk.
It is what it's, yeah. What, whatever the phrase is it, I guarantee you it's not the ones used in this movie, but we're gonna proceed with this movie because it's what we know. Yeah. Let's start with you Andrew. What do you know about this movie? I mean, from a youthful past, this is one of my favorite childhood movies in my top three easily.
Might be my number one. I watched it a thousand times. , I hadn't watched it in years, but when I watched it just a couple hours ago, I remembered everything. Literally everything, it all came flooding back. It hit me like a ton of bricks.
, it just, it takes me back. I had the VHSI had , the VHS copy where it had the little keyhole and the plastic key that came with it, with the, little bear figuring.
Yeah. I mean, damn, we can't talk about this movie without talking about that VHS 'cause that VHS was really cool. Yeah. And it was while supplies last, and I don't think I got some of the supplies, 'cause , mine was the regular VHSI don't think I had the little bear. , I had a couple, .
, figurines of him. But I also had some like movie quality ones that I don't, I'm not sure where my mom got them. , but I had all of the three or four main ones. You had Little Bear, you had, Boone, you had, does it Tommy or Timmy? Tommy. Tommy, Steve Coogan's character. , yeah, sure.
, I think it was just three. Yeah. 'cause I was, it was Boone and his horse, , the medic and then Tommy the medic. Yes. Yeah, yeah. , who was British? He was British. , Steve Coogan. Yeah. Great actor. , great comedic actor. And in, and not only that, but he was in night of the museum as a medic. Shit. He was, yeah.
I was hoping you put two and two together. Yeah. Ah, that's what inspired it. So, night of the Museum is a sequel to the Indian in the Cupboard. I mean. Th it definitely asked to be, it, it definitely inspired it or had to have some sort of inspiration. Yeah. I wouldn't say it was , the main source of inspiration, but , it was one of them.
Yeah. , I remember this movie a lot. Like this was one where I remember all the lines of dialogue. Yeah. Oh yeah. I remember the beats in the movie. I didn't quite, as a kid, put it all together. Like I kind of just watched it. And now I'm kind of more of an understanding as an adult, which we'll get into.
But I watched this a lot, , I didn't even realize how much I'd watched it as a kid. Yeah. Because I vividly remember it. And then we started watching it and I was like, oh shit. I remember all this, every last detail. It's crazy. It's a kid's like true escape into imagination. And, I don't know, euphoria is a good word, but like unbridled imagination.
Like I just. Oh, it triggered all of , my Nerdism and like things that I can't even remember where I parked the car in the complex now, but I do remember this movie. Yeah. And the dialogue. Yeah. And then we got the dad from Stepbrothers in and Richard Jenkins. Yeah. Yeah. So this is a prequel to Stepbrothers and then Night of the Museums a sequel to this movie , and Mad Men.
This was before, what's his name? Grew up and became a marketing exec in New York City. Yeah. So even though this is 40 years later, but, , so you guys, if you are out there and you need something , , to really start your Mad Men nine of the museum stepbrothers. Pete Campbell. Pete Campbell. Yeah.
Pete Campbell. He got his start here. Well, it's this movie. , but no dude like this one. , when we were young boys, we loved to, , we had our action figures and we had our play sets and our Legos, and we would build castles and forts and, you know, create different worlds and storylines and adventures and like , this movie took the cake.
Like it was the preeminent example of what we were going for, right? In our minds. Because I played with my action figures like that, where it's like all the action figures would meld together in one world. Like you would have, and we'll get into the scene that I'm talking about, but like, you have like Robocop fighting Vader alien, and then you have wrestlers everywhere.
Yeah. GI Joes on the same mission. , against the bad wrestlers and the bad GI Joes, who also were on the same mission. A lot of weird, , play time, I guess. Yeah. As kids, I will say I was, I keep harping on this, but I was so obsessed with this movie to , the point where my mom asked my uncle to have someone like, make me a model of the cupboard, like an actual physical.
I love this story. Yeah. And it had a keyhole had a key in everything and, , I would keep it in like the front living room. And I vividly remember like putting him in there, like locking him up when I went to bed and like waking up and hoping that they would come to life , when the sun came up.
Never did, obviously. , but what happened to the cupboard? Oh man. , I got 'em infested with termites and we had to throw it away. I was so distraught. I was so sad. You didn't like, have your mom burn it like in a ceremonial like arch or anything We should have. I think they just put it
Out in the street and, it got picked up by, by trash collection the next day, but that dream died. Did you love that childhood memory? , something you like just loved that much? Just got picked up by some guy's making an hourly wage.
That and our family hamster getting killed. Uh, please. How my sister took it outside into our garden and tried to bury it while it was alive. While it was alive. She thought she was making a fort for it. And, you know, I remember my mom going out there freaking out like, Rosie Ro No Rosie. And it had all those mulch in its mouth and you could tell that it was like freaking out.
And luckily it didn't die. Then my mom took it back in, but it was dead upon the morning when we woke up. Oh. Oh God. And you should have took it to the bed so we could have gotten it all done. This is even more fucked up. My mom wanted to bury it, so she kept it in our garage freezer where we forgot about it for two years.
No, I'm not even kidding you. No. Yep, yep. It was shoved away in like a. Um oh, not the poptarts. What are , the, , toaster strudel box in the back corner? One of those, like industrialized. She just shoved it into a toaster st She wrapped it in a plastic bag multiple times, put it in the box, threw it in the back corner, and we forgot about it.
And then one day, oh my God, we decided, we remembered and we decided to bury her on the side of the house. I, yeah, I don't, I'm sorry that I had to, , segue into that, but No, that you're talking about childhood memories. Sad childhood Trauma. Trauma. That, that, that's one of 'em for that. Was that like a plague for you?
The cupboard got like infested termites and then your sister tried to bury your Yeah, I think that's why Hamster alive. That's why I'm so fucked up now. Yeah. Makes, that's why my humor is so dark. It makes sense. How could it not be, I didn't have any of those childhood moments. I wish we never did. I didn't even have the cupboard. I didn't. My dad would've never, yeah. The first little termite that got into the house. 'cause he was such a neat freak, he would've burned the house to the ground and rebuilt.
, it's a shame 'cause like, it looked almost identical, at least from my memory. It had the two panelings on the side and it had the main front door, two levels. , that's such a sweet gift. That is like a really good childhood memory.
Yeah. And after that thing got thrown away, I still held onto like , the figurines. And I remember I kept them in this like felt box, , that had like a, , I don't even know how you describe like, the lock to it. It was like a piece of ribbon with some like ivory that like swung down and like connected to , the front loop.
But I had , those figurines in there forever. And I think I sadly just gave 'em to Goodwill like five years ago. I probably shouldn't have. And it kind of hurts me to think about me just carelessly getting rid of them. But, , it's a brave little toaster moment right there. Yeah. It's all, it's, it's all, it's all coming together.
It's all coming back. Yeah. So that's why I said this really hits all of the emotions. I didn't have any of that. I had the VHS and I did watch it incessantly. I was big on this movie as a kid. I would watch it as I was playing with my own action figures. Yeah. Hundred. I think that, I think that was like, a big thing for me was.
Pretending that my stuff was coming to life. Yeah. And that's what you had to do. Did you ever have a fear of your toys as a kid? Did you ever think that, like when you were laying in bed at night and your mom would lay and be like, goodnight Andrew, and kiss you on the cheek, and then tuck you in, and she'd walk outta the room and she would close the door and turn the lights off, and you would see all the toys in your room just turn into like mutant creatures.
It looked like that they were gonna come stab your heart out in the middle of the night. Did that ever happen to you or was that just me? I never thought of them like coming alive to hurt me. I think the hope was that they would come to life to like interact and be my friend. There was no like, negative elements, you know, interjected on that.
See, I thought a little bit about like SID'S toys. So I like tried to be good to mine because Sid was mean to his toys and. Toy story and he had all those come back to life. Yeah. In like this malicious way. Not really malicious, but vengeful way, I guess. Yeah. And I always thought that if I was mean to my toys, that they would come to life in the middle of the night and just beat the dog shit out of me.
No, I went in like waves with like certain toys and like what I prioritized and what I would like talk to and , I don't talk to, I, I mean, I'm trying to, like we talked to our toys Yeah. I guess to the one that I just devoted the most tension to, but I never, , and then I get bored with that one and, and move on to something else.
, but I, there was never a looming fear with my toys. Those were like my safe havens. Those were truly like an escape, , or an elevation of , my mind's capacity. So there was nothing negative attached with it. What was your favorite toy slash series of toys? You know, like, my brother had GI Joes.
