The "Perfect" Podcast-Ep. 10 of Intentionally Blank

[@thelvey1]

I love the the scene where boromir regrets his failing, protects the two Hobbits with his life, and aragon and he have a reconciling and hopeful moment as boromir dies!

[@laconsuela69]

Yeah, in the books it makes very clear that Boromir was a good man despite struggling with his desire for the ring

[@meimbatman6373]

A perfect movie to me is Galaxy Quest. That is such a great movie, hits all sorts of notes; funny, whimsical, tear jerky, exciting all sorts of things. Just wonderful.

[@stoisebastian6163]

Brandon's reason for not watching Jaws for so long is exactly my own. For the longest time I had the feeling it's a gory-horror, hyper-violent movie, but when you actually watch it, it's a great adventure with some horror elements. One of my all-time favorites, for sure.

[@vamsiampolu8438]

Ryan George's Pitch meetings are amazing. Every frame a painting was an amazing channel

[@Thisiswerewolf]

I got so excited when Brandon mentioned them! I was hoping he would mention them and give his opinion at some point in this podcast.

[@daegraith6524]

The tangents are honestly one of my favorite things about these episodes; I could listen to these two talk and discuss for hours

[@diepie5144]

it seems to me that the term "flawless" would be a good substitute for "perfect" in the way it's being used, while perhaps a work can not be good in every sense there is, it can accomplish what it wants to accomplish without creating holes or problems (or in other words, flaws)

[@SpencerMerrell]

I don't know... As they say, even the 'flaws' of a perfect movie become, themselves, contributors toward its perfection. Maybe the better word would be 'complete' or 'sound,' as opposed to an 'incomplete' movie, or an incomplete work of art. Of course, all of this is subject to the tastes of the individual. What someone may see as a flaw, another person might see as artful or compelling. It's a hard subject for sure.

[@Halrax_38]

I know this is a bit late, but the obvious correct term for me is Pareto Optimal. You can’t make something better without making something else worse. Bit of a mouthful though.

[@mbase6469]

I believe the word "apotheosis" exists to serve this function. It refers to the highest point of something specific, rather than "perfect," which implies something is effective in all contexts simultaneously. Apotheosis requires context to make sense, and still delivers on the idea of a work achieving all of its criteria to an unmatched degree.

[@soul4saken]

I agree that Way of Kings has a steep learning curve. My partner bought me it for my Birthday because I had been raving about Sanderson's work on WoT and Elantris. It had just come out, and my trusted scribe Brandon had been saying that this was going to be the most ambitious saga he had always dreamt of crafting. However, I could not read it for so many years, because every attempt to read it saw me dropped into a weird world full of unexplained mythology and physics, with so many characters, cultures and customs. This hodge podge proved to be a boundary of weirdness that proved too frustrating to penetrate, I just could not seem to get past those first few chapters. It was only 2 years ago that I finally drew the personal commitment level to try again, with the growing consensus of other peoples loving the work. I'm so glad I did, because it is now among my most beloved books. Interestingly, my friend has a son called Caladyn, whose name is inspired by Caladan from Dune.

[@just_that_girl3873]

Fun trivia: Brandon recommended the Overly Sarcastic Productions KZbin channel(on the writing excuses podcast)! Specifically the ‘trope talks’ series; check it out if you love writing, myths or history

[@MKTraxel]

I LOVE Red's writing series!

[@fairytala]

I was already long time osp-fan when he recommended that and got so exited about one of my favorite authors loving one of my favorite yt-channels! ♡

[@victordesena9763]

Which episode was it?

[@just_that_girl3873]

@@victordesena9763 Writing Excuses 15.37: Writing Under Deadlines :)

[@victordesena9763]

@@just_that_girl3873 thanks! Will go watch

[@treavormiller9552]

You guys talking about art really made me flash back to the end scene of TWK and wit is waiting for the herald.

[@lucasthomas9184]

I could listen to these 2 talk all day

[@althechicken9597]

Guys, if this is >1h for you, thats great and 100% fine, but if it's kept short for us and you guys want to keep going I'll keep watching for longer

[@hupenpeter]

Totoro fills me with a deep feeling of loss and melancholy. The childlike sense of wonder was ripped away by the the claws of adulthood. Maybe that's why I love to read what I read.

