Best Seat on the Couch

The film that heralded the end of Disney's 2D-animated era, 2009's The Princess and the Frog came as a last hurrah after Disney's foray into Chicken Little, then was followed immediately by Tangled...so where does it stand amongst the Disney greats? Its animation and soulful soundtrack certainly elevate it to that illustrious Disney standard, and Marcus can't get through this episode without gassing up Keith David, not to mention that we get a lovely picture of 1920s New Orleans life and culture...which in turn starts to get a little problematic once you remember the kind of social structure that was around in 1920s New Orleans. Indeed, in addition to some minor pacing issues and the weird look for frog Naveen and frog Tiana, it feels like Disney's hard attempt at being colorblind and refusal to address the social rift between Tiana and Lottie actually makes the film's narrative worse, especially for Tiana's character arc through the film. It's another week with another pseudo-Writer's Desk panel in the back half of the episode, so you know it's another certified banger. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Alex is thoroughly out-weebed on this week's episode of Best Seat on the Couch, as Marcus, hot on the heels of Love, Death & Robots and Transformers One, arises with a multi-month saga planned around the universe of Mobile Suit Gundam, beginning with 2022's The Witch from Mercury. Longtime Gundam fans may find this choice of a beginner's series questionable, but the show is simultaneously a good primer for some of Gundam's most important thematic tenets while also being a fresh take on the formula (a female protagonist!) wrapped up in all of the bells and whistles of high-quality animation, a great soundtrack, and some sick sound design. Join us as we talk about our favorite characters, character arcs, confusing government bodies, and depressing moments, and stick with us as Marcus takes the gang on a genuinely painful Trivia Corner not at all created in retaliation against Alex's Digimon Trivia Corner. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Happy New Year and welcome back to Best Seat on 2026's Couch! Our first episode of the new year calls back to our 99th episode on Toy Story, as Lightyear takes the mythos of Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear character and creates a whole narrative and backstory to him that, apparently, in-universe inspires Andy to buy the Buzz Lightyear toy — fancy that. The film itself stars Chris Evans as a much more Captain America-esque Buzz Lightyear, plenty of time travel, legitimately gorgeous animation and cinematography, and one (two?) particularly funny cat robots, and yet perhaps the most question asked in this episode is: what are the actual implications of this film existing within the Toy Story universe? Join us as we discuss the nice little character moments Buzz has during his hero's journey, Marcus's favorite character and moment 1 hour into the episode, and the film's THREE mid-/after-credit scenes. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

After a brief holiday hiatus, the gang is back to the recording studio with another anime about high school girls doing...things! Like our episodes on Yuru Camp and Bocchi the Rock! in years past, this slice-of-life series released in 2017 appears often on top anime lists and provides a genuinely sweet and enjoyable story hidden behind its unassuming appearance. We get travel montages! Antarctica! Penguins! Inter-friend-group squabbling! The friends we made along the way! And a pretty baller emotional catharsis scene in the penultimate episode to cap it all off. Plus, stick around for another Trivia Corner hosted by dual-threat weeb and biology aficionado Alex, and learn more about the continent that almost nobody knows anything about. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

'Tis the season for sequel films here on the Couch, and coming off of our discussion of Moana not too long ago, we've got the perfect perspective on its totally-not-planned-to-be-a-TV-series-originally-but-was-then-haphazardly-converted-into-a-feature-film sequel, 2024's Moana 2. It's a tall ask to follow up a film like Moana and while the gang agrees that the story and narrative feel pretty fresh as far as sequels go, there are a few...other issues...with this film that do elicit feelings of "soulless cash grab" in certain moments. A great metric on judging a film's writing quality is how many mini-Writer's Desk segments we can cram into the episode to see just how much more this film could have been compared to what we got. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Within the Transformers sphere, the last couple of decades have been owned by Michael Bay's live-action series of Transformers films which are certainly...films. But we don't talk about live-action films on this podcast! Instead, we're talking about 2024's Transformers One, a film that harks back to the G1 days from the 80's and soft reboots the franchise on the silver screen. It's got a star-studded voice cast led by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry, absolutely gorgeous animation, some fun sequences that make you go "damn that was cool!", and a genuinely interesting take on the relationship between the bots that eventually become Optimus Prime and Megatron. It is pretty clearly a kids' movie, and there probably is such a thing as too much Keegan-Michael Key, but as far as the emotional notes and story beats go, we think this movie does a pretty bang-up job. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