I was big into wrestling, so I had a bunch of wrestlers. , so I, the figurines that I had from this movie, really, those were up there. I had a bunch of, , Batman, , toys. Yeah. Else, yeah. That, , centered around, Batman and Robin Batman forever, probably too. Batman forever. Yeah. I think it was , more Batman forever.
But , I had the Mr. Freeze, but I also had like the Ridler and , whatnot. Those were big. , it wasn't Tonka, but it was, they were like, I forgot what they were. That was some sort of like construction oriented, you what is up with like little boys and being obsessed with construction equipment.
Boys are blue collar at heart, baby. Young, young kids. They're blue collar at heart. I would make my grandfather take pictures of construction equipment as we were driving down the road. Like we would go to Florida every year, , for Disney World or something, and every time we'd drive, I would force him take pictures of construction equipment. So like. There was a few years ago we were flipping through a bunch of photo albums in my grandfather's basement, and it was a bunch of just like random construction equipment that I, he had kept because I told him that they, that that's so sweet of him though.
, those are good times. But he, he developed them and kept them in a photo album. Don't you remember the first time you laid your eyes on a bobcat? I don't mean the animal freak out. Yeah. I mean the dump truck or whatever the hell it was. What do you, what do you call that thing? The, it's not a dump truck, but it's got the big old like barrel in the front.
We, you know, I work the fitness industry. Guess I pick up, , I'm illiterate and probably sounds stupid. I do sound stupid, but , the yellow thing. So all the listeners out there, all the blue collar listeners, can you send us an Instagram messaging? Let us know. Let us know what that's Andrew's talking about.
Another toy that meant a lot to me were Woody and Buzz Lightyear. Oh yeah. And because my name was. Andrew, I wrote Andy on the bottom.
Ah, yeah. With permanent marker. 'cause I could Yeah, you had to. Yeah. , I had, the Small Soldiers, which may be a movie we get to down the road. Yes. I had those as well. Those were big. Yeah. I, I think I had a buzz light year or two Jurassic Park figurines from the movie MO World.
Yeah, yeah. , which we mentioned in our Lost World episode. Yeah. We did , the truck and the thing that, you know, Jeff Goldblum drove, I don't remember what , the fuck I had it was, but , the big truck and the Big T-Rex and the T-Rex, you could shove a bunch of shit down its skull and pull him out of his stomach.
It was really, really weird for a child to like, reach his hand into a T Rex's stomach. But we did it. We did it. We did it with love. , one, one other thing I wanna talk about real quick is the director of this movie, Frank Oz. Oh. Legend. Yeah, legend. I didn't, I did not know he directed this movie. And I was like, Frank Oz, that sounds so familiar.
Where is that from? And then turns out he is the voice of Yoda. He is Yoda. Yeah, he is Yoda. , I, when I saw that, , I think it was when I was buying, , or renting the movie and was like, directed by Frank Oz, I knew right away I was like, Hey, I didn't know Yoda did this. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I see. I had no clue.
, as a kid I definitely didn't know, but it makes sense 'cause there was a Star Wars scene in there and turns out George Lucas gave him the rights to Star Wars Yeah. To make this movie, which we will cross that path. We'll get down that path in a second.
Did you know this movie's based off a childhood novel? Yeah. So you didn't even know that by Lynn Reed Banks. Yeah. And did not know that. I don't believe I ever read the novel.
, I definitely didn't, I remember people reading it in grade school. Yeah. Like around like third or fourth grade. It makes sense. I bet this is a better book than it is a movie. Probably. Lynn Reed Banks is actually, , pretty prolific. , she wrote a lot of children's novels.
She's not rolled doll level. Yeah. But she's probably not far off. Yeah. , she's British. She actually, she died a couple weeks ago. Really? Yeah. Well, RIP April 9th , I think is what I, , what I saw. Wow. So RIP to, to Lynn for , this episode. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Look at this. We're doing a memorial episode.
It's all coming full circle. It always does. , RIP though, , truly like a great story now, and she, classic story and she got it, you know, made into a movie that's pretty successful. Yeah. , for any book, but, and, I think she sold like 20 million copies of the book worldwide. Oh, wow.
Which is, you know, she, her and her family are set for life at that point. Nailed it. Yeah. But she had other big names too. It wasn't just the Indian cupboard. Yeah. , there were other ones too. Speaking of big numbers, how did this movie do Well, it's, , it did something that's always a great start.
Yeah. I mean, Derek Evans out there like would tell you that that's a good, a good way to start. It was released on July 14th of 95. , had a budget of 45 million, which is, you know, it's a pretty hefty budget. It's pretty hefty for a 95 film, I would say there was probably, there were probably, I bet most of it went towards special effects of, had to have, of this movie had to have.
'cause the, they were pretty solid , if we're being honest. I thought they were. Yeah. But it, it seemed like a lot of it was green screen effects. Yeah. Like, it couldn't have been that, like elaborate. I don't know. I don't know, but $45 million budget and, , altogether earned 35.7 mil. So it was a flop.
Huge flop. Which also doesn't surprise me. No, I mean, I kind of does though, honestly. Like, I feel like this would be such a good movie for kids. Like I feel like this is a good wholesome family movie that you take the , whole gang to and, you know, yeah. Escape for a Night. I think you have to have younger kids to make that, , truly effective.
But this is not a parent movie. No. But , you do it for your children. You know what's funny is I have a lot of like childhood movies that, , since starting this podcast, my dad likes to talk about, this is not one that ever comes up. I know, and I watch this one a lot and , I'm sure he would say, oh, that was a cute movie, but I don't think , he's like, oh, I really wanna see that one again.
I'd be curious to see what my parents said about it, because I was obsessed with it. They probably watched it too many times to even count , when I was young. And, , but I wonder what their impressions or thoughts are about it. Yeah. , but yeah, box office flop, I imagine they made up some more of that money on, , the release to VHS, I don't know, but the VH sell probably carry this movie.
Yeah. And the way they market it with the toys and everything, , they had to have made up some ground. But how much, I don't know. I imagine the toys being released is because this was a huge. Flop in the box office. Yeah. But I also think that it was probably part of the plan. Like I just feel that it makes only makes sense to release toys.
Right. For this. But , how often did you see a VHS release with a toy? , I, that's just the only one that comes to mind. Right. I'm sure you could find some down the line, but this is the only one that really Right. So it was a unique marketing strategies that may have come out of, I, I'm curious. I that's a question for like the executives and the producers, but like, maybe it was a thing of like, can we make our money back by offering this up too with the VHS?
Maybe. But I'm sure the VHS cells were fine. Yeah, because a lot of kids had this movie and we all watched it. Yeah. So. In Alabama. And in Kentucky. And in Kentucky. , all right. All the southern boys love the Indian and the cupboard. , all right, let's get started. Let's, let's talk about this one blow by blow.
I have a feeling this one's gonna go pretty quickly. Andrew, where does this movie open up? Our lead character, Omri, which I wanna make a statement now, I thought was a stupid name when I was a kid, and I thought was a stupid name, name Now, now. But then I read that, , lynn. Reed Banks wrote this book. As a goodnight tale to her son who was named, it's named oie. Yeah. So I was like, okay, I can't make fun of that anymore. , that's actually very plausible then. Yeah. But I was curious at the beginning, but it's still an odd name. Uh, it opens, , on oie leaving school, running into his mother, you know, on the sidewalk down the steps.
And, , he asked the question, who's at home? No one and goes home and it's a little surprise, a little birthday. It's his ninth birthday. It's his ninth birthday. , was it nine? I don't even remember. It was nine. Okay. Yeah. Solid, solid age there. They get inside and they have this like birthday party.
Yeah. And it goes pretty quickly. Yeah. Kid's happy. The family's established is a very kind of. Like a very loving family. Yeah. It's a, like, evens a good, even the brother's not like , they have their, , run-ins with each other, but like, it did, it's a good family. It's a good situation.
Yeah. The brother presents him a gift. Yeah. And the gift is the cupboard. Cupboard. Yeah. Before that, of course, he got to know some cool action figure from his other brother and then like a brand new skateboard. Yeah. From the parents. , but yeah. And the cupboard is, a nice, , polished piece of wood and tea.
Yeah. It's been cleaned up by the brother. Yeah. , I don't know what the significance or like why he thought that would be a good idea to give to your brother, but that was qualm one for me. Yeah. Because I was like, 'cause , he wasn't that much older. He was maybe like four years, four or five years older.
I as a kid, couldn't imagine if my brother gave me a cupboard, I'd be like, you want me to do with this? What is this what I mean, what am I gonna put in this? But Omri is over the moon. He thinks it's cool. Yes. It's like his gift of the night. It's , nice piece of, , furniture.
