Merry Little Baby (2025)

[00:00:03] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast Hi, I'm Bran and I love surrogate Christmas movies I'm Dan and I despise surrogate Christmas movies I'm Alonzo and champ dog meet Purple Heart And this is the Deck The Hallmark Podcast Deck The Hallmark, it's this podcast

[00:00:31] Friends host this podcast We hope you like this jolly podcast Wow, boy Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to Dan

[00:01:00] Happy birthday to you Thank you, Bran, I appreciate it And many more Thank you, Alonzo, much appreciated I will say I do hate you both That I'm here doing this on my birthday But it is what it is We are watching Merry Little Baby to celebrate Shout out Which I think is only fair It's the sequel to Merry Little Batman Where Batman grows up and has a baby Alas, no No, it's not Oh, that would be nice though, wouldn't it? No, it is not Yeah We're gonna get to it

[00:01:28] Dan, you got any big birthday plans? I know you told me I was not invited So I'll have to hear about it the old-fashioned way By just asking As you can possibly imagine about me Is that I don't want a big birthday to do ever I want to eat food of my choosing And I want to spend time with my family And watch the New York Yankees play baseball That is typically what I would like to do But here I am So it's just another day Tuesday for Dan Checking a Purple Heart flick out with you guys Christmas in August Boy, is it August Yeah, it is

[00:01:58] It is August Dog days of Christmas, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's that gutter between Christmas and July And the Burr months Why are we not? August and January are really low months for Bran Bran really has a hard time in those two months But I am putting a lot on Mary Little Baby to Lift your spirits Lift my spirits Help me feel better about it We'll see We'll see how it does Mary Little I'm sorry My foot got Pulling my head Are you okay? I'm good

[00:02:27] I didn't mean to hurt you It just happens naturally Like when you told me I wasn't invited to your birthday I'm not having a birthday party Well So Unlike when you didn't invite me to your Bachelor party That's right You were having one of those You didn't invite me I'm not having a birthday party So there's no reason to be hurt How about this? Merry Little Baby came out on November 4th The same day As the movie from last one Dickens of Christmas What a day November 4th What a time to be alive November 4th be with you How about that?

[00:02:57] What a The world has never been the same After November 4th Everything's changed The world turned upside down We think of it as pre-November 4th And post-November 4th That's why we're here That's exactly right Yeah Alright let's talk Mary Little Baby Shall we? It originally did air on the November 4th Then various streamers across the internet And it went a little something like This Shanice is at her little sister's Gender reveal slash baby shower combo party And Shanice is not happy

[00:03:26] Why? Because her little sister is married and pregnant Before she is See Shanice is turning 35 this Christmas She shares her birthday with the Lord And she's always pictured herself being married With two kids at this point She tells her best friend that she's about to go meet up with Her other best friend Ashton

[00:03:52] To discuss the baby pact that they made back in the day Where if you know we were still single at 35 We'd have a baby together Well After her dad passed away Shanice has really felt the pressure To have a baby before her mom Before her mom dies Ashton is her best chance to make that happen But bad news Ashton has a serious girlfriend

[00:04:19] The pact ain't pactin' right now folks She goes to leave but her car gets towed And hilarity ensues She goes on a radio show Because what you need to know about Shanice Is that she's a famous film producer Who has movies on Tubi But the interview takes a turn When Shanice opens up about her desire to be a mom The interviewee mentions Well have you thought about a sperm donor? And Shanice is like

[00:04:49] I don't hate the idea But I'd want to know who the guy is Before I decide if I'm going to go with this So she joins an app Because there's an app for that It begins meeting men To try to find the right guy There's so many bad interviews This is a large part of this movie Is her just meeting men That aren't right for her

[00:05:16] To be the sperm donor To what she needs She ends up baking with Ashton though And it is sensual folks It is a lot Ashton has to cut the baking scene short though Because he has to go To his girlfriend's parents house To ask for their blessing Because he wants to propose That dinner does not go well