You'd have to go aaaalllll the way back to Episode 8 of Best Seat on the Couch to catch our thoughts on Disney/Pixar's animated 2004 blockbuster The Incredibles, and after 14 long years of development, the sequel ended up being a commercial and critical success...but did it impress the four of us? Incredibles 2 ends up still being a pretty excellent and entertaining watch, but there are aspects of its story and its villain that feel recycled a bit, and for a film that rides on the success of its predecessor, it fails to iterate much on that success to put out a sequel that's worth the Incredibles name. Tune in to our discussion on The Screenslaver, Evelyn Deavor (heh), Bob being a stay-at-home-dad, and just how crazy the animated hair is in this film. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Two and a Half Asians returns to the Couch this week to talk about the legend Jackie Chan, the man who brought the Hong Kong action movie to Hollywood while also infusing a level of comedy yet unseen within that genre. This 2000-2005 childhood animated series pays homage to that style of film while adding excellent characters, well-choreographed action scenes, and a unique mystical element to the mythos of this fictional version of Jackie Chan. While it is firmly a Saturday Morning Cartoon™ and does share some of the same issues as Digimon, and while Alex and Marcus are keenly aware of how rose-tinted their glasses are, at some point you have accept that this love letter of a show deserves its flowers. Content warning: strong language, Yu Mo Gui Gwai Fai Di Zao.

Maybe it's surprising that Moana hasn't popped up on the Couch until now, especially considering we've already talked about the more recent Encanto, but the gang agrees that it's a great way to kick off our post-200 slate of episodes with gorgeous and cutting-edge animation, excellent dual protagonists, a penchant for the mythology of the Pacific Islands, and Lin Manuel Miranda's well-crafted post-Hamilton soundtrack. Perhaps the fact that we've already discussed progenitor Frozen and successor Encanto gives us a bit more perspective on this film, letting us compare the songs and the narrative strengths of these "movie-musicals"—and, perhaps, the weakness of two of its primary antagonists. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Nearly 3 years after recording our milestone 100th episode of Best Seat on the Couch, the gang returns for another round of patting ourselves on the back and laughing at our objectively hilarious jokes with another 100 episodes in the rear-view mirror. This second centennial caps off a much more streamlined podcast than our first, and the four of us agree that we've collectively leveled up our discussions, our analysis, and even our speaking skills as we've fully hit our stride in the podcasting space. Join us as we talk about some of our biggest hits (and maybe a few stinkers) over these past 100 episodes, like our multi-month sagas on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Attack on Titan, excellent singletons like Blue Eye Samurai and Scavenger's Reign, and some memorable standout recordings like Robots and the finale of Arcane. To finish off this momentous achievement, Alex reprises the Anniversary Trivia Corner with another set of questions that really test just how much we remember about this journey we've been on together. Content warning: strong language, unabashed self-indulgence.For those of you who are still with us 200 episodes later, thank you thank you THANK YOU for being there with us and pretending that you might find us just a little bit enjoyable to listen to. We hope that you have enjoyed listening to our stupid jokes and hot takes half as much as we've enjoyed recording them, and if it wouldn't be too much to ask, we hope you'll still be here when episode 300 comes around.

At long last, the gang arrives in the current day with 2025's fourth and most recent season of Love, Death & Robots ❤️❌🤖, and y'know, maybe it's gonna be the last one. After Marcus's near transcendent experience with season 3's finale Jibaro, for Tim Miller to immediately follow that up with Can't Stop...let me say this: at the very least, we're able to find 4 separate episodes to talk about as unique favorites in this 10-episode season. And the gang does have some fun picking apart the weaker episodes, pointedly noting that we've got a lot of cats and a healthy serving of Christianity in this season as well. The gang will wait with bated breath to see if a season 5 is on the horizon, and if not, then at least there's Secret Level season 2 to look forward to. Right? Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

In this episode, the gang (who collectively doesn't listen to k-pop) attempts to understand the nuances of ~i d o l c u l t u r e~ as we tackle 2025's KPop Demon Hunters, from the same Sony Animation Studios that brought us the Spider-Verse series and The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Perhaps the most notable aspect of this film is the music, which is currently charting over actual albums from actual musicians (not to say that TWICE ain't a real musical group), and with a number of us being music theory nerds we get deep in the nitty-gritty of just how well this film/musical comes together. It's a fun film that isn't perfect but very effectively earworms its way into the audience's heads, and I'm sure we can all agree: this is what cinema sounds like. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

As far as slice-of-life animes go, Frieren completely shatters the mold with a brand new premise in the fantasy-DnD-adjacent genre and a level of quality (in terms of adapting a manga) that really hasn't been matched before or since its 2023 release. With the eponymous main character experiencing the passage of time so differently than the peers of her past and of the present, it's incredible how well this show treats flashback scenes, the passage of time within the world and its evolution, and the effect of the past affecting characters in the present. It's also gorgeously animated, has a charming soundtrack, and presents its narrative at an unusually relaxing pace, even during scenes where magic is flying across the screen. One thing we can all agree on—this is a one of a kind show that cannot be missed. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Nestled at the tail end of the legendary series of films within the Disney Renaissance, Hercules is both a musical fantasy reimagining and kid-friendly family film that paints the traditional story of Heracles from Greek mythology in a brand new light. It's a bold film that cashes in on some of its bold choices (the Muses are such an excellent edition both tonally and musically) but perhaps encounters missteps on other choices (Zeus is decidedly not a standup dad). And we can't have a discussion about this film without absolutely gassing up James Woods' portrayal of Hades and a couple of excellent songs that have stood the test of time nearly three decades later. Plus, Iris brings a long overdue Trivia Corner that really tests the gang's knowledge (and Marcus' faith in himself) on Greek mythology. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

