The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) ft. Alonso Duralde

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Hi, I'm Bramble Jam.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_04]: And I love Christmas movies about inventing things.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_07]: Jingle Jangle? Is that what we're doing?

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_07]: Books!

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_07]: Books, Dickens.

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_07]: Dickens!

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. Christmas Carol.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_07]: You go Alonso.

[00:00:46] [SPEAKER_07]: No, you go Dan.

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_07]: You go Dan.

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_07]: I'm Dan.

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_07]: Are you alright?

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_07]: I don't know.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_07]: I'm Dan and on behalf of Bran, I'm sorry, but I also despise Christmas movies about inventing things.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_06]: I'm Alonso and Bah Humbug and this is the Deck The Hallmark Podcast!

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_05]: Deck The Hallmark, it's his podcast.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_05]: Brinton and friends host his podcast.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_02]: We hope you like this jolly podcast.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, well, well. Hello everybody. Welcome. Happy Monday to ya.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_04]: The 9th. The 9th.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_05]: Aaron, has anyone's dates passed yet in regards to...

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, somebody guessed August.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, what happened there?

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Patrick guessed August, so he is out.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Tomorrow we have Brian and Alonso.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_07]: And Ryan and me on Thursday.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, on Thursday is Dan, Ryan, and Dan will also debut our marathon donation pick for the year.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh great!

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_05]: Am I the only one that it's the week of the 16th?

[00:01:58] No.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_05]: No, okay.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: You and Jax are on the 16th. I'm on the 19th.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, interesting.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_06]: Got it.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_06]: Interesting.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_06]: See, here's why I'm feeling even better about the 10th. Like I would double down if one could double down.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_06]: Okay.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_06]: That is also the launch date of Hallmark Plus.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_06]: So I can just see a whole big...

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_07]: I should have done any, like just little bit of research and would have probably picked the 10th.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_05]: I still feel quite good about the week of the 16th.

[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_07]: I guess they've ever started. What you're doing is you're running into...

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_07]: I mean, they have hardly enough time to roll these bad boys out.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_06]: They announce it a month out. The 18th would be a month out.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_06]: I think on the 10th we're going to get a voluminous press release and also like a reminder of,

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_06]: Hey everybody, Hallmark Plus launches today.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_06]: Voluminous.

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_06]: We'll see.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_05]: I think it will be the opposite.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_05]: I think they're going to let Hallmark Plus kind of stand on its own,

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_05]: but then at the end be like, stay tuned next week for the announcement of our Christmas movie.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_07]: Thursday's looking less and less probable.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_07]: I think one of you two will be right just from a standpoint of why would they do it two days after the Hallmark Plus launch?

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_07]: That doesn't make any sense.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_05]: Well, I mean, you don't want to overshadow the Chicken Sisters.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_05]: I overshadowed the Chicken Sisters once.

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_05]: Dude, I would recommend it.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_05]: And I still hear about it to this day.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_05]: You make one mistake...

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_05]: The emails come pouring in.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_05]: I didn't make one mistake.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_05]: I just... whatever.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_05]: They're fine.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_05]: That's all I'm saying.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_07]: The Chicken Sisters wishes they were a Christmas movie about inventing something.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_05]: About inventing chicken.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_05]: What if they were?

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_05]: What if it was a story about inventing chicken?

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_05]: Inventing chicken?

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_05]: Have you ever had, Alonso, a Christmas flavored chicken wing?

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_05]: No.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_05]: What would that be?

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_05]: Well...

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_07]: We have.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_07]: It's disgusting.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_07]: We have.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_07]: There were several.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_07]: There was ginger or something.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_05]: I think there was a candy cane.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_07]: There was a candy cane one that had, I believe, some mint on it.

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_07]: And then there was a ginger... something like gingerbread or something.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_05]: I don't remember what it was.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_07]: They were both bad.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_07]: I remember that.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_07]: I remember we walked in and the chalkboard had these two on there.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_07]: And Brand...

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_07]: Get away from us!

[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_07]: Us?

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I guess, by proxy.

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_06]: But Brand is the one that sees that.

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_06]: I get why you try them.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_06]: I get why you're like, I gotta give this a shot.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_06]: What if?

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_07]: But Brand believes every chicken wing starts out a good chicken wing.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_07]: He doesn't believe that there are bad and good ones.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_07]: If he walks into a place that literally says, don't order the chicken wings,

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_07]: and he sees it on the menu, he's going to be like,

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_07]: should we add an order of buffalo wings?

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, what if we did?

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_06]: What if they're good?

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_06]: So Dan, you're more like of a Calvinist where there are good chicken wings

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_06]: and then bad ones.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_06]: God chose beforehand if these wings...

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_06]: Whereas Brand sees the potential in all chicken wings.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_07]: I don't have to tell him if the wings are going through a pizza oven,

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_07]: you don't want them.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_07]: You don't want to eat them.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_07]: And he's like, what if they're good though?

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_07]: And he's like, these are soggy, mush, disgusting.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_05]: Calvinists have tulip, Dan has wing.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_07]: And it stands for warmer?

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_07]: Warmer out of the fryer.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_07]: In and out of the oil.

[00:05:11] [SPEAKER_07]: In sauce we trust.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_06]: We're working on it.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_06]: The closest I think you could maybe make a Christmas chicken wing work is,

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_06]: remember the doomed Planet Hollywood chain of restaurants?

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_06]: They were famous for their fried chicken that was Cap'n Crunch,

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_06]: was the breading.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_06]: And so I guess if you took the Christmas crunch that comes out once a year

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_06]: and then use that to bread a chicken wing, maybe?

