Christmas Movie Draft Special (w/ Harrison Fredericks & Andrew Fossier)

Eli Price (01:14.692)
Hello everyone and Merry Christmas. We are here today for a special episode of the Establishing Shot podcast, a podcast where we usually do deep dives into directors and their filmographies, but today we will not be doing that. We will be doing a special mega Christmas movie draft. It's gonna be a fun one. Really excited.

If you haven't joined us before, our usual fare is going through the movies of a director, movie by movie, through their whole filmography, deep diving, and looking at all the fun stuff about how the movie was made, what the movie is about, all that kind of stuff. But yeah, today, it's just for fun. Which it's...

always for fun, but this one's especially, I feel like, for fun. But yeah, I'm Eli Price. I am the host of the show, and I have two guests with me today. Usually we have just one, but we have two today for this mega draft. So we have back our guest from the Tenet episode, Andrew Fosier here with us.

Andrew Fossier (02:33.792)
Hello, hello.

Eli Price (02:35.261)
second time guest and also Harrison Frederick's second time guest also he was with me for I believe it was the Royal Tenenbaums episode that's right

Harrison Fredericks (02:45.843)
It was. I'm glad to be back.

Eli Price (02:48.812)
Yeah, yeah. Glad to have both of you back. And so, yeah, we're going to be drafting Christmas movies. It's going to be a fun, interesting episode. It's a little different than our usual drafts too. Maybe a similar, I did a kind of a horror sub genre draft with Zachary Lee on an episode back in October.

And it'll be a little similar to that. We have categories that we've got to fill. And yeah, so I guess I'll, for the audience, go over some of the details real quick of the draft. And then we can randomize the draft order and jump right in. How's that sound?

Andrew Fossier (03:39.992)
Sounds like a plan.

Harrison Fredericks (03:40.33)
I'm ready. Hey, it's Christmas time, let's get it.

Eli Price (03:42.156)
Sweet. Yes. Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas. Uh, now no mercy from here on out, you know? Um, yeah. So basically in our typical drafts, what we're, what we're doing is, um, we're just, we have a category that we're drafting from and we just go back and forth, uh, kind of picking, um, what.

Andrew Fossier (03:52.848)
Hahaha

Eli Price (04:09.38)
You know, movies we like best from that category. Me and Andrew did a spy movie draft on the episode he was on with me. So we went back and forth choosing from the spy movie category. Andrew beat me in that, um, in that movie draft. Uh, it was close. And then I think Harrison, we did the Disney classics. I think animated Disney classics. That was fun.

Andrew Fossier (04:25.792)
It was close, but yes.

Harrison Fredericks (04:32.318)
Yep. And I totally messed up how a draft actually works. I remember that well.

Eli Price (04:39.024)
I remember that it still worked out well. I think I barely beat you. I think it was like by a voter to But um, I was surprised I thought you were gonna beat me Yeah, yeah, yeah Peter Pan people are people aren't so sure about that one anymore, I guess But yeah, so today since there's three of us we can't just go back and forth so we're gonna be doing

Harrison Fredericks (04:44.318)
Yeah, it was close. I think you got me with Peter Pan. I should not have drafted Peter Pan.

Yeah

Eli Price (05:06.612)
what is called a snake draft. All that means is the pick order will reverse each round. So basically, pick one person in the one slot, the two slot, then the three slot, and then it'll be the three slot again, and then the two and the one, and then the one, and the two and the three, and so on. It'll basically snakes back and forth instead of going straight like linear one through three each round.

So that's basically how the order will go. I'm going to randomize the order right before we draft. I'll do that in a second. But before I do that, let me read out the categories we will be drafting from, so that you can kind of keep up with that at home if you want to. And of course, we'll be posting the results of the draft for the people, the people out there to vote on, on who had the best draft. So.

There will be basically a winner and then two losers, a first place loser and a second place loser.

Harrison Fredericks (06:11.282)
Hey, that's what Christmas is all about, man.

Eli Price (06:13.968)
Exactly. Competition. But yeah, here's the categories. We have seven of them. The first is Blockbuster. So we're categorizing Blockbuster as movies that have made a hundred million dollars in the worldwide box office or higher. Usually you would probably do domestic box office, but the numbers I found were worldwide and so that's what we're going by.

Harrison Fredericks (06:16.706)
Hehehehe

Eli Price (06:42.5)
So yeah, Blockbuster, the next category is action, horror, fantasy. So any movies in those genres can be picked in that category. The next two are also genre categories, and those are comedy and drama. And then animated is the next category, so an animated movie. And we have two more.

One is short specials and TV. That category is basically anything short film. That's less than 45 minutes. Maybe a special that aired on TV or a streaming service, a Christmas special, or a TV episode. If you have a TV episode that you love, you can draft it in that category. That's a Christmas TV episode, of course. And the last one is wild card, which is pretty self-explanatory. You can put anything you want in there.

It's a wild card. But yeah, that's our categories we're drafting from. I'm excited. Uh, I'm going to pull up a randomizer. I'm going to hold it up to the screen, click randomized so that we can all see. Uh, maybe you can't, it's on my phone. You can't really see it. Okay. If you hold it at the right angle, you can kind of see it. All right. So I have our names in this randomizer. I have the cookies cleared. Um, and I'm going to hit randomize.

Andrew Fossier (07:50.88)
We trust you Eli, in the spirit of Christmas.

Harrison Fredericks (07:53.098)
Yeah, spin that wheel.

Andrew Fossier (07:56.622)
Hehehe

Eli Price (08:04.62)
And the order is picking first Harrison, picking second, it's me. And picking Andrew is picking third is Andrew. I just said picking Andrew. So I actually was hoping for a first or third, uh, so that you, cause you can double up on picks when you're picking first or third, uh, so yeah, I ended up with the short end of the stick. I feel like here, but, um, that's what I'll blame it on. If I lose that I picked second.

Harrison Fredericks (08:08.993)
Let's go.

Andrew Fossier (08:13.852)
I can test these results. I want to reroll.

Harrison Fredericks (08:14.478)
Hahaha

Andrew Fossier (08:22.914)
Yes.

