Podchaser Logo
Home
Stories Podchats: Christmas Movie Bracket

Stories Podchats: Christmas Movie Bracket

Released Friday, 8th December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
Stories Podchats: Christmas Movie Bracket

Stories Podchats: Christmas Movie Bracket

Stories Podchats: Christmas Movie Bracket

Stories Podchats: Christmas Movie Bracket

Friday, 8th December 2023
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

2:00

Indeed on this podcast. indeed.com/stories.

2:02

Terms and conditions apply. Need

2:04

to hire? You need

2:06

Indeed. Hey parents,

2:09

it's the wimpiest Christmas ever. Diary of

2:11

a Wimpy Kid Christmas, Cabin Fever, only

2:13

on Disney Plus, December 8th. Hoping

2:15

for the latest and greatest gaming system this

2:18

Christmas, Greg is trying his best to stay

2:20

off the naughty list. But when the storm

2:22

of the century hits, Greg is trapped inside

2:24

with his family along with the world's creepiest

2:27

elf watching his every move. With nowhere to

2:29

run, will Greg keep his cool this holiday

2:31

season? Watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas,

2:33

Cabin Fever, the perfect family holiday movie streaming

2:36

only on Disney Plus, December 8th. Rated PG.

2:41

Anyway, yeah, it's a Christmas movie

2:43

bracket. I've polled

2:45

the internet and we've come up

2:47

with the top 16 family

2:50

Christmas movies. Excellent.

2:52

Now for some of these, I've collapsed

2:54

sequels. We're not doing, because you know, there'd

2:57

be too many if I did all the Santa Clauses,

2:59

all the Home Alones, for instance, you know? But

3:02

so, you know, it's the Santa Clauses,

3:04

Home Alones, one and two. We've categorized some

3:06

things that way. Other ones are just the

3:08

standalone hits. But you know, why don't

3:10

we dive into it and we can see how we feel. What do you

3:12

think? Yeah, I'm ready. Ready. First

3:16

up, we got a couple of

3:18

powerhouses here. We're talking

3:21

Will Ferrell's Elf against

3:23

the new animated classic, Claws.

3:28

Oh, okay. So that movie, is

3:30

it Claws or Claws? Claws,

3:33

yeah. K-L-A-U-S. Right,

3:37

I'm saying Claws as like

3:39

a Santa reference. That

3:42

movie was really cool. And

3:45

I think- Gorgeous, too. Yeah, very beautiful.

3:47

What's hard for me in this category, in

3:49

this matchup, is that for me, that feels

3:51

a little bit more special because it's a

3:53

little newer. And Elf's been around

3:55

for a while, so I'm kind

3:58

of like, oh, eh. And I've never was like a- Wow,

6:00

spoiler alert! It's

6:03

a great movie. I do recommend it, but Elf

6:05

is just a new classic. I mean it came

6:08

around and just just has endured, right? Next

6:10

up we got two movies full of weird

6:12

little guys. It is The

6:15

Muppet Christmas Carol and Polar Express.

6:24

For me, I do love

6:26

that movie. I would love to predict what Amanda's

6:28

going to say and I think she's gonna

6:30

say, okay, for me, it's Muppet

6:33

Christmas. You're

6:36

correct. Here's

6:39

how I feel about Muppet Christmas Carol. It

6:42

is classic. It's

6:45

just, it's a classic. It's so funny. I

6:47

don't love the story of A Christmas Carol

6:49

necessarily. Like I think there's just so many

6:51

retellings of it and I kind

6:53

of, I don't know, I think when I was little

6:55

I thought it was kind of scary and I didn't

6:58

really like it, but Muppet Christmas Carol is very fun

7:00

and very silly and I love, I love

7:02

The Muppets. I also love how committed Michael

7:04

Caine is to his role as Evan is

7:06

a Scrooge. One complaint

7:09

I would have is that the music

7:12

is not as good as I would

7:14

want it to be. The songs are like not as good

7:17

and pretty and I think the reason for this is something that

7:19

I have also encountered on our show

7:21

is that when you're doing many characters with

7:23

lots of weird character voices, it's hard to

7:26

like do a cool like

7:28

wide-ranging melody because it's

7:30

hard to like do those voices in like a lot

7:32

of different registers. So you kind

7:34

of have to stick to like one little octave,

7:37

you know, range or like one little kind of

7:39

small chunk of notes

7:41

that you can kind of do, at least for me when I am

7:43

doing all of the voices by myself. So I...

7:46

Yeah, Frank Oz did a lot of those voices.

7:48

Yeah, so it can sound basic. So

7:51

it can sound basic. Yeah, it sounds so a lot of

7:53

the songs are basic. There's only like the one that's

7:56

the in the very beginning that I think is

7:58

is great. It's the after all. There's only

8:00

one more sleep till Christmas. I

8:03

think that one's good. But I really like

8:05

it. I've watched it. That's like a thing

8:07

I've watched a couple times like in recent

8:09

Christmases and I like them up at Christmas

8:11

Carol. Yeah. So,

8:13

okay. Polar Express the book for me is a 10.

