Verbal Diorama

Hello, I'm Em. And yes, I'm a podcast host. No, I said cappuccino. I'm here to talk to you about something very important. And no, it's not about me or my podcast. I'm here to talk about subliminal messages in rock and roll music. Or as it's simply known in some cultures, 'rock music'. You see, for years the government has been wisely coercing teenagers to buy products they normally wouldn't want,...

If you love the idea of Lord of the Rings meets Arthurian legend meets Star Wars meets Dungeons and Dragons, then Krull is right up your alley.... While it's a movie with recognisable flaws, that doesn't mean my love for it is lessened in any way. Prince Colwyn's quest to save his Princess Lyssa from the evil Beast in the Black Fortress will always hold a very special place in my heart, despite th...

In the first of March's look into cult movie classics, Big Trouble in Little China nowadays looks like a movie that should have been destined for success. It had the capable charismatic hero, and Kurt Russell playing the guy who thinks he's the hero. Throw in the damsels in distress, creepy villain, ancient sorcery, high-action martial arts choreography and Chinese mythology and mysticism, and it...

Roald Dahl quite famously hated most of the film adaptations of his famous books, but I think he'd quite like this one. Wes Anderson takes his keen idiosyncratic eye and took Fantastic Mr. Fox and made it, well, fantastic! From the juddery stop-motion animation, to the anachronistic American sounding heroes, these anthropomorphic animals have hearts, minds and relatable insecurities. It's quote-un...

To celebrate Verbal Diorama's second birthday, here's a Bronze Age joy. Oo-de-lally! This fox is a FOX! It might borrow from other Disney movies, but that doesn't make it any less of a fan favourite. Robin Hood Thanks for your continued support! More fun to come in Year Three! This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podscribe - https://podscribe.com/privacy OP3 - https:/...

To celebrate Verbal Diorama's second birthday, here's a Silver Age delight The last movie Walt Disney worked on before his death, and based on Rudyard Kipling's stories about the man-cub Mowgli. With a jungle this fun, why would any of us want to go to the man-village? The Jungle Book Thanks for your continued support! More fun to come in Year Three! This podcast uses the following third-party ser...

To celebrate Verbal Diorama's second birthday, here's a Golden Age treat. It may be 84 years old, but it's still as timeless, elegant and truly awe-inspiring as ever.... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Here's a link to one of the missing songs by the dwarfs - Music in Your Soup Thanks for your continued support! More fun to come in Year Three! This podcast uses the following third-party services f...

The Matrix, Westworld, Metal Gear Solid, Cyberpunk 2077, AI: Artificial Intelligence.... all have been inspired by the legendary Ghost in the Shell. Ghost in the Shell is a ground-breaking landmark of animation; a cyberpunk dystopian masterpiece, with beautiful cityscapes, engaging characters led by Major Motoko Kusanagi and a story about humanity's reliance on being connected. If Cher from Cluele...

Once upon a time, there was a brave knight, who went to the tallest tower of the scariest castle on his noble steed, to vanquish the dragon and save the beautiful princess held captive within. The knight and the princess fall in love, but she was destined to marry another. The knight stops the wedding as they admit their love. They live happily ever after. The end. Peel back those onion layers for...

What came first? The chicken or the egg? It's a question as old as time, and one pondered by all the great philosophers, scientists, scholars and farmers. In the field of Aardman's big screen successes, Chicken Run comes first. It's still the highest grossing stop-motion animated movie ever made, and Aardman's literal and figurative fingerprints are all over these English chicks. (I'm sorry for al...

How can I write about Your Name? Is it possible to convey the jaw dropping beauty and breath-taking majesty of Your Name with words? I'm not really sure it is, but I take a stab at it in Episode 77 anyway, because Your Name is truly something magical and resplendent to witness. A simple boy meets girl love story, with an added element of celestial forces; Your Name takes a simple story and elevate...

The Secret of NIMH is the epitome of a simple tale, beautifully told with the sort of stunning hand-drawn animation that Walt Disney Animation was known for during the Golden Age of Disney.  Coincidentally, Don Bluth used to work at Disney, so he knew the tricks of the trade and went ahead with his own animation studio and a dark adaptation of Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, itself based on...

