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Sabrina Bryan
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Will Friedle
Hi, I'm Wilmer Valderrama and when managing.
Sabrina Bryan
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Will Friedle
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Sabrina Bryan
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Will Friedle
So not to give too much away about today's wonderful film that we're going to be talking about, but I just wanted to start with what Were you at all jarred by how different a newer DCOM is from one of the older DCOMs?
Sabrina Bryan
Yes, yes. I mean in what we've seen so far that Disney somewhat touches but not a ton were there out in the open and totally comfortable. Like it wasn't uncomfortable. It just was like wow, this we have like evolved.
Will Friedle
Yes, it was the one. That's a great word for it.
Sabrina Bryan
Evolved. Disney, in today's society of things that kids are going through right now, it's.
Will Friedle
Also just brighter and just it looks better. I know it's a simple thing to say that it looks better, it sounds better, but it's, you know, it Just shows the evolution. You watch a sitcom today and it looks better than it does if you're watching a sitcom from even the 90s. But when we're coming off of Dadnapped to today's movie, it was like the most jarring thing in the world. Was like going from a. Like a hello, my baby, hello, my honey to watching Star wars for the first time. It's crazy. So anyway, 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 were smart. The wave, tsunamis, and the high school's musical. I'm Will Friedle.
Sabrina Bryan
And I'm Sabrina Bryan.
Will Friedle
So today we're getting down on the wheels of steel. Cause it's time for our newest dcom. Or should I say dj. Com? Huh? Should I? I probably shouldn't. Our most current yet. No, I won't. It's 2021's Spin. When announced in March of 2020, Spin was first conceived to air on Disney Plus. But just five months later, it became prime for Magical Rewind. When it was repositioned as a Disney Channel original movie, it was shifted and redeveloped to premiere traditionally on cable, with only one writer replaced from the original announcement. Okay, Sabrina, so we've never really delved into this before, and now we're getting into kind of the nitty gritty because we've talking about evolution. Been looking at the evolution of what we call the dcom, but there was like, Disney Channel original movies, Disney movies, Wonderful World of Disney movies, Zoog movies. We've seen that. There is a whole bunch of these. So do you think we can yet discern the differences between what would be a DCOM and a Disney original movie? I don't think we have that eye yet.
Sabrina Bryan
I don't think so. I honestly think it was more about marketing than it was about on the channel versus Disney Plus. I think it's where how kids nowadays watch TV versus it being actually about where the location of it is. It's more about this is just how they watch tv.
Will Friedle
And it was funny. I was talking to somebody about that exact same thing about watching a new sitcom on something like ABC versus when it streams. And as an actress from one of the new sitcoms that's on, who said, oh, every promo we do, every press we do, we have to end with. And it's airing tomorrow on Hulu. Tomorrow on Hulu tomorrow. Because it's like that's how everybody watches their stuff.
Sabrina Bryan
I think that the Only that Monroe has. Let's put it this way. She has a bunch of shows on the Disney Channel that I like. Pupstruction, Alice, Bakery. But I record all of those and just. She pops them on. I just. She doesn't sit down whenever it airs. That's never how. It's not how it works anymore. House. All of that stuff. Like, those are all just recorded. And I know it. I kind of like, man, it's a shame. That's just how it is, you know? And it's also, like, easier to access on my phone or on an iPad for her than, you know, if. If we're sitting at home, you know, because then it also is nice because we can watch what we want to watch and she can watch what she's wanting to watch.
Will Friedle
Yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
But not have to be away from us. She could still be, like, on the couch.
Will Friedle
Totally different world.
Sabrina Bryan
I know.
Will Friedle
Anyway, Spin debuted on the channel almost exactly one year later after all this. Aug.13th, 2021. And it became the very first DCOM to feature an Indian American in the lead role. And only one other DCOM at all centered around Indian culture. Sabrina, do you know what. What movie that was?
Sabrina Bryan
I do. Will. Cheetah Girls. One World.
Will Friedle
One world.
Sabrina Bryan
Living in this movie for all of the just. Oh, it was. I can't wait. Can't wait.
Will Friedle
I can't wait. Oh, I can't wait either. This aired as part of Disney channel's Friday the 13th is fun lucky. I didn't make that up. Friday the 13th is fun lucky Night of premieres, which might just be the least catchy promotion name I've ever heard of. It's like if they said must see TV is make sure you watch this television.
Sabrina Bryan
It's so true.
Will Friedle
It is.
Sabrina Bryan
Oh, my gosh.
Will Friedle
It's bad. It showed immediately after the channel premiere of Toy Story 4 and right before the Royal Wedding and Disney's Magic Bake Off. So quite a huge night of entertainment.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah.
Will Friedle
The film racked in. Now, here's where it gets strange. Cause, you know, we talk about numbers every week, and we're saying this was a big one. It had 5 million viewers. It had 4 million viewers. Then comes streaming. So this film racked in 535,000 viewers for its premiere. And this, unfortunately, was another first. This was the first DCOM ever to score less than a million viewers in its first airing. And this, my friends, is just the new norm with streaming services. Kids don't watch traditional tv. So we just talked about it. That's. Neither of us like it. But that's the new way it is. It's just absolutely the new normal. Then, even after the scheduling changes, it was finally added to Disney in November of 2021 as part of Disney Day, an annual celebration and content dump for the anniversary of the streaming service's launch. I don't think there's any mail service on that day. I know that I like to celebrate that day alone. It's just how I observe. It's a monumentous occasion.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah. What a great occasion.
Will Friedle
I do. I love it. I get my Disney plus candles and I'm very happy.
Sabrina Bryan
Nice.
Will Friedle
Spin was the first DCOM to be filmed during the pandemic. Yes. It was shot in, well, Toronto, Canada. So there you go. It gives us a small Utah break from October 5, 2020, to November 20, 2020. So it was right in the mix of an absolutely insane time in the world. Very little was filming. And as you can figure out by the dates, viewers that ended up waiting 378 days to see the finished product, that is the longest wait ever between new decoms.
Sabrina Bryan
Ooh, man, that feels like five years, doesn't it?
Will Friedle
A year? Well, it is. With the short attention spans that social media has given us, 378 days is 9 million years. And worth noting that Spin was released in India on Disney hotstar, which is their version of the studio subscription service, and Disney International HD, their version of the channel, on August 15, 2021, Indian Independence Day. Now, obviously, this was a very big deal for their country, so there was a lot of promotion and fanfare to coincide with the celebration. Really cool. The soundtrack to Spin, which is an important element to the movie about DJing and EDM, was released two weeks before the movie aired and features all the music you hear in the film. All the songs are written, produced and performed by Marcus de Vries, who is a Grammy winner whose previous work includes movies like Coda, Kick Ass and Sucker Punch. And someone chime in if I'm wrong here, but I'm going to assume that this was Disney's first foray into music that you might hear at a rave. Is that right? I mean, have we heard other music in Disney?
Sabrina Bryan
No, I guess you're right. I guess a part of this genre. Yeah. This is probably the first that we've seen, at least. Absolutely. And, you know, I would assume there was more, but you've got a big musical background.
Will Friedle
Have you ever tried to dj?
Sabrina Bryan
I haven't. You know what? The whole time I was going, how come I haven't tried this before? You know, the Closest I got to it was during our tours. We would have musical, like, dance breaks, and Keely and I and Adrian would be working with the producer. And I would say, like, I want to hear like. Like a. Like glass crashing on the ground sound like, you know. You know, and like, doing like, certain accents and audio effects and things like that. So we would do that, but it was not, like, with the spinning. I have a girlfriend, Bri, who does it, like, all the time. And then my girlfriend Asia's really, like, she gets paid and to travel, so she's good. She loves it. Yeah. And I remember her first, like, playing with it, and I just never had much interest in actually doing it.
Will Friedle
Is it sad that. No. The only DJ I know is DJ Pauly D from Jersey Shore, is that. I know it's just not my thing. It's not my kind of music. But. But, hey, it was impressive also, as always, because there's technically dancing in this movie. We have to ask you, you know, a woman with now your own line of dance pants and dance topps, which is called what again?
Sabrina Bryan
Sabri Official.
Will Friedle
Sabri Official. How was the dancing in the movie?
Sabrina Bryan
You know, it took me back and we'll get there. Cause it was a lot of it was. And I don't remember the movements, but what I loved about learning the movements from India is a lot of it tells stories, like what they're doing. They do things like with their eyes and it's talking about looking or. You know what I mean? They have their own.
Will Friedle
Yeah, they clearly had moves. Yes, clearly. It was almost like a language unto itself, the dance moves they were doing.
Sabrina Bryan
It absolutely is. And I got to learn, like, quite a bit about it through our movie on the third one. And so I liked it. It was just enough. I don't think it needed any more than what we got. I think it was like, just enough. And it was more so about the actual music and storytelling of the music. So I did like it.
Will Friedle
I'm going to talk to you about that later because I don't necessarily agree.
Sabrina Bryan
Okay.
Will Friedle
I think. I honestly think it could have used a little more of the dance stuff, but we'll get into that anyway. All right, now, Spin may have been a quote unquote failure when it came to the Nielsen ratings, but critically, it fared much better. Amy. Okay, now, I just want to preface everything I'm going to say in this episode. There's a lot of names that are very difficult to pronounce. So I apologize right off the bat for my pronunciations for some of these names, but Amy Amanteglio of Paste said it really conveys the thrills of a first crush or holding someone's hand for the first time without making the entire movie just about romance, which she liked. And I don't disagree with that.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah.