[00:05:46] Shanice decides she's going to go to the club With her friends And get drunk for her birthday Naturally Ashton shows up At the end of the night To take her home Because she is wasted Drunk and falling asleep Shanice lets it out That she loves Ashton And then she falls asleep After a crazy couple of days She finally gets back together With Ashton to talk about that night And she finds out That Ashton broke up With his girlfriend

[00:06:16] And so let's not delay Let's kiss And make a baby Cut to a year later She is indeed pregnant With child And that my friends was Merry little baby You said she's pregnant with child What were the other options there? Pregnant with sandwich Yes She's with child Or she's pregnant You said she's pregnant with child With child Yep Thank you I didn't want anybody to wonder I will say this Had you said she's just pregnant Somebody in the crowd

[00:06:45] Probably Taryn Would have been like With what? Yeah That's what Taryn does Taryn's always doing that And you nip that in the bud By saying pregnant with child What bothers me About Taryn Is this is his first day Allowed back That's right Yeah yeah yeah It was a long hiatus Is Taryn a strawberry By chance? Taryn We've not asked that question He's nodding his head yes He's nodding his head yes That's right And he just pulled off a wig Which is weird I don't know what that did

[00:07:14] I don't know why that matters Taryn I think it's pretty good We'll talk to you We'll talk to you later Yeah yeah All right Let's take a break We'll come back We'll break down Merry Little Baby Here on Deck The Hallmark Welcome back Everybody Merry Little Baby Is what we're talking about Today The other big November 4th Release For 2025

[00:07:45] We finally got to it We finally got to it All right Let's break it down Let's share our thoughts On this one I'm going to start with Alonzo Alonzo Merry Little Baby Merry Little Thumbs Up Nary a thumbs up here Oh man I'll tell you I thought the Champ Dog movies From the UK Were going to be As sort of Slap together Bargain basement As we were going to get And admittedly These movies have a bit more Of a sheen to them But I can already tell

[00:08:14] This writer Director Lead actress Producer Casting director I forget what other credits She gives herself So many The busy Ms. Monet Makes a bunch of these And they all Go to Tubi And even in this movie She's like Yes I'm a director Of films on Tubi And I guess That's a thing now I get And that is a way To make your Money back As long as Your movies cost You know Five cents And a piece of gum And this one

[00:08:43] Surely did Yeah It's Quite terrible And Just In every aspect Possible I think Just Amateurish And thrown together And not funny And overdone And Classic Did this need to be A Christmas movie Movie Oh no Brain was all over that I said it was a It was a scene now It's a Christmas In name only situation Yeah Which is disappointing This is what I'll say About the movie Oh boy

[00:09:13] Here we go This movie is An hour and 35 minutes And it is Oh my god Why is it that long This is why I honestly think That I would have Probably given it One thumbs up If it's 30 minutes shorter Yeah If that entire section In the middle of the movie Where she's just interviewing Man after man after man At Orleans The bar that she has All these guys We zoom in Establishing shots That's right Yeah None of which

[00:09:42] Have Are Really remotely funny There was one That I kind of chuckled at But just because of how Truly odd It was Would that be The woman in the mustache Yeah It's the woman in the mustache Yeah I still don't quite get What's going on there I still don't fully understand it No But her performance Was She was Committed She was committed And I appreciated that But yeah I And honestly That I don't know for certain That that's 30 minutes Of the movie But sure It sure as heck

[00:10:12] Felt like it If that is a One minute montage Showing her meeting people Leave it There are so many movies Yes Like Mrs. Doubtfire When Sally Field Is calling All Or like all these people Are calling Like it can work In 45 seconds The first sex in the city Where she's interviewing New assistants It doesn't But that only works For a minute Max Yeah Not 30 Yeah So like Like with so many Of these Straight to streamer Type movies

[00:10:42] Tubi Etc It all So much of it Comes down to editing This movie Is It could have been 30 minutes shorter Tighten some of these Things up And I have a thing That's kind of Like an interesting story And Kind of amusing And And also Add some Christmas decorations If you're gonna make it A Christmas movie Call it Merry Little Baby Where your birthday Is on Christmas Give me Some more Christmas