Andrew Fossier (08:32.001)
Hehehe

Eli Price (08:34.2)
Right in the middle. Okay. Well, that's the order. So it'll be Harrison picking first and then me and then Andrew. So basically what we'll do is, uh, when you're up to pick, you will, um, you know, you can name the movie and the category that you are picking it in. And then we'll, we can talk about it before, between each pick. Uh, so yeah, Harrison, you're up with the first pick. What you got?

Harrison Fredericks (09:02.99)
Cool. So after briefly looking at the categories, there's one that really concerned me because I don't think I have a ton of options. So I'm gonna go after the short specials and TVs category first. I feel like if I nail this one down, I feel pretty confident about the rest of the categories. So the Charlie Brown Christmas, is that a special? Does that count as a special?

Eli Price (09:20.101)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (09:25.423)
Okay.

Eli Price (09:28.933)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's a short and a special, I think. So yeah, it double fits.

Harrison Fredericks (09:34.386)
Okay, perfect. So I'm gonna go ahead and lock that in. If I can, that's my first one. Charlie Brown Christmas is a classic. It's, the animation honestly still kinda holds up today. It's several decades old, but it's still great. It's a classic that airs on TV to this day. They play it every year. And they also, it's also one of the only specials, movies, Christmas like,

Eli Price (09:44.813)
Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (10:03.554)
visual parts that still incorporates like the story from the Bible. Uh, so it's kind of rare in that aspect. And those are the reasons why I like it so much.

Eli Price (10:10.184)
Mm-hmm the Christmas story

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's hard not to love the Charlie Brown Christmas special. I think that's a really smart pick actually. Because it is a harder category to choose from. And that was probably the number one pick for that category. It was mine anyways. I don't know about Andrew, but...

Andrew Fossier (10:24.213)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (10:37.532)
I had it on my list. It's a good one.

Eli Price (10:39.107)
Yeah, yeah.

Yep. All right. I am up now and I honestly don't know how you guys feel about this movie. I love this movie and it is my favorite Christmas movie and so I'm going to I'm going less with the strategy here and more with the heart and I'm going to go ahead so that no one else has the opportunity and take I'm up at Christmas Carol in comedy.

Um, I love I'm up at Christmas Carol. It's my favorite movie. Gonzo as Charles Dickens is the Christmas best Christmas character, I think. And then, uh, yeah, you, I mean, you've got Michael Cain playing straight. Like he's playing a straight Scrooge in the Muppet world, which is phenomenal. Fantastic. And he does it so well. And then the songs.

Andrew Fossier (11:32.779)
Hehehe

Eli Price (11:41.144)
All the songs are great. Like I walk around humming the songs all Christmas season. So yeah, that's my favorite Christmas movie of all time. I watch it every year. I'm up at Christmas Carol.

Andrew Fossier (11:55.256)
Good pick. Yeah, yeah. That's a strong choice as well.

Eli Price (11:55.866)
Do y'all like them up at Christmas Carol?

Harrison Fredericks (12:03.09)
Yeah, it's a family tradition for us. I think when I was a kid, I remember the Jacob and Robert Marley scene would like give me nightmares. I just remember being terrified of the Ghost Brothers. And now that I'm an adult, it's like, dude, they're just muppets. But you know, when you're a kid, things like that kind of freak you out. Overall though, the music is probably the best part for me.

Eli Price (12:14.113)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (12:26.082)
Yeah.

Eli Price (12:30.272)
Oh yeah. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, I just love Gonzo and Rizzo. Um, like telling the story. It's great. I love it. Um, but yeah, Andrew, you're up. You've got two picks. Where are you going to go first?

Andrew Fossier (12:43.984)
Okay, well, I am actually really glad I am third. Cause my weakest category, I feel like, well, weakest in that I didn't have a lot of options for it, but is drama. I am going to grab It's a Wonderful Life. And I know that is, I mean, that's probably, I don't know if this is accurate. I feel like that's the most.

Eli Price (12:57.933)
Yeah.

Okay.

Eli Price (13:05.03)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Fossier (13:12.344)
Christmas movie. I don't know why. I remember seeing it in high school for the first time and it just, it was an impactful thing. I don't know. I really liked it. It's a drama. It's a good drama pick, but I didn't have very many to follow up. So I'm glad I got to cinch drama.

Eli Price (13:30.32)
That's fair, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that's a top pick anyway. So like, it's not like you're wasting it, wasting a pick there. It's a well loved Christmas classic for sure.

Andrew Fossier (13:35.873)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (13:39.285)
Yeah.

Yeah. And then I think I'm gonna go, ooh.

Andrew Fossier (13:56.236)
Man, I don't know where to go next. I guess I will grab.

drama or not, sorry, action horror fantasy with a very strong violent night. I know that might be a wild one, but as soon as I saw action, I was like, yeah, that's where I'm going.

Eli Price (14:05.83)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (14:12.88)
a violent night.

Eli Price (14:21.976)
Okay, yeah, so Violent Night, I actually just watched it like a couple days ago, I think, like for this draft and I actually really liked it. I thought it was really good. Like I saw some people's reviews on Letterboxd that gave it like two stars and they were like, I don't know, their critique was like, made me say like, what movie did you think you were going to watch when you turned this on? Like it's-

Andrew Fossier (14:25.813)
Really?

Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (14:32.086)
Yeah!

Andrew Fossier (14:38.296)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (14:49.722)
Yeah...

Eli Price (14:50.456)
It's in the title that it's going to be like kind of a corny action movie. Like.

Andrew Fossier (14:58.28)
Yeah, the thing that just stuck with me about it that I liked so much was the different take on Santa, like the darker, kind of more serious, you know, because you see Santa action, you think, ho, you know, something funny, and it really went darker and serious, and I liked that about it, it was good action.

Eli Price (15:05.072)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (15:10.905)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Eli Price (15:17.432)
Yeah. You see your first, your first view of Santa is Santa in a bar between, uh, between towns, uh, between, before going to the next town, he's hitting up the bar. Uh, and you do, there were some flashbacks to like who he was before he was Santa. And I was like, Ooh, I'd like to see the movie of that transition.

Andrew Fossier (15:21.688)
Hahaha.

Andrew Fossier (15:28.211)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (15:36.744)
Right. That's what I mean about like the darker, more serious Santa Claus. Because I don't, I mean, that's not really that I'm aware of been done in that way, at least. So yeah, it was a good.

