Pod Meets World

Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior

87 min
Mar 3, 2026about 2 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Pod Meets World hosts Will Friedle and Sabrina Bryan discuss the 2006 Disney Channel Original Movie 'Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior,' analyzing its martial arts choreography, cultural representation, cast performances, and production details. The episode explores how the film balanced high school drama with mystical warrior mythology while examining both its strengths and problematic elements for a 20-year-old DCOM.

Insights
  • Disney Channel invested significantly in martial arts-heavy content in the mid-2000s, leveraging action directors from Power Rangers to create cinematic fight sequences within TV budgets
  • Cultural representation in children's media from 2006 contained stereotypical elements that would be considered problematic today, reflecting evolving standards rather than intentional malice
  • Brenda Song's extensive DCOM portfolio and dedicated training (16-hour days, personal stunt work) established her as a foundational Disney Channel star whose work ethic was visible on screen
  • The film's $5 million budget was efficiently allocated to New Zealand production and wire work, suggesting strategic financial decisions prioritized action sequences over music scoring
  • Narrative inconsistencies (unexplained magical rules, security lapses, age-inappropriate dynamics) were tolerated by viewers when strong action choreography and cultural worldbuilding compensated
Trends
Mid-2000s DCOM trend of blending martial arts action with teen high school narratives targeting family audiencesCasting of Asian-American leads in lead DCOM roles during 2006 era, though with limited follow-up sequels despite strong viewershipWire-work and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon-influenced fight choreography becoming standard in higher-budget Disney Channel productionsRetrospective analysis of 2000s children's media revealing cultural stereotypes now recognized as problematic but contextually normalized at production timeDisney Channel's strategic use of international production (New Zealand filming) to access specialized action talent and reduce domestic production costsBrenda Song's multi-platform Disney presence across shows, movies, and voice work establishing template for DCOM star career trajectoriesNarrative focus on cultural heritage and family identity in DCOMs as counterbalance to assimilation pressures in American high school settings
Topics
Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs) production and distribution strategyMartial arts choreography in family entertainmentAsian representation and stereotyping in 2000s children's mediaCultural identity and assimilation themes in teen narrativesHigh school social hierarchy and homecoming queen narrativesWire work and stunt coordination in television productionBrenda Song's career trajectory and DCOM portfolioBudget allocation in television production ($5 million DCOM case study)International production logistics (New Zealand filming)Narrative inconsistencies and worldbuilding rules in fantasy storytellingStranger danger and child safety messaging in family entertainmentAge-appropriate romantic dynamics in teen-targeted contentSequel greenlight and cancellation patterns in DCOM franchisesMusic scoring and production design in constrained budgetsRetrospective media criticism and cultural standards evolution
Companies
Disney Channel
Produced and aired Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior in 2006; invested heavily in marketing and international distribution
iHeartRadio
Distributes Pod Meets World podcast and multiple other shows mentioned in ad reads throughout episode
Apple Podcasts
Podcast distribution platform mentioned in multiple sponsor ad reads for various iHeart shows
FedEx
Referenced in film plot as delivery service that shipped the mystical box containing Yang Lo's spirit
Nabisco
Mentioned in discussion about Oreo cookies and pastry classification debate between hosts
People
Brenda Song
Star of Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior; trained 16 hours daily, performed own stunts, extensive DCOM portfolio
Shin Koyamada
Played Shen in Wendy Wu; previously starred in The Last Samurai; holds multiple martial arts black belts
Will Friedle
Co-host of Pod Meets World; provides analysis and critique of the DCOM throughout episode
Sabrina Bryan
Co-host of Pod Meets World; provides personal perspective and enthusiastic analysis of the film
John Liang
Director of Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior; New Zealand native with extensive action TV background
Kochi Sakamoto
Action director for Wendy Wu; previously directed original Power Rangers fight sequences
Justin Chon
Played Peter in Wendy Wu; also known for Twilight films; wrote and directed Blue Bayou
Susan Chang
Played Nina in Wendy Wu; extensive television career including Charmed, Monk, Big Bang Theory
Ryder Strong
Referenced as having a friend in Three Ninjas; hosts The Red Weather podcast about missing person case
Macaulay Culkin
Married to Brenda Song; subject of trivia game segment about his unconventional career choices
Tom Cruise
Starred in The Last Samurai with Shin Koyamada; referenced in discussion of that film
Miley Cyrus
Referenced as bigger DCOM star name compared to Brenda Song in discussion of DCOM queen status
Selena Gomez
Referenced as bigger DCOM star name compared to Brenda Song in discussion of DCOM queen status
Quotes
"Ninjas were highly trained secret assassins. Power Rangers were endowed with magical powers to become a team of superheroes that happened to do martial arts."
Will FriedleEarly episode discussion
"I went into this movie already loving it because I do love ninjas and I was already like I knew this is what was going to be. And I was like already obsessed."
Sabrina BryanEarly thoughts section
"This is what I was like. Yeah. Did you wish you could have done this in Cheetah Girls? Yes. Oh, my gosh. Wire working martial arts while singing."
Will Friedle and Sabrina BryanFight choreography discussion
"I don't think so. I just think that you're looking at a dance team and going, oh, they're a cheerleading squad. That's the difference in looking at the Power Rangers and saying they're ninjas."
Will FriedleNinja vs Power Rangers debate
"A cookie is not a pastry. Oh, my God. That's like saying a pizza is a pasta."
Will FriedleCookie vs pastry debate
Full Transcript
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Hi, it's Jill Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter Podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And today I'm talking with my dear friend, Krista Williams. It can change you in the best way possible. Dance with the change, dance with the breakdowns. The embodiment of Pisces intuition with Capricorn power moves. So I'm like delusionally proud of my chart. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This Women's History Month, the podcast, Keep It Positive, sweetie, celebrates the power of women choosing healing, purpose, and faith, even when life gets messy. Love is not a destination. You have to work on it every day. Keep It Positive, sweetie, creates space for honest conversations on self-worth, love, growth, and navigating life with grace and grit, led by women who uplift, inspire, and tell the truth out loud. I have several conversations with God, and I know why it took 20 years. To hear this and more, listen to Keep It Positive, sweetie, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. it's the new me and it's the old them this woman's history month the podcast if you knew better with amber grimes spotlights women who turn missteps into momentum and lessons into power my like tunnel vision of like I gotta achieve this was off the strengths of like I wanna make a better life for us if you knew better brings real talk from women who've lived it unpacking career pivots relationship lessons and the mindset shifts that changed everything listen to if you knew better with amber grimes on the iHeartRadio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Sabrina, did you ever study any martial arts? I mean, study on like a professional level or like study. No, he doesn't have to be professional. Did you ever go to karate classes or any of that kind of stuff? No, I didn't. I didn't do any of that. like that. Why are you qualifying which one? Wait, do you mean like on a professional scale or more? Oh, no, I've never done. No, like in my own home, feeling like I did my own professional training. No, that's not a thing. No. I'm telling you right now, hands down, like everything about like Karate Kid, Ninja specifically was my wheelhouse of like dying to be. Yeah, me too. My dad's nickname for me my whole life has been Ninja because all I did was watch Ninja movies. I mean, my dogs are named after the three Ninja characters, Rocky and Emily. Like this was my world. You know, one of Ryder Strong's best friends was one of the three Ninjas growing up. Oh my gosh, I know. And it was very hard when we were at Disneyland to not talk about that. Can we talk about your friend being in Three Ninjas? Is he still doing ninja stuff? Did you watch old school ninja movies? Like real like Shokasugi, like Revenge of the Ninja, Return of the Ninja kind of ninja movies? No, I lived in the Disney world from, you know this. Like, no, it was started and ended with Disney stuff. Or kids, kid friendly stuff. You got to get into the real gut slashing ninja star through the eye throwing kind of ninja movies. No, that's not the fun part of ninjas. Those are good. First of all, ninjas aren't fun. They're awesome. And they're trained assassins. It's like, you know, like Power Rangers. Like that was like my like home. I mean, I did. Power Rangers were superheroes. They weren't ninjas. Well, they were like ninjas. No, no, no, no, no. Wow. Yes, they were. No. Power Rangers were endowed with magical powers, essentially like superpowers to become a clan. Not even a clan, to become a team. of superheroes that happened to do martial arts. Ninjas were highly trained. That happened to do martial arts. Secret assassins is what ninjas are. Stop trying. Look, look. I'm telling you right now. You're not going to burst my bubble of how I feel about ninjas. I don't think so. I just think that you're, it's like you're, you're looking, you know what it's the equivalent of? You're looking at, be me looking at a dance team and going, oh, they're a cheerleading squad. And you'd be like, no, no, no, no. Those are two very different things. That's the difference in looking at the Power Rangers and saying they're ninjas, you're looking at a dance squad and calling them cheerleaders. No, I'm sorry. They're biting words. Am I wrong, though? If I came in and saw your dance team and I was like, they're a cheer squad, you would be like, that's not what they are. Our rangers are not ninjas, my friend. I'm going to, here's what you're going to start with. You're going to start with the old school Revenge of the Ninja with Shokasugi. That's where you're going to start. I don't want to see like guts and crazy glory. Then you don't like ninjas, my friend. Okay, fine. But I do. Okay, we're going to make sure you watch the real stuff. Okay, and for everybody else, welcome back to Magical Rewind, the show that makes you want to grab your friends, your PJs, and your popcorn and go back to a time when all the houses are smart, the wave tsunamis, and apparently the Power Rangers were ninjas. Yes, they were. Which they weren't. I'm Will Friedle. And I'm Sabrina Bryan, ready to fight. There we go. Well, dig into your ancestry and search for traces of a yin warrior because we're attacking the 2006 high school martial arts DCOM, Wendy Wu, Homecoming Warrior. It premiered on June 16th, 2006, and scored an impressive 5.7 million viewers that night. Ready for this? Making it the fifth highest rated DCOM of all time. I bet you didn't see that coming. I didn't. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to just jump ahead. I hadn't even heard of this movie, so the idea that this is the fifth highest DCOM ever is pretty impressive. Right. Yeah. It also received the highest rating ever for a DCOM on Disney Channel Japan. In addition to the film, the movie stars took over the block of programming leading to the debut, so Disney Channel really put their weight behind this one, and it certainly paid off. They also repurposed the movie for two other versions, the Kikin version, which is K-I-K-apostrophe-I-N, which included five new scenes and a remixed version where the cast answered viewer questions and taught karate moves. The movie's budget was just $5 million, an impressively low amount for the time, considering its success. But a lot can be accredited to the film's star, a Disney kid who is having quite a moment right now. That is Brenda Song, one of our favorites. She reportedly trained for two weeks with 16-hour days. She did most of her own stunts and has said she pushed herself to the max as a tribute to her mom, who had battled breast cancer the year before. Really cool. You also saw the work she put in. We found this fact online, and it might be the most 2006 sentence ever, but I'm going to say it anyway. The film was originally set to air on June 2nd, 2006, but was pushed back by Disney Channel due to technical difficulties involving the film's official website, which is, you know, in 2006, they're still new having websites for all this kind of stuff. It was out and people were doing it, but it was still like, are you on that internet thing? Also, a large amount of criticism online about this movie involves Asian stereotypes, luckily something we seem to be moving farther away from in 2026. but it you know has to be said it was a different time especially when it came to Asian representation movies or well lack thereof for that matter though the movie was set in California most of the film was actually filmed in Auckland New Zealand which was a decision made to accommodate the film's action director now I'm going to do a blanket apology right here to everyone there are names that I'm going to say and I'm sure I'm going to butcher the pronunciation as somebody who grew up with a name that nobody got right. I don't like when people mispronounce my name. I apologize because I know I'm going to mess these up. But bear with me. So I'm going to do the best I can. Better you than me because I would absolutely butcher them. I am going to try. So apologies to everyone involved when I eventually mangle your name. I'm so sorry. But here we go. So the film's action director was Kochi Sakamoto, the brains behind the original Power Rangers fights. There we go. Which is kind of a cool piece of trivia. and Sakamoto was able to bring in a lot of actors from Power Rangers, including Sally Martin, who is the blue Power Ranger in Power Rangers Ninja Storm. See? It's still not accurate. You're wrong already. Really? Are they throwing ninja stars and slicing people over, you know, assassinating people in the middle of the night for gold? Then they're not ninjas. And Anna Hutchinson, who played the Yellow Ranger in Jungle Fury. They shot at Long Bay College and used some of their students as extras, all part of a quick 24-day shoot, which is fast. And Wendy Wu was just the eighth DCOM ever to get the TV PG rating, thanks to all the fight scenes, of the eight we have now watched for. Twitches, Halloween Town, Halloween Town 2, and Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire. Do you think that it was PG for Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire because it was so bad? Oh. Fighting words again, but vampire fighting words. Halloween Town, Halloween 2. Probably scary. Probably because of the scary aspect, I would think. Or Twitches? twitches again you had you had like the the girls didn't they had killed people that the father was dead and he was killed by a person they had to look into like the the diet like the rules of like right to break down or whatever yeah you never know because i know back in the day it's like if they showed somebody smoking that got a new rating if they showed somebody this that got so you never know what it could possibly be uh but anyway yeah uh you might be asking yourself this movie sure sounds like a hit for the channel well you'd be right but so why was there no sequel That's a good question, Mark. Did you get that? Did you get that? No? You haven't seen The Room? Oh, God. Oh, Sabrina, we got to talk. Okay. We always have to talk. I got to start some of your education. The Room is considered the worst movie ever made. It's brilliant. And that's one of the famous lines. Good question, Mark. So there was a sequel, Greenlit, in 2007, as reported by Variety, but it was eventually cut from the Disney schedule and never spoken of again. The idea for the follow-up was said to involve an alternate ending of the movie found on its DVD, where Yang Lo, who was obviously the bad guy, was shown to have secretly inhabited the body of the Wu family dog. Now, I told you, I already broke protocol and jumped ahead and told you that I'd never heard of this movie. Had you heard of Wendy Wu? I had heard, but never had seen. I this right in 2006 like I've been a fan of Brenda's song for just I mean since the day she like spoke one line on the channel. Since her first song thank you very much. And so yes I mean and it was awesome and I heard it but I had never seen it so I was really really excited to know we were watching this one. Yeah I did yeah. And you already said you'd never heard of that. No, never heard of this. But again, that's I just I missed all these. So yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know. I think when people talk about Brenda Song, they talk about this movie. Like, okay, well, there's like a big I can see why I can frankly see all of the stuff she did on the channel. She was like, a part of the ensemble or she was, you know, yeah, like the second character. This was like her getting her own movie. So it was a pretty big moment on the channel i would say i can see that and again when she hops on screen you can see why she became a star uh you too can learn more about wendy woo she's available right now to stream on disney plus and you have the choice to watch it before or after our recap but we've been told that if you listen before you'll be the recipient of 15 years of good luck no no wait it was 15 years of bad luck there was fit who knows just try it and let us know it does help to watch the movie and have your kind of own opinions before you start hearing us as long as your opinion matches well hating things it really helps i think you and i if we went back and looked at everything i think you and i are on the same page more often than we're not it's crazy i feel like it's very rare that i'm like this is the worst movie ever and you're like i loved it like that almost never happens almost never but in the times it does i explain basically why you're wrong and we go from there that's it i don't see the problem it's like i just fell into that like little sister aspect like i don't know why i try everyone please stop giving me so much on instagram i freaking try okay people give you on instagram no it's like they're like oh well then will says it's really just like goes along with it and i'm like no no i don't agree you and i will fight about certain movies but you can see i mean again some of them are aren't great and the ones that are we enjoy yes it's just the way it is yes i feel like i pull you i mean the fact that you do love musicals now you just like are dying to like you're like when's the next musical guys oh my god why is nobody breaking into song yeah her name is brenda song why is she not singing for god's sake opportunity to break into song right now why is it not happening thank you and i feel like that's because of me. It is. You love it because I love it. I agree. Now, let's see if we love this one. It is time for our synopsis. Teen girl Wendy Wu focuses on becoming homecoming queen until she learns she has the soul of an ancient female warrior destined to battle an evil spirit. Okay, Sabrina, it's time to enter the temple. What are your early thoughts on Wendy Wu homecoming warrior? What did you think? I want you to know, hands down, I went into this movie already loving it because I do love ninjas and I love... Okay. And I was like, Will's not even going to care that like I I didn't even have my phone next to me. I went after and put some notes, but I was ready to love this movie. Brenda song. Check. Ninja aspect. Check. Like just evil demon that we are going to destroy and like overcome a check. I was already like I knew this is what was going to be. And I was like already obsessed. So I went into this a little unfair. I don't think I went in. I went into it with an absolute bias. And I have no, no regard. Like, I don't care. I just. Okay. But that could be bad because you could not live up to your hype where you did it live up to the hype you were hoping. Absolutely. There was no point where I was like, oh, this is stupid. I'm like everything that they did that even the most ridiculous thing that happened on the screen, I was like, don't care. Okay. I don't care. I loved it. I went in already loving this. Absolute bias. Didn't care. And I'm like, Will's going to murder me because I don't care. No. For any aspect of anything. There was no wrong in this movie for me. Those are my early thoughts. That's going to be my, just put a 10 on it. Okay. I'm not going to go that far, but I don't disagree. This hit kind of all of, I don't know Brenda's song as well as you, the things I've seen her in I like. but this hit the fantastical side the martial arts side the history side i love when they put a culture's folklore into something it's like one of my favorite things in the world so it's i was the same way like the heavy hitters they had like oh it just was will this was just like one of our like oh thank god we like i'm just so excited for it i liked it and not to mention like the fact that Disney went for it and they went for it they went for the backfield they were wanting to knock it out of the park because this was a big like again you're going into the culture aspect you're going into a lot of stuff that like a lot of people could fight back on yeah and Disney just were like you know what we're Disney we're gonna do it we're gonna do it right you're also doing a highly choreographed martial arts movie that was done well like it all looked great. It's got the wire work from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon kind of stuff. And this was the time of all that happening, right? I don't know the dates like you would because you have your little bit better of knowing movies. I googled. Crouching Tiger came out in 2000. So it was six years later, but this was still okay, God, if you want to see a movie, go watch House of Flying Daggers. It is so good. It's the same kind of thing as Crouching Tiger. You're right. It's this early 2000s. The beautiful Asian background. and the outfits and the martial arts. Awesome. The only, we'll get it there. There's a tiny bit of things that I'm like. Oh, I'm going to nitpick. The movie was far from perfect. There was some stupid that happened in this movie. Don't get me wrong. But overall. It was so good and I just didn't care. Yeah, no, this was not a perfect film. I didn't walk away going like, oh my God, it's on Golden Pond. But it was good. Yes. So yes, I'm still going to nitpick, but here we go. So the director, again, we're working on names, everybody. So the director was John Liang, a New Zealand native who directed a ton of action TV, including Xena Warrior Princess, Hercules and the Hitchhiker. He also has Power Rangers history, which seems like a prerequisite for this movie. And his Disney history mostly rests in the channel adjacent TV show, The Adventures of the Swiss Family Robinson, which I think is just a family that gets lost. And like I said, it stars a Disney darling all over the press nowadays for a big career resurgence. It's Brenda Song as Wendy Wu, a child actor best known as London Tipton on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. But her overall Disney Channel game is quite possibly unmatched. She also appeared on shows like Phil of the Future, That's So Raven, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place and Phineas and Ferb. So I have to ask with Get a Clue, The Ultimate Christmas Present, The Suite Life movie, Stuck in the Suburbs, and Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana. Is Brenda Song officially the queen of DCOMs? Do we have to crown her? I think she needs to be at least Lady Brenda. Like she has to be, if she's not the queen, she's at least a lady. But who else could we put above her? Who has done, I mean, there might be bigger names like when you get Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez. So there might be bigger names, but bigger DCOMs. And because she's a little bit older, She's a tiny bit prestigious, like, and she's just. I think you might have to say all hail the queen. I really think you might. Let's hail her. You might have to say all hail the queen. Yep, it's quite possible. And nowadays you heard her in the massive Disney hit Zootopia 2, this time it's personal, as Kitty Lynxley, I think, and on Disney's Amphibia, but she's also been on shows like Running Point, Dollface, Station 19, and Dads, and movie like The Social Network and The Last Showgirl. Shin Koyamada plays Shen. He was unfreaking believable in the Tom Cruise movie, The Last Samurai. I don't know if you've seen that, but he was really good and holds several black belts in various different