Cooler Than Homework #002 – You Lucky Dog & Superpower Dreams

Nicole Sweeney 0:18
Hello, and welcome to Cooler Than Homework, a Disney Channel Original Movie podcast. I’m Nicole Sweeney and I watched this after getting home from work on Friday because I’m an adult with a job watching Disney Channel movies.

Matthew Gaydos 0:31
I’m Matthew Gaydos. I watched this movie late last night with a glass of sherry. And yeah.

Marines Alvarez 0:39
My name is Marines, and I watched this about 20 minutes ago when I woke up on Saturday morning, like it was a Saturday morning cartoon.

Ceri Riley 0:48
And I’m Ceri Riley, and I watched it while soaking my feet in an epsom of salt bath because I’m an old person sore feet.

Nicole Sweeney 1:02
This week, we are discussing you lucky dog, the 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie. And to start us off, Matt is going to tell us all about this cast and where they are now.

Matthew Gaydos 1:14
Which is gonna be a little sad.

Nicole Sweeney 1:17
No.

Marines Alvarez 1:18
Oh, no.

Matthew Gaydos 1:20
So many people in this cast are dead guys. Not to dwell too much on that. First, we’ve got Mr. Kirk Cameron playing the lead role of Jack and I’ll go ahead and lump her in here while we’re talking about him. Chelsea Noble plays Allison, the attorney, lawyer, whatever in this film, those two in real life are a married couple.

Ceri Riley 1:42
Oh!

Matthew Gaydos 1:43
Yeah, have been married since they were like 21. And the… the only things I think I saw that she acts into this day are the same things that he pretty much acts in, which are the Left Behind movies and the saving Christmas from the atheist movies that he makes. Yeah, the only thing is the two of them still act in are the same projects.

Ceri Riley 2:08
I like the idea of them sitting on a couch and him getting a contract or something to be like, “Honey, you want to act in this one too?”

Matthew Gaydos 2:15
I guess.

Nicole Sweeney 2:16
Well, it also seems like maybe he is involved in producing a lot of his projects too, like because it’s his his whole jam now is being like hardcore, Christian. Whatever, like making Christian media.

Matthew Gaydos 2:30
Yeah. And I think he is the producer on most of those things.

Ceri Riley 2:33
Interesting. Okay, that makes more sense.

Marines Alvarez 2:35
You all made noises like surprise when, um, when you were like they were married, but I knew this one because they starred Growing Pains together. And they’ve been married since very young. She was… she was his love interest in that show and it was one that I watched. And also because growing up Christian, you really didn’t escape Kirk Cameron as like the one Christian celebrity. Yeah. “But we have Kirk!” Great, thank you. It’s everything I ever wanted. But yeah, they’re they’re jam nowadays seems to be just like this Christian media that they do together. So.

Matthew Gaydos 3:14
Yeah, it’s really interesting. And like, it always like creeps up on me and I could kind of forget about Kirk Cameron for a while. And then I see a trailer for Saving Christmas. And I’m like, oooh.

Nicole Sweeney 3:25
Oh, that guy.

Matthew Gaydos 3:26
That’s what he’s doing.

Nicole Sweeney 3:28
Yeah, I also watched “Growing Pains,” but it is now at a point where as soon as I saw his face in this movie, like that’s, that is the mental association that I had. It’s like “Left Behind” and all that. I didn’t, which is also that I didn’t actually watch. But like I’m aware of it.

Matthew Gaydos 3:44
Yeah, he it’s a bit. It’s a little… the Kirk Cameron-ness is tainted a little bit for me.

Nicole Sweeney 3:49
Yeah. Yeah

Matthew Gaydos 3:50
Also, just because not just because of the movies he makes but also, you know, public statements he says,

Nicole Sweeney 3:56
Yes, yes. The words that come out of his human mouth.

Matthew Gaydos 3:59
Yeah. So moving on to some of the supporting cast here. We’ve got the trio of Mr. Windsor’s relatives who are his two nephews and his niece. His one niece is played by Christine Healy. And she does just everything that’s ever been on TV, pretty much, she has been on one episode of so nothing… She’s never had like a starring role, it seems. She’s not in movies– just one episode of TV all the time. Kind of similar with John de Lancie, who plays Lyle Windsor, one of the other nephews. Again, TV actor ton of things. You’ve probably seen him in something because he’s been in everything, including “The West Wing,” which is where I recognized him from. And then the third, let’s say stupider nephew, is played by Taylor Negron who is… my memory he is from “Angels in the Outfield.” And he, unfortunately, beginning this sad train, he died in 2015. And yeah, let’s just continue down this sad train.

Ceri Riley 5:03
Oh.

Matthew Gaydos 5:04
I’m sorry, this is not my fault.

Ceri Riley 5:07
Yeah, Matt. Why did you– Why did you do this, Matt?