8:16

It's a beautiful 10. And

8:19

the silver bell and the

8:21

sentiment and the whole thing, beautiful. I thought

8:23

the movie was pretty well done. I agree

8:25

that the characters looked a little bit spooky.

8:30

I have written here that they're weird little

8:32

guys. Yeah, I would agree with

8:34

Brock Racket's notes on that. But

8:37

I do think it's a cool movie and I think

8:39

that everyone should like see it. But I also kind

8:41

of find it a little long. A

8:45

little draggy. Whereas, whereas, you

8:47

know, this is about but it's

8:49

never too long. Listen, Love the Christmas Carol, perfect

8:53

movie. It seems like it's going on. Polar

8:55

Express, perfect book.

8:58

Perfect book, beautiful book. I

9:00

think all the affection for the movie is kind of

9:02

held over from the book in my opinion. Wait, I'm

9:04

sorry. Mark

9:07

walked in and scared Amanda.

9:09

Oh, and he has the baby. Oh,

9:12

baby. Can you bring her closer? Yeah, do

9:14

you wanna see? Yeah, of course I wanna

9:16

see. Oh my

9:18

God, small. Wait, you're so small.

9:21

He's very small. You look

9:23

very smart. So smart,

9:25

oops, I bumped her head a little bit. Well,

9:28

there goes that. She's fine. Yay.

9:33

You're awake. Oh, she's mad at me. Uh

9:35

oh. Back to daddy.

9:37

Yay. Yay, daddy. Good

9:39

job. Good job. Off we

9:42

go. Bye, daddy. Bye.

9:44

I can't hear you. I realized after I'm like hearing

9:47

you in my ears. And now I can't hear you.

9:49

It's actually funnier that way. Okay. I

9:52

did not expect you to do it. Yeah.

9:55

I think Love the Christmas should move on. Yeah.

9:58

I think so too. another one good

10:00

song in it which is the Marley and Marley.

10:04

Whoo! That's it. Whoo!

10:07

Yeah. But you know what though, you're right. The

10:09

story is... It's scary. It's scary.

10:12

Yeah. And like we were just talking

10:14

about that today and taking... I work part-time in a school and

10:16

I do therapy with kids in a school. And

10:18

we are talking about taking the kids to see that

10:20

because they're doing like a daytime show at our local

10:22

theater. And we agreed

10:24

as a group that it is

10:26

too like chilling for all

10:29

the kids because our kids are eight grades one

10:31

to eight. So for the littles I think that

10:33

they'll be a little spooked. Yeah,

10:36

but I like the Muppet version. All

10:38

right, Muppet Christmas Carol, you're moving

10:40

on. Polar Express, hit the tracks.

10:42

Choo choo! No. Next

10:46

up. Two holiday juggernauts.

10:51

Two holiday heavy hitters. Next

10:54

up we have the

10:56

story of two holiday

10:58

heavy hitters with presents

11:01

that are maybe a little dangerous. Oh.

11:04

It is Gremlins and A

11:07

Christmas Story. Oh. Okay.

11:10

Okay. Okay. That's actually a

11:12

really good... They do have that

11:14

in common. Good call. Gremlins

11:17

is one of those ones that's like, is it a

11:19

Christmas movie? But it is. It is. Yeah.

11:23

I would prefer to watch Gremlins. Again,

11:28

I understand that that's not the popular opinion.

11:31

Well, we also had to watch

11:34

A Christmas Story every Christmas, all day, all

11:37

day growing up. Yeah, it was on for

11:39

24 hours a day. So I think it still is. Yeah,

11:42

I think so too. It's

11:44

overplayed, but it is still my favorite.