styles of martial arts. By the way, a lot of people hated that Tom Cruise movie. It's one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies. I thought it was great. Susan Chang is Nina. Chang has been in a ton of television shows and some of the biggest of all time. She appeared on a bunch of Dharma and Greg episodes, Charmed, Monk, Victorious, Big Bang Theory, and Veep. But she's best known as Tobin in Miss Congeniality 2. Also this time, it's personal. Justin Chong plays Peter. He might be known to many of our listeners as Tony Lee on the Nick show Just Jordan. But I think he's most famous from his time as Eric in the Twilight movies. The former child actor also wrote and directed the movie Blue Bayou, which he starred in opposite Alicia Vikander. He's also set to direct an upcoming biopic on the band Sublime. Ouch. I think will be. Oh my God. So he may not practice Santeria. Thank you from your All Star Blind fans out there. But does Justin Tron involve himself in common sense? See, we love it when a movie hits our target of 90 minutes. That's the perfect length of a film. So where does Wendy Wu sit when it comes to duration? It is 91 minutes. Oh, the horror people. One minute off and not on the right side of history. Don't care. Entire 60 seconds too long. A number that easily could have been shaved off. It's a mistake by all involved. start to kick this one off with such filth. No, no, no, no. That would have been cut from the fight scene, which, nope, do not mess with it. Really? You couldn't maybe cut a minute out of her baking cupcakes? There you go. See, this is how I pull you back into the right side of the world. All right, okay, okay. And we have a bevy of writers. We're even talking about cupcakes. See, there you go. Thank you. We could have lost 60 seconds of cupcake, and it would have been the same movie. Just a cupcake chat. Exactly. All right, okay. Same movie. Yes, we have a bevy of writers on this one. It might be a glimpse into why we didn't hit 90 because there was too many cooks. Lydia Look is listed as a writer and this is her only movie, but she was a working actor, successful for many years. She was Miss Selena Wu for 10 years on General Hospital and appeared on TV shows like Bones, Pushing Daisies and NCIS Los Angeles. Not sure how she got involved with this project as a writer though, but interesting, interesting resume. We also have Mark Seabrooks, a writer from the Steve Harvey Show, whose most recent credit is as story editor on the documentary Surviving R. Kelly. It's quite a different vibe. And of course, we're not done still. Got a big writing team now. Vince Trang and Ben Montaigneau. They are Emmy winners for their work on Wizards of Waverly Place and have tons of credits, including Married with Children, Growing Pains, Ned's Declassified, Empty Nest, and the Steve Harvey Show. So, wow. Wow. Hi, this is Jo Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. and I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius like are misunderstood. A sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms on different houses in different places but just an embracing of the is-ness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart-side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity and real life This episode is a must listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I was like, hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is a badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom. On the Senior Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail to talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic. And without this drug, I'm going to die. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search The Cino Show and listen now. This is Ryder Strong with a podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Traynor, disappeared from a commune. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru. Back then, I lied to everybody. They have had this case for 30 years. I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. You can now binge all episodes of The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, everybody, let's not grab Ninja Stars because, well, she's not actually a ninja. but let's get into the film itself. We open on a map, zooming right into Mongolia, then a beautiful temple. A handful of monks are practicing karate flips, sparring, and trying to take down one particular ponytailed monk. No, no, this is Shen. But he's very good, even using a dart to shatter a nearby monk's cup. And before you say it a dart is not the same as a throwing star So it very much gives vibes of a Shaolin temple but it not I don think supposed to be But as the Shaolin demo continues it eventually interrupted by a wise elder surrounded by his minions Not the cartoon minions, but monk minions. But cartoon minions would have been really cool, too. The elder monk tells Shen that the evil Yang Lo has awakened and is arriving soon. Shen assures him he's up for the task and is handed an old-looking jewelry box filled with gold animal statues. A snake, a tiger, a leopard, and a crane. four of the five deadly venoms only the dragon is missing shenler and at this point i was like okay i'm in i was it i'm good i was already in martial arts like opening credits there we go martial arts cool mystical stuff now we're talking about the dragon and the crane yes i'm in you got me shen learns that he's looking for a girl out west in fair springs california and when they unravel a scroll we see a drawing of macaulay culkin's wife we transition into a similar drawing but way worse, this one of a girl wearing a tiara that reads Wendy. This is Wendy Wu drawing herself as homecoming queen, and she is not paying attention in class. Now, I'd like to add along with our, I was thinking about this so much, along with our starting with a bedroom, which is such a regular Disney trope. I'd like to add not paying attention in class and the teacher coming over and saying your name over and over again. I starred in two movies that my character has introduced this way. Which was? I did. It was the first. Oh, God, it was not a movie. Tale of the Longo Locket. So Are You Afraid of the Dark? And then Trojan War. Oh, so that's how it starts. Yeah. So your characters introduced you here, the teacher and they're like not paying attention. And then it's kind of coming out of a dream sequence or something. So that's another Disney kind of trope I'd like to throw out there is the kids sitting in class not paying attention and the teacher constantly trying to get their attention. Right. So not probably as prevalent as the bedroom. No, it's not. But you get the dynamic of who this kid is within their like social atmosphere. Yeah. Are they the cool kid? Are they the kid that's nobody's friends with? Like, you know what I mean? Like, are they like artsy? Are they the dreamer? Are they studious? You can get whatever. So you get like a good idea of like this kid's character from their social dynamic, which I think is perfect. Yeah. So she's not paying attention. Kids also relate to it. Of course. Every kid has to be stuck for hours and hours at a desk. Everyone. Yeah, I miss it. Her teacher smacks a stick on her desk and asks her to identify a mountain range on the map of Asia. As she stumbles for the answer, she is saved by the bell. And this was also, I was like, okay, no teacher is just going to let you go when the bell rings if you're mid-questioned. Every teacher goes, ah, I dismiss you, not the bell. What is that mountain range? And we've all heard that line before in class. So I was like, that's not real. But then I was like, wait, it's a movie. I'm in coaching mode too. And when my girls start looking behind me, because the clock's behind me, and it's getting to the time where we're supposed to be. And I'm like, do we have an issue? Does anyone have a hot date? See? No, you don't? Okay, well, I'm going to, if you don't mind, I'm going to finish the sentence. See, there you go. So there you go. God, I want to see you coach. Oh man, you would just be so shocked. I am not bright. I want to see it. I am not always bright and shiny. I promise I will just sit there. I will not be disruptive at all. There's no way I could get through it. Just have you mind. By the way, I'd be totally disruptive. It'd be great. That'd be awesome. I'd be like, give me one more. That'd be so much fun. That sucked. That sucked. You call that a plie or whatever. I'd get some dance move. All right. We are now at lunch. One of Wendy's friends, Lisa, is crying over a recent breakup. She complains that she just wants Wendy's perfect life. She's popular. She's the favorite for Homecoming Queen, and she has a perfect boyfriend. And with that, arguably my favorite character in the movie, perfect boyfriend Austin arrives with a salad. He's such a – it's great. Why is he – oh, gosh. It's so well played, though. He's just playing it like – it's like he's a Ken doll, kind of. It's so funny the way that he's playing it. You saw the Barbie movie, right? I did not. We've talked about this. You have to see it because the way Ken is played in the Barbie movie is perfect. Like that level of douche is. And this kid took it and just ran with it. He's great. Such a great actor to do this. Like he was not trying to be that like all American football player. No. Actual cool boyfriend. He was like, no, I want to play this the way he should be. He'd be a total douche. I loved him. I loved him. Me too. So things obviously are not perfect. First, Wendy spots Jessica Dawson in the lunch area, handing out cookies, looking for homecoming queen votes. Wendy is not happy about this. Even Wendy's brother, Peter, took a cookie. She throws a lipstick his way, just like the monk with the dart earlier, and it slices the pastry, which cookie's not pastry, that's wrong, and slices the cookie in half. Whoa, she's got some skills. What is a cookie? Is that a pastry? No, it's a dessert. A pastry is like a flaky, laminated, there's certain things that make something a pastry. you usually have to laminate the dough why do you get to make up these rules I'm not making up rules who thinks a cookie is a pastry so you think an Oreo cookie is a pastry no but she wasn't doing an Oreo cookie is not even the same I'm sorry you're saying an Oreo cookie and a chocolate chip cookie are two different categories yes nobody makes Oreo cookies well the good people at Nabisco do Yes, but they're in boxes. It's different. It's like a cookie. But a cookie is a cookie. A homemade cookie is still a cookie. It's still in the cookie category. We got to find a podcast date that we can discuss things like this. This is not going to go anywhere. I don't see the discussion. I get maybe thinking a cookie is a pastry. You'd be wrong, but I get seeing it. But it's literally the name cookie. It's called Oreo cookie and chocolate chip cookie. But I would think it's okay to be a pastry if somebody, whatever. Jensen, you're not wrong. Love you, bro. Can I get an easy point in the game later? No, a cookie is not a pastry. Oh, my God. That's like saying a pizza is a pasta. No, wrong. Anyway, now we find ourselves in a large museum storage area. It's filled with Chinese relics. Wendy is complaining to her mom, the museum curator, about how Jessica is going to ruin homecoming. How could you possibly think a cookie? no this idea like this is the only thing that i will be like i am so over this jessica lady and how she's able to just like ruin homecoming with everything she does it's like i have a question because i i don't i wasn't there for this part of of high school uh i was working at the time okay homecoming do you actively lobby to become homecoming queen like Do you run like it's an election? Do you try to get votes to become homecoming queen? Is this a real thing? No, girls do what they do. You talk quietly and you pass by each other and you talk the other girl. This is not how you handle homecoming, obviously. I was not a homecoming queen. Were you on the court? Maybe it's because all your friends are stalking you. i was not that cool girl i was like in the group but like never seen okay i was busy i was like trying to like get a career going popular adjacent is that what you were um yeah probably like i had like my my girlfriend you know morgan mackie like she was the girl and even she wasn't up all the time it was a lot of times in my was she homecoming queen no no the the homecoming court what i do respect now didn't in the day were ended up being the asb kids but it's because the asb kids are the ones that like put the actual events on like they what does asb mean uh a student body is i don't know what the a is oh so it's like student council oh yeah okay you didn't know i thought you were just like joking with me i don't know what any of this stuff is like the student body like 40s they're like elected to like put they're the ones that decide where homecoming is gonna be is it okay in the quad associated student body fundraise and do the thing to like create the events so like for me in high school they didn't the courts never really represented like who was like the most well-known throughout the school but they definitely represented who put the most work into creating these beautiful events and now as an adult i'm like yes those are the kids that should be up okay and get the crown because they're the kids that are like making it happen i don't get the girl that's like you know not doing anything just like cute and you know i'm sure great person whatever yeah she gets she gets my vote every time uh anyway so wendy is complaining to her mom the museum curator about how jessica's gonna ruin homecoming. She angrily slams her fist on a crate, forcing a nearby vase to wobble. Seconds away from falling, Wendy thinks fast and kicks over a cardboard box, just saving it from a disastrous fall. But we still don't know where these Daniel LaRusso instincts are coming from, and neither does she. Wendy's mom missed it all. She's too busy prepping for an exhibit of ancient Chinese artifacts in two weeks. This is where I started to go like, OK, the museum curator, who's actually Chinese, doesn't know anything about the exhibit she's putting up. That was like, really? But anyway, she suggests Wendy forget about homecoming and focus on something more important like chores at home. But all that does is give Wendy an idea about cupcakes. Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. And I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius are misunderstood. A sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms and different houses in different places, but just an embracing of the is-ness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chartside view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I was like, hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is a badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom. On the Sino Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience and redemption. on a recent episode I sit down with actor cultural icon Danny Trail to talk about addiction transformation and the power of second chances the entire season 2 is now available to binge featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Addish Johnny Knoxville and more I'm an alcoholic and without this trouble I'm gonna die open your free iHeartRadio app search The Cino Show and listen now This is Ryder Strong with a podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Traynor, disappeared from a commune. It was nature and trees and praying and drugs. So no, I am not your guru. Back then, I lied to everybody. They have had this case for 30 years. I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. You can now binge all episodes of The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers, we're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. recommend this is way to travel to our younger listeners um when i was in india they actually i don't think no i don't think you should do it but this is like a normal transportation out in india you see them like on top of train cars oh my gosh none of them are worried about like i don't know dying from being on top of the room and a lot of them do apparently i think there's a lot of train deaths and stuff like that in india with the overcrowding and it's just wild getting hanging off the side and being hit by wires and i will say this struck a chord though because this was like, at this point, our first like aspect of seeing the like, the visual effects of him, like when he like sped, like it was kind of like, oh, because that's the only thing that I was a little worried about jumping into the movie was like, what's the special effects? Because they're obviously going to have to. What's it going to look like? Because again, we're on a Disney Channel budget. So when I saw that, I was kind of like, oh, okay, not too bad, not too bad. It wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad. Back at Wendy's, she's making cupcakes with her dad, who's an ad executive. Her grandma's watching her stories on the couch, shouting Mandarin at the TV. When Wendy's mom returns from work, she desperately needs her with the Chinese stuff at work because she doesn't know her own exhibit, let alone her own culture, and Wendy's grandmother agrees to help. We're now back at the museum. It's nighttime, and a courier service is trying to deliver an old green and gold box. Hilariously, it's literally just the box, no protection or mailing label or anything like that, which means someone just handed an important ancient box to a FedEx guy and said, here, ship this. The night security guard accepts the package, then, watch again, forgets to relock the door behind him. He takes the box down to the now dark and very ominous storage space. Once he leaves to return to his desk, the box begins to glow green, killing a nearby flower. Shen has dismounted the van roof and arrived at Wendy's house, where she's cleaning up her cupcake mess. There's a knock at the door, and it's Shen, who at first appears shaken by the idea that she looks different than he expected. He claims she's, and again, I think I'm saying this right, Mio-Zhen, a Wei dynasty woman warrior sworn to defeat evil, and it's her time again. She's obviously creeped out by the random monk, and as she goes to slam the door, Shen has whooshed beyond human ability and is now in the house behind her. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, what do you got? Okay, what's the problem? What's up? I don't know if it's like now that I have my daughter who is coming to an age that I'm really, Like who, because I have so many people that help me out, like my girlfriends that take her when she's at dance and all this. So she's the stranger danger has for me gotten a little scary that she is like, if someone's came up to her and set called her by her name, like that's scary for me because she might go, Oh, you, you know, my mom or whatever. So I am like adamant about stranger danger right now. Like it's a, it's in my, it's in my vocabulary. It's in my thoughts and talks with her all the time. Sure. This triggered me. Because he's just like jumping in the house behind her. And her reaction is not equivalent to what I'm going to need. Like I need like the vase is just starting to be thrown. Screaming. Screaming. This did not, this was not the equivalence of what I need. Any child. Any, even me. I think that's fair. me any adult stranger to come into your house the reaction was not correct and i'm like disney i rely on you to teach the lessons to the children this wasn't it so we failed a little bit i get i i do not disagree well i was like okay apparently like we're this is when i thought the kung fu fighting would start like this is when it's like let's get it going right stranger in your house girl and it didn't happen so it was a miss for me i get okay fair enough he tells her not to be frightened he's a buddhist monk from the jinji mountain temple but that doesn't help she yeah exactly well she tries to strike him with a broom that just magically appeared and he dodges it with a flip they spar with impressive sets of moves and now we see why they shot this near that fight coordinator because this was a pretty big surprise to see it was a really good fight scene wendy eventually gets the upper hand and pushes shen out the front door. We're now back at the museum. The box is still glowing and rumbling, finally getting the attention of the security guard. He approaches the glow with pepper spray, but it pops open and exposes a big green ball and releases a spirit who towers over the guard and enters his eyes. TV PG, indeed. Pretty scary scene, I thought, and I can get why they'd have to give this PG, because if you're seven or eight and watching this and there's a green glow coming in through somebody's eyes after a fight scene, I can see why they would need to make it a little older. The guard scans the mom's desk and takes a framed picture of Peter and Wendy while heavily breathing. And now a pizza guy who just happens to be Shen's brother, Peter, has arrived at the museum. The guard unlocks the door, despite the fact that we noticed he did not lock it when the glowing box was delivered. But whatever, I'll let it slide. More importantly, Al, the security guard, is now an evil deity. Peter notices that the evil guard, but he doesn't know he's an evil guard at the time, has a framed picture of him and his sister, and he knows that that's not normal. The guard grunts at Wendy and his eyes start glowing. Eventually, the evil deity leaves Al and transfers itself to Peter, who immediately walks out. The security guard returns to his natural state. Once again, he does not lock the door. This man should be fired. Back at home, Wendy is talking on the phone, talking to a friend all about the weird monk who tried to fight her earlier. She thinks Jessica is to blame somehow. And then she's shocked to see Jessica on the news. She's the guest weather person and still just politicking for votes. Wendy screams into a pillow. She is doomed. Meanwhile, her evil deity brother Peter returns home, clearly on a mission. But Wendy now has a security guard. It's Shen himself meditating and guarding the front door. The brother's vibe alarms him, so he sneaks in to take a look inside and sees evil deity Peter holding a green orb right above Wendy as she's sleeping. Shen quickly glides straight up to stories defying all lives of gravity. and this is where you get real Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon kind of vibes, which is totally cool. Shen storms in just as the orb starts stealing Wendy's spirit and glides onto a nearby piano, turns in a spinning back kick and knocks a ball out of evil Peter's hands. This is so cool. The orb flies into a fish aquarium and extinguishes. Shen holds up his own glowing item, which is a golden coin, but it does nothing to evil Peter. The two men trade kicks and slaps, all while Wendy stays asleep on the couch. Great moves in choreography once again, and all the stunt work on wires is really cool. They're exchanging blows. Great choreography. It's seriously like high-level kung fu movie magic in a DCOM. It was. It was cool. It was like, oh my gosh. Like, again, you're kind of going, you're bracing yourself like, how's Disney going to do this? How bad is this going to be? Is it going to be bad? And you're going, oh my gosh, this looks amazing. It looks great. It looked great. There's no way this was $5 million. You couldn't have asked for more with obviously knowing still the Disney budget or the channel budget. And I mean, even just the stunt people themselves were obviously so high quality. Like, you know, it was just so good. Everybody clearly knew what they were doing. This is what I was like. Yeah. Did you wish you could have done this in Cheetah Girls? Yes. Oh, my gosh. Wire working martial arts while singing Strut? Well, I don't know if Strzok could have gotten to a better level than it was That's absolutely true Maybe your romantic dance scene Could have been bumped up a bit What about your romantic dance scene where you're making out with what's his name? You could just wire work it and then break into a martial arts fight Yeah, maybe That would have been great That would have been really rad Anyway, during the fight, Shen kicks the orb and it disintegrates And when he uses the glowing golden coin this time The spirit transfers from Peter to the family dog the end by the way this is these were people that absolutely watched the movie the hidden the animal slithers outside through a dog okay so the hidden just very quickly okay is about it's an it's it's so good Kyle McLaughlin plays a cop at least you think he's a cop and he's chasing this criminal who keeps like stealing bank robberies stealing cars shooting people but it's all these different regular citizens that all of a sudden just start going haywire and killing all these people and what you find out is it's actually an alien inhabiting different bodies and jumping from body to body and kyle mclaughlin's another alien inhabiting a cop who's been chasing this alien criminal through different planets who's bad and who's not i'm already confused you've got to watch the hit great all right movie but there's a dog but it gets it i'm not gonna give anything away just go watch the movie i can't handle dogs whoever like i just that part is a little fine you'll be fine okay the animal slithers outside the doggy door and when peter comes in shen is nowhere to be found we see that he's hiding on the ceiling and i need to have this scene find its way into the rewindies for best fight scene because it's was great there are several scenes in this movie that could that have to be up there for best fight oh yeah