Matthew Gaydos 5:10
I’m sorry, I did not save these people’s lives. But yeah, continuing that we had Mr. Windsor who is barely in this movie, but it’s played by Hansford Rowe. He stared in “Dante’s Peak” as well as like an episode of “Modern Family” and stuff, but he died in 2017. Moving on, we have James Avery who plays Calvin Bridges Mr. Windsor’s driver in this movie, he’s obviously most recognizable as Uncle Phil from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” and he died in 2013.

Nicole Sweeney 5:38
Ceri, did you recognize him as Uncle Phil?

Ceri Riley 5:40
I recognize none of these people.

Nicole Sweeney 5:42
Okay.

Matthew Gaydos 5:43
Oh, really?

Ceri Riley 5:44
Yeah.

Matthew Gaydos 5:45
Not even like Kirk Cameron?

Ceri Riley 5:46
No. I live under– there’s like a YouTube series called Under a Rock with Tig Notaro and I’m not like quite that under a rock but very much so.

Matthew Gaydos 5:56
I mean, Uncle Phil is like a very recognizable human.

Nicole Sweeney 6:00
If for no other reason than like, memes, like the internet, I feel like.

Ceri Riley 6:04
Yeah, no. Not even the Internet has given me this knowledge.

Matthew Gaydos 6:11
You might be slightly more familiar with the voice of the next person. Christine Cavanaugh in this plays Bernice slash the receptionist in Kirk Cameron’s character’ s office at the beginning of the movie. Um, she was the voice of Chucky Finster on “Rugrats,” Oblina on “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters,” and she was the original voice of Dexter on “Dexter’s Laboratory.”

Ceri Riley 6:33
That’s cool.

Marines Alvarez 6:34
I love her!

Matthew Gaydos 6:37
Yeah, and I will end that by saying unfortunately, she also died in 2014.

Nicole Sweeney 6:44
Dammit, Matt.

Matthew Gaydos 6:44
I, again, I didn’t…. We can end this on an upbeat note. Lucky the dog is played by Bogus and he’s living on a beautiful farm upstate.

Ceri Riley 6:54
Awww, yay!

Matthew Gaydos 6:56
Yeah.

Ceri Riley 6:56
That’s amazing. I for sure thought the dog was going to be the one of the actors who was dead because–

Matthew Gaydos 7:02
I mean–

Nicole Sweeney 7:03
Ceri.

Matthew Gaydos 7:04
Yeah, uh…

Nicole Sweeney 7:05
A beautiful farm upstate is like…

Ceri Riley 7:07
Oh! Sorry, I’m a child.

Nicole Sweeney 7:14
Yes, the dog lives on a beautiful farm upstate.

Matthew Gaydos 7:19
This 35 year old dog.

Ceri Riley 7:21
You have to keep that in, but I’m very embarrassed.

Matthew Gaydos 7:25
The oldest dog in the world, Bogus, the dog who played Lucky the dog in “You Lucky Dog.”

Ceri Riley 7:30
I, like, didn’t do the math in my head, so I just like ready.

Marines Alvarez 7:36
She just wanted to believe that he was living on this farm, okay?

Matthew Gaydos 7:39
Yeah, that’s fair.

Ceri Riley 7:41
Along with my childhood goldfish, you know.

Matthew Gaydos 7:46
That goldfish that is just running free on that farm.

Ceri Riley 7:48
Yeah, frolicking.

Nicole Sweeney 7:52
Mari, why don’t you tell us what this movie was.

Marines Alvarez 7:55
We start the movie and through an opening montage of article and pictures we establish that Kirk Cameron is a dog psychic. He can read his dogs’ minds. In the movies present day we see that Kirk has set up shop as a dog therapist except it’s mostly a scam because as Kirk got older, he lost this ability to hear dogs. But I think that maybe like the unsaid thing in the movie is that he was once able to hear like his childhood dog’s mind and then the dog probably died. And I don’t know if I’m being morbid or if that’s like the sense that we all got that because it wasn’t like really established that he could hear all dogs minds just that one dog and they never told us like what happened to that dog. It was just like and then I got– grew up and I couldn’t do this anymore.

Nicole Sweeney 8:42
I got the sense that it was all dogs. I honestly didn’t give it that much thought.

Matthew Gaydos 8:48
I think it was a little unclear. Like I think it early on. It does seem like he was talking to all dogs when he was 14 but then in the court case near the end, which we’ll get to he seems to proclaim something along the lines of he could talk to his childhood dog. And then now this is the first dog since then that he could talk to you. So it is also a little confusing even within the proper context.

Marines Alvarez 9:10
Because even in all of like the articles in the montage or whatever, it was just him in the same dog… like him and his dog. All right, well, sorry. I think his childhood dog died and that’s why he lost his abilities.

Nicole Sweeney 9:24
He went to a farm upstate!

Marines Alvarez 9:26
Sorry! I didn’t want to confuse anyone else. Okay, he went to a farm upstate.

Matthew Gaydos 9:33
Yeah, his powers aren’t powerful enough. They can’t reach the farm. It’s too far upstate,

Ceri Riley 9:39
Right! Yeah.