[@BrandonsWritingRoom]

I just watched Princess Mononoke yesterday for the first time, and yes, it is absolutely incredible.

[@matthewhales565]

Oh man, pitch meetings are the best!!!

[@CamillaNelson-zz9xd]

That makes me so happy that you brought up Totoro as a perfect movie! It has been one of my favorites since I first saw it as a kid! 💌

[@madiantin]

21:35. I must disagree here. The first Sanderson book I ever read was Way of Kings, and I loved it. It's still my most fave Sanderson book. I think the point that it's a slow burn is a good one. But the thing about that is, the anticipation. You can feel something building. And as you're reading along you can just see things slowly slowly coming together and it's AWESOME and really fun. I don't think it's difficult at all. It was engrossing and fascinating. It was new and exciting.

[@treavormiller9552]

That’s exactly what made it amazing for me along with the 2 prologues setting up the promise for the series the book would be terrible without them as hooks. But that’s not for everyone and I feel like that’s what they’re getting at.

[@beeman4266]

Way of Kings was the first for me too. I definitely got a little bored at times and hoping it was gonna speed up. But for some reason I felt compelled to keep going. I had to figure out what happens to Kaladin. At one point I thought him and bridge 4 were just gonna escape the shattered plains.. I seriously underestimated Brandon's vision for the series. I'm glad I started with WoK though, I liked mistborn (especially Era 2) but nothing hits quite like Stormlight Archive.

[@ChristmasLore]

Today's standards are so low. Of course it's not a difficult read.

[@maximeteppe7627]

@@ChristmasLoreI'd say the worldbuilding is pretty alien and takes a bit of getting used to. The prose is very straightforward though and that makes it an easy read, even though it's not an easy world, and one has to be ready to make that time investment as well. And it's all very subjective too: I like introspection in my books (I'm a Robin Hobb fan) so spending lots of time with Kaladin gets me invested rather than it being too hard to keep going - and even the baroque worldbuilding, that makes it hard to get started, offers a degree of whimsy that balances the darker stuff -and vice versa since the dark aspects relate to real world injustices.

[@psykedude]

I fully agree, all the things that he brought up as criticism or flaws are the things that drew me in completely, but I understand it's not for everyone

[@gabbzjohansson]

Dan should watch Pitch Meeting of Pitch Meetings. It’s a real video 😂 PS: Loved this episode! ❤️

[@sjuyal85]

It's super easy to watch. Barely an inconvenience.

[@kephalai]

loving the face cams, they add a lot to the podcast. Sometimes facial expressions and body language add so much to things you're saying

[@Marco_Onyxheart]

I used to watch CinemaSins and I do still watch Pitch Meetings. The thing with CS is they kept taking themselves more and more seriously. It was humorous, but now it's evolved in something that's supposed to be a genuine critique. But it's not a genuine critique. It still got the same focus on flaws from when it was funny. It doesn't work anymore. Pitch Meetings is just Ryan George being silly. They're still pointing out flaws, but it's not being pretentious about it.

[@miscellaneousgoblin910]

I'm the same way. At this point most of these things (CinemaSins, Honest Trailers, etc.) are just people trying to make money off of insulting people and stories, and half of their points seem to be inside jokes that only they understand. I still love Ryan George though, and with him it doesn't feel like he's outright insulting the movies, and instead is looking at the industry from a strictly comedic standpoint.

[@antenna_prolly]

@@miscellaneousgoblin910 Unfortunately, the attention-grabbing economy demands artists and such folks to gradually corporatize their content so they can make money without constant manual labor....

[@Blixthand]

Yeah, when Cinema Sins really started failing for me was when every single video started being 15-20 min or even longer, even for pretty short movies, and the same jokes, like complaining about logos before the actual movie even started, just went of repeat in every single video. I've only seen a handful Cinema Sins videos since 2015/16. Honest Trailers works a bit better, but I've also cut my washing of those considerably, from 95-ish % to maybe 10-15% of their uploads. I only discovered Pitch Meeting less than a year ago, so that is still pretty fresh and entertaining for me, but if I watch to much of the backlog in too rapid succession I'll get fed up and not watch any for a couple of weeks.

[@IProdigious]

“My friends, you bow to no one.” Favorite scene in the trilogy.