Eli Price (15:47.448)
Yeah. It's a unique, it's a unique Santa movie. It also like, it has a lot of really honestly, just fun Christmas related kills. And then it actually has like a heart to it too. Um, yeah, it was definitely in consideration for that category for me. Have you seen it, Harry?

Andrew Fossier (15:59.197)
Yeah

Andrew Fossier (16:05.719)
Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (16:11.198)
I have not. I remember all the trailers, all the promos for it, but I never got around to it.

Eli Price (16:16.012)
Yeah, you should. You should check it out this Christmas season. I think it's streaming on Prime. But yeah, Violinite, that's a good one. All right, this is tough. I think I'm going to go ahead and take a.

Eli Price (16:40.908)
Yeah, oh man, here's the thing. I have, man, I have, yeah, the shorts one is pretty thin. I think I'm gonna wait on it though, and go ahead and take my drama. This is another one that I think is great. I'm gonna go ahead and take Miracle on 34th Street, the original one.

Um, not the one with the Matilda girl that was made in like, when was that? Like the nineties or the early two thousands, I think the remake. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (17:24.539)
I'm not sure on the date.

Harrison Fredericks (17:25.996)
Now, my question is, are you taking the original black and white version or are you taking the remastered colored version?

Eli Price (17:30.42)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, not the remake, not the remake that they did the original black and white Miracle on 34th Street.

Harrison Fredericks (17:41.29)
Yeah, I'm always curious about what people think when they take those classics and add color to it. I think it kind of ruins it. I personally like the black and white look. Um, but yeah, I'm curious what y'all think.

Eli Price (17:52.304)
Yeah.

Eli Price (17:56.608)
Yeah, I didn't even know they had colorized it, honestly. I've only seen the black and white version. I know they did a remake of it with the girl from the Matilda movie when I was like a kid, so I feel like it was in the 90s. But yeah, I didn't know they colorized the original one.

Harrison Fredericks (18:04.519)
Yeah, that's...

Harrison Fredericks (18:16.766)
Yeah, they've colorized that one. It's a wonderful life. A handful of others from like that time period, I guess because they're trying to make it appeal to maybe a modern audience who like wants color instead of black and white, but there's just something classic and iconic to the black and white look.

Andrew Fossier (18:24.517)
Hmm.

Eli Price (18:24.603)
Yeah.

Eli Price (18:31.654)
Yeah.

Eli Price (18:36.089)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (18:36.148)
No, I definitely agree. I mean, I think too, the vision of the person directing it and the choreographer, not thinking the right word, the filming of it in black and white had a specific vision and just slapping a coat of paint on it, I don't know, maybe it's fine, I'm just overreacting, but yeah, I feel like I like black and white.

Eli Price (18:54.32)
Right.

Eli Price (19:02.192)
Hehehe

Harrison Fredericks (19:02.258)
No, it's like trying to put an Instagram filter on something that was made a long time ago. It just doesn't, you just shouldn't, shouldn't do it.

Andrew Fossier (19:10.348)
Yeah.

Eli Price (19:11.792)
Yeah. I didn't even know that was a thing. I'm glad I didn't know. But yeah, I would never watch the colorized version. I'm only watching that. I did see recently, though, I watched. This is not Christmas light related. I just thought it was interesting before Harrison picks. I watched a trip to the moon. It's like the early 1900s short. It's like a little short.

film. And I started watching it, I think it was on max. And it's only like 15, 20, 25 minutes long. But it's, it's like these wizard guys that go to the moon and come back with an alien basically is the movie. But it was colorized. And I was like, wait, this is weird. I was like, why is it in color? I don't want to watch the

the like a colorized version. So I stopped it and I looked it up and it turns out the guy that made the movie went frame by frame and painted it. And there was like pieces missing of it for a long time that they found that he had like went frame by frame like painting all like painting the, you know, the film. And then it was like.

Andrew Fossier (20:19.699)
Wow.

Eli Price (20:37.284)
you know, projected and had, and then it was like colorized, which is like incredible. But yeah, it's definitely worth checking out. It's not like it's a phenomenal piece of work, but it's definitely like probably a cool film history thing to check out. Um, but yeah, I've gave Harrison some time to figure out what he's going to pick to top a miracle on 34th street.

Andrew Fossier (20:42.58)
Yeah, that's amazing.

Harrison Fredericks (21:02.114)
That's really funny because I haven't been thinking about it whatsoever. So I'm really on the spot here. I get two picks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think I should go action horror fantasy next because that's another category I'm a little worried about. Now the problem is the horror Christmas genre is very small. So

Andrew Fossier (21:05.953)
Yeah

Eli Price (21:08.644)
You have two picks though.

Eli Price (21:21.808)
Okay.

Eli Price (21:27.448)
It is.

Harrison Fredericks (21:29.158)
I might lean into action here, and this may be controversial for some people. I am going to die hard. That's what I'm going to do for Christmas action.

Eli Price (21:36.028)
I know where you're going.

Andrew Fossier (21:41.134)
Mmm.

Eli Price (21:45.484)
Yeah, a smart pick. I agree. I don't think there's any question that it's a Christmas movie. It's at Christmas. There's a lot of Christmas jokes. Yeah. And I mean, there's Christmas songs on the soundtrack. Come on. It's a Christmas movie. People can just get over themselves. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (21:47.529)
Yes, yes.

Harrison Fredericks (21:55.986)
I mean the dude's name is Argyle. That's Christmas.

Harrison Fredericks (22:08.106)
Yeah, that's a fun one to debate with people.

I don't, I just, I don't know, I'm speechless. But obviously I've shown my cards, so I'm going with Die Hard. Now for my second pick, see I don't wanna go with something easy and jeopardize my chances with something else. So I might go animated here.

Eli Price (22:35.215)
Yeah.

Eli Price (22:39.853)
Mmm.

Harrison Fredericks (22:41.078)
And are we including, what am I thinking of? Stop motion, like claymation, is that included in this?

Eli Price (22:52.225)
Yes, that's animation. Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (22:53.962)
Okay, sweet. Because there are a lot to pick from. If we open the door to claymation, there's tons of options. So for animation, I think I'm gonna go with Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I watched that one a ton as a kid. I used to, I kinda wanted to be Santa Claus in that movie because he had like a pet penguin.

