Stepsister from Planet Weird

Summary

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Pod Meets World — "Stepsister from Planet Weird"

iHeartPodcasts | August 20, 2025
Hosts: Will Friedle & Sabrina Bryan

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Will Friedle and Sabrina Bryan continue their deep dive into the wacky world of Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs) by tackling the 2000 oddity "Stepsister from Planet Weird". With characteristic humor, critical appraisal, and frequent asides, they dissect the film’s plot holes, bizarre creative choices, and behind-the-scenes trivia. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when two ‘90s-00s TV icons meet a DCOM that leaves them mostly bewildered, this is the episode for you.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. "Stepsister from Planet Weird": Background & Context

• Premise: The movie follows Megan, whose life is upended when her mom gets engaged to Cosmo—an odd man from "Canada" who’s actually a bubble-based alien refugee, along with his daughter Ariel.
• Source Material: Based on the book by Frances Lance, a prolific children’s author known for the Luna Bay Monthly series. Lance sadly passed away in 1999, before the movie’s release.
• Production Oddities: Shot in Australia, rushed into production just three weeks after being greenlit by Disney—“you can tell there’s holes in it” (Will, 84:14).
• DCOM Lore: Will pokes fun at a 2017 CableTV.com survey that claimed this was Pennsylvania’s most popular DCOM:

  “I am BEYOND skeptical that this is true.” (Will, 07:33)

2. The Movie’s Plot—A Surreal Recap

• Opening: Megan dreams of popularity, her parents’ reunion, and windsurfing glory—before being pulled back to her less exciting reality by little brother Trevor ("Die, alien, die!" [22:03]).
• The Families Collide: Cosmo and daughter Ariel arrive, their weirdness barely concealed (“He’s screaming excitement and spinning Megan all around. Quite a first impression.” [25:13]).
• Ariel’s Alien Nature: Rewind sequences switch viewpoints between Megan and Ariel, revealing Ariel as a literal bubble from planet Zircon, desperate to return to her bubble boyfriend, Fanuil.
• School Days: Ariel immediately becomes the talk of the school ("…turns out being weird is, like, the coolest thing ever." [41:00]) and is idolized despite social mishaps—her quirks go viral.
• The Alliance: Initially competing, Megan and Ariel team up to sabotage their parents' wedding, staging friendship for their folks but plotting to break them up.
• Climactic Chaos: The wedding is interrupted by the alien emperor (Fanuil’s dad), who threatens everyone with a freeze-ray—and is defeated by a barrage of household hair dryers and a conveniently wielded leaf blower.

3. Hosts’ Running Commentary on the Film’s Absurdities

• Confusion around rules of alien physiology ("Do they turn into bubbles because of water? Wind?” [54:59])
• The film’s frequent, jarring transitions (“…maybe even in film history, we jump right to a doctor's office where a therapist is talking to and blaming Megan.” [56:27])
• Accents and Australian filming gaffes (“Everyone is either painfully hiding their accent or just letting it fly for no real reason.” [23:50])
• Skewering popular character tropes (“…they made this guy [Cutter]—like, how anybody would like this guy, even his parents…” [24:53])
• Questions about the family’s finances ("…is he getting shipments of diamonds? Did he, when he had to flee last minute, did he also happen to have hundreds of thousands…of diamonds…?" [31:02])

4. Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Film’s Place in DCOM History:

  “A film drenched in Y2K optimistic fear…” (Will, 05:19)

• Host Reactions to Weirdness:

  “If you’re listening along and haven’t seen the movie, I’m not just throwing out words. This is what’s happening.” (Will, 30:54) “You could just tell they didn’t have a clear direction at this point. It seemed like…” (Sabrina, 87:04)

• On Character Dynamics:

  “Now keep away from wind and drink some root beer because it’s time for the synopsis.” (Will, 08:40) "She just acts like she was just terrified [of wind]. I don't know." (Sabrina, 52:16)

• On the Ending:

  “And then Fionnual and Megan arrive. She doesn’t freak out at all when she sees her frozen, soon-to-be stepdad…” (Will, 64:14)
  “So I'm like, but wait, [Fionnu] like, helped, like—get rid of his dad…That's kind of crazy...” (Sabrina, 80:41)

5. Reception & Final Ratings

• Hosts’ Judgement:
  • Both hosts found the film a struggle to get through, with little redeeming aside from moments of unintentional humor.
  • Will: “This was a slog for me to get through 85 minutes. I mean, I’m gonna give it 3.5 bring back double teams…” (Will, 83:09)
  • Sabrina: “It was rough. It was a struggle just to find any type of, like, sunshine and joy…” (Sabrina, 84:14)
• On DCOM Eras:
  • A clear distinction between pre- and post-Cheetah Girls DCOMs and the film’s place as a shambolic pre-CG entry.

6. Game Segment: "Take Me To Your Leader" ([72:39])

• Sabrina and Will play a trivia game on famous aliens and their home planets, besting producer Tara’s questions (mostly).
• Brief detour to 1980s pop culture (Alf eats cats!).

7. ‘Sabrina Sees’: Easter Eggs & Randomness ([76:46])

• Fun finds: The villain dad’s comeuppance, ‘Ariel walking from the water’ as a Little Mermaid nod, and 1990s-2000s Disney fashion.
• Noticed several non-Disney pop culture references embedded in the script (Men in Black, Jewel, Good Will Hunting).

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• [05:18] — Intro to "Stepsister from Planet Weird" and author background
• [08:40] — Film synopsis and cast/crew highlights
• [19:53–36:27] — Scene-by-scene breakdown and commentary
• [41:00] — Ariel’s sudden school popularity & the "weird is cool" phenomenon
• [44:54] — Narrative rewind from Ariel’s POV
• [54:40] — Party sabotage, hair dryers, and the plot’s unraveling
• [56:29] — Abrupt therapy scene; therapist tells Kathy she “has to get married”
• [64:28] — Climax: blow-dryer standoff, leaf blower defeat of the emperor
• [71:02] — Real Reviews (1-star & 5-star Amazon ratings)
• [72:39] — Game: Take Me to Your Leader
• [76:46] — 'Sabrina Sees' (Easter eggs, costuming, pop culture refs, etc.)
• [82:36–88:16] — Final ratings: 3.5/10 from both hosts, the lowest so far

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Takeaway Summary

"Stepsister from Planet Weird" left both Will and Sabrina puzzled and underwhelmed, but their lively banter and detailed roasting make this episode a must-listen for DCOM aficionados and pop culture nostalgia fans alike. From awkward windsurfing metaphors and bubble-based aliens to abrupt story shifts and inexplicable plotting, the hosts wring every ounce of comedy from one of Disney Channel's lesser-known, most bizarre creations.

“This was not a good movie…And you can come at me all day long and we will talk film all day long. This was not a good one.” (Will, 83:09)

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Next Up:
"Wish Upon a Star" (1996) starring a future Grey’s Anatomy icon.

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For more behind-the-scenes DCOM content and nostalgia, subscribe to Magical Rewind and follow @MagicalRewindPod on Instagram.

Transcript

[Sabrina Bryan]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Will Friedle]

Balancing multiple projects, family and everything else life throws at me requires a great support team to keep it all together. Hi, I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and when managing the unexpected, I trust State Farm agents to have my back. They are more than insurance professionals. They are part of your team. Whether it's helping you choose the right coverage for your needs or helping you file a claim, they are there to take on life's challenges with confidence. Like a good neighbor Stair Farm is there.

[Chiquis]

There's just something about summer at the movies. Cold ac, good vibes and your go to snacks Hi, it's cheekies. And whether I'm watching something funny, scary or super random, I always grab a cold Coca Cola. Sometimes I roll just with my hubby, sometimes with the whole crew, but Coke's always part of the plan. Refreshing, cold and just right with popcorn or nachos. So next time you're headed to the movies, don't forget the Coca Cola. Coca Cola esparatodos.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'm proud of the family traditions that shaped who I am. Hi, I'm Sabrina Bryan, co host of Magical Rewind. Life moves fast, but staying connected to the people I love is still everything. As a T Mobile member, I get unlimited calls, texts and data between the US and Mexico. So I'm always just a moment away. And and the best part. T Mobile guarantees myrate for five years on their new experience plans. No sudden price hikes, just good surprises. Visit t mobile.com benefits, call 1-800-T-MOBILE or stop by a store to learn more. Exclusions like taxes and fees apply. Guarantee applies to monthly price of an on network text and 5G data for accounts activating on an experience plan not for extended international use. You must reside in the US and primary usage must occur on our network.

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[Will Friedle]

Okay, so we're watching all of the Disney channel original movies we can find.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

And there is a real. Normally I ask you some random question now, like, hey, when's the last time you went on a roller coaster? I. I don't have it in me today. I don't have it. The one thing I do, I did notice there is, at least. So we've talked about the number of different versions of D comms back even during the zug days. And, like, early, early stuff. You know, a lot of people say that officially DCOM started in 1997, but there was a long list of stuff beforehand that could be considered or would have been considered a DCOM if such a thing had existed. But there's a real jump around the 2000, 2001, 2002 era of just changing what the DCOM was, because the one we watched this week, I don't even really know what to think or say, frankly.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes. I. I am also a little lost for words, to be honest. Is it had one of the channel's major stars in it. So, like, there was a big. Like, she was one of the it girls on the channel at that time. So it's not that it didn't. Yes. Courtney Draper. Yeah, she was in that show. We've talked about it called the Jersey, which they put on. Oh, they put on, like, a magic. It's a jersey that's, like, magical, and they become like a profile.

[Will Friedle]

Right. Keep thinking it's a show that just takes.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And that show was huge. Like, huge. It was. And it was so good. It was one of my favorites. I really loved it. And it's kind of like the storyline of this one. It's not just like a micro world. It's like out of this world. Like, I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

It's not even kind of in a clever way. I don't know. Well, I guess.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, we just.

[Will Friedle]

I guess let's just get. Let's get. Let's just get into it and let's get through it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Let's do it.

[Will Friedle]

Let's just jump.

[Sabrina Bryan]

We're on. It's gonna be a hard one.

[Will Friedle]

Before somebody pushes us. Let's just.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I know. Let's just go. We got this mail.