[00:11:11] And that will go a long way With making this movie Turns out baby's due in April Baby's I Yeah Because like There is I can see little Bits of this movie Where I'm like Alright Okay So I It is a Not a thumbs up But it is a I wish It was a thumbs up I wish That I could give this movie A thumbs up I walk into every movie Hoping that I'm gonna

[00:11:38] Give it a thumbs up This movie I look at it And I I see An interesting Christmas movie here That If we could just Spend a little bit more time On that edit And polish some of that sucker up And throw some more Christmas At the screen I'm all in on this movie What a fun trip Bran's Lemonade Stand

[00:12:08] We just went on Like I I just The The amount Give me Merry Little Baby Over Dickens of a Christmas Are you Are seriously Are you sore From carrying this movie To To some sort When there was One set of footprints I will say Like I think part of it Is like I really do Like Appreciate The grind Of Miss Monet Yes Who since The The 2021 or 22 Has put out 20 plus movies

[00:12:37] On her own All written Directed She's in it In some way Shape or form Whether it's a leading role Or just supporting Like I appreciate The grind of that Yeah And That's different Than saying it's a good movie You can see Right But I think that there's like I We're getting there We'll get there I just Like Let's revisit this movie In a couple years Monet And let's see if we can I mean if you want me To say something positive I do think qualitatively It's a step up Over champ dog Like I do think that like Yeah

[00:13:06] Just from having multiple locations And you know Just basic But like this movie Where would you rank it Next to like Ebony's Christmas Carol Very similar That's the other guy In Texas right Yeah I would say Is he Texas or Georgia I thought it was Texas I thought it was Because I think they talk about Houston But I could be wrong Yeah But I Like I preferred Ebony's Christmas Carol To this movie Because that movie Is lean And like It is not maybe Quite as well made As this But this movie

[00:13:35] Like a good edit Would help this movie There's no doubt about that If you made a quick Super cut Of all the dudes In one location Doing that bit One time You'd cut ten minutes Out of this And then There are several other scenes Like I don't know The last time In my adult life I felt uncomfortable Watching a movie And There is a yoga scene In this movie Where I felt Uncomfortable Watching the movie Like I am not Like

[00:14:04] I don't Like I'm not going to avert If I'm watching a movie In the theater There's not a time Where I'm going to Avert my eyes It's a movie I'm watching it From start to finish I do not have that affliction I know some people do I Turn my head And I just was like What is happening Right now And And this is And you can't even Blame the director Because she is that also I would have I would have gone Probably harder In the paint On the fact That this is wrong If she's not Directing herself here But But there is a scene

[00:14:33] And I timed it Because we couldn't Believe what was happening That is a minute And ten seconds long That is just a close up Of her doing yoga A close up And it's a close up Doing a full vinyasa Down dog And then they go And they show the front angle And it is Uncomfortable I don't With a With a fart joke In the middle of it Yes Yes I just don't Like There is so much Of this movie That if she's trying To make a movie In four days

[00:15:03] And get it on Tubi Make a shorter one Like what in the world Like you could have Like you see The grind And I do respect The grind But I see If you wanted to grind And be efficient This is inefficient It's bad And it's too long You could have done 20 minutes less shooting And gotten the same movie But better To Tubi Well she's like What's something I do anyway How do I incorporate it Into this film Well I do get up And do yoga In the morning But you could have done You could have easily

[00:15:32] Done what I do When my kids want to Make a movie Which is I don't edit it I just hit pause And then Edit in camera That's right And so All of that super cut Of all the things It's just like Alright hit pause the camera Pause the iPad Which is what she's shooting This on Pause the iPad Bring the next dude in Alright you do your thing You know We'll do our coverage We'll put it together Like I feel like You and I could do this We could do this Oh 100% Yeah no I But like the yoga scene Is a great example Of like Oh my god

[00:16:01] Either make it Like really lean into The farting of it all Like either make that The gag of that scene Or don't do the scene But as it exists Guys What is the purpose Of the scene This is like As Quentin Tarantino Is to feet Denise Monet Is to her own ass What do you want from me If you got it For lunch You know what Listen