There's one problem though. Doesn't have a key. Doesn't have a key, but thank God his mother just collects random brass keys. Qualm two. So like, she has like a, it's like a Baskin Robbins buckets, I'm pretty sure is what it was. Yeah. It was Baskin Robbins and she just pours it out. It's the same bucket that your grandmother would have all of her yarns.
Yeah. Except this is just keys or a bunch of like pens and batteries and like scotch tape, you know. Uh, but she has a bunch of keys. Laying in this bucket and they get together him and, and it's very like heartwarming moment. Yeah. With him and his mom and they're trying every key, they're laughing and they finally, it's the second key.
It's the second key. It's not, there's not many tries. Right. So it, and this is like a brass, like iron key. Like it is nice. And it just happens to work in this lock that Yeah, the brother found somewhere, you know, on the side of the street. So just a lot of random stuff happen. What are the odds? And then we find out that, , the mom's dying grandmother gave it to her.
Which I was like, oh, come on. It just odd. Yeah. I was like, I mean, this movie's starting off really dumb. Honestly, talking about it now, it's kind of like stupid. But in the moment it didn't bother me. I guess maybe I was just kind of captivated. You were doing what we, we started this show about you get caught in the nostalgia of it, and it kind of takes you on this ride.
But when you wake up into reality, you see that a mom's trying to random brass keep her dead. Regardless, these are small hiccups that, you know, it's not that big of a deal regardless.
The key works. And he has Oh, they keep coming though. He has, there's , no. You're being dramatic. , the key works and, you know, cool. Neat. Awesome. He is got a matching key and I remember he goes to school the next day, right? Yeah. Like they, nothing happens with the cupboard that night, but he goes to the school the next day, meets up with Patrick, right.
Who gives him, a Native American, like figurine. Yeah. And , it's kinda like a old school, like little figurine. It's like, yeah, it's definitely been around the block a bit. Yeah. , but like it's, it looks cool for someone who's nine years old, and Patrick's like, Hey, I got you this for your birthday.
And I was like, I'm like, everyone's just so precious in this movie. It would, everyone's like so kindhearted. And he is like, it'd go well with your cupboard, I think. Yeah. So, so, and it gives him the idea to put , the figurine into the cupboard. Yeah. , and this movie's moving quick. Yeah. There's not a whole lot of like plot details there.
I will say, I think he may have given him that, , figurine before they went back to school, but that's how I remembered it. I remember it during the daylight though, but the, it was, his birthday was in the daylight, so it might've been like that day, like as an aside, like after all the gifts were given.
But anyways, he has the figurine, he has the matching key that somehow fits with the keyhole. , he puts the, , the figurine in the cupboard and locks it and goes to bed. This is the next night, by the way. Yeah. He goes to bed. He wakes up and, . There's some like, rattling in the cupboard and it's like, what's going on is, you know, is , the brother's rat somehow in there?
, what's happening? And they established early on that there was this rat in a ball. Yes, rolling around the house is, pets is important later. It's important later, but what, what it, what was the gi, is that the name of the rat? I don't know. Gimley or, all I heard was rat multiple times. Regardless, you know, don't get a rat as a pet.
But, . He sees the cupboard rattling, he opens it and he doesn't see anything, but he looks down in like the dark bottom right corner. And what is there, Jace? The, , the figurine has come to life? Yes. And has a name. , his name is Little Bear. Bear. I don't know if he gave him the name right away.
I think he didn't, he said his like tribal name, but for reference we have Little Bear. Yeah. Now who's entered the scene, , and he's terrified. Yeah. Like, um, see he's a big giant. He uses the word giant. Yeah. A lot. And if I'm not mistaken, armory out of fear, shuts the door and locks it back. Right.
Yes. Well, because he has to go to school. Yeah. His dad is calling him. Richard Jenkins is coming up the stairs. He's about to , enter his sacred realm. And he doesn't want anyone to see this, little figurine that's come to life. So he shuts the door and locks it and leaves and goes to school.
And at first, he doesn't seem like too rattled that his toy came to life, but, so I wanna bring up this point. So that , was this the first day of school where they have the book reports? Yes. Because for whatever reason no, it was not, this was not the first one. Okay. We'll get to that. Yeah.
But, , so he goes to school and he rushes back home because he's kind of like, he's kind of scared, but also curious. Yeah. And he comes back and opens the cupboard and he is turned back into a figurine. Yep. So he was kind of bummed out. I think he was sad. 'cause like you could tell like.
When his dad approached him and he was, , ready to go to school, he was able to quickly turn it off and kind of forget about it. But once he was there, he was antsy and fidgety. Like all day. He was thinking about this Indian, native American in his cupboard back home that had come to life. And , think about it, like if you were nine years old and that happened to you and you were stuck away at school, what would you be thinking about?
Yeah, , I'd be like trying to like, call out sick and , get home as soon as I possibly could. Yeah. , but yeah, he gets home and, it's starting to get dark this time. Uh, he unlocks it and it's back into its figurine, state. Yeah. So it's no, no, no longer alive. And I think at this point he's like starting to be like, oh, was I just imagining things?
Yeah. So, I mean, I would at that, I don't know. At that age, I'd probably be pretty. Intent on what I saw. Also, , we didn't touch upon this, but I want to, , because I don't know for a reason, this like, stuck with me or I remembered it. , armory, , when he opens it, you know, he's like, it's okay.
You don't have to be afraid or what. He sticks out his hand or his finger and he stab him. He stabs him with those little dagger. Yeah. I just, I dunno. I love, I forget. Yeah. We forgot to mention that part. I love that aspect as a kid. Like that is just something that is, I don't know, it fascinates the imagination of Yeah.
, the figurine coming to life attacking you or like, you know, um, and armory also defend itself, talks at a whisper the whole time. Yeah. The biggest annoyance I have with this movie is they picked one theme song, one song for this entire movie, and they play it over and over and over again.
It's the theme. It's the theme. , it didn't bother me. Over, like it bothered you and over again. Honestly. I love that theme. Um, well there was, it wasn't so bad at the beginning 'cause I thought it was a, it's a good theme, but they, they play it, they played a lot and they play it in the wrong spots.
They play it over every little moment. And , keep in mind if anyone hasn't seen this movie or seen it in a while, I'm sure this is gonna jar a memory loose. For whatever reason, Frank Oz likes to do this. Closeup of Omri face. He does it all the time. All the time. That, that is where I was like, all right, we don't need to do that.
And swells the music behind it and you know, and it's painfully long. These are very long shots. And this kid is not a great looking kid to look at. I wasn't gonna say it, but he is. He's an interesting looking 9-year-old or 10-year-old boy. He's normal. He's a normal child. He's a normal looking kid.
He's how I would look. Yeah. If you put the camera on me, he has buck teeth. His eyes, his eyes are wide and cross-eyed and is a normal, average looking not Hollywood at all. And poor kid. Yeah. Because I know that they have this camera hovering over him and they're like, okay, look. Excited. Yeah. Now give us a, give us a slight smile.
No, no, no. Too much of a smile. Cross your I Now give us a slight smile. Yeah. And that's what it looks like. It looks horrible and it happens. Multiple times. It's one of my least favorite parts of the movie. Yeah, and it happens a lot.
Happens a lot. Happens a lot. It happens here too. But anyways, back to the plot, back to the story, I don't wanna harbor on poor Hoy's face too much. It's not worth our time. But anyways, he gets back, , and like we said, the figurine is a figurines that's not living. But he goes to sleep and sure enough, he wakes up and , it's rattling again, the cupboard. And he opens it. And this is where we, this is where we learned his name. , 'cause we didn't the previous day.
Yeah. Very. So they have a conversation. His name is Little Bear. He is Iroquois, specifically of the An Onaga, is that what it is? Onondaga? Yeah. It's Onondaga. Which is like a sect of the Iroquois. , he was fighting, , in the French and Indian War on the side of the British who, you know, didn't treat him well.
Yeah. Surprise, surprise. A lot of history there. Yeah. And they're playing with the history. They're not, it's very authentic. Yeah. It's not. This is what intrigued me about this movie, 'cause you're learning from him is how, I mean, you got this giant white guy. Yeah. Like white kid, I guess This giant white kid, you know.
Uh, hovering over him and being like a, almost like a dictator and a Lord, even though he is not, that's not his intention. Not at all. And it, it plays with a lot of that history. Yeah. , of the Native Americans, , and the actor that they got to play, he a little bear, his name is Lightfoot, he's, you know, of the, , Cherokee Nation, and , he played a very good role and I will say that they. They really tried to make it as authentic as possible because they hired someone, , who was of the on Onondaga, like tribe.