we gotta have a whole category we have i'm hoping there's another decom that has some fights if not we just automatically They give them. Because it's like this would be a great other. What fight scenes? How about in what? So we just talked to Marcus Toji about it. The movie where the bullies come and beat him up in front of the bus stop. That was Toothless. Toothless. Yes, there you go. So we can put this up with the Toothless fight scene and see which one is better. The next morning, Wendy's mom details her upcoming ancient Chinese exhibit of which she knows nothing about and how it involves the story of evil spirit Yan Lo. So apparently every 90 years, his spirit returns. Wendy's mad at her brother who's still asleep because she woke up with some gold coin necklace around her that he must have put on her when she was out. She can not handle this necklace. It's not her jam at all. It's not her style. But it saves her life. First of all, you ruin it by calling it a necklace. It's obviously an ancient mythical medallion. Calling this a necklace is like calling a cookie a pastry. yes so then Wendy notices a picture of the Gingy Temple monks in her mom's work pile it takes back 1500 years yet somehow I think was still in color but Wendy recognizes his look from her was the picture in color I think it was in which I was like how is it a 1500 year old photograph first of all which didn't exist and second of all a photograph in color from 1500 years ago interesting it takes back 1500 years like hey it's a Polaroid from 12,000 years ago Well, I'm sorry. It's because everybody sees that one. Yeah, everyone does see that. It's like, wait a minute. This is a picture from 10,000 years ago. But Wendy recognizes this look from her encounter with Shen. She leaves without even taking the 500 vote for me cupcake she worked on all night. And there's nothing I hate more in films than wasting cupcakes. So unbelievable. I'm going to drop it a point just for that. Outside, Shen is standing in a tree watching Wendy leave. When she's gone, he rushes into the house to recover the coin, only to find her grandmother holding it. She knows what it represents and asks if Wendy is a warrior. Shen says yes, then takes the necklace and promises to protect her with her life. It's a very nice scene. Meanwhile, Wendy is walking to school when she's off at a ride from her friends. Shen rushes over, yelling at her to wear the coin, and she's instantly freaked out, and rightfully so, telling her friends to take off. Shen steals a kid's scooter and uses it to catch up with the car at a stoplight, which I found interesting because he has super speed, so why did he need to do that? But anyway, he grabs onto the taillight and the girls drag him for blocks up to top speed, eventually fishtailing him off and launching him 20 feet into a bush. Wendy and her friends agree. Let's just pretend that never happened. And now it's time for PE class and Jessica and Wendy are duking it out on the soccer field. Eventually, Wendy takes over as goalie and we see Shen sitting alone in the stands, you know, like Shen does because there's often monks just hanging out in soccer practice. Wendy makes her way downfield and gets a wide open look at Jessica and the goal. It's a stare down as Wendy preps her kick. She flips the ball into the air, does like a 1080 flippy bicycle kick kind of thing straight at Jessica and kicks her right in the stomach with the ball. And she flies into the back of the net. And it's a goal, people. Wendy has no idea how she did that. But her friends think that that little got it coming. And on the other side of campus, Wendy's evil family dog arrives at school and goes straight to Mr. Noonan, the principal's office. And when he goes to pet the stray dog which I was first I was like who going to do that And I was like I would I just go down and pet a random stray dog at my door So that totally for me Hell yes I would I love dogs So I be like hi what wrong with you Why are you at my door Do you need to come in Here my wallet Yeah I absolutely would And then we get glowing eyes and it's yet another spirit transfer. Oh, it's the hidden. Also, Shen finds Wendy, who is now contemplating her kick power in the stands. He tells her she's in danger and she must wear the coin. Wendy just doesn't get it. Who is this guy and why was he at her house? He explains he traveled from far and it's her destiny to help. He knows all about her and about her mysterious powers and allegedly has been reincarnated repeatedly to protect warriors from Yang Lo's spirit. As the next descendant, if she doesn't defeat the evil spirit, earthquakes, locusts, tornadoes, famines, ocean rising, fire, droughts, everything will appear. It's essentially the end of the world. Her Kung Fu training must start now, but instead, She leaves with her friends for the mall. I was like, dude, you were just told the world's going to end, but you're going to go shopping. Come on. Later on the phone, she tells her friends that Shen is her cousin from China. And as a result, her friends come up with a very racist idea. They'll write vote for Wendy on a bunch of chopsticks and hand them out at lunch. Wendy, of course, says, hey, guys, that's pretty much blatantly racist. No, I'm kidding. She doesn't say that. Instead, she finds Shen in her door again, yapping about the coin in the necklace again. Wendy's had enough. She reminds him she never agreed to train, then tells him to go away. That night, as Shen is still perched outside watching over the house, Wendy's grandma covers him with a blanket and brings the necklace in and places it on Wendy for him. And then it's the next morning. Wendy throws it right back at Shen. She's not wearing this thing, dude. Just walk away. And as she arrives at school for another day, the evil deity principal is waiting for her in the parking lot. Shen notices and jumps right into action. He sprints to the teacher and takes him down. And by him, I mean a stuntman in a gray wig who looks like the principal. Go pause it. It's pretty funny. Shen also uses the coin, which again transfers the spirit from the principal to a bald teacher named Mr. Medina. Luckily, no wig was needed for him. Wendy reunites with her boyfriend, Austin, our favorite. And another teacher, Mr. Tobias, quickly reminds them that public displays of affection are not tolerated. And we've talked about this a little bit on Podmeets World, but I don't think we have talked about this here. Were kids allowed to just blatantly make out in high school in your hallways? I don't know if it was necessarily like allowed to but they did like they were never like broken up like hey you guys stop kissing I think if a teacher came around they would okay notice they did in my school I don't know if I think if the teacher came around and they were making out like and the teacher the kids usually stopped if the kids didn't stop the teacher would be like hey alright let's break it up knock it out okay but it wasn't like oh like let me it was never aggressive like five feet apart nothing like that and and also dances i think were the only time that the chaperones the chaperones would come in and kind of go all right that was enough when like dancing was happening at like the dances now the kids don't in case it got dirty dancing like sexy dirty dancing i mean they weren't dancing like that but like yeah like bump come on say it let's walk me through it sabrina i want your face matches your shirt so keep going come on what kind of sexy dances are you talking about are we talking twerking jersey turnpiking what do you got twerking wasn't a thing when i was in high school but i feel like maybe it was like pumping and grinding okay you know where it was like the girls are in front the in your you're popping it you're popping it you're popping it right and hopping it okay the boys are back there and you know like it's for all right i'll see you later will this is the best i don't know i don't think i was cool enough to even attend those things i don't even remember dancing oh please you were popping it like it was hot or whatever we all know that you were there selling selling oreo pastries yeah but you know that's what honestly the girls and the kids don't even go to the dance anymore. They literally get the dresses, get all dolled up, take pictures, get on a party bus, and then never even go to the dance at all. And their kids aren't drinking anymore here or having sex with them. What the hell are they doing? Vaping, I guess. That's like the thing. But like they're literally just like taking the party bus wherever it goes, maybe to dinner or whatever. And like, that's it. They don't even, it makes me so sad, especially like my seniors, like you guys don't even go to the dance and like have the late, at least like a slow dance or a moment with your girls where you're just like, no, they don't. Kids are weird. Kids are weird. It's just the way it is. Now I'm depressed. No, that's right. You'll be, you'll have fun at my prom. I know. I can't wait. And I'm, it's going to be so much fun. I can't wait to watch you drop it. Oh, dude, it's going to be so hot. It's going to be dropped. You watch. Speaking of so hot, Austin has some news. The San Francisco modeling agency submitted his photos to called his pictures 80s retro, which he's like, is that good? But obviously is not. Then Shen appears still with the coin. Now to make sure Austin isn't evil, Wendy sends him off to the bathroom to check for spirits, mostly just to ditch him so she can talk to Austin about going to Maria's party. Austin's excited to go, especially because he thinks they're going to end up homecoming king and queen. Then dozens of women come screaming out of the bathroom. Shen has declared their toilet is safe. Jessica sees this all go down and is very petty and passive aggressive and has some bad news. Wendy is suspended from any extracurricular activity, including homecoming court, because her grade average is below a C thanks to world history. And I was like, wow, we've got a Disney star of a movie that's a bad student. So with midterms in a week and no knowledge of China, she is absolutely screwed. Except Shen says he can help. He knows everything about Chinese history and will tutor her as long as she starts taking Kung Fu and wears the coin. And she accepts the offer at the perfect time because bad evil deity Mr. Media is about to pounce. But thanks to the coin, the spirit is now transferred to somebody new, the school gardener. And I couldn't believe it took us 40 minutes, but we get our first Kung Fu training montage, this time with Lilith Fair style music in the background. Shen teaches Wendy moves, but she's taking phone calls, eating potato chips mid-lesson. And when it's time to learn these 1500 years of Chinese history, Shen tells her all she has to do is meditate, which sure seems like an odd lesson for kids watching. Knowing that this is her only chance, she agrees and ends up liking it. She does it in class, at home and at lunch. And thanks to all the hard work, if you can call just meditating hard work, she gets an A because now she knows everything, apparently, without cracking a book. And it's now eligible for Homecoming Queen. They really blew past that. Yeah. While celebrating, she roundhouse kicks a kid named Todd, and she's either becoming a kung fu master or just assaulting random classmates without warning. We're not really sure. Either way, it's a fun movie. But Shen likes what he sees. Her skills are coming along nicely, but she needs more training. Wendy gets it, but she has homecoming queen to worry about, and though evil is on his way, she is busy being a teenage girl. At home, Wendy is catching a vote-for-me self-portrait, and now I'm wondering if she draws anything other than pictures of herself. Wendy's grandmother admits that she misses China, especially her grandpa's old stories. She highlights one tale about a young girl, again named Mio-Zhen, who trains to become a yin warrior every 90 years. Wendy immediately recognizes the story, and then Shin walks into the room. It's obvious that they're working together. Grandma calls the tradition an honor. Wendy's mom gets home from work and is surprised to see this monk in her home. Everybody's like, hey, there's just a monk here. That night, Shen joins family dinner, now disguised as a visiting great-grandnephew. He bonds with Wendy's mom over her upcoming, I think it's Kin Dynasty exhibit, which he offers to help with. He also promises Peter he'll teach him some Kung Fu, starting with a move he calls Monkey Jumps Over the Wall. Shen also made traditional mooncakes for the family, but Wendy's dad is clearly affected. He kind of believes everything is getting too culturally Chinese for him, and he retreats upstairs. And I literally paused right here and looked up exactly the process for making a mooncake and what they're filled with and all