Marines Alvarez 9:39
It’s too far. Okay, great. Any depressing, one day a rich man named Mr. Windsor brings his dog Lucky in and Kirk is surprised to find that he can hear Lucky. So he’s freaked out and sends them away but not before divulging that Lucky is upset by the three awful people that Mr. Windsor lives with. Two weeks later Mr. Windsor’s driver Uncle Phil comes back with the news that Mr. Windsor died. He brings Kirk back to the Windsor estate for the will reading. And basically Mr. Windsor gets some sick burns in his will and leaves nothing to his niece and two nephews and puts everything in a trust for his dog Lucky with Kirk acting as the trustee. Kirk moves into the mansion and becomes Lucky’s new owner. The niece and nephews Margaret, Lyle and Ruben meet with a lawyer to see how they can get the house and the money back. The lawyer says they’d have to prove Kirk mentally incompetent, and he’ll charge a 30% fee, but they’re unhappy with that so they decided to take matters into their own hands. Meanwhile, we learned that the psychic connection thing goes into a full blown like channeling of the dog. So Kirk ends up like scaring off the house maids when he starts digging in the yard for bones, he takes Lucky on like a “Blank Check” type shopping spree but then ends up like barking around the mall and food court so things get a little wild. The niece and nephews fail to get the evidence of Jack channeling the dog and they fail to kidnap the dog. So they head back to the skeazy lawyer who agrees to represent them in court for a 50% fee. At court, despite the testimony of everyone who has seen Kirk acting like a dog, he’s able to prove his ability to channel Lucky and while he’s doing this, he sees one of Lucky’s memories of when Mr. Windsor died aka was poisoned by his one nephew. Kirk snaps out of it and tells everyone that Mr. Windsor was poisoned. The idiot nephew pulls out a gun in court. I don’t know what his plan was. He just pulls out a gun, but Lucky saves the day when he tackles th nephew. And at the very end, we see that Lucky has bought all the dogs in the dog store. The end.

Nicole Sweeney 11:52
Okay, nostalgia check. Have you seen this movie before? Matt?

Matthew Gaydos 11:55
No, it does not feel familiar at all.

Marines Alvarez 11:59
I have not watched it. It also does not feel familiar. And not in the same way that like last week, “Under Wraps,” I was like I’ve seen at least like commercials or posters of this. Nothing. No recollection at all.

Nicole Sweeney 12:10
Yeah, same like absolutely no recollection whatsoever.

Ceri?

Ceri Riley 12:13
Nope. Like as you could tell by the lack of recognition of any actor in it, uh, went in blind.

Nicole Sweeney 12:22
Okay, so did you like this movie?

Matthew Gaydos 12:25
I mean, no. No, I did not. Like the movie that Mari just described sounds better than what we watched. Because all– most of what you just described takes place in like the last 20 minutes of this movie. I mean, meanwhile, most of the movie is just Kirk Cameron doing dog stuff. Over and over.

Nicole Sweeney 12:49
Yes, that’s correct.

Marines Alvarez 12:50
Yeah, that’s that’s not untrue. And yet, I did hate this one. It was fun. I mean, it felt short, which is probably why I didn’t mind that it was just Kirk Cameron doing a pretty decent job acting like a dog. He had the mannerisms pretty down. Um, but.. yeah, sure, it was like it was a romp of a movie. And if my nieces wanted to watch this, like I’d watch it with them. If they wanted to rewatch it, maybe I wouldn’t hate my life. It was fine.

Ceri Riley 13:21
I didn’t like it as much as “Under Wraps.” I think, because I have no experience with these I’m going to like rank them relative to the one that I saw last week, because that seems to make the most sense in my brain. So it wasn’t as good as that. I really liked the dog actor. He was so good. I don’t– I haven’t watched that many movies with dogs in them. But it was like, he did head nods and stuff like that. I don’t know. I had a very dumb dog maybe growing up. She’s great, I love her very much, because there’s no way she could do a fraction of what Lucky did in this movie. So it was fun, mostly for the dog.

Nicole Sweeney 13:59
I also had fun. I, like, I– I think I had more fun with this and I did with “Under Wraps,” though maybe this is you know, because I’ve learned from Ceri last time how best to take in this movie. So I didn’t take notes while I was watching it, which I did last time. I learned that that was bad. So I had more fun watching this one that I did watching that one. I was a little stressed out though because plots where where someone is telling the truth and no one believes them stresses me out like this is this is like the subject of many of my nightmares. So I– it stresses me out so much to watch that happening. But other than other than being incredibly stressed out for Kirk Cameron, who was telling the truth about being able to read a dog’s mind and not being believed by any of the otherwise rational people around him, uh, I enjoyed this movie.

Marines Alvarez 14:52
I’ll also add that I was like secondhand embarrassed for him all the time. Like every time he was like, Oh, no, and like crumbling into the dog position, I was like, Oh, no. And to Matt’s point, yeah, that was a large chunk of this movie where I was like suffering for him as he was digging through trash cans and dirt with his mouth. That was so bad. So yeah, I definitely got the second embarrassment from this.