[@althechicken9597]

"I acknowledge it has some flaws, but" is a better starter that "its not perfect, but" in my opinion

[@micahlarimer155]

When brandon discussed princess mononoke around 49:00 I thought of a Movie I saw 20-something years ago when I was just a kid that I thought was Japanese and I remember really liking it but I couldn't remember anything about it. I definitely did not think it was princess mononoke based on what brandon discussed but I was blown away after looking it up on wikipedia and finding out it is in fact the movie I saw over 20 years ago and enjoyed! I had thought about this movie probably 10 different times over the last 10 years and always just thought "if only I could remember the name"! One more thing I owe to Brandon.

[@shonenacademia]

No dislikes for this Perfect Podcast… I’m so proud of this community

[@ericpipe141]

The primary reason Pitch Meeting is better, is its actually making fun of the movie making process more, than the actual movies.

[@tanyam928]

I love Pitch Meetings! I discovered them recently and they are relatively short so easy to watch a bunch and so funny. I think they work because he is pointing things out but not then saying the movie is bad because if it. And goes into every movie even beloved ones. I love Star Wars and he does all of them even the original trilogy, and I love Lord of the Rings and still think the Pitch Meetings about movies I love are funny. The best are the ones about bad movies because they have the worst and most glaring flaws to tear into like how did this get made?? And I just assume that Brandon is ALWAYS writing a story in his head 😆

[@PetrSojnek]

I really loved your discussion about Totoro. It was probably the only movie in the list, where you had fairly different opinion and I loved the conversation and analyzing. And yeah I'm in "love Totoro" camp :) For me it's like visiting museum of art. There is no action, there is nothing really "unexpected", you just tune to the "wave" and let your emotions carry you without worrying about the world around you.

[@DigitalTheologian]

Thanks for providing us all Intentionally Blank, the buddy cop to Writing Excuses’ ensemble. I didn’t know I needed Brandon and Dan talking about whatever they felt like in my life, but apparently, I do.

[@LaurArt_UK]

Now I really want a film where the first half is Mary Poppins, with hints that something is very off about her, until her eldritch origins are revealed, and the second half is Lovecraftian horror.

[@sonowbrand7824]

I feel like that does exist, but I'm not sure what it is.

[@zebobes]

Mary Poppins was my FAVORITE movie as a child, at one point I would watch every day. However, the part that I disliked/hated was the conflict between the kids and the father. In my mind, Mr. Banks hated his children, and I didn't want to listen to him and Bert talk on and on and on. I watched it again 20 years later, and appreciated it with a completely new perspective. I actually appreciated the nuance and perspective of being able to see how the limitations of your own perspective can affect how you interpret the character, and I could see how Mr. Banks DID love his children, in his own way, and watching it again, those scenes brought tears to my eyes. Another thing I love is how subtle the "magic" is. There are rules, if you pay attention, but there is also a great sense of wonder. The problem that I had with the sequel Mary Poppins Returns is the need it had to EXPLAIN everything. Jane and Michael don't remember? Why? Because they grew up! We can't just make the connection on our own, it has to be told to us explicitly! I'd actually like to hear Dan and Brandon's thoughts on the sequel in comparison to the original, because it isn't a BAD movie, but it is by no means a perfect movie. I showed the original to a class of elementary school students, and it still holds up for them, but a lot who watched the sequel said it wasn't as good as the original.

[@animeeternity9572]

Find it interesting that Brandon and Dan prefer Two Towers over Return of the King and they give great reasoning to it as well

[@tiralu]

Yea I know this is in yt standards an old video but I discovered this podcast just now and am listening back to all the episodes... I do love movies and film making and every time Sanderson talks about a film youtuber I love to watch it kind of makes me happy..... just wanted to put it out there xD

[@MrFiskIt]

Pirates of the Caribbean - The perfect movie. Change my mind.

[@themirestudios3326]

Imo first three make up the best movie trilogy. Everyone looks down on at worlds end for being confusing but I personally disagree. Beckett and davy Jones were brilliant villains and the only thing I'd say it could improve upon is making some of the pirate lord characters more developed, but given the runtime it would have been hard. From on stranger tides series goes downhill for me tho.

[@gordo6908]

it's great, but Freddy Got Fingered is self evidently perfection incarnate

[@Juan_Jose_Miraballes]

The first one yeah, the next are a big drop in quality

[@Sturdy_Penguin]

Oh my gosh! Pitch Meetings are amazing. I also can't stand Cinema Sins, but adore that. You have to get Dan to watch at least one.