[Will Friedle]

Well, 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 not all the movies were this one. I'm Will Friedle.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And I'm Sabrina Bryan.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, so every few decades a film comes along that not only wows audiences, it defines a generation. And this week we approach one of those films. It's time to talk 2000's stepsister from planet Weird. I'm of course, course, being facetious. It debuted on June 17th in the year 2000, a film drenched in Y2K optimistic fear, and is based on the book of the same name by children's librarian turned author Francis Lance. Lance wrote over 30 books, many kids bestsellers. But she might be best known for the Luna Bay Monthly book series made in collaboration with HarperCollins and Roxy. The California clothing company. Yes, a clothing company. It was a surf clothing company, I believe. Yes, a California surf clothing company. She was a surfer herself who lived in Santa Barbara, so she was perfect fit for the theme. And in the original Stepsisters from Planet Weird book, surfing was included. And it was obviously switched out for windsurfing because. Well. Well, we'll get to that. Sadly, Lance passed away in 1999 from ovarian cancer at the very young age of 52. Stepsister from Planet Weird was filmed in Australia, a recent trend we've been running into, but still part of the exclusive club of dcoms filmed outside of the US and the movie was greenlit by Disney and boy did it show. Just three weeks before shooting began. Putting the cast and crew on quite a tight timeline and maybe, you know, causing some plot holes and stuff. All right. Okay. All right. Now this is the first time we've run into this, and I am beyond skeptical that this is true. But in 2017, CableTV.com analyzed the entire DCOM catalog at the time and utilized Google Trends to to figure out the most popular DCOMs per state. Yes, that's a thing. And Stepsister from Planet Weird was the most popular film in Pennsylvania. Again, I don't believe this at all. But here are some of the other results from the poll that they conducted. In case you're wondering, Nevada Mom's got a Date with a Vampire was their favorite. Hawaii, Come on, Easy one, Johnny Tsunami. New York was Get it right. New York was Get a clue same. Oregon, Halloween Town High makes sense. Utah High School Musical makes sense. And California was one called the Jenny Project or the Genie Project. Jenny Project. Which Jenny, we don't know that one yet. Okay, well, no matter what state you live in, even if you were fraudulently told it was your favorite movie in Pennsylvania, no matter where you live, you can watch Stepsister from Planet Weird on Disney. It was actually part of their launch package and you can launch into it right now if you want, or you can listen to us and then see what we got right and what we got wrong. But either way, we suggest you continue with caution and only under adult supervision. Sabrina, before it was set as a podcast episode, did you know anything about Stepsisters from Planet Weird?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I didn't, I did not know anything about this one.

[Will Friedle]

It's Stepsister. I'm not even getting the title right yet. That's how, that's what I thought of it. Okay, Stepsister from Planet Weird. Sorry, so you did not.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, I didn't. And this is like around the time, like I said, I was auditioning a lot for Disney Channel stuff, so I was watching the channel a lot. And I don't know if maybe this one wasn't one that was put on replay like, like the majority of them were at the time, you know, just.

[Will Friedle]

Except in Pennsylvania.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Except, I guess maybe in Pennsylvania. Yeah. So I, this never came across my, my TV box with my antennas.

[Will Friedle]

I'm not even going to answer the question. I am too. I, I, I can't even answer it if I knew this or not. Of course I didn't what this was. Now keep away from wind and drink some root beer because it's time for the synopsis. When teenager Megan's mom gets engaged, her new, soon to be stepsister Ariel turns out to be a bubble based alien refugee hiding on planet Earth. It's directed by Steve Boyam, a legendary name here on Magical Rewind since he's the director of some iconic dcoms. Of course, he's not Daddy Owen, but the ones he's done include Johnny Tsunami, Motocrossed, and a movie that's actually very similar to this one, Mom's Got a Date With a Vampire. Did you notice kind of the similarities between the films?

[Sabrina Bryan]

A little bit, yes. Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It wasn't surprising to find that not. But not Johnny Tsunami or Moto. Mom's Got a Day with the Vampire. Yeah, I saw some similarities for sure.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Well, it makes sense because he did Stepsister and Mom's Got a Date back to back in the same year.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Wow.

[Will Friedle]

So this was we. You remember us talking about him. He's kind of a legend in the world here, especially of dcoms because he was a stuntman turned director early, having worked on Apocalypse Now, Predator, True Romance, and Groundhog's Day before moving behind the camera. See, I'm adding S's to thing. I think it's just Groundhog Day. I don't know.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

Before moving the camera, he also directed the movie you, Me and Dupree and now works in TV shows like the Boys, Goosebumps, Supernatural, and Criminal Minds. And the cast. Okay, we have a truly kind of incredible group of actors who are just a little too old to be playing high schoolers, but great nonetheless. We've got Courtney Draper, as you were talking about, as Meg Larson. Courtney is best known to us as Sam the mermaid from the DCOM the 13th year, the bar mitzvah movie we always talk about. That's hall of fame status right there on its own. But she also appeared in almost 100 episodes of bold and the Beautiful. So she was on Bold and Beautiful.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That's where we worked together as well.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, you worked with her. Okay, there you go.

[Colgate Total Advertiser]

Yes, we talked about her.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And on the. And on the Jersey.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, that's right. And I was going to say and she's on the jersey. But also in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, CSI Miami, Veronica Mars. And she has since become an always working voiceover actor in video games like Kingdom Hearts. I was in that. Bioshock Infinite and Final Fantasy 7. And Tamara hope plays Ariel Cola. The Canadian actress has been seen in movies like Crimson Peak and Shall We Dance and TV shows like Murdoch Mysteries and the Transporter. She is a singer as well and in the band Bruce Peninsula and her own project, the Weather Station, which just sounds like a great band. And then we've got Lance Guest and he's portraying a brand new nominee for best DCOM character name of all time. It's. It's Cosmo Cola. Lance is best known as. Yes. One of the greatest films in the history of the world ever, ever, ever, and one of the most important movies in my life. He played Alex Rogan in the 1984 cult classic the Last Starfighter. If you haven't seen it, we cannot be friends. As well as Halloween 2 and Jaws the Revenge. Okay, fun fact, Sabrina.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Uh huh.

[Will Friedle]

The actual tagline. And this is where I get it from, from Jaws the Revenge was Jaws the Revenge. This time it's personal.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, is it really?

[Will Friedle]

Yes. Swear to God. The shark actually takes the family down to the Bahamas to attack them because it killed their mom. Dude. Not even joking.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Wait, this is the sequel to Jaws.

[Will Friedle]

This is Jaws the Revenge. It's like the third one the one that was 3D. This time it's personal. That was.

[Sabrina Bryan]

This time it's personal.

[Will Friedle]

Where it comes from. Just wanted you to know that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Thank you. That I love. Okay. Thank you.

[Will Friedle]

It's crazy. Now, where do we think Cosmo Cola sits on the ranking of craziest character names? Where. Where is he in the Jackal Johnson verse?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I mean, I. It did. It didn't. I mean, it just obviously was a weird name, but because they were portraying aliens, it didn't like, it wasn't like. Like Jackal Johnson was supposed to be like a real person.

[Will Friedle]

I agree with you. I'm not sure.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. Cosmic Cola was just kind of silly name of, you know, like what you would think, like someone would bring into, you know, not being a part of the this world.

[Will Friedle]

Right. And I'm guessing there was some scene somewhere in the book or somewhere where when they first land on Earth, he sees a cola machine or something like that and puts it in together and calls it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That would make sense. Totally. Yeah. Especially because root beer is such a big thing and.

[Will Friedle]

Yes.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And they need soda is such a.

[Will Friedle]

Big thing within the CO2 and all that stuff.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

And we've got Christine Hay as the mom, Kathy Larson. Christine is best known as Simon Foster on Head of the Class, but also appeared in shows like Law and Order, Bull and Parker Lewis. Can't Lose. She is also, it says here, an Emmy winning environmentalist. And my question is, how does one win an Emmy for environmentalism?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Did she do some kind of documentary?

[Will Friedle]

Then wouldn't she have won an Emmy for being a documentarian, not for being an environmentalist?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, I don't know. There's so. There's so many categories at the Emmys that don't hit the air. Like, I mean, it's like. I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

I didn't. I wasn't on camera at all last year and somehow won two Emmys. So everybody's getting stuff. I'm kidding. That didn't actually happen. Did you really believe it? Come on. Oh, my goodness.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You winning an Emmy? Absolutely. I would totally believe that. What do you mean?

[Will Friedle]

No, they kicked me out of the building. I don't want an Emmy anyway. They're not filled with chocolate. I found that out. And let's talk runtime. Stepsister from Planet Weird clocks in at drum roll, please, but make it a quick one. 85 minutes. Ah, music to my ears, though it is five minutes off the target. It's off the target in the right direction. So, yes, it passes our test with flying color staying under 90 and history will thank you. And if there's any movie that I'm glad it was short, it was this one.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I, I paused it at some point. I only had 15 minutes left and.

[Will Friedle]

I was like, yes, yes. I'm almost done.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Almost done.

[Will Friedle]

Oh my. Rounding out the cast, we have Miles Jeffrey is Trevor Larson. He is also in another dcom that we've watched. Again, we just spoke about. Mom's Got a Date with a vamp directed by the same guy as this movie. And he starred in 15 episodes of Beverly Hills 90210. And then rounding everything out, we've got Lauren Maltby, who's Heather Hartman. She's best known in our world as Margie in all three of the Xenon movies. So a low key Disney legend right there. Now, the writing credits are pretty straightforward. We have the book's author, Francis Lance, getting an acknowledgment for characters and story, but the teleplay is credited to Chris Matheson, who's a bit of a legend when it comes to 80s and 90s movies. And his, his first script ever was the 1989 classic Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Great man. Your first ever film. That's awesome. And he'd go on to write the sequels Bogus Journey and Bill and Ted Face the Music. Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is way funnier than it has any right to be. And the rest of his resume includes banger after banger, mom and dad saved the world. Love it. The Ellen DeGeneres rom com, Mr. Wrong, and a Disney classic, a Goofy movie. So it's safe to say that this movie is not his best.

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[Will Friedle]

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[Chiquis]

There's something about summer and the movies. The blast of cold air when you walk in, the lights dimming, and you already know you need your snacks and an ice cold Coca Cola. Hi, it's Chiquis from Chiquis and Chill. And whether I'm watching a rom com, some wild action flick, or something that makes me cover my eyes, pero just a little. One thing's always the same. Coca Colas in the cup holder. Sometimes I go with my hubby, sometimes con mi sermanos. We love going to the movies together and picking out something random, making it a whole vibe. Nachos, popcorn. And that perfectly cold Coke just ties it all together. It's not even about what you're watching. It's about who you're with, how you laugh, what you remember after. So next time you're headed to the movies, you know what to do. Don't forget that. Coca Cola. Coca Cola. Esperatodos. Chill out with a cold Coca Cola and your favorite microtura podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, presentado por.