11:48

And I do love the movie. And fun fact,

11:50

there is a museum in Cleveland. It was shot

11:52

in Cleveland. It takes place in Indiana, but it

11:54

was shot in Cleveland. And there's a museum there

11:56

in the house that it was filmed in where

11:59

they have a bunch of original props and I went there

12:01

one time and I wasn't expecting to go it

12:03

was like a surprise that it was there and

12:05

I got to go and it was the best

12:07

it was so fun it was they have

12:09

the lamp they had so many of the

12:11

lamps yeah they had the leg lamp I

12:14

have a picture of myself holding the red

12:16

rider BB gun shoot your eye out yeah

12:19

it's dangerous it's really great it's just so

12:21

cute okay gremlins was yeah gremlins

12:24

are really cute some of them

12:28

the movie is kind of like it doesn't the pacing

12:30

I thought was kind of off like I don't know

12:32

gremlins also is not a classic from my childhood it's

12:34

something that I saw later in my life so yeah

12:37

I didn't watch

12:39

it when I was little what do you

12:41

what Brock what did you say that Dan

12:43

always says that gremlins is a classic from

12:45

his childhood yeah gremlins is great gremlins

12:48

too also great it's just a classic

12:50

kind of anti consumerism Christmas movie I

12:53

think everybody should check out I

12:55

gotta say I might be agreed for a pure Christmas

12:57

movie maybe you got to give it to Christmas yeah

12:59

no I agree I understand I think

13:02

we can give gremlins an honorable mention sometimes we

13:04

do that yeah that's true as

13:06

like a you're kind of a Christmas

13:08

movie and you're kind of just for fun yeah

13:10

yeah as I think you could watch gremlins

13:13

any time of the year and be invested

13:15

in it yeah whereas I think a Christmas

13:17

story is like so seasonal it'd be so

13:19

weird to watch that in June yeah why

13:21

like why I wouldn't know me

13:23

neither and I love that movie but I would I

13:25

saw you watching Christmas story in June I'm calling the

13:27

police police

13:30

do Christmas crime

13:34

Christmas story moving on gremlins you

13:37

can go home with this little

13:39

boy but don't feed him after

13:41

midnight because they turned into mean

13:43

gremlins yeah yeah well

13:46

they are mong why yeah you're having a hard

13:48

time with the spoilers whoo next

13:50

up we have two magical Christmas

13:52

mascots you ready for this yeah

13:55

frosty the snowman and Rudolph

13:57

the red-nosed reindeer which which

13:59

version of Frosty the Snowman. We

14:01

these are the claymation classics.

14:04

Oh, oh, okay. Um,

14:06

for me it's Rudolph. Yeah, I

14:09

like Rudolph better. Like

14:11

I like, I like the song better. Frosty is maybe,

14:14

is not really my favorite Christmas song. Um,

14:16

okay, well, I don't want to agree with

14:18

that. I do love the song. I

14:21

do like Rudolph probably a smidge more,

14:23

but I do like that Frosty has

14:25

like the verses and like that smooth.

14:28

Who sings that? Should I know that?

14:30

That's smooth, jazzy, warm tone. Um, I don't

14:32

know. There's so many versions of everything and it's

14:34

hard to know like which one is the one.

14:36

Like the other day we were listening to Christmas

14:39

music on the radio and I was like guessing

14:41

like, oh, I think this one's been cross me

14:43

and it like wasn't and it was Johnny Mathis.

14:45

Looks like the one that we all know is

14:47

Jimmy Durante. But anyway, I think it's Rudolph.

14:50

Yeah, I think it's Rudolph. Like, won't you

14:52

guide my sleigh tonight? Your nose is so

14:54

bright. I think the claymation

14:56

of that one with like the nose that

14:58

like lights up and stuff like that I

15:00

think is really special. And

15:03

the leader, the little deer legs are very charming. Yeah.

15:06

When they slide on the ice, I think. Yeah,

15:08

yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's

15:11

it. Rudolph is better. Frosty

15:13

the snowman. Sorry. Uh, temperature's going

15:15

up. Sun came out. It's starting to melt my

15:17

man. Hey, hey, hey. We'll be back next year,

15:19

bud. Is that another song? Does he come back

15:21

next year? We'll be back again some day. Some day. We'll

15:23

be back some day. We'll be back again some day.

15:25

We'll be back again some day. Next up, I

15:28

got two more modern hits for you. We

15:36

have the Anna Kendrick hit

15:38

Noelle versus the Arnold

15:40

Schwarzenegger vehicle, Jingle All the

15:42

Way. Oh, this is a hard

15:44

matchup. Less

15:46

hard for me. I think Jingle All the Way is another one that

15:48

I didn't see until like later in my life.

15:51

It doesn't have like classic status for me. And Noelle

15:53

I thought was really good. I really liked it. It

15:55

was really good. I think that's the problem. You just

15:57

nailed it. Is that we watched Jingle All the Way. we

16:00

were kids and it

16:03

was just a perfect film.

16:05

Noelle was so cute. It

16:07

was very unexpected, I feel

16:09

like. Yeah. Yeah. It was one

16:11

that I also, I was like surprised to like it.

16:14

Like I was, I didn't know that it was, I

16:16

didn't expect it to be good necessarily. So I really liked

16:19

it. Cause it was, then it, I feel like when you

16:21

go in with kind of like no expectations or low expectations

16:23

and like your socks are blown off, cause you're like, Oh

16:25

my God, it's amazing. Just because I thought it wasn't going

16:27

to be special. Yeah. And I'm an Anna Kendrick fan, but

16:29

I'm still going to vote Jingle all the way. That's

16:32

fine. So maybe Brock can

16:35

help us sort this. Yeah. Yeah.

