Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior

Summary

Pod Meets World – "Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior"

Released: March 3, 2026 | Hosts: Will Friedle & Sabrina Bryan | Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Pod Meets World" whisks listeners back to the Disney Channel glory days to revisit the 2006 DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) "Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior." Hosts Will Friedle and Sabrina Bryan dive deep into the film’s martial arts spectacle, Brenda Song’s star-making performance, Asian representation in mid-2000s media, and the cheesy, high-energy Disney drama fans love. Expect nostalgic laughs, critique of stereotypes, and plenty of friendly squabbling over whether Power Rangers count as ninjas.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Childhood Obsessions & Ninja Dreams

• [02:32] Both hosts reminisce about their love of ninja movies and martial arts as kids:
  • Sabrina: "Ninja, ninjas specifically was my wheelhouse of, like, dying to be... My dogs are named after the Three Ninja characters, Rocky and Emily."
  • Will’s dad even nicknamed him "Ninja." They debate if Power Rangers are true ninjas, launching into some classic comedic bickering on the difference between superheroes and ninjas.
• [05:10] Will: “Power Rangers are not ninjas, my friend. It’s like looking at a dance squad and calling them cheerleaders. Those are two very different things.”

Film Background and Brenda Song’s Breakthrough

• [05:52] Will lays out key Wendy Wu stats:
  • Premiered June 16, 2006, to 5.7 million viewers (fifth-highest DCOM ever).
  • Highest-rated DCOM in Disney Channel Japan.
  • Star: Brenda Song (trained for two weeks, 16-hour days, did most stunts).
  • Criticism for Asian stereotypes, but seen as important representation for its time.
  • Filmed mostly in Auckland, New Zealand, with extensive Power Rangers crew/cast involvement—action directed by Koichi Sakamoto.
• [08:59] Only the eighth DCOM ever to get a TV-PG rating, due to martial arts violence.

Reception and Why No Sequel?

• [10:27] There was a sequel greenlit—would’ve involved the villain possessing the Wu family dog—but it was scrapped for unknown reasons.

Personal Connections to the Film

• [11:02] Sabrina admits she had never seen it before but always loved Brenda Song: “She was like a part of the ensemble... This was her getting her own movie. Pretty big moment on the channel.”

Does It Hold Up? Initial Impressions

• [14:07] Sabrina: “I went into this movie already loving it... Brenda Song, check. Ninja aspect, check. Evil demon to destroy, check. I was already obsessed.”
• [15:33] Will: “This hit the fantastical side, the martial arts side, the history side. I love when they put a culture's folklore into something. It's like, one of my favorite things in the world.”

High Marks for Action and Asian Representation

• [16:28]–[17:28] Both hosts praise the wire work and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”–style combat. Will singles out choreography, special effects, and the risk Disney took with a heavily Asian-coded story:
  • Will: “You’re also doing a highly choreographed martial arts movie that was done well. It all looked great.”
  • Sabrina: “Even just the stunt people themselves were obviously so high quality...”

Casting & Crew Context

• [18:11] Brenda Song hailed as “Queen of DCOMs,” discussed alongside other Disney Channel stars.
• Power Rangers actors Sally Martin (Blue Ranger) and Anna Hutchinson (Yellow Ranger) have cameos.
• Director: John Liang (Xena, Warrior Princess / Power Rangers alum).
• Writers include Lydia Look, Mark Seabrooks, Vince Trang, and Ben Montagno—many with strong TV/Broadcast backgrounds.

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Detailed Recap & Major Scenes

Opening & Disney Tropes

• [26:54] Will notes the opening’s Shaolin-movie vibes, mystical artifacts, and familiar Disney visual language (e.g., the “not paying attention in class” introduction).
  • Will: “I'd like to add not paying attention in class and the teacher coming over and saying your name over and over again [to the list of Disney tropes]."

Family & School Dynamics

• The hosts banter about school popularity, homecoming elections, and their own high school experiences.
• Sabrina challenges: Is homecoming queen a popularity contest or something students really campaign for?
  • Sabrina: “Girls do what they do. You talk quietly... This is not how you handle homecoming. Obviously.“

Martial Arts Mayhem & Stranger Danger

• Shen, the mystical monk, tries to warn Wendy of her destiny. Sabrina expresses concerns about the film’s relaxed “stranger danger” messaging:
  • Sabrina: “Any child... any adult, for a stranger to come into your house... The reaction was not correct. Disney, I rely on you to teach the lessons to the children. This wasn’t it.” [43:09]
• Fight scenes are unexpectedly strong for a TV movie, with hosts repeatedly highlighting choreography as a standout.

Comedy, Critique, & Cookie Debates

• Extended, lighthearted argument: is a cookie a pastry?
  • Will: “A cookie is not a pastry. It’s like saying a pizza is a pasta. No. Wrong." [31:43]
  • Sabrina: “But at a bakery... cookies are a pastry!” [32:14]
• Ongoing comedic asides about school events, cupcake montages, and mistaken genre conventions.

Cultural Themes, Rules, and Representation

• Significant discussion of navigating Chinese identity, family tradition, and assimilation:
  • Will: “I thought this was... a really interesting way of showing the culture, how you can forget your own culture when you assimilate.”
• Both hosts flag some “lazy” handling of mythology/magic rules and narrative logic, wishing for clearer explanations about magical objects' functions.

Big Fight & Homecoming Showdown

• Wendy’s training montage pays off in a fateful showdown at the museum; choreography is lauded as “maybe the best DCOM fight sequence.”
• Highlights: anime-style fireballs (“She full-on throws a fireball like Ryu, hi-you-ken!” [79:54]), spectral duels, and a magical dress change mid-battle.
• Final moral: Wendy chooses family, sacrifice, and heroism over her homecoming dreams—though not without some hand-wringing over missing the dance.

Nitpicks and "Sabrina Sees" Final Critique

• Sabrina singles out odd student-teacher dynamics, adult character agecasting, and some music choices as questionable, but overall forgivable.
  • "The dynamic between children and adults... was very off to me." [92:26]
• Repeated jokes about repeatedly unlocked doors and irate security guards who should "absolutely be fired."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Will, on stuntwork:
  “You’re also doing a highly choreographed martial arts movie that was done well. Like, it all looked great. It’s got the wire work from, like, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” (16:28)
• Sabrina, embracing her bias:
  “I went in already loving this. Absolute bias, didn’t care. And I’m like, Will’s going to murder me because I don’t care.” (15:02)
• On Power Rangers, with classic Will/Sabrina sparring:
  Will: “Power Rangers are not ninjas, my friend… It’s like looking at a dance squad and calling them cheerleaders.” (05:10)
• Will, quipping during the homecoming-martial-arts mashup:
  “She throws a fireball like Ryu, hi-you-ken! And I just wanted her to do that. Oh God, it was so cool.” (79:54)
• Sabrina, on safety messaging:
  “This triggered me. For a stranger to come into your house. The reaction was not correct... Disney, I rely on you to teach the lessons to children. This wasn't it.” (43:09)
• Friendly nitpicking:
  Will: "I don't see the discussion how I get maybe thinking a cookie's a pastry. You'd be wrong, but I get seeing it." (32:14)
• On villain logic:
  Will: “Why, when you put the orb into the pool, does it bubble like it’s going crazy? But when he knocked the orb into the fish tank, there was no bubbling at all.” (70:26)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Ninja Nostalgia (Power Rangers debate): 02:32–05:28
• Film Background/Stats: 05:52–12:25
• Personal Film Connections: 12:25–14:57
• First Impressions: 14:07–16:28
• Action, Choreography, & Representation: 16:28–18:34
• Core Recap & Tropes: 26:54–39:53
• Stranger Danger & Fight Choreo: 42:26–47:28
• Cookie/Pastry Debate: 31:21–32:36, 102:08–102:55
• Cultural Assimilation Storyline: 65:38–66:37
• Final Battle, Fireballs, & Resolution: 76:57–82:28
• Critical Wrap-Up (‘Sabrina Sees’): 91:49–98:40
• Ranking & Final Thoughts: 99:03–101:40

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Overall Ratings

• Will: 8/10 “Lock the Doors” – “I think this was a fun movie all the way around.”
• Sabrina: 9/10 “Lock the Doors” – “The queen reigns. I love Brenda Song. I thought it was a great movie. For a kid movie to be that good... I was there for it.” (101:37)

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Final Thoughts & Podcast Vibe

Warm, nostalgic, and packed with the hosts’ playful, sibling-like banter—not to mention nerd-fueled movie analysis and amusing detours (cookie taxonomy, anyone?). “Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior” is praised as a fun, surprisingly well-choreographed wish fulfillment movie, full of heart and martial-arts spectacle. While the hosts acknowledge the period’s iffy handling of stereotypes and mythology, they ultimately celebrate Brenda Song’s powerhouse performance and Disney for “going for it” with an Asian-centric action film in 2006.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Watched

You’ll come away with a clear sense of “Wendy Wu’s” place in DCOM history, a near-complete plot rundown, critiques of its limitations (magic rules, some outdated tropes), and the infectious nostalgia and humor that makes “Pod Meets World” a fan favorite. And maybe also craving cupcakes... or mooncakes.

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Find Pod Meets World on Instagram (@MagicalRewindPod) and let them know: Are cookies pastries? And did you secretly want to be a ninja, too?

Transcript

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[Will Friedle]

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[Nancy Glass]

iOS mobile app I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything.

[Will Friedle]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Will Friedle]

Talking to your kids about the dangers of vaping can be hard. Getting them to listen to hot gossip is easy, so here's some drama you could share with your kid. Dude, did you hear about Cassie and Jake? No, but did you hear that vaping can cause irreversible lung damage and nicotine affects porn brain development? Nuh. You don't need to gossip if you want to have an open conversation about vaping. So if you want to get tips on when and how to talk to your kids, visit talkaboutvaping.org brought to you by the American Lung association and the AD Council. Sabrina, did you ever study any martial arts?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I mean, study on like a professional level or like.

[Will Friedle]

No, he doesn't have to be professional. Did you ever go to karate classes or any of that kind of stuff?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No I didn't. I didn't do any of that. Like, that. Well, then why were you qualifying?

[Will Friedle]

Which one? Wait, do you mean like on a professional scale or more. Oh, no, I've never done.

[Weatherbug Announcer]

No.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like in my own home, feeling like I did my own professional training.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, that's thing.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No.

[Will Friedle]

Wow.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'm telling you right now, hands down, like, everything about, like, Karate Kid Ninja ninjas specifically was my wheelhouse of, like, dying to be.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, me too. My dad's nickname for me my whole life has been ninja because all I did was watch ninja ninja movies.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And I mean, my dogs are named after the three ninja, like, characters, Rocky and Emily. Like, this was my world.

[Will Friedle]

And I know one of Ryder Strong's best friends was one of the three ninjas growing up.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, my gosh. And I know, and it was very hard when we were at Disneyland to not talk about that.

[Will Friedle]

Can we talk about your friend being in Three Ninjas?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, like, is he still doing ninja stuff?

[Will Friedle]

Did you watch old school ninja movies? Like real, like Shokosugi, like Revenge of the Ninja, Return of the Ninja kind of ninja movies?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, I lived in the Disney World from, you know, this. Like. No, it was starting to get into Disney stuff like. Or kid friendly stuff.

[Will Friedle]

You got to get into the real gut. Slashing ninja star through the eye, throwing

[Sabrina Bryan]

kind of ninja moves. No, no, that's not the fun part of ninjas.

[Will Friedle]

Those are good. That is. First of all, ninjas aren't fun. They're awesome. And they're trained assassins.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's like, you know, like Power Rangers. Like, that was like, my. Like, oh, my. I mean, I did.

[Will Friedle]

Power Rangers were superheroes. They weren't ninjas.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Well, they were like ninjas.

[Will Friedle]

No, no, no, no, no. Wow.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes, they were.

[Will Friedle]

No. Power Rangers were endowed with magical powers essentially like superpowers to become a clan, not even a clan to become a team of superheroes that happened to do martial arts. Ninjas were highly trained martial arts secret assassins is what ninjas are

[Sabrina Bryan]

trying to. I'm telling you right now, you're not gonna burst my bubble of how I feel about ninja.

[Will Friedle]

I don't think so. I just think that you're. It's like you're. You're. Look, you know what? It's the equivalent of you're looking at me looking at a dance team and going, oh, they're a cheerleading squad. And you'd be like, no, no, no, no. Those are two very different things. That's the difference in looking at the Power Rangers and saying they're ninjas. You're looking at a dance squad and calling them cheerleaders. No, not. I'm sorry to burst your bubble.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Fighting words.

