This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Jesse McAnally: Hello, I'm Jesse McAnally.

[0:01] Alan Seales: Hello, I'm Alan Seales.

[0:03] Liz Esten: And I'm Liz Esten.

[0:05] Jesse McAnally: And welcome to Carrey'd Away, a podcast where we explore the films and television shows starring the one and only James Eugene Carrey. We're talking about a seven minute little movie here. It's a cute little animated film. It probably played in front of something. Remember when movies used to have like little cartoons that played in front of them?

[0:21] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[0:23] Jesse McAnally: I can confirm what it played with. It was on the same VHS tape as Bebe's Kids.

[0:28] Liz Esten: Oh, this is better than Bebe's Kids.

[0:31] Alan Seales: I will say. Without hyperbole, this is probably the best part about watching Bebe's Kids on VHS.

[0:37] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, Bebe. I remember that. That's a little like, like they get you warmed up. They warm up the audience, get you in the mood.

[0:44] Alan Seales: That's what the Looney Tunes were made for. That's what most of those cartoons were made for, is just to play in front of a bigger feature. And I think we should bring back short films in front of a feature film so you have a little extra time to like get to the cinemas.

[0:58] Jesse McAnally: Are you kidding? There's like eight and a half years of trailers now.

[1:01] Alan Seales: Uh, maybe. Okay, this might be just a Michigan blessing. Um, we have a wonderful cinema chain born in Michigan, like called Imagine.

[1:11] Jesse McAnally: And they limit the amount of trailers they have to like five minutes.

[1:15] Alan Seales: I only go to Alamo Drafthouse because it's right around the corner here. And they have like table service. You can get food and stuff.

[1:22] Liz Esten: They have that at Imagine too.

[1:24] Alan Seales: It's like everything at Alamo Drafthouse, half the prices.

[1:28] Jesse McAnally: Right. But I'm saying there's the Alamo Drafthouse pre-rolls, which are like, welcome to Alamo Drafthouse. And then don't talk or text or we'll kick you out, which they don't. Service has gone downhill.

[1:38] Alan Seales: And then they get into the regular previews. And then they get into the movie. And by that point, I've already had six birthdays.

[1:45] Liz Esten: I think that, do they have heated seats or anything like that?

[1:48] Alan Seales: No, but they recline.

[1:49] Jesse McAnally: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So if you're massaging, you're face down.

[1:57] Alan Seales: No, no, no. No, it's a massage chair.

[2:00] Jesse McAnally: Well, I want a full table massage while I'm watching a feature film.

[2:03] Liz Esten: Who doesn't?

[2:05] Jesse McAnally: You just put the iPhone right there in the little...

[2:08] Alan Seales: No, I want somehow zero gravity. I want to remove gravity in the theater so I can be completely perpendicular to the floor, getting a full body massage with a room full of other people, getting full body massages while we watch the next Marvel Universe movie.

[2:24] Jesse McAnally: No one's going to watch the next Marvel Universe movie. Let's be fair.

[2:27] Alan Seales: What?

[2:28] Jesse McAnally: Oh, I'm being real.

[2:29] Alan Seales: All right. Itsy Bitsy Spider. What are we talking about?

[2:32] Jesse McAnally: I'm the exterminator here to de-squirminate, anti-verminate and totally obscurminate your household pests.

[2:37] Alan Seales: I don't know. He looks like he means business.

[2:39] Liz Esten: More than me.

[2:41] Jesse McAnally: Hmm. Excuse me. Pardon me. Pardon me. Give me room.

[2:45] Alan Seales: Can you identify the species?

[2:47] Jesse McAnally: It was a spider.

[2:49] Alan Seales: Was it the baby of Eriseps?

[2:50] Jesse McAnally: No.

[2:51] Alan Seales: Viceria premandibularis?

[2:52] Jesse McAnally: No.

[2:53] Alan Seales: Alpha romeo?

[2:53] Jesse McAnally: No.

[2:54] Alan Seales: Alloproductus mactate?

[2:54] Jesse McAnally: No.

[2:55] Alan Seales: The Itsy Bitsy Spider?

[2:56] Jesse McAnally: Ah! That's him! That's him! Probably came up the water spout during that dry spell. Kind of gives you the willies, doesn't he?