16:37

Tell me more about Jingle all the way and why you

16:39

like it. Jingle all the way is,

16:41

it's like action packed.

16:43

Action, comedy, adventure, Arnold Schwarzenegger

16:46

punches out a reindeer. Sinbad

16:48

is a mailman who

16:51

pretends to have a bomb a lot of the time.

16:54

Fighting, fighting, fighting over a toy. Like,

16:56

and I understand like, but it's turbo man,

16:58

which is like, I think it less so now,

17:00

but when we were kids, I think

17:03

things are more, they're still popular toys and we

17:05

were kids. There weren't as many options. And

17:07

some years there was like one toy

17:09

that boy girl, everybody wanted. Like it

17:11

was a veto. Jingle me on the, yeah.

17:14

Furby. Sure. And

17:16

turbo man really tapped into that. It was like,

17:18

you could feel that. And then

17:20

at the end he's shooting the turbo discs. He's in

17:22

the jet pack. And I feel like

17:24

when you watch a movie as an adult, like

17:26

an adult with a kid, you also appreciate the

17:28

effort that they're going through because you're like, yeah,

17:31

I do want to make this a magical Christmas.

17:33

How can I do that? It's turbo man. I

17:36

get it. I get it. But he

17:38

waited too long to get the press, you know,

17:40

and it's the dangers of procrastination. And the regret.

17:43

Hey, but at the end, he's the star of the

17:45

parade. Spoiler alert. You

17:49

jingle all the way in the world, both great movies, but I agree.

17:51

Jingle all the way is going to edge it out. You're

17:54

making me want to rewatch it. So I, yes,

17:56

I think jingle all the way should, should move

17:58

forward. Goodbye. All right. Oh, and

18:00

you get Phil Hartman in there as the creepy

18:02

neighbor. Oh, so good. All right, jingle all the

18:05

way You are jingling all the way on and

18:07

Noel. Sorry, but you're taking the L on this

18:09

one. Oh Goodbye,

18:12

it's like Noel Next

18:17

up we got two animated Weird

18:21

whirlwinds. It is the the nightmare

18:23

before Christmas against year

18:25

without a Santa. Oh That's

18:28

a hard one you're without a Santa. Yeah,

18:30

how do percent I People

18:35

love a nightmare before Christmas and I Support

18:38

them in loving it. I just don't as much.

18:40

I like a Halloween movie for me. It's Halloween.

18:42

Yeah, it feels like Halloween It

18:45

reminds me of like Hot Topic in the mall. I don't know but

18:47

I do think it's a great show I watched it this year. I

18:49

have it. I don't watch it every year, but I did watch

18:51

it this year and I was I'm surprised

18:54

at how beautiful the music was like

18:56

I was like it's so

18:59

well done. Yeah But

19:01

yeah, I for me it's more Halloween and I

19:03

just like the year that a Santa Claus is

19:05

so good Yeah, I like we're talking claymation. Yes,

19:07

which is I yeah, I like

19:09

the claymation Yeah classics and I think

19:11

the heat miser right? Yeah, he buys

19:14

her snow miser song Yeah, those were those

19:16

really lived on for a long time anything

19:18

you touch Tends to

19:20

ice in my clutch. Is that right? How

19:25

you gonna how you gonna do What's

19:29

this Actually

19:31

not the best song from that. There's so

19:33

many beautiful like That when

19:35

he's like on the little cliff and

19:37

he's singing who is that Danny Elfman

19:40

or something? There's something here And

19:42

then there's the really fun song that um That

19:45

the Santy Claus put them in that box 90

19:50

years and see if he great song great movie

19:52

great songs Maybe is more of a Halloween vibe

19:54

though, but we like here without a

19:56

Santa for for raw Christmas time here without a Santa

19:58

Yeah, I don't is it falling out a favorite of

20:00

the younger generation still watching You Without a

20:02

Santa? I think they're still watching it because

20:04

our kids at school watch it. Like, they

20:06

watch all the specials every year. So I

20:08

think that the adults are trying to keep

20:10

it relevant. Is it still on, like, ABC

20:13

on special programming or whatever? One of

20:15

them was on, like, last night. I don't know which maybe

20:18

two nights ago, but one night this week. But,

20:21

yes, they're still running on TV. Sounds

20:23

like You Without a Santa is moving

20:26

on. And I remember for Christmas, going

20:28

back to Halloween Town. Goodbye.

20:31

Goodbye. Oh. And,

20:34

you know, we had to get here eventually. When it's only the top 16,

20:37

there's going to be some heartbreakers. And this is a heartbreaker

20:39

if I ever saw one. It is Grinch

20:42

versus the Santa Claus. Which Grinch?

20:44

Yeah. This is, as I said,

20:46

I had to collapse some of these. So this is

20:49

all the Grinches. No. This is all the Santa Clauses.