[Will Friedle]

Am I wrong, though? If I came in and saw your dance team and I was like, they're a cheer squad, you would be like, that's. Power Rangers are not ninjas, my friend. I'm gonna. Here's what you're gonna start with the. You're gonna start with the old school Revenge of the Ninja with shokosugi. That's where you're gonna start.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I don't want to go from there. I want guts and crazy glory.

[Will Friedle]

Then you don't like ninjas, my friend.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, fine.

[Will Friedle]

But I do. Okay. We're gonna make sure you watch the real stuff, okay? And for everybody else, welcome back to Magical Rewind, the show that makes you want to grab your friends, your PJs and your popcorn and go back to a time when all the houses are smart. The wave tsunamis. And apparently the Power Rangers were ninjas.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes, they were.

[Will Friedle]

Which they weren't. I'm Will Friedle.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And I'm Sabrina Bryan. Ready to fight.

[Will Friedle]

Here we go. Well, dig into your ancestry and search for traces of a yin warrior, because we're attacking the 2006 high school martial arts dcom, Wendy Woo Homecoming Warrior. It premiered on June 16, 2006, and scored an impressive 5.7 million viewers that night. Ready for this? Making it the fifth highest rated DCOM of all time. I bet you didn't see that coming. I didn't. I gotta be honest. I'm gonna just jump ahead. I didn't. Hadn't even heard of this movie. So the idea that this is the fifth highest DCOM ever is pretty impressive, right? Yeah. It also received the highest rating ever for a DCOM on Disney Channel Japan. In addition to the film, the movie stars took over the block of programming leading to the debut. So Disney Channel really put their weight behind this one, and it certainly paid off. They also repurposed the movie for two other versions. The kickin version, which is K I K in, which included five new scenes and a remixed version where the cast answered viewer questions and taught karate moves. The movie's budget was just $5 million, an impressively low amount for the time considering its success. But a lot can be accredited to the film's star, a Disney kid who is having quite a moment right now. That is Brenda Song, one of our favorites. She reportedly trained for two weeks with 16 hour days. She did most of her own stunts and has said she pushed herself to the Max as a tribute to her mom who had battled breast cancer the year before. Really cool. You also saw the work she put in. Yes. We found this fact online and it might be the most 2006 sentence ever, but I'm gonna say it anyway. The film was originally set to air on June 2, 2006, but was pushed back by Disney Channel due to technical difficulties involving the film's official website, which is, you know, in 2006, they're still new having websites for all this kind of stuff. It was out and people were doing it, but it was still like, are you on that Internet thing? Also, a large amount of criticism online about this movie involves Asian stereotypes. Luckily, something we seem to be moving farther away from in 2026. But it, you know, has to be said it was a different time, especially when it came to Asian representation movies. Or, well, lack thereof for that matter. Though the movie was set in California, most of the film was actually filmed in Auckland, New Zealand, which was a decision made to accommodate the film's director. Now, I'm gonna do a blanket apology right here to everyone. There are names that I'm gonna say, and I'm sure I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation. As somebody who grew up with a name that nobody got right, I don't like when people mispronounce my name. I apologize because I know I'm gonna mess these up, but bear with me. So I'm gonna do the best I can.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Better you than me, because I would absolutely butcher them.

[Will Friedle]

I am gonna try. So apologies to everyone involved when I eventually mangle your name. I'm so sorry, but here we go. So the film's action director was Kouchi Sakamoto, the brains behind the original Power Rangers Fight. Oh, there we go. Which is kind of a cool piece of trivia. And Sakamoto was able to bring in a lot of actors from Power Rangers, including Sally Martin, who is the blue Power Ranger in Power Rangers Ninja Storm.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Uh huh.

[Will Friedle]

See, it's still not that bad.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You're wrong already.

[Will Friedle]

Really? Are they throwing ninja stars and slicing people over? You know, assassinating people in the middle of the night for gold? Then they're not ninjas. And Anna Hutchinson, who played the Yellow Ranger in Jungle Fury. They shot at Long Bay College and used some of their students as extras. All part of a quick 24 day shoot, which is fast. And Wendy Wu was just the 8th DCOM ever to get the TV PG rating thanks to all the fight scenes of the eight. We have now watched four Twitch's Halloween Town, Halloweentown 2 and Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire. Do you think that it was PG for Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire? Because it was so bad and. Oh, fighting words again. But vampire fighting words.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Halloween town. Halloween.

[Will Friedle]

Probably scary. Probably because of the scary aspect, I would think.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. Are twitches.

[Will Friedle]

Twitches again? You had. You had like the. The girls. Didn't they had kill people that the father was dead and he was killed

[Sabrina Bryan]

by a person they had to look into. Like the. The diet, like the rules of, like, Right.

[Will Friedle]

The breakdown or what. Yeah, you never know because I know back in the day, it's like if they showed somebody smoking that got a new rating. If they showed somebody this. That guy. So you never know what it could possibly be. But anyway. Yeah. You might be asking yourself, this movie sure sounds like a hit for the channel. Well, you'd be right. But. So why was there no sequel? That's a good question, Mark. Did you get that? Did you get that? No. Have you seen. You haven't seen the Room? Oh, God. Oh, Sabrina, we gotta talk. Okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

There was a dog.

[Will Friedle]

I gotta. I gotta start some of your education. The Room is considered the worst. Like, the worst movie ever made. It's brilliant. And that's one of the famous lines. Good question, mark. So there was a sequel greenlit in 2007 as reported by Variety, but it was eventually cut from the Disney schedule and never spoken of again. The idea for the follow up was said to involve an alternate ending of the movie found on its dvd, where Yang Lo, who was obviously the bad guy, was shown to have secretly inhabited the body of the Wu family dog. Now, I told you I already broke protocol and jumped ahead and told you that I'd never heard of this movie. Had you heard of Wendy Wu?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I had heard, but never had seen. I. This right. In 2006. Like, I've been a fan of Brenda's song for just. I mean, since the day she, like, spoke one line since her first song.

[Will Friedle]

Thank you very much.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And so. Yes. I mean, and it was awesome and I heard it, but I had never seen it. So I was really, really excited to know we were watching this one.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, I did. Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And you already said you'd never heard of that.

[Will Friedle]

No, never heard of this. But again, that's. I just. I missed all these. So.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't know. I think when people talk about Brenda's Song, they talk about this movie like. Okay, well, there's like a big.

[Will Friedle]

I can see why.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I can, frankly, because in all of the stuff she did on the channel, she was like a part of the ensemble or she was, you know, the, like the second character. This was like her getting her own movie. So it was pretty big moment on the channel, I would say.

[Will Friedle]

I can see that. And again, when she hops on screen, you can see why she became a star. You, too can learn more about Wendy Wu. She's available right now to stream on Disney, and you have the choice to watch it before or after our recap. But we've been told that if you listen before, you'll be the recipient of 15 years of good luck. No, no, wait. It was 15 years of bad luck. There was fit. Who knows? Just try it and let us know.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It does help to watch the movie and have your kind of own opinions before you start hearing us. As long as you love Will hating things, it really helps.

[Will Friedle]

I think you and I, if we went back and looked at everything. I think you and I are on the same page more often than we're not.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's crazy.

[Will Friedle]

I feel like it's very rare that I'm like, this is the worst movie ever. And you're like, I loved it. Like, that almost never happens.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Almost never, but.

[Will Friedle]

And the times it does, I explain basically why you're wrong, and we go from there. That's it. I don't see the problem.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's like, I just. Here's why they're not into that, like, little sister aspect. Like, I don't know why I try. Everyone, please stop giving me so much on Instagram. I freaking try. Okay?

[Will Friedle]

People give you on Instagram?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, it's like, they're like, oh, well, then Will says, it's really just, like, goes along with it.

[Will Friedle]

And I'm like, no, no, I don't agree. You and I will fight about certain movies, but, I mean, again, some of them aren't great. And the ones that are, we enjoy.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

It's just the way it is.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I feel like I pull you. I mean, the fact that you do love musicals now, you just, like, are dying to, like. You're like, when's the next musical, guys?

[Will Friedle]

Oh, my God. Why is nobody breaking into song? Yeah. Her name is Brenda Song. Why is she not singing, for God's sake?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Opportunity to break into song right now. Why is nobody.

[Will Friedle]

Thank you.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And I feel like that's because of me. Like, you love it. Because I love it.

[Will Friedle]

I agree. Now let's see if we love this one. It is time for our synopsis. Teen girl Wendy Wu focuses on becoming homecoming queen until she Learns she has the soul of an ancient female warrior destined to battle an evil spirit. Okay, Sabrina, it's time to enter the temple. What are your early thoughts on Wendy Wu, homecoming warrior? What did you think?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I want you to know, hands down, I went into this movie already loving it because I do love ninjas and I love.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, fair enough.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And I was like, will's not even gonna care that, like, I didn't even have my phone next to me. I went after and put some notes, but I was ready to love this movie. Brenda Song, check. Ninja aspect, check. Like, just evil demon that we are gonna destroy and, like, overcome a check. I was already, like. I knew this is what was gonna be. And I was, like, already obsessed. So I went into this a little unfair. I don't think I went in. I went into it with an absolute bias. And I have no regard. Like, I don't care. I just.

[Will Friedle]

No regret. Okay. But it can be bad because you could not live up to your hype. Did it live up to the hype you were hoping?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Absolutely. There was no point where I was like, ugh, this is stupid. I'm like, everything that they did, that even the most ridiculous thing that happened on the screen, I was like, don't care. I loved it. I. I went in already loving this absolute bias, didn't care. And I'm like, will's going to murder me because I don't care. No, any aspect of anything. There was no. There was no wrong in this movie for me. Those are my early thoughts. That's going to be my. Just put a 10 on it.

[Will Friedle]

Okay. I'm not going to go that far, but I don't disagree. This. This. This hit kind of all of. I don't know Brenda Song as well as you. The things I've seen her in, I like. But this hit the fantastical side, the martial arts side, the history side. I love when they put a culture's folklore into something. It's like, one of my favorite things in the world. So I was the same way.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like, the heavy hitters, they had like, oh, it just was Will. This was just like one of our. Like, oh, thank God. We like. I'm just so excited for it.

[Will Friedle]

I liked it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Not to mention the fact that Disney went for it and they went for it. They went for the backfield. They were wanting to knock it out of the park. Cause this was a big. Again, you're going into the culture aspect. You're going into a lot of stuff that a lot of people could fight back on. And Disney Just were like, you know what? We're Disney. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. Right.

[Will Friedle]

You're also doing a highly choreographed martial arts movie that was done well. Like, it all looked great. It's got the wire work from, like, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon kind of stuff.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And this was the time of all that happening. Right? Like, I don't know the dates like you would, because you have your little

[Will Friedle]

bit better of, like, Crouching Tiger came out in 2000.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay.

[Will Friedle]

So it was six years later, but this was still okay. God. If you want to see a movie, go watch House of Flying Daggers. It is so good. It's the same kind of. Same kind of thing as Crouching Tiger. It's that. You're right. It's this early 2000s. The beautiful Asian background and the outfits and the martial arts. Awesome.

[Sabrina Bryan]

The only. We'll get it. There's a tiny bit of things that

[Will Friedle]

I'm like, oh, I'm gonna nitpick. The movie was far from perfect. There was some stupid that happened in this movie, don't get me wrong.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But overall, it was so good, and I just didn't care.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, no, there was. This was not a perfect film. I didn't walk away going like, oh, my God, it's on Golden Pond. But it was good. Yes, but. So, yes, I'm still gonna nitpick, but here we go. So the director again, we're working on names, everybody. So the director was John Liang, a New Zealand native who directed a ton of action tv, including Xena, Warrior Princess, Hercules and the Hitchhiker. Right. He also has Power Rangers history, which seems like a prerequisite for this movie. And his Disney history mostly rests in the channel adjacent TV show, the Adventures of the Swiss Family Robinson, which I think is just a family that gets lost. And like I said, it stars a Disney darling. All over the press nowadays for a big career resurgence. It's Brenda Song as Wendy Wu, a child actor best known as London Tipton on the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. But her overall Disney Channel game is quite possibly unmatched. She also appeared on shows like Phil of the Future, that's so Raven, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Phineas and Ferb. So I have to ask with Get a Clue, the ultimate Christmas Present, the Suite Life movie, Stuck in the Suburbs, and Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana. Is Brenda Song officially the Queen of dcoms? Do we have to crowd her?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I think she needs to be at least Lady Brenda. Like, she has to be if she's not the Queen. She's at least a lady, but who

[Will Friedle]

else could we put above her? Who has done. I mean, there might be bigger names, like when you get Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez. So there might be bigger names, but bigger dcoms.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And because she's a little bit older, she's a tiny bit prestigious, like, and she's just.