[@MasterRahl221]

Tangents from Tangents needs to be the official name for the podcast

[@alexrechkin7]

Art can be subjectively perfect despite the flaws to whatever person, just like Lord of the Rings perfect to me including Return of the King where im fine with ghosts and other nitpicks

[@alexrechkin7]

@@devinreese7704 watch podcast, they talk about it

[@lampad4549]

@@alexrechkin7 at what marker?

[@yumyumhungry]

On LOTR being perfect: A local radio station was doing a retrospective and they brought up a good point that some of gimli's humor was kind of a little too goofy and dissociated from the rest of the film. Gimli's humor in the books is more the result of him being grumpy and it works better.

[@kevinadams5592]

The Princess Bride is a perfect movie in my opinion

[@hashgar4762]

The ROSs are the only failure of the movie IMO

[@Rogue_VI]

@@hashgar4762 The failure of your post is that they're called ROUSs. 😁

[@lukesteele4510]

Princess Mononoke is by far one of my favorite movies of all time.

[@LMJeffJones]

All this Miyazaki talk makes me REALLY need Brandon to watch Your Name/other Mokoto Shinkai works and hear him talk about them now. PLEASE DO THIS 💙

[@pengchengliu9637]

in one of his signing streams he mentioned he watched your name and loved it

[@LMJeffJones]

@@pengchengliu9637 this makes me happy. I would love to hear him go more in depth, especially into some of the other films!

[@KalleVilenius]

Kiki's Delivery Service and Porco Rosso are the supreme Miyazaki films but if anyone asked I couldn't articulate why. It's just a feeling. The only perfect film I can think of is Once Upon a Time in the West. I must've seen it 10 times over the years and every rewatch it still makes my palms sweat from the unbearable tension. Somehow Leone can just prolong and prolong the shot and keep building up the tension even when you know exactly how it's going to end, or your rational mind knows, but that animal part of you is just waiting for the first shot to ring and wondering who will fire it and when.

[@ninjabreadman1993r]

If I had to pick five perfect movies by the criteria that Dan and Brandon set... In no particular order: 1) Jaws 2) LOTR: The Two Towers 3) Empire Strikes Back 4) The Princess Bride 5) Ghostbusters

[@citizensguard3433]

There is a difference between literal perfection and artistic perfection, in my opinion.

[@ashley-r-pollard]

It would have to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind for me. Really enjoying these podcasts. They lift my spirit up.

[@LaurArt_UK]

The 'perfect' film is, in my opinion, Paddington. It is somehow flawless. An odd choice I know, but I don't know anyone who had any technical, story or acting complaints about the film. It's charming and incredibly well crafted. It's not my personal favourite, I just couldn't fault it. I felt the same with Princess Mononoke, but on a deeper level, Princess Mononoke has stayed with me in ways that Paddington hasn't. My Neighbour Totoro even more so - I went on to write essays on it in uni. Ghibli films are just on another level. I have to disagree that there is no conflict in the film - They girls feel the mother's absence so strongly throughout and its what drives them to be brave and have these adventures. They see what they need to see to stay hopeful. They know they can't save her, so they do the one thing they can do, which is to keep going. It's implied that the mother has TB, which was very hard to treat in a country where the countryside (and clean air) is gradually being swallowed up by Tokyo. I wonder if you need the context of knowing what is happening to the countryside and how common TB was at the time, to understand the conflict.

[@MateusAntonioBittencourt]

The Plinket prequels reviews is one of the best pieces of media in general. I watch every so often... not even to hate the prequels... but because it's able to convey how a good plot and character is written and how a bad plot and character is. Why I loved Episode 4 and didn't Episode 1 (And wasn't nostalgia because I watched them for the same time in the same week)

[@dukeofdenver]

Loved this! My favourite episode thus far

[@mmadsen]

I want to call out another anime. Millennium Actress. It is my perfect movie. I've never seen anything like it and I can't imagine it being executed better.

[@masterofskillz14]

OOOOOO Boy this was the answer I was looking for, such a masterpiece. I think it, Perfect Blue, and Paprika form a really awesome trio of semi-thematically related films that all land at very different places on the realism scale, while all having similarly dense and masterful Satoshi Kon pacing. If anyone out there hasn't seen them yet, do yourself a favor!