that stuff. and I so want to try one because they sound, they look so good. I mean, yeah, just looked really good. Later, Wendy's talking to a friend on the phone about Shen. It seems like the way he dresses could affect her homecoming queen chances, which Wendy thinks is dumb. But she still takes Shen to the mall for a new wardrobe and we get another, this was a very weird montage. The shopping for cool fedoras. It was like, it was just a hat montage. Yeah, it turned into like, it was an outfit and then at some point it was just hat, fedora. like just and sunglasses and him just spinning and by this by the third minute of spinning maybe this was the 60 seconds it's somewhere maybe one less Kangol hat and or Avril Lavigne tie and we could go from there and kind of like for what like it just was like just get him yeah it didn't you have a brother that literally looks like the same size just grab a t-shirt and pair of pants it didn't this was this was a strange montage yes Hi, this is Jo Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. and I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius like are misunderstood. A sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses, in different places, but just an embracing of the is-ness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart-side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, This episode is a must listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I was like, hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at mom. On the Senior Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail to talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an uncle. home and without this true i'm gonna die open your free iheart radio app search the cito show and listen now this is writer strong with a podcast called the red weather in 1995 my neighbor and a trainer disappeared from a commune it was nature and trees and praying and drugs so no i am not your Back then, I lied to everybody. They have had this case for 30 years. I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. You can now binge all episodes of The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Back at home, Wendy's dad gave in and ate the delicious mooncakes. He didn't mean to be rude to Shen. It just made him feel like a kid again. And since he knows he's turned his back on his own culture, it makes him feel guilty. But Shen has reminded him he wants to be a Chinese-American family, not just an American family. And I thought this was really nice and a really interesting way of showing the culture how it's like you can forget your own culture when you become, you go somewhere else and you assimilate and you become part of that culture. And sometimes you can kind of forget where you came from. And I thought it was a really interesting way of showing that. Yes. And it's always nice to like realize like, yes, embrace where you are now, but like don't let go of where you came from. Like that idea matters and it's important them together. That's, you know, what this country is supposed to be about is exactly the other other everything together and finding a way that it's all OK. It's all good. I agree. So, yeah, I thought that was great. And great for kids. Great messaging. Yes. Great. You did it again. I love you. Another good message. Another good message. At school, Wendy bumps into Austin, who got blonde highlights for Homecoming. Oh, my God. Love this guy. He's the best. He suggests they stay away from Shen because people are starting to talk, but Wendy fights back and defends the monk just as he enters the hallway yelling, vote for Wendy. But now he's in some very cool clothes and the ladies are flocking to him. Austin is already jealous that Shen went from monk to hunk. Love it. That night, Shen admits he liked the attention. She thanks him for adapting, and he eats a chocolate cupcake for the first time in any of his lives. Wendy brings up girlfriends from his past, and he admits he never had one. He's a monk. Wendy also reveals she's never been in love. She's only with Austin because people say they look cute together, and it'll help her win Homecoming Queen. Wow. The biggest reveal is that Shen will never return home. His destiny is to sacrifice himself during the battle and die. And they just threw that out there. He's like, man, this is amazing. chocolate I've never had chocolate I'm here to die it was like oh my god are you okay about that like this came out and it's like what is that flavor chocolate yeah my head's gonna be ripped off I mean so weird does it worry you at all yeah just giving you any pause dude at any point you're just gonna throw yourself in front of like is it gonna be a car doesn't care it's like wow this Cupcake's amazing. I'm going to be stabbed in the heart. Like, oh my God. Now, a very depressed, yes, he says that his destiny is to sacrifice himself during the battle to die. A depressed Wendy suggests that maybe his teenage experience should last a little longer and so brings him to a dance party. At this get-together, which of course takes place at the break of 2 p.m., apparently, because that's when all the best dance parties are, girls again are all horned up for Shen. and as a result, Wendy's getting a little jealous. Austin is also mad. Wendy was supposed to meet up with him and do some campaigning and as a result, she breaks up with him on the same day homeboy got highlights. That's just cold. How could it be? How could it? I just got highlights. Yeah. Frosted tips. And you're leaving me now? That's all I gotta say. Boom. Dropping me. Popping it like it's hot or whatever Sabrina said when she was bright red. and out on the dance floor shen is showing off his kung fu flips and splits and he's killing it wendy sees a girl kiss him on the cheek and now she's very sure she wants to bang her cousin he's not actually her cousin but that's the story in a fit of rage and then the whole time i'm watching going like oh that's right they're not cousins get it out of your head they put that in they're not they just yeah like yeah this isn't clueless where nobody cared that she ended up with her stepbrother at the end. So in a fit of rage, she throws her coin necklace into a chip bowl and storms out. But that was a bad move because one of the girls at the party, Tori, appears to be the evil deity now. Over by the pool, Wendy is crying when Tori appears clearly possessed. Inside, Shen answers thinly veiled racist questions from other students like, do you know Yao Min? Billion people in China, but of course he's going to know that guy. And right when Wendy is about to confide in Tori, she reveals the big green glowing orb. Her spirit is in danger. Shen sees the coin in the chip bowl and knows he's got to help Wendy. He jumps over the pool and kicks the ball out of Tori's hands just in time. Wendy then kicks Tori and the orb into the pool, creating a massive hot tub. All the party goers excitedly jump in and Wendy knows she must complete her training. Jessica takes a picture of the soaking wet Tori to embarrass her in the yearbook. And as a result, the evil deity transfers to Jessica. And this was another problem I had. And again, we're talking about nitpicking but why when you put the orb into the pool does it bubble like it's going crazy but when he knocked the orb into the fish tank there was no bubbling none it's yeah we this is the thing and i knew you were gonna pick it apart i will tell you right now i didn't care but the rules were not designated nor followed no there were no rules no no no rules no real rules that no following of anything but like truly i now know because i'm a watcher with you there must be rules thank you and they weren't and i wasn't going to say anything because i didn't want to be the guy harping on it but again what exactly does a necklace do what is and what does the green ball do the green right the green ball i think is supposed to take her soul but it doesn't say why um the the necklace he just holds it up and then the person kind of goes ah yeah but then they they don't instantly transfer to another body who they can it also doesn't like kill it like you're in any sense right right also if it doesn't matter who you are or why you're there why doesn't the evil body just take over shen yes well yeah maybe Because he didn't have one of them. It would have made more sense if he had. You just need a scene of him saying, I can do, this is what it means. This is what the necklace means. The monk in me. Exactly. You can't do it. Right, exactly. Like the tattoo that pops up at the end. Mommy, the floor is lava. How are you walking? I'm like, because I've got mommy powers. The floor is not lava to mommies. You just explained it. I can walk everywhere I go. Perfect. Interesting. I got to become a mommy because my floor is lava and I can't get out of this room. But there has to be rules or an explanation. Of course. Thank you. It does. And it just needed one. Let's take out four minutes of cupcake talk and add four minutes of rules and we've got a better film. Perfect. But luckily, Wendy's jumped into full karate mode. It's time for her final lesson and Shen reveals those deadly venom statues from earlier. He explains that the missing dragon represents invincibility and then it magically peers as a tattoo on his arm, which again, you could have explained a little better. She also never gets one, which she should have. The statues then bring ancestor ghosts to life in the park, causing absolutely nobody walking by to freak out in any way, shape or form. Why are you doing this in the middle of a whole bunch of people? There are plenty of places you could go. Why not do this somewhere else? But OK. But Wendy can't learn to fight from these random dead monks. They've done nothing wrong to her and she finds it very awkward. So Shen possesses the spirit of Wendy's mean soccer coach, her principal, the teacher who hates public makeout sessions, and Mr. Medina to teach her. So this puts Wendy at ease where now she can fight her teachers. Yeah, just oddball gang. Yes, this is weird. Give her a group of four friends that were her age. Tell me you wouldn't want to see Frosted Tips guy as one of the monks teaching her. Like, I mean, why not put people her own age making the old? I get what they were doing, but it was this to me was a little strange from practicing in the park to now it's your teachers teaching you. And that doesn't make you uncomfortable. Nobody in the park, none of your friends, nobody notices that you're martial artsing out with all of your teachers and teachers that don't look. It's not like the PE teacher idea or soccer. That works. The woman works fine. But like, yes, your principal, African-American teacher looks fine. But the big, heavy set white guy is walking on a fence. Nobody's going to notice any of this stuff. So anyway, yes. So they put her at ease somehow and she masters some amazing moves as a result. This training montage and some pretty funny scenes of stuffy white teachers doing incredible karate moves. And it ends with her defeating all of them with a stick. Wendy is ready to celebrate with Shen's first cappuccino. Also, we noticed that Wendy's grandma was secretly watching on and she, of course, is very happy and very proud. And then Shen's phone rings with some very good news. her friend Lisa is on the voting committee and Wendy has won homecoming queen. This gives Wendy an idea. What if Shen is her date to the dance? But he says he can't go. He already has a date with death and it's tomorrow. Wendy realizes this big battle is going to be at homecoming. Wendy is furious. Why did Shen hide this from her? Of course, she gives up homecoming immediately to save the world. Nope, that's not what happens. And over at the museum, Jessica, remember Jessica, who was the evil nemesis, has turned into the Lord of Darkness to awaken the stone soldiers. These are the soldiers that were sent by China for that Chinese cultural exhibit that her mother is in charge of and knows nothing about. Then, of course, the useless security guard. She can't figure out what the hell she's doing. Exactly. Did you just get this job? You're a museum curator. You're also Chinese. The useless security guard who does not lock doors thinks it's just his stomach rumbling from indigestion at first, then runs away when he sees the building army. At home, Wendy is getting ready for homecoming when her grandmother offers her her family heirloom robe for the upcoming battle. But Wendy explains she's not going to go to battle. She's always wanted to be homecoming queen, not a warrior. And her grandmother says, are you kidding me? You have to go save the world, not go to some dumb dance at your high school. Nope, not what says her grandmother actually says she respects her decision. and then leaves. Back at the museum, Shen has arrived to confront Jessica and the soldiers. He's ready for battle