Culturezoo: A Mighty Guild Of Geeks!

This time on Culturezoo, despite a bad internet connection at the beginning, we talk about the 2000 classic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, by Ang Lee.

The recap is over, time for some discussion. On this episode we have a special guest, Steve, who bares his Oz-scarred soul for us.

On this episode we tackle the forgotten 80s gem, Return to Oz. This is a film released by Disney that Disney tried to bury in their vault. It’s actually pretty cool in a very 80s sort of way. In Part 1 we do a recap. In Part 2 we discuss the film.

This week on Culturezoo we discuss the gorgeous 2010 animated film, The Secret of Kells. We’re joined by special guest, Jack on this one. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

It’s the inaugural episode of our Bad Book Blitz where we read the Amazon excerpt of a “bad” book and decide if we would keep reading. Tonight we read the lengthy prologue and first chapter of “The Days of Elijah, Book One: Apocalypse” by Mark Goodwin.

Our final Out of the Silent Planet episode! We chat about the literary framing device that Lewis unveils in the final chapter and then give our final thoughts on this novel. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

In our penultimate Silent Planet episode, we reach the climax of the book in which Weston confronts Oyarsa and has to take some tough medicine and we return back to Earth and England and finish up with a “pint of bitter”. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom makes it to Medilorn and comes face to face with Oyarsa. Misunderstandings abound and humans come out not looking all that great. The short story we reference in the discussion is called “Forms of Things Unknown”. It’s released in the collection “Of Other Worlds”. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom engages in something between a hunt and a battle with an extraterrestrial shark and ends up finally meeting the dreaded Sorns. We talk a bit about the mythology of Malacandra and non-heroic protagonists. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

In these chapters Ransom gets to know the “natives” and discovers a culture that is both remarkably similar and different from anything on Earth. Conversations about life, death, religion, and pleasure ensue. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom makes it to Malacandra and promptly flees. After wandering through the Malacandran landscape and fighting off fits of madness, he has his first real encounter with one of the native, sentient species, a Hross. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

Ransom goes from terror to courage, Earth to Malacandra this week and things get theological as we tackle the next three chapters of Out of the Silent Planet. Subscribe to Culturezoo on Apple or Sticher

It’s time for our Culturezoo summer series! For the next seven episodes we’re going to do a bi-weekly book club where we read three chapters of a book and… um… talk about it. The book we’ve picked is Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis. In this episode we cover Chapters 1-3 where we … Continue reading Out of the Silent Planet: Chapters 1-3

This is a special Culturezoo episode where we are joined by Sam (11), Jane (9), Lucy (8), and Charlie (6) and talk about one of our family’s favorite comic trilogies, Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke. We cover all three books Zita the Spacegirl, Legends of Zita the Spacegirl and Return of Zita the Spacegirl. … Continue reading Culturezoo Junior: Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

This podcast about Princess Kaguya is being released on the day that it’s director Isao Takahata passed away. This is his final film and maybe his best. We spend a lot of time trying to wrap our heads around this beautiful, thought-provoking film and things get theological towards the end. Some of the things we … Continue reading Princess Kaguya

The circle is now complete and just in time for the Last Jedi. The Culturezoo team tackles the final act of Revenge of the Sith and give our final thoughts on the series as a whole.

On today’s Culturezoo Levi, Rosalyn, and Zach cover act 2 of Revenge of the Sith. Does this film finally break our and become the shining exception of the terrible prequel trilogy or does it crumble into mediocrity? We certainly have our opinions…

Back after a long absence, Levi, Roz, and Zach finally dive into the final film of the Star Wars prequel trilogy: Revenge of the Sith. In this episode we cover the first act from the opening to the end of the space battle.

Ranking an artist like Miyazaki’s work is an inherently stupid endeavor. But nobody said we were geniuses. So without further ado, we present Levi and Rozalyn’s rankings of the Miyazaki films. Note: We don’t include The Castle of Cagliostro for some reason. We really should have discussed it though. I guess we kind of forgot … Continue reading The films of Miyazaki ranked by Team Culturezoo

After a two month delay, which included bouts of sickness and trips across oceans and continents, Culturezoo is back to cover the last Miyazaki film: The Wind Rises. The Summer of Miyazaki has poetically turned into the fall and then Winter of Miyazaki. This is one of his stranger films and somewhat of a departure … Continue reading The Wind Rises