Eli Price (22:55.856)
You're making me nervous though.

Eli Price (23:03.895)
Yeah.

Eli Price (23:11.189)
Mmm, good pick.

Eli Price (23:15.941)
Mm-hmm.

Harrison Fredericks (23:23.362)
and his best friend was like a wizard. Like as a kid, these, yeah, these ideas were just awesome. Like he's the coolest character ever.

Eli Price (23:24.019)
Yeah.

Any top?

Eli Price (23:31.289)
Uh-huh.

And he's a ginger, which is like really appealing to me.

Harrison Fredericks (23:37.918)
Yeah, 100%. Ha ha ha.

Andrew Fossier (23:38.366)
Okay.

Eli Price (23:42.092)
And he teaches a wizard how to like love again. I mean, a evil ice wizard, he melts his hard heart. Like, oh, it's beautiful. It's actually like a really fun like little introduction to like the legend of Santa Claus too for kids, I feel like.

Harrison Fredericks (23:45.418)
Yeah, it's beautiful.

Harrison Fredericks (23:59.07)
Yeah, I think so. I think some of the choices and maybe, you know, the claymation is old, you know, it's from the 60s or the 50s or 60s, I think. So some of it may be a little outdated looking and the shapes may be a little funny sometimes, but fantastic kids movie. And I think it's one that's on every year for me.

Eli Price (24:07.789)
Oh yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (24:24.268)
Yeah, yeah, agreed. My wife doesn't like love those rank and bass claymation movies, but I do. I grew up watching them. So I just watch them with my son. She doesn't have to watch with us. But yeah, I would definitely watch those with my son. They're good. Yeah, that's a good pick. I am trying to figure out where I'm going to go next.

It's tough because...

I don't know. OK, let me see. What do I have? Let me go to my personal list that y'all can't see. So I've taken my drama. I've taken my comedy. I guess.

Eli Price (25:13.088)
y'all kind of took um

You know what? I am going to go a little bit crazy here. I have some other action horror fantasies that I like, but I'm going to actually take what would be considered an animated movie in this category. And I'm going to take The Nightmare Before Christmas in action horror fantasy. It is an animated...

Andrew Fossier (25:42.034)
Mm.

Eli Price (25:48.092)
kind of horror fantasy movie. So I could have taken an animated, but it is my next most favorite in that category. And actually one of my favorite Christmas movies too. So I love, I just love that movie. I think the music is like some of the best like written musical, animated musical.

music ever is just like so clever and catchy and fun. And then the concept is fun. It actually has interesting themes of loneliness and knowing that you have a calling and sticking to that and stuff like that. I just love it. It's so fun. And it's actually beautiful.

Have y'all seen it, the Nightmare Before Christmas?

Andrew Fossier (26:51.929)
It's been a bit but I've seen that, yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (26:54.162)
I actually haven't seen it. I just watched Corpse Bride for the first time this Halloween and it was recommended that I jump right into Nightmare Before Christmas Next, but I was like, wait, I thought this was a Christmas movie. So it's on standby for right now.

Eli Price (26:54.725)
You've seen it, Harry.

Eli Price (27:00.373)
Okay.

Eli Price (27:05.381)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (27:09.764)
Yeah.

Yeah, I always watch it either Halloween or Christmas every year. I didn't watch it Halloween this year, so it'll be, it'll be Christmas for me this year. Um.

Andrew Fossier (27:18.2)
I'm going to go to bed.

Harrison Fredericks (27:19.17)
That's a pretty unique movie to be able to fit with two different holidays like that.

Eli Price (27:23.968)
It is. Yeah, it's, it's so good. You're gonna love it, Harry. If you love, if you think the music in Muppet Christmas Carol is great, you're gonna love A Nightmare Before Christmas because it's got just as good, if not better written music. And then I would say like it's one of the most beautifully animated movies too. Like it's obviously like it's kind of like the Halloween parts are like

Ugly because it's you know witches and stuff, but it's like beautifully animated like the way he shoots like There's like the iconic shot of you know, Jack Skellington against the moon But like when you actually watch it in real time, it's like it's actually like man. That's actually beautiful But yeah, I love that movie so I'm happy to take it here but Andrew has two picks now come in

Andrew Fossier (27:58.198)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (28:05.761)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (28:21.528)
Okay.

Eli Price (28:22.085)
the turn of round three and round four.

Andrew Fossier (28:24.767)
So...

This is good because I had some blockbusters. I'm glad, I'm glad, it's my pick. So I'm gonna go for comedy, and I don't think this is gonna be contentious at all. I'm gonna take Elf for my comedy. My relationship with that movie is funny because I think when we did Tenet, when we did Tenet I talked about that was the first place I saw.

Eli Price (28:37.989)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (28:46.673)
nice.

Andrew Fossier (28:57.696)
Dark Knight, that was my first introduction to Nolan, was in my speech and debate class, because we watched movies often. And I don't remember if it was specifically that class, but any time in school, we had an option to watch something, like a sub or, you know, last day of, you know, the week or something. People wanted to watch this movie. And so I saw the first 45 minutes of Elf. I don't know how many times in high school, it's comical how many times.

Eli Price (29:00.581)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (29:12.836)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Fossier (29:25.028)
And it's a funny movie. It's a funny movie. So I'm going to grab that for comedy.

Eli Price (29:28.141)
Yeah.

Eli Price (29:31.844)
Yeah, love it.

Andrew Fossier (29:34.556)
And then for Blockbuster, thank you, yeah. Yeah, it's a good movie. For Blockbuster, I was really nervous when I saw Eli's sweater because home alone is my Blockbuster pick. That is a VHS that we wore out. I really like that movie.

Eli Price (29:34.618)
It's a good pick.

Eli Price (29:51.931)
Okay. Good.

Eli Price (30:01.412)
very good. Yeah. Home Alone, Elf and Home Alone, two really solid picks. Like you might have won the draft just with those two picks.

Andrew Fossier (30:11.66)
Well, you know, and it's like I was a I was I was gonna say are we playing to win every play because I feel like those are I feel like those are really strong picks and also to just two of my top Christmas movies honestly the only reason I didn't grab them first I think is because I was more nervous about drama honestly because I was I only had a couple options and I was like they're gonna get they're gonna get a wonderful life and I'm gonna be dead in the water but yeah.