Will Friedle
And it got a positive review from MASH calling it revolutionary and delightful in the DCOM movie library. And this has an 80% score on rotten Tomatoes. It also received the Reframe stamp, which is an award given by the Gender Equality Coalition, ReFrame and IMDb Pro for films or TV projects that are proven to have gender balancing. Hiring especially women of color in four of the right key roles of production. Not a common distinction, unfortunately. It was also nominated for two Children and Family Emmy Awards, Outstanding Fiction Special and Outstanding Directing. All right, we always ask, what did you know about Spin before it came to our watch?
Sabrina Bryan
Nothing. When we released or when we talked about this last time with it upcoming and you and I hadn't seen this yet. I had never seen it. I was thinking, you got it in my head saying this was gonna be like a workout spin class movie. I was like, how are they gonna do this? Or it's gonna be like bicycling. I really had no idea until obviously when you pop it up on Disney, you see the head and you're going, oh, cool, this is going to be. I'm excited to see this. This is so different than what we've seen at all. We've not seen. We've seen obviously movies about music, but not like, not to this extent. I was really looking forward to it.
Will Friedle
Yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
What about you, Will?
Will Friedle
You know, I always say no and I didn't know the title, but I did know this movie. I don't know how. I don't know if I read the script or. It was talked about in a couple meetings I had at Disney, but as the movie started, I was like, I know this movie. So I hadn't seen it, but I've either read the script or been or talked to producers about this specific film because I knew what was going on.
Sabrina Bryan
From 0 to 1, right?
Will Friedle
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Sabrina Bryan
0 to 1 out of 10 out of 10,000 episodes. You. That's wild though.
Will Friedle
Kind of heard of this movie.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah. That's cool. Thank you. I like you. I feel kind of maybe read the. The script. That's pretty cool.
Will Friedle
I think that's what it was, but I can't remember. But either way. Okay, why don't we get into our synopsis. 15 year old Rhea Kumar, who lives with her tight Knit multi generational family. Realizes her true passion is to become an EDM dj. Sabrina, early thoughts. What did you think of the movie again?
Sabrina Bryan
Really didn't know much how to do this. As soon as it starts and I'm seeing the Indian influence of their culture in it, I am like, yes. Yep. I'm ready. I'm sold. I'm in. I'm on it. This little girl comes on camera, and to me, she's one of the most stunning little girls.
Will Friedle
Stunning.
Sabrina Bryan
And I'm saying little girls because she's. I know she's just younger than me. She's obviously not a little girl, but she's great. Stunning.
Will Friedle
Yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
Stunning young woman and a star.
Will Friedle
I mean, just clearly a star. Yeah, clearly.
Sabrina Bryan
From the very first scene in this movie, it was just so good, and I was ready to go. And I really didn't know what to think, how they were gonna do this. I couldn't imagine it. And it was great right from the start. That was my early thoughts. I was like, I'm gonna love this.
Will Friedle
I completely and totally agree with you. It was one of those things. I think a lot of it helps that I'm coming right off a dad napped.
Sabrina Bryan
Yes.
Will Friedle
Which talk about a different vibe for a Disney movie. This felt modern. It felt big budget. It felt real. It felt. The acting was incredible. The cast was wonderful. None of it felt forced. It was. I fully enjoyed this movie. Again, music. So I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna feel. Loved it. And I disagree. I would love to have seen a little bit more of the Bollywood put into the film. One or two more.
Sabrina Bryan
Did the rolling credits. I thought the rolling credits we were gonna get something like one or two would have been great in the movie itself. I didn't think it needed it. I just felt like I would like.
Will Friedle
To have seen more.
Sabrina Bryan
Yes. But the Bollywood, that's like an end thing, you know? I know it's a lot, but it just. What I do want to say is, and I know we're about to get to this, but I really loved that it was an Indian filmmaker as the director too, because I think that is really big. And I thought that was really very cool for the Disney Channel.
Will Friedle
I think so too. And that's a perfect segue here because Spin was directed by. And again, I'm apologizing if I'm butchering these names, but was directed by Manjari Makjani, I think is how you say it. The Indian filmmaker and daughter of a veteran Bollywood actor is based in LA and debuted with the Netflix movie Skater Girl in 2021 and that had a very similar plot following a teenage girl who finds her identity through skateboarding. Spin was her second feature, but she's worked in as assistant director on Wait till you hear this list on some huge releases like Wonder Woman, Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol and the Dark Knight Rises when they were all shot in India. Wow. Pretty. Pretty cool. Or the list of movies Will loves. And the movie is filled with mostly new faces for Disney, with only two real exceptions and the most recognizable is Anna Cathcart. This was actually Anna's third DCOM as you've seen her before in Descendants 2 and 3 as Dizzy Tremaine, Cinderella's daughter. She also appeared in the movie to all the Boys I've Loved before and the TV show and subsequent movies for Odd Squad. She can currently be seen on the Netflix show Exo. Kitty.
Sabrina Bryan
I love it.
Will Friedle
That's the lead character, Kitty. Again, I'm saying words. I have no idea what any of these things are. It's not mash. I don't get it. And Avantika stars in Spin as Rhea, the girl who just came on the screen and stole it. Born in the San Francisco area, she began her career starring in Telugu cinema, eventually transitioning to American projects where Spin was her first ever lead role. She since starred in Netflix senior year and appeared in the comedy musical version of Mean Girls, the horror movie Tarot and voices Kamala on the Disney animated series Royal Detective. And although she's currently a student at Columbia University, so she's also really smart. Set to graduate in 2027, she will star in the upcoming Disney series A Crown of Wishes and a thriller theatrical release called Ballerina Overdrive with Maddie Ziegler. Yes, actually Columbia University, they only accepted one person who was not very smart. It didn't work out. His name was Rider Strong. Abhay Diol plays her father Arvind Deol is an award winning Indian actor known for his work in Hindi films like Manorama 6 FE and a massive Bollywood blockbuster called Zindagi na Mlegi Dobara. And again, I apologize to everybody out there if I'm mispronouncing these words. Mira Seil is her grandmother. Asha Seil is an English comedian, writer, singer, journalist and actress. She does it all. My wife loves British stuff, so I've seen her a thousand times. After her breakout as one of the creators of the BBC sketch comedy show Goodness Gracious Me and her role in the movie the kumars at number 42, she's since become one of the UK's best known Asian creators and was awarded a Baft Fellowship, which is its highest accolade in 2023. The other past employee of Disney is Arjan Simhadri, who played Rohan. He's really worked with the studio an awful lot. You might know him as Grover Underwood in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show, which is actually a great TV show. He also appeared in the Disney 2022 remake of Cheaper by the Dozen. Another movie on the streamer called Trevor The Musical, the 2020 Disney Channel Improv sitcom Just Roll With It. And he's also a voice on Mira Royal Detective. Yikes. This kid has a very good thing going. Just stay with it. Don't make Disney mad, because you are killing it.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah.
Will Friedle
Now, I love the idea that Disney was able to weave in some of the regulars, but also expose their audience to an entirely new film industry with some Bollywood and Indian stars. The combination was seamless. I loved the way they did it. It was really great. Spin is 94 minutes. Oh, so close. But just ignore four minutes. We'll be fine. We like 90. And that's just.
Sabrina Bryan
I know where it could have been cut. I'll stick to that.
Will Friedle
Yes. Okay. That's fine. Yeah, it's just. It's four too much. It's just four too much. But it's so close. So we're sorry about that. This movie is written by Josh Kagan, a writer whose career has included some really impressive young adult projects, starting with his first breakout hit, which we've talked about on this podcast before. And I got a little bit of for Bandslam, which for trivia buffs was also David Bowie's last film. Kagan also wrote the movie the Duff and would become a Disney go to writing the Kim Possible live action movie Upside Down Magic and Under Wraps two. And in just a few months, we are gonna be able to see his newest entry into the DCOM lexicon, zombies 4. Dawn of the Vampires. Maybe we gotta get Josh in the podcast, but here's the thing. I love how we break up the movies that we do, but I'm really having trouble not hopping forward and watching some of the new descendants, some of the new zombies. I wanna get to these things.
Sabrina Bryan
I know, I know.
Will Friedle
So we gotta get Josh in the podcast, though, because he's killing it. He also shares credit with Carly Steiner, and it's something that we also see a lot. She has no other writing credits, so maybe she was paired up with an established writer for her idea. Who knows? But this tends to happen a lot with dcom. She could have come in with a great idea and they just put her with a more established writer. I did that the first time I wrote a script for thundercats. I'd never written an animated script before, so they put me with a much more established writer who taught me the process.
Sabrina Bryan
These days it feels like everyone is talking about how the American dream of owning a home is dying that so many hardworking Americans have been locked out of homeownership. Hi guys, this is Chiquis from the Cheekies and Chill podcast and if you are one of the millions yearning to own your home, Rocket is here to give you back the keys. They're working to lower down payments to lift us up, giving first time buyers a head start on their starter homes and fighting for homes for those who fought and served so we can have ours. The American dream isn't dying, it's just been out of reach. Everyone in this country deserves to own a piece of it and Rocket isn't going to stop until everyone can own the dream. Visit Rocket.com or call 800-4Rocket hi, this is Jenny Garth from I Do Part 2. Who do you know on Ozempic.
Will Friedle
Or Semaglutide right now?
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Will Friedle
Okay, time to feel the base to your body because it's time for spin. We open at Spirit of India, a restaurant where we meet Ria. She works at the family business as a waitress and is scrolling her phone looking for the best song to put on her Dinner Rush playlist. She picks the Music is Everything mix and turns it up as an Indian influenced dance track plays throughout the dining room. She starts to get to work. It is a busy, busy place. We see shots of the menu, utensils being cleaned and cooks very hard at work in the kitchen. Ria weaves in and out, almost dancing her way through food deliveries, proving that she is a real pro at this. This is where I was already dying in the movie because I don't know about you, but Indian food is one of my favorite things ever. And I was just watching them make this food, salivating, watching this movie. How did you feel?