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_07]: We're getting there.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_07]: I mean, that's barely it, but that technically is one.

[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_06]: Still workshopping it here.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_07]: There's some flavors that work with chicken wings that are holiday themed.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_06]: You could throw some rosemary.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_06]: Sage.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_06]: A holiday turkey.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_06]: Some clove would maybe work.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_06]: Cinnamon maybe not.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_06]: Ginger is not a bad idea, but ginger bread, no.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_07]: You could throw some cinnamon in a barbecue sauce and get away with it.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_05]: Okay.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_05]: Not bad at that at all.

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_05]: See?

[00:06:13] [SPEAKER_07]: We're getting there.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_05]: We're doing things.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_05]: We would like to hear from you.

[00:06:17] [SPEAKER_07]: Make a movie about us inventing Christmas.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_05]: If you've ever had a Christmas chicken wing, let us know.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_05]: That was good worth sharing.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_07]: Stay tuned in Christmas 2025 for our movie, The Christmas Wing.

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_05]: It's about these two kids.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_07]: It's not about anyone's angel.

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_07]: It's not about a guardian angel.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_07]: It's about two kids from South Carolina trying to create the perfect Christmas chicken wing.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, they fall in love in the process.

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_07]: The Christmas wing.

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_05]: I don't hate this, to be honest.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think it's a bad...

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_06]: It's a Roku joint.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_06]: Register it with the Writers Guild right now.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_05]: They're best friends.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_05]: They're best friends and they've been working in the Wing game for years.

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_07]: And then you said they fall in love.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_05]: They fall in love.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_07]: Sure, why not?

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_05]: Kind of a Chicken Sisters spin-off.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, Chicken Sisters thing.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_05]: It was originally called the Chicken Sisters.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_05]: Chicken Sisters Christmas.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_05]: The Christmas ring has a better ring to it.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_05]: A lot of people tune in not knowing it's about chicken wings.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_06]: We could call it the Chicken Brothers.

[00:07:09] [SPEAKER_06]: We could?

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_06]: The Christmas wing colon a Chicken Sisters Christmas.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_07]: I like that.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_07]: Part two, the Chicken Brother.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_07]: That's right.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_05]: I love it.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_05]: Have we stalled long enough because we don't have any more minutes?

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_07]: We still have five more minutes of this somewhere.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_05]: We can stretch.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_05]: I was going to say that we, as everybody I think assumed by our intro,

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_05]: we were talking to the man who invented Christmas.

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_05]: That was pretty clear.

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_05]: You guys remember this one?

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm lonely.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_05]: That was a good time, wasn't it?

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, we got a new board.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_05]: We had to transfer all the old sounds over.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_05]: And there was a chance that I could have at that point been like,

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_05]: I think it's time to retire.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_07]: No, no, no, no.

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm lonely.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_05]: Evergreen.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_05]: It's evergreen content.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_05]: Did you get dive over here?

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_05]: There's nothing I can do about that.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_05]: That's gone forever.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_07]: One time.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_04]: That's not dance last.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_04]: With Brandon Davis.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_04]: We can't.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Some of it is going to take over.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_07]: It's so much.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_07]: Some days are sacred.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_07]: We sing it all day.

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_07]: Mondays are sacred.

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_07]: Same for the light show.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_07]: Come on.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_07]: It's pretty much mid-September, guys.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_07]: Can you believe it?

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_05]: It's the 100-day mark.

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, no!

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_05]: Cool, dude.

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_05]: Not oh, no.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, yes.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_06]: That is part of the Brandon Gray Christmas origin story

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_06]: as recounted in I'll Be Home for Christmas.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_05]: Thank you, Alonzo.

[00:08:56] [SPEAKER_05]: At least somebody wrote it for me.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_05]: No, I think that is the...

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_05]: You did write that part.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_05]: You made it better, though.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_05]: The man who invented Christmas.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_05]: Originally premiered in the theaters.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_05]: On November 22, 2017.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_05]: And I want to know something like this.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_05]: It's the year 1843.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_04]: My favorite.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_05]: Your favorite.

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_05]: Charles Dickens is in a bit of a pickle.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_05]: We're four years after the success of Oliver Twist,

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_05]: a book I've read.

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_05]: And his last few books have bombed at the box office.

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_07]: What?

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_07]: Would you consider yourself more of a Fagin or an Oliver?

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_07]: This is a trick.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_05]: He's a Bill Sykes.

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_05]: I'm an Oliver?

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, you think she's tricking with you?

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_06]: Y'all are trickers.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_06]: Y'all are big trickers.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_06]: You're a Bill Sykes.

[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_05]: I'm a Twist and Shout kind of guy.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_07]: Are you more of a Mr. McGuffin?

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_05]: That's from a different thing.

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_05]: That's from a different thing altogether.

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_05]: His publishers are not interested in another flop.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_05]: And so with money running out in his career on the line,

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_05]: Charles Dickens decides that he has to write a new book.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_05]: And if it's going to be good, he's going to publish it himself.

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_05]: He's wandering the streets of London for inspiration

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_05]: when he encounters an old curmudgeon-y looking fella

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_05]: that just looks at him and says,

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_05]: Humbug!

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_05]: That moment sparks the idea for a new character

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_05]: and Dickens runs home to begin writing

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_05]: A Christmas Carol with a tight deadline

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_05]: of six weeks to get it published by Christmastime.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_05]: It's the old trope.

[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_05]: We gotta get it out by Christmas.

[00:10:38] [SPEAKER_05]: There's no better start than Christmas.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_05]: This guy's going to invent it, man.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_05]: He's going to invent Christmas.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_05]: He's inventing that trope.

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_05]: That's right.