Eli Price (30:14.04)
Yeah.

Eli Price (30:20.354)
Uh-huh.

Eli Price (30:24.802)
Yeah.

Eli Price (30:37.34)
Ha ha ha.

No, that's good. And I'm glad you took Home Alone and Blockbuster because now with my pick, I'm going to take Home Alone 2 and Blockbuster because I like Home Alone 2 more than Home Alone 1. Yeah, I'm a Home Alone 2 guy. And I knew someone would take Home Alone before Home Alone 2. And so I was just like waiting. I was waiting. I was just waiting for someone to take the f***.

Andrew Fossier (30:53.708)
Really? Okay.

Andrew Fossier (31:06.244)
I'm waiting to pounce.

Eli Price (31:08.868)
the first one so that I could pounce on the second one.

Andrew Fossier (31:11.392)
Are you saying you baited me with the sweater? Is that what that was? Ha ha ha.

Eli Price (31:14.476)
I did. It was a bait. It was a bait and switch for sure. And I got you. But yeah, I think I'm probably in the minority liking Home Alone 2 most. But um, but yeah, you like so I assume you like Home Alone 1 more.

Andrew Fossier (31:32.052)
Yeah, I mean, I definitely saw it way more. And I just, I mean, I don't mean anything. I just, I don't feel like the second one, I don't feel like I remember the second one as much. Like it doesn't just, it's not just like ingrained, you know? Like I've seen the first one so many times and it's just like classic, you know, to me. I didn't dislike the second one, but it doesn't scream Christmas to me for some reason, as much as the first one.

Eli Price (31:49.084)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (31:56.472)
Yeah, so here's why you're wrong. It's because it's because what screams Christmas more than New York City and Christmas, like, come on. I mean, where, where's your stance here? What's a home alone or home on two.

Andrew Fossier (32:00.328)
Okay.

Harrison Fredericks (32:07.434)
He's got a point.

Andrew Fossier (32:08.248)
See you.

Harrison Fredericks (32:15.826)
So I am actually relatively new to the Home Alone multiverse because I saw these, I saw Home Alone 1 and 2 for the first time two years ago. I don't know how these movies slipped past me when I was a kid, but they did. And I loved the first one a ton. It was hilarious. All the, I think all the pranks.

Andrew Fossier (32:23.159)
Hmm.

Eli Price (32:31.14)
Wow, okay.

Andrew Fossier (32:35.628)
Hmm.

Harrison Fredericks (32:42.962)
in the final end of the movie where they're just getting bombarded. The sticky bandits or whatever are just getting torn apart. And all of those pranks are iconic. The second one is fun with the giant toy store. I just didn't think the Brickhouse pranks and whatnot in the end was like as funny or as memorable as the first one. So I liked the first one a little more.

Eli Price (32:48.004)
Uh huh. Yep.

Andrew Fossier (32:49.12)
Ha ha ha.

Eli Price (32:58.032)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (33:09.34)
Fair.

See, I like, here's why I like the second one. I think I like the gags, like the booby traps and stuff are like fun in both. And so the emotional thread in the first one is like culminated with like the old man and his family, which I think is like a very touching scene. But in the second one, I really like the...

the dynamic he has with the bird lady and like that emotional story arc a little bit more. Cause I feel like in the first one, it's just like the old man's scary. And then like, there's no, but there's no relationship. It's just like a sweet conversation they have. And then the second one, I think he has like a real like relationship with the bird lady, which I love. And then also it's like, I think the little like side thing with

Andrew Fossier (33:43.192)
Hmm.

Eli Price (34:10.584)
the Toy Story owner and their little back and forth is really sweet. And then I like that it's in New York City at Christmas time. I just like Home Alone 2 more. It's not like I like it a lot more. It has the edge for me. So yeah.

Andrew Fossier (34:27.883)
Mm-hmm.

Harrison Fredericks (34:30.698)
Yeah, they're both great. And then Home Alone 3 is just a dumpster fire of is what I've heard.

Eli Price (34:36.997)
Yeah, I've never seen it out. I probably did when I was a kid, but I don't remember it at all So I'll say I didn't see it

Andrew Fossier (34:37.029)
I actually haven't seen the third. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (34:44.304)
I was actually surprised when I opened the list to look for blockbusters that it was, I mean, it makes sense, you know, obviously thinking about it for any length of time, but I just didn't know it was like, what was it second and then the, yeah, two, two is home alone and three is home alone too. I mean, but yeah.

Eli Price (35:03.885)
Yeah.

What are you gonna do? All right.

Eli Price (35:12.44)
Yeah Harry, you're up. You got two picks.

Harrison Fredericks (35:15.358)
Okay, I'm actually prepared this time. So keeping with the trend of blockbusters, I might as well take mine now. I'm gonna go with The Santa Clause, featuring Tim Allen. I have very vague memories of my older brother having a birthday party at the movie theater. You remember when that was a thing? He had a birthday party, and he was born on December 7th, this is birthday.

Eli Price (35:18.085)
Okay.

Eli Price (35:27.504)
Very nice.

Andrew Fossier (35:40.856)
Mmm.

Eli Price (35:40.909)
Yeah, yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (35:44.318)
And so he decided he wanted to see the Santa Claus in theaters as his birthday party. So there's very vague memories of that. Some old family photos of everyone like in their PJs go into the movies is like very sweet sentimental thing. But the movie overall, I like the concept of like killing Santa Claus makes you become him. It's just like a fun concept that I don't think has really been done before.

Eli Price (35:51.6)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (35:57.53)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (36:08.929)
Hehehe

Harrison Fredericks (36:14.746)
And Tim Allen is just hilarious. So I feel pretty confident locking that one in for Blockbuster. And then comedy, I'm gonna go ahead and swipe it now because the people who know me, they know I have to pick this movie. So I'm gonna go ahead and lock it in. How the Grinch Stole Christmas featuring Jim Carrey. If you don't know this about me, this is my favorite movie of all time.

Eli Price (36:14.893)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (36:38.12)
Yeah, very nice.

Eli Price (36:43.935)
Oh.