[Will Friedle]

I think you might have to say all hail the Queen. I really think you might. You might have to say all hail the Queen. Yep, it's. It's quite possible. And nowadays you heard her in the massive Disney hit Zootopia 2. This time it's personal as Kitty Lynxley, I think, and on Disney's Amphibia. But she's also been on shows like Running point, Dollface, Station 19 and Dads and movie like the Social Network and the Last Showgirl. Shin Koyamada plays Shen. He was unfreaking believable in the Tom Cruise movie the Last Samurai. I don't know if you've seen that, but he was really good and holds several black belts in various different styles of martial arts. By the way, a lot of people hated that Tom Cruise movie. It's one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I thought it was great.

[Will Friedle]

Susan Chang is. Nina Chang has been in a ton of television shows and some of the biggest of all time. She appeared on a bunch of Dharma and Greg episodes, Charmed, Monk, Victorious, Big Bang Theory and Veep. But she's best known as Tobin in Miss Congeniality 2. Also, this time it's personal. Justin Chong plays Peter. He might be known to many of our listeners as Tony Lee on the Nick show Just Jordan, but I think he's most famous from his time as Eric in the Twilight movies. The former child actor also wrote and directed the movie Blue Bayou, which he starred in opposite Alicia Vikinder. He's also set to direct an upcoming biopic on the band Sublime, which I think will be. Oh my God. So he may not practice Santeria. Thank you from your all Sublime fans out there. But does Justin Chuang involve himself in common sense? See, we love it when a movie hits our target of 90 minutes. That's the perfect length of a film. So where does Wendy Wu sit when it comes to duration? It is 91 minutes. Oh, the horror people. One minute off and not on the right side of history. Entire 60 seconds too long. A number that easily could have been shaved off. It's a mistake by all involved. Start to kick this one off with such filth.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, no, no, no. That would have been cut from the fight scene, which, nope, do not mess with it. Really?

[Will Friedle]

You couldn't. You couldn't maybe cut a minute out of her baking cupcakes? There you go. See, this is how I pull you back into the right side of the world.

[Sabrina Bryan]

All right. Okay.

[Will Friedle]

Okay. And we have a bevy of rice.

[Sabrina Bryan]

We've been talking about cupcakes.

[Will Friedle]

There you go. Thank you. We could have lost 60 seconds of cupcake and it would have been the same movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Chat.

[Will Friedle]

Exactly.

[Sabrina Bryan]

All right. Okay.

[Will Friedle]

Same movie. Yes, we have a bevy of writers on this one. It might be a glimpse into why we didn't hit 90 because there was too many cooks. Lydia look is listed as a writer and this is her only movie, but she was a working actor successful for many years. She was Ms. Selena Wu for 10 years on General Hospital and appeared on TV shows like Bones Pushing Daisies and NCIS Los Angeles. Not sure how she got involved with this project as a writer, though, but interesting, interesting resume. We also have Mark Seabrooks, a writer from the Steve Harvey show whose most recent credit is as story editor on the documentary Surviving R. Kelly. It's quite a different vibe. And of course, we're not done. Still got a big writing team now, Vince Trang and Ben Montagno. They are Emmy winners for their work on Wizards of Waverly Place and have tons of credits including Married With Children, Growing Pains, Ned's Declassified, Empty Nest, and the Steve Harvey Show. So wow.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Wow.

[Weatherbug Announcer]

No one knows what the future holds, but you deserve a weather app that can help. Weatherbug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need, from storm warnings to pollen levels right at your fingertips. Get the fastest local Alerts and comprehensive 10 day forecasts wherever you are. Its hyperlocal, real time customizable alerts. Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence. Download the free Weatherbug app from the App Store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24. 7.

[TurboTax Announcer]

Doing taxes the old way meant handing everything off and just hoping things were moving. But now you can feel confident your taxes are being handled right with Intuit TurboTax. Now you match with a TurboTax full service expert. Just upload your documents right in the app and boom. They take it from there start to finish. You've got a dedicated expert working your return. They check every deduction and credit to help you get the best possible outcome so you can feel confident you're getting every dollar you deserve. And now you're not guessing what's happening you're seeing it happen. TurboTax gives you real time updates on your experts progress while you go about your day, run errands, grab a coffee, live your life. You're always in the loop and if a question pops up, you get unlimited expert help at no extra cost, even on nights and weekends. During tax season, taxes are finally transparent, easier and handled. Visit turbotax.com only available with TurboTax full service experts real time updates only. An iOS mobile app.

[Nancy Glass]

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime.

[Will Friedle]

He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground.

[Nancy Glass]

He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years.

[Will Friedle]

I'm like, lord, this can't be real.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I thought it was a mistaken identity.

[Will Friedle]

The best lie is partial truth.

[Nancy Glass]

For 22 years, only two people knew the truth. Until a confession changed everything.

[Will Friedle]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Gia Giudice]

Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about sorority life, the good, the bad, and the sisterhood, with your hosts, me, Gia

[Daisy Kent]

Giudice, Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Kessler. Rush, the recruitment, the ritual. The reality of Greek life has been a mystery for those outside the sorority circles until now.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Is it really a supportive sisterhood that's simply misunderstood? Or is there something more scandalous happening on campuses across the country? In this podcast, we pledge to peel back the layers and spell the truth one Greek letter at a time.

[Gia Giudice]

Pledges and actives, Rush chairs and ritual keepers. Some call it the best time of their life, while others say it's a nightmare.

[Daisy Kent]

From a perfect rush to recruitment scandals, what is really going on on behind the doors of those sorority houses? From Alpha to Omega, we're taking you

[Jennifer Kessler]

inside sorority row, including the chapter room, as we explore the fellowship in the frenemies.

[Gia Giudice]

Let's get dirty.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Listen to Dirty rush on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Will Friedle]

All right, everybody, let's not grab ninja stars because, well, she's not actually a ninja, but let's get into the film itself. We open on a map, zooming right into Mongolia, then a beautiful temple. A handful of monks are practicing karate flips, sparring, and trying to take down one particular ponytailed monk. That's no, no, this is Shen. But he's very good. Even Using a dart to shatter a nearby monk's cup. And before you say it, a dart is not the same as a throwing star, so it very much gives vibes of a Shaolin temple. But it's not, I don't think, supposed to be. But as the Shaolin demo continues, it's eventually interrupted by a wise elder surrounded by his minions. Not the cartoon minions, but monk minions. But cartoon minions would have been really cool too. The elder monk tells Shen that the evil Yang Lo has awakened and is arriving soon. Shen assures him he's up for the task and is handed an old looking jewelry box filled with gold animal statues. A snake, a tiger, a leopard, and a crane. Four of the five deadly venoms. Only the dragon is missing. Shen learn. And at this point I was like, okay, I'm in. That was it. I'm good.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I was already in martial arts, like opening credits.

[Will Friedle]

There we go. Martial arts, cool mystical stuff. Now we're talking about the dragon and the crane.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yep, I'm in.

[Will Friedle]

You got me. Shen learns that he's looking for a girl out west in Fair Springs, California. And when they unravel a scroll, we see a drawing of Macaulay Culkin's wife. We transition into a similar drawing, but way worse. This one of a girl wearing a tiara that reads Wendy. This is Wendy Woo drawing herself as homecoming queen, and she is not paying attention in class. Now I'd like to add along with our. I was thinking about this so much. Along with our starting with a bedroom, which is such a regular Disney trope. I'd like to add not paying attention in class and the teacher coming over and saying your name over and over again. I starred in two movies that my character is introduced this way.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Which one?

[Will Friedle]

I did. It was the first. Oh, God, it was not a movie. Tale of the Longo Locket. So are you afraid of the dark? And then Trojan War.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, so that's how it starts.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. So your character's introduced. You hear the teacher and they're like not paying attention. And then it's kind of coming out of a dream sequence or something. So that's another Disney kind of trope I'd like to throw out. There is the kid sitting in class not paying attention. The teacher constantly trying to get their attention. So not probably as prevalent as the bedroom.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, it's not. But you get the dynamic of who this kid is within their, like, social atmosphere.

[Will Friedle]

Yep.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Are they the cool kid? Are they the kid that's nobody's friends with? Like, you know what I mean? Like, are they, like, artsy? Are they the dreamer?

[Will Friedle]

Are they studious? You can get whatever it is.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So you get, like, a good idea of, like, this kid's character from their social dynamic, which I think is perfect.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. So she's not paying attention.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Kids also relate to it, of course. Every kid has to be stuck for hours and hours at a desk. Everyone.

[Will Friedle]

I miss it. Her teacher smacks a stick on her desk and asks her to identify a mountain range on the map of Asia. As she stumbles for the answer, she is saved by the bell. And this was also. I was like, okay, no teacher is just gonna let you go when the bell rings. If you're mid question, every teacher goes, ah, I dismiss you. Not the bell. What is that mountain range? And we've all heard that line before in class. So I was like, that's not real. But then I was like, wait, it's a movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'm in coaching mode, too. And when my girls start looking behind me. Cause the clock's behind me, and it's getting to the time where they're supposed to be. And I'm like, do we have an issue? Does. Does anyone have a hot date?

[Will Friedle]

See?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, you don't. Okay, well, I'm going to. I'm going to, if you don't mind. I'm going to. I'm going to finish.

[Will Friedle]

There you go. So there you go. God, I want to see you, coach.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, man. You would just be so shocked.

[Will Friedle]

I am.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I want to see it always bright and shiny.

[Will Friedle]

I promise I will just sit there. I will not be disruptive at all.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I could get through it just having you, by the way, because you'd be

[Will Friedle]

like, I'd be totally disruptive. It'd be great. That'd be awesome. I'd be like, give me one more. It'd be so much fun.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That sucked.

[Will Friedle]

That sucked. You call that a plie or whatever. I guess some dance move.

[Sabrina Bryan]

All right.

[Will Friedle]

We are now at lunch. One of Wendy's friends, Lisa, is crying over a recent breakup. She complains that she just wants Wendy's perfect life. She's popular, she's the favorite for homecoming queen, and she has a perfect boyfriend. And with that, arguably my favorite character of the movie, perfect boyfriend, Austin, arrives with a salad. He's such an awful. It's great.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Why is he. Oh, gosh.

[Will Friedle]

It's so well played, though. He's just playing it like such. It's like he's a Ken doll, kind of. It's so funny the way you've been playing it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You Saw the Barbie movie, right? You had.

[Will Friedle]

I did not. We've talked about this.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You have to see it. Because the way Ken is played in the Barbie movie is perfect. Like, that level of douche is. And this kid took it and just ran with it.

[Will Friedle]

He's great.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Such a great actor to do this. Like, he didn't. He was not trying to be that, like, All American football player, actual cool boyfriend. He was like, no, I'm playing this total douche.

[Will Friedle]

And it was great.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I loved him. I loved him.

[Will Friedle]

Me too. So things obviously are not perfect. First, Wendy spots Jessica Dawson in the lunch area handing out cookies, looking for homecoming queen votes. Wendy is not happy about this. Even Wendy's brother Peter took a cookie. She throws a lipstick his way. Just like the monk with the dart earlier. And it slices the pastry. Which cookie's not pastry. That's wrong. And slices the cookie in half. Whoa, she's got.

[Sabrina Bryan]

What is a cookie? Is that a pastry?

[Will Friedle]

No, it's a dessert. A pastry is like a flaky, laminated. There's certain things that make something a pastry. You usually have to laminate the dough.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's like, why do you get to make up these rules?

[Will Friedle]

I'm not making up rules. Who thinks a cookie is a pastry?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I mean, it's.

[Will Friedle]

So you think an Oreo cookie is a pastry?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, but she wasn't doing. An Oreo cookie's not even the same. Like.

[Will Friedle]

Well, I'm sorry, you're saying an Oreo cookie and a chocolate chip cookie are two different categories?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes. Nobody makes Oreo cookies.

[Will Friedle]

Well, the good people at the disco do.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And yes. But they're in boxes. It's different. It's like a cookie. But a cookie is a cookie. Cookie.

[Will Friedle]

A homemade cookie is still a cookie. It's still in the cookie category.

[Sabrina Bryan]

We gotta find a podcast date that we can discuss things like this. This is not gonna go anywhere.

[Will Friedle]

I don't see the discussion how I get maybe thinking a cookie's a pastry. You'd be wrong. But I get seeing it. But it's literally the name cookie. It's called Oreo cookie and chocolate chip cookie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But I would. It's okay to be a pastry if somebody. Whatever. Jensen, you're not wrong. Love you, bro. Can I get an easy point in the game later?