20:51

OK. Take your favorite one. OK. My

20:53

favorite Grinch is the animated Grinch. Not

20:55

the new animated Grinch. No, I

20:58

know. Classic animated? Classic animated. The short. I forgot.

21:00

Like, 30 minutes, 40 minutes or something. Yeah. When

21:02

I paired these two up, I forgot that there

21:04

was an animated Grinch. I was judging him. The

21:06

Jim Carrey one. But the Grinch,

21:09

who lived just north of Whoville, did

21:12

not. And, like, the animation

21:14

is so cute. Like, when he, like, slinks

21:16

around the tree, like, a little Grinch snake.

21:19

Yeah. I love, and I love,

21:21

you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. Oh, yeah. Oh, my

21:23

god. And the

21:26

Jim Carrey one is still fun. Like, it's a little, again,

21:28

I find it a little too long. Like, I think some

21:30

of these things, I guess. And they're

21:32

probably not even long runtimes, but I feel like

21:34

they're long. Yeah. I

21:36

did not see the new one, but I heard

21:38

people loved it. Like, a lot of my friends

21:40

who have kids

21:43

ages, like, three to six, it

21:45

was on, like, repeat in their houses. So I

21:47

know it was a very popular movie. I

21:50

just didn't see it, so I don't know. Yeah. Now,

21:53

the Santa Claus. But the Santa Claus one,

21:55

two, and three. So I've only

21:57

seen the Santa Claus one, but. Bye.

26:00

Bye. Bye. Love you. It's

26:03

only going to get harder from here because next up we got, again,

26:06

two more kids classics. These were big hits when

26:08

we were young and I think they're holding up.

26:11

Home Alone versus Charlie Brown Christmas. Oh,

26:14

Charlie Brown Christmas was a big hit before we were kids. That's

26:17

even older. I actually

26:19

don't... I think Charlie Brown Christmas is cute

26:22

and I think all the Charlie

26:24

Browns are cute because they are.

26:27

They're cute. They're sweet. Yeah. I

26:30

don't like watching it as much as I

26:32

like watching Home Alone. Home Alone's more fun.

26:34

I will say these two films

26:37

in particular are

26:39

really notable for me for their music.

26:41

I think that the music in Home Alone

26:43

is really... I mean, they're Christmas classics but

26:45

those particular versions of them are really good.

26:50

It's like... And used really effectively, I

26:52

think. So I think the soundtrack and the kind

26:54

of like the orchestration and all of that

26:56

component, the musical component of that movie is very

26:58

well done. And a little kid

27:00

gets to make traps which every kid loves. Yes.

27:03

And there is original music as well too, I think. It's

27:06

a really... I just really like the

27:08

music in Home Alone and then the scoring and

27:10

then Charlie Brown Christmas

27:13

has the... And then it has the... Yeah,

27:15

I think you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's

27:17

really pretty and a little

27:20

melancholy. There's

27:26

a lot of, I think, sort of complexity in

27:28

it which is really pretty and

27:30

nice. Yeah, I love it. The

27:32

main Home Alone theme has that sort of sadness to it.

27:35

To the... I can't sing

27:37

like you guys can. Yeah, I thought

27:39

it a little bit like Harry Potter

27:42

but I get the gist. I think it's also... Because

27:44

I think it might be John Williams. John

27:46

Williams, yeah. Yeah. But yeah,

27:48

so I just think that both of those random

27:50

pairing but both of those for me I think are

27:52

notable for the music in them and their contribution

27:55

to our Christmas music as

27:58

a whole. I still think I take Home Alone. I pick

28:00

Home Alone 2 even though I'm not like thrilled about

28:02

like I definitely feel. All right. I would

28:04

also pick Home Alone and Home Alone I'm glad that

28:06

it's enduring. Yeah and it's fun and

28:08

I actually do like Lost in New York.

28:11

Me too. Because I

28:13

obviously like the bird lady. Yeah.

28:16

She's important. She's really important to my

28:18

life. I think about her I would

28:21

say at least three times a month. Yeah I can

28:23

see that for you. But

28:26

I have a friend who has a little girl

28:28

and her little girl just her favorite things in

28:30

the world are making hand turkeys and

28:33

Marv from Home Alone. Oh.

28:36

So she's combined them into her new favorite hobby

28:38

which she was doing it for months and months

28:40

and I don't know if she still is but

28:42

she would make hand marvs where she would trace

28:44

her hand on paper like a hand turkey. Hand-turvy.

28:46

But then every finger was a different version of

28:48

Marv from the movie. That's amazing. Like

28:50

Marv with his... That sounds neat. No this is

28:52

true. So like Marv in the

28:54

hat, Marv when his face got

28:57

hit by the iron, Marv tarred in

28:59

feathers. That's

29:01

amazing. That's very funny. That's very

29:04

funny. Yeah. Home Alone

29:06

is a good... it's good for us to move forward.