Yeah. And like , his outfit, his tattoos was authentic from the feet all the way up. And it took him like three and a half, four hours to get him into costuming character, every single shoot. Right. And we will get to more of that detail. We will in a few, but, so , he comes back to life and now they're starting to have a conversation.
They start to become friends and , he understands, he's kind of stuck here now. This is, this is magic, but it's real life. , and he starts to calm down because he realizes that Oy is just a kid. He's not the evil white man. He is not here to hurt him.
He's not, , he goes through waves though. He does, there's a few things that happen before he realizes he's a kid and then he gets mad that he's a kid. Then he understands. , he's a kid and there's nothing he can do. But, you know, oy helps him, you know, settle in. He, . And gets him a teepee. He gets him a teep.
He doesn't like it plastic. It's made of plastic because plastic. Plastic. But , he takes the plastic tepee, puts it in the cupboard, shuts it, locks it, pulls it out. And it looks authentic. Yeah. Because made Omri understands now that locking and unlocking the cupboard takes things in and out of reality.
Yeah. And then there's one point in this whole thing before the teepee is the toy part, right? Where he's like curious. Oh yeah. And he puts all of his toys in there, or at least all these figurines. So he's got a dinosaur from Jurassic Park. He's got two figures from Star Trek Trek, he's got Rob Robocop, and he's got Darth Vader and Darth Vader.
And that goes back to Frank Oz got the rights to Star Wars without any like huff from anybody because, , George Lucas appreciated his work as Yoda. So he let him have the Star Wars license. And I feel like George Lucas would appreciate this movie. Or just the story in general. Yeah. George Lucas loves like that childhood wonder.
So Darth Vader's in there, he locks the cup cupboard, then opens it back up, and all these figures are just at war with each other. They're fighting. Theyre shooting, they're shooting and fighting. And the T-Rex swinging their lights saber, you know? Yeah. And so he freaks them out a little bit so he locks it back.
'cause they all look at him at the same time. Yeah. And like they're about to attack him, so it freaks Omri out. But this just confirms that , this cupboard and this key are magical and magical. Yeah. Truly. There's no other way to i If we shoved Omri into the cupboard, if he'd come back as a plastic figurine, do you ever wonder if it would've done that?
Or if you severed his finger and put it in the cupboard? Plastic. What would happen? Because Yeah, these figurines, what if they took that rat that was running around and then you could just throw it away? Yeah. If Omri was a cynical little child instead of the, like myself. Yeah. Or like the rest of us.
'cause Omri is , very kind hearted, very sweet, very empathetic. No bad bone in his body and that is not the way that most children work. Not out of malicious intent, but just out of. Kind of curiosity. Yeah. You know that Andrew would've grabbed that rat put it in the cupboard and shut it to see what would happen.
Oh, yeah. Because I wouldn't want it stuck in , the back of a freezer for two years. I wanna get rid of it quickly. Oh, mama Ween , take matters in my own hands here. Okay. Yeah. , , we're divulging a bit. We are, this is, a 90 minute movie, but that's a good thought. Like it is.
I mean, like, what would've happened and were there questions, what would you, what would you have tried to put in , that cupboard? I wouldn't have stopped there. I would not, I don't know. . I would've put like pencils in there. I would've anything like, yeah.
Monopoly figurines. I guess that is a, , another figurine that doesn't really count, but I'm trying. Does it turn into a car though, maybe? Or does the dog turn into a little dog? Yeah, , you put a Hot Wheels car in there, you know, does it come back an actual, like miniature Lamborghini or Yeah, you know, Dodge Viper.
Does it have to be fully plastic? There's so many questions. Does it run on fuel or is it electric? Is it eco-friendly? Like what, what , what are the answers here? Who knows, but the, the, we're digressing here and getting off track, but, , this movie is at this point, like really revving up the childhood mind. Yeah. He's got his little miniature Native American friend who's alive and what, like three inches tall maybe?
Something like that. Yeah. Not even. Not even. , and they start to form a friendship. You know, Omri , agrees to get him some supplies 'cause he doesn't, like his tepee wants to build him a, he wants, you know, a little bear to build his own long house. So he goes out to the yard and grabs a bunch of, twigs and like leaves and gives him some like paper and stuff to steals his dad's tools, tools like his saws or whatever.
, this was a heavy part, but he, when he goes to school that next day, he brings back another Native American figurine that's of the, , oh, an elder. It's not the Iroquois tribe. It's of the Mohawk nation. Yeah. , it's an elder, but he has a longbow and arrows.
And this is where our first conflict comes in too. Yeah. And this is heavy. Yeah. So this was heavy. So Omri turns the key and opens it and the old man sees. Oy and freaks out and has a heart attack. Heart attack, and die and dies. And little bear comes over and he goes, this man is dead.
He was very blunt with it. Yeah. He was like, this man's life is over. He ceased to exist, but that's like heavy for like a. 6-year-old me. Yeah. , it was heavy for me, like watching it. Think about it as an adult. You haven't killed anybody. Oy has, he's watching , a miniature human die in front of him.
He, he killed him. Yeah. He caused a murder. Yeah. But that's a very, like, real aspect of this movie that I enjoyed. Well, the, I wouldn't say I enjoyed the death, but like, I enjoyed the element of it. It was kind of funny of life and death and, you know, there, there's a little black humor in there that you open it, he sees it, Johnny, it's a heart attack and kicks the bucket.
There's, there is, I laughed. There's a, , there's another dark humor, , yeah. Line in this movie. We'll get to that towards the end. But, so he's like, well, we've gotta bury him. And he's like, no, we'll send him back. And this is when little Bear has like a problem. Yeah. And this is when , little Bear starts to be, realize he's a kid.
He's like, you can't just send him back. You bring him forward. You gotta bury him, honor his corpse, whatever. . But they did, they end up, they ended up burying him, right? They did. It was later. I don't, you know, all of these scenes are running together. There do, there isn't much that happened. So it's kind of pathetic that I can't give everyone a play by play.
I don't remember where the scene happened, so it when, but I do remember they buried him. It's when, you know, because they wrapped him in little cloth. It's when, , oy takes little bear out, back , to hunt. , meanwhile, armory's going to school and coming back, going to school, coming back, getting, getting little bear food.
And I gotta point this out because this happens in multiple scenes, but they go to school and they're doing a book report or they're writing their own narrative story. Yes, ma. And mainly it's a book report, but Omri is writing his own story about the Indian in the cupboard. Yeah, the Indian in the cupboard, which I.
Sounds good, but there's this one kid in there that's just fascinated with J Sam, JFK, and he's just like talking about JFK. JFK was the youngest president to ever serve the United States. JFK was a man of good intentions and moral superiority. It's like, okay, I laughed my yes ass off.
This 8-year-old is just doing this book report on JFK. The writers had to, this was their. Oh my God, it was so funny. This was their humor. This was their, you know, and their dad. And, and, and the weird part of it is that, that same music is swelling. We're sitting Omri and going through his emotions.
If I left little Baird home. Is he okay? I'm worried about him and all this, and you just get the narration of JFK's life and Oy is like. In this pensive like state Yeah. While we talk about JFK. , so, you know, here he is in school, but at home Little Bear has his own little, like, sectioned area of his room. He, and this is, I loved this aspect because he, , now has his own little long house, his own little, like tiny miniature home, but he also , set up the firetruck with like the ladder to escape up to, , the coffee table or to get up on like a flat surface or it, I don't know.
That was, that. Those were aspects that just really cool. Yeah, really cool. And then he gets hurt, little Bear does. , he doesn't really have. , husks as what little bear is requesting. He could have gotten him some like cotton swabs or whatever, but what does he do? He goes up to , his brother's room in the morning, opens up, , like a chest of his and brings down like, a medic soldier and puts him in.
Yep. Closes it locks, it opens it up, and it's like, this is, , Steve Cogan, as a British soldier, a British soldier in World War I, who's a medic, who, you know, goes and heals, , a little bear's wound, but I don't remember how he got even hurt at that point. But, , yeah, I think he fell, or Arm Armory did something and knocked him off or something like that.
Something, yeah, I don't know. It's irrelevant. It's not that important. But, again, , just such a, I don't know, , I nerd out thinking about the possibilities here because like, this is like a kid's just fantasy. Fantasy. So, and, and I will say this to the movie 'cause I've never been kinda like dogging it a little bit, but the fantasy element is really detailed to , a child's imagination.
And it's so good and it's believable. Like it, that's why it captured our imagination. Yes. Because I. I thought the same things of like, if my toys came to life, how would they operate in this world at that size? And they're going through the motions with you and showing you, and,, he's still requires food.