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_05]: Dickens' friends and publishers think he's crazy.

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_05]: A Christmas book? A Christmas hit?

[00:10:53] [SPEAKER_05]: Get out of here! This is crazy town!

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_05]: Dickens says, no, no, no.

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_05]: And he dives right into work.

[00:10:59] [SPEAKER_05]: He starts to interact with these characters

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_05]: in a, I mean, I would say alarming way.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_05]: The characters are coming to life.

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_05]: He's having full conversations with one Ebenezer Scrooge

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_05]: who is very Scrooge-y, I might add.

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_05]: Adding to all of that chaos,

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_05]: Dickens' father, John Dickens.

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_05]: I'm John Dickens!

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_05]: Nope.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_05]: It's me, John Dickens.

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_07]: Sure.

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_07]: First you're here, then you're there.

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_07]: It's me, John Dickens.

[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_07]: I'm inventing Christmas day.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_07]: And he...

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_07]: Do you think it's Jesus? It's not.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_07]: It's me, John Dickens.

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_07]: I'm inventing Christmas day.

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_07]: His son did.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_07]: Anyway, he...

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_05]: Jesus Dickens.

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_05]: He shows up and pretty clear old Chuck Dickens over there

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_05]: views his father to be a little bit of an annoyance.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_05]: A frivolous spender annoyed by his sudden appearance.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_05]: So as the old Chuckster grapples with his frustrations

[00:12:02] [SPEAKER_05]: it's revealed that much of his resentment towards his father

[00:12:06] [SPEAKER_05]: stems from childhood trauma, I'd say.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_05]: And this painful past begins to manifest itself

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_05]: in the struggles with Scrooge

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_05]: and how he's writing this character and this story

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_05]: which is forcing Dickens to confront his own insecurities

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_05]: and his own trauma

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_05]: makes for a good Christmas movie.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_05]: Inspired by all of this

[00:12:29] [SPEAKER_05]: Charles Dickens realizes that his story should

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_05]: not just be about the struggles

[00:12:34] [SPEAKER_05]: but also the redemption of this character of Scrooge.

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_05]: And so with that revelation he runs home

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_05]: and finishes A Christmas Carol just in time.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_05]: Encouraged by his wife, Charles Dickens reconnects with his father

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_05]: who is about to leave London

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_05]: and they reconcile and he...

[00:12:51] [SPEAKER_05]: Dickens submits the manuscript right before the Christmas deadline.

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_05]: He gets the book, it's red, it's pretty

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_05]: and the book is a success which transforms

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_05]: or maybe even invents Christmas you might say.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_05]: Invents Christmas.

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_05]: Non-liquid gold.

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_05]: And the Dickens family finally celebrates

[00:13:12] [SPEAKER_05]: the holiday seasons together

[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_05]: and that my friends was

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_05]: The Man Who Invented Christmas!

[00:13:20] [SPEAKER_05]: We did it.

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_05]: I guess.

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_05]: Sort of.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_05]: It's not one of my strongest.

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_05]: It's fine.

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_05]: You were in and out.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_05]: It's the 1800s.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_05]: I did the best I could.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_07]: It was gilded age, you were bobbing and waving.

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_05]: You were doing what you could.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_05]: Victorian era, you were trying to stay awake.

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_05]: Let's take a quick break.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_05]: We'll come back.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_05]: We'll break this movie down here on Deck the Hallmark.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_05]: We're back.

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_05]: Hello everybody, welcome back to Deck the Hallmark.

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_05]: We're talking about The Man Who Invented Christmas.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah we are.

[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_05]: Charles Dickens, his dad.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_05]: John Dickens.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_05]: Let's break this movie down with four segments.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_05]: We're going to start with a hot take.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_05]: It is where we share exactly how we felt about this movie.

[00:14:08] [SPEAKER_05]: We're not going to hold back.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_05]: And I'll start with you Alonzo.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_05]: Alonzo, did you see this movie in theaters back when?

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_06]: I did.

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_06]: I reviewed it in fact and not favorably

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_06]: and my opinion has not really changed.

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_06]: So this is based on a really great non-fiction book

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_06]: with the same title, written by a man named Les Standiford.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_06]: I highly recommend it.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_06]: It is a really entertaining history of this legendary piece

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_06]: of literature that endures to this day.

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_06]: I mean, I think I read somewhere that A Christmas Carol

[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_06]: is the most adapted work of English language literature ever.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_06]: Like more than Hamlet, there have been more adaptations

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_06]: of A Christmas Carol.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_06]: I can believe that.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I mean it's a hugely influential and popular work.

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_06]: And if you read the book, you find out not only all the

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_06]: difficulties in which Dickens had to write it

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_06]: and the time pressure and whatnot,

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_06]: but he also explains the title,

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_06]: which is how did A Christmas Carol invent Christmas

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_06]: in terms of the way that we celebrate it now,

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_06]: the way that we consider it,

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_06]: the way that it is placed in the calendar

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_06]: in a way that it wasn't before this story existed.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_06]: You don't really get that from this movie.

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_06]: They don't ever explain what the inventing part is.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_06]: And then the parts of him writing the book are,

[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_06]: it reduces one of the great novelists of all time

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_06]: to a stenographer because people are just throwing

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_06]: the good lines at him right and left.

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_06]: He cannot leave the house without somebody letting off

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_06]: the zinger like, are there no workhouses?

[00:15:44] [SPEAKER_06]: Or a poor excuse to pick a man's pocket

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_06]: every December 25th.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_06]: And he's just like, ooh, ooh, that's good, that's good.