29:08

I will say quickly that this is

29:10

another one that we had on VHS when I was a child

29:12

but my mother didn't want us to watch it

29:14

because she was like I don't want

29:16

you to think that we would ever leave you Home Alone. Like

29:18

we would never forget you if we went to the airport. She

29:20

didn't want you to set up devious traps. That's probably what it was.

29:22

She also was like mom he had a great time. That's

29:26

the best Christmas ever. Yeah.

29:28

No pizza has ever looked as good as that

29:30

big cheese pizza he orders. Pizza in

29:33

movies and television always looks better than like pizza.

29:35

I love pizza in real life but also like

29:37

it looks amazing when it's photographed. Especially in... You

29:39

know when it looks the best and the Ninja

29:41

Turtles animated series. It does. I

29:43

know. It's like drippy cheese. It's

29:46

really good. So good. But yes

29:48

Home Alone. Goodbye to Charlie Brown. Which we do.

29:50

We still love you. Yeah we do. These

29:53

are good movies. Yeah. When

29:55

he's picked the top 16 I mean they're all going to

29:57

be hits. And when you get down here they're all bangers

29:59

here. Home Alone, you're moving on. Charlie

30:01

Brown Christmas. We've crushed a bunch

30:03

of ornaments and sprinkled them on the ground.

30:05

Good luck trying to get through our devious

30:08

trap. Alright,

30:11

we're going to pick up the speed from here and get our winner.

30:13

Are you guys ready? I'm ready.

30:15

Alright, again, these are all going to be hard.

30:17

Top 8, here we go. First one up is

30:19

Elf versus Muppet

30:22

Christmas Carol. Um,

30:25

I don't know. I think it's Muppet. I

30:30

think that's how I think that Elf would

30:32

be probably the popular pick, but I

30:34

like Muppet Christmas Carol. And I'm

30:36

probably not the best person to be in this bracket

30:38

because Elf is just not my favorite and I feel

30:40

like a lot of people it's like their favorite. I

30:43

agree. I think a lot of people love her. It's

30:46

I mean, maybe this is the contrarian in me again

30:48

that like I I'm okay with

30:50

leaving off behind here. I think it's good. But I think

30:52

for me, it's not it's not champion. I will watch

30:54

it this season. Like I do. I

30:57

love Elf too, but I'm with you guys. I think Elf is

30:59

great. But I think it skews a little

31:01

older too. When we're looking at these kids holiday

31:03

movies, I think Muppet Christmas Carol is just top

31:05

tier. Yeah, so good. Alright,

31:07

so Muppet, we're putting you on Elf. We

31:10

love you. But you know, go home, make

31:12

yourself a cup of cocoa. Next

31:15

up to old school classics. It

31:18

is Christmas Story against Rudolph, the

31:20

red nosed reindeer. Rudolph.

31:23

Oh, I pick a Christmas story. Well, Brock.

31:28

I remember finding both of these

31:30

very boring as a child. Why?

31:32

A Christmas story is so great. I

31:34

don't like it. I think I think.

31:37

I think we got burned out on it.

31:39

We probably did like it. But you understand

31:41

my our father would play

31:43

this all day, every day. I

31:45

think I know with the Christmas story,

31:48

we watched a lot. Our dad, he

31:50

loves that movie. So when

31:52

they play it for 24 hours on Christmas,

31:54

it's on all day. And if you try

31:56

to change it to something else, he doesn't

31:59

like that. And then we have to

32:01

watch it all day. And I

32:03

think I just don't need to see it

32:05

anymore now that I'm an adult. We

32:09

used to have it on all day too, and I just

32:11

like was a fan. And you liked it. And I liked

32:13

it, and I liked it at the museum. Yeah.

32:15

All right, well, I gotta give it to Christmas Story just in

32:17

honor of Dad, I think. He's still

32:20

alive. Ha ha ha ha. And

32:23

he would pick Christmas Story. No,

32:25

I know, it just sounds like he's not when

32:27

you say it like that. All

32:30

right, Christmas Story, you going on?

32:32

Rudolph? You can't

32:34

join in our reindeer games, bud. Ha ha ha

32:36

ha. All right,

32:38

next up, we got two

32:41

very Santa-focused movies, Jingle

32:43

All the Way and Year Without a Santa. I

32:46

think I like Year Without a Santa better than Jingle All the Way,

32:48

even though I do love Jingle All the Way. What?

32:51

I love Year Without a Santa. I love it.

32:54

Ha ha ha. I already said that. I

32:56

said it's a claymation

32:58

bop. Yeah, I think

33:00

I feel the same way about this one as I did about the

33:02

Grinch and the Santa Claus. I

33:05

think there's a right answer, and the right answer is

33:07

Year Without a Santa. Ha ha ha.

