The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1129
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 30 minutes
Words per Minute
174.4408
Summary
In Episode 1129 of The Lotus Eaters, Josh and Harry discuss Jeffrey Goldberg's revelation that he was accidentally invited into a secret government group chat, and whether that's a good or bad thing. They also discuss the Snow White and Assassin's Creed disaster, and the growing surveillance state in the UK.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello there and welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Eaters episode 1129. I'm your host Harry
00:00:07.560
joined today by Josh. Hello. And we've got some right slop for you today. We're going to be
00:00:13.340
talking about the Trump war leaks and whether they're legitimate or not and what they mean.
00:00:18.860
The unexpected, the most unexpected thing ever being that Snow White flopped and Assassin's
00:00:24.360
Creed is bad. And we're going to finish off by talking about Netflix's Adolescence, a true
00:00:29.660
false story that's being used to allow for more surveillance state in Britain.
00:00:37.260
Yay. And propagandising children as well. I mean, that's all television's ever been for.
00:00:43.060
That's true. That's true. Including if you're a grown adult watching television, you are a child
00:00:47.640
being propagandised too. And with that, I think that's all I need to say. Let's get into the news.
00:00:54.360
Okay, so this fellow is Jeffrey Goldberg. He is the editor-in-chief at The Atlantic. And he was
00:01:02.100
seemingly, and I say seemingly, accidentally added to a group chat where the top brass of the Trump
00:01:08.140
administration discussed their upcoming bombing campaign in the Yemen. And apparently he found
00:01:15.000
out about key details of this operation two hours before they happened. And this guy is also very much
00:01:21.500
a Zionist. And that is worth mentioning when it comes to the person who accidentally added him.
00:01:27.000
So he wrote this article about it, because of course, that's what you do when you get invited
00:01:30.640
into a secret government chat, is you write a mainstream article about it.
00:01:35.280
To be fair, if you're the editor of The Atlantic, then yeah.
00:01:40.120
But also, he does claim to have omitted key details of national security significance, as well as
00:01:49.080
certain people who held secret service positions. So some of the stuff that he's apparently seen,
00:01:57.840
we don't know about. So we're just going to have to believe him, take him at his word for some of it.
00:02:04.020
But, so supposedly this guy, Jeffrey Goldberg, moved to Israel to work as a prison guard in the IDF
00:02:13.200
before returning to his career in journalism in the US. So that is important, because the person who
00:02:19.360
was in charge of this group chat, Mike Waltz, is known as being particularly hawkish. It could be
00:02:26.780
that they share a foreign policy agenda, I don't know.
00:02:29.780
I would imagine that, I mean, you'll go through the article, I've not read it, but I would imagine
00:02:33.760
he must be in favour of strikes against the Yemen and Houthis, right?
00:02:40.440
It'd be pretty shocking if a former IDFA member wasn't.
00:02:44.080
It would be very strange, wouldn't it? And this Mike Waltz guy, you know, I respect his service
00:02:51.840
in Afghanistan. He did multiple combat tours, and he received four bronze stars, which have received
00:02:57.840
for bravery. But in terms of his politics, he was defence policy director for Bush and counter-terrorism
00:03:05.100
advisor to Cheney. So this might give you a little bit of an idea about how he views foreign
00:03:11.480
policy, which might explain why he might have accidentally invited this guy in.
00:03:19.700
Yeah. So most Trump supporters have been calling Goldberg a liar, from what I've seen.
00:03:24.220
There have been a few that have taken what he said at face value, and I can see why, given
00:03:28.400
his track record, because both he and Trump have been critical of one another, and he
00:03:34.360
often writes things that are critical of Trump. So the fact that he can't necessarily be trusted
00:03:39.640
I think is fair. But he has provided screenshots, and it's not been denied as fake news by anyone
00:03:47.780
I believe it was confirmed as true by one of the agencies, correct?