[00:16:31] You go girl Listen It is wild out there What's going on In this movie I'm just saying Both of these movies This and Ebony Dickens Ebony Ebony Which is Harper's joint Yes Both distributed Through Maverick Which is interesting Okay So I don't know What the connection Is there But interesting Okay let's get to Our feels I'll start with you Alonzo I had one genuine

[00:16:59] Surprise in this movie That I did not see coming The dude at the Beginning of the movie Who buys her drinks And they have a conversation About your eyes Will freeze that way That is your classic Set up for like You're going to be Important later Yeah And so he does Indeed turn up later As one of the Prospective sperm donors And it all goes really well And you think Okay well now Now we're on And this is going to be The romance And da da da But no Nope He turns out to be Yet another terrible Candidate who was like Lying

[00:17:29] And a dreadful Human being And I was like Oh okay So that's Didn't see that coming And then what Of course What that does Is mean that she And the old friend Are going to get together Even though like That relationship Is Makes no sense In a million ways But we'll get to that I'm sure In the wait what's Yeah Oh a little bit maybe Um I The The The person The girl Who is her assistant I guess The assistants Are really working for me

[00:18:00] I thought that They get the best lines The assistant That goes Like she is Like really shy At first And then she invites her To her birthday party Club Night I guess on Christmas I don't know It doesn't matter Um And then she's It's like She comes in there And she's like Shot Shot Shot Shot I She was funny And she was Once again The highlight of this movie For me So shout out To the assistants In these movies If the movie Is really bad You will be The highlight Of the movie

[00:18:30] So keep that in mind When you're in these roles Uh Dan Um Yeah I don't have Anything here Sorry Sorry Let's take a break We'll come back We'll break this movie Down on the other side Of it here on Deck the Hallmark We're back Hi We're talking about Merry little baby Today Let's uh Let's get to the Wait what It's where we're Talking about What in this movie Minutes go Wait what I'll start with you

[00:19:00] Alonzo So you know I'm not a strict Auteurist When it comes to Breaking down A director's style But I'm getting So much Just from having Seen one Of the apparently Dozens of Denise Monet films Out in the world In the first Ten minutes She does Narration She breaks The fourth wall And they do A record scratch Oh my god She

[00:19:29] Her cup Runneth over She's a maximalist Yeah Her quiver Has all the arrows And she's got A few extra It's the holy Trinity of bits Yeah Just going for All of it Also a thing That I picked up In her style Of filmmaking And I don't know If she has Published like Her sort of Manifesto Or rules of Filmmaking But I figured This out When you can't Shoot a funeral Film yourself Wearing black And walking in Slow-mo

[00:19:58] Yep When you can't Shoot a Christmas Dinner Pretend like You already Cleaned up And it's over Yep And when you Can't shoot A maternity Ward Have your Sister give Birth in her Own bedroom For some reason Yeah man Absolutely This is just Efficient filmmaking That's exactly right If we had one line About a home birth Or a doula Earlier in the film I would have been Like okay sure Fine But when she Gets the call That her sister's In labor And she goes To her house I'm like okay Hospital costs too much

[00:20:28] I see what we're doing The room is looking Great too Yeah For she decked out I originally wrote down All the successful Filmmakers work on Scripts in an office Building But then I realized By the end of the film That that is her office Yeah She is sitting in front Of one sheets For her own films Correct With her own name On them That's the craziest Part of this movie This is the Wait what Of the movie Which is She in this movie In real life She is Denise Who makes films

[00:20:58] Denise Monet And in this movie She's Shunny Shunny Who makes films Makes movies That are all directed By Denise Like all of the posters Behind her Are four real movies That Denise Monet Has made Why not just make Your name Denise In the movie And just say You're Denise Monet In the movie It would make It all more cohesive Or like put a On the posters Yeah Put a shot In there It would be great

[00:21:28] She at one point Says that she Doesn't really feel Like doing anything Big for her birthday Because everyone's Going to be focused On Christmas This year Ask anyone With a December 25th birthday If there's ever A year where Everyone isn't Focused on Christmas Yeah I got a Feeling this year They're not going To care about My birthday I put a I put a poll out Everyone said They're going to Do Christmas This year I thought They'd be jazzed About my birthday But somehow Christmas is Getting all the Attention If you're going To quote Mahogany I insist That you