Sabrina Bryan
I. I don't like Indian food.
Will Friedle
Oh, you're kidding.
Sabrina Bryan
I did before I went, before I went to India. I loved it, but I was sick the whole time in India so much that it's like I remember a few times I was on a date once and this guy ordered french fries and he asked for extra. They put like, like kind of like a masala or a.
Will Friedle
Right.
Sabrina Bryan
Some kind of spice on it. And I had just gotten through telling him it was my first date with him, that I'll go anywhere and I'll try anything except for going to Indian food because it makes me really nauseous.
Will Friedle
Right?
Sabrina Bryan
And when I went to the bathroom, he asked for more of whatever that spice was and like I instantly came up to the table and walked back away from it because I, I would actually get nauseous from just.
Will Friedle
Do you think this was his way of ending the date?
Sabrina Bryan
No, he, I don't know. Whatever he. Well, if it was, it worked because I was like, see ya.
Will Friedle
I know.
Sabrina Bryan
So I am just now getting into India. I had Indian food for the first time since I've been in India last year while I was in Florida. And I miss it. I, I love it. It's just masala.
Will Friedle
Yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
That season's the one that gets me real good.
Will Friedle
So.
Sabrina Bryan
Okay, fair enough. Curry and all the other stuff, but oh man, like, I love it. My mouth starts to like water like.
Will Friedle
Me too, but for a good way. Yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
Yes.
Will Friedle
To the point where my, my wife and I, our favorite restaurant in the world is the is an Indian place in London called Gymkhana. And we will get a reservation to that place and then book tickets to London. Like we will plan our trip around.
Sabrina Bryan
I heard that going to and it's England, marvelously. They have them everywhere, right? Like how we have like sushi restaurants everywhere here.
Will Friedle
It's marvelously good, but. Oh yeah. So anyway, she eventually sends her little brother Rohan, who's working as a self appointed maitre d, to the kitchen and her dad Arvin, the owner of Spirit of India, pops up and tells his son that tik tacos, his idea for a new tikka chicken dish, isn't going to happen. And the whole time I'm just thinking, tiktokos sound incredible and I wanna play to her.
Sabrina Bryan
I thought it was super clever.
Will Friedle
Oh, it is. But oh man, they sound so good. Rhea is told her grandmother wants to speak to her in the kitchen where she is supervising a busy night of orders. She tells Rhea she can make more effort with her appearance on a crowded Sunday night. She even tries to tweeze her eyebrows. Her grandma tells Arvin to let his daughter go and have some fun. She should be enjoying her life, not sweating serving food every night. She's right. He says she loves it or else she would tell him that she hates it. We also learned that Ria is the president of her school's coding club. Does the high school you kind of do everything with, do they have a coding club? Because I didn't even know what that meant. I assumed it was something computers.
Sabrina Bryan
I think coding is because of my husband's business and like one of his guys, one of his best friends is the main one. So I knew that what that was and Jordan went to school for it, but I didn't. That's the first time I heard about it. But that was in college. I was like, I mean, it wouldn't shock me now. They didn't have like huge film classes in high school when I was in high school. And now they're like making humongous productions like around campus.
Will Friedle
So our extracurriculars were like, walk outside for a night.
Sabrina Bryan
Home EC was like where it started. It ended.
Will Friedle
Yeah, yeah, pretty much, yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
It was literally the only.
Will Friedle
I think that's what it is now, where she's like, got. Yeah, it's crazy robotics and all this other kind of stuff.
Sabrina Bryan
Totally. I mean, I think it'd be so exciting if that's really what's going on.
Will Friedle
Yeah, I would too. It's cool. This is when we meet cute little British boy Max that Rhea recognizes as a recent transfer student at her school. He walks in with his mother. He digs the restaurant, and once seated, he unsuccessfully shazams the song playing over the speaker. Rhea, who gets to do that hipster I know music like no one else kind of thing, lets him know it's Freefall Universe by DJ Luca Scent. He can't believe he missed a new DJ Lucas sent track and is very impressed with the mix she made. He asks if she produces her own stuff and no, just mixes it up to help dinner with the flow. They bond over their mutual love of the artist, and Max suggests they go record shopping together someday. That's not a euphemism. He really just wanted to buy records. She admits she doesn't have a record player, but Max says he's a dj, so he has two. Just then, Rhea's grandma comes out of the kitchen and appears to be bothered by the music. But in reality, they dim the lights and she starts to get down and lip sync to the tune. The customers and Ria Lovett clapp along the impromptu show, and eventually it leads to a standing ovation. I think this place rocks. And Max agrees. And I was hoping every once in a while, like, I was hoping just because I know how big the Bollywood stuff can be. And when you watch it, it's very theatrical and very beautiful. I. I was waiting for, like, the waiters were going to start getting involved in anything and, you know, like, the. The trays were going to start going behind them. It was like it was going to be a big production musical number.
Sabrina Bryan
And I was like, I was there for it. Okay, everybody listen to what he's saying. He was wishing this movie was a musical. We have done it, ladies and gentlemen.
Will Friedle
I wished it had these big dance numbers.
Sabrina Bryan
Musical reek now.
Will Friedle
I did. I did. I was seriously upset that there was not more big musical numbers. By the way, I'm this red because of this lamp. That's what I'm doing. It's not that I'm embarrassed about my musical number.
Sabrina Bryan
I love it. We've done it. We've done it.
Will Friedle
It's true. Later that night, back at home, Rhea overhears her grandmother talking to her dad downstairs. His grandmother, her dad is suggesting that maybe Nani stop dancing at the restaurant, calling it a little corny, but she says she loves doing it and she can't help herself when the music Rhea picks is so great. Also, it's a little weird thing to say when the restaurant is packed and people love it and are giving her a standing ovation. It's like, why would you want to cancel that? That's. That's an amazing part of the night.
Sabrina Bryan
But I feel like he's saying it's too much of this Bollywood. Like, they're coming in, we want authentic food, not like what's just like portrayed on movies.
Will Friedle
Yes, I think it's that, but I think it's also a little bit more about what we're gonna get into, which is. Arvin admits Ria's mix helps with the Saturday rush. And they agree that she inherited her mother's ear. Music runs in her veins. And talking about her mom obviously affects Arvin. And that's when it's revealed that her grandmother is actually his mother in law. And, well, Rio's mom is dead. Grandma says that the last thing her daughter would have wanted is for him to hide behind work. And the kids, they call it a night. But grandma's concerned and we see Ria was nearby listening in, forcing a flashback. So, yeah, I think anything having to do with music at this point they're setting up just reminds him too much.
Sabrina Bryan
Of his ex wife.
Will Friedle
Not ex wife. His. His. His wife who's gone. A younger Ria is in bed and can't sleep when her. This is the flashback, by the way. A younger Ria is in bed and can't sleep when her mom enters to help. Her mom suggests letting the music of the street guide her. There are rhythms and drums and trumpets and common noises everywhere. It's a very nice moment. And young Rhea quickly falls asleep. We see her mom walk out of the room and right into the bright light, which obviously means that somebody is dead. The following day at Jefferson High School, she walks by Max, who gives a smoldering, weird kind of head nod like, hey, my, My neck hu. Forcing her to get a little bit giddy. Her two coding friends, Molly and Watson, notice the pep in her step and want to know about this Max because they can tell that she very much likes him. She does finally admit, yes, he's cute, and quickly changes the subject to their new jackets. In the halls, we meet Ginger, a student who's also a famous online influencer, which I think is very funny and a good friend of Rhea. Molly And Watson, again, very different than dad napped. They fill her in on Max and get an online update on the dance squad promo event that's happening tomorrow. It's all to raise money for homecoming and is inspired by the holidays. Holly. Everyone wears white, and they pelt each other with these brightly colored powder. And the dance squad is doing a UV event to alert people about it. Did you know about Holly? Because I've seen.
Sabrina Bryan
We were there during Holly.
Will Friedle
Is that.
Sabrina Bryan
Did you get to play film? We filmed it, yeah. They didn't. We didn't get to do too much of it because what the stuff they really use in India, like, could, like, easily, like, stain the skin.
Will Friedle
Well, doesn't it also get into, like, your mouth and your eyes? And that's all I'm thinking the whole time is. It's like, are you breathing it in, too?
Sabrina Bryan
And I know I. When we. When we get there, I. I was very surprised that because they were very cautious about how much we were getting. Gonna get to do.
Will Friedle
Right. Because it's a beautiful thing to watch.
Sabrina Bryan
We were actually there over the actual holiday, though. Oh, that's gorgeous.
Will Friedle
Yeah. The visuals are stunning. I mean, it was really cool.
Sabrina Bryan
Pretty, and everyone is just. It. It really does bring so much light and happiness to everywhere we were.
Will Friedle
It looks like if that's. That's really, really cool. But the bell rings. They're off to class. The teacher, who looks way younger than either me or Sabrina, calls on Molly and Watson to present what they've been working on. Molly makes the teacher sign an NDA, which made me laugh. And Watson presents their invention, the pizza drone. He demonstrates a drone that will deliver pizzas, but of course, it crashes, spilling pizza sauce everywhere. Rhea presents an app that tracks inventory at her dad's restaurant in real time, which is pretty great. The teacher's impressed, but says the project was an opportunity to have some fun. Rhea swears she did have fun, but the teacher isn't convinced. Then she reminds him about the upcoming parent teacher conference. Ooh, I hated those. It was always not working up to his potential. I'm sorry. That's a whole thing for my. I'll deal with that on my own time.