[@markstenquist2315]

Movies I premise with "It's not perfect but..." 1. Little Big Soldier 2. Willow 3. Titan AE 4. Kingsglaive FFXV 5. Bandits My list of "Perfect" movies in a few different genres: 1. Mask of Zorro 2. Jurassic Park 3. A Bridge Too Far 4. While You Were Sleeping 5. Sound of Music

[@stephenkelly8312]

The Kessel Run was a smuggling route through a bunch of black holes. Remember that hyperspace (as explained in the same movie) has “lanes” of safe travel that must be calculated precisely if you don’t want to “fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova.” Han’s skill as a pilot and the superior navigation computer on the Falcon made it possible to complete the run by threading the needle through routes that are not possible for other pilots/ships, thereby making the run shorter and granting his claim to fame. What does your GPS tell you when there are multiple routes to your destination? You can complete your route in X miles one way or Y miles another way. Some GPSs (like the one in my car) have outdated information and doesn’t show roads that are now an option so it will always show a longer route for certain trips. The custom GPS (galactic positioning system) on the Falcon was able to calculate a shorter route from point A to point B that the Falcon was able to fly with a skilled enough pilot.

[@jdrenner]

Jurassic Park is probably my most perfect, favorite movie.

[@timothyshaw5498]

I’ve always viewed the twelve parsecs line to mean he managed to shave off some distance on the Kessel Run; meaning he found a shortcut that allowed him to utilize the shortest route.

[@Pablo360able]

My two cents on plot holes is something I think I heard from someone else, but I don't remember: Plot holes are bad when they punish the audience for paying attention to something that they're led to believe they *should* be paying attention to. For example, if a tv show placed a big importance on travel logistics in the early season, but in season eight people seemingly teleported around the world and an entire iron fleet went unaccounted for, that's a problem.

[@mrleereads]

I have spent a bothersome amount of time on how to adapt Robin Hood: Men in Tights to a stage play.

[@c.a.mcdivitt9722]

Here's an off-topic question worth thinking about- is Mary Poppins a Time Lady?

[@robertdullnig3625]

The Pitch Meetings aren't inherently negative; there's a big difference in how he handles good movies over bad.

[@whiskeychicken]

Dude. This guy really loves Jaws. I love that he loves it.

[@steelstudio7374]

Dan got something incorrect. Peter Jackson says that his favourite scene(from books and the movies) is the Three Hunters running through Rohan. It is documented and available for those that watch the appendix discs that come with the extended edition movies.

[@ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh5386]

Este hombre es increíble.

[@zexax4102]

Seguidor de alexelcapo promedio haha

[@cesarkarim3352]

@@zexax4102 atentamente hater promedio hahaha

[@zexax4102]

@@cesarkarim3352 no lo decía a malas lol

[@cesarkarim3352]

@@zexax4102 pero sonó como que si xd

[@ianmartinezcassmeyer]

Does Dan know that JAWS is on Amazon Prime Video right now? And I FREAKING LOVE Princess Mononoke. One of Studio Ghibli's best films, easily.

[@Morfeusm]

Nice! Perdido Street Station gets mentioned here!

[@Ray_D_Tutto]

Brandon makes the funniest noises. 46:40

[@jasonlarkin8807]

That flaw in the Way of Kings is the reason I liked it so much! Amazing, all perspective I guess.

[@Florkl]

I like Pitch Meetings because they aren’t nearly as nitpicky. The plot holes they point out are either major ones that deserve it, or minor ones followed by an acknowledgment that said hole is kind of essential for the story to exist or be interesting (LOTR would be a lot shorter with eagles doing everything)

[@Thisiswerewolf]

Brandon and Dan, you are forgetting a very important detail about kids. Its our job to protect our kids from content they aren't old enough for. A kid shouldn't have to decide if they are afraid of zombies, gore, etc, because they shouldn't see it until they reach an age where they are more ready for it. At that point they can decide how they feel about it. Just my humble opinion. Huge fan, loving this podcast!!! 😊

[@alexrechkin7]

Indianapolis monolog from Jaws is perfect example of opposite of "show dont tell" rule. break the rules if it feels right to you

[@coreyladd125]

Robinhood men in tights is the second most remarkable movie I've ever seen

[@jamcdonald120]