[Will Friedle]

No. This is a cookie is not a pastry. Oh, my God. It's like saying a p. Pizza is a pasta. No. Wrong. Anyway, now we find ourselves in a large museum storage area. It's filled with Chinese relics. Wendy is complaining to her mom the Museum curator about how Jessica is going to ruin homecoming. How could you possibly think a cookie?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, this idea, like, this is the only thing that I will be like, I'm so over this Jessica lady and how she's able to just like ruin homecoming with everything she does. It's like.

[Will Friedle]

I have a question because I. I don't. I wasn't there for this part of. Of high school. I was working at the time. Okay, Homecoming. Do you actively lobby to become homecoming queen? Like, is it. Do you. Do you run like it's an election? Like, do you try to get votes to become homecoming queen? Is this a real thing?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No. Girls do what they do. You talk quietly and you like, pass by each other and give like, you talk the other girl. Like, this is not how you handle homecoming. Obviously. I was never homecoming queen.

[Will Friedle]

Not even. Were you, like on the court or any other. Maybe it's because all your friends are dogging you.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I was not that cool girl. I was like in the group, but like, never seen. Okay, I was busy. I was like trying to like.

[Will Friedle]

You were popular adjacent. Is that what you were?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Um, yeah, probably. Like, I had like my. My girlfriend, you know, Morgan Mackey. Like, she was the girl and even she wasn't up all the time. It was a lot of times in my.

[Will Friedle]

Was she homecoming queen?

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, no.

[Nancy Glass]

The.

[Sabrina Bryan]

The homecoming court, what I do respect now didn't in the day were ended up being the ASB kids. But it's because the ASB kids are the ones that like, put the actual events on. Like, they.

[Will Friedle]

What does ASB mean?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Ooh, student body is. I don't know what the A is.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, so it's like student council.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, yeah. Okay. You didn't know. I thought you were just like joking with me.

[Will Friedle]

I know what any of this stuff is.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like the student body in the 40s, they're like elected to like. They're the ones that decide where homecoming is going to be. Is it okay in the quad associated student body fundraise and do the thing to like, create the events. So like, for me, in high school, they didn't. The courts never really represented like, who was like the most well known throughout the school, but they definitely represented who put the most work into creating these beautiful events. And now as an adult, I'm like, yes, those are the kids that should be up and get the crown because they're the kids that are like making it happen. The girl that's like, you know, not doing anything, just like cute and. And you know, I'm sure great person whatever.

[Will Friedle]

Anyway, she gets. She gets my vote every time. Anyway, so Wendy is complaining to her mom, the museum curator, about how Jessica's gonna ruin homecoming. She angrily slams her fist on a crate, forcing a nearby vase to wobble seconds away from falling. Wendy thinks fast and kicks over a cardboard box, just saving it from a disastrous fall. But we still don't know where these Daniel LaRusso instincts are coming from. And neither does she. Wendy's mom missed it all. She's too busy prepping for an exhibit of ancient Chinese artifacts in two weeks. This is where I started to go. Like, okay, the museum curator, who's actually Chinese, doesn't know anything about the exhibit she's putting up. That was like, really? But anyway, she suggests Wendy forget about homecoming and focus on something more important, like chores at home. But all that does is give Wendy an idea about cupcakes.

[Weatherbug Announcer]

No one knows what the future holds, but you deserve a Weather App that can help Weatherbug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need, from storm warnings to pollen levels right at your fingertips. Get the fastest local Alerts and comprehensive 10 day forecasts wherever you are. Its hyperlocal, real time customizable alerts. Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence. Download the free Weatherbug app from the App Store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24.

[TurboTax Announcer]

7 Doing taxes the old way meant handing everything off and just hoping things were moving. But now you can feel confident your taxes are being handled right with Intuit TurboTax. Now you match with a TurboTax full service expert. Just upload your documents right in the app and boom. They take it from there, start to finish. You've got a dedicated expert working your return. They check every deduction and credit to help you get the best possible outcome so you can feel confident you're getting every dollar you deserve. And now you're not guessing what's happening, you're seeing it happen. TurboTax gives you real time updates on your expert's progress while you go about your day. Run errands, grab a coffee, live your life. You're always in the loop and if a question pops up, you get unlimited expert help at no extra cost, even on nights and weekends. During tax season, taxes are finally transparent, easier and handled. Visit turbotax.com Only available with TurboTax full service experts Real time updates only in iOS mobile app.

[Nancy Glass]

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime.

[Will Friedle]

He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground.

[Nancy Glass]

He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years.

[Will Friedle]

I'm like, lord, this can't be real.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I thought it was a mistaken identity.

[Will Friedle]

The best lie is partial truth.

[Nancy Glass]

For 22 years, only two people knew the truth. Until a confession changed everything.

[Will Friedle]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Gia Giudice]

Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about sorority life, the good, the bad, and the sisterhood, with your hosts, me, Gia

[Daisy Kent]

Giudice, Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Kessler. Rush, the recruitment, the ritual, the reality of Greek life has been a mystery for those outside the sorority circles until now.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Is it really a supportive sisterhood that's simply misunderstood? Or is there something more scandalous happening on campuses across the country? In this podcast, we pledge to peel back the layers and spell the truth one Greek letter at a time.

[Gia Giudice]

Pledges and actives, rush chairs and ritual keepers. Some call it the best time of their life, while others. Others say it's a nightmare.

[Daisy Kent]

From a perfect rush to recruitment scandals, what is really going on behind the doors of those sorority houses? From Alpha to Omega?

[Jennifer Kessler]

We're taking you inside sorority row, including the chapter room, as we explore the fellowship and the frenemies.

[Gia Giudice]

Let's get dirty.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Listen to Dirty rush on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Will Friedle]

Meanwhile, it looks like Shen has arrived in Fair Springs. Still sporting traditional monk garb. He Conley, walks down the highway and unsuccessfully successfully flags down cars to hitchhike. And he's obviously unsuccessful because he's on the wrong side of the road trying to do that. So when a van speeds by, he decides to run after it and jump on its roof. This isn't showing that he basically has mythical powers, eventually sitting and meditating as it speeds down the road. Now, I don't know about you, but this seemed very dangerous to me. Sabrina, do you recommend this is a way to travel to our younger listeners?

[Sabrina Bryan]

When I was in India, running and jumping on vans. I don't think. No, I don't think you should do it. But this is like a normal transportation route in India.

[Will Friedle]

You see them, like, on top of train cars.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, my gosh. None of them are worried about, like, I don't know, dying from being on top of the road.

[Will Friedle]

And a lot of them do, apparently. I think there's a lot of train deaths and stuff like that in India with the overcrowding.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And it's just wild getting hanging off

[Will Friedle]

the side and being hit by wires.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And I will say this struck a chord, though, because this was, like, at this point, our first, like, aspect of seeing the. Like, the visual effects of him, like, when he, like, sped, like, it was kind of like, oh. Because that's the only thing that I was a little worried about. Jumping into the movie was like, too bad the special effects, because they're obviously gonna have. What's it gonna look like? Cause again, we're on a Disney Channel budget. So when I saw that, I was kind of like, oh, okay. Not too bad. Not too bad.

[Will Friedle]

It wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad. Back at Wendy's, she's making cupcakes with her dad, who's an ad executive. Her grandma's watching her stories on the couch, shouting Mandarin at the tv. When Wendy's mom returns from work, she desperately needs her with the Chinese stuff at work. Cause she doesn't know her own exhibit, let alone her own culture. And Wendy's grandmother agrees to help. We are now back at the museum. It's nighttime, and a courier service is trying to deliver an old green and gold box. Hilariously, it's literally just the box. No protection or mailing label or anything like that. Which means someone just handed an important ancient box to a FedEx guy and said, here, ship this. The night security guard accepts the package, then watch again. Forgets to re lock the door behind him. He takes the box down to the now dark and very ominous storage space. Once he leaves to return to his desk, the box begins to glow green, killing a nearby flower. Shen has dismounted the van roof and arrived at Wendy's house, where she's cleaning up her cupcake mess. There's a knock at the door, and it's Shen, who at first appears, shaken by the idea that she looks different than he expected. He claims she's. And again, I think I'm saying this right. Miu Zhen, a Wei Dynasty woman warrior sworn to defeat evil. And it's her time again. She's obviously creeped out by the random monk. And as she goes to slam the door, Shen has whooshed beyond human ability and is now in the house behind.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

[Will Friedle]

What do you got? Okay, what's from. What's up?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I don't know if it's like, now that I have my daughter, who is coming to an age that I'm really like, who? Because I have so many people that help me out. Like my girlfriends that take her when she's at dance and all this stuff. So she's the stranger danger has for me, gotten a little scary that she is. Like, if someone came up to her and called her by her name, like, that's scary for me because she might go, oh, you know, my mom or whatever. So I am, like, adamant about stranger danger right now. Like, it's in my vocabulary. It's in my thoughts and talks with her all the time.

[Will Friedle]

Sure.

[Sabrina Bryan]

This triggered me.

[Will Friedle]

Cause he's just, like, jumping in the house behind her.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And her reaction is not equivalent to what I'm gonna need. Like, I need, like, the vases just starting to be thrown. Screaming and screaming. Like, I. This did not. This was not the equivalence of what I need. Any child. Any. Even me. Even me. Any adult. For a stranger to come into your house. The reaction was not correct. And I'm like, disney, I rely on you to teach the lessons to the children. This wasn't it. So we failed a little bit.

[Will Friedle]

Fair enough. I get. I. I do not agree.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Well, I was like, okay. Apparently, like, we're. This is when I thought the kung fu fighting would start. Like, this is when it's like, let's get it going, right? Stranger in your house, girl. And it didn't happen. So it was a miss. He's a monk for me.

[Will Friedle]

I get, okay, fair enough. He tells her not to be frightened. He's a Buddhist monk from the Jinji Mountain Temple.

[Sabrina Bryan]

She kind of is like, that doesn't help.

[Will Friedle]

She. Yeah, exactly. Well, she tries to strike him with a broom that just magically appeared. And he dodges it with a flip. They spar with impressive sets of moves. And now we see why they shot this near that fight coordinator. Because this was a pretty big surprise to see. It was a really good fight scene. Wendy eventually gets the upper hand and pushes Shen out the front door.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

We're now back at the museum. The box is still glowing and rumbling, finally getting the attention of the security guard. He approaches the glow with pepper spray. But it pops open and exposes a big green ball and releases a spirit who towers over the guard and enters his eyes. TV PG indeed. Pretty scary scene, I thought. And I can get why they'd have to give this pg. Because if you're seven or eight and watching this and there's a green glow coming in through somebody's eyes after a fight scene, I can see why they would need to make it A little older. The guard scans the mom's desk and takes a framed picture of Peter and Wendy while heavily breathing. And now a pizza guy who just happens to be Shen's brother Peter has arrived at the museum. The guard unlocks the door despite the fact that we noticed he did not lock it when the glowing box was delivered. But whatever, I'll let it slide. More importantly, Al, the security guard, is now an evil deity. Peter notices that the evil guard, but he doesn't know he's an evil guard at the time, has a framed picture of him and his sister, and he knows that that's not normal. The guard grunts at Wendy and his eyes start glowing. Eventually, the evil deity leaves Al and transfers itself to Peter, who immediately walks out. The security guard returns to his natural state. Once again, he does not lock the door. This man should be fired. Back at home, Wendy is talking on the phone, talking to a friend all about the weird monk who tried to fight her earlier. She thinks Jessica is to blame someh. And then she's shocked to see Jessica on the news. She's the guest weather person and still politicking for votes. Wendy screams into a pillow. She is doomed. Meanwhile, her evil deity brother Peter returns home, clearly on a mission. But Wendy now has a security guard. It's Shen himself, meditating and guarding the front door. The brother's vibe alarms him, so he sneaks in to take a look inside and sees evil deity Peter holding a green orb right above Wendy as she's sleeping. Shen quickly glides straight up two stories, defying all lives of gravity. And this is where you get real Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon kind of vibes, which is totally cool. Shen storms in just as the orb starts stealing Wendy's spirit and glides onto a nearby piano, turns in a spinning back kick, and knocks the ball out of evil Peter's hands. This is so cool. The orb flies into a fish aquarium and extinguishes. Shen holds up his own glowing item, which is a golden coin, but it does nothing to evil Peter. The two men trade kicks and slaps all while Wendy stays asleep on the couch. Great moves in choreography once again. And all the stunt work on wires is really cool. They're exchanging blows. Great choreography. It's seriously like high level kung fu movie magic in a dcom.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It was. It was like, oh my gosh. Like again, you're kind of going. You're bracing yourself, like, how's Disney gonna do this? Is it gonna be bad? Is it gonna. And you're going to, oh my gosh. This looks amazing.