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER_06]: And it's like, no, that is not how any of this happened.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_06]: And I get it, you're trying to dramatize

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_06]: this very internal process of writing,

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_06]: but you're doing it in such a phony way,

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_06]: it's driving me crazy.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_06]: There are things I like about this film,

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_06]: but overall I think it's a failure at adapting

[00:16:08] [SPEAKER_06]: this really good nonfiction book.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_06]: And I think that it does a disservice to Dickens

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_06]: and to A Christmas Carol and to Christmas.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_07]: Wow, a disservice to Dickens,

[00:16:20] [SPEAKER_07]: A Christmas Carol and Christmas.

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_07]: How did it not make the DVD box?

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_06]: Funny story, most of the reviews when this first came out

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_06]: were pretty good and mine was not.

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_06]: And the publicist actually sent me a little,

[00:16:35] [SPEAKER_06]: a little silk bag with a piece of coal in it.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_06]: Oh my God, that's funny.

[00:16:40] [SPEAKER_06]: I still put it on my Christmas tree every year.

[00:16:42] [SPEAKER_05]: What a cool publicist.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_05]: Shut up, love that.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_05]: That's funny.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_05]: I've seen, this is my third Dan Stevens movie this year.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_05]: Saw him in Abigail, loved it.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_05]: Saw him in Cuckoo, loved him in that movie.

[00:16:58] [SPEAKER_05]: Not this one though, this one,

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_05]: I saw it in the theaters back then

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_05]: and was bored out of my mind.

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_05]: And I don't know, you guys, you remember February, right?

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_05]: You know, the old, the old Austin month.

[00:17:13] [SPEAKER_05]: I remember.

[00:17:15] [SPEAKER_05]: It's PTSD.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_05]: I'm shaking while I'm watching this.

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_05]: All the people in the bonnets and whatnot.

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know, get out of here.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_05]: There are some really solid scenes.

[00:17:27] [SPEAKER_05]: Dan Stevens is still a really great actor

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_05]: and there's some scenes that are just really powerful moments.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_05]: But as a whole, just not,

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_05]: not overly exciting.

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_05]: And I know this is about inventing Christmas,

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_05]: not enough Christmas, not enough Christmas for Brian.

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_05]: And so that's disappointing for a movie

[00:17:48] [SPEAKER_05]: that promised me the invention of it.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_05]: I'd like to, you know, get a few trees or something.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_05]: Watch one of the other Dan Stevens movies then

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_05]: if you want to do that.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_05]: What did you think, I read your review for Cuckoo.

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_05]: What'd you think of Abigail?

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_05]: Did you have fun at Abigail?

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_05]: It was okay.

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_06]: I kind of feel like the once you get beyond its twist,

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_06]: which they tell you in the trailer,

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_06]: it wasn't a lot to it.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_06]: I liked Ready or Not a lot better.

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_06]: Ready or Not is great.

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_05]: I agreed 100% with your review on Cuckoo though.

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_05]: Like explain less please for the love.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, exactly.

[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_06]: Explain everything or just be weird.

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_07]: That's right.

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_07]: Dana?

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I'm kind of shocked that I'm going to be highest

[00:18:33] [SPEAKER_07]: on this movie with my very tepid.

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I guess review.

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_07]: You know, the thing is,

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_07]: as you see Christmas Carol done so many times

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_07]: and especially when you do what we do

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_07]: when Hallmark just that horse isn't even dead yet.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_07]: Like they are just and so I do think

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_07]: that that plays into the fact

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_07]: that the first hour of this movie I found to be

[00:18:57] [SPEAKER_07]: I couldn't stay focused.

[00:18:59] [SPEAKER_07]: And I tried to stay focused,

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_07]: but it was really, really hard to not want to do

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_07]: literally anything else.

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_07]: Argue maybe.

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_07]: We argued about really important stuff as we do.

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_07]: It's fun arguing, but argue nonetheless.

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_07]: But the thing about like the thing about

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_07]: A Christmas Carol is that all that matters

[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_07]: is how you land the plane.

[00:19:20] [SPEAKER_07]: Like, you know, there's such a catharsis

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_07]: at the end of the movie,

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_07]: at the end of the story, at the end of the book

[00:19:26] [SPEAKER_07]: that it's hard to screw up

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_07]: like having some feelings there.

[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_07]: It is. And so the first hour of this movie,

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_07]: I at one point looked at Brandon.

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_07]: I said, I understand this is handsomely mounted

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_07]: and well-acted. I would prefer a Dickens

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_07]: of a holiday to this movie. You've broken me.

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_07]: I said that to him. But then in the last 40 minutes,

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_07]: there's some really powerful scenes

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_07]: with Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_07]: who's not been mentioned yet and is great.

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_07]: There's a really good scene

[00:19:52] [SPEAKER_07]: with Dan Stevens and Jonathan Price

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_07]: and a little bit of a spoiler alert.

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_07]: If you don't know anything about this,

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_07]: that this story, not the book,

[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_07]: the actual story that's being told on screen.

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_07]: There's a really fun switcheroo

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_07]: where, you know,

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_07]: Dickens' dad is a lot like Scrooge

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_07]: and that's the comparison.

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_07]: And instead of Scrooge running out to the family,

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_07]: you have Dickens running after his dad.

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_07]: And I really love that.

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_07]: I really love that scene.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_07]: It was well done. It was well made.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_07]: It was incredibly well acted.

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_07]: And so the last 30 or 40 minutes

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_07]: landed the plane.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_07]: You did the thing a Christmas Carol is supposed to do.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_07]: Would I watch it again? No, I wouldn't.

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_07]: Did we need it? No, we didn't.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_07]: But you know, it was well acted

[00:20:41] [SPEAKER_07]: and it was well put together.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_07]: So yeah, whatever, whatever. It's fine. Sure.