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[Will Friedle]

Okay, let's chill out in the sink and pine over Fanuil. We need to get in a stepsister from planet Weird right now. We open up with some fast pumping dance music, only interrupted by a girl's voice that sternly announces wind. There's nothing else like it. Keep wind in mind because it's mentioned an awful lot. And you know what? She's right. It's one of our co leads, Megan writing in her diary. We see some windsurfers shredding waves, reminded by our narrator that this is extreme. Another word that comes up over and over and over again in this movie. It's Megan on the board, or more specifically her stunt double. And we go close up on her face a few times to pretend it's possible the actress is actually cruising this fast on a windsurf machine. What is it? Windsurfer board on a. I feel like she's actually windsurfing.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I feel like one of the few water sports I've never done was windsurfing. And it looks incredibly hard.

[Will Friedle]

I tried it once when I was young and like even just lifting up the damn sail was a little heavy. That's what I'm saying. So. But you know what I got? I am good at one thing and very good at one thing. And that's quite quitting when things are hard. So I never did it again. Very good at that. And there's Guy.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But you didn't quit on this movie.

[Will Friedle]

No, I just had to watch it in 90 second chunks. It took me two weeks. And there's. There's then Guy, surfer cutter, someone Megan seems very impressed by. But I'm frankly not impressed because while showboating, he wipes out and Megan has to save him. Once re situated back on the board, we get a surreal back and forth between Cutter and Megan, and he tells her that she flatly rules and asks if she'll be his girlfriend. She says yes. And then her parents are just there, creepily standing nearby in the ocean. They announce they're getting back together. Then her redheaded little brother, Trevor, he pops up and says he's never going to act like a freak again. Then, as if that wasn't enough, the prettiest girls in school appear. Heather Hartman, their leader, welcomes Megan into the popular group. Then we hear a smattering of applause because Megan is actually asleep. This has all been a dream. Trevor rushes into the bedroom, yelling, die, alien, die. Okay, but movie just started. The siblings walk downstairs together, talking about Men in black and getting jiggy with it. So we know exactly what time this took place, and Meg remembers when they're all together. We are then transported to an old beach vacation. It seems her dad, even back then, was always on the phone busy with work, and that's the reason her parents split up. And this guy was comically on his phone all the time, where it's like, really? You're gonna sit in your car all beach day and be. It's like, I get. They're trying to show that he works a lot, but it was. It was a bit too much sad. I know, but it was also like, come on. No, it's. Nobody does that to that extent.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But anyway, my dad was a real estate agent, and I feel like there were so many times where he had to, like, calls would happen in the middle of anything we were doing, and we're like, can't you just put that on silent, like, getting so annoyed with it. But.

[Will Friedle]

But he can't. Can't do it. However, Megan's mom, Kathy, seems pretty great. She's a little distracted since her husband left, but no one's really blaming her. She serves soup and crackers for breakfast, which, of course, is a negative, but she loves windsurfing and even owns a little windsurfing store, which is a major positive. But I assume this place doesn't make her a ton of money. And she's dated a little, but nothing's worked out. That's Kathy's life in a nutshell. We've wrapped it all up. And now at school, Megan is not in the popular group, but she was for one week last year because she lied and said she was related to Jewel. Okay, interesting. But when they found out she wasn't, she got kicked out. But Megan's friend is Michelle or Mickey. Someone nerdy that she can Talk superpowers with who is kind of in this movie, but not really in this movie. It was.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

They needed to give her someone to talk to before they could introduce her.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Before they had her with Ariel. Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

But then once character in but it was, I know, like pointless.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And she was like a pretty good friend. Like, she was straightforward. She was. You know what I mean? She was like a good friend for her to have. It's sad that they didn't, like, continue. Like, that would have been really funny for her to, like, meet Ariel and.

[Will Friedle]

Also know something and be there at the wedding at the end. And she just kind of wasn't there for any.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Spoofed.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, that was it. But Megan does want to be in the popular group just so she can be with Cutter, the most extreme boy in school. She thinks he's rad, but he's also a total dodo brain. And this is also when we realize they cannot hide that they're filming in Australia. Everyone is either painfully hiding their accent or just letting it fly for no real reason. Megan says Cutter doesn't even know she exists, but he does wind surf and visit her mom's store where she works. Again, he's really, really stupid. There were times it was funny and times it was like, dude, this is kind of painful to watch. Remember?

[Sabrina Bryan]

And it made me think of our. Our interview with Joey Lawrence talking about, like, the, like the cool guy kind of somewhat having to be like, ditzy ish or something, you know, but like. But very. And I was kind of like, this is just taking that. Like, like that made sense. That interview did so much. But this is like, holy cow.

[Will Friedle]

The cute guy. The. The cute guy who's kind of the antagonist or supposed to be the antagonist in. In Teen beach too. Cute guy, super smart.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

So it's. Yeah, it's like, why not do that? But no, they made this guy. Like, how anybody would like this guy, even his parents.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Exactly. That was the thing. Like, how is she have such a big crush on this guy?

[Will Friedle]

Really?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Goob. Yeah, Goob.

[Will Friedle]

Also, things have been changing. We come to find out Kathy has met a man. A man named Cosmo. Colum Trevor heard the name and immediately says he sounds like an alien from space. Which, again, is quite a revelation this early in the movie. It's like the opposite of an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Kathy met Cosmo while wind surfing. He was yelling at her from the beach and eventually just sprinted into the water to save her from drowning in the waves. But she wasn't drowning at All Kathy was just running. Ride in the wind, the definition of windsurfing. But they ended up talking for hours. And she loves his childlike qualities. She says he's from Canada. And let's be honest, a lot of people do mix up Canadians and aliens. So that tracks. That was for all our Canadian listeners. I'm kidding. I love you all up there. You know what I'm about. You know everything that I'm about. She says he's specifically from the Yukon. We then cut to a picture of the Yukon showing population low, which Meghan recognizes as an inhabitable missile range. We also find out this Cosmo character also has a daughter named Ariel. She's 14, the same age as Megan. Then we get a montage, and you know I love a montage of successful dates for Kathy and Cosmo. Megan always starts at home and plays her guitar, but she won't let anyone listen to her music. I also thought this was going to be a much bigger part of the story and then wasn't. And eventually, the big night arrives where everyone's finally going to meet Kathy, her kids, Cosmo and his daughter plan on having dinner together. And Cosmo has requested hot dogs. I like them already. I love a good hot dog. Kathy tells Megan it would mean a lot to her if she just tried to be nice for one night because Cosmo makes her happy and he deserves a chance. Megan promises that if her mom likes him, she'll probably like him, too. It was very nice. And then the doorbell rings. Boom. It's Cosmo. Totally shot out of a cannon. He's screaming excitement and spinning Megan all around. Quite a first impression. Megan says it was worse than she could ever have imagined. Trevor rushes up with his laser gun, asking Cosmo if he's a good alien or a bad alien. And he answers earnestly, good, but sometimes bad. Then wrestles the boy to the ground. He explains that his daughter is still out by the car because she doesn't like the wind. Quote, unquote weird. Trevor keeps talking about aliens. Actually, he is yet to have a line in the movie that doesn't involve accusing her mom's new boyfriend of being an alien or talking about aliens or being aliens. And by the way, he's right. He should work for our government. Kathy volunteers Megan to go find Ariel, and when she's outside, she can't find her. But she does see some footprints, only to find Ariel laying under the COVID car. And that's when we enter a very fast rewind, seeing everything we've seen so far in the movie pass by quickly. We hear a new narrator. It's Ariel now talking to her diary. She says she just doesn't understand Earth. And then we're in her bedroom. She summons holograms with her hands and talks about how grotesque she feels in her new body. She also reveals that she has the same dream every night. She's back in her home planet of Zircon, and once again, a beautiful pink ball of gas floating next to her family and boyfriend, a boy named Fanule. She misses her true self and essence. This is when I was like. Is looking down at the water I was sipping. Like, who put something in this? Because, man, it was weird. But anyway, she understands.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I did think the hologram part was cool.

[Will Friedle]

The hologram diary from her hand was great.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That was really a cool thing. I was like, oh, okay. And wow, that looks pretty good too.

[Will Friedle]

I thought the same thing. And then we went to planet Zircon.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And she's a bubble.

[Will Friedle]

She's a bubble. It's such a weird.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I mean, again, with a face.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. You're making. I get you're making up aliens, and they have to be different, but it was so strange.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's like your face looks like a bloated blob.

[Will Friedle]

It's like, yeah, like, there are gas bubbles.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I went, oh, no.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, I kind of did, too. I kind of did, too. I was like, what's. What's happening?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Can I pause? How much longer? Oh, no.

[Will Friedle]

I was just like, susan, whatever I took, it's kicking in. So this, though, this is where she understands that we are. We find out that she understands that she had to leave because her dad was a freedom fighter and his life was in danger. We get some very early computer graphics here as we see the alien planet and some of its fighter jets. It's not. Not Tron, obviously, but it's not. I mean, I guess it's not.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It was awful. Yeah. Was not, like, horrible. And the idea of, like, freedom fighter, that kind of. I was kind of like, all right, okay.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Getting back, building the world.

[Sabrina Bryan]

We can look past the bubble.

[Will Friedle]

Yep. But looking past the bubble was a tough thing to do. Ariel. Yeah, Ariel just never expected she had to leave her planet. So suddenly. She tells the story of her mother's pink gas orb that was shot out of the sky by the enemies, and. And the rest of her family barely escape to Earth. She does admit that Earth has an abundance of the one substance her species needs, which is carbon dioxide. She takes a drink of soda, forcing her to speak in a much higher Alien voice. But now she wants to.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's kind of what they sounded like.

[Will Friedle]

She's like, oh, that's it. Now an alien. She takes a drink of soda, forcing her to. But now she wants to know more about Earth. So she turned to her neighbor, a major cat lady psychic named Serena Su. Serena is a yoga teacher type who says she knows that Ariel is different because she doesn't feel like she belongs there. Serena thinks in a past life, Ariel was a cowhand who was crushed by a cow. But none of this matters anyway. Ariel believes her life has been overrun by dreariness and dread. And on that note, we're in the Cola family's new home and it looks like a fourth grader designed it. There's a little rocket ride, a barber's chair, a knight's armor. Cosmo is painting a frame around a mirror. It's like they're supposed to be very childlike. Ariel just doesn't want to be there. And Cosmo admits he misses their home too. He wishes he was floating around as gas expanding, standing in the heat. Ariel asks why they can't just go home then. So Cosmo reminds her he'd be imprisoned forever in a frozen cube there on Earth to escape and take advantage of the wonderful possibilities, like becoming a ventriloquist. I'm not making any of this up, people. If you're listening along and haven't seen the movie, I'm not just throwing out words. This is what's happening. This is the movie we're walking you through. Okay? Not making this up.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like he literally brought out the doll and did a vertrie.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, quickly about this part of the movie. I was like, you know, it's not.