00:03:52.340
Correct. I'm going to get to that. I'm going to read the exact quote. And you often see
00:03:59.180
J.D. Vance as well posting about stuff, because I've seen him do this on a couple of occasions
00:04:03.580
while there's been a mainstream story doing the rounds. He did this about when he said
00:04:08.900
a lot of European countries haven't fought a war in 40 years. He said, listen, obviously
00:04:13.040
I didn't mean Britain and France, because they have, and I know that. And quite often he corrects
00:04:18.660
stuff. And he's not done that in this instance, which makes it more likely, I think, that it's
00:04:23.300
genuine. But I think the nail in the coffin for the fact that it's all made up is the fact
00:04:28.740
that, and this is a quote from the article, so if you take this at face value, so be it.
00:04:34.360
But Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council, responded two hours later
00:04:39.640
to him reaching out to them saying he's been added to this chat because he messaged the
00:04:45.260
people involved, like what the hell is going on. And confirming the veracity of the signal
00:04:50.380
group, this appears to be an authentic message chain and we are reviewing how an inadvertent
00:04:55.340
number was added to the chain. So that doesn't sound like they're denying it exists. It seems
00:05:03.200
Yeah, I would say so. And I'm just wondering, you don't accidentally add the main editor of
00:05:10.580
The Atlantic to a chat of lots of senior politicians in the executive branch of government accidentally?
00:05:20.060
He either has very, very fat thumbs or there has been speculation that he might have done it
00:05:26.680
on purpose. And although I'm more willing to take this sort of thing as just an accident,
00:05:32.420
personally, it is possible, and I'm going to walk through the arguments, obviously make
00:05:36.800
up your own mind, you don't have to agree with me.
00:05:39.160
Because if this was done on purpose, surely it makes basic security at the current administration
00:05:49.380
It does, and I think that that's one of the major arguments against it, is why would they
00:05:53.220
do something that makes them, first and foremost, look incompetent? It doesn't make sense to
00:05:59.600
And also shows them actively bad-mouthing their European allies as well.
00:06:04.960
We'll be getting on to that. So there's a couple of things that I think it helps sell.
00:06:11.860
Obviously, there's potential similarities between the person who added him and the guy himself
00:06:18.360
in foreign policy agenda. We can't necessarily know for certain. I haven't seen a sit-down
00:06:22.780
conversation with the two people talking it over, so it's a certain amount of conjecture.
00:06:28.260
But what it does do in leaking this is that it sells to the MAGA base that they're authentically
00:06:33.140
America first, because they complain about Europe not dealing with the rebels. And never mind the fact
00:06:39.500
that previously in the conversation, if it's to be taken as genuine, they admit that only
00:06:44.280
4% of US trade goes through, what is it, the Red Sea? That little gulf.
00:06:54.360
Basically, American ships and those countries that are aligned with...
00:07:00.060
Yeah, and Israel, which is interesting because they're leaving a lot of European ships alone
00:07:05.220
because most of them aren't signed on to Israel.
00:07:10.840
And 40% of European trade stands to be interrupted by the group.
00:07:14.900
But they point this out as if to say, we're doing this for Europe, but also Europe's not
00:07:20.900
having their ships attacked because of our either neutral stance or actively siding with
00:07:27.980
I'm not saying our, as in this is what I think.
00:07:33.280
And so, the reason the US is intervening, I think, is because it's interrupting their
00:07:40.180
And of course, they wouldn't want that, would they?
00:07:42.440
And this should really be the elephant in the room of this story, is that they're sort
00:07:49.380
of misrepresenting it, even in their own internal chats, as we're helping Europe, but
00:07:58.580
I mean, surely America's biggest complaint with Europe is how much they're putting into
00:08:09.880
And although we, you know, we should be protecting our own trade routes and the Houthi rebels, I'm
00:08:16.900
I think it's a weak argument because it's not interrupting our trade and it's very far
00:08:25.460
And there isn't the same appetite in Europe for foreign adventurism as there is in the
00:08:32.200
And this is something that US citizens are, of course, going to have to foot the bill
00:08:37.800
I'm actually kind of annoyed on your behalf that they're going out and interfering, not
00:08:42.000
learning the lessons of, you know, post-2000s wars.