[3:03] Alan Seales: Um, so this film, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, was a short film released on July 31st, 1992, written by Michael O'Donoghue and Jerry Rapp and directed by Michael Callahan.

[3:13] Liz Esten: That's a lot of Irish people. The plot of which is, during a piano lesson, a music teacher discovers a harmless spider, so she calls the exterminator.

[3:21] Jesse McAnally: Um, this was cute. Jim Carrey's fine. He plays the Terminator exterminator character.

[3:26] Alan Seales: I mean, yeah, it was cute.

[3:27] Liz Esten: Yeah, it's cute.

[3:28] Alan Seales: It's on a TV series, too. Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

[3:37] Jesse McAnally: The Itsy Bitsy Spider goes up the wall.

[3:40] Alan Seales: The Itsy Bitsy Spider goes up the wall.

[3:42] Jesse McAnally: The Itsy Bitsy Spider goes up the wall.

[3:44] Alan Seales: The Itsy Bitsy Spider, he always comes...

[3:47] Liz Esten: Oh, okay. That tracks, that tracks.

[3:50] Jesse McAnally: Um, the directors of this. Michael Callahan is the first one. He has done so many animated features of our childhood, specifically probably Alan's. He worked on such things as the storyboard artist on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, um, both the Itsy Bitsy Spider film and series, and then would go on to work on Family Guy, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, um, and so many other films.

[4:15] Alan Seales: Um, eventually landing with Jim Carrey again in 2009's, uh, Disney's A Christmas Carol, where he was a motion capture artist. So, not once, but twice he has worked with Jim Carrey. I wonder if Jim remembers that.

[4:27] Jesse McAnally: I don't think he does.

[4:30] Alan Seales: No. Probably not.

[4:31] Jesse McAnally: That's what I was gonna say. Jim Carrey probably doesn't remember last weekend, to be honest.

[4:35] Alan Seales: Well, he still texts me about last weekend.

[4:39] Jesse McAnally: Oh, yeah. What'd he do, though?

[4:41] Alan Seales: Yeah, what'd he tell you? We were just drinking coffee at the local anti-vax establishment.

[4:45] Liz Esten: You mean church?

[4:46] Alan Seales: Yeah, church.

[4:47] Jesse McAnally: Yes. What type of church?

[4:51] Alan Seales: I mean, it is Easter Monday today. Catholic or Christian?

[4:54] Liz Esten: The Church of Saturday Saints.

[4:59] Jesse McAnally: We also, I also want to talk about the other writer of this film. So, when I say Michael O'Donohue, what does that mean to you, Alan?

[5:05] Alan Seales: It means Irish.

[5:07] Jesse McAnally: It does mean Irish, but he is also one of the founding writers of Saturday Night Live. In fact, he is going to be in the new SNL movie that we keep bringing up.

[5:14] Alan Seales: Ah, who's playing him?

[5:17] Jesse McAnally: That is a good question. I know it's somebody. It's not someone famous. Like, I'm looking at the face and I don't know who this guy is.

[5:24] Alan Seales: Tommy Dewey is playing him.

[5:25] Jesse McAnally: Who is Tommy Dewey?

[5:27] Alan Seales: I don't know, but he's playing Michael O'Donohue, who was one of the founding members of SNL, who then eventually wrote The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and it is one of the last things he did before he died in 1994.

[5:39] Jesse McAnally: I was just reading that. Died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 54. I don't have much time left. This is kind of a very strange melding of the minds.

[5:49] Alan Seales: We've got Jim Carrey, we've got someone who's known for animation, someone that's known for SNL, a little raunchier stuff, coming together to make a fine cartoon.

[5:59] Jesse McAnally: It is fine. It is fine. It is cute. It didn't offend me in any way, so that's a first for the things we've been watching so far.

[6:08] Liz Esten: I'm trying to think of anything else, but no.

[6:10] Jesse McAnally: Liz, what'd you think?

[6:11] Liz Esten: There's a cat. It's cute. There's a cat that kept getting shit on. It's like, it's a cute little short. Like, I don't know, there's a Terminator, like, a quick exterminator who, like, tries to kill a spider and the spider gets away. Like, what else is there to say?

[6:24] Alan Seales: Where else did the, you said that this character, this actual IP of the Itsy Bitsy Spider lives elsewhere, right? Like, it looks like a familiar cartoon.

[6:31] Jesse McAnally: Yes, I missed it.