[Sabrina Bryan]

A bad movie on a random throne.

[Will Friedle]

Like, it's like, seriously, no, no joke. At this point in the movie, I was like, huh, you know what's not a bad movie? Double teamed. So it's like, I gotta watch that again. So while Ariel complains, Cosmo is selling diamonds online, a mineral that is apparently abundant back home and worth a ton on Earth. Is. Is he getting shipments of diamonds? Did he, when he had to flee last minute, did he also happen to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars worth of diamonds on him? Because I don't, I don't know how he's getting. I. Maybe there's still some connection to the planet because.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

Yes. So. So it's the middle.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I don't know where they come from. I don't know if, if this is, if this Is Disney doing it again and making the. The diamonds that you can get now that aren't like. I don't know. I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

These zircon diamonds, how getting them did he flee with these zircon diamonds? How did he know they'd be worth money on Earth if they weren't? If they're that abundant in his planet? So many questions. Yes.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And just. And it also never comes back.

[Will Friedle]

No, no. That they're apparent. They're apparent millionaires. Yep.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. They're like. They have, like, just millions of dollars, and it just, like, never comes back.

[Will Friedle]

Ariel herself, though, just wants to communicate with Fionnu back home, but he's the son of the emperor, so that would get her dad in a lot of trouble. Ooh. They're trying to throw in the extra level of. And his dad's the bad guy. Then Cosmo takes a swig of soda and Sabrina, what did you think of his alien voice?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I mean, was that them doing something electronically?

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, that was definitely.

[Sabrina Bryan]

They weren't, like, doing that voice. Right. That's the only real thought I had towards it.

[Will Friedle]

I am, however, going to need you to do an impression of that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, my God. No, I can't sound like.

[Will Friedle]

Come on, take a root beer. What it sound like?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Come on, take a sip of. Yes. It was just like. Cosmo takes a swig of soda. What did you think of this alien voice? I thought it was just, like, stupid, like the rest of the stuff I had just seen for the last five minutes.

[Will Friedle]

That was not bad. That was not bad.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'm getting better. I just get really nervous around the God of freaking voiceovers. Let me do one out of nowhere.

[Will Friedle]

I'm telling you, that's not me, but that's. There's plenty better. Plenty, plenty better. Yes. Cosmo climbs a tree outside, and Ariel can't stop talking about Fanuil until a little gust of wind picks up and she darts inside, completely afraid. Her dad swears it can't hurt her, but he's also a little bit scared himself. Eventually, he sprints inside, yelling, we fear the wind to his neighbor. I think literally, anyone who meets the cola family is going to think they're aliens. They're not really hiding it well. So Trevor wasn't all that perceptive. It's pretty easy to notice. Back inside the kola house, a bathroom sink overflows and a gaseous bubble floats on the top of the water. Ariel is stuck inside, crying out to Fionu, why must he be the son of the emperor? They're like the historic story of Glaba and Gronka two star Crossed bubbles. She promises they will meet again. She then interpretive dances to what seems to maybe be her planet's national anthem while singing to it again. I'm not making any of this up. This is the movie. The next morning, Cosmo tells his daughter about meeting Kathy in the ocean and and how he was impressed she wasn't afraid of the wind. He's very into her, but Ariel is obviously hurt, thinking of her mother. Cosmo assures her he will never forget her mom, but they live on Earth now and they need to make a life here. Mommy wouldn't want them to be unhappy and alone. And tonight's the night they'll visit the Larson home. He guarantees a wonderful time, but Ariel reminds him the night went horribly, horribly wrong. We're back in the Larson front yard with Ariel hiding from the wind. Still, Megan informs her that the wind has died down. When they reenter the house, the family dog barks at Ariel and then again cue the little brother Trevor blasting his toy laser gun and accusing Ariel of being an alien kid. Could have ended the movie in 90 seconds. Ariel panics and grabs root beer and then heads for the bathroom. Kathy forces Megan to check on her. When she opens the door, Ariel is drenched. She claims she fell in the sink. So Megan takes her off to her bedroom to dry her off and change her into a very Y2K baggy shirt. Ariel chugs another bottle of root beer and accidentally exposes her alien voice. This is all freaking out Megan, who tries to dry her off with a blow dryer. But the wind again terrifies Ariel. And if this can't get any weirder, Kathy then walks in and announces dinner's ready. At the dinner table, Cosmo is completely covering his hot dog in dozens of condiments and chomping away, but Ariel just sits in angst. She doesn't like food. Megan jokes she's on the root beer diet and now Ariel considers her the enemy. But then the unthinkable happens. Cosmo and Kathy announce they're engaged. Seems like they went on six dates and now they're engaged. They haven't known each other long and dinner isn't going well, but they're friends, following their hearts. Everyone is surprised, but Megan waits to crash out until she's alone with her mom. Later that night, she calls Cosmo the freak of all time, like some sort of clown. Trevor actually digs him, but Megan can't believe this guy is about to be their stepfather. And while she's at it. Megan calls Ariel whacked. How could she have fallen in the sink? And why is she afraid of a blow dryer? Trevor defends Ariel. He thinks she's really pretty. Which is another theme we're about to get hit over the head with over and over and over again. Kathy swears to Megan she would never marry someone that wasn't right for their family. Kathy suggests she makes music with Ariel since they both like to sing. Megan's not hearing it. And also Trevor again suggests she's an alien. Kathy reveals to Megan that Ariel lost her mom a few years ago and she hasn't had it easy. So Megan agrees to take it easy on Ariel, but can't believe she's being enrolled in high school tomorrow.

[State Farm Advertiser]

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[Dramas from Life as a Gringo Podcast]

Hey, it's Stromos from the Life is a Gringo podcast. And on this important episode, I'm unpacking how machismo culture and the need for validation can lead to a toxic relationship with sex. And why real masculinity means protecting your partners and prioritizing your sexual health. We talk about the word validation, but really a lot of it is also like my lack of self worth during that time. Right. You know, I needed somebody else to tell me I was worthy, essentially. Right. And whether was my guy friends, whether it was a woman, you know, and you want attention and again, you're trying to get attention from the quote unquote, right people. And the unfortunate part about this, like succumbing to sort of that peer pressure of society in general is you end up hurting a lot of people along the way. And then you also put yourself in a position to negatively affect your own health, both emotionally and physically. You can listen to this special episode of Life as a Gringo, brought to you by Healthy Sexual from Gilea sciences on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chiquis]

There's something about summer and the movies. The blast of cold air when you walk in, the lights dimming, and you already know you need your snacks and an ice cold Coca Cola. Hi, it's Chiquis from Chiquis and Chill. And whether I'm watching a rom com, some wild action flick, or something that makes me cover my eyes, pero just a little. One thing's always the same. Coca Colas in the cup holder. Sometimes I go with my hubby, sometimes con mi sermanos. We love going to the movies together and picking out something random, making it a whole vibe. Nachos, popcorn, and that perfectly cold Coke just ties it all together. It's not even about what you're watching. It's about who you're with, how you laugh, what you remember after. So next time you're headed to the movies, you know what to do. Don't forget that. Coca Cola. Coca Cola esperatodos. Chill out with a cold Coca Cola and your favorite Microtura podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

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[Will Friedle]

And so we're cutting to the next morning, where Megan and Ariel are biking to school together. Ariel is on training wheels and wearing a football helmet like a bit of goob, or as Trevor would call it, an alien. She blames being out of practice, but then crashes and performs a pretty dramatic flip over the handlebars above the bike rack in front of the entire student body. How unbelievably mortifying. But then it was. But it apparently it wasn't, because to Megan's surprise, two cute skater boys approach. They want to know who the girl is. Actually, a lot of the school is very interested in this new gorgeous transfer in unique clothes who apparently can't ride a bike. And that's turned on the entire student body. So now there's the new issue with having Ariel as a stepsister. She makes Megan feel inferior, so went from thinking she's weird to just feeling inferior. Even Mikey wants to hang out with Ariel, who has successfully convinced the school she is a visionary who wears a lot of layers to protect her essence. And then we're in math class. The teacher calls on Megan for a volume of a swimming pool, but she has no clue how to answer. But guess who does? Ariel. She knows to the 0.01 km and is instantly admired for her brain. And now the school is full of rumors. Ariel has a perfect iq. She dated Prince William. She tutored Bill Gates. And Megan doesn't get it. In reality, Ariel is like an alien. And yes, there is now another child calling it out. How would adults not think something was up? Also, this time she says it's like she's from Planet Weird. So that's how we got the title. Ariel is already at the popular table, and Heather, the cool girl is all over her. The popular girls say they wish Ariel was their stepsister. Ariel continues to wow the school by solving complicated math problems and playing piano perfectly. That afternoon, Ariel makes her way to the restroom with Megan and a teacher following close behind. They spy the new student holding a bubble in her hands and talking to it like it's Fionnual, her long lost boyfriend. But rather than cause alarm, the teacher finds Ariel to be a deep poet. This is Megan's absolute nightmare. Teachers love her, and kids at school are already dressing in multiple layers and talking about their essence. She's starting a trend. She opens a door and comes out and the entire school is wearing pink and all that kind of stuff. And. And it's her first day. Where the. Did they get all the clothes?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Exactly. It's like she says, it's Sixth period or seventh period? It's like, what?

[Will Friedle]

What?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Where did they just have all these random clothes to layer on? I mean, they're wearing, like, three layers each.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. It makes absolutely no sense with whatever the hell is going on there. I didn't get it even a little.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Well, it's just too extreme. There's. That was just kind of crazy.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, it was. I get what they were doing, but they should have done that gradually over time.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Also, like, why is this teacher following them into the bathroom? It was so odd.

[Will Friedle]

And then just sitting there and being like. She's like a poet. Wait, wait. What's happened? The hell is happening? It was.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Why this movie?

[Will Friedle]

You know what this movie was, was just a series of strange beats. It was like one strange beat after the next. Strange beat after the next strange beat. Yes. What's happening now?

[Sabrina Bryan]

And then the beats just, like, went away. It wasn't like, there's only one. And I will say it. That comes back. That actually ended up being funny the second time. It came this little beat that they had.

[Will Friedle]

Okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But other than that, it was like a moment and then gone.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And that was it.

[Will Friedle]

That was it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Except for, I guess, the blow dryers at the end. Like.

[Will Friedle]

Well, get to that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I know. We'll get to that.