00:08:49.940
I'd also argue that one of the main beneficiaries of this bombing campaign are the Saudis, as
00:08:55.740
Israel benefits the most out of all of them, I think, because they're Iran-backed.
00:08:59.820
But of course, the Saudis and Israel are both opposed to Iran.
00:09:03.740
And so by the US doing this, they're basically saying to their allies, look, we got your
00:09:09.300
We're putting pressure on the Iranians, basically making sure that resources are wasted and
00:09:13.520
they don't get more influence on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula.
00:09:16.800
So that's what I think is actually going on here, which isn't necessarily part of this
00:09:25.360
And the second point about this, why it could possibly be linked, other than showing that
00:09:32.720
America is being guided by America First people, although you could argue they're wasting money
00:09:38.840
here, is that it solidifies Vance as an anti-war candidate, as he voices his objections in
00:09:45.680
the chat to all of it, despite everyone else seemingly in agreement.
00:09:50.300
I've seen the same thread that you're going through right now.
00:09:53.260
Now, Vance is obviously the favourite for 2028.
00:09:57.880
And I think that that much is, you know, the reason he's been appointed is that he's like
00:10:04.300
And that's what Trump wants, is he wants someone to carry on his legacy after he steps down.
00:10:09.800
And Trump was very vocally in 2015 an anti-war candidate.
00:10:13.860
Very critical of the Democrat and former Republicans' wars.
00:10:16.580
And he sort of remains untainted by the justification for the strikes that the others make.
00:10:25.720
And so he has this clean reputation that, you know, okay, hey, I've got this unblemished
00:10:30.700
record of not being in favour of any foreign intervention.
00:10:34.420
Which I think is a plausible argument, because it's the best of both worlds for Trump.
00:10:41.700
He still gets to do what he wants, without necessarily tainting his successor.
00:10:46.260
Which, of course, if we look at Kamala Harris, she had to carry the burden of look at what
00:10:58.600
But I think that it could also just be an accident.
00:11:02.640
And it's worth mentioning as well, to call them war plans is very strong.
00:11:06.300
That's how it's presented in this title here, in the headline.
00:11:10.240
But as with many headlines in mainstream outlets, it's a bit misleading.
00:11:14.200
Because as many of the people involved in this chat have said, this wasn't, you know,
00:11:20.260
this wasn't necessarily discussing classified information.
00:11:22.740
It was just us coordinating with each other about various things.
00:11:27.600
But none of the top secret stuff was really in that chat, despite what he's claiming.
00:11:31.860
Which I can believe, actually, because you wouldn't, there are lots and lots of different
00:11:37.060
protocols in place to make sure that this sort of information doesn't leak.
00:11:41.080
And you're not supposed to talk on Signal about these sorts of things.
00:11:43.820
And so my guess is that they were sort of talking about it in a more informal way.
00:11:49.180
I mean, I've seen the leak of Mike Waltz with his fist American flag fire emojis.
00:11:59.260
I wouldn't like to know that there's top secret classified documents going around communicated
00:12:06.140
My read of the situation is that it was a genuine chat, and he was probably added accidentally,
00:12:13.500
but I don't know for certain, but it's just my guess.
00:12:17.200
And that it was just more informal, and it's been exaggerated to drum up a good and interesting
00:12:23.560
article for The Atlantic, which I think is the most likely, but it's not impossible that
00:12:28.620
it could be the other things I've discussed, which is why I've brought them up in the first
00:12:33.060
Again, it does seem to be a major screw-up to even an informal chat with these people,
00:12:40.640
because it also had people like Stephen Miller and others in it, to add a journalist, and
00:12:45.740
not just any journalist, a head editor of a hostile publication to your own administration,
00:12:52.020
and then not notice that that's what you've done.