Harrison Fredericks (36:44.006)
It's the movie I've seen the most in my life. Easily over a hundred times I've seen it. And I've actually been impersonating Jim Carrey's version of The Grinch since I was in like kindergarten. I can, I do the voice. I know probably 95% of the dialogue from the movie. It's like memorized. So this movie is incredibly special to me. I know it's not the greatest movie ever made and that's okay.

Andrew Fossier (36:47.916)
Huh.

Harrison Fredericks (37:14.162)
This movie is just extremely sentimental to me. It means the world and I have to watch it every year and Just be Jim Jim. Carrie is just he is the great improviser And there's so much improv in that movie. It's it's hilarious

Eli Price (37:30.528)
Yeah. Yeah, it's a fun movie. We, I think, so my wife works at a church and they do like for the, their staff and like staff families, they like run a theater every year around Christmas time. And a couple years ago, I want to say it was, it was that movie. And we took Ezekiel and it was technically his first time in a theater.

And like he was like, I mean he was like two years old and he sat through that movie and like laughed actually So that was fun that was a fun memory But yeah that that's a great one But yeah, I didn't know that it was your like top movie all time. That's fun. That's a fun. That's a fun fact

Harrison Fredericks (38:21.158)
It is. My Instagram handle used to be Mr. Grinch. That's how much I loved it.

Andrew Fossier (38:28.206)
You know? Yeah, that's true.

Eli Price (38:29.736)
That's true, I remember that. Back before you started the content creating. I guess like we can, I'll plug it here, you can go follow at Harry's. That's not like the at symbol, it's like the word at, at Harry's. Yeah, spelled out. A-T-H-A-R-R-Y-S.

Harrison Fredericks (38:31.489)
Yep.

Harrison Fredericks (38:37.091)
That's right.

Harrison Fredericks (38:48.782)
That's right, spill it out.

Eli Price (38:55.62)
on Instagram. Is Instagram like where you're most active?

Harrison Fredericks (38:59.014)
Instagram for sure, Facebook, eh. But yeah, YouTube is the main one for sure.

Eli Price (39:01.44)
Yeah, yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Okay, YouTube at Harry's. I think you're at Harry's on all three, right? Yeah. Yeah, go follow him. He does some great like movie stuff. A lot of movie news. Like if you want to be plugged into like what's going on. Movie news and like current movies coming out and stuff. Harry's doing some good stuff. We'll plug it again at the end.

Harrison Fredericks (39:10.731)
Yes.

Harrison Fredericks (39:29.962)
Yeah, appreciate the shout out.

Eli Price (39:31.404)
But yeah, dude, I gotta shout you out there But yeah used to be mr. Grinch now he's at Harry's but he's still mr. Grinch at heart I think Yeah

Harrison Fredericks (39:42.578)
At heart, yes. My heart has grown three sizes since I saw that movie.

Andrew Fossier (39:42.615)
Yeah.

Eli Price (39:48.541)
Nice. Okay, well, I'm gonna make my pick here. I am surprised it's still on the board. I actually amazed that I'm getting it here in the fifth round. I don't know how this happened, but I'm gonna take a Christmas story and wild card. It doesn't really fit into any other categories at this point for me. Yeah, it's I

I've been able to get like my four like favorite Christmas movies, I think, in this draft, so I'm really happy. I'm pretty sure, well, okay, I take that back. My fourth slot on Letterboxd is accompanied by a Charlie Brown Christmas, which Harry took, but The Nightmare Before Christmas is up there, definitely like top five or six. So the Christmas story is...

It's just a classic. I love the way it's narrated. It's very funny. A lot of iconic scenes and quotes. And yeah, I don't know that there's much I need to say about a Christmas story. But do y'all love a Christmas story?

Andrew Fossier (41:03.924)
I have not seen it. I will put it on my list.

Harrison Fredericks (41:06.382)
I have not seen it either and from what I've heard from most... What I've heard is it's... I've heard it's really a love it or you hate it kind of movie.

Andrew Fossier (41:09.236)
It was on all of it. Yeah, oh yeah, sorry, we let you down there.

Eli Price (41:09.348)
Wow.

Eli Price (41:13.316)
This is crazy. I can't.

Eli Price (41:18.232)
Really? I've never met anyone that hated a Christmas story.

Harrison Fredericks (41:19.584)
Yeah.

and the majority of people who talk to me about it say that they hate it.

Eli Price (41:27.108)
Really? Why do they hate it? Do they say why?

Harrison Fredericks (41:30.858)
Uh, I don't remember specific reasons. Maybe they didn't like the bunny suit. Uh, or they didn't think it was that funny. Isn't there a bunny suit, like a pink bunny?

Eli Price (41:38.5)
Maybe they didn't like what?

Eli Price (41:43.7)
Oh yeah, I mean, it's kind of like a...

Harrison Fredericks (41:46.118)
I guess they didn't, I guess they didn't like that. Or they didn't think it was that funny. I don't remember details, but yeah, I've heard mostly negative things about it.

Eli Price (41:53.346)
Yeah.

Eli Price (41:56.964)
Man, that's surprising to me. I grew up watching it like every Christmas, and I still do. But yeah, maybe it's one you have to grow up with to really like, but yeah, I love Christmas story. I think it's funny. It's very funny. Now, it's not like I'm rolling on the floor laughing funny. It's mostly just like really like.

makes you chuckle like family situational comedy, kind of like goofy stuff like that, but yeah.

Andrew Fossier (42:33.452)
I'm gonna sound really silly because I said I didn't, but as soon as I searched for it and I'm seeing the images, I'm like, I've experienced this before, like the gun and the bunny suit. So maybe I've seen part of it, but not the whole thing. But yeah, my memory is not very good. But I've seen part of it. And when you were talking about it, it sounded really, really familiar, so.

Eli Price (42:46.542)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (42:58.52)
Yeah, it's actually adapted from a book. I don't remember the name of it. I haven't read it, but my wife has, and she said it was good. It's basically like a lot of short stories from this guy's childhood that he like wrote and, um, like, I don't know if he wrote it like memoir style or just like kind of a fictionalized version of how he remembers it, but it's kind of like narrated, so the movie's like kind of narrated in that way of like,

how you kind of read it in a book being narrated. The narrator is like him as his older self, remembering Christmas when he was a kid sort of thing. But yeah, I love a Christmas story. And I'm glad I have it, but I'm also kind of sad that there's all these people out here saying that they hate it. So it's...