[Will Friedle]

It looks great. It looked great. There's no way this was $5 million.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You couldn't have asked for more with obviously knowing still the Disney budget or the channel budget. And I mean, even just the stunt people themselves were obviously so high quality. Like, you know, it was great. So good.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Everybody clearly knew what they were doing. That's when I was like, yeah. Did you wish you could have done this in Cheetah Girls?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, my gosh.

[Will Friedle]

Wire working martial arts while singing Strut.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, Well, I don't know if Strut could have gotten to a better level than it was, but that's absolutely true. Maybe you're. Maybe your. Your romantic dancing bumped up a bit.

[Will Friedle]

That's your romantic dancing where you're making out with what's his name. Oh, you could just wire work it and then break into a martial arts fight. Yeah, maybe that would have been great and really rad. Anyway, during the fight, Shen kicks the orb and it disintegrates. And when he uses the glowing golden coin this time, the spirit transfers from Peter to the family dog. The end. By the way, this is. These were people that absolutely watched the movie. The Hidden. The animal slithers outside through a dog. Okay, so the Hidden, just very quickly is about. It's an. It's. It's so good. Kyle McLaughlin plays a cop. At least you think he's a cop. And he's chasing this criminal who keeps like stealing bank robberies, stealing cars, shooting people. But it's all these different regular citizens that all of a sudden just start going haywire and killing all these people. And what you find out is it's actually an alien inhabiting different bodies and jumping from body to body. And Kyle McLaughlin's another alien inhabiting a cop who's been chasing this alien criminal through different planets.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Who's bad and who's not. I'm already confused.

[Will Friedle]

You've got to watch that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, great movie. But there's a dog. But it gets.

[Will Friedle]

I'm not going to give anything away. Just go watch the movie.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I can't handle. Whoever wrote that part is a little Fine.

[Will Friedle]

You'll be fine.

[Nancy Glass]

Okay.

[Will Friedle]

The animal slithers outside the doggy door. And when Peter comes in, Shen is nowhere to be found. We see that he's hiding on the ceiling. And I need to have this scene find its way into the rewindies for best fight scene because it was great. There are several scenes in this movie that could that have to be up there for best fight scenes.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, yeah, we got to have a whole Category. I'm hoping there's another dcom that has some fight scenes.

[Will Friedle]

If not, we just automatically give him.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, because it's like three other. What fight scenes.

[Will Friedle]

How about in. What's it? We just talked to Marcus Toji about it. The movie where the bullies come and beat him up in front of the. The bus stop.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That was toothless. Toothless, yes.

[Will Friedle]

There you go. So we could put this up with the toothless fight scene and see which one is better. The next morning, Wendy's mom details her upcoming ancient Chinese exhibit of which she knows nothing about and how it involves the story of evil spirit Yan lo. Apparently every 90 years his spirit returns. Wendy's mad at her brother who's still asleep because she woke up with some gold coin necklace around her that he must have put on her when she was out.

[Sabrina Bryan]

She cannot hold this necklace. It's not her jam at all. It's not her style.

[Will Friedle]

It saves her life. It's. First of all, you ruin it by calling it a necklace. It's obviously an ancient mythical medallion. It's calling this a necklace is like calling a cookie a pastry. Yes. So then Wendy notices a picture of the Jinji temple monks in her mom's work pile. It dates back 1500 years, yet somehow I think was still in color. But Wendy recognizes his look from her. Was the picture in color? I think it was in which I was like, how is it a 1500 year old photograph? First of all, which didn't exist. And second of all, a photographed in color from 1500 years ago. Interesting. It dates back 1500 years.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Like, hey, it's a Polaroid from Sabrina's 12,000 years ago. Damn it.

[Will Friedle]

I'm sorry. It's because everybody sees that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Everyone does see that. It's like, what is that?

[Will Friedle]

This is a picture from 10,000 years ago. But Wendy recognizes this look from her encounter with Shen. She leaves without even taking the 500 vote for me cupcake she worked on all night. And there's nothing I hate more in films than wasting cupcakes. So unbelievable. Out. So I'm going to drop it a point just for that. Outside, Shen is standing in a tree watching Wendy leave. Once she's gone, he rushes into the house to recover the coin, only to find her grandmother holding it. She knows what it represents and asks if Wendy is a warrior. Shen says yes, then takes the necklace and promises to protect her with her life. It's a very nice scene. Meanwhile, Wendy is walking to school. When she's off at a ride from her friends, Shen rushes Over yelling at her to wear the coin. And she's instantly freaked out, and rightfully so. Telling her friends to take off. Shen steals a kid's scooter and uses it to catch up with the car at a stoplight, which I found interesting because he has super speed, so why did he need to do that? Yep. But anyway, he grabs onto the tail light, and the girls drag him for blocks up to top speed, eventually fishtailing him off and launching him 20ft into a bush. Wendy and her friends agree. Let's just pretend that never happened. And now it's time for PE Class, and Jessica and Wendy are duking it out on the soccer field. Eventually, Wendy takes over as goalie, and we see Shen sitting alone in the stands. You know, like Shen does because there's often monks just hanging out in soccer practice. Wendy makes her way downfield and gets a wide open look at Jessica in the goal. It's a stare down. As Wendy preps her kick. She flips the ball into the air, does a like a 1080 flippy ball bicycle kick kind of thing straight at Jessica and kicks her right in the stomach with the ball. And she flies into the back of the net. And it's a goal, people. Wendy has no idea how she did that, but her friends think that that little had it coming. And on the other side of campus, Wendy's evil family dog arrives at school. Ooh. And goes straight to Mr. Noon in the principal's office. And when he goes to pet the stray dog, which I was first, I was like, who's gonna do that? And I was like, I wouldn't. I'd just go down and pet a random stray dog at my door. So that totally tracks for me. Hell yes, I would. I love dogs. So I'd be like, hi. What's wrong with you? Why are you at my door? Do you need to come in? Here's my wallet. Yeah, I absolutely would. And then we get glowing eyes, and it's yet another spirit transfer. Uh oh. It's the hidden. Also, Shen finds Wendy, who is now contemplating her kick power in the stands. He tells her she's in danger and she must wear the coat coin. Wendy just doesn't get it. Who is this guy and why was he at her house? He explains he traveled from far and it's her destiny to help. He knows all about her and about her mysterious powers, and allegedly has been reincarnated repeatedly to protect warriors from Yang Lo's spirit. As the next descendant, if she doesn't defeat the evil spirit, earthquakes, locusts tornadoes, famines, ocean rising, fire, droughts. Everything will appear. It's essentially the end of the world. Her kung fu training must start now. But instead, she leaves with her friends for the ball. I was like, dude, you were just told the world's gonna end, but you're gonna go shopping? Come on. Later, on the phone, she tells her friends that Chen is her cousin from China. And as a result, her friends come up with a very racist idea. They'll write vote for Wendy on a bunch of chopsticks and hand them out at lunch. Wendy, of course, says, hey, guys, that's pretty much blatantly racist. No, I'm kidding. She doesn't say that. Instead of. She finds Shen and her door again yapping about the coin and the necklace again. Wendy's had enough. She reminds him she never agreed to train, then tells him to go away. That night, as Shen is still perched outside watching over the house, Wendy's grandma covers him with a blanket and brings the necklace in and places it on Wendy for him. And then it's the next morning, Wendy throws it right back at Shen. She's not wearing this thing, dude. Just walk away. And as she arrives at school for another day, the evil deity principal is waiting for her in the parking lot. Shen notices and jumps right into action. He sprints to the teacher and takes him down. And by him, I mean a stuntman in a gray wig who looks like the principal. Go. Pause it. It's pretty funny. Shen also uses the coin, which again transfers the spirit from the principal to a Bald teacher named Mr. Medina. Luckily, no wig was needed for him. Wendy reunites with her boyfriend Austin, our favorite. And another teacher, Mr. Tobias, quickly reminds them that public displays of affection are not tolerated. And we've talked about this a little bit on Pod Meets World, but I don't think we have talked about this here. Were kids allowed to just blatantly make out in high school in your hallways?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I don't know if it was necessarily, like, allowed to, but they did.

[Will Friedle]

Like, they were never, like, broken up. Like, hey, you guys, stop kissing.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I think if a teacher came around, they would.

[Will Friedle]

Okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Notice they did in my school. No, if I think if the teacher came around and they were making out, like, and the teacher. The kids usually stopped. If the kids didn't stop, the teacher would be like, hey, all right, let's break it up.

[Will Friedle]

Knock it off.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, okay. But it wasn't like. Like, let me. It was never aggressive.

[Will Friedle]

Like, five feet apart. Five feet apart.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Nothing like that. And. And also dances, I think were the only time that the chaperones. The chaperones would come in and kind of go, all right, that was enough. When like, dancing was happening at, like, the dances. Now the kids don't.

[Will Friedle]

But in case it got dirty dancing, like sexy dirty dancing.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I mean, they weren't dancing like that, but like, yeah, like bump.

[Will Friedle]

Come on, say it. Let's walk me through it. Sabrina, I want your face matches your shirt. So keep going, come on. What kind of sexy dances are you talking about? Are we talking twerking? Jersey Turnpike and what do you got?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Twerking wasn't a thing when I was in high school, but I feel like maybe it was like pumping and grinding. Okay, you know where it was like, the girls are in front and you're popping it, you're popping it, you're popping it, right?

[Will Friedle]

Popping it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay. And the boys are back there and you know, like it's for. All right, I'll see you later, Mo.

[Will Friedle]

This is the best.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I don't know. I don't think I was cool enough to even attend those things. I don't even remember dancing.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, please. You were popping it like it was hot or whatever. We all know that you were there selling. Selling Oreo pastries.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, but you know, that's what. Honestly, the girls and the kids don't even go to the dance anymore. They literally really get the dresses, get all dolled up, take pictures, get on a party bus and then never even go to the dance at all.

[Will Friedle]

And their kids aren't drinking anymore, I hear, or having sex with them. What the hell are they doing?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Vaping, I guess. That's like the thing. But like, they, they're literally, they're literally just like taking the party bus wherever it goes, maybe to dinner or whatever. And like, that's it. They don't even. It makes me so sad, especially like my seniors. Like, you guys don't even go to the dance and like, have the at least like a slow dance or a moment with your girls where you're just like, no, they don't.

[Will Friedle]

Kids are weird. Kids are weird.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Just the way it is now I'm depressed.

[Will Friedle]

No, that's right. You'll be. You'll have fun at my prom.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I know, I can't wait. And I.

[Will Friedle]

It's gonna be so much fun.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Can't wait to watch you drop it.