[6:35] Alan Seales: It's not through Hammer Bear. It was broadcast on the USA Cartoon Express in 1993.

[6:41] Liz Esten: I remember that. And it revolves around a little girl named Leslie who befriends a spider named Itsy and is voiced by Frank Welker in the show, as well as her film, and features Jonathan Taylor Thomas as some boy that they added. Otherwise, the cast isn't that famous, so.

[6:56] Alan Seales: Oh, also Charlotte Ray's in it as the main antagonist.

[6:59] Jesse McAnally: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who was the middle child from Home Improvement.

[7:02] Liz Esten: And Charlotte Ray, who was on The Facts of Life.

[7:05] Alan Seales: Yes, and James Eugene Carrey. Yeah, this show ran for 26 episodes. I mean, we didn't really unpack who the rest of the cast was, so we got Jim Carrey as the exterminator, and we have the very recognizable voice of Andrea Martin.

[7:19] Jesse McAnally: I knew that right away that was the piano teacher, because no one else sounds like that woman.

[7:25] Alan Seales: But the one that I didn't pick up on, Thora Birch was the little girl.

[7:29] Liz Esten: Yeah. No kidding. Like, hocus pocus days, Thora Birch just playing a precocious little girl far away from her eventual American beauty life.

[7:41] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I think that's all the fun facts we have about this movie. It looks beautiful. I miss 2D animation more than I miss some of my family members that have since passed.

[7:49] Alan Seales: Truly, we should return to this.

[7:51] Jesse McAnally: Well, you should come over to my house. My kids will give you some 2D animation.

[7:54] Liz Esten: What do they watch?

[7:55] Jesse McAnally: What do they watch?

[7:56] Alan Seales: No, 2D, 2D.

[7:57] Liz Esten: Oh, because they fart.

[7:58] Jesse McAnally: Oh, they fart.

[7:59] Alan Seales: That's a fart joke.

[7:59] Jesse McAnally: They fart. Come on!

[8:01] Alan Seales: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm hoping for Alan's kids to maybe hear this one day and hear the fart joke he made.

[8:06] Jesse McAnally: Dad, why you gotta embarrass me on your podcast?

[8:08] Alan Seales: Ugh, I don't fart!

[8:11] Liz Esten: My younger one comes up to the microphone and every time he sees it, he puts his mouth right on it and he goes, I'm Daddy.

[8:20] Alan Seales: Welcome to the network podcast broadcast.

[8:26] Jesse McAnally: I'm like, close, but not even close.

[8:29] Alan Seales: Alan, you should change your intro to being I'm Daddy.

[8:33] Jesse McAnally: Daddy. Welcome to the theater podcast with Daddy.

[8:39] Alan Seales: Zaddy, they call me Zaddy.

[8:42] Liz Esten: Oh God, are we filling time again?

[8:44] Jesse McAnally: Yes, how about we move on to the Letterboxd game?

[8:47] Alan Seales: Yay!

[8:48] Liz Esten: Because we have some Letterboxd videos.

[8:49] Jesse McAnally: Yay! What we got, Liz?

[8:51] Liz Esten: We got, all right, I'll explain the rules real quick. So this movie has a Letterboxd page. Surprised me. So I found some reviews that were one or five stars and Jess and Alan have to figure out if they're positive or negative based on random context. That's tis the rules.

[9:10] Jesse McAnally: All right, Jess.

[9:13] Jess: Yes.

[9:13] Liz Esten: You're up first this time.

[9:15] Jesse McAnally: I'm up first because I'm better than you, Alan.

[9:18] Alan Seales: Okay. I accept.

[9:19] Jesse McAnally: All right, Jess. Let me nuke the house.

[9:22] Alan Seales: Five.

[9:22] Liz Esten: That's a one, actually.

[9:23] Jesse McAnally: Oh, damn.

[9:24] Alan Seales: Oh, snaps.

[9:26] Jesse McAnally: Oh, I was confusing it for a quote from Oppenheimer. Dang.

[9:32] Alan Seales: All right, Alan. Oppenheimer.

[9:34] Alan Seales: This could be Oppenheimer. Sloppy.

[9:36] Jesse McAnally: Oh, damn. Wait, for real?

[9:38] Alan Seales: That's generally your view itself.

[9:40] Jesse McAnally: Five.