He's like just small. He's small. Like, he's like a human form. Yeah. So he's brought into this human world and he, apparently he's brought from a parallel universe, which will, we'll, we'll, I guess we'll get to that. Yeah. I guess it's briefly glossed over, but, we're rambling here, but moving the plot along.
It sounds stagnant, but things starting , to liven up here, Patrick, his buddy. Who gave him, the little bear, , figurine, , wants to introduce something else to , the group and, yeah. 'cause he, Patrick, somehow, I forgot how Patrick finds out that the cupboard brought little bear to lie. , Patrick came over one day.
This is what came So backpedaling just a bit. So Richard Jenkins, the dad approaches. Oy about stealing his like blades and like tools. , I don't know what blades and tools that he stole from him, but Oy volunteers to go grab them at the hardware store down the street in Brooklyn, wherever the neighborhood hardware store is.
, he gives him some change. He goes and buys 'em, , which is a weird punishment. 'cause Omri says he buried his tools. Yeah. He didn't go into detail, he said, he just said, I buried them. I don't know where they are. I buried them. And his dad's like, all right. I buried them. And as a father, he, instead of just being like, well, where did you bury them?
Well go unburied them or go dig them up. He little shit bring, bring them to me before, 'cause my dad would've killed me. Yeah. . And the parenting in this is a little off, and we'll get to more of that. But, here's the first, first sequence of that he goes and grabs the saws or little blades or whatever the fuck that was, that he gave a two inch,, native American, literally two inches.
. And on his way back home, he gets, approached by this bully who has horrible hair. He is like a horrible, like an awful mohawk. Maybe that was done on purpose. , I don't know. That's what they did in the nineties. Yeah. If you were a punk kid, you had a Mohawk. He is like, gimme your money.
Where is it? I listened to the Beastie Boys. Yeah. Ad Rock's. My dad, , he shoves him up against like a brick wall and takes his money and, at that point he's like crying, but he runs into Patrick and his mom who take him back home. Yeah. And, but my, one of my favorite lines of this movie is , the kid who takes his money just takes it and darts off across the street and Omri yells out, you don't deserve that hair.
As if his hair was like, cool. I forgot about that. Yeah, just one of those like throwaway lines. You don't deserve that kind of a non sequitur, you know? , it was just so out of place. I loved it. This movie had so many unintentionally funny moments. I laughed. I was though, you don't deserve that.
There were two lines I laughed out loud at and that one, oh, that's okay. That one was one of them. But it gets back home. And this is when Patrick discovers, , little Bear. 'cause , he gets up to his room beforehand and, you know, um, I, I think, , oy, no. Oy gets up there and starts talking to Little Bear, like checking in on him.
, and Patrick like sees him like over his shoulder. He is like, what? What the heck happened? Yeah. What is this? And that's when like Omri tells him, you put something in the cupboard, you shut the door, lock it, unlock it, it comes to life. And at this point Patrick's , we should add another, , figurine to this collection.
We should bring something else to life. And Amri at this point has heard little bear spiel. Like, no, we can't do that. We're playing with someone's actual life. Yeah. Very wise of a 9-year-old to think. Yeah. You know, that far down the line. But, , needless to say, it happens again. It, it just does, Patrick does it, when Andre's not looking, he puts the cowboy in there with his horse.
, brings it to life and very country accent from this guy. Very good. Good actor. Good, good character. Yeah. , Boone. Boone. Boone and his horse, darling, , and of course he's got, you know, big old hat. He's got a gun, a pistol, cowboy boots, spurs the whole nine yards. He's an authentic cowboy from Texas, but Yeehaw, he starts screaming as he comes out.
Yeah. , what do cowboys not like Andrew, , Indians. . And he calls them a whole, you know, slew of slurs, you know? Yeah. Redskin, , engine comes in. Yeah. They obviously they're establishing the, the hate and the timeframe.
So , it's, not authentic here. Yeah. , but right away , there is tension. , and , the boys have to break that tension, , essentially, . Patrick and Amri both realized the gravity of the situation at their hands. They have two like miniature live, live humans in their room.
What do you do with that? , how do you reconcile the situation? What's, uh, and they're, they're trying to fight too. Yeah. And then, so like, so what do they do? They take him to school. They put 'em in their fanny pack and take him to school. Well, before that, didn't they separate him? And then they woke up to like a fire?
Yeah, like a fight. Yeah. They put, , Boone in like the bottom like sock drawer, and they let little bear, , live in , his long house or whatever. Patrick went home, uh, and Boone's like that savage over there is gonna scalp you in your sleep. Yeah. Like stuff like that, there's all like stereotypical like, you know, dialogue of the hatred.
And then, and then, uh, little bear's like he's gonna murder the family Yeah. While you sleep. And it's just like. Some heavy stuff for a 9-year-old to be hearing. It's, it is heavy. , but , you buy into it. 'cause the whole stereotype of cowboys and Indians is, I mean, that it's a stereotype for a reason. It existed, but then they get to another stereotype that they didn't intentionally mean to get to,
and me and Blair were laughing so hard at this part, which was this. So you mentioned they both get, get into the little fanny pack Yeah. And go to school. Yeah. And then they're starting to bond. But what are they bonding over? I don't how they need a woman in their life for cook, clean, cook and clean. Yep.
And then do all the, do all the work. So it was like misogyny brings us all together. Like, so Fail Bechtel test immediately. I mean. Y this movie did not pass. Not even close. Not even close. , because you had the mom. Mom, you're not, you're not a savage. You hate women just like I do.
And doesn't like little bear call Omri like a woman at one point. Yeah. He's like, you cook clean, you're a woman. Woman. Yes. neither one of these characters are not misogynistic. Like little Bear wants a wife. So he could have kids, kids. And I think Boone mentions the same thing, but they also want the wife to do all the things that they don't wanna do. So, I found that hilarious.
I think I, their bonding moment was, I think it was supposed to be funny. Honestly. I, I guess I don't it, it was a nineties movie so, we'll, we'll clean. It was, but like also those people, little Bear and Boone probably like actually believe that stuff. , probably did. Probably Most people still do.
Yeah. Especially ones from Kentucky and Alabama. Oh yeah. Oh my God. Welcome home. Roll Tide. But anyways, where were we? , they're in the Fanny pack. They come home, I think Patrick and well him. And while they're in the fanny pack at school That's right. They get in a fight. They almost were revealed.
And this, the secret was revealed this, and this teacher, now this is where Armory, the actor, had actually bad acting in this one, but I think it's, it is not bad acting from him, but bad guidance and direction. Maybe because they're kind of fighting. 'cause uh, Patrick's about to show, he's trying to open the Fanny pack.
Show all the kids, students, kids, yeah. , the teacher who's a really like kindhearted teacher, wants to. Talked to Armory about his book report. 'cause he thinks his book report's really fascinating. And he's like, well, how'd you come up with that idea about , the Indian? Why are you so f , focused on the Iroquois Nation?
What's, yeah. Like, what's, what's happening here? He's like, fascinating. I love where you're going with this. Yeah. And he's seeing Patrick in the distance, like un like zipped the fanny pack and. Oy runs over and starts yelling at Patrick, like, you can't do that. You know, you can't do that. And so they start arguing and the teacher comes over and goes, what's going on here?
, Patrick's like there's something in the fanny pack. Basically he is like, well, let me see what's in your fanny pack, which is a red flag for eating teacher to be saying. And then this is where, this is where Amory's like. They're just PlasTech. He repeats the word PlasTech that you know, little bear says, or that's how little Bear says the word plastic.
Yeah. But I don't know if he meant if Boone knew what that, I don't know. Maybe little bear got the information, but I think, but anyway, it was relayed. But anyway, and the funny part about all this is while the teacher's trying to look in the fanny pack, you see Armory and they go wide angle and you see armory and he's just like beaten on the stairway.
I didn't see that. Trying to be angry. I didn't see that. But he's not hitting the stairway, so it's like, that's why I was saying bad direction because , it was so outta place. And if that point they should have cut. It went like zoomed in on it. But like they got, they caught him. He's like punching his like fist and hitting the stage.
And , I know the director told him to do that. Uh, good job. Frank. Frank, yeah. Or the cinematographer. Somebody got him with that one, but I missed that. I wish I had seen it. You have to, to go back. Frank's too funny. Yeah, quick little burst of movement, but , Patrick pulls out, , Boone and Little Bear, and they're like frozen.
Like, they're literally like physically, you know, holding their positions as their figurines. So it looks like they aren't, and Boone's even holding his hat above his head. Yep. Like posing. Yep. , and the teacher's like, oh, okay, well put those away and y'all make up, get past this. Yeah.