00:12:57.940
It would be interesting to see whether there's any sort of discipline handed down from the
00:13:03.820
top in the executive, because I think they are treating this like a legitimate mistake.
00:13:09.680
Although there have been sort of attempts to deflect it and say it's not genuine, to try
00:13:14.300
But it does seem to be genuine, at the very least.
00:13:17.240
But it is worth mentioning as well that a lot of the bombing campaign had already been
00:13:20.140
planned before the guy was even added to the group in the first place.
00:13:23.700
So all of the Marshall stuff was probably not dealt with in Signal Chats, as far as we're
00:13:33.040
But he basically just saw behind the scenes about what they fought, and a lot of it is
00:13:38.300
stuff that if you know the people involved in the administration, you probably would have
00:13:43.280
guessed that they would have fought these things anyway.
00:13:47.020
Some people have been saying things like this, why didn't you just delete the messages or
00:13:52.160
let them know you were incorrectly added to the chat?
00:13:55.180
Sounds like you're more interested in publishing a salacious story than doing the right thing.
00:13:59.020
I think that this criticism is fair, but I think it misses the interesting parts of this
00:14:06.960
No journalist, right or left, if you realise that's what you've been added into, is going
00:14:13.140
Because I think in the article he explains this, to his credit, he says, I thought at
00:14:18.580
first it was some sort of trap trying to get me to potentially do something silly.
00:14:25.880
I forgot what he called it, the specific term, but basically like a trap for journalists to
00:14:30.360
make them say something stupid, and then you publish it and show the world, like, look at
00:14:38.760
He was sort of observing it to see what the nature of the thing was, which, to be fair,
00:14:42.940
if I were added to a chat like that, I'd probably do the same.
00:14:46.520
You just added into a random group chat out of nowhere with a bunch of people who were
00:14:56.980
You're not going to hang around and see what they're talking about.
00:15:00.400
So maybe that's dishonest of me, but if you don't think that you'd do that, I think
00:15:06.220
Lots of people point out that he has played a key role in peddling for the American war
00:15:13.980
machine, the Iraq WMDs, Ukraine, Russiagate, Ansi Marni, I'm not sure what that one's referring
00:15:22.240
I probably should know, and loads of other things as well.
00:15:26.560
Here's another one, another article that he's wrote.
00:15:28.940
Trump, Americans who died in war are losers and suckers.
00:15:32.820
So he's just trying to smear Trump's name, isn't he?
00:15:38.000
And he's also the Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda are working together.
00:15:43.600
Again, they're mentioning the Russia collusion.
00:15:46.220
And the Trump said veterans are suckers and losers.
00:15:49.100
And I think that last one is very difficult to sell, but it's all part of the throwing
00:15:55.600
So yes, obviously, lots of people are cynical of this guy at taking his word because look
00:16:04.020
It's about as bumpy as it could possibly be, right?
00:16:07.320
And let's have a look at some of the screenshots from this.
00:16:09.980
This is the stuff that he did share because some of it he didn't.
00:16:21.040
Let's just make sure our messaging is tight here.
00:16:23.420
And if there are things we can do up front to minimize risk to Saudi oil facilities, we
00:16:31.320
And then Hegsef says to Vance, I fully share your loathing of European freeloading.
00:16:45.700
We are the only ones on the planet on our side of the ledger who can do this.
00:16:57.000
Given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes, I think we should go.
00:17:00.700
But POTUS still retains 24 hours of decision space.
00:17:04.860
So this isn't exactly top secret, but there is a certain degree of coordination going on
00:17:13.100
And then when it sort of happened, it was just them saying, good job.
00:17:24.840
But there's not a lot there when you actually see the screenshot proof that
00:17:49.240
This is where Pete's head, Seth, and I come in.
00:17:52.480
On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as
00:18:03.460
I assumed that Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump's national security
00:18:08.460
I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz.