Ceri Riley 15:18
I think that’s a big part of why I didn’t like it as much because that like all all of Kirk Cameron’s acting like a dog felt not as funny to me. And maybe it’s just because I– physical comedy is harder for me to get into. But it this felt more like a kids’ movie to me. Where it was like, he’s doing a goofy thing. He’s eating a couch, haha. And I could see that being really funny and really entertaining if I was a lot younger. But watching this as an adult made me realize that oh, this movie is definitely not for me, because I don’t think his goofy antics are funny.

Matthew Gaydos 15:58
I think part of that for me was that I didn’t find– uh, I guess like every time he would switch into a dog, it wasn’t like a new different thing he was doing. And it wasn’t like changing it up from the last time he changed into a dog. So it was just kind of the same joke over and over. And I also think I found it less charming because it was a 28 year old man and not like a teenage boy. And I think I don’t know how many DCOMs don’t have kids as their main stars. But I found that a little weird too, of like, this is a grown man starring in this DCOM as opposed to later on when people turn into fantastical creatures and stuff. I don’t want to spoil too much for Ceri, but like when when weird things happen to people in DCOMs in the future, it’s all it is– my recollection is it’s always a teenager in high school.

Nicole Sweeney 16:51
Right.

Matthew Gaydos 16:51
So I think this was a little less charming for me then “Under Wraps” because of that.

Ceri Riley 16:57
Yeah, he was a grown man acting like a boy, like when he took his bubble bath. It just felt weird to me, because I knew that he was an adult acting like a child because of his failed– I don’t know. Yes. All that to say: same.

Nicole Sweeney 17:13
That’s interesting, too, because I didn’t necessarily have that experience, but also, I strongly get it. This was my big complaint watching Buffy was always that the actor who played Xander was clearly 10 years older than the character he was playing. And it made all of his teenage boy shit, like obnoxious like just truly insufferable anytime he was having like, what would be sort of a teenage boy moment? I couldn’t feel sympathy for him because I’m like, this is a grown ass man. Like, I just, I cannot I can’t look at you and be like, oh, man, this sure is some some stuff, you know, teen boys go through. Like, no. You have a 401k and health insurance, sir.

Matthew Gaydos 17:53
Yeah, now I’m just picturing like Kirk Cameron, like, because I read a little bit of the history of this movie, which there is again, just a little bit. And what I read was that Kirk Cameron, like found the script or like, got the script from an agent or something. And he had it like on his desk for years trying to get this made. And

Nicole Sweeney 18:11
Oh my God.

Matthew Gaydos 18:11
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he eventually, like went to Disney. I’m guessing maybe they were like, Hey, we’re starting to make some made for TV movies. And he was like, well, I’ve I got the script for you. It’s going to star me and my wife, and I’m going to be a dog.

Nicole Sweeney 18:26
Oh my God.

Marines Alvarez 18:27
That makes sense because now– you said 28 and I was like, he was 28 in this movie? So I was like looking at what Kirk Cameron was doing in 1998 besides “You Lucky Dog,” and the answer is “You Lucky Dog,” Pretty much all he was doing in 1998, so um, cool.

Nicole Sweeney 18:46
Was really committed to his dog movie made.

Matthew Gaydos 18:48
And it was I mean, to be fair, like he was only a couple years away from his like, Jesus movie beginnings like he made like that same year, he made a movie called “The Birth of Jesus” where he plays uncle Kirk and–

Marines Alvarez 19:04
Direct to video

Matthew Gaydos 19:05
–and a couple years later, he started doing the Left Behind movies. So yeah, this was definitely I think in that like in between world where like “Growing Pains” was done, he wasn’t as famous anymore. I think I watched him in like a TV movie version which I also thought was a DCOM but it’s apparently not, uh, because it was before this that was called “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and it was like a remake of the old Disney movie but with Kirk Cameron playing the star. That one I saw and I think in my brain I thought I saw this one because I know I saw that one. And so they kind of blend together but yeah, he was kind of looking for a new thing to do it to get his star rising again.

Ceri Riley 19:47
Mmhmm. He was like no one else is acting like a dog so I can really stand out.

Nicole Sweeney 19:51
I– I think I found my niche.

Matthew Gaydos 19:55
Maybe he would just like was known to his friends and family is like he does a really good dog impression.

Ceri Riley 20:02
You see, he’s so flexible he got his foot up by his ear.

Nicole Sweeney 20:08
I do also want to say that I loved Uncle Phil in this movie. I every time I don’t know if it was just like Uncle Phil nostalgia that was driving this. But every time he was on screen, I was happy. Probably this is Uncle Phil nostalgia. I’m not sure. Ceri, how did you feel about the driver?

Ceri Riley 20:24
Oh, he was good. He like kept things real, I feel like. Everyone else was pitted against Kirk Cameron. And in some nefarious plot, or like doubting him or something but the driver he was just there like, he just wanted to do a good job. He was like I’m with this family for a while. I guess I believe you. This is weird. I’m going to take a nap, which is a very relatable experience. If you have– if you’ve served like a wealthy person for your whole life, and they’re doing something, some antics destroying the house I would put an earplugs and take a nap too.