[9:41] Alan Seales: That's correct.

[9:42] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, because we all love Oppenheimer. It's a good movie.

[9:46] Alan Seales: I haven't seen it yet.

[9:48] Jesse McAnally: Jess. Jim Carrey in The Girl of American Beauty in a Lullaby? This is in all caps.

[9:55] Alan Seales: That's a five.

[9:56] Jesse McAnally: Rhett.

[9:57] Alan Seales: Cat said, fuck you, Miss Trunchbull, bitch.

[10:01] Jesse McAnally: One.

[10:02] Alan Seales: Five.

[10:03] Jesse McAnally: No.

[10:04] Alan Seales: Jess. This proves all exterminators are quadruple cat-killing robots.

[10:10] Jesse McAnally: Well, I know my uncle was an exterminator and he also ran over my cat, so that is definitely a one, because that was a real sad day.

[10:18] Alan Seales: That's correct.

[10:20] Jesse McAnally: All right, Alan.

[10:21] Alan Seales: Yes.

[10:22] Jesse McAnally: Why so violent?

[10:23] Alan Seales: Why so violent?

[10:25] Jesse McAnally: Oh my God, that's a one.

[10:26] Alan Seales: Oh, I'm gonna clutch my pearls, because oh my goodness, it's just a spider.

[10:31] Jesse McAnally: Tell me that's a one. Tell me that's a one.

[10:34] Alan Seales: It was a one, Alan. You got the point, yes.

[10:38] Jesse McAnally: So, you guys rented the VHS of Bebe's Kids too, huh?

[10:43] Alan Seales: I would never do that. I watched the Nostalgia Critic review of Bebe's Kids and he said it was a bad movie, so I didn't rent it, so that's a one.

[10:51] Jesse McAnally: Correct. I never watch a Nostalgia Critic review.

[10:53] Alan Seales: All right, Alan, last one.

[10:56] Alan Seales: I'm ready.

[10:57] Jesse McAnally: A great origin story for Dr. Robotnik.

[11:00] Alan Seales: He does sound a lot like Robotnik. He is using that voice a lot.

[11:04] Jesse McAnally: That's a five.

[11:05] Alan Seales: That's a five.

[11:06] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, yeah, he likes Robotnik. And you guys are tied.

[11:10] Alan Seales: I wanna say, Jim Carrey is fine in this movie. It would have been better with Patrick Warburton.

[11:18] Jesse McAnally: It feels like a Patrick Warburton role, yeah. Patrick Warburton, I bet Patrick Warburton was inspired by The Exterminator Terminator.

[11:24] Alan Seales: Or, honestly, if I was casting it today, H. John Benjamin.

[11:28] Jesse McAnally: Hi, I'm The Exterminator, I'm gonna come in there.

[11:32] Alan Seales: Who would be, how about Dame Judi Dench?

[11:34] Jesse McAnally: Yes, yes, she has the range. I mean, if she can do cats the movie, she can do this.

[11:40] Alan Seales: A cat is not a dog, Alan.

[11:44] Jesse McAnally: Now, what is our overall thoughts, and is this an all-righty-then-or-no spank you?

[11:48] Alan Seales: I'll go first, it's an all-righty-then. Go watch it, it's fun, it's cute.

[11:51] Liz Esten: And it's only seven minutes long.

[11:52] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[11:53] Liz Esten: All-righty-then for me as well.

[11:54] Jesse McAnally: Liz?

[11:55] Liz Esten: All-righty-then for me, it's cute. Go check it out.

[11:57] Jesse McAnally: Yay, yay, we're in unanimous.

[12:00] Alan Seales: I think this is, no, it's not a first.

[12:02] Jesse McAnally: No, we're in unanimous on the porn, saying it was bad.

[12:07] Alan Seales: Yeah, good for us, and hey, good for us, we only made this twice the length of the actual thing instead of just, you know.

[12:13] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. We'll see you next time, guys. Thank you to the Broadway Podcast Network for having us on the platform. Thank you to Grace Aki for doing the art. Thank you for Liz Esten for editing and producing. And our theme song is I Choose You by the band Thangs.

[12:26] Alan Seales: All right, go kill your spiders, everybody.

[12:28] Liz Esten: Okay.

[12:29] ♪ Musical number: "I Choose You" — performed by Thangs ♪