00:18:12.620
I have met him in the past, and though I didn't find it particularly strange that he might
00:18:16.340
be reaching out to me, I did think it was somewhat unusual given the Trump administration's
00:18:20.640
contentious relationship with journalists and Trump's periodic fixation on me specifically.
00:18:26.020
I love the way he phrases that like he's completely innocent of anything.
00:18:32.500
It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow
00:18:37.380
It's not all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share
00:18:43.240
It's entrap the word that you'd been looking for.
00:18:46.580
I then accepted the connection request, hoping that it was the actual national security advisor
00:18:50.760
and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine or Iran or some other important matter.
00:18:54.720
Two days later, Thursday, at 4.28pm, I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal
00:19:03.000
And yeah, it goes on and on and he just lists what they were talking about.
00:19:08.440
A lot of it is quite uninteresting, unsurprising.
00:19:12.300
There's a lot of just coordinating with one another about small things and there's not
00:19:23.960
I'm not going to go through it all because there's just too much and it's a lot of boring
00:19:32.140
But the gist of it is that they were probably discussing things that should have been kept
00:19:37.040
And I think that that's a fair characterization.
00:19:39.180
However, it's not nearly as bad as it's made out to be from the headline, as is always
00:19:45.340
And here is the press secretary for the White House saying this, Jeffrey Goldberg is well
00:20:00.840
The White House counsel's office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms
00:20:05.120
for President Trump's top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible.
00:20:10.720
And they're looking into how he is inadvertently added.
00:20:12.920
So, complete confirmation here, but they're saying similar things to me, really, that
00:20:17.900
it's not as big a deal as it's being made out to be, but at the same time it's still
00:20:28.460
And there are a couple of memes that I'm going to end on because they're fun.
00:20:39.800
Of course, it has to be Big Fat Baby Vance as well.
00:20:47.760
You've not really, you know, put that many feet wrong so far, but the edits of your face
00:20:55.800
This was actually replied to the post of the article.
00:20:58.720
And finally, the reaction in Europe hasn't necessarily been about the leaks themselves.
00:21:16.160
It's been about how the top team rips into America's European allies, saying how they
00:21:21.680
loathe having to bail out the pathetic freeloaders.
00:21:24.500
So, obviously, it's being presented as sensationlessly as possible, as is the media's way.
00:21:29.900
And also, I think that the European media, in particular, is pushing massively for a rift
00:21:37.980
And there's a massive amount of intersecting agenda here for this to happen.
00:21:44.200
And so, this has been capitalized on by lots of those forces.
00:21:50.920
But, this leaking basically serves to strain the relationship between the US and Europe
00:21:55.760
more generally, and even further than it was already.
00:21:59.260
It might spur on more European independence, which I wasn't personally offended by what
00:22:04.900
It's sort of like, Europe's not standing up for itself, and they need to be more independent.
00:22:10.260
Well, it was strange that they were having that discussion in reference to the Houthis,
00:22:13.840
which, as we've discussed, isn't really as much of our problem.
00:22:17.740
Yeah, and I think in other domains, it's a lot more legitimate, like NATO.
00:22:24.040
If it is to exist, it's fair enough that America could object to being disproportionately
00:22:33.840
And, yeah, it strikes me as sort of a non-story to a certain extent, but it's important enough
00:22:41.960
to actually talk about, because I think there's been a lot of smoke and mirrors about the whole
00:22:46.680
And just breaking it down and looking at it slightly rationally is a good way of seeing
00:22:51.960
that it wasn't a big deal, it's slightly interesting, but yeah, I think the Trump regime is going
00:23:02.460
Also, if you didn't know America was bombing Yemen, now you do.
00:23:14.600
This leak, while undoubtedly embarrassing, clearly wasn't a serious security breach.