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_07]: Whatever. It's fine. Sure.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_07]: Put that on the DVD box.

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_05]: That is the best we got between the three of us.

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_05]: We should all be getting cold.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_05]: We should all be getting cold.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_05]: Let's talk about feels though.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_05]: Do we have any? Let's find out.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_05]: Alonzo, anything in this movie stick out to you

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_05]: that gave you some feels?

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_06]: Well, yeah. My main feel here is Christopher Plummer.

[00:21:08] [SPEAKER_06]: I think his performance as Scrooge is great.

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_06]: I would love to see,

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_06]: I would love to have seen him when he was still living

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_06]: in a straightforward Christmas Carol adaptation.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_06]: I think he could have crushed it.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_06]: This is the next best thing and I like it.

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_06]: I'm not as sold on Dan Stevens in this movie

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_06]: as you guys are.

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_06]: I think there's a lot of meat to this character

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_06]: of Dickens in terms of his,

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_06]: how much he's still carrying around resentment

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_06]: of his terrible childhood

[00:21:35] [SPEAKER_06]: at the hands of his father going into debt.

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_06]: And I think that he doesn't always dig into it

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_06]: as much as he might have.

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_06]: And I think I maybe prefer Stevens more

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_06]: in these sort of nefarious roles.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_06]: Like Cuckoo where you're like,

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_06]: I don't trust you.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_07]: Well, I told Bran it's like Dan Stevens,

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_07]: you know, Nick Cage always gets credit

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_07]: for giving 110 or whatever.

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_07]: And it's almost like in this role

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_07]: he's trying very, very hard to be very earnest

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_07]: and sincere.

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_07]: And it's almost like if he had just dialed it back

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_07]: to 80 or 90 percent.

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_07]: Like I felt like it was a little bit much sometimes,

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_07]: but I like him.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_07]: I think he's dynamic.

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. No, no. I mean, it's not terrible.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_06]: I just like, you know, I think it's part of

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_06]: what is not working for me.

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_06]: But I think like there's an amazing ensemble

[00:22:19] [SPEAKER_06]: of cast here.

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_06]: I mean, you've got Miriam Margulies,

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER_06]: you've got Jonathan Price,

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_06]: you've got Simon Callow popping up briefly

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_06]: as the legendary illustrator

[00:22:32] [SPEAKER_06]: of A Christmas Carol.

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_06]: And I want to point out that Callow wrote

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_06]: a great book called Dickens' Christmas

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_06]: because in addition to being an actor,

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_06]: he is a brilliant historian.

[00:22:42] [SPEAKER_06]: He's written a two-volume biography

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_06]: of Orson Welles and a lot of other stuff.

[00:22:47] [SPEAKER_06]: But you don't have to tell Bran that.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_07]: He's got three copies of the Victorian Celebration.

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_06]: Of course. But he's like, he's a Dickens expert.

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_06]: And so his book, Dickens' Christmas,

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_06]: is a, I would say, right up there

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_06]: with The Man Who Invented Christmas

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_06]: as a really fascinating book about

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_06]: the creation of a Christmas story,

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_06]: but also the context,

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_06]: or sorry, I mean the kind of A Christmas Carol, rather.

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_06]: Also the context of A Christmas Carol,

[00:23:10] [SPEAKER_06]: which is again where this movie is really lacking.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_06]: So, but yeah, I did enjoy the casting here.

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_06]: And I thought the, I liked the character

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_06]: of the Tara, the Irish maid,

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_06]: who sort of like, again,

[00:23:23] [SPEAKER_06]: is there to throw ideas at Dickens

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_06]: without him having to go look for them.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_06]: But even though that's a contrived bit,

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_06]: I liked that performance a lot too.

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, we've always said step aside Simon Cowell

[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_05]: so that Simon Callow can walk in.

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_05]: We've always said that.

[00:23:40] [SPEAKER_05]: If I'm only having one Simon Ca,

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_05]: it's Simon Callow.

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_05]: We listen, we've always said

[00:23:46] [SPEAKER_05]: that we call written books to three of us.

[00:23:49] [SPEAKER_05]: There is a magical moment.

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_05]: About Christmas.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_05]: About Christmas, in fact.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_05]: And there is a moment,

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_05]: and I would put ours right up there.

[00:23:55] [SPEAKER_05]: A Christmas Carol.

[00:23:58] [SPEAKER_05]: And when you get your book for the first time,

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_05]: it is a magical moment.

[00:24:02] [SPEAKER_05]: And so when he finally does get his,

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_05]: the book in his hands,

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_05]: beautiful red book,

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_05]: you know, I imagine it meant so much to him

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_05]: just because of the journey

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_05]: and so that was, I thought,

[00:24:19] [SPEAKER_05]: a really cool moment.

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_05]: And the most traditionally Christmassy scene

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_05]: of the movie.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_05]: And so it worked for me.

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_05]: Dano?

[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I told Brand,

[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_07]: my favorite scene in this movie

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_07]: is the one with Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_07]: where he decides on the third ghost,

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_07]: the grave scene,

[00:24:38] [SPEAKER_07]: where he imagines the grave

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_07]: and he puts him in the grave

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_07]: and the walls start caving in

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_07]: because I just feel like, you know,

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_07]: it shouldn't be revelatory

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_07]: that there are three ghosts.

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_07]: We just, that's common.

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_07]: But that was a,

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_07]: that was a really,

[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_07]: that was the first time in the movie

[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_07]: I was like, oh, he's riding,

[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_07]: he's riding a Christmas,

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_07]: you know what I mean?