Sabrina Bryan
Try having to be in them now. It's.
Will Friedle
Oh, I couldn't even. Scary. Couldn't even imagine I would still. I'd be go right back to being like, oh, my God, I somehow I got a U in this class. Yeah, you remember that. That night, Ria's dad walks in on her tinkering with the app, and he's Blown away, he thanks her and says good night. The next day at school, while eating lunch, Ginger alerts the gang of a disaster. The DJ for the promo event got caught cheating and is suspended. And the black light dances in 20 minutes. Watson and Molly offer to beatbox, but they quickly pivot to Max. Rhea admits she hasn't actually heard him, but he seems to know what he's talking about. So Ginger as the dance squad go and get him and boom, crisis averted, he is hired. Ginger tells Rhea to come say hi and make sure he knows that she's the one that got him the gig. Smart. Now at the event, Max is quickly getting accustomed to the equipment. He thanks Ria for suggesting him and says he owes her one. The event starts and Max is killing it right off the bat. The dance squad quickly breaks into a routine while wearing black light neon outfits. You know me, I love a good dance sequence with black light neon outfits. This is truly so cool. I've never even seen. Does your dance squad do anything like this, Sabrina? Do you neon. Neon them up?
Sabrina Bryan
Okay, so they used to have a black light assembly at the school and they would bring in all of these just giant, you know, trying to get the gym to actually light up when it's like a big space. It was tough. And my girls would always wear like white stuff, you know, white outfits. And they'd get the glow in the dark paint, put it on the thing. But the drum line, they were the ones that would kill it. And they'd bring things out on the floor and they'd bang on their drums and the splattering and it was just like, I mean, they would go all out, we couldn't do too much, but they would just. Man, oh, it was so awesome. So yes, this actually reminded me of that. I was like, ah, man, I wish we did the blacklight assembly still. And we don't anymore.
Will Friedle
Yeah, I gotta do that.
Sabrina Bryan
They should bring that back.
Will Friedle
Well, it's this school. It's become a full on rave and DJ union. Max is basically now rocking a nightclub and Ginger then books him for the actual festival of color. With the party finished, Ginger thanks Max for coming through on short notice. She negs him though by saying he was good, but he'll need to step it up for the big day. She is off to get some pizza, leaving Ria alone with her turntable crush. Ria offers her help to Max to prep for the festival. She knows Ginger's taste. All he has to do is teach her how to dj. They set a date for a Saturday morning at a record store. I think a record store is kind of a fun first date, don't you?
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah, it's kind of. I love that we've seen it. We haven't seen it in this kind of movie, but it is always a nice place. Just like we, you know, getting to, like, know each other as musical styles.
Will Friedle
And it's like their bedroom.
Sabrina Bryan
You can tell a lot. Yeah, you can tell a lot.
Will Friedle
Yeah, I agree. Well, now it's the big date morning. Rhea and Max meet at Victory Vinyl, and he's picking out records for her. He gives her a DJ lesson, showing her the turntables, the mixer, and the crossfader. I kind of dug this because as somebody who doesn't know a lot about DJing, he, like, walked you through what it was, which is great. He explains beat matching, pitch control and beats per minute. The lesson is going very well, and it catches the attention of a customer. It's the DJ Lucas sent. I know so little about this world that I googled thinking this was a real guy. I was like, DJ Lucas sent. I want to hear some of his stuff. This guy's a fake guy. I swear to God. I don't know any of this stuff. The duo are, of course, nervous meeting their favorite musician, but he likes what he's heard. He gets them flyers for his Battle of the Beat Masters, which is a contest for team DJs. The winner gets his signature equipment and a personal letter. Lesson immediately. Rhea says Max will be there. Luca says he's looking for two things from a tell a story and make us care. He leaves and wishes them both luck. And man, are they excited. They decide to get coffee to go over the big moment and get to know each other a little bit better. Max says he moves with his mom a lot and it's tough to make friends while traveling, so he DJs because it makes it easier to connect with people. Ria reveals her mom was a great singer for her grandma's restaurant dance show, but she died when she was only eight. He gives his condolences and asks if she'd like to practice with him tomorrow. She apparently is in because we immediately cut to the next day at his place. He teaches her how to scratch. By the way, I apologize for me not sounding cool when I say any of these terms, but he teaches her how to scratch. But Max, of course, is disappointed by his mom when she says the music is too loud. She's on a business call. They're obviously not super close. We jump to a montage. We See Ria practicing with a YouTube tutorial and shopping for more records with Max. They seem to be really getting along, even holding hands and having dinner at the restaurant together. But more importantly, she's getting better at DJing and developing her own style very quickly. Even his mom likes her mix. This slightly bothers Max, who again has serious mommy issues. Ria, though it seems is a natural. Max thinks she can be an actual real artist, but she sees herself as a coder, not a musician. Then she starts to get a barrage of texts. It's parent teacher conference night so she has to get to the restaurant asap. It is busy at Spirit of India and her dad isn't happy. She's late and leaves for the parent teacher conference. But he's still a little miffed. The minute he's gone, her grandma wants to know all about this Max character. Her snitch brother took an educated guess and told her. Rhea admits yes, she digs him. Her grandmother warns her to be careful. The cute ones can be trouble. But Rhea promises they're just friends mostly. Ooo. Now we are at the parent teacher conference. Ria's teacher is walking Arvind through her other students projects and explains that although Ria's app idea is smart and impressive, she's worried that Rhea is holding herself back from finding something new. Arvin is kind of instantly offended. He would never force her into something she doesn't want to do. And his daughter is like him, very business minded. The teacher now wanting to be called Naomi. Oh, is this getting flirty? Swears she meant nothing by it and offers him a donut like you do any. Anybody offers me a donut, I'm going home with them anyway. Arvin accepts and says if it for the record, so would my wife. We're big donuts things. Arvin accepts and says if his daughter had a problem being at the restaurant, she would tell him. And then like I said, called it flirting.
Sabrina Bryan
Very inappropriate.
Will Friedle
You think they're adults by themselves? It's fine.
Sabrina Bryan
She's his te, his daughter's teacher, so they're both adults.
Will Friedle
It's okay. That's it might be a maybe not during the parent teacher conference. Maybe. Maybe slide into his DMs later. Did I say that right? Isn't that what it is?
Sabrina Bryan
Yes, but it still is that wrong. So wrong from you saying it.
Will Friedle
Does it? Is that what you're supposed to do? You slide into someone's dm?
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah, I mean outside of the school. Like they were both at the grocery store. That'd be One thing. But he's literally there for your kids. Like she conference.
Will Friedle
She was the one for.
Sabrina Bryan
No, she was the one that was being inappropriate.
Will Friedle
I love it.
Sabrina Bryan
Could have gotten called by the district for sure on that. Naomi, I'm telling you, relax.
Will Friedle
He likes the donut, but he swears his pastries are better. Naomi says she'll have to swing by and judge the food for herself. Even saying it's a date. Yes, she asks herself out. She does. Totally does.
Sabrina Bryan
Yes. That's okay.
Will Friedle
It's closing time at the restaurant and Arvin asks Grandma Arsha if he should cancel this date he accidentally fell into. She encourages him to go have some fun and infers he's focused too much on work and so are the kids. Kids. But a great mix is playing and Ria sure has the skill to pick good tunes off of Spotify. Back at school, Ria joins her friends to work on the Festival of Color website and notices they haven't put Max's name anywhere. Ginger said she's heard his new song and really no one loves it. She's already announced him, so he'll still be DJing, but she's not going to promote him. Rhea rushes to Max's house to listen to the track and even he knows it's not very good. Rhea gets to fixing it and just like the real guy who turned out to be a fake guy, DJ Lucas sent told them she knows he needs to tell a story. Max said he wants to have fun and likes the wicked synth pad, the killer bass sound and the crisp hi hat pattern. Rhea explains what her mom told her. There is music everywhere and encourages him to find inspiration in the things he really loves, like the beach and skateboarding. And she immediately finds a great sample to add. The mix improves and they decide to call it Feeling Good. And yeah, it improves because Rhea does it all. Keep that in mind. But Rhea realizes she's lost track of time. She's late for the dinner shift at the restaurant. Her dad is cleaning the kitchen. So she missed an entire dinner shift. Like you're supposed to be there for dinner shift at 4, 5 o'clock and then the restaurant's closed. It's like 11. So. Have you ever lost six hours in a day?
Sabrina Bryan
This was kind of hard to just like jump. I mean, I get it. She's in the like young butterflies. Totally just like zoning out. I could see her being really late, like an hour, a couple. But like you've missed the whole thing and not. And one of my. My things that I wrote down, not one person at this restaurant called her like where are you? Are you okay?
Will Friedle
Nothing.
Sabrina Bryan
Are you safe right now? Nothing happened. Just we're gonna wait for you to come back and give you give it to you then.
Will Friedle
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Sabrina Bryan
If it seems like all other options aren't working for them, go to tryfh.com to find out if weight loss meds are right right for you. Try FH.com Try FH.com Future Health is not a healthcare services provider. Meds are prescribed at providers discretion.
Will Friedle
Results may vary.
Sabrina Bryan
Sponsored by Future Health Are you still.
Will Friedle
Quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more@discover.com credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible beverage items like Red Bull and sparkling ice or breakfast favorites like Kellogg's Pop Tarts, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Kellogg's Eggo Waffles plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards. Even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. Oh I know another DJ. DJ Spinderella from the 80s.
Sabrina Bryan
Yes, that is a good one.