00:23:18.460
We know this because if it had been, we would have disappeared into Gitmo before ever writing
00:23:28.940
And also, he covers those sorts of things and so understands what he can and can't publish,
00:23:36.760
And, again, if this had happened during a President Hillary term, he would have committed suicide
00:23:42.400
by shooting himself twice in a park that most lifelong DC residents have never heard of.
00:23:48.540
Yeah, did you see, actually, that Hillary Clinton commented on this when the article came up
00:24:22.080
Again, personally, outside of some very, very potential benefits that they could get
00:24:32.620
that you were talking about nearer the beginning of the segment, what do you get?
00:24:36.280
Well, it might serve their agenda to cut further ties with Europe, seeing as they seem to want
00:24:41.460
to pull out of Europe as soon, well, begin to pull out of Europe as soon as the Ukraine
00:24:47.940
To be honest, that's not something I'm completely against.
00:24:50.600
I do think that Europe needs to be able to stand on its own.
00:24:53.420
Yeah, I agree with what they were saying, in a way.
00:24:55.620
And I don't think that American influence has been particularly positive for Europe since
00:24:59.960
the end of the Second World War, outside of working together in the Cold War, of course.
00:25:09.460
That seems like a bit of a stretch to me, because that relies on a lot of interpretation
00:25:14.100
from the people who are actually reading the article and looking at the messages.
00:25:18.080
It's a very esoteric way to go about it, if that's what they were doing.
00:25:20.840
And in most of the messages that have been, the screenshots that have been shared about,
00:25:25.620
doesn't even really seem to convey that as much as is in the article itself.
00:25:29.760
So most people are only going to come into contact with stuff that doesn't really push
00:25:33.740
So, I mean, I'd be interested if this is some kind of 4 or 5D chess move.
00:25:42.680
But again, ultimately, it just makes them look stupid and incompetent.
00:25:49.820
But I can understand why people would think otherwise.
00:25:52.780
Anyway, so moving on to something a bit lighter.
00:25:56.000
The most unexpected thing ever happened, which is that media that hated its audience and had
00:26:02.700
actors and producers and directors who actively said that they hate you, hasn't done very well.
00:26:10.120
And also, Assassin's Creed Shadows is getting somewhat of a mixed response.
00:26:14.420
So I'll go over those two things, which is Snow White has flopped, Assassin's Creed Shadows
00:26:53.520
You know, it's not something that anybody's going to be congratulating you for.
00:26:57.240
It's not like you'll actually have Islander 3 or anything.
00:26:59.700
But you will have a nice t-shirt so that you can kind of cozy up and pretend like you're
00:27:05.180
one of the cool, influential people that did buy Islander 3.
00:27:24.920
Was anybody looking forward to Snow White and the seven unidentified human beings?
00:27:31.700
I think they did eventually make them dwarves again, but I still remember Peter Dinklage
00:27:36.540
trying to pull up the stepladder behind him when he was very angry and salty about it.
00:27:41.720
So they tried to replace the dwarves with a diverse and representative cast of other people.
00:27:48.740
Once you have a meteoric rise to fame and stardom, you've got to remind yourself of the
00:27:59.600
So, yeah, unsurprisingly, it had a ridiculously large budget.
00:28:04.920
$250 million, which just seems to be the go-to budget for overpriced films these days.
00:28:12.640
It's where they go, right, we want to make something where we have to make at least half
00:28:20.580
It's like its own marketing ploy is how much money they've spent on it, which is...
00:28:24.740
I wonder how many backhand deals are going on there and if anybody's shifting money around.
00:28:29.480
The only thing being done with hands in Hollywood offices, I'm sure.
00:28:44.440
So, let's say it needs to cross $500 million in pure revenue to even break even, okay?
00:28:52.660
It made globally $87 million over its first weekend.
00:29:01.960
It's called Snow White because of the complexion of the protagonist and they've gone for...
00:29:08.140
Of course, metaphorically, her purity is a character.
00:29:10.640
She can get the birds and bees to sing with her at all.
00:29:12.740
They've sort of gone for Snow Latina, I believe.
