Episode 68: Something Wicked This Way Comes

By the pricking of my thumbs...oh, how does that line end? I'm sure the answer couldn't be found in the title of this week's movie on Mousterpiece Cinema, the 1983 horror movie Something Wicked This Way Comes starring Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. (Forgive me, William Shakespeare's vengeful ghost. FORGIVE ME.) Yes, it's true, Walt Disney Pictures did make a few forays into the world of horror back in the 1980s, and this week, Josh, Mike and special guest Zack Handlen from The AV Club take a backwards ride on a magical carousel to the past to analyze this film. Were Robards and Pryce awesome enough to disguise the movie's flaws? What truly makes a Disney movie? And how much are Josh and Mike dreading discussing, of all things, The Haunted Mansion? Listen to the new show to find out!

Episode 67: The Sword in the Stone

The legend of King Arthur has seen many iterations in popular culture. The greatest bit of knowledge, for example, we've all learned through the British king's story is that the Earth is banana-shaped. Though we won't be discussing Monty Python and the Holy Grail in depth this week, Mike and Josh do tackle Disney's 1963 version of King Arthur's origins, The Sword in the Stone. And they're helped out by very special guest Marjorie Jensen of DoorQ.com to analyze Arthur's place in literature, his dynamism as a young character, how grim his life would be after pulling Excalibur from the stone, and how exactly Ducksterpiece Theater applies to a surprisingly duck-free movie. Check out the new show to find out!

Episode 66: Frankenweenie

On this week's all-new episode of Mousterpiece Cinema, something truly frightening happened. Oh, sure, we talked about Tim Burton's newest film, the stop-motion-animated, black-and-white, 3D expansion of his short film Frankenweenie. And sure, we welcomed onto the show a very special guest to review the film: Anthony Breznican of Entertainment Weekly. But discussing this scary kids' movie was nothing compared to finding out what it sounds like when Josh likes something, and both Mike and Gabe do not. Yes, friends, if you thought it was crazy enough to hear Mike get critical, just wait until you hear he and Gabe face off against Josh and Anthony. Is Frankenweenie a sweet, charming piece of nostalgia, or is it a lazy and soulless attempt from Tim Burton to recapture his youth? You'll have to listen to the show to find out the verdict!

Episode 65: 101 Dalmatians

Puppies, puppies everywhere, and not a drop to drink! OK, we may have that wrong, but on this week's all-new Mousterpiece Cinema, we're swimming in a sea full of adorable pooches as we cover the 1961 animated classic 101 Dalmatians. And it's a full house this week, as Josh, Mike, and Gabe are joined by the editor of The AV Club, Keith Phipps to take a trip down memory lane. You may know that Josh is an avowed cat person, but did Pongo, Perdita, Lucky and the other 98 Dalmatians warm his blackened heart? That's a hot topic in the episode, along with the xerography process that would define Disney animation during the 1960s and 1970s. Does this movie look as lazy and copied-over as The Jungle Book or The Aristocats? Is Cruella De Vil the best Disney villain of all time? And what does Calvin and Hobbes have to do with a baby Dalmatian surviving its birth? The answers to these burning questions are within--check out the new show to find out!