But anyways, we're getting towards the end here because , they get home, , Boone and Little Bear have, you know, met on common ground. So they're amigos. Here's what I'm bringing up.
Bad parenting number two and three here. , so it goes back home. And , it's raining. It's like pouring rain outside and these weird kids dressed all in black show up and take the older brother into the city. Right? Yeah. So like something like that.
So it's late on a school night and they just left this kid to like, leave out. Well, I think it's a, I think it's a Friday now. I think we're at the end of the week. Is it a Friday? I think we're the end of the week. Then I'll recoil this. But those kids were up to no good.
You could call me judgmental all you want, but I knew when I got into a group of friends like that, we were egging cars and destroying other people's property. I mean, they, that late at night with the pouring rain, they lived a different lifestyle in Brooklyn, New York. It wasn't the same as, you know, suburbia, , Alabama or So you mean that they weren't destroying property?
I, they, they could have been. So , they very well could have been, you think they were going to church and on a Friday at that, that late at night, maybe they're gonna temple. It was pouring rain. Maybe it was a church, maybe it was temple. Yeah. But that's a, did they do that on Saturday?
Is that when? Exactly. Okay. These kids were up to no good. Yeah, they were up to no good. Yeah. They were gonna smoke some reefer, the devil lettuce behind, behind the dumpster, down the streets, if you're lucky. That's all they were doing. Yeah. , before, before we get to like the final few scenes here, there was one somewhat important scene that I think happened a few back.
, AMRI gets home and his brothers are in his room looking at. Little bear's longhouse, and they're like, wow, this is really cool. Omri, did you make this? That's awesome. , meanwhile, little bear's hiding underneath like , the space heater in the room, like cowering in fear. Oy to get his brothers out of the room.
He fucking ts the rack in rat, a soccer ball. He kicks like a soccer ball all the way down the hallway, down the stairs. This rat goes flying. Yeah, and I think it's an important, it's, uh, piece of the plot because I think it breaks the ball, right? Like yes. I think that's what broke the ball, because Oy kicks it to get them outta the room and they go chasing instead of just.
Beating the dog shit out of their brother, which he probably should have done. Should have done. Yeah. , because they weren't even like doing anything. They were just looking at the, he said, Omri, this is amazing. How'd you make this? He literally says that. And then he goes in there and kicks the rat down the stairs.
But Omri didn't want them finding out about the little people. Yeah. That lived in his room. So you would think you could have done something better, different than like murder a rat. But it's important to mention because to get back at Oy, , the brother goes and steals the cupboard. So when they come back that night, Patrick and Oy, the cupboard isn't in the room.
Yeah. And the key cannot be found eventually, brother gives away his secrets and the, it's in one of the crawl spaces downstairs. He gets it, but there's no key. Yeah. They get the cover back in the room. There's no key though. So they can't bring anything back to life. They can't send Little Bear or Boone back to where they came from.
So they decide to sit on the bed and watch Van Halen's music video. Girls, girls, girls. See, so after the brother leaves, like in the point where I talking about so bad parenting number three, they're this like Patrick and this kid are watching Motley Cruise. Girls. Girls. I'm sorry not I said Van Halen. I meant Motley Cru.
Yeah. Yeah. So , they were watching. Same difference. Yeah, whatever. If you guys care out there, then you're the problem. , but they're watching that music video and it is a saucy one, it's a bunch of women like dancing in a strip club. They're clothed. , and that's what Boone's like this is despicable.
Yeah. And, and disgusting little bear's not too enthused by it either. Yeah. He was like, they they're scantily clad. Yeah. Just also not helping the, and the misogyny here. Yeah. , but then they change it, they change the channel and it's national Geographic or Animal Planet, it's a bunch of elephants.
They changed again. And what is it, chase? It's a movie or it's like, yeah, it's a movie. It's definitely a movie. It's, it's like a, kind of like going back to the John Wayne era, like it's a bunch of like cowboys, like fight between the cowboys, slaughtering a bunch of Native Americans. Right. And then, , Boone gets all worked up and he, he's like, yeah, kill them engines.
He literally says something like that. Yeah. , and keep in mind, Boone and Little Bear have started to become friends. This, they are friends at this point. They're Amigos, as little Bear was said, right? They were amigos. , they bonded over their hatred of women. , they have common ground.
They're human. It was a nice, it was a nice come to, yeah. So there come to earth moments, but all of a sudden, for whatever reason, Boone can't put two and two together and he snaps back into like his savage ways and, meanwhile, , and Little Bear's freaking out because he's having PTSD. Yeah. He's like a Vietnam War veteran.
I was gonna say it's the Vietnam meme of like the cat, like looking at like the, you know, the helicopters in the sky or whatever. It's that he's having PTSD. So, he pulls out his bow and arrow and he shoots, shoots Boone. And Boone is like, so Patrick has his knees up.
Yeah. Right. Like he would in bed. And Boone is standing on it like it's a mountain top, which is kind of cool. Yeah. , and Boone goes little bar. With the arrow sticking out of his chest, it hits him right above the heart. Yeah. And he topples, you know, what would be two feet is, you know, hundreds of feet to him.
Yeah. So he would've been dead regardless. So yeah. But luckily he fell on bed and, you know, bedding that would've been as hard as a rock as it would figure would've been difficult. It'd be like falling hundreds of feet into snow. Yeah. I don't think that would've saved you either.
But he, , hits him in a very vulnerable spot. So now they've got a conundrum. 'cause they need the medic, but they don't have the key. They don't have the key to the cupboard. It's raining. , and before this, when the mom checked on Patrick and, , Amie, she said, Hey, your brother's rats loose under the floorboards.
He must have gotten under the loose floorboard in your bed. And so Oys freaking out 'cause he knows his giant rat's gonna come out and eat them. And so that's another fear going on right now. Yep. So they decide to take turns. Patrick goes to sleep first. Omri stays awake to keep guard on Injured Boone and Little Bear who's attending to who to his wounds.
Yeah. And then, they fall asleep. They both fall asleep. Omri falls asleep on the floorboards. Patrick is in, re's bed, but Omri iss awoken by the rat. He's like scurrying, like right underneath. And at this point, and I guess he's trying to like get the rat, , he's been, he sees the key, he sees in the floorboard.
He goes to , the area and the floor of where he hears the rat. He sees a giant like hole, a loose floorboard, he pulls up and then on the side of that. He sees the key that fell down into the crack and it's like, yeah, , it's nestled in this crack and armory does a horrible job of trying to get it out because he just pushes it back further.
Yeah. It was, what you'd expect a 9-year-old to do, not push it. I mean, I guess, , he sees the key. He sees an avenue, , to get the rat out. , and who volunteers to go into the little, , crawl space underneath the floorboard, but our brave little bear, little bear, little bear.
So little bear feels really bad for what he did. Yeah. Because when he snaps out of his, like, I guess survival instinct, at that point it was survival instinct. It wasn't anything. He now knows he's, he has to get this key to get the medic because , he's seen the medic. He knows that he can help.
Yeah. There's a little funny line in here where Armory tries to put him through the crack and he's like, I'm too big. And he starts laughing. He goes, I'm too big. It wasn't, I, it didn't hit for me. Yeah. It didn't hit for me either. It was just dumb dialogue. Dumb dialogue. They forced there. It, i, it, when I say it didn't hit, it didn't bother me.
It didn't bother me, but I didn't laugh. You didn't laugh? I laugh because of how absurd it was. Yeah. And bad. , but again, the dialogue in this movie is bad to trash at some points. , so , he puts little bear under , the floorboard and. You hear all this commotion, you can hear the rat like squeaking and like scurrying about and you can hear little bear like running around just, you know, with his tiny feets and crawling up whatever, you know, space he can to, to evade attack.
, but, , not to spoil, a happy ending, but , he gets out and he gets the key. Yeah. It's dramatic. Well, I mean, I mean 'cause he pulls little bear out and he's got the key around his dangling on his foot around his foot. Yeah. Which that key would've been so super heavy. Yeah. For a little two inch Oh little bear.
But that would've been like you having like a support beam on. That'd be me like having like, I don't know, like a rope with like a hundred pound weight tied to it or something. There's no weight. Could be not a hundred pound, but like 70 pounds. My foot would be that key was bigger than he was. Yeah.
His foot was flexed too. My foot wouldn't even be able to flex. I'd tear like my shin muscle or soleus or something. So another flaw there, but like little flop, they pull him out and they get the key. So they get the medic, the medic comes out and helps the cowboy. It happens all so quickly.