It messes up my Christmas spirit a little bit. All right, Andrew, you got two picks, man.

Andrew Fossier (44:00.184)
That's not very Christmas of them.

Andrew Fossier (44:06.552)
Okay, so I am gonna go for my animated pick. I tried, and I will say what it was because there's no conceivable way to even make it about Christmas, but I saw Puss in Boots, The Last Wish on Christmas Eve last year, and it was, in Lafayette, it was the coldest I've ever been in a theater. Like I'm talking hat on a sweater and an overcoat, and like boots.

Eli Price (44:22.188)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Andrew Fossier (44:36.236)
and we were all freezing cold, I could see your breath cold almost in the theater. I love that movie, it's incredible, but there's no way, even though it feels Christmasy to me because of that experience, there was no way, but close second, close second for animated. I'm gonna grab Frosty the Snowman.

Eli Price (44:50.414)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (44:56.732)
Mmm, good snag. The original, like, rank and bass one? Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (45:02.164)
Yes, yes. Which also kind of technically, I guess would have fit on the, it's a short, right? It's under, I just remember, yeah, because I always remember seeing it and Charlie Brown on TV during Christmas.

Eli Price (45:11.256)
Yeah, it is. It's like 25 minutes.

Eli Price (45:17.852)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, I mean, solid pick. It's Frosty the Snowman.

Andrew Fossier (45:23.484)
Yeah, it's really good. I like it. Um, and then for sure, I'm going to go with my, my short as well. Um, I'm really torn on this decision. But I feel pretty confident doing it. I'm going to grab the Guardians of the Galaxy holiday Christmas special.

Eli Price (45:48.336)
Okay.

Of course, of course you had to get your MCU pick in here.

Andrew Fossier (45:54.802)
My MCU... I found a way to get an MCU movie in this one.

Eli Price (45:56.904)
You snuck it into the spy draft. Now you're sneaking it in here.

Andrew Fossier (46:01.964)
Well, but this one is unassailable though. That's not even a stretch.

Eli Price (46:07.012)
No, it's not. It's for sure, Kirsten was special. Or a holiday. I think it technically says holiday special, I guess, is what the title is.

Andrew Fossier (46:17.081)
I fumbled, I started to say holiday, maybe it is holiday, but I think, yeah.

Eli Price (46:21.324)
Yeah, I think I think, yeah, it's either Christmas or holiday special. Either way, it works. I didn't care for it a whole lot, but I know I was in the minority. So. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (46:30.592)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (46:34.48)
I could see it. It does kind of feel, it is the holiday special, okay. I mean, they have songs saying Christmas, so I don't know if that was where it maybe got.

Eli Price (46:41.177)
Yeah.

Eli Price (46:45.992)
You know, you gotta say happy holidays, you know.

Andrew Fossier (46:50.437)
Well, I mean, it makes sense in a generic way, because there's so many holidays around this time. But if you're making a movie about Christmas, maybe it, I don't know. But yeah, it was enjoyable. I thought it was especially leading into Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Oh, I'll stop talking about the MCU. We can move on.

Eli Price (46:55.468)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (47:06.42)
Yeah. I just didn't feel like Drax and what's her name? Mantis. I didn't feel like they care. It could I didn't feel like they carried everything very well. Kind of got like it was kind of like, OK, I get it. It's they feel more like they work best for me as like filler characters. They're like.

Andrew Fossier (47:18.21)
Mattis.

Andrew Fossier (47:24.853)
Hmm

Eli Price (47:36.576)
not as the main characters, but as the characters that are like, you know, kind of like having throwing in the jokes, you know, every once in a while. But that's just...

Andrew Fossier (47:44.4)
Yeah, they both are comic. I mean, they're all comic relief, but I feel like they really are the, because they both don't understand things and drag sticks everything's literally, literally. And so yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (47:49.436)
Right, right. Yeah, they are for sure.

Eli Price (47:58.208)
Yeah, but yeah, I didn't. It wasn't for me, but a lot of people loved it. So, you know, I'm the one that's like I'm the one that's wrong there, I guess. Just like Harrison's friends are wrong about a Christmas story. Yeah, it's my pick. Let's see. I only have two picks left. I have to feel animated and shorts.

I am going to hold on. Y'all have both picked animated and y'all both picked shorts. So it doesn't really matter where I go here. So let me pick whatever I like more. Let's see. OK, I like the animated movie I have next left. And I'm going to go with the other major Rankin-Bass movie.

and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I like it. I like it and Santa Claus is coming in town pretty similarly, but I think I like Rudolph a little more. I think it's probably the songs. I like the songs in Rudolph more, the few songs there are. And then I love the Bomb Little Snowman. I love Yukon Cornelius.

Andrew Fossier (49:22.311)
Hehehe

Eli Price (49:23.452)
plugging away with his little pickaxe. But yeah, I love Hermie, the elf that wants to be a dentist. It's great. I like it. It's a fun movie. My wife hates it because of the noise Rudolph's nose makes. Which I understand. It's not the best noise in the world. Yeah. Oh man.

Andrew Fossier (49:41.012)
Yeah, that was a...

Andrew Fossier (49:46.7)
That was a rough noise.

Eli Price (49:51.484)
But yeah, I'll take that in animated. So Harrison's up. These are your last two picks, Harry.

Andrew Fossier (49:55.468)
Good pick.

Harrison Fredericks (49:58.634)
Sweet, I'm ready to lock it in. I think I'm gonna start with my wild card first because I know for sure it will count. You guys may need to double check me on my drama pick, but for wild card, I'm gonna go with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I didn't know this movie existed until probably the end of high school or college.

Eli Price (50:19.257)
Mmm. Yeah, good pick.

Harrison Fredericks (50:26.722)
Uh, cause it's not really meant for kids. I it's kind of an adult comedy. Uh, but it's hilarious. I remember the first time I saw the, like the Bob sledding scene where Clark just shoots off like a rocket. I just started crying laughing. I was.

Eli Price (50:26.801)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Fossier (50:38.221)
Harry?

Eli Price (50:43.096)
Harry, are you there?

Andrew Fossier (50:43.416)
I think we lost him. He got his pick in though.