Marines Alvarez 21:05
And if it meant the difference between like losing your job and not getting to live in the mansion, like I don’t care. I’ll keep your secret. You can act like a dog all you want, um, it’s cool with me.

Matthew Gaydos 21:17
Yeah, Mr. Windsor was probably into some weird shit. Like he has tons of secrets.

Nicole Sweeney 21:23
this man left his entire fortune to a dog. No, no.

Ceri Riley 21:29
And he had to serve the nieces and nephews or the–

He had have to serve a niece and nephews, too. So by comparison, this man who acts like a dog is probably fine, because he just does his own thing, digs in the yard with Lucky instead of being really demanding about money, or entitled because they were very strange, rich people. I don’t know. I felt like a cartoonish version of what a rich person would be where they’ve never had a job and I don’t know.

Nicole Sweeney 21:34
Yes!

It’s definitely, it was–

Matthew Gaydos 22:00
Cotton sheets were–

Nicole Sweeney 22:02
Yeah, “I use imported shampoo.” Like there were a number of lines that I was like, oh, this is written by someone who also has never had money.

Ceri Riley 22:09
Yeah!

Nicole Sweeney 22:12
Imagining what it would be like to have money.

Marines Alvarez 22:17
Marble floors and imported shampoo.

Nicole Sweeney 22:22
When I’m rich, I’ll have it all!

Ceri Riley 22:24
And as someone who also has never had that much money, it’s like, that sounds fake, but I don’t know what I would write instead. Like…granite floors? That sounds a little fancy nowadays.

Nicole Sweeney 22:40
You watch all the HGTV at the gym?

Ceri Riley 22:41
Yeah! I watch enough HGTV to know that granite countertops are very in.

Nicole Sweeney 22:50
before we move on, Ceri, what was the snack of the episode?

Ceri Riley 22:54
Oh, I ate half a can of sour cream and onion Pringles that I just found in my cupboards so…

Nicole Sweeney 23:03
Amazing.

Ceri Riley 23:04
Yep. Much less prepared than last time, just whatever was around

Nicole Sweeney 23:09
That feels right though.

Ceri Riley 23:11
Yeah. Like the dog, I dug around in the trash that is my cupboards and found something and ate it.

Marines Alvarez 23:18
Relevant to not knowing what people with money do.

Nicole Sweeney 23:25
So this week’s group discussion topic is super powers that we wanted as kids. Matt, what were the superpowers that baby Matt wished that he could have?

Matthew Gaydos 23:37
I was thinking really hard about this because I always like I– people talk about like would you rather like teleport or fly or be invisible or whatever. And I think I always wanted to fly. Mostly just because I also wanted to be like an astronaut and these kinds of things. So the idea of not having to go through astronaut school and just being able to fky up there on my own. Sounds great.

Nicole Sweeney 24:06
I wanted to be an astronaut until I learned that I had to go to school a bunch.

Matthew Gaydos 24:12
I mean, that’s… pretty much. So. I think obviously, as far as like logical grown up Matt goes, teleporting seems way cooler, because you could just instantly be somewhere else.

Nicole Sweeney 24:25
Right.

Matthew Gaydos 24:25
And you could just vacation all the time if you wanted to. So yeah, grown up, Matt would use teleportation, but I think kid Matt just wanted to fly.

Ceri Riley 24:34
Yeah.

Matthew Gaydos 24:34
‘Cause he also liked Michael Jordan, and would be really good at dunking.

Marines Alvarez 24:39
I’m going to answer this question. But first, it takes me back to something that Ceri, you said last week about like how one of her nightmares was, you know, people would ask like, if there was a fire, what would you save? And now we’re talking about like if you had a superpower. And it just takes me back to like all of these essays that people made us write, like as kids in school, or these questions that were like conversational, like, not only like, what did you want to be when you grow up? But like, what superpower would you want? And who is deciding to ask these questions to children and why? I have no idea but it’s like giving me some like childhood trauma right now thinking about this.

Ceri Riley 25:16
What we really want is a 100 word essay from you, Mari.

Nicole Sweeney 25:20
Yeah.

Ceri Riley 25:20
About–

Matthew Gaydos 25:22
Written in umbrella style, we need an outline,

Nicole Sweeney 25:26
Five paragraph essay structure, as your fifth grade teacher taught you. I actually have no idea when you learn to do that. I made that up. When do you learn to write an essay? I don’t know. What our children?

Marines Alvarez 25:40
So… this is gonna sound bad, I– I’m sure of it. But there are two things that like whenever I take like personality tests and stuff that are always present in my personality tests, and one is that I really like to know things like and the negative side of that is like you’re a gossipy bitch, aren’t you? And I’m like yeah I am, Personality Test. That is true. I like to know things. And the other is that I’m like, motivated by success, aka like money. I just like want money, which is also true and relevant to this discussion. So my superpower as a kid was always invisibility, because I could listen to people’s secrets, and steal from banks, and nobody would be able to catch me.