Will Friedle
Yeah, Spinderella is a good one.
Sabrina Bryan
She was with tlc.
Will Friedle
No, no, not tlc. Salt and pepper. Yeah, Spinderella.
Sabrina Bryan
There you go.
Will Friedle
I love that. Oh, wait, easy Rock. DJ EZ Rock. I don't know which one that was. It takes two to make a thing go right. Rob Bass and DJ EZ Rock. Man, I'm aging myself. Anyway, sorry, this is not the game. But you have three DJs. Do you think by the end of the podcast you can get to 10? No.
Sabrina Bryan
Really?
Will Friedle
I think that if you really sat with it, you could come up with 10. I could come up with 10. 10 DJs. Are there 10 DJs? Yes, there are literally hundreds of thousands.
Sabrina Bryan
Hundreds of them.
Will Friedle
Okay. Oh, wait, wait. Does the French guys that wore the headpie, does that count? Definitely DJs. But it's one. But yes, those are definitely DJs. Okay, I'll think of their name. I can't. I'll think of their name. All right, that's good. I'm at 4. All right. Anyway. Oh, who was. No, listen, I don't want to hijack the podcast. Sorry. Now I'm going to think. Oh, yeah, maybe we give you some.
Sabrina Bryan
Time at the end.
Will Friedle
Okay, fair enough, fair enough. Now you're. You're right, you're right. So anyway, she's been there for 32 hours and she's missed several days of work. 32 hours exactly.
Sabrina Bryan
Several days.
Will Friedle
Several days she's been missing and no one cares.
Sabrina Bryan
Best dad in the history of history. Best dad. Decoms.
Will Friedle
But instead of being angry, her father's just concerned that maybe she hates working there. But she swears she's happy. She says she's just lost track of five hours. Somehow he reminds her it'll be busy for the next few weeks and he will need her. She promises she will be there, but it seems like she's starting to question her enthusiasm. The grandmother enters to defend the 15 year old. This was one of my favorite parts too. It was a line that was off camera where she's like. He's like, you've now been late twice. And you hear the grandmother go, wow, twice in five years. I wonder if the local university is still going to accept her. Just all these great kind of.
Sabrina Bryan
She has some really good one liners. I love her.
Will Friedle
She had some great ones. So, yes. The grandmother enters to defend the 15 year old. Rhea. She should be with her friends, not working herself to the bone. Rhea begs them not to fight over this. She wants to help and won't be late again. She just wants everyone to be happy. And as a people pleaser myself, I know exactly what that's like. We get a montage of Rhea out in the busy dining hall night after night. Now even ditching coding classes and her friends, teacher Naomi, which I'm going to start calling inappropriate Teacher Naomi. Even she notices she's still helping Max with his mix, but getting so tired, dropping plates at work and dozing off at school. And now they're back at Max's, working on the mix, a process that appears to just be finding a song, calling it sick, and then dancing to it. Then Ria's alarm goes off. It's time to get back to work. But guess who's that spirit of India? Ms. Eloy, as I think how you say her name, aka Naomi. For the date, Arvin is a little surprised, but ready to impress. And Rhea and her brother are shocked. The date goes well and she loves the food. But on her way out, she asks for a little girl talk with Rhea. Ms. Ms. Eloy isn't happy. She's been missing coding classes. Watson and Molly are counting on her. Rhea gets very defensive and doesn't want people to keep asking her if she's happy. Happy. The next day, Max and Ria played Ginger, his new mix, and boom. Of course she loves it. While at the restaurant, a baby shower has rented the place out. But Ria was promised a day off for the Festival of Color. But her dad needs her. And this is where I was starting to be like, dude, you've now got a bunch of people telling you that this girl might not be happy. You even start to question if she's going to be happy. She's got one of the biggest things going on that she helped create. Let the girl go. Yeah, but no. Her dad needs her. She's bummed, but agrees to stay. The grandma overhears this and is not happy with Arvin. Neither was I. Arvin. Rhea calls Max and breaks the news. He's sad about it, kind of, but says he'll swing by later and let her know how it went. He sweetly says he doesn't need luck. He has her. And I was like, aw, they're setting up a nice cute thing. This is gonna only happy stuff is gonna happen. At the festival. And of course, at the baby shower, things are going smoothly. Rhea checks in on Ginger's social media and has an idea for her brother. She offers to get his tik tacos on the menu in exchange for something we are now at the festival. Ginger introduces Max to perform. And guess what? Rhea is on her way there too. She apparently ditched work. That's what she was talking to her brother about. And she's finally called back Watson and Molly. She's admits. She admits she's been a bad friend and apologizes, but promises after today she'll be a better friend. I thought it was a very nice call. Good scene. Like, I love. I love scenes where people take responsibility for the things they've done. Yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
Be accountable.
Will Friedle
Yep. I agree.
Sabrina Bryan
So good.
Will Friedle
Ginger announces to the crowd that they've raised enough money for not only homecoming, but for a pretty nice hotel. Not too nice, just pretty nice. Maybe a jacuzzi and a late checkout. Then it's time for DJ Max's new song. It starts and so does the Holly chalk fireworks. Color is everywhere. It goes all over the partygoers while they love the track. And Rhea finally arrives just in time to watch Max kill it. She is very proud. We get some cool slow mo. Shots of this beautiful colored chalk flying everywhere. The song is pumping. Did you like the song? Is it a good song?
Sabrina Bryan
I did, I did. I thought it was good and I thought he was pretty good. Cause I. I would think. I think it would be hard to really, like, hone in on how to perform as a dj. Like, I don't think we get to see dj, apparently.
Will Friedle
It's a lot of doing this. A lot.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah. It's like. But you know what I mean, for somebody to, like, hone in on that without being the DJ themselves. I think it's, like, kind of tough. I wouldn't exactly know how to do it. I mean, Alison Stoner, we saw her in the movie she was in with the Jonas Brothers.
Will Friedle
Yeah. Camp Ross.
Sabrina Bryan
It's. It's hard even as. Even though she's a mover, it's like, hard to, like, really, like, make that convincing.
Will Friedle
She's a phenomenal dancer, but it's such a different thing that it's just different vibe.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah. So, yeah, I agree.
Will Friedle
Max then announces that the song title is Feeling Good, the song they wrote. And apparently it's available to stream. He says he couldn't have done this himself. He wants to thank someone for their help, and then he thanks Ginger.
Sabrina Bryan
Did not see that coming.
Will Friedle
I didn't either. I was like, oh, it's gonna be so nice. Like, oh, no, they're putting a twist on it. Oh, no.
Sabrina Bryan
I knew the twist was going to come, but I didn't think it included. It would include Ginger. Like, the. The. I was so. I was like.
Will Friedle
I was hoping there wasn't going to be a twist. I was hoping it was going to.
Sabrina Bryan
Be nice dropping moment for me. Like, what? Ginger.
Will Friedle
So, yeah, she feels betrayed, and rightfully so. After the gig, Max is signing autographs for fans when Rhea confronts him. She asked why she didn't get a shout out, and he says he was too excited and slipped his mind. This doesn't feel any better for her. She named the song, she invented the concept. She even came up with the main vocal hook. How could this slip his mind? He gets very defensive. He says, look, she helped. But remember, this is his thing, okay? His equipment. He's the dj. She's not an artist. She makes Indian food, restaurant mixes. Oh, What?
Sabrina Bryan
I just.
Will Friedle
Dick, dick, dick.
Sabrina Bryan
See, I can DJ Sia. Sia.
Will Friedle
It was such a quick change for the character. You're like, in, in, in, in. I hate him. Like, it was that quick.
Sabrina Bryan
And she's so amazing. It was okay for me to hate him because he just hurt her feelings.
Will Friedle
Yep, that's what it was. And it just happened so fast. Like, oh, man. They instantly made me not care about this guy at all.
Sabrina Bryan
At all.
Will Friedle
And it's like, oh, yeah, it's terrible.
Sabrina Bryan
Get hit by a bus.
Will Friedle
Y'all care.
Sabrina Bryan
Oh, geez.
Will Friedle
Wow.
Sabrina Bryan
You just hurt this little girl's feelings. And she has been busting her ass for you, Max. You suck.
Will Friedle
His mom's gonna move him in another month anyway, so. Yeah. But she says she'd never take credit for others work and storms off. Max wants to follow her, but unfortunately his headphones are connected to the mixer, so it's just like a leash. He can't go anywhere. And apparently I have it on very good authority that that actually is what happens.
Sabrina Bryan
I was wondering that.
Will Friedle
Yeah, apparently it's like, oh, I'm attacked.
Sabrina Bryan
Makes sense. Yeah.
Will Friedle
Then we see that Ginger and the coding friends all heard what Rhea said to Max. Max says Rhea was just being dramatic, but they call him a filthy liar and they walk away. And I love that her friends are instantly on her side. It's like. And now Max's Persona non grata back home. Rhea is, of course, in very big trouble. Her dad knows she left mid shift, which would be hard to hide, seeing as she's colored in multicolored paint and now he can't count on her anymore, which I was like, dude, that's harsh. She's missed a day of work in five years.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah.
Will Friedle
She says she's sorry.
Sabrina Bryan
Fifteen.