33:09

Well, listen to your heart, Amanda. I mean,

33:11

my heart says I have seen Jingle All the Way once

33:13

maybe a few years ago. So I pick

33:16

Year Without a Santa. Well, my vote

33:18

was for Jingle All the Way, one of

33:20

my longtime Christmas favorites. Year

33:24

Without a Santa, you moving on? Jingle All

33:26

the Way? You're moving on in my

33:28

heart, buddy. Don't worry about it. Ha ha ha. All

33:31

right, in the last of this round, we've

33:33

got Grinch versus

33:35

Home Alone. I'm

33:38

actually gonna vote for the Grinch. You'll

33:41

elaborate at all? No. Ha

33:43

ha ha ha. I

33:45

think the Grinch is more of a Christmas movie than Home Alone.

33:49

Ah, yeah. Well, Home Alone, though, is

33:51

just like definitely, like it's a Christmas

33:53

movie. I mean, it's another one

33:56

that I wouldn't watch another time of the year,

33:58

really. Yes, you would. Nah. It's

34:00

a Christmas movie, let's not get into the weeds

34:02

here. It

34:04

feels like Christmas to me, I guess, when I watch

34:06

it. I

34:08

think maybe again this is because it's another one

34:10

that I watched a lot growing up. I would

34:12

say Home Alone more for me. I'm

34:16

a tiebreaker, I'm going to give it to Home

34:18

Alone. I think it's more entertaining. I

34:20

just think people will sit and watch Home Alone. I don't

34:23

know if anybody's sitting and watching the Grinch on repeat anymore.

34:25

Well, I mean it's only like a minute

34:27

long. Well, if we're talking about the original

34:29

animated Grinch, but I think people are definitely

34:31

watching the new Grinch and Jim Carrey Grinch

34:33

plenty of times. Not us

34:35

necessarily, but I think just if

34:38

that's the argument. Alright, but if it's tied

34:40

and I get a vote, we're going Home

34:42

Alone. The Grinch,

34:44

the old, the mean one, Mr.

34:47

Grinch. Mr. Brockrackets. You

34:50

have to leave our bracket.

34:55

Final Four. What's

34:57

up? Muppet Christmas Carol

34:59

versus Christmas Story. Oh, it's

35:01

like my nightmare. You know what? I'm actually going

35:03

to let you handle this one. I

35:07

vote for Muppets. Oh,

35:09

yeah. That's okay, I understand that you're not going

35:11

to. I'm going to vote

35:14

for a Christmas Story. I love Muppet Christmas Carol,

35:16

but a Christmas Story for me

35:18

is the Christmas movie. Like that's sure. And I

35:20

went to the museum and it was so fun.

35:23

It was so fun. I know, you had

35:25

a night. Yeah, I

35:27

did. Okay, fine.

35:30

Fine, fine, fine. Sorry.

35:35

Alright, no, we love Muppet Christmas Carol,

35:37

but Christmas Story. Give me your

35:39

bestness, Piggy. I know you can do it. Not

35:42

you. Oh,

35:44

sorry, I thought you meant me. Oh,

35:47

Kirby. Yes, it does. I

35:50

feel like a little Yoda, like sometimes it's hard

35:52

to do. Oh, it can be the same. We've

35:55

probably talked about this before because you've done

35:57

a Miss Piggy before. Yeah. I'm

35:59

ready. And

38:00

I don't disagree that I enjoy Home Alone. I

38:02

just had a top three and it wasn't in

38:04

it. Sure. I

38:06

prefer Home Alone to many of the movies

38:08

that we've talked about today. I'm beating this into the

38:10

ground. What do you guys like? We like Home Alone.

38:12

Yeah, we agreed. It's a hard, this is

38:14

a really hard bracket for us and I want you to respect

38:16

that it takes us time to sort through our

38:19

emotions and our feelings and that's okay if it takes you time to

38:21

sort through your emotions and your feelings. Yes, take all the time you

38:23

need. Take all the time you need. All right,

38:25

Home Alone, moving on, year without

38:28

a Santa. I like bracket without

38:30

a Santa. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.

38:33

Next up, our finale. We've cooked

38:35

it down to Christmas

38:38

Story versus Home Alone. Well,

38:42

I have an answer and I think you do too and

38:44

they're not the same. I mean, my answer is a Christmas

38:46

story. Mine's Home Alone. I just

38:48

like don't really love a Christmas story. I went

38:51

to the museum and it was so fun. Wait,

38:53

did you go to the museum? I went

38:55

there. It was in Cleveland. Guys, wait, hold

38:57

on. Did you guys know? In

39:00

Cleveland, there's a Christmas story museum.

39:03

The movie was not filmed in Cleveland. It was

39:05

filmed in Indiana. No, it was filmed in Cleveland,

39:07

but it takes place in Indiana, but

39:09

it was filmed at the house where the museum is. It's

39:12

really close to the airport and you can go there too. Wow.