Matthew Gaydos 26:24
Oh, you wanted to be a super villain!

Nicole Sweeney 26:28
You were gonna be a super– Yeah! These were not… these were not hero powers. These were some villain powers.

Marines Alvarez 26:34
Whatever.

Ceri Riley 26:39
Or some kind of like vigilante hero, maybe. I don’t know.

Matthew Gaydos 26:43
Stealing from a bank is not a vigilante.

Ceri Riley 26:44
I think even about the invisibility, more of like you could spy on bad people.

Marines Alvarez 26:46
I don’t know. That’s, that’s what I wanted, though. So cool.

Matthew Gaydos 26:55
Did anybody else want to be a villain as a child?

Marines Alvarez 26:59
But the thing is that I love heroes. And if you would have asked me, if I wanted to be a villain, the answer would have been no. However, I wanted to know things and have money. So that was my solution.

Nicole Sweeney 27:12
No super villain ever thinks of themselves as a superhero, right? So like–

Marines Alvarez 27:17
I’m the hero of my own story, dammit.

Ceri Riley 27:22
So I was trying to think about this. And I don’t know if this is prompted by the movie, but I genuinely can’t think of anything else besides, I would have wanted to talk to animals as a kid. I think I spent a lot of time mostly by myself, sometimes with my brother, sometimes with friends, but a lot of time just like wandering around the backyard. And doing whatever, making art or I had this little, I had this little journal that I would fill out where I wrote down things about like the plants and the bugs and other things that were in the yard. And so I feel like probably not mind reading, and I’d probably want to have a conversation with them instead of whatever, instead of however, the powers manifested in this movie where he could like, get a dog impulse or read the thought, but not talk back, I don’t know.

Nicole Sweeney 28:13
You would like to maintain your own autonomy.

Ceri Riley 28:16
Yeah. I just want to know what the animals are thinking. But when I moved into high school, I was very into the idea of stopping time, but mostly so that I could sleep because I had too many things– I was very, very busy all the time. And I wanted to pack more into my day. And so it’d be like, I would just wish I could stop time for eight hours, sleep, unpause time, wake up, and then keep going and doing everything. So I just could do all the things and not worry about this, this boring human thing that I have to do, which is sleep.

Nicole Sweeney 28:53
Basically, you’re Hermione Granger in high school, which tracks,

Ceri Riley 28:57
Yeah.

Nicole Sweeney 28:58
It 100% that makes sense.

Ceri Riley 29:00
Yeah, definitely wanted a time turner with still want to time turner if you have one, please. Send it my way,

Matthew Gaydos 29:08
I was gonna say you were talking like that was all past tense, high school Ceri? And I’m like…This is also a little bit of current Ceri.

Ceri Riley 29:15
Still current Ceri, yeah. This is true. I think now I like sleep even more than I did in high school. So I’ll need to stop time for a little bit longer. But still stands, would like that power?

Nicole Sweeney 29:27
Well, it’s great too. Because if you stop time to fall asleep, then like you just sleep however much you need to sleep, like the duration of time is whatever, because you’re not going to unpause time until you wake up. So it’s great. Yes. I love that. I love that for you, Ceri.

Ceri Riley 29:43
Thank you.

Nicole Sweeney 29:45
I don’t have a new answer, I guess by virtue going last. I like Matt definitely wanted to fly as a kid. And I think I was thinking about the teleportation thing as you were saying it. I have mixed feelings about it. And I think I would have had mixed feelings that even as a kid too, because, yes, the efficiency of being able to just get from place to place sounds really cool. But also just the experience of flying sounds really cool to me. Like I think I think that’s part of the appeal of this is that I think it would just be fun to fly like rather tha– Mari and Ceri’s answers both have a strong utility to them. And certainly there is some utility to flying, but also it will be cool. I think I think that’s a big piece of why I would want to fly. Because it would be really cool to be able to fly.

Matthew Gaydos 30:37
Have you ever, uh, have you ever gone skydiving Nicole?

Nicole Sweeney 30:41
I have not. I want to very badly but I have not ever gone skydiving. Just that has never worked out.

Matthew Gaydos 30:47
I have been and I can tell you: It’s very cool. Like, especially during the free fall thing. I was definitely doing like Superman arms a little bit. It was like yeah! I am totally flying for 30 seconds and only downward.

Nicole Sweeney 31:03
Yes, that’s the experience that I want. Right. So that’s, yeah, I want a superpower that also seems fun. In addition to being useful.

Ceri Riley 31:11
Well, this also checks out because I was like a more nervous child. Flying does not seem fun to me. So it checks out with both of you that this is like a very cool thing that small Matt would want to fly all the way to space in just going, going on an adventure. I’m just here to do that. Flying sounds like falling. I don’t know. Bad, all bad.