[Will Friedle]

Like, oh, dude, it's gonna be so hot. It's gonna be dropped. You watch. Speaking of so hot, Austin has some news. The San Francisco modeling agency submitted his photos to called his pictures 80s retro, which he's like, is that good? But obviously is not. Then Chen appears, still with the coin. Now, to make sure Austin isn't evil, Wendy sends him off to the bathroom to check for spirits, mostly just to ditch him so she can talk to Austin about going to Maria's park party. Austin's excited to go, especially because he thinks they're gonna end up homecoming king and queen. Then dozens of women come screaming out of the bathroom. Chen has declared their toilet is safe. Jessica sees this all go down and is very petty and passive aggressive and has some bad news. Wendy is suspended from any extracurricular activity, including homecoming court, because her grade average is below a C, thanks to world history. And I was like, wow, we've got a Disney star of a movie that's a bad student. Yeah. So with midterms in a week and no knowledge of China, she is absolutely screwed. Except Shen says he can help. He knows everything about Chinese history and will tutor her as long as she starts taking kung fu and wears the coin. And she accepts the offer at the perfect time because bad evil deity Mr. Media is about to pounce. But thanks to the coin, the spirit is now transferred to somebody new. The school gardener and I couldn't believe it took us 40 minutes. But we get our first kung fu training montage, this time with Lilith Fair style music in the background. Shen teaches Wendy moves, but she's taking phone calls and eating potato chips mid lesson. And when it's time to learn these 1500 years of Chinese history, Shen tells her all she has to do is meditate, which sure seems like an odd lesson for kids watching. Knowing that this is her only chance, she agrees and ends up liking it. She does it in class, at home, and at lunch. And thanks to all the hard work, if you can call just meditating hard work. She gets an A because now she knows everything, apparently without cracking a book, and is now eligible for homecoming queen. They really blew past that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

While celebrating, she roundhouse kicks a kid named Todd. And she's either becoming a kung fu master or just assaulting random classmates without warning. We're not really sure. Either way, it's a fun movie. But Shen likes what he sees. Her skills are coming along nicely, but she needs more training. Wendy gets it, but she has homecoming queen to worry about. And though evil is on his way, she is busy being a teenage girl. Girl at home, Wendy is sketching a vote for me self portrait. And now I'm wondering if she draws anything other than pictures of herself. Wendy's grandmother admits that she misses China, especially her grandpa's old stories. She highlights one tale about a young girl again named Miu Xian, who trains to become a yin warrior every 90 years. Wendy immediately recognizes the story. And then Shin walks into the room. It's obvious that they're working together. Grandma calls the tradition an honor. Wendy's mom gets home from work and is surprised to see this monk in her home. Everybody's like, hey, hey, there's just a monk here. That night, Shen joins family dinner. Now disguised as a visiting great grand nephew. He bonds with Wendy's mom over her upcoming I think it's Qin dynasty exhibit, which he offers to help with. He also promises Peter he'll teach him some kung fu, starting with a move he calls monkey jumps over the wall. Shen also made traditional mooncakes for the family. But Wendy's dad is clearly affected. He kind of believes everything is getting too culturally Chinese for him and he retreats upstairs. And I literally paused right here and looked up exactly the process for making a mooncake and what they're filled with and all that stuff. And I so want to try one because they sound. They look so good. I mean. Yeah, it just looked really good. Later, Wendy's talking to a friend on the phone about Shen. It seems like the way he dresses could affect her homecoming queen chances, which Wendy thinks is dumb. But she still takes Shen to the mall for a new wardrobe. And we get another. This was a very weird montage. The shopping for cool fedoras. It was like. It was just a hat montage.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. It turned into like an outfit. And then at some point it was just hat, fedora, like just.

[Will Friedle]

And sunglasses and him just spinning. And by this, by the third minute of spinning. Please stop the spinning. The.

[Sabrina Bryan]

The 60 seconds.

[Will Friedle]

It's somewhere. Maybe one less Kangal hat and. Or Avril Lavigne tie. Kind of like we could go from there.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah. And kind of like. Like for what? Like it just was like just get him.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. It didn't.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You have a brother that literally looks like the same size. Just grab a T shirt and pair of pants.

[Will Friedle]

It didn't. This was. This was a strange mindset. Yes,

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[Nancy Glass]

iOS mobile app I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime.

[Will Friedle]

He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground.

[Nancy Glass]

He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years.

[Will Friedle]

I'm like, lord, this can't be real.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I thought it was a mistaken identity.

[Will Friedle]

The best lie is partial truth.

[Nancy Glass]

For 22 years, only two people knew the truth until a confession changed everything.

[Will Friedle]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast casts.

[Gia Giudice]

Welcome to Dirty Rush the Truth About Sorority Life, the Good, the Bad and the Sisterhood with your hosts me, Gia

[Daisy Kent]

Giudice, Daisy Kent and Jennifer Kessler. Rush the recruitment, the ritual, the reality of Greek life has been a mystery for those outside the sorority circles until now.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Is it really a supportive sisterhood that's simply misunderstood? Or is there something more scandalous happening on campuses across the country? In this podcast, we pledge to peel back the layers and spell the truth one Greek letter at a time.

[Gia Giudice]

Pledges and actives, Rush chairs and ritual keepers. Some call it the best time of their life, while others say it's a nightmare.

[Daisy Kent]

From a perfect rush to recruitment scandals, what is really Going on behind the doors of those sorority houses from Alpha to Omega.

[Jennifer Kessler]

We're taking you into inside sorority row, including the chapter room, as we explore the fellowship and the frenemies.

[Gia Giudice]

Let's get dirty.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Listen to Dirty rush on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Will Friedle]

Back at home, Wendy's dad gave in and ate the delicious mooncakes. He didn't mean to be rude to Shen. It just made him feel like a kid again. And since he knows he's turned his back on his own culture, it makes him feel guilty. But Chen has reminded him he wants to be a Chinese American family, not just an American family. And I thought this was really nice and a really interesting way of showing the culture how it's like you can forget your own culture when you become. You go somewhere else and you assimilate and you become part of that culture, and. And sometimes you can kind of forget where you came from. And I thought it was a really interesting way of showing that.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes. And it's always nice to, like, realize, like, yes, embrace where you are now, but, like, don't let go of where you came from. Like, that idea. Your past matters, and it's important them together that that's, you know, what this country is supposed to be about is exactly working the other, other everything together and finding a way that it's all okay, it's all good.

[Will Friedle]

I agree. So, yeah, I. I thought that was

[Sabrina Bryan]

great and great for kids. Great messaging for kids.

[Will Friedle]

Another good message. Another good message. At school, Wendy bumps into Austin, who got blonde highlights for homecoming. Love this guy. He's the best. He suggests they stay away from Shen because people are starting to talk. But Wendy fights back and defends the monk just as he enters the hallway, yelling, vote for Wendy. But now he's in some very cool clothes, and the ladies are flocking to him. Austin is already jealous that Shen went from monk to hunk. Love it. That night, Shen admits he liked the attention. She thanks him for adapting, and he eats a chocolate cupcake for the first time in any of his lives. Wendy brings up girlfriends from his past, and he admits he'd never had one. He's a monk. Wendy also reveals she's never been in love. She's only with Austin because people say they look cute together and it'll help her win homecoming queen.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Wow.

[Will Friedle]

The biggest reveal is that Shen will never return home. His destiny is to sacrifice himself during the battle and die. And they just threw that out there. He's like, man, this is amazing. Chocolate. I've never had chocolate. I'm here to die. It was like, oh, my God.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Are you okay about that? Like, just came out and it's like,

[Will Friedle]

what is that flavor? My head's gonna be ripped off. I mean, so weird.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Does it worry you at all?

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. Is this giving you any pause?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Dude, at any point you're just gonna throw yourself in front of a. Is it gonna be a car?

[Will Friedle]

Doesn't care. He's like, wow, this cupcake's amazing. I'm gonna be stabbed in the heart. Like, oh, my God. Now a very depressed yes. His destiny is to sacrifice himself during the battle to die. A depressed Wendy suggests that maybe his teenage a little longer. And so brings him to a dance party at this get together, which of course takes place at the break of 2pm apparently, because that's when all the best dance parties are girls again are all horned up for Shen. And as a result, Wendy's getting a little jealous. Austin is also mad. Wendy was supposed to meet up with him and do some campaigning. And as a result, she breaks up with him on the same day. Homeboy got highlights. That's just cold.

[Sabrina Bryan]

How could I just. Got highlights.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, frosted tips.

[Sabrina Bryan]

And you're leaving me.

[Will Friedle]

That's all I gotta say. Boom. Dropping me. Popping it like it's hot or whatever. Sabrina said when she was bright red. And out on the dance floor, Shen is showing off his kung fu flips and splits, and he's killing it. Wendy sees a girl kiss him on the cheek, and now she's very sure she wants to bang her cousin. He's not actually her cousin, but that's the story. In a fit of rage. And then the whole time I'm watching, going like, oh, that's right, they're not cousins. Get it out of your head. They put that in.

[Sabrina Bryan]

They're not.

[Will Friedle]

They just like, yeah, this isn't clueless. Where nobody cared that she ended up with her stepbrother at the end. So in a fit of rage, she throws her coin necklace into a chip bowl and storms out. But that was a bad move because one of the girls at the party, Tori, appears to be the evil deity now. Over by the pool, Wendy is crying. When Tori appears clearly possessed. Inside, Shen answers thinly veiled racist questions from other students, like, like, do you know Yao Min? Billion people in China. But of course he's going to know that guy. And right when Wendy is about to confide in Tori, she reveals the big green glowing orb. Her spirit is in danger. Shen sees the coin in the Chip bowl and knows he's got to help Wendy. He jumps over the pool and kicks the ball out of Tori's hands just in time. Wendy then kicks Tori and the orb into the pool, creating a massive hot tub. All the partygoers excitedly jump in, and Wendy knows she must complete her training. Jessica takes a picture of the soaking wet Tori to embarrass her in the yearbook. And as a result, the evil deity transfers to Jessica. And this was another problem I had. And again, we're talking about nitpicking. But why, when you put the orb into the pool, does it bubble like it's going crazy? But when he knocked the orb into the fish tank, there was no bubbling at all.

[Sabrina Bryan]

None. It's.

[Will Friedle]

Thank you.

[Sabrina Bryan]

This was the thing. And I knew you were going to pick it apart. I will tell you right now, I didn't care. But the rules were not designated nor followed.

[Will Friedle]

No, there were no rules. No, no. No rules.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No rules.

[Will Friedle]

No real rules.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That sometimes they go anything but, like, truly, I now know, because I am a watcher with you, there must be rules.

[Will Friedle]

Thank you. And there weren't. And I wasn't gonna say anything. Cause I didn't want to be the guy harping on it, but again, what exactly does the necklace do?

[Sabrina Bryan]

And what does the green ball do?

[Will Friedle]

The green word, the green ball, I think, is supposed to take her soul, but it doesn't say why the necklace. He just holds it up, and then the person kind of goes, ah. But then they don't instantly transfer to

[Sabrina Bryan]

another body who they can pick, like, in any sense. Right.

[Will Friedle]

Also, if it doesn't matter who you are or why you're there, why doesn't the evil body just take over Shen?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes. Well, yeah, maybe did. Because he didn't have one of them. Like, if it made. It would have made more sense if he had.

[Will Friedle]

You just need a scene of him saying, I can do. Like, this is what it means. This is what the monk in me. Exactly. This is. Can't do it. Right, Exactly. Like the tattoo that pops up at the end.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Mommy, the floor's lava. How are you walking? I'm like, because I've got mommy powers. Like, the floor is not lava. To mommies. You just explained everywhere I go.

[Will Friedle]

Perfect. Interesting. I gotta become a mommy because my floor is lava and I can't get out of this room.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But there has to be rules or an explanation of why.

[Will Friedle]

Of course. Thank you. They just needed ones. Let's take out four minutes of cupcake talk and add four minutes of rules, and we've got a better film. But luckily Wendy's jumped into full karate mode. It's time for her final lesson. And Shen reveals those deadly venom statues from earlier. Earlier he explains that the missing dragon represents invincibility. And then it magically appears as a tattoo on his arm, which again, you could have explained a little better. She also never gets one, which she should have. The statues then bring ancestor ghosts to life in the park, causing absolutely nobody walking by to freak out in any way, shape or form. Why are you doing this in the middle of a whole bunch of people? There are plenty of places you could go. Why not do this somewhere else? But okay. But Wendy can't learn to fight from these random dead monks. They've done nothing wrong to her and she finds it very awkward. So Shen possesses the spirit of Wendy's mean soccer coach, her principal, the teacher who hates public makeout sessions, and Mr. Medina to teach her. So this puts Wendy at ease where now she can fight her teachers.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, this just oddball gang.

[Will Friedle]

Yes, this is weird. Give her a group of four friends that were her age. Tell me you wouldn't want to see frosted tips guy as one of the monks teaching her. Like, I mean, why not put people her own age making the old. I. I get what they were doing. But it was. This to me was a little strange. From practicing in the park to now it's your teachers teaching you and that doesn't make you uncomfortable? Nobody in the park, none of your friends, nobody notices that you're martial artsing out with all of your teachers and teachers that don't.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Look, it's not like the. The PE teacher idea or soccer.

[Will Friedle]

That works. The woman. The woman works fine.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But like yes, your prince.