but quickly learns this army is too much for him. We get some more really great kung fu fighting scenes before we see Wendy leave for the dance. She reminds her mom and dad to arrive before halftime because that's when she'll be crowned. So I'm confused. Again, having not been in high school for 42 years and also never being there for the senior year. It's a homecoming game, right? It's a homecoming football game. So you have a game and you have a game And then it has a halftime. The homecoming court is crowned and then there's a dance. So typically, of course, I'm just judging off of my experience. Now what I see with the team that I coach and the high schools that surround my area. Homecoming game is usually on the Friday before the dance. Homecoming assembly, like they usually have like a pep rally during the school day where the king gets announced and then at homecoming the the halftime show is when they announce the queen but then the dance is like a separate day okay all right the game starts at seven so like the dance can't start at 10 the dance is like a different day it's the saturday after. So this right here, Disney, you know. Yeah, they're trying to put it all together one day. I get it. You gotta somewhat do it all together, but like, to say like, so the thing is too, parents aren't at the dance, so like, if your kid's on the court, they get to be there. The dad usually walks them and has a row. Oh, that's sweet. The parents get to be a part of it, but like the dance, they're not there. I wasn't there for any of that. Either way. Anyway. either way I know it no no no I wouldn't have I can promise you that either way when she opens the door to leave the possessed teachers are waiting for her they're still the monks and have a message the hour of evil has arrived she appreciates their confidence but she's sorry she has a date with her tiara yes she's gonna let us all die so she can become homecoming queen in high school but when she finds out Shen is already in battle alone she knows she has to do something back at the museum the awesome fight scene rages on Jessica slams Shen into a box that explodes with what I can only imagine were white Christmas lights and firecrackers. He's still able to fend them off, and he's doing an, it really is good. It's good fight scenes. But Jessica, and more specifically, the stunt person wearing a blonde wig clearly has the upper hand. That wig. Again, pause it, it's fun. I know. Now thrown to the ground, the soldiers surround Shen. He is finally trapped. And just as Jessica announces that evil is victorious, the teachers arrive now calling themselves the leopard, the snake, the crane, and the tiger. And the final element storms in. it's Wendy as the yin warrior still in her homecoming dress. She's shocked to see the final face of Yang Lo is Jessica, but springs into action. She tends to an injury. She tends to an injured Shen as the teachers fight the army. Once Shen is taken care of, Wendy and Jessica go to battle with the movie's best fight sequence so far. And just as Wendy looks outmatched, the final piece of the puzzle arrives. It's Wendy's grandmother with the robe, the heirloom. So of course she stops mid fight to change. and now she comes back and now she's ready. Hope time out time out I got to put on a different outfit The rumble and evil like you got it You got five minutes Let just take a breath What are you guys doing What everybody up to Take a moment Let just take a second and let her change The rumble continues, and the teachers are starting to defeat the soldiers for good, turning them back into little rocks. We get an insane move here where Wendy hangs herself sideways off a tall shelf, and Jessica jumps up to kick her. And if you pause the movie during this fight, really at any point, you'll see an Asian man wearing a wig fighting. So bad. but I again like you at this point I didn't care no matter who it is though Wendy summons oh this was the coolest and I went hi you can yes did you know what it is okay a minute okay good I'm so glad you know Street Fighter 2 like what Wendy was a freaking Street Fighter why did we talk about this earlier like she full-on throws a fireball like Ryu hi you can and I just wanted her to do that oh god it was so cool and uh yeah throws it so neat at jessica the final move it surrounds her body and reveals the true glowing spirit of yang lo he quickly disappears and jessica returns to reality everyone on wendy's team including a still living shen bow and respect wendy tells jessica she's found something more important than winning homecoming queen and tells her to hurry up it's her crown to win so jessica leaves everyone celebrates the big win but just as they're leaving a stone soldier recovers and becomes the almighty Yang Lo himself. Shen might not be safe after all. Yang Lo quickly takes care of the teachers without even breaking a sweat, and Shen reveals this is the first time that Yang Lo has actually shown up to fight. So without any knowledge of what to do, they're thrown to the side with every attack. Yang Lo now holds Shen by the neck to steal his spirit, and Wendy screams to let him go. But Shen reminds her this is his destiny. But Wendy's grandmother still has hope. She tells Wendy to show Yan Lo everything she's learned. And with that, Wendy locks in. She begins to calmly glow and levitate, then shoots lasers at Yan Lo. He screams in pain and is thrown backwards into another box filled with Christmas lights and firecrackers. Wendy catches Shen mid-fall, saving him from a terrible backache. But Shen is unresponsive, and Yan Lo has somehow recovered and stomping towards the cousin couple. He demands that Shen die. Wendy tries her hardest, but she can't save him. But she once again focuses her energy to his chest, and eventually we hear a heartbeat. Shen opens his eyes and returns to the fight, teaming up with Wendy for a dual kick, killing Yan Lo once and for all. Wendy has officially changed destiny. The teacher monks are thrilled that Yan Lo is defeated and dead for they think ever, and acknowledge that something bigger than tradition has just happened. The monks announce that this will be Shen's final life. They encourage him to live it well and stay in California, where he's just unfortunately out of nowhere for the first time in his life being taxed to the hilt. Gas is expensive. He's like, this is crazy. He's like, I'm out of California. Forget that. With that, the monks ascend from their teacher's bodies, leaving everyone very confused. But grandma invites everyone over for mooncakes. And just like that, it's party time. But instead of mooncakes, Shen wants something a little less ancient Chinese and a little more, well, Italian-American, I guess. He wants a cappuccino. The possible lovers who are also maybe now cousins but don't really know and now awkwardly need to explain to the entire school how they're not really cousins. Run off together and that's our movie. Hi, this is Jo Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men. actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. And I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius, like are misunderstood. A sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership. He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms on different houses in different places, but just an embracing of the is-ness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart-side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must-listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. I was like, hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at mom. Yeah. On the Sino Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail to talk about addiction, transformation and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic. And without this trouble, I'm going to die. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search The Cino Show and listen now. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers, we're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Ryder Strong with a podcast called The Red Weather. In 1995, my neighbor, Anna Traynor, disappeared from a commune. It was nature and trees and praying. And drugs. No, I am not your guru. Back then, I lied to everybody. They have had this case for 30 years. I'm going back to my hometown to uncover the truth. You can now binge all episodes of The Red Weather on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, Sabrina, let's do some real reviews. Okay, you get the five star this week. I do. I got the five star and it is by our old friend, Unamada's back. And his review or her review or their review read as such. It's kind of a Disney version of Kill Bill, but you know, with no blood, but it's a fresh, new and interesting idea for a Disney Channel film. Five stars. Don't disagree. Don't disagree. What do you got, Sabrina? Oh, I don't like this review. I don't like it. It's a one star from Yaki7. Giggling at just the name. I know. A rare double threat. The movie ends with both racism and misogyny. One star. One star. Love it. Thank you, Yaki7. Yes. I disagree, frankly. And Yaki's one through six were better. Yeah. There was some racism in the movie. There was. Let's be honest. especially was there misogyny i don't i mean that was kind of girl empowering wasn't it i didn't see any misogyny i definitely saw some racist tendencies yes well and i think that that's it's you know again disney taking on something taking on a culture taking you're gonna you're gonna get those outsider looks into you know things that you play into especially when you know you have to kind of keep it light-hearted and things that people i mean i didn't see it as terrible as though somebody who was sensitive to that probably would see things right a little bit harsher yeah i mean the thing with like we're gonna write we're gonna write vote for you on chopsticks and stuff like that i mean but in 2006 isn't how it reads and that's what we're saying it's a different time it's different exactly you know i don't know when this time is 20 years old 20 years old yeah and 20 years from now we are doing something or saying something that is completely and totally normal and, and legitimize now that's going to be horrifying 20 years. Yes. Just the way that, just the way it works. I don't know how it works as a culture. Somebody please chime in. Like when I think of like the, one of my, I love the song. I mainly just cause it's got such like a, like a beat, but like the, everybody was Kung Fu fighting. Like, is that, is that now something that like, if you start kind of. Probably if you dissect it, but it's for the time. But at the time that's like a, that's a jam. That's a bop. Like, right. But I love that song. I think it's got such like a like bounce to it, the beat, everything. But like, again, now we are needing to look into more of how it's coming across and who it affects. Right. Yeah. We also need to take things for the time that they were put out there. Yes. And this is 20 years ago. So we've got to be okay with that. But, but you know, what we don't have to be okay with is constantly losing our feature game, which is your favorite part of the program. And this week Who do we have with us this week? Who are we playing with this week? We have Michaela Okay, Michaela, here we go The famous Michaela It sounds a little bit like your name here Because the feature this week is McCall, not McKay McCall, yay Or McCall, no So to celebrate a great performance From Disney legend Brenda Song He has nothing to do with this movie No, nothing whatsoever Nothing whatsoever. Thank you, producer Jensen. Yes. So, yes, to celebrate a great performance from Disney legend Brenda Song, we wanted to play a game that centers around the man who can call her his better half, Macaulay Culkin. You lucky bastard. We're going to be given a possible fact about the Home Alone star, and we have to decide if they are true or false by calling them Macaulay or Pacal no. Handle this as the game. This is terrible. Three out of five correct ones wins. Number one, Macaulay Culkin got married at age 17. he did right not to her but didn't he have one marriage at like 17 so i'm gonna say mccall yay i'm gonna say mccall yay too true you guys are correct and number two he was in a rock band called the pizza underground taking songs by the velvet underground and remixing them with lyrics about pizza mccall no i'm gonna say mccall no too but this is gonna be another one of those where All these are right. McCall, no. It's true. Oh, God, it is. They're all going to be true again. He's going to do it to us again. Okay. Number three. He once sold Val Kilmer a rare $20,000 Nintendo game. I'm going to say yes. McCall, yay. False. Oh. It was only 18. That's probably what it was. Finally. All right. Number four. His godfather is legendary New York pop artist Andy Warhol. Was he alive? Andy Warhol died in 86. So I