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_07]: Like, I didn't care before.

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_07]: Before it's like, yeah, I get it.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_07]: There they all are, blah, blah, blah.

[00:24:59] [SPEAKER_07]: This is, we're going through the motions.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_07]: Let's take a quick break.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_05]: We'll come back, we'll get you the way Watts.

[00:25:14] [SPEAKER_05]: It's going to be jam-packed.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_05]: And I want the hallmark here on

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_05]: Take the Hallmark!

[00:25:18] [SPEAKER_03]: Take the Hallmark!

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_07]: We're back!

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_07]: Could be one of the shortest steps ever, Brand.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_07]: I'm just letting you know right now.

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_05]: Unless Alonzo really brought some heat.

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_05]: We're going to be over 30 minutes still.

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_07]: So it's not going to truly

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_07]: truly magnus sweetly at 28, I believe.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_06]: Chicken wing talk, I think.

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_07]: That's going to be the difference.

[00:25:44] [SPEAKER_07]: You're going to be glad we did that

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_07]: whole Calvinist thing.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_07]: You're going to be glad.

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_07]: The Christmas wing, colon.

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_05]: Let's talk about Wade Watts.

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_05]: One, two minutes ago, Wade Watts.

[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_05]: Alonzo?

[00:25:58] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I mean, again, I think if you

[00:26:00] [SPEAKER_06]: read the book upon which this film is based,

[00:26:03] [SPEAKER_06]: you get a better sense of the varying,

[00:26:07] [SPEAKER_06]: the ideas that had inspired Dickens

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_06]: and he was trying to put together

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_06]: and obviously that he was drawing on

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_06]: his own life experience.

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_06]: And just the way that this movie has

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_06]: things just throwing themselves in his path.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_06]: You know, like, oh, my nephew with the

[00:26:21] [SPEAKER_06]: crutches on the shoulder is like

[00:26:25] [SPEAKER_06]: the random people like giving him

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_06]: the best lines of the book.

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_06]: It's just like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_06]: And it's like watching,

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_06]: I'm sure you remember the all-time

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_06]: classic Britney Spears movie, Crossroads.

[00:26:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_06]: The scene where she is pretending to

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_06]: write not a girl, not yet a woman.

[00:26:47] [SPEAKER_06]: One of the hardest things it is

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_06]: to pull off in a movie is to take

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_06]: an established finished product

[00:26:53] [SPEAKER_06]: that we all know well and then pretend

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_06]: to put the pieces of it together.

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_06]: To have somebody say, they go,

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_06]: hmm, you know, name him a Scrudge.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_06]: No, Splurge.

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, ah, Scrooge.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_06]: You know, like that's really hard

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_06]: to do effectively because it's,

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_06]: it's so hard.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_06]: And this movie mostly fails that test.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_06]: That's kind of my wait, what,

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_06]: for the most part.

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I was, Dan, we joked about

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_05]: a little bit while watching it,

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_05]: but his wife has to be concerned.

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[00:27:25] [SPEAKER_05]: There are like, this guy's going nuts

[00:27:27] [SPEAKER_05]: for like a solid month and it's just

[00:27:29] [SPEAKER_05]: like one day like super chill.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_05]: The next day she's trying to sleep

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_05]: and you just hear him slamming stuff

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_05]: upstairs and she's just like,

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_05]: she is concerned, but like also

[00:27:38] [SPEAKER_05]: like that's he, what was,

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_05]: what must she have been thinking?

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_05]: Like, oh, oh no.

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, he's crazy.

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_05]: He's crazy.

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_05]: Like this guy is going like from

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_05]: one day to the next is just flip

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_05]: flopping all over the place.

[00:27:55] [SPEAKER_06]: Was this not how you guys wrote

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_06]: when's it going to be Christmas again?

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_05]: It was. We would pace the house.

[00:28:00] [SPEAKER_07]: Oh my gosh.

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_07]: We had to rent a cabin.

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, we did.

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_07]: Brand took care of the cabin.

[00:28:07] [SPEAKER_07]: Brand took care all the drugs and

[00:28:09] [SPEAKER_07]: then we were able to knock it out.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_05]: That was what those rhymes don't rhyme themselves.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_05]: That's right.

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_07]: Taylor shared an Aaron Sorkin had a guy.

[00:28:16] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, it was a thing that we just

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_07]: kidding everybody.

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_07]: Any knowledge that that occurs?

[00:28:25] [SPEAKER_07]: Dana.

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.

[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_07]: Same thing with Dickens, but with

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_07]: Tara, the girl, she can't possibly

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_07]: feel safe around him.

[00:28:33] [SPEAKER_07]: Right.

[00:28:37] [SPEAKER_07]: And other times he's like yelling

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_07]: and screaming at her.

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_07]: And I just felt like at the end,

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_07]: the apology wasn't nearly enough.

[00:28:43] [SPEAKER_07]: Like there's still a lot of trauma

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_07]: probably there from thinking, you

[00:28:45] [SPEAKER_07]: know, somebody and getting yelled

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_07]: and screamed at.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_07]: That was one.

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_07]: And then the other one I had was

[00:28:49] [SPEAKER_07]: and this could be I've seen parts

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_07]: of this on different televisions.

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_07]: I don't know if it's color

[00:28:56] [SPEAKER_07]: correction, but there are times

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_07]: when Dan Stevens looks positively

[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_07]: like yellow in this movie.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_07]: Like, is that was that true when

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_07]: you were watching it?

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know, but I'm glad you

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_06]: brought this up because it reminded

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_06]: me of my other way.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_06]: What of this movie is he talks about

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_06]: the damn London fog and this movie

[00:29:12] [SPEAKER_06]: is so brightly lit with everyone

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_06]: anybody is outside.