[00:21:58] Acknowledge it When somebody Says I think the Radio interviewer Says You know Success means Nothing without Someone to share It That is the Line from Mahogany Billy D. Tells Diana Ross Success means Nothing without Someone to share It with And it's so good They reprise it At the end of The movie And they just Took it And made it Their own Here Denise I agree With you It's a classic But you know I want some Citation here Here's the thing That once you see It you will never

[00:22:28] Unsee it Oprah told me This years ago Cinematographers Have A She didn't tell me Personally she said It on her show But I learned it From Oprah Cinematographers Very often have a Hard time Shooting Black actors Especially in the Same frame With white actors The lighting You have to do Things It can be done And good Cinematographers Know how to do it But you will see A lot of movies Where the white Actor is visible And the black

[00:22:57] Actor is in a German expressionist Movie Just you know Completely bathed In shadow Shooting an All black cast Obviously you know You can uniformly Light and Get things done What that means In this film Is that Every scene Is shot With a Klieg light Like those Big things You see outside Of movie theater Premieres Like this There is a Blinding amount Of light In every Office In every Bedroom

[00:23:27] In every Restaurant Like there is It's just So bright Throughout And I Hope that Whoever Her consulting Cinematographer Or maybe she's Also shooting it I don't know I didn't Look at the Credits that Closely They could Figure out A happy Medium where Everybody's Visible but Also not Like being Interrogated The Ashton The friend Here Is Now I know

[00:23:56] Straight guys Are famously Oblivious Like we all Know this Y'all know This What It's a Thing that We've all Come to Accept in This World This Guy Takes His Female Best Friend Who is In love With him Ring Shopping For another Woman And then Later Makes his Best friend Who is In love With him Make her Famous Banana Pudding For the Woman that He's gonna Give the Ring to Yeah With the Sexiest Music of All Time Play

[00:24:26] No Long Pours Yeah The Pottery Scene in Ghost has Nothing On the Banana And not To mention At the Jewelry Shop he Puts The ring On her Finger On her Hand I don't Want to Like get Guys It's a Family Show Here Like they Slow-mo Have her Peel a Banana In this Movie Yeah She's Whisking Oh my God It's Crazy With a Full Wrist Yeah But it's It's just

[00:24:55] So cruel Of him To be This To be This Oblivious To the Fact that Like your Friend who Is in Love with You and You are Parading her Through these Situations To remind Her how Much you Are Into Somebody Else And then Of course By the By the Time they Get together You're Like none Of this Makes Any Sense Because You know Yes She He's the One that Got away In College But Like You should Have spoken Up sooner And to Like bring All this Up now

[00:25:25] That he Suddenly Got Engaged To somebody Else It just It It doesn't Feel earned By the End of the Film And it Just you Know it Seems like Too hasty A wrap Up And then Which of Course Their Courtship Includes Him Leaving a Very Relaxed Voicemail Where Like hey We should Talk Why don't You call Me to Get a Chance And then Calling her 10,000 Times Sheesh Yeah

[00:25:48] I have a Confusing Because there Is another

[00:26:18] Historical Figure Who famously Has his Birthday On Christmas That's Right So It's Celebrated Right So it Is an Interesting Elvis Presley What Yes Elvis Presley To say You share Your birthday With Santa I heard The line I was like Wait Santa was Born on Christmas And I was Like no No Her birthday Is shared With Santa's Big day But it Was I thought She said It was Santa's Birthday Too And I was Like Maybe

[00:26:47] It is I don't Know The Santa Lore St. Nicholas Day Is like December 6th Maybe That's What It Is Her Vision Board Sucks Why Do It If It's Going To Be That Bad It's A bad Vision Board And that Doesn't Cost More Money You Could Make A Better Vision Board For Same Amount Of Money Yeah Yeah They're Back To Film In The Restaurant Scenes They're

[00:27:16] About To Go They're About To Go Clubbing Okay And Her Best Friend Is Like Pulling Out Boxes Of Condoms Right Yep Amongst Other Things You're Going to Need This Why Is She Trying To Give Shanice Condoms When She's Famously Trying To Get Pregnant I Don't Think She