As promised in our discussion of Love, Death & Robots ❤️❌🤖 Season 1, the following two seasons received higher critical acclaim but needed to tweak the formula a bit, toning down the nudity and gore from the first season but also having to traverse the difficulties introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. And while we all have our favorite episodes and notable stinkers like with Season 1, Marcus posits that Season 3 might possibly be the mythical anthology series season where every single episode is rock solid to absolutely mind-meltingly amazing. That's probably debatable (so let's debate it then!) but the gang can definitely agree that Love, Death & Robots has really found its stride in these seasons, losing a bit of shock value from the more traditionally "adult" themes but gaining a reputation in visual storytelling, short-form narratives, and really thought provoking pieces of genuine art. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Disney/Pixar's slate of films in their "Disney+ streaming era" as it was post-COVID-19 pandemic, to put it shortly, might have been a bit forgettable: the gang has discussed Soul and certainly enjoyed its mellow vibe, but Onward got dumpstered in March 2020 and Luca appears to have completely fallen out of the cultural headspace. 2022's Turning Red, on the other hand, was actually a film brought to our April Fool's special episode that year, and now we get to seriously discuss its impressive portrayals of the middle school experience, Asian heritage, the cultural hallmarks of the 90s, and a genuine coming-of-age narrative. We all agree that it's a bit underrated these days in the Disney/Pixar pantheon, and there's a ton of impressive emotional payoff and strong messages packed into a neat little 2-hour runtime. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.Editor's note: I think it's hilarious that this episode is Episode 4 of Season 18. It's like poetry.

While many kids our age orbited around Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh in the late 90's/early 2000's, a small subset of children—our host Alex included—built their childhood personas around Digimon, starting with 1999's Digimon Adventure and the strange "film" released a year later to cap off the series. And as Alex introduces the show and draws his line in the sand, he braces himself for a nearly relentless onslaught of criticism from the rest of the gang, Iris and Marcus especially. Now let me make this clear: we love Alex on this podcast. He is a gem of a human being. But if this show's generally poor animation, subpar English dub voice acting, wild pacing, disappointing final villains, and utterly baffling collection of Digimon weren't enough, Alex caps this episode off with one of the Trivia Corners of all time. While Digimon Adventure has a few—a few—redeeming qualities, including some satisfying narrative and character moments, I think we on the Couch can all agree that this one is going the way of Aladdin 3. Content warning: the Digi-Rap, strong language.

This week on the Couch, the gang enshrines some well-received fan mail from the mythical Josh, who provided us with our topic for this discussion this episode, The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Released during the COVID-19 pandemic from a number of the same people who brought us Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, this film definitely feels like it was created in (and marketed around) the cultural sphere of the late 20teens/early 2020's, which is especially evident in the humor and the breakneck pace. And in the same way that Spider-Verse felt like a love letter/complete visual re-imagining of comic book media on the silver screen, Mitchells feels like it tries to do the same with amateurish home videos—but does it succeed? Tune into our discussion on the film's emotional strengths, narrative weaknesses, and impressive animation. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Earlier this year, the gang discussed Tim Miller's Secret Level on Amazon Prime, an anthology series designed to highlight various animation studios' chops as they created short films centered around a variety of video games. But before Secret Level, Tim Miller fought through 11 years of development hell to create Love, Death & Robots ❤️❌🤖, an anthology series designed to highlight various animation studios' chops as they created short films centered around...a slightly more broad thematic throughline, I guess. As with most of Marcus' anthology series offerings, there are hits and there are misses, but the hits did hit well enough for the show to win an Emmy! Join us as we deep dive through a couple of our favorite moments and episodes from Season 1, discuss the fear of an AI out-evolving humanity through the lens of sentient yogurt, and dunk on the robot trash dog. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.

Though not technically a Miyazaki film, the gang believes that 2010's Arrietty belongs in his pantheon of works with Studio Ghibli nestled in between Ponyo and The Wind Rises, with thematic and artistic similarities to Miyazaki's more carefree films like My Neighbor Totoro. It's a film that leans heavily on Ghibli's masterful work with scenery, colors, and the whimsy of Arrietty's mini-world, but falters somewhat without a strong main (human) character in Shō (or Shawn) or a particularly strong emotional throughline. If you're like Marcus and enjoy a movie paced like a relaxed afternoon walk, then look no further than this magical Secret World. Content warning: SPOILERS, strong language.