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to Animation Season! The first movie in the season is the newest movie featured and also the highest grossing. It's also probably the most culturally significant, emotionally resonant and spiritual of the season too.  Pixar's Coco . I feel like this movie is more comparable to Kubo and the Two Strings than it is to its fellow Day of the Dead animated stabl...

Before you listen to this episode, you need to follow a few rules. Keep this episode away from sunlight (that's easy, the days are still short....) Never get this episode wet. But most importantly, no matter how much this episode pleads, no matter how much it begs, NEVER FEED EPISODE 74 AFTER MIDNIGHT! Got it?! Good. This episode is sweet and lovely, but it could multiply and turn into a download...

Steve Rogers and Tony Stark could never be accused of being best buds. There's always been a resentment there from Tony, especially when his father admired Steve Rogers so much, and it's always been simmering in the background. They've worked together as colleagues, to fight the Chitauri invasion of New York and came together again, with the Avengers, to fight Tony's creation Ultron. But Ultron re...

Captain America: The First Avenger ended with Steve Rogers defeating HYDRA and waking up in the modern day. Captain America barely had a chance to understand what was going on before he was thrust into fighting the Chitauri invasion in The Avengers. Post the Battle of New York and Phase 1 of the MCU as a whole, the world is aware of potential threats from other worlds, as well as the mightiest her...

Talk about Captain America: The First Avenger? I can do this all day. It's one of the MCUs most underrated gems. It's less bombastic than most in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its World War II setting grounds the movie in an alternate reality. Chris Evans brings depth and humility to Steve Rogers, after the super serum that turns him into the star-spangled man with a plan, but mostly before, when...

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), to give it its full name (until that changed to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey) is the first and only movie released in 2020 that I'm covering in 2020, but to be honest there's not many 2020 movies out there. It's also the last movie I saw in cinemas before the COVID-19 pandemic. I've seen this movie three times this year, and each...

The Atomic Blonde and John Wick comparisons are not lost on me, and trust me when I say that I love Atomic Blonde to a similar, but very different degree to the John Wick(s). Because while both use colour very dramatically, and thrive on that ultra stylized violence I clearly have a passion for, while John Wick is all about vengeance, Lorraine Broughton is all about espionage, and Charlize Theron...

This one feels so bitter-sweet to be talking about. This episode was originally scheduled for mid-September, but due to the sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman on 28th August, I postponed it out of respect. After V for Vendetta it feels right to be talking about a hero who inspired so many, and by that I don't just mean T'Challa as the Black Panther, but Chadwick Boseman himself. A man of grace, in...

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate.  This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vici...

SURPRISE!! I kept this off the schedule just in case I couldn't quite pull it off, but having recently rewatched it, I decided to do a bonus episode on Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight just for Halloween, which deserves WAY more recognition than it gets. From a great well-known cast of faces, such as William Sadler, Jada Pinkett, Billy Zane, Dick Miller and Thomas Haden Church to some genuinely...

Listen, for all the online discourse in 2016, Ghostbusters (2016) is in no way as bad as it's been made out to be. Is it perfect? No. Is it the superior Ghostbusters? No. Is it the Anti-Christ of the Ghostbusters universe? No. Do I find it hilariously funny and love these women? YES! Is Chris Hemsworth the most gifted human being in the world other than Keanu Reeves? Probably! Joining me with his...

Before we start, a trigger warning. Scream is unfortunately inspired by some gruesome, horrific true crime events which are mentioned briefly in this episode. Although I don't go into details, I do mention violence and sexual assault, so if you'd rather not hear this part of the story, please skip the following times 15:54-17:53 . I do mention a warning before it starts too. The section lasts just...

I thought we'd play a game.... It's been 9 months since I last featured a Laika movie, and I've waited a long time on purpose to bring Coraline to the podcast. Because Coraline is scary. It's a genuine horror movie that just happens to be animated. And like most horror, it's the real life elements that Coraline speaks about; family, trust, attempted kidnap and deceptive adults that are the real ho...