[Will Friedle]

We'll get to that scene. Kathy is now forcing Megan to teach Ariel how to wind surf, which seems like a bad idea because one of them is afraid of the wind. But when Megan pushes back, her mom calls it good for bonding, then doubles down by calling Cosmo, her soulmate. Megan agrees to teach Ariel how to windsurf as long as Kathy never says soulmate again. Deal struck. Now, out on the beach, Megan wants to show Ariel how it's done. And Ariel reminds her new tutor that she's scared of the wind. No one seems to care, despite the fact that the sport literally has the word wind in it. And while out catching wind, Megan looks back at the beach and sees Cutter. Cutter. Oh, Cutter. Chatting it up with Ariel. The jealousy causes a total wipeout and a declaration of war. Then we're thrown into another immediate rewind. We're taken all the way back. You got to keep watching this movie over and over again. We're taking all the way back to the moment where Ariel flipped over her handlebars and now she's the narrator talking to her diary. Okay, good idea.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I like that.

[Will Friedle]

I. I like rewinding it, and then you do it from somebody else's point of view. That's a good idea. That's a Good, clever way to do this. This was not done well, but it was a clever. Like, I would like to see this in a better version of this movie. Yeah, that makes sense because it's a cool. It's a cool visual device, especially telling the same story.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Girls worlds are getting, like, flipped upside down and you're watching how they aren't seeing each other's struggles. And like, I. I do the concept is really a cool way to do that for sure.

[Will Friedle]

Very clever what they're doing.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Just did it really amplifier, like level up the movie in any.

[Will Friedle]

No, it was a clever idea used in the. In the wrong movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, it's.

[Will Friedle]

It's like they put this really cool new seat belt bracket in a Ford Pinto and it's like, well, that was the wrong place to put that. That was a weird analogy, but it works. Okay, we're taken all the way back to the moment where Ariel flipped over handlebars and now she's the narrator talking to her diary. Then we're back at the popular table for lunch, and Ariel, who finds them all to be useless and stupid, is living a nightmare there. Also, other kids have been mimicking Ariel's big bike crash all day, cheering each other on, proving that absolutely everything she's done now is considered revolutionary. So even the crashing the kids are, like, trying to. To imitate, which was strange.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, this. The ones that we saw during this scene, though, were some pretty epic crash. They.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, yeah, brutal. They had some good crashes. It was fun. Yeah. We are now back on the beach while watching Megan windsurf. She worries that the wind will destroy her new mentor, and she walks into the water to help, even fully submerging herself at one point. That's when Cutter introduces himself, drenched in her street clothes. She explains she intended to rescue Megan Larson, and he quickly starts flirting. He admits he likes her body, and then she wishes she was gas. And crazily enough, he immediately asked to be her boyfriend. But this time it's not a dream. He just impulsively and love bombingly starts hitting on her, and she's an alien. Ariel says she finds him vapid and shallow, and he understands about half those words. And that's when Megan angrily returns to pull Ariel away. Ariel agrees the clag has really hit the drawn now, stomping off. Megan says she's onto Ariel. She's just trying to come in and take everything Megan wants. But Ariel says she doesn't want Cutter. She just wants to go home. Ariel hates these strange creatures and the planet's lack of dignity. For Bubbles. Just like Megan, she doesn't want her parents to get remarried, and so an unlikely alliance is born when their parents leave for a date that night, Megan and Ariel agree to babysit Trevor and immediately send him to bed. To make a plan. They decide first thing they have to do is convince their parents they've become best friends. So they take some Polaroids together, then sing a duet about friendship. Okay, so it honestly doesn't sound too bad. And at least the singing kind of comes out again, which is good. They'll also practice what they'll tell their parents about how now that they're BFFs and making cookies together, everything's wonderful and their evil plan has begun. Later that night, after they return from a date, Kathy attempts to read her new love some poetry, but Cosmo immediately spots a spider on the wall. He's very concerned, and worse, when she's hurt by the interruption, he just grabs the remote quickly and watches some Hollywood Squares. We also get some real Disney synergy here with a scene from the Lion King quickly shown on the screen before Kathy turns it off. If he doesn't like hearing her read poems, then why would he want to marry her? He assures her he loves how fun and free and cute she is, but she wants to know how he feels about her mind. He says he's never seen her mind. And then the fight escalates. They call each other shrill and inconsiderate, and she storms out, noticing the girl spying on them on the way out. That night, Ariel sits in bed again, controlling holograms with her finger. One fight did not end the engagement, but she announces the next move is hers. She runs her lines in the bathroom the next day, now talking to a bubble with her dad's head in it. She says now that she's besties with Megan, who told her a secret. Kathy only acted the way she did because she was testing him. She needs to know that he can be a real man. We cut to Cosmo and Kathy having lunch, and now Cosmo is dressed like a cowboy, saying he'll take care of this little lady, except on Sundays when he'll be watching football. He also barks at the waiter and orders a big steak, but it's a pizza parlor, so this is not working out the way he wants. The girls watch from afar as Cosmo pulls out the ventriloquist dummy again, now dressed exactly like him. Before Cassie can even say a word, Cosmo sweeps her up to a dance. He's throwing her around, trying to lead, but Kathy has Had enough? Cosmo admits he's only been acting like this because she thought she wanted him to. And they quickly figure out who's been behind this entire thing. Thing. The plan has been foiled. Kathy and Cosmo are furious at their daughters, reprimanding them in the parking lot. Ariel breaks out in tears. She's disgraced her family for selfish reasons. Kathy attempts to console her, which makes Megan even madder. And again, Trevor announces that she's an alien. No one listens to this kid. He might as well be in another family. So who cares? Let's just everybody save Trevor, please. That night, Ariel can't take this any longer. She's used some sort of weird alien tool kind of thing to signal fuel to come save her, giving away her location, something her father begged her never to do. The message shoots out of her window and right up into the sky. Over in Megan's bedroom, she's prepping for plan B. But now, worried if she's even doing the right thing, she admits that Cosmo's been growing on her. And it's not even really Ariel's fault that everyone mistakes her weirdness for coolness. But the next morning at school, where everyone is still, of course, idolizing Ariel, Megan has a new plan. They need to make their parents fall in love with somebody else. Even though they admit that Cosmo and Kathy seem pretty perfect for each other. But still, Megan suggests her dad, and Ariel mentions the spiritual neighbor, Serena Sue. So the plan is set. They'll throw a party to say sorry for their behavior and invite everyone, including these possible love interests. Then chemistry itself will just take over. Later, Megan finally tells Trevor he was right. Cosmo is an alien. And this poor kid finally feels a little bit vindicated here. But Megan goes one step further and says he's a bad alien. Trevor doesn't believe her, but Megan swears she's telling the truth and shows him a book titled My Plan to Take over the World. And step one is eat Trevor. He's immediately terrified and ready to do whatever it takes to help. I think at this point, I paused it, walked away for a little while.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. Need a break?

[Will Friedle]

Sandwich. Get a cookie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Have some root beer. See if that works.

[Will Friedle]

Back we watch the Lizzie McGuire Movie again. Double team. Everything we could do. This was I. You know, even as I'm reading it, this was a slog, this movie. I'm sorry. This was a lot to get through this movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It was this.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Okay. So, yes, after seeing Trevor, Trevor's, of course, immediately terrified and ready to do Whatever it takes to help. And now we are just minutes away from everyone arriving to the party, including her dad and kooky Serena Sue. Ariel gets ready by putting different foods into a blender, she says, because it all just ends up in the same intestinal tract anyway, which is, you know, pretty good point. And then the doorbell rings. It's Serena sue, who thinks the dog used to be Mickey Mantle. And also Trevor peeks his head out. Megan has banished him to his room. And then Cosmo and Kathy return from a successful day of windsurfing. Cosmo actually liked it. Not sure how, because he still hates wind. But sure. The couple notices party decorations in Serena. Okay, do they hate wind? Like, all they do is float around their own planet. So do they hate wind because they can't. Like, it blows them away? Why? Why do they hate wind so much? Because wind blows a gas away and it'll pop a bubble. Right? Like that's the point.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I, I guess that's what it is because that's where we're getting to.

[Will Friedle]

Right?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like in at the end. I, I, I, they just, she just act like she was just terrified. I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

I don't know. Okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It was, it wasn't really ever actually explained.

[Will Friedle]

No.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Not to why the, where the fear of wind comes from at all.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. No.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But it's weird because they do float around, so.

[Will Friedle]

Right. So it's. Is it just because they're gas? So because they're gas, like wind blows gas away?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I, I mean, yeah, but it doesn't up when there's. It doesn't up in there when they're floating their ozone or wherever they're at.

[Will Friedle]

Floating and flying and wouldn't it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

They're fine. Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, well, the couple notices party decorations and Serena, who also has real alien vibes, by the way. And Kathy immediately figures out the girls are up to something. But then the doorbell rings again. This time it's Megan's dad, Fred. Fred's back. Thank God he put the phone down long enough to be back in the movie. Kathy's surprised to see him, but he still has work to do. He just came to pick the kids up and take them back to his place, not actually attend the party. And as the plan is falling apart in front of them, Megan thinks on her toes. She tells her dad that Trevor's sick and needs help. She rushes him upstairs, where Trevor is totally playing along with the lie. He's laying in bed coughing and yelling to this guy, Elizabeth, I'm Coming to join you. Which was the funniest part of the entire movie, frankly. But he eventually breaks character and asks his dad, if you and mom get back together, can I still play with Cosmo sometimes? Hmm. Megan can't believe what she's hearing. She quickly changes the subject, begging her dad to stay for dinner. He agrees, but nothing's going according to plan. We're now down in the kitchen. Cosmo tells Serena she's full of crap when she predicts he died in the Civil War and was a raccoon in prior lives. Then Fred returns downstairs. He's rushing to get back to work. He meets Cosmo, who's eating pudding with his hands. When he introduces himself as Kathy's fiance, Fred doesn't get it. When did this happen? Kathy says they're happy together. So Fred goes looking for an antacid. He bumps into Serena sue on the way, and she suggests instead of an antacid, he needs harmony. And in a real opposites attract turn of events, they immediately hit it off. Now at the dinner table, the undeniable connection between looney Serena and workaholic Fred continues. She wants to cleanse his aura, which is probably a euphemism for doing things to his junk. Megan tries to sabotage her dad and Serena by spilling the multi entree soup Ariel made all over them. But instead of everyone getting mad like she planned, Cosmo responds by spilling the soup on himself in camaraderie. And. And that turns into an all out seltzer war with adults spraying each other and laughing. And that's when I was like, oh my God, are they really just throwing in a food fight or seltzer fight now? Like what?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Just. Just out of nowhere. Yeah, just out of nowhere. I know. And yeah. I honestly also don't understand what would make them. I mean, I know wind is a part. It's back to these rules that I'm trying to. Trying so hard to figure out because she goes in. How does she like change form into going into the sink and becoming the bubble? Is it from water? Like water is what make her. Makes her do that?