Tommy, Steve Coogan once again saves him. He shoots him up with some stuff and morphine probably. , so now Boone's addicted. Sends him back to 1860.
Texas a heroin addict. Can you imagine? So Boone has, a morphine addiction now. , then they send the medic back Yeah. And send him back to World War I and then he goes back to trench warfare. Right. He is like dark. I'm sure. I'm sure this life would've been a far better.
I mean, they, he mentioned that and he was like, oh, this is a dream. It's better than real life. You, I roaches, gnawing on German soldiers is not fun to see. He literally says something like that. Yeah. Like, so, so they're roaches and rafts. They're con, they're concerned with keeping these dudes in their this alternate reality, which is a pain for them.
And then sending that guy back to his painful reality. Which I found really dumb and odd. Like, why those two? So this is where we like, yeah, this is where we get to the end. , at that point then they realize, 'cause Boone's getting better. They're like, we have to go back.
We gotta send him back to his family. We gotta get a little bear back to his nephew and brother and his tribe and everything. So, and then, and then all of a sudden this takes a real weird turn where Little Bear wants Aie to be his nephew. Yeah. The, it was, he was entered the movie Interjected.
Didn't this didn't like this dream sequence at all. I thought it was fine. Again, childhood imagination. I thought it was more than fine. Before this, . As soon as they got the key out and little bear, and this is before they turned, you know, Tommy into an actual living medic. The rat, when it jumped outta the floorboard, scared the shit out of me. Yes, I was terrified.
The jump scare got me, man. I don't get jump scared. Very easily, but let's talk about the real hero. It was Patrick. Patrick. He taught that fucking rat midair and called it in midair and then took it up to his brother and said, here bitch, take your stupid fucking kicked it back down the stairs. You're vermin.
Get it out of here. Yeah. That did scare me. , 'cause I was so, I guess I was so entranced in the moment. I actually was so, I mean, they did it on purpose. Yeah, for sure. Because it scared me as a kid. The music was swelling. You were trying to see if little bear was gonna come out clean and unscathed and then boom, there comes that, that filthy vermin jumping out of the floorboard.
But in New York too, it was probably the cleanest rat in New York. It was , very, it was very white. Yeah. There wasn't a lot of dirt on it. It had a nice coat of fur. So yeah. Looked to look clean, but now , we're back. , and then as before he sends a little bear back, he has this like little weird fantasy of little bear.
As an actual adult human and Armory is like looking at him. , it wasn't just complete, it didn't come out of nowhere. Little Bear, when he was taken from his actual life to be transported into Armory's reality, he was with his brother and his nephew. Nephew teaching him to be a man. Yeah. To be a man.
The ritual was that they let him go in the woods for a few months and he survives on his own and comes back. If he doesn't come back then he wasn't ever, meant to be. , so they're teaching him to be a man. And then he said he, , in real life he, if ery was in his world, he would be his nephew, which is not how that works, they were somehow connected, through , the void, can you imagine though.
If, , little bear put armory into , the cupboard and brought him back. And then people would be like, who's this little white child you're bringing here? Give him 20 lashings and hold him over the fire he needs to learn. Throw a blanket of smallpox on him. , they also, Boone we, we didn't mention that Boone and , little bear bonded over smallpox.
Yeah, they did. 'cause didn't, Boone like lost his daughter or something like that? Yeah. And , didn't little bear lose his wife or somebody Yeah, his wife. Yeah. So they each lost someone they loved to smallpox. Yeah. Crazy. So they tie it all together there. But anyway. They have this little dream sequence where it just shows the connection between Oy and little Bear that cultures can coincide together.
Uh, oy ends up sending them back in this like, really dramatic moment. It was because they, they had to pose, apparently they had to get back into their figurine state, which it was fine. And Omri starts crying because the little friends that he's made over the past week are now going back to their reality forever.
And he'll, he's not gonna see 'em again. 'cause he's not gonna be playing that game, you know, in about a week or two. He's gonna get the urge, well put them in the cabinet. I'm pretty sure Lynn Reed Banks, , wrote sequels to this move or , this had to book. But yeah, , that was an emotional scene.
Like, that's when it all hit me. Like it, I wouldn't say it all hit me, but like, that was like the defining moment or like, all right, , this trip of. Your childhood imagination's coming to an end. Yeah. Say goodbye. And then the movie really ends with, the kid talking about JFK. So Oy has, you know, his little sendoff and, , he talked about sending Boone and I think it was just little bear back and how he will miss them, but he won't worry about him anymore.
, 'cause that chapter has come and gone. Yeah. And that is like a succinct ending. The teacher's like very nice Omri, , very creative and thoughtful. Sam, he says something like, and one day JFK was killed. Yeah. And literally, and it's like, as the, that music is swelling. Swelling. And it goes to , the zoomed in shot of Oy as he's like just smiling.
And they're talking about JFK's assassination, assassination at to end this movie that Are you kidding me? Like, and the music is swelling. It is the dramatic theme of that. They play over, over, and over and over. Oh my God. Like I, I, no matter if you were a hundred percent Rotten tomatoes for this movie, this music was used way too much.
Yeah. , and so , let's start with you like we just finished up. That's pretty much it. Yeah. We just finished it. So there are a few things that I made note of that I want to just, to bring up. I think it's really just one thing. , I. There were two twin tower scenes or sceneries. You, you knew it was gonna happen.
, so was gonna happen. So folks back home who've been listening to us for this long, new listeners welcome. , any nineties movie we watch that takes place in New York City. The Twin Towers are a focal point. Yeah, we mentioned it a lot and it's so now we've just stopped mentioning 'cause it's just every movie.
But it really is one of those things where they really use them as a staple of New York City. New York City. Like , it's an iconic, a postcard. It's an iconic landmark. It is what it is. Every movie. And it's no exception here. They're in several scenes and usually some pretty stunning shots.
Like they're very stunning in the background of , a beautiful sunset. Yes. Sparkling off the towers. Yeah. Sparkling in like the, you know, dusk. Like, you forget how beautiful those buildings were. You forget. , you can't watch a New York nineties movie. We, we didn't, I didn't mention that in the Montage when Oy went to the hardware store, but , I wanted to throw it in there. Yeah. And I think it's in there a couple more times.
It is. Yeah. Um, but anyway, what that is the movie. , what's your childhood nostalgia versus your adult brain telling you right now? I mean, honestly, man, it's hard for me to escape the nostalgia. I really didn't dislike this movie. I really didn't. I went into it thinking I was going to hate it. I didn't.
I was fine there. Yeah, there's a few things we talked about. They're like, all right, but it wasn't anything that's like super glaring. It wasn't anything that wasn't super. Unbelievable. I thought the acting was pretty solid. Yeah, the writing was somewhat weak, but again, , , it's mainly driven by like two kids and, a Native American and a cowboy from like the 18 hundreds.
I don't know. I very much enjoyed the watch. I really did. Like I, the, the moment when he closes that cupboard for the last time and I teared up, I legitimately teared up. Got me like, yes, there's nostalgia there, and yes, there's a strong connection from when I was a kid, but I still very much enjoyed it.
That's the only part in the movie. I think the music worked well was the, the Indian shot. I never minded the repetitiveness of the theme in the music. There were may, there was maybe like one or two times where they, , did that closeup and it swelled. I was like, all right, you could have cut that, but.
Dude, I, I'm usually hypercritical and , maybe I am just biased towards this, but I did not have many issues with this movie whatsoever. So I enjoyed it and I would watch it again. So I would watch it again. I look at it this way. So I think you and I both had like extreme, you a little bit more than me had some nostalgia this Yeah.
'cause I remembered all the lines. , a lot of them took me back to playing in my parents' room with, my action figures while watching this movie on VHS. 'cause that was where we had our VHS player, yeah. And remember all these scenes, I remember every last scene in this movie.
It was crazy. That was what the biggest thing for me is a lot of these movies I watch, I forget things like, there's a few, like Batman and Robin. I remembered everything. Yeah. But like, I didn't, I, every, everything came back to me with this one. It came , and there was something to be said about that as how much I watched it.
I hated this run of it. That's so I, because I almost texted you like halfway through, I was like, no, I'll just hold it. I really liked it. I, I've tried to take the blinders off and I have no problems with, I just, I couldn't, it was so boring. I thought it was sweet. It it is. Now, now I do think that there is some, there's a lot of things that they try that is very modern in this movie.
Like, they try to like connect the cultures and everything. Yeah. I think that worked. I think they did. I think that very nons stereo way. I, there's nothing, there's nothing about that. That was, I was like, oh. Oh, that didn't hold up. No. It just, I don't think it was really well done. I thought the music was annoying.