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_06]: That's true.

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_06]: Which is a thing that makes me crazy

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_06]: in Christmas Carol adaptations.

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_06]: Like with the exception of Scrooge,

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_06]: which I think the 1971 that I made

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_06]: brand watch during 25 weeks of

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_06]: Christmas a couple years ago.

[00:29:28] [SPEAKER_06]: Yes, it is.

[00:29:29] [SPEAKER_06]: Great musical version.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_06]: So so often you get these movies

[00:29:33] [SPEAKER_06]: that do two things that drive me

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_06]: crazy and that this movie does one

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_06]: overly lit when it should not only

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_06]: be foggy but also like soot

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_06]: of the Industrial Revolution,

[00:29:43] [SPEAKER_06]: like blanketing everything.

[00:29:45] [SPEAKER_06]: And to a London that seems

[00:29:47] [SPEAKER_06]: like it's about three blocks wide

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_06]: like, you know, unless you have

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_06]: like rented out all of Shepard and

[00:29:52] [SPEAKER_06]: studios and can really give me a

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_06]: London that goes places.

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_06]: This movie feels very constrained

[00:29:57] [SPEAKER_06]: in its portrayal of,

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_06]: you know, this major sprawling city.

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_05]: Did you watch the animated

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_05]: version Netflix did a couple years

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_05]: ago with the with the songs?

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_06]: I started it and I couldn't.

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_06]: Wow.

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_06]: It was so terrible.

[00:30:12] [SPEAKER_05]: I know how much you love the

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_05]: original musical.

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:16] [SPEAKER_06]: And I was like, OK, sure.

[00:30:18] [SPEAKER_06]: Why not? Let's go.

[00:30:22] [SPEAKER_06]: I'm going to be watching my eyes.

[00:30:24] [SPEAKER_05]: Fair enough.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_05]: It's time for what the hallmark

[00:30:26] [SPEAKER_05]: is where we wonder what could

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_05]: have been maybe having some

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_05]: clarity. Any questions that we

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_05]: still have about Charles Dickens

[00:30:30] [SPEAKER_05]: and A Christmas Carol?

[00:30:33] [SPEAKER_05]: What was the deal with the third

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_05]: ghost?

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. You think he's going to be

[00:30:37] [SPEAKER_07]: around in the next one?

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_07]: What's up with him?

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_07]: You think Tiny Tim had anything

[00:30:40] [SPEAKER_07]: else going on in his life or was

[00:30:42] [SPEAKER_07]: he just healed?

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. I don't know.

[00:30:45] [SPEAKER_06]: There's a lot of questions left

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_06]: because I think every every moment

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_06]: of this guy's life has been so

[00:30:50] [SPEAKER_06]: like I've seen an entire other

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_06]: movie that's about his mistress

[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_06]: that he had later way later in

[00:30:56] [SPEAKER_06]: life, like towards the end of it

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_06]: called The Invisible Woman.

[00:30:59] [SPEAKER_06]: Not great.

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. I don't know that there are

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_06]: any questions left except that,

[00:31:05] [SPEAKER_06]: you know, I wonder if

[00:31:07] [SPEAKER_06]: would a documentary based

[00:31:09] [SPEAKER_06]: on the book and following what

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_06]: the book The Man Who Invented

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_06]: Christmas has to say be more

[00:31:14] [SPEAKER_06]: effective than this?

[00:31:15] [SPEAKER_06]: And I'm going to go ahead and say

[00:31:17] [SPEAKER_06]: probably.

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I don't have any real

[00:31:21] [SPEAKER_05]: questions.

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_05]: When we get another one.

[00:31:24] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. Well, I mean, when's the

[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_05]: sequel?

[00:31:27] [SPEAKER_05]: I wonder what's next.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_05]: I wonder how the book did.

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_07]: You think he made it made a name

[00:31:35] [SPEAKER_07]: for himself?

[00:31:35] [SPEAKER_07]: I don't think so.

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_05]: I don't think so.

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_05]: I did love at the beginning

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_05]: when he was in America and he's

[00:31:42] [SPEAKER_05]: just been like this place, this

[00:31:43] [SPEAKER_05]: place sucks.

[00:31:46] [SPEAKER_05]: That was a riot. That was funny.

[00:31:48] [SPEAKER_07]: Dan, mine is just

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_07]: about the book that Alonzo is

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_07]: referencing.

[00:31:52] [SPEAKER_07]: Alonzo, I've we've been doing this

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_07]: podcast a while.

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER_07]: I've never heard him basically say

[00:31:56] [SPEAKER_07]: all review long.

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_07]: The reason this movie is not good

[00:31:59] [SPEAKER_07]: is because the book is so much

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_07]: better and you just

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_07]: the book does a better job.

[00:32:03] [SPEAKER_07]: And that is something a lot of

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_07]: people say that read a lot of

[00:32:06] [SPEAKER_07]: books. But on this podcast, we

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_07]: don't have a lot of that

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_07]: crossover.

[00:32:08] [SPEAKER_07]: And so hearing

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_07]: Alonzo talk about that has made me

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_07]: interested in reading the book.

[00:32:14] [SPEAKER_07]: That's my what the hallmark.

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_07]: When are you going to do that?

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER_07]: I don't know what is it called.

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_07]: The Man Who Invented Christmas

[00:32:17] [SPEAKER_06]: doesn't call the man who invented

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_06]: Christmas. Yeah.

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_06]: And I think, you know, the thing

[00:32:21] [SPEAKER_06]: is, like, usually when people

[00:32:23] [SPEAKER_06]: say that they're talking about a

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_06]: fiction novel.