00:29:16.080
Yeah, not only that, but this woman, Rachel Zegler, Ziegler, Werner Ziegler, was very, very
00:29:31.060
She didn't come across great in all of the interviews where she was saying things like
00:29:34.960
Prince Charming basically stalked Snow White in the 1937 original.
00:29:40.660
This isn't a film where she's just worried about what kind of man's going to come and marry her.
00:29:46.880
Basically, I'm going to make Snow White a girl boss because that's all Snow White was ever about, right?
00:29:52.060
There is the weird thing of she's asleep in the woods and he comes up and kisses her when
00:30:00.000
It works on romantic logic, not like your Saturday night's logic, all right?
00:30:17.160
They've been doing the big remakes since at least Alice in Wonderland when Tim Burton
00:30:26.520
But since then, they've been ramping it up and they're starting to really get to the
00:30:30.660
They did Dumbo because everybody was really eager for...
00:30:41.520
But now they get to Snow White, which is a classic.
00:30:43.920
One of the original big animated films that Disney put out.
00:30:50.480
People weren't really looking for a remake of it, were they?
00:31:00.000
As in the film audience have been pretty clear that, yeah, remakes are not doing good
00:31:04.760
Especially when they all end up having the same tone, the same look.
00:31:10.180
In all the screenshots and clips that I see from them, they all look really good.
00:31:15.240
Do you remember Will Smith as the genie in Aladdin?
00:31:24.020
And then they act shocked when, after a terrible marketing campaign that everybody said,
00:31:32.480
So in the US, it had $43 million over the first weekend.
00:31:43.100
One of the most scathing reviews came from The Guardian, of all places.
00:31:48.060
A film made by people with cartoon dollar signs for eyes, and not even the tiniest glimmer
00:32:01.500
And another critic said it was a misguided and hollow attempt at modernizing the classic
00:32:05.720
tale, while a third said the reimagined take was missing charm and depth.
00:32:11.600
Copy and paste those reviews for every Disney remake.
00:32:17.380
The Lion King, which was a really charming 90s animated film.
00:32:31.140
You're just looking at cats pulling blank faces.
00:32:34.160
I tell you what I really dislike as well, that anything that tries to give human speech
00:32:41.660
I don't know what it is about it, but there's something about it.
00:32:43.680
Even in like the original animated, 2D animated versions as well.
00:32:48.120
But if it's like a real life lion and they've got its mouth moving and it's talking like
00:33:05.860
The guy who forced Twin Peaks to reveal the murderer early.
00:33:08.820
Right, he's got a kill squad outside the studio right now.
00:33:13.660
Samson's got him waiting in the hallway just for you once we're done with this.
00:33:20.320
Well, surprisingly, here, I'm going to assume that the critics are actually more on the money
00:33:26.040
than the audience because the critics have given it 42% Rotten Tomatoes.
00:33:34.360
I don't know if this is because there are a load of Disney shills on Rotten Tomatoes.
00:33:38.820
Just giving it positive reviews to try and bump up the score.
00:33:41.400
The number of people who will suckle at the teat of Disney slop is worrying.
00:33:51.300
I remember someone said to me once that an adult woman being into Disney films is up
00:33:56.560
there with being a feminist for making a woman be undateable.
00:34:11.220
That is one of the lowest scores I've ever seen on that website.
00:34:21.860
The Room has actual rewatch value and actual funny parts to it.
00:34:28.220
I just want to take a look at some of the user reviews.
00:34:37.260
So the Room, by the classic genius auteur, Tommy Wiseau...
00:34:47.340
I would actually argue it's probably about a thousand times better than Snow White.
00:34:54.600
But also, so let's take a look at some of the reviews.
00:35:35.900
Oh, that one was trying to be a bit too clever.
00:35:39.600
As well as the terrible reviews, terrible performance,
00:35:42.360
you can get an idea for just how terribly it's doing in the cinema
00:35:45.240
by the fact that people have been sharing all over on social media.