The acting was okay. The dialogue made what could be good, acting bad. , and of course you're with child actors, so you have to give them some sort of leash, right? Yeah. Like, you can't be super critical. And I was not gonna be critical on them, but , they didn't direct them in the right way. Like, there's several mess ups.
The, the Zoom shots are just weird. , I think some of the cinematography was some, some of the technical stuff. Yeah. But there's some good scenes in this movie that still, like, I would be like, wow, pinpoint that the night scene with it raining and Boone falling off, Patrick's knees after watching that, I thought that was a really good scene that captivated me, , at, I do agree with you.
At the end, the final scene where he shuts the cupboard. I was like, okay, that, that's there. You know? But other than that, I, there's not a whole lot here. I'm gonna go back for, I just, I, I'm glad I went back for the nostalgia of it. I don't think it was a great movie, I think it was a lot better than a number of things.
We have watched up to this point truly believe that. And deep in my heart like this, there isn't much meat to it, but you think about it, it takes place over the span of a week. It's about a boy who brings his little action figures to life and the relationships and little adventures that he goes on with them, through the course of like four days.
That's all it is. But, but the thing about the adventures is they're, it's like, they're not even really adventures, it's just more of, you know, how does he, not the word's, but even, even, but how he navigates that, even the adventures, I was like, I wanted more, like I, I was like, we kind of glossed over everything I, and then the movie's over.
I, I like that they kept it minimal. , I don't know how to put it in words as to. Why I like it, but , the secretive nature of it all, I think is why I'm okay with it. Because that is something that , you wouldn't want to tell people if you were armory. I don't think I would've ran and told and made it a big ordeal.
You would've tried to keep it confined. It's your own world, your own corner of your own imagination. It's very personal. , it's very specific and that's why, I don't know. I think that like, if they made it bigger and grander, it would kind of take away from that. Well, I'm not even talking about those type of adventures.
I'm talking about just seeing more of how little Bear lived or like how, what, how did he use those fucking tools than Oy Stole, stole, I think it was that, but that's the imagination. Like you, you, you don't No, but you don't dive into it as much. You see what he made. As a nine, 10-year-old, or you're like, wow, that's so cool.
Well, the why can't I do that? Well, the imagination's broken when they come into real life. It's not imagination anymore. This is real life. This is a real three inch person, I guess. I guess I wanna see this three inch. I wanna see him do everything. I wanna see how he made, how he made that teepee. , a 9-year-old isn't going to think like that.
He's just going to expect it. They're not gonna think that deep. I will say the idea is there. I really like the idea of this movie. I think the book would be fun to go back and read. I feel like the book would be a good read.
, I wanna watch this again with like my mom and dad. I liked it that much. It really. I don't know. It, it hit me in a spot and stirred up some thoughts and feelings that, you know, I've, I haven't felt in a minute, and I think this is the quintessential, nostalgic movie for myself. And maybe I, maybe my blinders are still on.
Maybe they are. But I, like I said, I try to look at everything from a very, not a judgmental lens, but I try to look at everything from a fair point of view. And I really didn't see a lot of faults in this one. And , I respect why someone wouldn't care for it. But man, I've, I don't want to say I loved it on the rewatch, but I really liked it.
I really, really liked it. And there's no going back from that.
, I understand that level of it. I just, I don't know. I just, after the first 10 minutes when it started wearing, the nostalgia started wearing off and we got into the meat of it. I was like, this is boring. , there's not much to this. Once the childhood imagination, when they wore off, when they came into reality mode.
Yeah. I was like, they're just little people. And I didn't get a feel from this at all. I didn't like it. Like, it was, it was weird. , maybe it caught me at the wrong time. If it catches me the right day. Mediocre at best. And I see. I. I dunno. I, I, I think I need to watch it again. Maybe come down from whatever nostalgia high I'm on.
But, but that's why we do this. It's, that's why we do it. Yeah. Because like it can show you that like no matter what, and I'm sure there's a couple movies in my past that we'll get to down the road that are, that I have protected by nostalgia. Yeah. That I will not say a bad thing that you and Kyle May rip to shreds.
I think this might be one for me, but, you know, I, yeah, man, but, I think when we look at the IMDB rating, which, do you know what it is? I do. So I think when we look at that, I think it's going to reflect your review of it more than it does mine wrong. Does it? I think so. Well, because I know what I would give it compared to what the IMDB rating is.
So it's a si it's an even six on I mdb. Yeah. I thought it would be higher. I legitimate thought it would be higher. Yeah. Too. I thought I, because you're probably gonna give it in the sevens, right? No, maybe. What would you give it? 6.9. So I'm gonna give it. 6.9. Yeah, I, I could go seven one, but if I'm being fair and critical, you know.
Weak scripts, some of the technical elements as opposed to like the cinematography not that great. , special effects though we didn't really touch upon that. I thought they were solid, but like 6.9 altogether is what I would give it. 'cause it harkens on a sense of feeling that certain movies , don't hit with me.
And overall don't think it's that bad of a movie. I give it a four two. Jesus, that's low. Yeah. Damn. I think that's harsh. I think that's, it's just how really harsh, that's how I felt. I think. I think Chase here doesn't have a heart. , I think that's what we're getting to today, because I don't know how you can't watch that movie and not feel something like I just, I didn't say it.
I didn't say I didn't feel anything. I just, I know when to pull that back and say if it's a good movie or not. I, I think he's overcompensating, he's overcompensating for , the emotions that he's feeling. So the, I do give the four i 4.2. Jesus, I, I'll tell you where that comes from. The 4.2 is the imagination of it.
When they do give you that imagination, it works really well. And I do think there are too many good characters in it too. I, we need, other than the Mohawk kid, there's not a true asshole in this world. , and Boone is supposed to be kind of your antagonist for a little bit, and then he's supposed to come around.
They don't even give him enough time to do that. So you never see anybody's full circle moments throughout this movie and I, maybe it's a movie that needs to be longer. I was gonna say an hour and 38. They didn't make him hard to do it. They didn't make 'em very long back in the day. No. They kept him short and sweet, which I appreciate.
I do too. I do too to watch. That's why I gave it , the 0.2 comes from the not being two hours. I bet Kyle would've liked this movie. I bet Kyle. I don't think he'd be Oh my, I, you know, Kyle would that, I don't think he would be in complete agreeance with me, but I think he'd be more on my side than yours.
I really do. I'm curious. This is why he's got come back to the show. No, this is why he's staying off. 'cause we're never going to leave this high point of my feeling, , regarding Indian Indian cover.
Does it hold up? Yes. And you know what I'm gonna say? Are you gonna say no? I'm gonna say no. Wow. It doesn't hold up. I think it holds up. I said I would wanna watch this again.
I would wanna watch it with my parents. I think that's why I'm being very harsh is because I have so much nostalgia for this movie and I was bored outta my mind. And I think that makes me angry and make me probably a little bit more critical.
Maybe I should calm down. Maybe. I think you, you are. Maybe me, maybe me and Andrew need to just go back and rewatch this. I so this be our first redox, I honestly wanna rewatch it. And I think the fact that I wanna rewatch it says something. I don't know if that is more, I don't wanna watch this again. I do.
I legitimately want to see, I wanna put this movie in a cupboard itself and bury And what would it turn into if you put it in the cupboard? Big poll of dog shoes. Is that what, is that how the rules work? Yeah. You put a, you put a va, you put dog, you put fake dog shit into a company. It comes out as real dog shit.
Oh, little asshole over here. , Mr. Contrarian, , you're really going into that world today. Now, I am. I wanna watch this again to see whether I am high in the sky or if you're just full of that dog shit. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think there's a chance. It's the latter.
I think in this situation, chase is just wrong. And that's okay. , we can live with that. We can all live with Chase being wrong.
Well, right or wrong, you know what we do here, which is always right. We reach deep inside your childhood nostalgia.
Pull the movies from your past out to see if they hold up. Today we pulled. The Indian from the cupboard and found out. We don't really know. Andrew knows. I think I know, but we'll leave it up to you. You're the deciding vote. We need Kyle back so he can be the deciding vote. That should be, we should have a little , hold up just a minute where we just pick Kyle's brain about it.
We make him watch it and then we were like, Hey, what do you think could be coming down the pipe? It could be. Do you know what we're doing next? , Debbie does Dallas. That's not what we're doing next. Oh shit. I got the wrong memo then. But you could know what we're doing next. Fall us on Instagram.
We will tell you what we're doing next. And in the meantime, we'll see you every Thursday for a new holdup episode. We hope you have a great weekend and we'll see you next time.