[Will Friedle]

Well, no, because then. Because then it would have been spraying each other. Doesn't. And they couldn't wind surf.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So I was thinking that water was a part of the.

[Will Friedle]

No.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, yeah. And they both went into the water. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just so.

[Will Friedle]

I think they turn into the bubbles when they want to because. Oh, I think is the answer.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Because they can't. Okay.

[Will Friedle]

Because they didn't explain any of this. So yes. We're in a water fight for no reason now, and Ariel's had enough. She sprints to the bathroom, and when Megan catches up, she's already a bubble in the sink. The two girls scream at the sight of each other, and Megan runs back to her mom and the guest. She reveals that Ariel is just a blob. And once a drenched Ariel walks back into the dining room, Megan leans more into it, calling her an alien. And then, in one of the most abrupt transitions in DCOM history, maybe even in film history, we jump right to a doctor's office where a therapist is talking to and blaming Megan. He says she's acting in fear of change and the alien is actually her. And as long as the marriage is what Kathy wants, then she has to go through with it. Who is this therapist? What type of abrupt transition was this? What the hell is happening? I. I was like, if he in the middle just said, you're the alien and threw a pie at her, I would have been like, okay. Like, I. That's. That's fine. That tracks. That tracks like it just. None of it. It's such a weird movie. It's such a weird movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Then pulls the mom in and says, oh, no, she's fine. And you need to get married, so it's okay to get married.

[Will Friedle]

He's like, you have to get married. He says, you must.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, therapist I've ever seen.

[Will Friedle]

So strange. Yeah. Has anybody actually checked this guy's license?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, that's not real on his wall at all.

[Will Friedle]

And so if the transitions couldn't get any more abrupter. Yep. Making up a word. Any more abrupter. It's another very jarring cut. And it's the day of the wedding, and Kathy is putting on her gown. Yikes. That was fast. Kathy promises Megan that this is all gonna work out. But Megan reminds her Cosmo is an alien now she's all on board with the alien stuff. Kathy assures her once they're married, he'll become a citizen. And Megan asks one last time, is there anything she can do to stop the marriage? Kathy says she's thought about it long and hard and even talked to that weird therapist. Cosmo makes her happy. If she thought anything her daughter said was real, she wouldn't marry him. They admit they love each other and embrace. But we see a big tear rolling down Megan's cheek. The tear then turns into a tiger, which attacks half the party. I'm kidding. But if that happened, you'd be like, yeah, okay, that makes sense.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So that's.

[Will Friedle]

That's right. I'm just seeing where everybody's still with us now. At the wedding, Ariel is nowhere to be found. Cosmo tries to cover her by saying she needed a moment of meditation to collect herself, but she's in the bathroom trying one last time to talk to Fuel. And then a cute boy walks in. It's f. She's relieved to see him, but he demands she get no closer to him. Physical proximity makes him sick. Now, that was like, yikes. That was abrupt.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I know it was. This is another. This is another rule of this other.

[Will Friedle]

Planet that we didn't know explained because they've been hugging as father and son or father and daughter and all this kind of stuff. Obviously, the physical stuff is fine with them, so they're not allowed to touch. It was very. I don't know. She explains they have to leave fast. But then Fionu's evil emperor dad arrives and doesn't look anything like an alien. He looks like an extra in a mafia movie, yet he's here to arrest Cosmo. He commands Ariel to take him to her dad. But then Serena sue accidentally walks in and the emperor laser freezes her into ice. Okay, so A, what did you think of the effect? And B, is this movie just completely off the rails at this point?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes, yes. I even was just like. I mean, even back at this time, early 2000s, walking into a room, like a young girl's room that she's supposed to be in, you know that this young girl's going to be there. And seeing an older man that you don't know and a teenage boy that you don't know instantly is like a flare. Like, you think it would. It's not. She. And she literally says, oh, sorry. What?

[Will Friedle]

I'm sorry, was I interrupting you?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Was I into. Yes, I would be like, oh, who are you? Are you okay? What's going on in here?

[Will Friedle]

That's.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That's the question. Like.

[Will Friedle]

But no, apparently, because maybe she thinks good of everybody because she's.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That the spirit is Looney Loonyville. But, like, I mean, I don't know.

[Will Friedle]

Loonyville? Yeah, the whole. That. It's just off the rails, this. I mean, really, really off the rails, this movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

What did you think about this effect? It was like it was.

[Will Friedle]

Again, with all the going on beforehand. If they turned her into bubbles and then used her to scrub the floor would have been like, all right. Like, I just.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It.

[Will Friedle]

None of it made sense. So all of it made sense.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Now you freeze people. Like, yeah, well, we knew powers, like. Well, they have powers.

[Will Friedle]

They said that was what he would be if he went back there. That's how he'd be imprisoned is they freeze you forever.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, so he's got a freeze ray.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, he's got a freeze ray. And I guess if you gas the bed. They're trying to throw science in the bed. The way that you would trap gas is by freezing it and turning into a solid. So that's what they're showing. But.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But looney Villa, Serena is not gas.

[Will Friedle]

No, she's a meatbag. So I don't know what's. That's all we are is a bunch of meat bags. So, yeah, I. But it was like, okay. And again, the effect was fine. It was just. I. It was the 90th thing on my list of weird stuff in this movie. So I was like, fine.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay.

[Will Friedle]

The Emperor says he hates humans, but Ariel stands up for them. She says they have warmth, kindness, and bravery inside. But her dad doesn't care. He still goes off to find Cosmo with fuel, making sure she doesn't leave the room. Meanwhile, a Delivery man with 82 cases of root beer has arrived at the the party. And Cosmo and Trevor leave to help him carry it all in. And then Cutter arrives. For some reason, he's happy to be at the wedding, but admits he'd rather be windsurfing. Kathy needs Megan to go find Ariel, so Cutter joins her. And the Emperor is still. By the way, Cutter's there. Her best friend is. And the Emperor is still on the hunt for Cosmo, one wedding guest at a time. He eventually stops at Cutter, who isn't an alien, but does wonder if some nearby chips are fat free. And when M3gan finally makes to Ariel, she's startled by the frozen Serena sue, and then locked in by Fionuila. Ariel tells her the Emperor's arrived to kill her father. She admits they're aliens and they escaped to avoid political oppression. They only stayed on Earth because her dad fell in love with Kathy. Megan immediately realizes how hard this must have been for Ariel, which seems like something that maybe she should have realized when she found out that her mom died. Yeah, you think? Although Megan hasn't been much help so far, Ariel tells her that she can help now. Then, led by a grunting emperor, Cutter is pushed into the room. The Emperor says he doesn't have time for these kids. He needs to find Cosmo at this party asap. And so, once again, outside, Kathy, who has no idea who this uninvited stranger is at her wedding, reveals Cosmo is out front getting the root beer. And then that leads him right to the groom who has Trevor on his shoulders. The emperor asks his arch nemesis, are you ready to pay for your crimes? He then holds up the laser gun, which excites little Trevor. He thinks it's a toy. Cosmo tell the boy that he and his friend really like to play hide and seek, so he should count to 100 and they'll come find him. Which is technically the opposite of hide and seek. You don't want to find them after you hope to not be found.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So.

[Will Friedle]

Okay. The boy leaves, and Cosmo slowly walks away with his captor. Back in the room with fnu, the girls are begging him to let them go. Cutter offers Fionu a mint. And the alien likes it. It bonds him to Cutter for some reason. They quickly become bros. And Cutter admits he thinks Megan is hotter than Ariel.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Just out of nowhere, so rude.

[Will Friedle]

And then right, just right there, and it's not even keep. Is like, I like the blonde hair. Like, what the hell is happening? And then drops Ariel.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, like a bad habit. Just like I like the blonde hair. I like the brown hair better than the brown hair.

[Will Friedle]

I like the brown hair better. She. She. What? Huh? Yeah. So weird. And then Megan has an idea. She praises Fionu's power and wonders how he has any free time for hobbies like windsurfing or skating. Cutter even suggests mountain biking off a ledge into a river and then floating down the rapids. All these extreme sports sound awesome to Fionu. Cutter also praises the 18 different types of potato chips on Earth. Because freedom of choice rules. It's the exact opposite of what Fanuil experiences on his planet from his freedom hating dad. Now Fionuil's starting to get it. So Cutter and everybody else suggest that he stand up to his father. And eventually he agrees and they all break out of the room. Which again, seemed to happen very quickly.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But also, how was he holding them hostage in this room?

[Will Friedle]

He said, you can't open the door. No, there's no. There's.

[Sabrina Bryan]

There's not. There was no. Nothing that was keeping him in the room.

[Will Friedle]

No, I'm sorry.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Keeping them in the room.

[Will Friedle]

Whole movie is just. No, it's just no. Back out front, the Emperor has opened a portal for Cosmo to return home. He sentenced him and Ariel to be frozen forever. And then without any warning, he freezes Cosmo. Just then, Fionnual and Megan arrive. She doesn't freak out at all when she sees her frozen, soon to be stepdad. But instead Just tells the emperor to let him go. And then right before he shoots Megan, FNU jumps in front of her. The human shield demands change. But his dad explains the price for change is eternal freezing. And just as this tense standoff gets good. Outruns Ariel. She's brought a handful of blow dryers and yells, don't mess with my family, dude. They all try to melt him with hot air from the. From the hair dryers brought out.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Not plugged.

[Will Friedle]

Are they not plugged in? I couldn't. I looked. I couldn't tell if they were plugged in.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But it's like, no, no.

[Will Friedle]

They've got four hair dryers from 15ft away.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. From where would they even be plugged in? There was no extension cords. There was nothing. And even there's one shot towards the very end where you can see one of them. I can't remember what character it is. It is where it's just.

[Will Friedle]

Doesn't matter.

[Sabrina Bryan]

A cord that's just.

[Will Friedle]

There you go.

[Sabrina Bryan]

On the ground.