39:17

I still vote for Home Alone. I do not really

39:20

like a Christmas story and

39:22

maybe I need to watch it. I

39:24

will watch it this holiday season and

39:27

I probably will feel the same way. That's

39:30

okay. I mean, this is a really- And

39:32

the Bird Lady, Home Alone 2. We're

39:35

also putting together sequels. There's no sequel

39:37

to a Christmas story. It ends. It's

39:40

a story and it's over. And

39:42

Home Alone, come on, Lost in

39:44

New York. Remember he runs that

39:46

giant hotel bill? Love it. What

39:49

a gag. Oh, well,

39:51

part one has Shovel Man, who's the beloved

39:53

counterpart to Pigeon Lady. Yeah.

39:56

Great play. But I do agree with the man that I

39:59

think Christmas story is just- No, no, no. Yes.

40:04

Yes. I can't wait

40:06

for all of the angry, emotional

40:09

emails to come pull in. Send

40:11

us an email if you don't agree with us, or if you do.

40:14

Email me. It's Kelsey,

40:16

K-E-L-S-I-E, at storiespodcast.com. Again,

40:18

that's Kelsey, K-E-L-S-I-E, at

40:20

storiespodcast.com. And you can

40:22

see, see me on

40:24

it, which is Amanda,

40:26

at storiespodcast.com. Amanda spelled

40:29

A-M-A-N-D-A. I

40:31

don't want to hear it. Please email us

40:33

because... Yeah, do it. You'd be doing me

40:35

a favor in the sea of emails from

40:37

Brock Rackets and from... What's the other guy's

40:40

name again? Wiz Quizly. And from

40:42

Quiz-Wiz. Oh, Dan Hines, you mean? No, Wiz

40:44

Quizly. With the

40:46

slow emails I get from Brock Rackets

40:48

and Wiz Quizly and from Dan and

40:50

Andrew, I could use some

40:52

fun. Well, in

40:54

my defense, you did sign up

40:56

for my Brock Rackets hourly newsletter.

40:59

I know. What a mistake. I

41:01

keep thinking of the scribe. And

41:03

the Quiz-Wiz, Wiz by the Quiz Minute. Minute

41:10

even. The Minute to Win It Quiz Wins. Yeah,

41:15

I have a lot of newsletters. You don't

41:17

have to, I mean... Whatever.

41:20

So, I think we're going to end

41:22

with Chris's story. That's the end of the bracket, but

41:24

you know, the bracket doesn't tell the whole story. So why don't you guys

41:27

go through your top three again? Just recommend

41:29

them out to the family so you're looking for a movie to get

41:31

them into Chris's spirit. Hit those top threes. Okay,

41:34

well, if you're going to go start short, you're going

41:36

to start with the animated Grinch. The original, nice and

41:38

quick, super cute. Do all the Grinches. I

41:41

don't care, but I do like the little short one

41:43

the best. A

41:46

Santa Claus, one, two, and three. Watching all

41:48

three is non-negotiable. It's just

41:50

not. And then there's a new TV series, which

41:52

we actually find quite cute. I actually

41:54

don't know what that's streaming on. Probably Disney+. Probably.

41:57

Probably. And then... Oh,

42:02

you're without a Santa Claus. Yeah, I think I

42:04

said that mine were a Christmas

42:06

story, Muppet Christmas Carol, and Home Alone.

42:09

Oh, so you did great on this bracket. I

42:11

did. Yeah, she did great. I think if I had a Christmas story...

42:15

Wait, guys, I just thought of something. We

42:17

should all go to the Christmas Story Museum.

42:19

Yeah! It's great. It's not an expensive medium.

42:24

If you've been there, send a hand

42:26

to an email. Yeah! Send

42:29

me your pictures. I have a bunch of fun pictures

42:32

of myself. Did you go by

42:34

yourself? No, I went

42:36

with friends, but I was the most enthusiastic.

42:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. One time

42:41

Dan brought me to a museum called the

42:43

Crypto Zoology Museum. Oh! Where

42:46

is that? I want to go. It's

42:48

in Portland, Maine. Oh, sure. That's a

42:50

drive. I did not want to go,

42:53

of course. Yeah, you didn't want to go see

42:56

a real tuft of Bigfoot's fur or

42:58

a blurry picture of Mothman? I don't know

43:01

what's wrong with me. It

43:04

was a good day. Hey, guys.

43:06

That was really fun. I feel

43:08

like I need a candy cane,

43:10

a hot cocoa. Yeah, I feel

43:12

really in the Christmas spirit. Me

43:14

too. Let's all go have a candy

43:17

cane and some hot cocoa. Yeah, yeah. And

43:20

do whatever your family does for your

43:22

holiday. Also, I like the fruity candy canes more

43:24

than the mint candy canes. No!

43:26

Oh, my God! Bye! Thanks

43:29

for listening!

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features