8:15 similar to what riftwars is to fantasy. So many of the books I grew up on are just parts of riftwars

[@Sephiroth1204]

My thinking along the lines of what you were discussing is the difference between something that's Objectively Perfect and Subjectively Perfect. I think a game like Katamari Damacy is perfect, its tone, look, gameplay, music, length, etc. It all works exactly as its supposed to. However, it's really janky and its obtuseness can be a turnoff to many people. It's subjectively perfect to me and the flaws are all part of the package. It's always important that something can be perfect to you even if it has issues or others don't like it

[@cbpd89]

It seems you guys have similar views on what makes a movie perfect as those are absolutely among my favorites. This is why I am siding with Dan on Totoro: I watched Totoro last spring with my kids, the first time they'd seen it, when the initial pandemic shut down began. The sheer joy, the delight they had in meeting Totoro totally mirrored the girls in the film. Complimented by the constant spectre of illness as an uneasy tension in the background, it hit me in a way it wouldn't have at any other time. So, yeah, it's my favorite Miyazaki films as a result.

[@DaUndergroundProd]

Love how hes signing and doing the podcast at the same time.

[@andrewberenson5717]

The better question. How would Hoid answer the question as to whether there is perfect art? My favorite Mel Brooks movie: History of the World, Part I

[@HeadCannon19]

"All great art is hated [...] Nobody will like everything, everybody dislikes something, someone loves that thing you hate [...] That a thing is hated is not proof that it's great, but the lack of hatred is certainly proof that it's not." This makes me feel like he would probably say no

[@hashgar4762]

History of the World, Part I Still waiting for Jews in Space!

[@wordupninja]

Shawshank is a perfect movie

[@DanMPsychopump]

Since I'm hailing from Brasil, I've watched Marry Poppins dubbed in portugese. And I gotta tell you our voice actors are awesome, because there's nothing negative to say about Dick Van Dyke's in this movie!!! There have been a lot o movies that actually hit it big around here, while not on their original country, because of the work our voice actors delivered are actually incredible!!! Sure there are some awful work, but not enough to stain our records!!!

[@Thelnquisitor]

What is Dan’s shirt?

[@raylder6339]

As if I just segued (lol segg'd) from Merphy Napier's video with Brandon where they referenced "Super easy, barely an inconvenience!" to this podcast ep.

[@greyforge27]

Really enjoying this podcast

[@JoeMama410]

Hot Fuzz and Galaxy Quest are my perfect movies.

[@Eugenitys]

I find with what I consider "perfect" stories, if the highs are high enough and the lows aren't too low, I kind of forget the lows.

[@QazwerDave]

"Reality is stranger than fiction" is actually a counter, rather than supporting your argument. Fiction is not strange in this regard because all bases are covered. There are no plot holes. The audience needs to know everything in order to understand the story.

[@hatsume657]

i have no idea how Brandon finds the time.

[@MasterRahl221]

He is signing things while they talk.

[@jamesboyleii6332]

Dick van Dyke has actually apologized for his accent in Mary Poppins. I find that funny! That's another reason why he's a great performer and person.

[@QazwerDave]

"It couldn't have been made better within the restriction of the moment" does not make a movie perfect.

[@carlosandino5524]

Particularly Peculiar Perfected Podcast

[@hunterbartley7071]

Love Princess Mononoke

[@sarahgoodson9406]

I think another element in perfect movies (for a person) is timing. For instance, I dislike most of Mary Poppins, but I think that's because I was introduced to it too early in my childhood without any explanation of what was happening in the film.

[@mussoletart8485]

yes but what about paddington 2

[@nanotyrannus5435]

Very interesting this thing from Terry Rossio, who I have under direct scrutiny from me because he is the writer of the Amazing Maurice adaption.

[@daem0nfaust]

For some weird reason, I've never attributed "art" to films, which of course doesn't make sense. But in that vein, then would there really be "perfection" for this medium? Somehow, the perfection of art relies on the intention of the creator and if that comes across with whatever medium to reach its audience. So if it works for the maker and it successfully reaches the way he/she intended to the audience, then his/her job is done. The audience, the consumer, can be happy (or unhappy) with it either way. Perfection isn't necessary to achieve that.