[00:27:46] Just Wants To Get Pregnant By Any Rando She Literally Says I'm Trying To Get Pregnant She Does Say That That's The Problem There I Don't Disagree But She Is Like And The Other Girl Before She Brings Out The Condoms Like Let's Get You Pregnant Like She Says That Here Are The Things I Have Let's Get You Pregnant Here's Some Condoms Yeah Fair Point Also Tia In The Chat Says That Santa's Birthday Is Apparently March 15th Okay Alright Oh Well Okay Happy Birthday There You Go In March That's All I Got Dan Early In

[00:28:16] This Movie She Goes On A radio Show And She Talks About Wanting To Get Pregnant Through A sperm Donor And Someone Calls Into The Radio Show And Exactly What I Just Read Oh Sorry They're Coming Into Fire He Says That Live On A radio Program And Then

[00:28:47] Done With The Call Let's See What She Says I'll Take Your Answer Off The Air Oh Hi There A Long Time First Time I Got A lot Of Sperm Just Ready To Go Not Really Using It They Go To This Neighborhood That Is

[00:29:24] A Really Nice Everywhere I It Was So Great Like Just Put Up Nothing Put Up Nothing If You're Going To Show All Of These Houses Just Do Nothing It's Better Than Drawing Our Attention To It Before They Get Out Of His Honda Accord He

[00:30:07] In Over The Course Of A Scene That Is Still Going On Somewhere I Don't Understand Why We Got That Why Did You Film It Why Did You Put It In The Movie Why Is It Here Oh My God We Get It And It's Not Like They Had To Make The To Be Minimum Because They Got 70 Minute Movies On Yes And It's 95 Minutes And I Thought Maybe This Is A 10 Minute Credit Situation No This Thing Goes To An Hour 33 Before Those Credits Roll It's Crazy

[00:30:37] Absolutely Crazy Last But Not Least Her Sister Has Her Baby And That Baby I Mean Stuffed Animal Looks Adorable There Is No Baby There Is A Stuffed Animal It Baby In This Movie Wow Wow Not A Baby Doll Not A American Sniper Situation And Just A Stuffed Animal Apparently The Doll Budget Was Zero

[00:31:07] Stuffed Animal Budget Was There So There's That It's Time For What The Hallmark Is What Could Have Been Maybe Have It Mind I Guess This Movie Is Her Vision Board But Yeah It Couldn't Be Vaguer And Based On The Evidence Here I Not Sure Who's Coming A Calling With

[00:31:37] These Big Deals There Is One Fella Who Is That She Has A Conversation With To See If She He Is And He Says No It's Not And What's And Then He Says So Why Are You Lying To Me Which In Better Hands

[00:32:07] Directed Better Could Have Been Really Funny Yeah And Creepy But Instead What's That Guy's Deal The Guy Who Can Know Your Blood Type Just By Looking At You Want To Know About That Dana Um Yeah I You You Said She's Not A star In All Of Her To This Character Being Named Shanice Instead Of Denise But Using All Of Denise's Stuff Like What Would Have Been Wrong With You're Already

[00:32:37] Publicizing Yourself What Would Have Been Wrong With Just Naming Yourself Denise And And And Having It Being Like This Weird Biopic That Isn't Real Like That Seems To Be Better We Know Denise Is Not Afraid Of Promoting Her Own Exactly Image Certainly Yeah As much Of As you So That Was Mine There You Go We Did Everybody Congratulations To Us Us Us We Did It My Favorite Fleetwood

[00:33:07] Mac Alton We're Going Back Next Week With Some More So Come Back For That Until Then Maybe The First To Wish You Merry Christmas Deck the Hallmarks Of The Deck The Hallmark Leave Us A Five Star Rating And Review On Apple Podcast If You Please To Help The Show Financially And Join The Best Corner Of The Internet You Can Go

[00:33:48] Listening Or Don't Listen It's Really Up To You At This Point Is At The End Of The Show I Mean You're Listening To Me Hi But Here They Come I Promise They're Coming Yep Here They Are Happy Day