Will Friedle
And she's 15. Exactly. She says she's sorry, but he grounds her for two months, which again, the grounding. I understand you can't lie, but give the girl a break. Rio then breaks down in her room. The stress has finally gotten to her and she's been dealing with a lot of stress I felt for this girl. Eventually, Aria joins her grandmother to pray and explain why leaving the restaurant was an emergency. She says she went to the festival and had her heart ripped out by Max. She wants to return to Spirit of India and pretend that none of this ever happened. Happened. Her grandmother says she refuses to let her hide in her work like her dad does. Ria feels like it's her responsibility with her mom gone. But her grandmother says it's not her job to make everyone happy. The grandmother was so amazing in this movie. I know. Grandmother encourages her to make a new song. Make so much music it'll crush Max. Yes. When Ria worries she's out of ideas, her grandmother smiles and says her mom used to say the same thing every time she finished a new song. She'd feel tapped out. Then the grandmother pulls out a box full of tapes, jewelry and photos. It's audio of Ria's mom's songs. They find one tape that says for Rhea. That night, Rhea listens to her mom's music, finding new and emotional inspiration in their connection. Even standing by the window and finding music in the streets outside like she was taught growing up. The next day, Ginger, Molly and Watson go to Ria's house with a box of stuff. They know she can't leave the house, so they came to her with DJ equipment. I thought this was funny. Like, so we just came here. They did great friends. They tell Ria she'll need this stuff to win the DJ contest. They submitted her mixes and she's. And she's going to compete against. Wait for it, Max. But how will she win if she can't leave the house? That's when her grandmother enters. Don't worry, she'll take care of it. We enter a montage of sorts. Ginger, Molly and Watson working on music. Her friends even comb the streets, sending her the videos of sounds to inspire new records. Ria even uses sound she finds in the restaurant. And she decides on her DJ name. It's gonna be Rhea. Hey, it works. Plus, you've got all this stuff already. You're letting your names on everything. It's just easier. While Rhea practices at home, Arvin wants to talk to his daughter. He likes what he hears, but she's timid to talk about her New passion. And he walks out. Which makes sense because music is the thing that connected the whole family, and so that's got to be tough. She sees a new social media post from Max bragging about the battle, and she's more motivated than ever. She decides to add one more element to the track. Her mother's sister. She plays a song for her grandma, who immediately recognizes her daughter's voice. Ria's calling the song. It's all music. And will wear her mother's jewelry at the event. Very, very sweet. Did you cry?
Sabrina Bryan
I did.
Will Friedle
Did you?
Sabrina Bryan
I cried earlier. I've. I cried earlier.
Will Friedle
When did you cry earlier?
Sabrina Bryan
With the flashback of the flash.
Will Friedle
Oh, you cried with the flashback. We're mothers and daughters.
Sabrina Bryan
You just, oh, this poor little baby has not had her mom. Like, I have such a great relationship with my mom. I now have a daughter that got me so early on, I went, oh, God, this is what we're gonna do today.
Will Friedle
Hey, someday one of us are both gonna cry at the same dcom someday. You watch.
Sabrina Bryan
Well, we kind. We both. Didn't we? Color of Friendship? Didn't we cry a little bit? Didn't you cry?
Will Friedle
We might have cried at the color. I cried at one. I can't remember what, but it's.
Sabrina Bryan
I cried at Color of a Friendship for sure.
Will Friedle
I think I did too. I cried at the tree one. Oh, that's right. You did not. Did you? I swear to God. Yeah, okay. The tree one. Wow.
Sabrina Bryan
Jensen has a very difficult relationship with trees. It's just not warm to me. I get it. Okay, Cool, Jensen. Cool.
Will Friedle
We are back at the Spirit of India. Things are really busy again. Arvin calls Grandma Asha. He gave her and Ria the night off, but he needs Asha back. She apologizes. She's stuck on the subway, and he needs to figure out what to do without depending on his daughter and mother in law. We are now at the packed Battle of the Beat Masters. Ria enters with her grandma. They're both sporting big smiles and sparkly golden outfits. I loved bringing in the Indian, Indian kind of heritage and wardrobe here. It was perfect. She's rocking the jewelry. It looked great. The panel of judges include fake but real DJ Lucas sent and contestants will be judged by skill and level of applause after two rounds. Never like applause meter. It's just. It's just a popularity contest. Backstage, Max bumps into Ria and tells her he never meant to hurt her. But Rhea says, this isn't about you do. It's about making music. And she just doesn't care.
Sabrina Bryan
Oh, this is the best line in the movie. I loved this. Like, boom shakalaka. You suck, Max. See you later. No one cares. No one cares.
Will Friedle
Oh, so good. DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Sabrina Bryan
Oh, there you go.
Will Friedle
That's five. DJ Jazzy Jeff, the Helmet Guys. The Helmet guys are the Helmet Guys. No, I'll name the Helmet Guys. I'll remember the Helmet Guys. I have. They're on the list, but I'll remember the Helmet.
Sabrina Bryan
He was the one with Will Smith, right?
Will Friedle
Yes. Okay, DJ Jazzy Jeff. Okay, good. I'm at five. If I can think of the Helmet Guys names. We are now at the semifinals and even Ms. El. Well, inappropriate Ms. Eloise is there. We see DJs with names like DJ Len, Cool Lavender Bear, Colossus Creation. Then Union Max. The little jerk is a pretty good set. Passing Rhea on her way out, who also gets the crowd and her grandma dancing. With the first round done, then the finals are set. It's DJ Union Max versus Rhea, which I'm glad that worked out. Or would have been a weird movie if it was DJ Union Max against somebody else.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah.
Will Friedle
Ginger goes live on Instagram from backstage. And back at Spirit of India, her snitch ass punk brother accidentally lets her dad see what's going on. Now the dad and brother rush out of the restaurant. Arvin looks. Looks furious as they sit in traffic. The finals have begun. DJ Union Max is up first and the crowd is feeling his set. He's gonna be hard to beat. But now it's Ria's turn. She's announced, but she hasn't come out yet. We can feel the tension. It's starting to build. Is she quitting? And then in the wings, we see her and she's feeling very hesitant. But Rhea takes one last breath and walks out. She places her laptop and records down and works hard to find a calmness and then presses play. It's a chill song made up of wind sounds, bird chirping and splashes of water. It's somewhere between Enya and a rainforest, by the way, huge Enya fan, no problem saying it. I will die on that hill. The beat eventually drops and even Max knows he's done for. Rhea adds one last element. Her mom's tape. Her mother's haunting voice mixes into the track just as her dad and brother enter the event. Makes me wonder who's watching the restaurant. Rhea is in the zone. I mean, just in the zone, feeling her mother's presence. The climax of the song hits. And then, guess what? My favorite thing ever happens. Everyone in the audience Magically knows a synchronized dance. What a coincidence.
Sabrina Bryan
She did it a few times.
Will Friedle
I know. But then everybody's doing it. They're all. All such fast learners. And you know, that's my favorite thing. I love that. When they started banging on stuff, I was like, I hope they break it a song, because that's Sabrina's favorite thing. Rhea's dad is so proud and emotional. He asked Ms. Ella, you know what? Let's just call her Naomi. Isn't she amazing? But she responds with less talking, more dancing. The song comes to a big celebratory end and the judges give her a standing ovation. While her dad is wiping away his tears, much like Jensen did during that Christmas movie with the tree, that snitch ass brother sees his opportunity to ask for Tik tacos to enter the menu. And he agrees. They should have been on anyway. They sound amazing. The judges calculate their votes. With Max and Rhea back on stage, DJ Lucas sent congratulates them and announces the Beatmaster champion. It's Rhea. Backstage, Rhea hugs her grandmother and asks her dad if she's grounded. He says quite the opposite. He couldn't be happier. They hug and DJ Lucas sent appears. He loved her set. Fans and friends swarm her, eventually seeing Max in the crowd. He just walks away now, a total garbage loser. And part of me as he was leaving is like, yeah, serves him right for being moved every couple months. This kid has no friends and now no one in that school likes him either. Damn.
Sabrina Bryan
I know.
Will Friedle
It's pretty harsh.
Sabrina Bryan
It's kind of harsh.
Will Friedle
It's harsh. We end. Yeah, it's like now it's like, oh, man, I finally found a place. And anyway, we end the movie now at something called DJ Sundays, a new night at Spirit of India. Rhea is DJing and the place is bumping. The credits roll and we see all the characters partying and dancing, including her grandmother. We even see tick tacos and Ms. Naomi, who now appears to be dating Arvin. And to top it all off, Molly and Watson's pizza drones deliver a dish to a table. We pull out to see a line outside, all partygoers waiting to get in, while Rhea controls the dance floor. And that is our movie. Wow. I still can't think of the. The two. The two masked French guys. Guys, it'll come to me.
Sabrina Bryan
These days, it feels like everyone is talking about how the American dream of owning a home is dying, that so many hardworking Americans have been locked out of home ownership. Hi, guys. This is Cheekies from the Cheekies and Chill podcast. And if you are one of the millions yearning to own your home, Rocket is here to give you back the keys. They're working to lower down payments to lift us up, giving first time buyers a head start on their starter homes and fighting for homes for those who fought and served so we can have ours. The American Dream isn't dying, it's just been out of reach. Everyone in this country deserves to own a piece of it. And Rocket isn't going to stop until everyone can own the dream. Visit rocket.com or call 804Rocket this is.
Will Friedle
Ashley Kineti from the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast. It feels like everyone is talking about GLP1s these days. Days those are OIC and Semaglutide and.
Sabrina Bryan
With Future Health you can find out.
Will Friedle
If they're right for you too.
Sabrina Bryan
Maybe you feel like you've been struggling with your weight for years and no matter how much you diet and exercise, you just don't feel healthy. Just go to try fh.com to find.
Will Friedle
Out if weight loss meds are right for you. Try fh.com future health is not healthcare services.
Sabrina Bryan
Provider meds are prescribed at providers discretion.