[@vazzaroth]

I LOVED when Brandon said "Let's set up parameters". I say this kind of thing all the time, lol. "It's not perfect"... By what standards? What IS perfect then? If the critic has no examples, I consider them being hyperbolic for entertainment appeal then, like Cinema Sins. I mean, in general in life... what IS perfect, anyway? Either a LOT of things, or nothing, IMO, depending on the parameters.

[@vazzaroth]

Totoro bores me too, haha! It's cute and whimsical and I like the IDEA of it, but every time I sit down to watch it (Even as a kid renting the old VHS), I'm a little bored. Parts of it are AMAZING and iconic, but the whole experience feels a tiny bit hollow as a whole.

[@masonwheeler6536]

Dan remarks that you can't gauge the quality of a book based on how "experimental" it is. I would argue that you generally can: a decent rule of thumb is that there's an inverse relationship between the two. It's known as Mark Twain's observation on originality: "Your manuscript is both original and good, but the parts that are good are not original and the parts that are original are not good." Genre conventions exist for a reason: because they have passed the test of time and been shown to work well. Authors trying to be "experimental" (aka "weird for the sake of being weird") disregard this at their own peril.

[@nathancarter8239]

Mary Poppins is an interesting example for me. I read the first few books after I had already seen the movies, so my experience may, perhaps, be colored. But in the books, there are a few key differences. For one, there are more Banks children. For another, there's a tone of melancholy and loss that pervades a lot of stories, of something precious slipping away. And finally, Mary Poppins is a *LOT* less likeable in the books. A lot of the stories in the books are interesting by themselves, exploring themes the movie irons flat. There's one story about the twins (the third and fourth Banks children) losing the language that allows everything to communicate, and their bird friend who is left alone. I'd almost recommend a lot of these stories on their own, were it not for the book Mary Poppins. She remains, as in the movie, stern and protective, a nanny to children who need attention. But where in the movie she is kind, approachable and sweet (and partial credit goes to Julie Andrews' wonderful performance) in the books she's cranky, snippy and self-absorbed. You can see *some* of the ego in the movie, with Mary Poppins setting herself just right, but it feels more like a high standard she is meeting than the consistent egotism of the books. For these reasons, I like the movie (even the later sequel) more than the books. Perhaps I was at a weird age to read them; I was barely a teenager at the time, which possibly colored my experience. And it may be I can go back and find out what I was missing. But I have little desire to, and that's as much to my own enjoyment (or lack thereof) as the book's quality. For me, the movie turned out like something like The Shining: an unfaithful adaptation which turned out alright anyway.

[@Rogue_VI]

I love Honest Trailers. I think they are pretty funny for the most part.

[@Sidenonra]

I call a perfect movie as a movie that knows what it is and does it. The hit man's bodyguard's is a perfect movie because it knows what it is and does it.

[@Kabissz]

Yes. The classic Roadrunner cartoons are perfect.

[@Tutorial7a]

I was literally watching the aforementioned lecture where Brandon talks about the army of the Dead earlier today. What are the odds.

[@docthunder1413]

11 - 1, maybe?

[@vergulyanets]

I love Mistborn and I love you Brandon Sanderson, no homo.

[@ValGalorian]

I can watch LotR and Star War through fully, but most clips or just catching a few minutes is such a weird experience of comparing it to memes and the internet

[@NotMeButAnother]

I mean, Cinemasins often don't even point out real flaws, they invent them, lie about the movie or don't fully watch the movie before writing the sins.

[@Wingedmagician]

Wow this podcast was really really good. Hmm? Perfect? Well it depends.

[@MemphiStig]

Perfection is real, and it is a paradox: The universe is a perfect expression of the Laws of physics, everything within it is consistent with those Laws (whether we understand them or not). The Earth is in this way perfect, all things in harmony with the "natural order." But the things themselves are imperfect, and the Earth too. There are too many insects, there are diseases and destruction, many things are malformed and flawed. And there are Humans. Humans are perfectly in line with the Laws, but they are also terrible lifeforms, the ultimate parasites, corrupters, destroyers. They constantly violate the Laws, and all they create is artificial/unnatural. But... Miranda Otto as Eowyn is pure perfection in every possible way. (I could also do an hour on the flaws and perfection of Pulp Fiction, but I'll save it.) Humans are the embodiment of the paradox, that what is perfect is also imperfect. It's like "Ironic," don'tcha think?