[Will Friedle]

The African American teacher looked fine, but the big heavy set white guy is walking on a fence. Nobody's going to notice any of this stuff. So anyway, yeah, so they put her at ease somehow. And she masters some amazing moves as a result. This training montage and some pretty funny scenes of stuffy white teachers doing incredible karate moves. And it ends with her defeating all of them with a stick. Wendy is ready to celebrate with Shen's first cappuccino. Also, we noticed that Wendy's grandma was secretly watching on and she of course is very happy and very proud. And then Shen's phone rings with some very good news. Her friend Lisa is on the voting committee and Wendy has won Homecoming queen. This gives Wendy an idea. What if Shen is her date to the dance but he says he can't go. He already has A date with death. And it's tomorrow. Wendy realizes this big battle is going to be at homecoming. Wendy is furious. Why did Shen hide this from her? Of course, she gives up homecoming immediately to save the world. Nope, that's not what happens. And over at the museum, Jessica. Remember Jessica, who was the evil nemesis, has turned into the Lord of Darkness to awaken the stone soldiers. These are the soldiers that were sent by China for that Chinese cultural exhibit that her mother is in charge of and knows nothing about. Then, of course, the use of security. What the hell she's doing exactly. Did you just get this job? You're a museum curator. You're also Chinese. The useless security guard who does not lock doors, thinks it's just his stomach rumbling from indigestion at first, then runs away when he sees the building. At home, Wendy is getting ready for homecoming when her grandmother offers her her family heirloom robe for the upcoming battle. But Wendy explains she's not going to go to battle. She's always wanted to be homecoming queen, not a warrior. And her grandmother says, are you kidding me? You have to go save the world, not go to some dumb dance at your high school. Nope. Not what says her grandmother actually says. She respects her decision and then leaves. Back at the museum, Shen has arrived to confront Jessica and the soldiers. He's ready for battle, but quickly learns this army is too much for him. We get some more really great kung fu fighting scenes before we see Wendy leave for the dance. She reminds her mom and dad to arrive before halftime because that's when she'll be crowned. And so I'm confused again, having not been in high school for 42 years and also never being there for the senior year. It's a homecoming game, right?

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's a homecoming.

[Will Friedle]

So you have a game, and then the homecoming court is crowned, and then there's a dance.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So, typically, of course, I'm just judging off of my experience now, what I see with the team that I coach and the high schools that surround my area. Homecoming game is usually on the Friday before the dance. Homecoming assembly. They usually have a pep rally during the school day where the king gets announced. And then at homecoming, the halftime show is when they announce the queen. But then the dance is like.

[Will Friedle]

And then there's a dance.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Separate day.

[Will Friedle]

Okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

All right, well, they gotta cut the dance. Can't start at 10. The dance is like a different day. It's the Saturday after.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So this right here, Disney, you know? Yeah.

[Will Friedle]

They're trying to put it all together

[Sabrina Bryan]

on the other Day I get to somewhat do it all together. But like to say, like. So the thing is too, parents aren't at the, the, the dance. So like they get. If your kid's on the court, they get to be there. The dad usually walks them and has a row.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, that's sweet.

[Sabrina Bryan]

The parents get to be a part of it, but like the dance, they're not there.

[Will Friedle]

I wasn't there for any of that. Either way anyway. Either way.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I know it.

[Will Friedle]

No, no, no. I wouldn't have. I can promise you that. Either way. When she opens the door to leave, the possessed teachers are waiting for her. They're still the monks and have a message. The hour of evil has arrived. She appreciates their confidence, but she's sorry she has a date with her tiara. Yeah, she's gonna let us all die so she can become homecoming queen in high school. But when she finds out Shen is already in battle alone, she knows she has to do something. Back at the museum, the awesome fight scene rages on. Jessica slams Shen into a box that explodes with what I can only imagine were white Christmas lights and firecrackers. He's still able to fend them off. And he's doing it. They're just. It really is good. It's good fight scene. But Jessica, and more specifically the stunt person wearing a blonde wig, clearly has the upper hand. That wig posit. It's fun, I know. Now thrown to the ground, the soldiers surround Shen. He is finally trapped. And just as Jessica announces that evil is victorious, the teachers arrive, now calling themselves the Leopard, the Snake, the Crane and the Tiger. And the final element storms in. It's Wendy as the Yin warrior, still in her homecoming dress. She's shocked to see the final face of Yang Lo is. Is Jessica, but springs into action. She tends to an injury. She tends to an injured Shen as the teachers fight the army. Once Shen is taken care of, Wendy and Jessica go to battle with the movie's best fight sequence so far. And just as Wendy looks outmatched, the final piece of the puzzle arrives. It's Wendy's grandmother with the robe, the heirloom. So of course she stops mid fight to change. And now she comes back. And now she's ready. Hope. Time out. Time out. I've got to put on a different outfit. The rumble and evil's like, you got it. You've got five minutes. Let's just take a breath. What are you guys doing? What's everybody up to?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Take a moment.

[Will Friedle]

Let's just take a. Take a second and let her change. The rumble continues, and the teachers are starting to defeat the soldiers for good, turning them back into little rocks. We get an insane move here where Wendy hangs herself sideways off a tall shelf and Jessica jumps up to kick her. And if you pause the movie during this fight, really, at any point, you'll see an Asian man wearing a wig fighting so bad. But I again, like you at this point, I didn't care. No matter who it is, though, Wendy summons. Oh, this was the coolest. And I went, hi. You can. Yes. And you might. Did you know what it is?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, wait a minute.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, good. I'm so glad you know. Street Fighter.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Wait, what? Wendy was a freaking street fighter? Why did we talk about this earlier?

[Will Friedle]

Like, she full on throws a fireball like Ryu, hi, you can. And I just wanted her to do that. Oh God, it was so cool. And yeah, throws it so neat at Jessica. In a final move, it surrounds her body and reveals the true glowing spirit of Yang Lo. He quickly disappears and Jessica returns to reality. Everyone on Wendy's team, including a still living Shen, bow and respect. Wendy tells Jessica she's found something more important than winning Homecoming Queen and tells her to hurry up. It's her crown to win. So Jessica leaves. Everyone celebrates the big win. But just as they're leaving, a stone soldier recovers and becomes the almighty Yang Lord himself. Shen might not be safe after all. Yang Lo quickly takes care of the teachers without even breaking a sweat. And Shen reveals this is the first time that Yan Lo has actually shown up to fight. So without any knowledge of what to do, they're thrown to the side with every attack. Yan Lo now holds Shen by the neck to steal his spirit, and Wendy screams to let him go. But Shen reminds her this is his destiny. But Wendy's grandmother still has hope. She tells Wendy to show Yan Lo everything she's looking learned. And with that, Wendy locks in. She begins to calmly glow and levitate, then shoots lasers at Yen Lo. He screams in pain and is thrown backwards into another box filled with Christmas lights and firecrackers. Wendy catches Shen midfall, saving him from a terrible backache. But Shen is unresponsive, and Yen Lo has somehow recovered. And stomping towards the cousin couple, he demands that Shen die. Wendy tries her hardest, but she can't save him. But she once again focuses her energy to his chest. And eventually, we hear a heartbeat. Shen opens his eyes and returns to the fight, teaming up with Wendy for a dual kick. Killing Yen Lo once and for all. Wendy has officially changed destiny. The teacher monks are thrilled that Yan Lo is defeated and dead, for they think ever and acknowledge that something bigger than tradition has just happened. The monks announce that this will be Shen's final life. They encourage him to live it well and stay in California, where he's just unfortunately out of nowhere for the first time in his life, being tasked to the hilt. Gas is expensive. He's like, this is crazy. He's like I'm out of California. Forget that. With that, the monks ascend from their teachers bodies, leaving everyone very confused. But Grandma invites everyone over for mooncakes. And just like that, it's party time. But instead of mooncakes, Shen wants something a little less ancient Chinese and a little more, well, Italian American, I guess. He wants a cappuccino. The possible lovers who are also maybe now cousins but don't really know. And now awkwardly newcomers who explain to the entire school how they're not really cousins, run off together. And that's our movie.

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[Nancy Glass]

iOS mobile app I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families living. Late one night, Bobby Gumprite became the victim of a random crime.

[Will Friedle]

He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground.

[Nancy Glass]

He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years.

[Will Friedle]

I'm like, lord, this can't be real.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I thought it was a mistaken identity.

[Will Friedle]

The best lie is partial truth.

[Nancy Glass]

For 22 years, only two people knew the truth. Until a confession changed everything.

[Will Friedle]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Gia Giudice]

Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about sorority life, the good, the bad and the sisterhood with your hood me, Gia

[Daisy Kent]

Giudice, Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Kessler. Rush. The recruitment, the ritual, the reality of Greek life has been a mystery for those outside the sorority circles until now.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Is it really a supportive sisterhood that's simply misunderstood? Or is there something more scandalous happening on campuses across the country? In this podcast, we pledge to peel back the layers and spell the truth one Greek letter at a time.

[Gia Giudice]

Pledges and and actives, Rush chairs and ritual keepers. Some call it the best time of their life, while others say it's a nightmare.

[Daisy Kent]

From a perfect rush to recruitment scandals, what is really going on behind the doors of those sorority houses? From Alpha to Omega?

[Jennifer Kessler]

We're taking you inside sorority row, including the chapter room, as we explore the fellowship and the frenemies.

[Gia Giudice]

Let's get dirty.

[Jennifer Kessler]

Listen to Dirty rush on the iHeartRadio Apple Podcast podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, Sabrina, let's do some real reviews.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay? You get the five star this week?

[Will Friedle]

I do. I got the five star. And it is by our old friend. Unamit is back and his review, or her review, or their review, read as such. It's kind of a Disney version of Kill Bill, but, you know, with no blood. But it's a fresh, new and interesting idea for a Disney Channel film. Five stars. Don't disagree, don't disagree. What do you got, Sabrina?

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, I don't like this review. I don't like it. It's a one star from Yaki 7.

[Will Friedle]

You're giggling at just the name.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I know. Oh, a rare double threat. The movie ends with both racism and misogyny.

[Will Friedle]

One star. Love it. Thank you, Yaki Seven. Yes, I disagree, frankly. And Yakis 1 through 6 were better.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, there was some racism in the movie there was.

[Will Friedle]

Let's be honest, especially was there misogyny. I mean, thought was kind of girl empowering, wasn't it? I didn't see any misogyny. I definitely saw some racist tendencies, of course.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes. Well, and I think that that's. It's, you know, again, Disney taking on something, taking on a culture, taking. You're gonna. You're gonna to get those outsider looks into, you know, things that you play into. Especially when, you know, you have to kind of keep it light hearted and things that people. I mean, I didn't see it as terrible. As though somebody who was sensitive to that probably would see things a little bit harsher.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. I mean the thing with like we're gonna write. We're gonna write vote for you on

[Sabrina Bryan]

chop six was like that. I mean, but in 2006 isn't how it reads into.

[Will Friedle]

That's what we're saying.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's a different time six. It's different.

[Will Friedle]

Exactly. You know, I don't know when it's 20 years old.

[Sabrina Bryan]

20 years old.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Y.

[Will Friedle]

20 years from now, we are doing something or saying something that is completely and totally normal and legitimized. Now that's gonna be horrifying.

[Sabrina Bryan]

20 years.

[Will Friedle]

Just the way, Just the way it works. I don't know how it works as a culture.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Somebody please chime in. Like, when I think of like one of my. I love the song mainly just cause it's got such like a. Like a beat, but like the. Everybody was kung fu fighting. Like is that. Is that now something that like if you start kind of.

[Will Friedle]

Of probably if you dissect it for the time.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Right, but at the time, that's like a. That's a jam. That's. That's a bop. Like. Right, but. And I love that song. I think it's got such like a, like bounce to it. The beat, everything. But like again, now we are needing. Needing to look into more of how it's coming across and who it affects. Right.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah. We also need to take things for the time that they were put out there.

[Weatherbug Announcer]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

And this is 20 years ago. So we've got to be okay with that. But you know what we don't have to be okay with is constantly losing our feature game, which is your favorite part of the program. And this week, who do we have with us this week? Who are we playing with this week?

[Sabrina Bryan]

We have Michaela.

[Will Friedle]

Okay, Michaela, here we go. And that makes sense.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Michaela.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, it sounds a little bit like your name here. Because the feature this week is McCall McCall. Not Mikaela McCall. Yay. Or McCall. No. So to celebrate a great performance from

[Sabrina Bryan]

Disney legend Brenda Song has nothing to do with this movie.

[Will Friedle]

No. Nothing whatsoever. Nothing whatsoever. Thank you, producer Jensen. So, yes, to celebrate a great performance from Disney legend Brenda Song, we wanted to play a game that centers around the man who can call her his better half, Macaulay Culkin.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You lucky bastard.

[Will Friedle]

We're gonna be given a performance possible fact about the Home Alone star, and we have to decide if they are true or false by calling them McCall. Yay. Or McCall. No. McCall handled this game. This is terrible. Three out of five correct ones wins. Number one, Macaulay Culkin got married at age 17. He did. Right? Not to her. But didn't he have one marriage at like 17?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'm gonna say McCall.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, I'm gonna say McCall. Yea. Too true.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You guys are correct.

[Will Friedle]

And number two, he was in a rock band called the Pizza Underground, taking songs by the Velvet Underground and remixing them with lyrics about pizza.

[Sabrina Bryan]

McCall.

[Will Friedle]

No. I'm going to say McCall. No, too. But this is going to be another one of those where ollies are right. McCall. No.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's true.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, God, it is. They're all going to be true again. He's going to do it to us again. Okay, number three. He once sold Val Kilmer a rare $20,000 Nintendo game.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'm going to say yes.