Will Friedle
Results may very Sponsored by Future Health. Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more@discover.com credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report hey it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 25th 5th spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the point. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible cleaning items from all and Cotton L and dinner essentials from Daisy, Skippy, Hellman's and Barilla plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. Can we do some real reviews?
Sabrina Bryan
Yes. I need help with this person's name though.
Will Friedle
Dry. Oh Gigante. Dry O Gigante. Okay. That one.
Sabrina Bryan
Okay. Him. He did a five star.
Will Friedle
Him.
Sabrina Bryan
Him. Inspiring drama. Adding in one line to give credit to Max at the end would have been better though. So I actually I agree with this one. I don't think that they needed to End. They don't need to be bro. Maybe romantically connected anymore, but it would have been nice for, like, they just kind of have like a small thing, like something that they gave the head.
Will Friedle
Now you want more?
Sabrina Bryan
The, like an apology?
Will Friedle
You want Johnny handing the trophy to Daniel LaRusso at the end of Karate Kid and saying, hey, Daniel, good match. You want. You want that recognition?
Sabrina Bryan
I need something because she just put you in your place. You were a jerk. And also, again, like, I don't want you to not have friends either. So do the right thing.
Will Friedle
I know.
Sabrina Bryan
And actually, like, say you're sorry. Hey, you deserved this. I was wrong. You know nothing.
Will Friedle
This is why Max has no friends. This is why Max has no friends.
Sabrina Bryan
Max.
Will Friedle
I have the one star. And this, of course, is given to us this week by big orange nation 41, which just begs the question. There's 40 other big orange nations. Here we go. One star. I know it's a movie, but learning how to DJ takes years and years. Also, producing music literally takes years. You can't rain man your way into dance music. This movie is stupid. And according to Disney, I could learn how to fly a plane in a couple of days or learn how to be a three star Michelin chef after a weekend cooking class. One star. Wow. Well, this week, Big Orange Nation 41 will be spinning.
Sabrina Bryan
Where is your level of sparkle, dust and magic, mister?
Will Friedle
Nope, there's no sparkle, dust and or magic. And now, of course, we are coming to our favorite portion. Well, I like it. Sabrina loves it. Which is our. Our game, our feature of the week. And this one is called Beat per Minute. Of course. Producer Jensen does these now, I think specifically just to annoy Sabrina, which is kind of my favorite part of the day. So to honor the art of DJing, we will be given an iconic song and a number of beats per minute. We have to decide whether the actual BPM is higher or lower than that. Yikes. So say we're given a song and the number is 108 beats per minute. It we have to answer with a higher or lower. 3 out of 5 wins. So here we go. You're a musician, so you could probably do this a lot better than me. Number one, bye bye bye by NSYNC. 160 beats per minute.
Sabrina Bryan
So we're saying is it higher or lower than that? Okay, higher. It's definitely lower than that.
Will Friedle
Okay, then I'm gonna go with Sabrina. I'm gonna say it's lower than that. Bye bye bye is 173 beats per minute. Wow.
Sabrina Bryan
Okay. Number. Okay. Okay.
Will Friedle
Number two. Hotel California by the Eagles. 150 beats per minute. It has to be less than that, right?
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah.
Will Friedle
It's a slow song. Has to be less than that. It is lower, but by very little. 147. Wow. Okay. Number three. You can't touch this by MC Hammer. 129 beats per minute. It's got to be above.
Sabrina Bryan
Definitely higher than.
Will Friedle
Higher than that. It is higher. 133. Okay, you got two. One more. Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. 130 beats per minute.
Sabrina Bryan
Wait, is that the. That's not the Ghostbusters.
Will Friedle
There's something. Strange neighborhood.
Sabrina Bryan
Who you going to call, by the way? I've used like every single one of these songs in one of my routines.
Will Friedle
There you go. I'm going to say it's. I'm going to say it's higher than 130 beats per minute.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah, it's got. It's probably higher.
Will Friedle
Coming down to the last question. It is lower. 115.4 beats per minute.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah, you're right.
Will Friedle
Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. And I'm the only person in the world and I love Sabrina so much that has never heard this song. So what? I don't listen to the radio. No.
Sabrina Bryan
This song.
Will Friedle
No, I haven't. I haven't heard new music.
Sabrina Bryan
They. It's like it's got to be on an ad of something that you've listened to.
Will Friedle
Then let's put it this way. If I've heard it, I don't know what it is.
Sabrina Bryan
Okay.
Will Friedle
And I love Sabrina to death. She's awesome person. I just, I don't listen to new music.
Sabrina Bryan
I like, absolutely am like just in love with her.
Will Friedle
So is it. Then you gotta win this or lose this for us.
Sabrina Bryan
Is it more?
Will Friedle
Well, I guarantee it. Like a cbs. Okay, then maybe. Okay. Then again, I've never recognized, like. Oh, that's.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah, yeah. You don't know.
Will Friedle
And I didn't watch. I don't watch Saturday Night Live or any of that.
Sabrina Bryan
I feel like her stuff has been in ads a lot too. Like, they've really used her stuff a lot. Okay. But I think.
Will Friedle
Is it a slow song or a fast song?
Sabrina Bryan
It's a slower song.
Will Friedle
Okay.
Sabrina Bryan
It's probably still just a little bit higher than what that is, though.
Will Friedle
So you're going with higher.27.
Sabrina Bryan
Yeah, I'm.
Will Friedle
All right. Sabrina's going with higher, so I'm going to go the opposite and say lower. Will has a winning strategy.
Sabrina Bryan
How many beats for a minute is that song 104. 104.
Will Friedle
Yeah. I just played against Sabrina.
Sabrina Bryan
Oh, I got nervous. I got nervous. I was using a DJ site, but.
Will Friedle
Then I realized those are the perfect sites to use. I was betting against the house. Oh God, that's so funny. All right. You hedged them. Yeah, I did. I hedged my bets and I won again. I love that always. Thank you, producer Jensen. When in doubt, bet against Sabrina. Can we do some Sabrina Cs, please?
Sabrina Bryan
Yes. We did not hit on the little actress that's in one of my favorite shows right now, Exo Kitty. She was, she played Molly. She was so good. And I.
Will Friedle
They're all great.
Sabrina Bryan
She wasn't the lead in this in any sense, but like, she. To me, all of these young actors to me just felt like home runs. They were just so good in their, in their characters and I.
Will Friedle
You know what the other thing is? They were all super interesting.
Sabrina Bryan
Yes. They all.
Will Friedle
Yeah.
Sabrina Bryan
Yes. I loved, I loved the other best friend. Like, I love, I even love the girl that was the influencer. I thought she was really good. Poor Ginger, like got all of a sudden gets mixed up with this guy when she's the one that like, that wasn't Ginger's fault. Was. Was so sweet and saying like, you should make sure that he knows you got this job. You know what I mean? And like, so I mean. But anyway, I just loved all their characters. I. Speaking of the DJ gig, that one pulled me a little bit out of my zone because I felt much like you in that sense of like, wait, he has his computer and I know that wasn't his setup because he makes it a note about that. But like he was really actually ready to do like a full on gig in 20 minutes. In like 20 minutes. Like, maybe. I don't know, I'm not, I'm not a dj, so. But that seemed like a little like.
Will Friedle
You know, you know, who would agree with you? Big Orange Nation 41 1. Yep.
Sabrina Bryan
There were a couple times that I felt like, oh, we're just gonna not at all try to make it real time with the, with the way they did some of the editing. And one of them happens right after this gig where they're taught. They start their initial conversation on the stage and they're walking out. And then within mid sentence, they're like in the middle of the hallway. Because if they've been.
Will Friedle
I know exactly what you're talking about.
Sabrina Bryan
Quite a few times where I was like, we're just gonna. Okay, like, there's no door frame. We could have walked through, like, didn't need to even start in there. They. She could have caught up with him in the hallway or stayed in there. Wasn't needed. Whatever. That one pulled me out. Some of the lines, like we were saying, I loved Debbie's liner isn't an emergency. She had that. There was also Battle of the Masters DJ competition. What's that?
Will Friedle
Yeah, it's kind of in the title.
Sabrina Bryan
It's kind of in the title. And the grandma had a bunch. Nani had a bunch. And one of her says, and as the children say, no take backs tied on that one. And then lastly, I did find the four minutes that could have been at least shortened somewhat to get us to that 90 minute mark. And for me, although I'm all about emotional scenes, I love them. It was the long song that happened when she was listening to her mom's tape and looking that we came. Dragged out a little bit. So maybe not four full minutes, but at least two. I think they could have cut it in half.
Will Friedle
At least. We could have snapped. We could have snipped here and there.
Sabrina Bryan
Snipped it. Yeah. And I think. Oh, and then the last thing is. So this was my question, you know, how he got pulled by the. You know, he got, like, the headphones. Right. Which happens to me all the time when we get off this. This podcast, by the way. But then at the end, when all the other DJs were in the audience, they all had their headphones, like, as if they just, like, wear them around, like.
Will Friedle
Yeah. As a voiceover actor, we don't usually carry our headphones with us, but maybe that's different for DJs. I don't know. Maybe that's what they do.
Sabrina Bryan
Or it's just like, that's how the. I guess they decided to, like, signify that, like, oh, they were one of the ones that was up on stage. It was just kind of weird. So I was like, do they get pulled and. Or. Or are they using, like, the beats that are Bluetooth? I don't know. It's a question we. You and I probably can't answer, but maybe the fans out there can. They're gonna have to know at Instagram.
Will Friedle
Because I. Yeah, let us know because I have no idea. It's not my world.
Sabrina Bryan
No. So. But that was it. I really. I'm looking forward to rating this because.
Will Friedle
Me too.
Sabrina Bryan
This is probably one of my favorites that we've done so far.
Will Friedle
Well, then let's rate it, harold. Let's do one out of ten. Let's do one out of 10 this week. Okay, let's do one being the worst and 10 being the best. We'll switch it up. Up. And our options this week are going to be 1 out of 10 wicked synth pads. 1 out of 10 killer bass sounds. 1 out of 10 crispy hi hat patterns. Pretty nice hotels. Mommy DJ issues. 1 out of 10 pizza drones. 1 out of 10 headphone leashes or 1 out of 10 lavender bears. What would you like, Sabrina?
Sabrina Bryan
I, I don't want to use this one but lavender bears really jumped out at me as well.
Will Friedle
I just want to add 1 out of 10 tik tacos because I think that's, that's a good one too.
Sabrina Bryan
Let's do Tik tok.
Will Friedle
You want to do Tik Tokos? Let's do Tik Tok.
Sabrina Bryan
Although I do love all these crispy hi hat.
Will Friedle
They do. I think I, I think you went first last time. So it's up to me. I really liked this movie. I, I, I thought she, the, the star, she's a star. I mean she's clearly, you see people walk on screen where it's just like, oh, that okay. She's going to be huge. I'm giving this a solid. 8.5 TikTok. This was a very good movie. I enjoyed myself. I'm sure it helped. Coming right off a dad nap. I really do. I dislike that movie so much that seeing this was kind of a breath of fresh air. So I really liked this movie. I thought it was great. 8.5 TikTokos for me.
Sabrina Bryan
Nice. I'm gonna go a little bit step above you with nine TikTokos.
Will Friedle
Oh yeah, it's good.
Sabrina Bryan
This is one of my favorite movies. And again, this is to like, I love music but I don't know anything about DJing. And so it was very cool for me. It felt like it, it was. Yes. She probably got better than what she could have in a, in a couple weeks.
Will Friedle
Right?
Sabrina Bryan
But at the same time, that's okay. I loved the Indian culture inspiration that was involved in this. It didn't overpower anything. It was nice. Again, I loved. I know you were saying that you wish there would have been more through the rolling credits. I would have loved to see a full blown Bollywood performance. But within the movie I felt like it was just enough, just enough dancing because it really wasn't supposed to be like a musical in that sense. It was not about that. You know, it really was actually about the music and DJing. So I thought there was just enough because it's hard to have good music in that dance. That's how you know that's true. But at the same time I loved the amount of all of that inspiration that they had in there. And again she the whole cast was just so good. They just, it was yeah, the easiest watch. I enjoyed it and it was such a fun movie.
Will Friedle
Yep. Highly recommend this movie for everybody. If you haven't seen it is very good. But our next movie is another very niche skill based movie. What happens when an athlete's true passion is rope jumping? Yes, it's 2007's Jump in starring former Magical Rewind guest Corbin Bleu and one of Hollywood's biggest names in 2025, Keke Palmer. It is on Disney so feel free to watch it asap. And while we wait this week on our Park Hopper episode, we will be chatting with actress Tanya Gennady who will bring us back to two wild dcoms we covered a while back and are still frankly obsessed with First Pixel Perfect where she played Cindy, the lead singer of the Zeta Bites before Loretta, a pesky AI hologram took over. And secondly, and most notably, she was Mojo the hockey playing and very spiritual quirky pal in Go figure. We had a lot to talk to her about and oh man, she is so much fun. So please listen to a sneak preview of the interview right now. So I said I can play the drums. So they sent the director and the producer to a place of your choosing.
Sabrina Bryan
To show that you can play the drums. So I went to Burbank Rehearsal studio and I brought, you know, music and I actually played the drum.
Will Friedle
Comes an Indonesian song that I learned.
Sabrina Bryan
With my dad's money and I played it like really loud and it was so exciting and I booked a job that day.
Will Friedle
Wow. It was. We were just. I was seriously smile the entire time. She is hysterical and a lot of fun. So don't miss it. Make sure you also subscribe to our dedicated Magical Rewind feed on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcast podcast. And for more info you can follow us at Magical Rewind Pod on the Instagram machine now. By the way, I've also thought about Carl Cox, Smoking Joe, David Guetta, Martin Gurie, Charlotte DeWitt, Steve Aoki. I know all these details. What are you reading? What are you talking about?
Sabrina Bryan
I'm not reading.
Will Friedle
You know how bad I am at this even cheating. I've never heard of any of these people.
Sabrina Bryan
And by the way, he still hasn't said Daft Punk.
Will Friedle
The guys with the thing things Daft Punk that's it cheating even? What? What about Paul Van Dyke or John Digweed or, or Ariel Free?
Sabrina Bryan
These are all dance.
Will Friedle
These are all dance DJs. I I again, I literally put the list up and I, I, I've heard of deadmau5. Okay, there you go. That. But the list, the top of the list. Tso Carl Cox. David. Get a skill Relics.
Sabrina Bryan
David. Oh my gosh. David Guetta.
Will Friedle
And it's TS dj.
Sabrina Bryan
Okay.
Will Friedle
All right. Calvin Harris.
Sabrina Bryan
DJ Skrillex.
Will Friedle
Calvin Harris.
Sabrina Bryan
I don't know any of those.
Will Friedle
Diplo. I've heard of Diplo. Yes. Hey, I got one. This is the cheating list. I still have never heard. Oh, God, I'll get better. Bye, everybody.
Sabrina Bryan
Bye.
Will Friedle
These days it feels like everyone is talking about how the American dream of homeownership has become out of reach. Well, Rocket is trying to give more of us a chance to own our homes. They're making homeownership simpler and more accessible to more people, turning renters into owners. Rocket believes that everyone deserves a shot at the American dream. So are you ready? Own the dream. Visit rocket.com or call 804Rocket Rocket hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock up Savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible cleaning items from ALL and Cotton L and dinner essentials from Daisy, Skippy, Hellman's and Barilla, plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more@discover.com credit card card Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report, you know more about the PayPal debit card than you did at the start of this podcast. You know that the PayPal debit card gives you the ability to pay everywhere. You know that you earn 5% cash back on a category of your choosing on up to $1,000 of monthly purchases. And you know that you get to pick a new category every month. Apparel for back to school. Groceries for the holidays. Start earning 5% cash back with the PayPal debit card today day don't just pay PayPal terms apply. See PayPal app. This card is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. pursuant to license by MasterCard International, Inc.
Podcast Summary: Pod Meets World – Episode "Spin"
Release Date: March 5, 2025
In this episode of Pod Meets World, hosted by Will Friedle and Sabrina Bryan from iHeartPodcasts, the duo dives deep into Disney Channel's latest Original Movie (DCOM), "Spin". The hosts aim to provide listeners with an insightful analysis of the film, exploring its themes, production nuances, and overall reception.
"Spin" is a contemporary DCOM that marks a significant evolution in Disney's approach to original movies. Directed by Indian filmmaker Manjari Makjani, the film blends elements of EDM, Indian culture, and teenage drama to tell the story of Rhea Kumar, a 15-year-old aspiring DJ navigating family responsibilities and personal passions.
Plot Summary: The movie follows Rhea Kumar, played by Avantika, as she balances her role in her family's restaurant business with her burgeoning interest in EDM DJing. The narrative explores her relationships, especially with Max, a transfer student and fellow music enthusiast, and her journey to overcoming personal and familial challenges.
Cultural Integration: Sabrina praises the seamless incorporation of Indian cultural elements, noting, "I really loved the Indian culture inspiration that was involved in this. It didn't overpower anything. It was nice" ([74:21]).
"Spin" stands out as Disney's first DCOM to feature an Indian American lead, signifying Disney's commitment to diversity and inclusion. The film was produced during the pandemic, adding layers of complexity to its creation process.
Direction and Crew: Manjari Makjani, known for her work on Netflix's Skater Girl, brings a fresh perspective to Disney. The cast predominantly comprises new faces, with Anna Cathcart reprising her role from the Descendants series, adding a familiar touch for longtime Disney fans.
Music and Soundtrack: Marcus de Vries, a Grammy-winning producer, crafted the film's soundtrack, emphasizing EDM's role in storytelling. Sabrina highlights, "I did love that it was an Indian filmmaker as the director too, because I think that is really big." ([16:08])
Despite a lukewarm performance in traditional Nielsen ratings, drawing only 535,000 viewers during its premiere—a first for DCOMs—the film received a more favorable critical reception.
Will notes, "Spin may have been a quote unquote failure when it came to the Nielsen ratings, but critically, it fared much better." ([08:22])
Evolution of DCOMs: The hosts discuss the shift from traditional cable premieres to streaming platforms, emphasizing how "Spin" adapts to the modern viewing habits of younger audiences.
Cultural Representation: The film's portrayal of Indian culture and its integration into a Western setting sparks a discussion on authenticity and storytelling.
Will and Sabrina share their candid opinions on various aspects of "Spin," balancing praise with constructive criticism.
Positive Highlights:
Areas for Improvement:
Final Ratings:
"Spin" represents a progressive step for Disney Channel Original Movies, blending diverse cultural narratives with contemporary music trends. While it may not have broken viewership records, its critical acclaim and thoughtful production make it a noteworthy addition to the DCOM universe. Will and Sabrina's enthusiastic discussion underscores the film's potential to resonate with a broad audience, celebrating its strengths while acknowledging areas for growth.
Listeners are encouraged to watch "Spin" to experience its unique blend of cultures and music firsthand.
Stay tuned for upcoming episodes where Will and Sabrina continue to explore more DCOMs, including interviews with industry insiders and in-depth analyses of beloved classics.
This summary is intended for informational purposes and aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the "Spin" episode from Pod Meets World.