00:36:02.540
Almost all of the seats for Snow White were empty.
00:36:09.020
This guy, opening Friday night for Disney's Snow White in IMAX.
00:36:23.100
But apparently, you can if you go to see Snow White.
00:36:27.900
Yeah, is that Snow White will be playing in the background.
00:36:30.000
The Lord of the Rings in a cinema like that, that would be another thing.
00:36:36.420
When we're rich, then you can hire out an entire IMAX for yourself and just sit there.
00:36:47.500
Meanwhile, in mainland China, which we know Disney likes to try and rely on for profits,
00:36:51.700
the film made less than $1 million in its first three days.
00:36:59.900
The senior vice president at the box office company has said,
00:37:02.940
while it's been a disappointing opening weekend,
00:37:05.880
we can't write off the film's performance until we see how it holds up in the coming weeks.
00:37:10.460
Well, given that the film box office drop-off from opening to second weekend
00:37:14.200
tends to be about 50% and then exponentially after that.
00:37:32.360
one thing that this article brings up is just that the budgets for these things are ballooning
00:37:40.880
So obviously, they made a lot of money from some of the early ones.
00:37:47.680
So that, especially given the fact that it probably would have been a smaller budget than
00:37:52.200
this had, would have been a big success for them.
00:37:55.600
They could have possibly, you know, doubled or more than doubled their money.
00:37:58.640
But then you get films like Pinocchio and Dumbo,
00:38:02.580
and they don't really make the money back unless they have a really small budget.
00:38:07.660
Even the Little Mermaid remake opened to a $118 million weekend domestically,
00:38:15.200
so that's just in the US, over the four-day Memorial Day weekend in 2023.
00:38:23.000
but was not considered a major success because of its $250 million budget.
00:38:28.020
Again, double it, and you've made, what, $69 million back.
00:38:31.560
Which is, sounds big for us, but for a major motion picture studio like Disney,
00:38:38.900
My thoughts about this is that even if they are sort of a roundabout making their money back,
00:38:46.000
they can stick it on their streaming service and sort of pad out the shows available on there
00:38:52.780
and justify the rolling subscriptions to a whole ton of people.
00:38:56.560
So it can just be another bit of slop that people scroll past
00:38:59.720
while they're taking two hours to decide what they're going to watch on streaming that evening.
00:39:04.100
That will probably help make up a decent amount of money for them, at the very least.
00:39:09.060
It makes you wonder why they even bother releasing them in the cinema in the first place.
00:39:12.560
But then again, if you're not going to do that,
00:39:18.320
Well, I think the whole company should dissolve, personally.
00:39:24.100
Absolutely, but I tell you what is a big success,
00:39:34.420
surpassed the launches of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey.
00:39:38.960
Thank you for joining the journey in feudal Japan.
00:39:45.140
you went through the entire background of all of the controversies leading up to the release of it,
00:39:55.020
So if you're looking for all the context of Assassin's Creed Shadows,
00:40:00.280
Go to the video from last Thursday for the proper context of it.
00:40:04.280
I'm going to cover how it's been doing since then.
00:40:10.580
Grums has been doing a lot of posting about it.
00:40:14.100
So, Assassin's Creed Shadows did about 27.5% worse than Dragon Age Veil Guard,
00:40:33.960
Yeah, and the all-time peak for Assassin's Creed Shadows over its opening weekend
00:40:59.300
Which is you start to get into fights with Elon Musk
00:41:05.040
Hassan doing a paid ad for Assassin's Creed Shadows
00:41:09.140
to come watch him play it on Twitch, I would assume.
00:41:26.600
And then Assassin's Creed official Twitter account
00:41:31.880
that they're going to be nice and sassy on Twitter?
00:43:20.940
Zero, nine, nine, three, zero, ten, zero, nine, ten.
00:43:31.760
well, it's not just that you love it or hate it.