guess Mac would have been alive then. Mac? Macaulay, that's what people call him as Mac. Do you call him Mac? Did he tell you to call him Mac? Everyone calls him Mac. Oh, I didn't know that. I worked with his brother. I did a show with his brother for... Oh my gosh. I did Go Fish on NBC and with Kieran. I'm going to say Macaulay. Macaulay. Sabrina's right. False. Okay. Kind of thank God for that one. And number five, Macaulay bought Marilyn Manson his first pack of cigarettes. We haven't had a yay in a while. Macaulay. That seems wild. Macaulay, I guess. It's true. Wow. So Sabrina won and I think I lost. Unbelievable. Can we do a Sabrina Seas, please? all right sabrina sees there's not much that i saw that was imperfect i loved it everything was perfect it was perfect the hoko comment from the coach threw me off a little bit like it felt like the the in general and again like you said with the fighting in general the like adult child contact or respect level and just the the like the you're a kid and i'm an adult like that whole like thing throughout the movie the dynamic between children and adults yeah that was very off to me like the coach i can't read the i just was i just wrote down comment and i'm trying i wish i think i thought i was going to remember it but it was like something about hoko and it was like the ho-co and ball and it was just like it was weird that an adult would say that to a kid like there was a lot of things that kind of and then when they morph in and now they're fighting and it makes more sense for her to fight these like adults like the dynamics were very strange yeah it was throughout the movie to me they just kind of kept hitting me going like what that seemed right um that happened quite a bit um the locked door it was my number one lock the door not locking doors then having to unlock the door you didn't lock again i talked about the like getting triggered by like stranger danger it did i was wrong when i was talking about it earlier it did end up in that scene but like the initial aspect of like not freaking out it was like what are you doing instead of being like get out of my house get out of my house strange person that's that really hit me um there was the hero song the movie had some very significant we didn't this wasn't discussed at all but the songs that were throughout this movie were just some of them are weird but it was of the time that the channel had the ability and the um the reach for great producers and this movie could have had some epic like the score of this movie could have been so much bigger and that was a little bit of a people sometimes don't know how expensive music can be that's a good point so if you've got a five million dollar budget and you're already shooting in Auckland New Zealand they might have just not had the money yeah that's a good because the music was strange but I would say though like the reach that the channel like you're talking 2006 right this is towards the end of the cheetah girls yeah this is the height of camp rock like you've got producers at your fingertips it was strange to me that like i mean at the you know that the that it wasn't a better score it just it seemed but you're right that you have to make choices when you're doing budgets the age of these kids was a little like the driver seen the driving scene when the three of them are in by the way did you like that car i was like oh i wonder if will likes that car was it a good car because it's like a mustang yeah the powder blue that's one of the cars the convertible version of that car is one of the first cars i learned how to drive in a 67 mustang oh my gosh it's a beautiful car beautiful i think that the one they were in i think was a 67 yeah he's gonna talk about this car it's a beautiful car it's a beautiful car it's a great classic american muscle 67 mustang no did they look my brother one of my brother's first car No way. He was 16. Same color too, but it was a convertible. Did your parents buy your brother that car? No. My parents always did the same thing with us where for anything big like that, we had to earn half and they would match. Okay. That's really fair. So my brother earned money to buy this. It was beat on, but he loved it. So he had a 67. Actually, I think his was technically called a 66 and a half. Oh, yeah. The one was gorgeous. Yes. They're stunning. They're stunning. Yeah. It's a Mustang. He's so gorgeous. Okay, so this car, to me, for this age of a driver, didn't match up either. Wait a minute. Okay. Okay. And then at the end, what do we think his age was? I thought he was in his early 50s. No, I would have said he's supposed to be playing 20? 19? Too old for a high school girl. Yes. But they don't do anything. They don't do anything. Notice they don't ever do anything. don't you think it was like leaned in on at the end that they're like now kind of like an actual couple yes I think also maybe what they were trying to do with the very opening scene of him fighting all the other guys and then putting putting the thing over no no no and he's like he put the thing over the other monk's head and they were kind of playing as maybe showing that he's younger than we think yes like he still has that kind of vibe so maybe he's supposed to be the equivalent of high school too he just never got to experience high school but he's clearly the actor is clearly like in his 20s at the time yes yeah and it reads that way like he looked way too old to have a love interest in this little girl and notice she's the one who does the love interest stuff he never even gives her a moment of seeing like he's interested not a moment no yeah no but she is googly eyed yeah but that makes sense aren't there aren't there a lot of 16 17 year old girls that are googly eyed over 20 21 year old men but i would like for the channel to not lean into such things. Well, I like that they didn't, the guy didn't do anything. No, but I also, again, the end is the only part for me that I was like, ooh, like it was like it felt a little, okay, we're really kind of leaning a little bit too much. However, the end 100%, and I know we talked about this at the front of the show, the end alluded to there being a next chapter to this story. that's why well apparently there was supposed to be one and then it just disappeared love to do more more research we need to get somebody from the movie to tell us the realness oh that's how you recognize him shinko yamada was also in the disney channel games oh yes no i yes no the yes and he was he was yes he was he was he was he was and this was around the that with the disney channel games was the same era right yeah okay no you were also talking about the dad the dad but i don't remember where i found him or remember him from but it wasn't the karate kid no it wasn't but the whole cast by the way super good looking we didn't even talk about how great looking this cast was the grandma was gorgeous. Yeah. Gorgeous woman. It's true. Like everyone was so pretty in this movie. Even the, even the, you know, the arch nemesis loved everyone. I thought they were great. Oh, yeah. Anyway, that was my last one. The Shen's age was questionable to me. That's all right. Luckily, he didn't do anything inappropriate. He was on, what team he was, he was on the green team, I think, and oh, we kept going, oh, Shen, like, oh, of course, he's got so much talent. See, There you go. Great. Can we please rank our film? And I'm not even going to mess around with it. Today, we're going to go from one to ten. Straight forward. One's going to be the lowest. Straight forward. Ten's going to be the highest. Thank you. I don't have time. I don't have time. Yeah, can't mess around. Our options this week. One out of ten deadly venoms. One out of ten unpackaged items from FedEx. One out of ten bad security guards. Sealing shens. One out of ten egotistical self-portraits. Cool fedoras. Breakup hair highlights. One out of 10 thinly veiled racist questions. Dance halftimes. One out of 10 Christmas lights and firecracker boxes. Or my favorite, one out of 10 kissing cousins. Which one is your time to pick? One out of 10. Lock the door. There you go. Well, you've just picked it. There you go, Sabrina. So I believe I go first this time? I think it's your turn, yes. It's my turn. Okay, so I liked this movie. Again, I had problems with it. Certain things were weird and made no sense, but you're going to have problems with every movie. But the idea of putting the mystical kind of background to it and the whole history behind everything, the great wire work martial arts, big fan of that stuff, still had the high school thing. I really liked this movie. Just like you, I also am realizing that I can determine whether I like a movie by the fact if I can just sit there and watch the whole thing. Without having to pause it, walk out of the room, look at my phone, do other things. I can just sit there and watch the movie. And I could just sit there and watch this movie. Yes. So I'm going to give this, and I think this is a pretty solid score. I'm going to give this an eight. Lock the doors for this film. And I think it's deserved. I think it was, I think this was a fun movie all the way around. So I enjoyed it. Yes. I am up there right there with you. Like I said, I was like hook line singer from the get. Like, I loved it. I was so happy. I didn't really, I guess, I mean, obviously, you somewhat have an idea of maybe what the movie will be, but I had no idea it was this good. I thought it was so great. I love Brenda's song. I love everything she does. The queen. The queen reigns. She's the queen. She does. She just lives to just do the best work for the channel. And I thought it was a great movie. There's, of course, some funny, silly things that just are ridiculous. But I was there for it. I thought it was great for a kid movie to be that good with the, like the, not animation, the special effects, all of that. I thought it was great. I'm giving it a nine. Lock the f***ing heart! Nice. For the love of God. Love of God. Well, I love that. Well, thank you everybody for joining us. Go check this movie out. It was definitely worth it. So thanks everybody. Don't forget to join us next time. You can follow us at Magical Rewind Pod on the Instagram machine. And I'd also very much like to start some sort of petition or something so we can absolutely tell Sabrina that cookies and pastries are two completely different things. Like it's like apples and pastries, two completely different things. But they're both sold at the bakery. But that doesn't, you could get soup at a bakery. That doesn't necessarily make it, you know, a pastry. It's not in the fort, the area, the window. Wow, I can't. So anything in that window to you is pastry. I mean, it would be fine with it being called a pastry. So an Oreo cookie is pastry to you. You're the problem, Will. It's you. When you're at a bakery and there's cookies, it's a pastry. Yes. No, my God, that's so wrong. It's you, Will. It's you. Normally, everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but your opinions are just wrong. Oh, my. All right. Well, we'll see everybody next time. And please send all of your letters telling Sabrina why she's absolutely wrong to Magical Rewind Pod at the Instagram machine. Thanks, everybody. They actually message me. Good, good. Keep it up. Or that they're with me. Bye. Love you guys. Hi, it's Joe Interesting, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And today I'm talking with my dear friend, Krista Williams. It can change you in the best way possible. Dance with the change, dance with the breakdowns. The embodiment of Pisces intuition with Capricorn power moves. So I'm like delusionally proud of my chart. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This Women's History Month, the podcast Keep It Positive, Sweetie celebrates the power of women choosing healing, purpose, and faith, even when life gets messy. Love is not a destination. You have to work on it every day. Keep It Positive, Sweetie creates space for honest conversations on self-worth, love, growth, and navigating life with grace and grit, led by women who uplift, inspire, and tell the truth out loud. I have several conversations with God and I know why it took 20 years. To hear this and more, listen to Keep It Positive, sweetie, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the new me. And it's the old them. This Woman's History Month, the podcast, If You Knew Better with Ambergrimes, spotlights women who turn missteps into momentum and lessons into power. My tunnel vision of I gotta achieve this was off the strengths of I wanna make a better life for us. If You Knew Better brings real talk from women who've lived it, unpacking career pivots, relationship lessons, and the mindset shifts that changed everything. Listen to If You Knew Better with Amber Grimes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.