Matthew Gaydos 31:37
I think so many of my like childhood things or like outlooks on life involve just getting to space somehow. I realized, like, as we’re talking about this that, like one maybe flying like I would also have to have a superpower of like lung capacity or not freezing to death in the cold of space. But I also realized that like I’ve literally told this to people before that, like if you know, ghosts are real, and I die and come back as a ghost, all I’m going to do is go to space. Because no one has ever said, like that there are restrictions on where a ghost can float to

Nicole Sweeney 32:18
Right

Ceri Riley 32:18
Mmhmm.

Matthew Gaydos 32:18
So, I’m just gonna keep floating forever, outward.

Nicole Sweeney 32:23
Uh huh. And explore.

Matthew Gaydos 32:24
Yeah.

Nicole Sweeney 32:25
Everything that there is to explore.

Matthew Gaydos 32:26
Exactly and so I could fly and had the lung capacity and not freezing to death thing, I would do the exact same thing. I would just fly outward forever.

Marines Alvarez 32:35
That literally sounds like hell to me.

Nicole Sweeney 32:37
No, I super definitely, like I get it. I and it’s funny too, because you’re talking about needing like, needing to know things or whatever. And I when I think about like, the the thing about space that stresses me out the most is the fact that like, we’re gonna know all sorts of cool stuff long after I’m dead. And I’m really upset that I’m never gonna get to know all that stuff about space.

Matthew Gaydos 32:59
That’s why you gotta go haunt Pluto.

Nicole Sweeney 33:02
Big same. I’ll be, yeah, I’ll be out there hunting space with you, Matt.

Marines Alvarez 33:06
Haunting space..!

Ceri Riley 33:07
Even teleportation kind of falls under this umbrella if like you just teleport to the moon for a second and then come back before you die.

Matthew Gaydos 33:16
But then you don’t fly to the moon, Ceri.

Nicole Sweeney 33:18
Yeah!

Ceri Riley 33:20
I got– see, I don’t understand. As someone who doesn’t think any of this sounds fun. I don’t know what the joy is, is the joy floating for a really long time is the joy–

Nicole Sweeney 33:32
Floating for a really long time, all the cool shit you would see as you were floating.

Ceri Riley 33:36
Got it.

Nicole Sweeney 33:37
Like, there’s like, the journey, right? I don’t know.

Matthew Gaydos 33:40
I could fly super fast.

Marines Alvarez 33:42
You couldn’t tell anybody! You’d just be like, that’s cool, that’s cool, oooh that’s cool. You wouldn’t be able to share or experience with anybody, it’d just be forever– at some point it would stop being cool.

Matthew Gaydos 33:56
I’m okay with testing those limits.

Nicole Sweeney 33:59
Yeah. There’s so much– there’s so much space, Mari.

Matthew Gaydos 34:03
There’s a lot of space.

Nicole Sweeney 34:04
It goes on forever.

Ceri Riley 34:07
I’m with you, Mari. If I’m a ghost, I’m gonna find Earth and overhear conversations and it’s going to be great.

Marines Alvarez 34:17
I’m glad that we’re like at least evenly split. Yeah, so one of us feels weird about our desires to either haunt space or haunt humans.

Ceri Riley 34:30
Those are the two genders: haunt space or haunt Earth.

Marines Alvarez 34:36
Feel free to self identify in the comments.

Matthew Gaydos 34:38
We need, like, Cooler than Homework team jerseys of some sort. Team haunt space or team haunt Earth.

Nicole Sweeney 34:50
All right, well, now it’s time to talk about the lessons that we learned this week on Cooler Than Homework. Matt.

Matthew Gaydos 34:57
I learned that you should embrace life and live every moment as if you could run out in the street and get hit by a bus. Because that’s what that dog taught me in this movie.

Nicole Sweeney 35:10
Actually, direct dialogue.

Yeah, that’s the words he says what he’s channeling through Kirk Cameron. Live like you were dying.

Marines Alvarez 35:19
I didn’t think about how this lesson of the episode would track with my earlier comments and everyone’s just gonna leave this episode thinking I am a supervillain however…. or maybe not, this is this is nice. If you have a rich uncle, be nice to him because if you’re not, then you’ll get written out of the will. Also probably be nice to be like a nice person and all but you know, even if it’s just from the practicality standpoint of it like why would you be mean to your rich uncle? I don’t understand

Matthew Gaydos 35:52
Yeah, get that money.

Nicole Sweeney 35:53
At least your lesson wants to be nice to him and not to poison him so…

Marines Alvarez 35:57
No!

Nicole Sweeney 35:58
On the right track.

Marines Alvarez 36:00
Thanks!

Ceri Riley 36:01
My answer is gonna make me sound more like a supervillain because you want to poison your rich uncle, don’t do it in front of the dog because dogs are watching.