[Will Friedle]

There you go. Also, who has four hair dryers in their house? That. Which is like, again, the least of my problems with this. Yeah. So, okay. Don't mess with my family, dude. And they try to melt him with hot air. It seems like he's in pain as he turns into a bubble and floats a few feet off the the ground. Out back, the wedding's been held up by Cosmo and the kids. Just as they realize the blow dryers are not killing the bubble emperor. Instead, he actually looks scarier than ever. And right as he's about to attack, little Trevor shows up with a leaf blower that does do the trick. And he blasts him until he bursts. This also unfreezes Cosmo, who rushes into the backyard to get married. No, that doesn't do it. It does the trick. He blasts him until he bursts. And then fu. Unfreezes Cosmo, who rushes into the backyard to get married. Married. They make it just in time, but Kathy says she would have waited forever. The couple gets married, only interrupted once by Fred's work phone, who is of course in attendance with his new girlfriend Serena, but still the same guy as he was before. Then at the reception, Ariel is slow dancing with Cutter, and Megan is cozied up to Fanuil, who apparently now is okay with touching a little old fashioned partner swap. There you go. Megan wishes Fionu didn't have to leave, but he promises he'll return after he makes some positive changes to his home planet. Then the party picks up and everyone's having a blast. Ariel explains to her diary she thought her life was over when she came to Earth, but instead, it's just beginning. She has a new boyfriend, a stepmother, and a new best friend. So this hottie, most popular girl in school who's the smartest person in the world is with Cutter. Megan tells her diary that she learned a lot and now there's always room at the popular table. We see her welcome the popular girl who wasn't sitting at the table with them to go sit with her. And Ariel and the stepsisters exchange a smile. We freeze on Megan, which is a weird way to end this movie, but was the 97th weird thing in this movie. There's our film. Let's go watch. Double teamed.

[State Farm Advertiser]

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[Dramas from Life as a Gringo Podcast]

Hey, it's dramas from the Life Is a Gringo podcast. And on this special episode, I'm getting real about sex, especially how growing up in a Latino household impacts the conversations.

[Will Friedle]

We have about it.

[Dramas from Life as a Gringo Podcast]

I think it's safe to say that most people's parents probably weren't too comfortable with the topic of sex and speaking about sex with their kid. You know, there are obviously a lot of stigmas around the topic of sex when it comes to our parents. And I think back to my own personal experiences. You know, we never really had the birds and the bees talk about, you know, it was more of like, you know, sex is something you save for someone you really care about. And that was sort of the extent of it, right? You can listen to this special episode of Life as a Gringo brought to you by Healthy Sexual from Gilead sciences on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jenica Lopez]

You know what a perfect day looks like for me. Sometimes two hours in a cold, dark theater with my favorite people, my favorite actors, and a cold Coca Cola in hand. Hi, I'm Jenica Lopez from the Overcomer podcast. And look, I love deep talks and growth, but sometimes a reset is letting yourself check out laughing way too hard at a rom com or screaming through a thriller and not thinking about anything else for a minute. We don't always need to be on. We're allowed to pause, to refresh, to just be. And the movies? That is my escape. Popcorn, nachos, and that first cold sip of Coca Cola. That's comfort. So what do you watch at the movies? Horror, action, love story, Whatever speaks to you. Don't forget your Coca Cola. Coca Cola esperatos. And a Coca Cola goes great with your favorite Michael Tura show. Listen wherever you get your podcast.

[Colgate Total Advertiser]

Presentado por el sistema de prevencion activa Colgate Total de Salud Bucal. Like cavities and gingivitis by reducing bacterial buildup so you can be dentist ready. Every day the world's throwing messages at you. What to wear, what to think, who to be. But mommy, there's only one you. So make sure to pick up only what serves your soul. That's why I start my day in the mirror saying soy bella, soy fuerte, soy capas. What I say to myself matters, but what I say to my daughters, that matters even more. They'll know who they are before the world tries to decide for them. That's what being life ready looks like. Just like Colgate Total gets Utenses ready. Tres productos un systema el sistema de prevenciona activa Colgate Total. Designed to work together and be 15 times more effective at reducing bacterial buildup in just six weeks starting in week one. Compared to a non antibacterial fluoride toothpaste and flat trimmed toothbrush. When used together, fight the root cause of oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis. And be dentist ready.

[Will Friedle]

Sabrina. Let's do real reviews. You got the one star this week. I wonder if they had to hunt for a five star. Here we go. What do you got?

[Sabrina Bryan]

All right. My one star comes from Brandy Farrell. There was clearly no budget for when they are in the alien form because it looked really dumb. I would have enjoyed this more if the father and daughter were just weird hippies or something. Do not recommend one star.

[Will Friedle]

I don't disagree with anything that Brandy Farrell said. Yes, I've got the five star and it's somebody named Honey Baby 3669 and it reads as thus. I thought it was a very great family movie, but I'm 16 years old. If anyone that reads this knows some information about Henry Feegans, please email me because I really want to find out stuff about him. Which one's Henry Feegans? Do we know? Is that just a random name?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I. I don't remember that being a name. Okay, that's just in something we just saw. But there was so many weird things I could definitely forgot. That movie could have been Honey Baby 366 9. Is that was such a 2000s, like AOL account. Like username. Like Honey Baby 366 9. Like that works. So that just. It works. It's so good.

[Will Friedle]

Never had one of those. We're now coming to Sabrina's favorite part of the program, of course, which is the feature game that producer Jensen makes for us. I hear this week, though, we might have a bit of reprieve because producer Jensen is not with us. I think we have producer Tara with us. If I'm. If I'm not mistaken. Are you here with us?

[Sabrina Bryan]

She's usually a little bit more of like a. Better luck for me.

[Will Friedle]

She's also just nicer about it. She doesn't revel in your misery. Are you with us, producer Tara? I sure am. Okay, so our feature this week is called Take Me to youo Leader. We dealt with some unique aliens in Step Sister from Planet Weird. Maybe some of the most confusing in pop culture history, which is arguable, but with the very long history of extraterrestrials on TV and in the movies, it's important we give equal time to them all. So we're gonna get the name of one of these famous beings. And with multiple choice options, we have to pick which planet they call home. Three out of five and we win. You ready, Sabrina?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, yeah. This is right up my alley.

[Will Friedle]

Number one, Alf was Alf from A, tartum. B, G, Narpac. C, Melmac. Or D, Cat Diner. I'm gonna go with C. I believe it is C. Melmac. If I'm not mistaken, you are Both correct. It's C1 for us. Number two, Mork is Mork from Sorc. Orc. Zork or Pork? Sabrina.

[Sabrina Bryan]

B Orc.

[Will Friedle]

B Orc is correct.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Is it two for two?

[Will Friedle]

There you go. Mork from Orc. Number three, Predator.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, this is that really crazy looking alien movie, right?

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, like awesome movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, are they. Is the name of their home planet A, Penita Sun Prime? B, Yajida Prime. C, Konaza Prime Or D, Amazon prime, what do you got?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, is it B again?

[Will Friedle]

It is B. I know the predator world and it is Ugeta Prime. Am I correct?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Three for three. Never going to believe this.

[Will Friedle]

This is great. Number four, Stitch. Is Stitch from A Turo, B Sano, C, Bupo or D, Bupo? Ah, what do you got, Sabrina?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, this is Stitch. Like the Disney stitch, right?

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. See, I thought Stitch was made in a lab, but I think the lab is from a planet and I think I know what it is. I was on Levos.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuz there's that evil. Yes, he. Yes, you're right. I'm gonna say C, Bupo, but I don't think.

[Will Friedle]

I think. I believe it's a Turo.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Tur. Turo.

[Chiquis]

Will's right.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's A. Ah, yeah.

[Will Friedle]

All right, so. Well, we've already won, so now we've got five. Roger from American Dad. Is he A, Jupiter's twilight path, B, Mars's horizontal ring, C, Earth's central galaxy, or D, how would I know? I've never seen American dad. Which I. I don't know this one. And I was on American dad too.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You were?

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. I did an episode of American Dad.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh my gosh. I think it's A, Jupiter's twilight path.

[Will Friedle]

And I'm B, Mars's. It sounds like something like I'm from Mars's horizontal ring. Like it sounds like something he'd say.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

[Will Friedle]

All right, you were both wrong. It is C, Earth's central galaxy. Okay, there we go.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Kind of boring.

[Will Friedle]

That is again. We gotta have producer Tara back because we seem to win when producer Tara is here. And it's because Jensen brings such bad vibes and anger to everything he tempts.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Honestly, that was kind of a hard one, that, right? It was. I mean, I'm kind of like. I don't think he'll ever, ever believe that I.

[Will Friedle]

No, and you did, though. We were here. We saw it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

We have to roll the tape for him.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, we will. By the way, does anybody. While I have your produce, Char, does anybody know what alf's favorite favorite food was?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, I don't. It was cats spaghetti. Cats.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Remember he always wanted to eat cats? Yep.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, my God.

[Will Friedle]

You gotta go back and watch alf. It is a serious acid trip. But better than this movie. Can we do some Sabrina Seas?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes. First and foremost, my mom and dad's name is Fred and Kathy, so I thought that was good. And then when I came and did, like, you know, my bit of like my homework for the movie Kathy with the K is not normal. I think more people named Kathy are with starts with a C. Oh, really? My sister in law is Kathy with a K. Okay. I've only really ever met my mom, Kathy with a K. Except for recently. Okay. And then. Oh yeah. So I recognize the mean girl from Xenon. And I was like, I wonder if Xenon was before, after. As always, I'm always like, what's that? I thought I actually asked it in the chat. I thought for sure. Okay, no, wait. Maybe I asked was the mom the mom from Luck of the Irish? Because she looked very similar.

[Will Friedle]

No, different. Different.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay. Lisa said no.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Luckily Irish was a different lady.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay. But that she. I thought it was. I was like, oh, we've got like multiple dcommers, you know, in it. Something that always cracks me up, you know, is the wardrobe. This was like classic Disney Channel wardrobe.

[Will Friedle]

Oh yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

The skinny spaghetti strap tank top. But it had to be on like a regular, you know, at least 2 inch. That happened. Or if they had some type of tank top, there was like a vest of some sort. So that was always happening. Something that I always, always throws me off a little bit is when they reference things that are not like Disney, like Men in Black. Was that a Disney movie?

[Will Friedle]

I think it was, yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Is it? Was it? Okay?

[Will Friedle]

It must have been.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But it's Men in Black. Then they randomly reference Jewel the artist.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And then they reference, just not too long after that, Goodwill hunting. They said.

[Will Friedle]

That's right.

[Sabrina Bryan]

They said Ariel was straight out of Goodwill. I was like, that's a lot of referencing of like just the popular movies of the year. Yes. And then you already mentioned. And then we've got our little clip of. Of Lion King in there, which is obviously Disney. Some of the funny little comments that were made. We talked about extreme. Then she's freak of all time. Like, this is like the lines of working on the channel you kind of hope you don't have to say, right. The freak of all time, like extreme was words. And then she's whacked. Like what? To me, that's like someone whacked her. So those are crazy. Did you see the little bit of. I thought it was not an Easter egg. I don't know what you'd call this. Maybe you have a better name for it. But how her name, her character name is Ariel. And then when she's in the water, when Megan's windsurfing and then he cutters there and she walks out and she's walking out and the water looks just like Little Mermaid in high school all the time. It's, like, all so sparkly. And she's just walking out. Like the way little. Like the way Ariel walks out at the very end of the movie.

[Will Friedle]

Good Easter egg.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That's a good Easter egg, right?

[Will Friedle]

It's a good Easter egg. I never saw that. It's a good one.

[Sabrina Bryan]

We talked about my non. Appropriate. The inappropriate, random men in the room.

[Will Friedle]

Yep.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So, okay, so we didn't cover this, but the dad. The. The villain dad comes back and his son, like, helps kill him.

[Will Friedle]

Yes. With the.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like with the.

[Will Friedle]

With the hair dryers.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. Like, helps, like.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

He, like, basically did something similar to what happened to her mom. Right. Like, he's gone.

[Will Friedle]

Right. And why so much that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

He's not afraid of wind. Right.

[Will Friedle]

He's just gotten there. I mean, he's. They're all used to it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. So I'm like. But wait, he, like, helped, like.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Murder.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Get rid of his dad.

[Will Friedle]

It's called fratricide.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That is kind of crazy, actually.

[Will Friedle]

His father was a king, so it's actually technically regicide.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, terrible.

[Will Friedle]

Terrible.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And he even speaks on it later that he has to.

[Will Friedle]

He's gonna go back and rule.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Go back and rule.

[Will Friedle]

It's not even like, I froze my dad. And so because I froze my. I'm gonna. Yes. Right. And, like, we'll see if he's ever gonna get out.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Cosmo.

[Will Friedle]

Like, no.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

He's dead.

[Sabrina Bryan]

He's gone.

[Will Friedle]

He's dead. He's. He's. He's dead now. Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And then the last thing is there's a song called Sunshine Girl and there's a jingle that happens within this movie three or four times that sounds so much like that.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, really?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. And I was like, I wonder if anyone will recognize if they go back and watch this. If you recognize a song that sounds just like Sunshine Girl by you're Gonna Die. Sunshine Girl by JJ. Boot featuring PITA P E E T A H. Wow. Anyway, that song kept going, and it comes in, like, three or four times throughout the movie. And I was like, what song is that? And I finally figured out a lyric I remembered and looked it up, and that's it.

[Will Friedle]

Well, there we go. Thank you so much. Now, let's. Let's rate our. Let's rate our movie, our options for this week. I'm not even gonna make a joke out of it. 11 to 10. 1 1's the worst. 10's the best we can do. 1 out of 10 ignored redheaded little brothers who can end the Movie in minutes. 1 out of 10. Financial concerns about a windsurfing store. Obvious Australian accents, Canadian aliens. 1 out of 10. Glaba and Gronkas. 1 out of 10. Layers to protect your essence. Alien love bombing. 1 out of 10. Mickey Mantle dogs or a handful of blow dryers. What do you got? I also want to add 1 out of 10. I need to watch double teamed again.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Bring back double team. 1 out of 10.

[Will Friedle]

Bring back double team Back double team. You want to do that? Let's do that. One out of ten. Bring. But we're gonna do one out of ten. Bring back double teams. I go first this week. I remember that. Yeah, this. This movie's not good. This is not a good movie. Okay, let's. They're not all going to be gems. Some of them. I know some people. Well, you're not watching it the right way. No, you can watch. I imagine if I was 10 years old, I would have watched this movie and gone, what is this movie at 10? So this is. This. The book may be great. This might be just a poorly adapted book. It could be a great book. You can tell they greenlit this three weeks before they were going to start shooting it. You can tell there's holes in it. I mean, it is just a strange, strange movie. And not fun strange, but just weird and confusing. Bad and confusing. And then they're gas. And it's just this. This was. This was a slog for me to get through 85 minutes. I mean, I'm gonna give it 3.5 bring back double teams because there. I just. There's very little about this movie that was redeeming for me. I just. I didn't think the script was good. The acting's okay, but it's nothing to write home about. The story makes no sense whatsoever. Some of the characters are just flat out annoying. This was not a good movie for me. And you can come at me all day long and we will talk film all day long. This was not a good one. So I'm gonna stick. I'm pretty. I'm. I'm okay with 3.5 bring back double teams.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I. Yes, this one was. It was rough. It was rough. And, you know, it's. It's different to, like, kind of have the ability to, like, pick, pinpoint, and pick apart certain things because there's so much greatness in the movie. But for this movie, it was like. It was a struggle just to find any type of, like, sunshine and joy and, you know, I Live on a. On a bright and shiny cliff.

[Will Friedle]

Right. Yes, you do. You live in happy sunshine land. I do.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And so this one was difficult and hard for me, too, because it's like a friend of. Well, I mean, like, we haven't talked in years, but, like, somebody I worked with and, like, have a lot of respect for and everything is like, one of the main stars in here.

[Will Friedle]

And it's like, was she the blonde hair or the brown hair?

[Sabrina Bryan]

She was the brunette.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, gotcha.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. And it was like, man, like, this is what Disney brought to you. I would assume. I'm assuming she didn't really even have to audition for this because of her.

[Will Friedle]

Status, I would imagine.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yay the channel. And just, you know, that's disappointing. But again, the whole time you're like. You're easy to be distracted because you don't even really understand what's happening on the screen. And that's.

[Will Friedle]

Nope.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Crazy to me. And usually we can find something that kind of like flips it in, like, at least a couple moments. The only funny part about it was his. And I said earlier, his fall down. When she says he bladed down the mountain. When they brought that one back because he referenced it again, that's the only time I literally laughed in this whole 90, 85 minutes.

[Will Friedle]

I laughed twice. I laughed with cutting Back to the UConn again, where it said, population still low. And then I laughed. He had one line reading cutter at the end where he's like, I know that you froze her. And that's like, it's supposed to be cool, but it isn't. That was it. That was the whole line. But the way he said I rewounded three times. The way he read it was hysterical. And I was like, why couldn't the whole movie have been that?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

So that one line read is what gave it to 0.5.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

From threes.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But I am gonna go ahead and this is going to be my lowest score. It has to be. I can't think of a movie that was. That was worse than that. This scoring is a 3.5. Bring back double teams, because I would watch that three or four more times in a row than ever.

[Will Friedle]

Watch this. Yeah, this was. This was rough.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'm sorry for the cast of the crew and everyone involved, because that's not nice to say. But, you know.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, it is. This is a rough one. You know, again, they can't all be bangers. It just can't. It's just.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And you're right. It's so crazy how this time of the channel. There was a adjustment that was happening and they were trying to figure out where they were going with their dcom world.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And this was one of the ones that was jumbled up of like, you could just tell they didn't have a clear direction at this point. Point is what it seemed like.

[Will Friedle]

Well, it's yours. It's truly. I mean, the one thing we're. We're starting to realize, it's really your movie. There is pre Cheetah Girls dcom and then there's post Cheetah Girls dcom, which are two very different things. Because when the Cheetah Girls came out and it became more about the music and good acting and bigger locations, they ran with that. Yeah, that. That been then became what the channel was about. It became High School Musical. It became. And now we see what it is now with zombies and 40 million dollar movies. But it really can be. You can point to the Cheetah Girls as the one. I mean, we're watching them all.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

You came out what, 2003.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Our mo. Yeah, we filmed 2002. Came out 2003.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, great. So there's very few movies pre 2003 that we've been watching that are on the caliber of the movies after the Cheetah Girls.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. And it's almost like it wasn't. If it wasn't a before, if it wasn't like movie that was based on some kind of micro world or like some kind of sports thing.

[Will Friedle]

Yes.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like an extreme sport of some sort. It just was not finding the storylines that could carry the 90 minutes.

[Will Friedle]

Agreed, 100%. So. Well, that's where we are, everybody. Again, you might disagree with us, but you'd be wrong. Next week we are back to swapping bodies. A dcom trope we faced before, but this time it's with a future Grey's Anatomy superstar. Little fun fact. I've never seen 10 seconds of Grey's Anatomy.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I've seen every episode.

[Will Friedle]

That's what people are huge into the show. I've never seen it ever. It's 1996's Wish Upon a Star. And while you're waiting, go check out some of our interviews on the dedicated Magical Rewind feed. We have tons. With so many legendary DCOM cast and crew, all you have to do is search Magical Rewind wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe. And for more info, you can follow us at Magical Rewind Pod on the Instagram machine. I'm gonna go watch double teamed and apologize to everybody.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Especially you, Michaela. Love you Michaela.

[Will Friedle]

We love you, Michaela.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Take it back. Take it all back.

[Will Friedle]

Bye everybody.

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[Sabrina Bryan]

Hola.

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[Jenica Lopez]

You know what a perfect day looks like for me? Sometimes two hours and a cold theater with my people, my favorite actors and a cold Coca Cola in hand. Hi, I'm Jenica from the Overcomer podcast. And sometimes the best way to reset is to check out laugh, cry, scream at the screen and just be popcorn, good company and a cold Coke. That's comfort. Coca Cola esparatodos.

[Will Friedle]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. Feel good and look good this summer with savings on your personal care favorites and earn four times points now through September 9th. Shop in store or online for items like Dollar Shave Club razors, Hydro Silk razors and Edge Shave GE. Plus some favorite brands like Tampax, Pearl, Depend and Poise to earn four times points to use for later discounts on groceries or gas. Hurry in before these deals are gone. Offer end September 9th. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details. Iheart presents the Big Three playoffs this Sunday.

[State Farm Advertiser]

The remaining four teams battle to make.

[Will Friedle]

The championship in the most physical, fierce.

[State Farm Advertiser]

And competitive basketball league in the world. The action starts with the Big three.

[Will Friedle]

Monster and Energy celebrity game. Then Dwight Howard and his Ellie Riot.

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Take on Montrez Harrell and Dr. J Chicago triplets.

[Will Friedle]

The finale will see popular Miami 305 with stars MVP Michael Beasley and Lance.

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Stevenson take on Nancy Lieberman's Dallas power who will make it to the big three championship.

[Will Friedle]

The no holds barred action starts Sunday at 3pm Eastern, 12 Pacific only on CBS.

[Sabrina Bryan]

This is an iHeart podcast.