[Will Friedle]

False.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, it was only 18. That's probably what it was.

[Will Friedle]

Finally. All right, number four. His godfather is legendary New York pop artist Andy Warhol. Was he alive? Andy Warhol died in 86, so I guess Mack would have been alive then. Mac McCalla. That's what people call him as Mac.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Do you call him Mac? Did he tell you to call him Mac?

[Will Friedle]

Everyone calls him Ma.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[Will Friedle]

I'm not in the. I worked with his brother. I did a. Did a show with. With. With his brother for.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, my gosh.

[Will Friedle]

I did Go Fish on NBC with kieran.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I'mma say McCall. No.

[Will Friedle]

McCall. Yay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Sabrina's right.

[Will Friedle]

False. Okay, thank. Kind of. Thank God for that one. And number five, Macaulay bought Marilyn Manson his first pack of six cigarettes. We haven't had a yay in a while. McCall. Yay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That seems wild. McCall. Yay. I guess I just. It's true.

[Will Friedle]

Wow. So Sabrina won, and I think I lost. Unbelievable. Can we do a Sabrina Sees, please?

[Sabrina Bryan]

All right. Sabrina Sees. There's not much that I saw that was imperfect.

[Will Friedle]

I loved it. Everything was perfect.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Everything was perfect. The Hoko comment from the coach threw me off a little bit. Like it felt like the. In general. And again like you said with the fighting in general, the like adult child contact or respect level and just the like the. You're a kid and I'm an adult. Like that whole like thing throughout the

[Will Friedle]

movie, the dynamic between children and adults. Yeah, yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That was very off to me. Like the coach. I can't. I just wrote down comment and I'm. I'm trying. I wish. I think I thought I was going to remember it but it was like something about hoco and it was like the hoko involved and it was just like. It was weird that an adult would say that to a kid. Like there was a lot of things that kind of. And then when they morph in and now they're fighting and it makes more sense for her to fight these like adults. Like the dynamics were very strange. Yeah, it was weird throughout the movie to me. They just kind of kept hitting me going like. That seemed right. That happened quite a bit. The locked door. It was my number one lock the door.

[Will Friedle]

Not locking doors, then having to unlock the door. You didn't lock Again.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I talked about the like getting triggered by like stranger danger. It did. I was wrong when I was talking about it earlier. It did end up in that scene but like the initial aspect of like not freaking out, it was like, what are you doing? Instead of being like, get out of

[Will Friedle]

my house, get out of my house. Strange person. That.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That really hit me. There was the hero song. The movie had some very significant. We didn't. This wasn't discussed at all. But. But the songs that were throughout this movie were just.

[Will Friedle]

Some of them are weird.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But it was of the time that the channel had the ability and the reach for great producers and this movie could have had some epic. The score of this movie could have been so much bigger. And that was a little bit of a.

[Will Friedle]

People sometimes don't know how expensive music can be.

[Sabrina Bryan]

That's a good point.

[Will Friedle]

So if you've got a five million dollar budget and you're already shooting in Auckland, New Zealand, they might have just not had the money.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yeah, that's a good.

[Will Friedle]

Because the music was strange.

[Sabrina Bryan]

But I would say though, like the reach that the channel. Like you're talking 2006, right? This is towards the end of the Cheetah Girls. This is the height of Camp Rock. Like you've got producers at your fingertips. It was strange to me that. That the. That it wasn't a better score. It just it seemed. But you're right, you do have to make choices when you're doing budgets. The age of these kids was a little like the driver scene, the driving scene when the three of them are in. By the way, did you like that car? I was like, oh, I wonder if Will likes that car. Was it a good car? Because it was like the Mustang.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, the powder blue. That's one of the car. The convertible version of that car is one of the first cars I learned how to drive in a 67 Mustang.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, my gosh.

[Will Friedle]

It's a beautiful car. Beautiful. I think that the one they were in, I think was a 67.

[Sabrina Bryan]

He's going to talk about this car.

[Will Friedle]

It's a beautiful car. It's a beautiful car. It's a great classic American muscle.

[Sabrina Bryan]

16 year old driving. No, did they.

[Will Friedle]

Look my brother, one of my brother's first car was 16. Same color too, but it was a converter.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Did your parents buy your brother that car or.

[Will Friedle]

No? My, my parents always did the same thing with us where for anything big like that, we had to earn half and they would match.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay, that's really fair.

[Will Friedle]

My brother earned money to buy this. It was beat on, but he loved it. So he had a 67. Actually, I think his was technically a

[Sabrina Bryan]

big 66 and a half.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, yeah, the one was gorgeous. Yeah, they're stunning. They're stunning. Yeah, it's a Mustang. Beautiful.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So gorgeous. Okay, so this car, to me, for this age of a driver, didn't match up either. Wait a minute.

[Will Friedle]

Okay.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay. And then at the end, what do we think his age was?

[Will Friedle]

I thought he was in his early 50s. No, I would have said he's supposed to be playing 20, 19. Too old for a high school girl. Yes, but they don't do anything.

[Sabrina Bryan]

They don't notice.

[Will Friedle]

They don't ever do anything.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Don't you think it was like leaned in on at the end that they're like now kind of like an actual couple?

[Will Friedle]

Yes. I think also maybe what they were trying to do with the very opening scene of him. Him fighting all the other guys and then putting. Putting the thing over. No, no, because. And he's like. He put the thing over the other monk's head and they were kind of playing is maybe showing that he's younger than we think.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes.

[Will Friedle]

Like he still has that kind of vibe. So maybe he's supposed to be the equivalent of high school too. He just never got to experience high school. But he's clearly. The actor is clearly like in his 20s at the time.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes. Yeah, and it reads that way like he looks agreed. Too old to have 11 interest in this little girl.

[Will Friedle]

And notice she's the one who does the love interest stuff. He never even gives her a moment of seeing like he's interested. Not a moment.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, but she is googly eyed.

[Will Friedle]

Yeah, but that makes sense. Aren't there a lot of 16, 17 year old girls that are googly eyed over 20, 21 year old men?

[Sabrina Bryan]

But I would like for the channel to not lean into such things.

[Will Friedle]

Well, I like that they didn't. The guy didn't do anything.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No. But I also again, the end is the only part for me that I was like, ooh. It was like. It felt a little. Okay, we're really kind of leaning a little bit too much. However, the end. 100%. And I know we talked about this at the. The front of the show. The, the end alluded to there being a next chapter to this story.

[Will Friedle]

That's why. Well, apparently there was supposed to be one and then it just disappeared. Love to do more, more research, find

[Sabrina Bryan]

out why that we need to get somebody from the movie to tell us the real name.

[Will Friedle]

Oh, that's how you recognize him. Shin Koyamada was also in the Disney Channel games.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Oh, yes. No, I.

[Will Friedle]

Yes.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, the. Yes. And he was. He was. Yes, he was. He was. He was. And this was around the. That was. The Disney Channel games was the same era, right?

[Will Friedle]

Yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Okay.

[Will Friedle]

No, you were also talking about the dad.

[Sabrina Bryan]

The dad. But I don't remember where I found him or remember him from.

[Will Friedle]

But it wasn't the Karate Kid.

[Sabrina Bryan]

No, it wasn't. But the whole cast, by the way, super good looking. We didn't even talk about how great looking this cast was. The grandma was gorgeous. Yeah, gorgeous woman. Like everyone was so pretty in this movie. Even the. Even the. You know, the arch nemesis. Loved everyone. I thought they were great.

[Will Friedle]

Oh yeah.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Anyway, that was my last one. The Shen's age was questionable to me.

[Will Friedle]

That's all right. Luckily he didn't do anything in his.

[Sabrina Bryan]

He was on what team? He was. He was on the green team, I think, thinking, oh, we kept going, oh shit. Like, oh, of course. He's got so much talent.

[Will Friedle]

See, there you go. Great. Can we please rank our film? And I'm not even gonna mess around with it today. We're gonna. We're gonna go from one to ten. Straightforward one's gonna be the lowest. Straightforward ten is gonna be the highest.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Thank you. I don't have time.

[Will Friedle]

You don't have time to. Can't mess around our options this week. One out of ten deadly venoms. One out of ten unpackaged items from FedEx. One out of ten bad security guards, ceiling shens. One out of ten egotistical self portraits. Cool fedoras, breakup hair highlights. One out of ten thinly veiled racist questions. Dance halftimes. One out of ten Christmas lights and firecracker boxes. Or my favorite one out of ten kissing cousins. Which one you're trying to get in

[Sabrina Bryan]

one out of ten lockers. The door.

[Will Friedle]

There you go. That. Well, you've just picked it. There you go, Sabrina. So I believe is it. I go first.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I think it's your turn. Yes, it's my turn.

[Will Friedle]

Okay. So I liked this movie. Again, I had problems with it. Certain things were weird and made no sense. But you're gonna have problems with every movie. But the idea of putting the. The mystical kind of background to it and the whole history behind everything. Everything. The great wire work, martial arts. Big fan of that stuff. Still had the high school thing. I really liked this movie. I just like you. I also am realizing that I can determine whether I like a movie by the fact if I can just sit there and watch the whole thing without having to pause it, walk out of the room, look at my phone, do other things. I can just sit there and watch the movie and I could just sit there and watch this movie. So I'm going to give this. And I think this is a pretty solid score. I'm going to Give this an 8. Lock the doors for this film. And I, I think it's deserved. I think it was. I think this was a fun movie all the way around. So I enjoyed it.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Yes, I am up there, right there with you. Like I said, I was like hook, line singer from the get. Like, I loved it. I was so happy. I, I didn't really, I guess, I mean, obviously somewhat have an idea of maybe what the movie will be, but I had no idea it was this. I thought it was so great. I love Brenda's song. I love everything she does. The queen. The queen reigns. She does. She just lives to just do the best work for the channel. And I thought it was a great movie. I. There's, of course, some funny, silly things that just are ridiculous. But I was there for it. I thought it was great for a kid movie to be that good with the anim. Like the. Not animation, the special effects, all of that. I thought it was great. I'm giving it a nine. Lock the doors.

[Will Friedle]

Nice.

[Sabrina Bryan]

For the love of God.

[Will Friedle]

Love of God. Well, I love that. Well, thank you, everybody. For joining us. Go check this movie out. It was definitely worth it. So thanks everybody. Don't forget to join us next time. You can follow us at Magical Rewind Pod on the Instagram machine. And I'd also very much like to start some sort of petition or something thing so we can absolutely tell Sabrina that cookies and pastries are two completely different things. Like it's like apples and pastries.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Two completely different things at the bakery.

[Will Friedle]

But that doesn't. You could get soup at a bakery. That doesn't. Doesn't necessarily make it, you know, a pastry.

[Sabrina Bryan]

It's not in the. For the area. The window.

[Will Friedle]

Wow. I can't. So anything in that window to you is pastry.

[Sabrina Bryan]

I mean, it would be fine with it being called pastry.

[Will Friedle]

So an Oreo cookie is pastry.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You're the problem, Will. It's you. When you're at a pastry and there's cookies. It's a pastry.

[Will Friedle]

Yes. Oh my God. That's so wrong.

[Sabrina Bryan]

You will, it's you.

[Will Friedle]

Normally everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but your opinions are just wrong. Oh my. All right, well, we'll see everybody next time. And please send all of your letters telling Sabrina why she's absolutely wrong to Magical Rewind Pod at the Instagram machine. Thanks everybody.

[Sabrina Bryan]

They actually messaged me.

[Will Friedle]

Good. Keep it up.

[Sabrina Bryan]

Or that. Or that. They're with me. Bye. Love you guys.

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[Nancy Glass]

I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt season two podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything.

[Will Friedle]

I was a monster.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Burden of guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The more you listen to your kids,

[Will Friedle]

the closer you'll be.

[Sabrina Bryan]

So we asked kids, what do you

[Will Friedle]

want your parents to hear?

[Sabrina Bryan]

I feel sometimes that I'm not listen to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your

[Will Friedle]

kids and their emotional well being@sound sounditout

[Nancy Glass]

together.org that's sounditouttogether.org brought to you by the ad council and pivotal I'm Ana Navarro and on my new podcast Bleep with Ana Navarro, I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now we are all cursing and asking what the BLEEP is going on. Every week I'm breaking down the biggest issues happening in our community, communities and around the world. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018.

[Sabrina Bryan]

The Justice Department through we counted four presidential administrations failed these victims.

[Nancy Glass]

Listen to Bleep with Ana Navarro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.