Nicole Sweeney 36:17
I, in spite of being the one whose job it is to ask everyone these questions completely forgot to prepare a lesson of the episode, but I will say that my lesson– the unexpected lesson is that it’s really hard for your paws to gain traction when you run on marble. So.. really important lesson that this movie taught me

Marines Alvarez 36:40
Listen, it’s hard to walk on marble to when I was traveling, and we were going we went to like all of these European or Mediterranean cities that had like ruins and stuff, multiple people just busted ass on like marbel where it had it was like surrounded by you know, dirt and you couldn’t really tell where the marbel still was on the floor. And we were just watching tourists tumble like… it’s not funny. But you would watch people slip, and fall..

Nicole Sweeney 37:10
Isn’t it funny, supervillain?

Marines Alvarez 37:15
A-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Matthew Gaydos 37:15
What a weird evil plot: replace all floors with marble.

Ceri Riley 37:20
Team Haunt Earth thought it was hilarious.

Marines Alvarez 37:26
So anyways, my point is that I feel that dog, I didn’t know that I would have put astroturf in the mansion, but marble is a bitch.

Nicole Sweeney 37:34
And now to close out this episode, Ceri, who knows nothing is going to guess the plot of our next Disney Channel Original Movie. And that is going to be 1998’s Brink.

Ceri Riley 37:48
So– So my first thought when you said Brink is that it sounds like rink, which makes me think ice skating. But I feel like that’s just because it sounds like it to me like the word brink sounds like the sound that ice would make. Like to the brink is an expression. So I’m going to veer away. I don’t think it’s ice skating. I think it’s uh– You’re making noise! Now, I’m scared. Okay, so to the brink. It makes me think more it’s going to be a beach movie. And it’s going to involve some scuba diving. Okay, the main character of Brink is going to be a hot lifeguard who is a little bit shallow and doesn’t really know the meaning in his life. He’s just a beach bum and then he meets this girl who is a scuba diver and knows the riches of the deep ocean or like the slightly deeper ocean and so he’s being pushed to get deeper to the brink to the edges of what he wants was. Uh, and I don’t know what else, okay, let me think about more of the plot of the movie. We have to do antics.

Nicole Sweeney 39:07
I loved that like you arriving at this in the first place basically sounded like the the script for “National Treasure” like sounds like rink sounds like ice.

Matthew Gaydos 39:21
It was like old like Adam West Batman logic.

Ceri Riley 39:26
I have literally nothing to go off, to be clear. The, the way this segment works is Nicole says a word and then I have however much time from hearing that word to whatever my brain comes up with an idea.

Matthew Gaydos 39:41
With “You Lucky Dog,” you have a little bit more to go on.

Ceri Riley 39:44
Yeah, but Brink–

Unknown Speaker 39:45
Brink is truly nothing, truly nothing.

Ceri Riley 39:47
Just an expression. Okay. Um, I think there’s some cliff jumping in this movie. Like maybe he pushes her a little bit more to the edge and like shows here, the wild side of a beach bum. They have a falling out, of course. And then after the second act of the movie, maybe he returns to his old ways of beach party, and she volunteers at the local aquarium. And he’s not into that. I’m just describing “Big Little Lies” now. And the burgeoning relationship between Shailene Woodley and the aquarium boy, but yes, and then it ends with them both jumping off of a boat together into the deep ocean.

Marines Alvarez 40:36
Symbolic.

Ceri Riley 40:37
Symbolic, yeah, uh they trust each other–

Matthew Gaydos 40:39
He’s no longer shallow.

Ceri Riley 40:41
He’s no longer shallow. She, she trusts him and is willing to go on this adventure and be a little bit reckless. No more shallow scuba diving either. And they yell, “to the brink!” as they are jumping.

Matthew Gaydos 40:57
Oh, man.

Nicole Sweeney 40:57
That’s beautiful.

Marines Alvarez 40:59
I love it.

Nicole Sweeney 41:00
I can’t wait to watch this movie that you’ve described

Matthew Gaydos 41:03
Yeah.

Ceri Riley 41:04
Me neither.

Matthew Gaydos 41:06
Okay, how far into “You Lucky Dog” did you get before you went, “oh, I was wrong.”

Ceri Riley 41:13
Like pretty much immediately because they have newspaper articles that say psychic dog and things like that. There’s no baseball in this movie.

Nicole Sweeney 41:25
Well, join us next time when we watch Disney’s Brink and find out how close Ceri got. I wil, I will also leave you with the the tagline of the movie, which is “it takes a champ to stay in line.”

Ceri Riley 41:42
Oh no. That could apply to a lifeguard, too. He’s got the whistle– “Stay in line kids.” That’s my final pitch.

Nicole Sweeney 41:54
Thank you all for listening to Cooler Than Homework. If you are enjoying this podcast, please rate and review it wherever you are listening to it. We would love to hear all your thoughts on this episode and on the classic film You Lucky Dog. There will be a post dedicated to this episode up on snark squad dot com or you can find us all on Twitter. I am @SweeneySays.

Matthew Gaydos 42:15
I am at @MatthewGaydos.

Marines Alvarez 42:17
You can find me @mynameismarines.

Ceri Riley 42:19
And I’m @CERiley.

Nicole Sweeney 42:21
Thank you to Stefan Chin for the theme music that is playing us out right now and we will see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai