Episode 89 — Gooby

[pscudese 701]

Quaker Oats Anyone?

Man oh man... did anyone see the multiple shots/scenes featuring Quaker Oats product? I know I more sensitive to this since I produce TV commercials, but geez!

 

First when the kid is eating breakfast at the table in the new house. The QO cereal box is always facing front towards the camera. So we never see the boring back when the camera moves.

 

Then when they are in the store, the mom is prominently in front of a Quaker Oats Rice Cakes display. Later Gooby is in front of QO Oatmeal containers.

 

From Pete Scudese

[pscudese 701]

I know you said the parents are horrible, but one of the best examples is when the cookies kept disappearing when the sitter was making lunch. First of all, the second time it happens, the sitter can easily see the boy in her peripheral vision. He barely shifts in his seat, yet somehow he stole another set of cookies.

 

But besides that, the mom comes in and immediately believes this stranger over her own son. I mean she doesn't even know what he may or may not be lying about. WTF?!

 

- Pete Scudese

[pscudese 701]

Did anyone listen to the lyrics of the songs they selected?

One of the worst offenders is the scene right after the movie on October 31.

Gooby and dumb dumb psycho kid are playing around and some of the lyrics are:

 

"All the love in the world surround us."

"I can say you were meant for me"

"I can say you are good for me"

"You are the best of me"

"All I know is what I feel. All I know is what is real."

 

Ewww. Ewww. Ewww.

 

- Pete Scudese

[Equesticle_69 17]

Yeahhhh.... its time for HDTGM to get back to insane big-budget action flicks and stop messing around with these low-budget B movies that are so obviously garbage.

 

man you are talking garbage in my opinion, this was a great film for hdtgm to cover, the weird creepiness is perfect for it.

 

So this is pretty much a tim and eric bit stretched to full movie length right?? like what is that tim and eric part that's a badly animated character that's even called something like gooby?? and the animator is played by A.D. Miles?? this reminded me of that a bit, same inept oddness about it.

[PWGmark92 9]

The trio and Nathan really hit every nail on the head as far as all the bat-shit crazy stuff I saw in the film was concerned. I also agree with Jason that if Gooby was revealed to be a manifestation of three generations of father-son child molestation, this would be the greatest film ever made.

 

Speaking of Jason, it caught my attention that he was shocked that the main demo for this movie according to Amazon turned out to be middle aged men and women. I can actually vouch for this phenomenon. My mother and father are 55 and 59, respectively. They both love shitty, dumbass kids movies and it's one of the few things now-a-days that actually brings them together to sit down for more than 10 minutes before some type of argument can begin. It's completely mind-boggling as to why this happens, but I'm not shocked that the prime demo for Gooby turned out to be middle aged adults.

[Turk71 58]

Could not agree more with the other comments about how "Rom-Com-y" a lot of this movie was shot and put together. There's even a "break up" type ballad playing in the scene where Willy and Gooby have a fight and Gooby grabs a hobo bindle and leaves. Then, just a couple of scenes later, it switches gears and becomes a dark, missing person-type movie (like "The Vanishing" or "Prisoners"). One minor thing: in the grocery store, when Gooby is eating all the cereal and just throwing it everywhere like a pig; Willy stops him and says that's not cereal-that's cat food. And Gooby straight up spits cat food in his face and eyes. What store for ANY reason puts the cat food right next to the kids cereal, let alone in the same aisle?

 

[benk 257]

Repeatedly getting to hear June pronounce "Gooby" has been one of my greatest pleasures in life.

[JustinL 216]

They lightly touched on this, but when the kid was coughing to cover up the sounds of Gooby upstairs, did it make anyone furious that the sounds were not only banging and thumping but also a CAVALRY TRUMPET? At one point there's even a "Honk Honk" and Willy says "Yes Yes!" to cover it up. And the parents are like, "Oh! I thought I was hearing a trumpet above my head, but clearly it was my son coughing two feet in front of me."

 

And to expand on the molestation aspect: Where is Gooby always hiding? In the basement. In the attic. IN THE SHED. This is where the Gooby happens.

 

And the ending has a SUPER-creepy undertone if you view Gooby as a manifestation of sexual abuse. After Gooby shows the dad his childhood secret room, he's reminded of the pain he felt when the Gooby happened to him. That's why Gooby stops for Willy after that. Remember how uncomfortable (but grudgingly accepting) the mother was when Gooby was revealed to her and how he was apparently just going to become part of their lives from now on? It was as if the husband confessed to something and now she had to just deal with it. But just when you think the cycle of terror is over, Willy sees a little girl alone at Home Depot, corners her and asks her if she wants a special friend. Now she's got the Gooby.

[Buttercup Cumbersnatch 0]

To touch on what June pointed out, I think the reason why they referred it as "October 31st" instead of "Halloween" is because I think it's a Christian movie disguised as a children's film. Many Christians refuse to call it "Halloween" because of its supposed ties to paganism so some will call it "Harvest Day" instead or in this case, just "October 31st". Also, notice there were no scary costumes, something that some Christians frown upon.

 

Gooby also tried to push strong family and (what I think) Christian values at the end. The soundtrack also sounds like a dead giveaway. I didn't see the song credits but they sounded like overproduced crappy Christian pop music. I think the lyrics expressing love were being expressed towards God, not a significant other. Lastly, one of the quotes from the trailer is from The Dove Foundation. In their "About Us" section, they make it quite clear.

 

"The Dove reviews, posted online at www.dove.org, are based on traditional Judeo-Christian values."

 

Oh, and VideoViews.org was quoted in the trailer saying "A Perfect Family Film". Look at their website and tell me it's something to take seriously.

[danmalo 26]

I hardly noticed there was a guest this episode.

[2COOL4U69 59]

Repeatedly getting to hear June pronounce "Gooby" has been one of my greatest pleasures in life.

 

Right? She adds a 'y' sound just after the G that makes it sound like his name is G'ewwwwby, which is much more appropriate.

[EllenChristine 13]

Slight corrections and admissions - Did anyone else think the scene with 'the cool kids' passing notes in class was crazy?Willey being the middle man for the notes being passed and being TERRIFIED? I mean he was scared as if he was passing drugs to the other kids. That was insane

 

When Willy is afraid to pass the note the bully tells him "Come on, be a man!"

[Terrigen 40]

I'm watching this movie right now, to prepare for the podcast. So far I kind of like it. I want a big Gooby costume so much! Gooby!

That being said, I will probably hate it by the end.

[Kickpuncher 5012]

I hardly noticed there was a guest this episode.

 

Yeah, I kind of figured that would happen as soon as I saw that Nathan was the guest. I don't think it was really anyone's fault or that it hurt the episode, though.

[cmac94 191]

This movie also reminded me of Toys, in that Gooby was supposed to come into Willy's life to help him through rough times but ends up just being a colossal burden on Willy, much like the Joan Cusak Robot was just a new burden to throw onto Robbin Williams shoulders.

[Joven 373]

Im only about 15 minutes into the movie, but so far its really feeling like an episode of "Are You Afraid of the Dark", except nowhere near as good.

 

*edit- OK, gooby showed up now...its way way worse.

[Louisjab 50]

Actually, I can't find any evidence online to suggest that Gooby received even a penny from Telefilm. Only way to be sure is to look for a Telefilm logo in the credits, but I'm not going to do that because I don't want to touch Gooby with a ten-foot pole.

 

No logo of Telefilm Canada at the end. There was a logo of the Ontario Media Development Corporation (the Ontario version of Telefilm Canada) and the tax credits logos, but that was all. There was probably some provincial money, but my guess was that Gooby was financed mostly privately. So, not as much taxpayers money as I tought. They got my money, though, since I rented that crap.

[Shannon 2953]

Repeatedly getting to hear June pronounce "Gooby" has been one of my greatest pleasures in life.

 

 

Right? She adds a 'y' sound just after the G that makes it sound like his name is G'ewwwwby, which is much more appropriate.

 

 

I only got to listen to the first 15 minutes today due to having to do actual work (boo) but I could barely hold it together and was laughing every single time she said it. And it seemed like it was also making Jason laugh which kept me laughing and my sides hurt so bad after that 15 minutes

[clever_hans 35]

I know this was discussed in the episode, but I think it's important to break down just how insane the whole soccer sequence is. The kids are playing soccer, a ball is flung high into the air, Willy sees that it's going to hit Colin, and rather than, I don't know, catch it, or swat it away, Willy's response is to shove Colin to the ground and get hit instead. Colin gets hit anyway, meaning that Willy actually pushed him into the path of the ball, and he was injured badly enough that Willy was pulled from class to keep him company at the nurse for the rest of the day. Then, the school calls Willy's home and says there's been an emergency, without ever mentioning that Willy himself was not hurt.

 

For those of you discussing the rom-com soundtrack, I believe the song that abruptly starts playing while they run around the supermarket has the chorus, "Every time your eyes meet mine, heaven seems to be just a little bit closer", which could just as easily be about stalking and murdering someone as falling in love.

 

When Willy goes missing, we see his parents go out and open the door to the shed, it cuts away, and then we later hear his mother refer to what they found out there. I'm pretty sure the reason there's no scene of them going inside is that even for this movie, it would be too upsetting to show the moment where they discover that there's been a stranger living in there for weeks, and immediately realize that their son is almost certainly already dead.

 

Exactly how long was Willy hanging from that beam while his father drove over? Bad plan, Gooby.

 

When Gooby is passed on to the girl at the end, why even change back into a toy? Just walk right over and introduce yourself. Gooby apparently didn't do shit for Willy in toy form, and didn't really fulfill his purpose until he was seen by Willy's parents, who had no problem accepting that they live in a world where magic exists and any inanimate object might have a soul.

[hypnotizingchickens 1025]

I hardly noticed there was a guest this episode.

 

yeah, Nathan didn't do much talking... but his comment at the end about being angry if he had watched the movie without having to do the podcast in response to June's "ringing endorsement" was fucking hilarious.

 

anyone who felt a lack of guest should watch an episode of Nathan for You. Paul's comment about him being a genius is an understatement because it is easily one of the funniest and most subversive reality shows on tv right now... especially this season.

[xoValeriexo 4369]

I thought Nathan was great on the show, but I wish he would've had more time to talk. Those three steamroll the guests a bit and I don't care when the guest is someone irritating, but when it's Nathan I'm less forgiving.

[ChristopherRosa 3]

I hope i'm not the only person that noticed that as the kids were playing with game boys (which were actually game boy colors from the early ninties that I used to have, and not more recent handhelds), that he didnt even have a game cartridge in the game boy?

[StanSitwell 811]

I was shocked that none of them made a comment about the kid looking like a baby Adam Scott at times

[Bernard_Shakey 3484]

Repeatedly getting to hear June pronounce "Gooby" has been one of my greatest pleasures in life.

I thought it was hot - "Geuby"

[dzmcgee 3]

Correction:

 

Paul, in the episode, you said one of the producers was John Calvert the magician. While there is a magician named John Calvert, the producer John Calvert just shares the same name as the magician. John Calvert the producer is a television producer for Canadian shows like Bomb Girls and Flashpoint.

 

I only know this cause I work with his son and when I asked him if his dad was the producer of Gooby, he answered back "We don't talk about that movie in our house."

 

 

Reference:

http://www.imdb.com/...ref_=fn_al_nm_2