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_06]: Yes.

[00:32:26] [SPEAKER_06]: Short story that's been turned into

[00:32:27] [SPEAKER_06]: a movie. And that's obviously has

[00:32:29] [SPEAKER_06]: its own difficulties.

[00:32:30] [SPEAKER_06]: But this one

[00:32:33] [SPEAKER_06]: in trying to take a

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_06]: history and turn it into this sort

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_06]: of weird, like all the

[00:32:39] [SPEAKER_06]: characters are hanging out in my

[00:32:40] [SPEAKER_06]: bedroom fantasy, like it could

[00:32:42] [SPEAKER_06]: have been done, could have

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_06]: worked, but they don't do it.

[00:32:44] [SPEAKER_07]: Doesn't it also feel like there

[00:32:45] [SPEAKER_07]: is this weird thing where they're

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_07]: trying to make this a PG family

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_07]: film?

[00:32:49] [SPEAKER_07]: Like at parts, it just feels

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_07]: like, why are what

[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_07]: kids want to see this movie?

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_07]: Like what?

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_07]: What kids under the age

[00:32:57] [SPEAKER_07]: of 14?

[00:32:59] [SPEAKER_07]: I don't like what kids are like

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_07]: lining up for this bad boy.

[00:33:02] [SPEAKER_06]: Well, yeah, I mean, it's and

[00:33:03] [SPEAKER_06]: again, I think when you try and

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER_06]: turn everything that happens in

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_06]: the story as a thing he

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_06]: encountered in real life first

[00:33:11] [SPEAKER_06]: to have the guy in the alley

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_06]: with basically the children

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_06]: who in the book would become

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_06]: ignorance and want.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_06]: But in this are just two

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_06]: children that he's offering for

[00:33:20] [SPEAKER_06]: sale and then scurrying

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_06]: off of them in an alley somewhere.

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER_06]: It's like, oh, yeah,

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_07]: Merry Christmas, everybody.

[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Can we watch the Dan Stevens

[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_02]: movie?

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Beauty and the Beast?

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_02]: No, the one with the breachers.

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I want it to be the old timey

[00:33:36] [SPEAKER_02]: one with the dead.

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_07]: This child knows the word

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_07]: breacher.

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_07]: Wow.

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_07]: Love, love.

[00:33:43] [SPEAKER_02]: I want to get better.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_07]: I want to get better.

[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_07]: I was going to say you beat me

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_02]: to it.

[00:33:47] [SPEAKER_05]: We did it, everybody.

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_05]: Congratulations.

[00:33:50] [SPEAKER_05]: We're heading back to the home

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_05]: alone.

[00:33:52] [SPEAKER_05]: Well, I think for one last time

[00:33:54] [SPEAKER_05]: next week, we're home alone

[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_05]: for home alone for

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_05]: the quattro, the quattro.

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_05]: Very excited.

[00:34:00] [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I got. Yeah, sure.

[00:34:01] [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. I'm excited about it.

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_06]: Resolve all those unanswered

[00:34:04] [SPEAKER_06]: questions.

[00:34:05] [SPEAKER_05]: I know it. I know it.

[00:34:06] [SPEAKER_05]: Until then, the first wish you

[00:34:08] [SPEAKER_05]: a Merry Christmas.

[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_05]: Deck the Hallmarks of Bramble

[00:34:10] [SPEAKER_07]: Jam podcast is produced by

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_07]: Aaron Shea.

[00:34:13] [SPEAKER_07]: For more information on deck,

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_07]: the homer you can go to deck

[00:34:15] [SPEAKER_07]: the hallmark dot com for

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_07]: information on the deck, the

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_07]: hallmark family.

[00:34:19] [SPEAKER_07]: You can go to Bramble Jam plus

[00:34:20] [SPEAKER_07]: dot com deck.

[00:34:21] [SPEAKER_07]: The hallmark is presented by

[00:34:22] [SPEAKER_07]: Filo TV for a free trial

[00:34:23] [SPEAKER_07]: of Filo.

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_07]: Go to Filo dot TV slash

[00:34:26] [SPEAKER_07]: DTH.

[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_05]: You're about to hear some ads

[00:34:35] [SPEAKER_05]: that help keep the lights on

[00:34:36] [SPEAKER_05]: here in the old studio.

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for listening

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_05]: or don't listen.

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_05]: It's really up to you at this

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_05]: point.

[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_05]: Is that the end of the show?

[00:34:45] [SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you're listening to me.

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_05]: Hi.

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_05]: But here they come. I promise

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_05]: they're coming. Yep.

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_05]: Here they are.

[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_05]: Happy day.

[00:34:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Can't do this.

[00:34:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Do this. Morgens in Islay.

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_00]: She's channeled.

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm leaving shirt on Schnaps,

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_00]: the I'm cafe on sack.

[00:35:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm flake kind of panic

[00:35:06] [SPEAKER_00]: per seal. Disks written in

[00:35:08] [SPEAKER_00]: talk.

[00:35:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Medina craft for informal

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_00]: beside the easy self.

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The heart neck is in flaken

[00:35:12] [SPEAKER_00]: for teeth and I know that

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_00]: she I'm far too disc in the

[00:35:15] [SPEAKER_00]: trouble. That's an under

[00:35:16] [SPEAKER_00]: assed. That's not

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_00]: a wash machine.

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Vidal, you know, I'm best

[00:35:20] [SPEAKER_00]: as keeps to be a yet

[00:35:21] [SPEAKER_00]: to be best in discus from

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_00]: per seal.

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, I fight upon

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_03]: kind of be one.