Eli Price (50:47.62)
He did get his pick in right before he went out. I wonder if he's listening to us in frustration, because we can't hear him.

Andrew Fossier (50:50.487)
Ha ha.

Harrison Fredericks (50:53.506)
Can you guys hear me at all?

Harrison Fredericks (50:57.398)
Oh no, I think it disconnected.

Eli Price (50:58.968)
Harry, if you can hear me, leave the studio and come back. Oh, wait. He popped back on right before he left.

Eli Price (51:19.204)
Well, there he is, coming back.

Harrison Fredericks (51:20.822)
Hello. Merry Christmas, I'm back. Okay, where was I?

Andrew Fossier (51:24.94)
Hahaha

Eli Price (51:26.024)
And he's back! Alright, you had just made your pick of Christmas Vacation, but we didn't hear anything after that.

Andrew Fossier (51:27.692)
Hey, hey.

Harrison Fredericks (51:30.944)
Yes.

Harrison Fredericks (51:36.038)
Okay, so National Lampoons, I didn't know it existed until like high school or college because it's not really meant for kids. It's kind of an adult comedy. And I specifically remember the scene where Clark Griswold is bobsledding and he just shoots off like a rocket. I was just like crying, laughing, me and my sister, we were just dying at that scene. So it has very memorable.

Eli Price (51:55.38)
Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (52:03.126)
hilarious moments and I could see how some people, I could see how it would be like a Christmas story and that some people love it, some people hate it. It has a very, I don't know, just like an 80s feel. I guess people just liked being dry, like dry sense of humor or like tongue in cheek. It's just very hit or miss with people, but I thought it was hilarious.

Eli Price (52:10.137)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (52:18.043)
Oh yeah.

Eli Price (52:27.036)
Mm-hmm.

Harrison Fredericks (52:29.394)
So for my drama pick, and you guys can double check me on this. I am kind of struggling to pick one, but I think I have an idea of what could work. So I'm gonna pick the Polar Express as drama. Any thoughts?

Eli Price (52:43.74)
Hmm. Yeah, I think it counts.

Andrew Fossier (52:48.296)
Yeah, I would say.

Harrison Fredericks (52:51.802)
I feel like it's drama, but it's not like a talkie drama. It's more of an action adventure. So the drama of the story of the journey to the North Pole is communicated through all of these adventurous scenes on the train and that's what I'm thinking with.

Eli Price (53:00.048)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (53:13.108)
Yeah, I looked on Letterboxd and does not have drama listed as part of the drama under the genres for L.M. Letterboxd, but I think it probably is. It has family listed. It's like a... I feel like... And then in the Letterboxd has the nano genres now, and it says one of them is Holiday Joy and Heartwarming Christmas.

Andrew Fossier (53:13.72)
Good pick.

Andrew Fossier (53:29.409)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (53:40.664)
Hehehe

Eli Price (53:41.26)
And I feel like if heartwarming is in there, like there's probably the drama maybe fits under that. But yeah, I think it counts. I'm willing to allow it even though letterbox apparently disagrees. The polar express.

Harrison Fredericks (53:53.022)
Okay, thank you. Merry Christmas, Eli.

Andrew Fossier (54:00.416)
enjoyed that book maybe I'm thinking it like I enjoyed yeah I had the picture book and I feel like I had a cassette of like somebody reading it too I just remember really enjoying the way the book made me feel because especially being an American trains are just like this mystical thing that we don't ever get I have never I've only been on the train once in my life like you know it's taking you to the North Pole and all that

Eli Price (54:04.588)
Mm-hmm. It's a it's like a picture book. Yeah.

Eli Price (54:12.785)
Mm.

Andrew Fossier (54:29.16)
And then that's a good movie, I enjoyed it. It's some of that.

Eli Price (54:30.936)
Yeah, I don't like I don't like the animation. It's kind of uncanny valley for me, but.

Andrew Fossier (54:34.448)
Yeah, I was going to say it's that weird in between before they figured out how to go full, you know, just 3D animated. But yeah, it's a good pick, Harry.

Eli Price (54:43.397)
Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (54:46.366)
I do want to add one thing that I love that has come out because of that movie is most cities now do an actual polar express trip where you can like hop on a train in your hometown and they'll take you to like the nearest train station and you can like sip on hot chocolate and have like Christmas treats and dress up with your parents and your family. So that's a really cool idea that has come out.

Andrew Fossier (55:07.745)
Oh, cool.

Eli Price (55:09.212)
That's cool.

Harrison Fredericks (55:16.058)
has become really popular because of that movie. And I just, I love that.

Eli Price (55:20.088)
Yeah, that's fun. That's a fun Christmas activity for sure. Yeah. Man, this is my last pick. And all I have left is short specials and TV. And I know exactly what I'm going to pick. I am going to go with Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original animated short.

And yeah, I don't have much to say about it. It's just kind of a classic that is fun, has the classic song. And yeah, I like it. It's good. It pretty much tells the story, beat for beat. It's good. I feel like that's a good last pick.

Andrew Fossier (56:08.149)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (56:14.652)
Yeah, good solid last pick.

Eli Price (56:18.068)
Andrew, you're wrapping things up. This is the last pitch pick overall.

Andrew Fossier (56:20.4)
Yes. Well, I'm going to wrap it up with contention. Although I don't even know, I don't feel contentious about this pick. But I told Hunter and she said, that's not a Christmas movie. And then I explained my defense and she said, oh, I don't really remember that movie very well then. I'm going to go with the Chronicles of Narnia, the line, the witch and the wardrobe as my wild card pick. Okay. Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (56:21.622)
Bring us home, Andrew.

Eli Price (56:27.658)
Ha ha.

Eli Price (56:45.004)
Okay, yeah. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah, it's one of those where it's like a borderline. It's like, okay, because a movie mentions Christmas or has like one scene in Christmas, does that make it a Christmas movie? But there's a...

Harrison Fredericks (57:02.09)
So I'm actually gonna push back a little bit on this because I think that is a fantastic movie. Although, Christmas is not a central theme or plot element of the story. And the only reason I'm pushing back on this is because there's a lot of people that would include every Harry Potter movie as Christmas because there's one sequence or one scene that takes place during that time.

Andrew Fossier (57:26.921)
Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (57:31.914)
So that's the only contention I have with that.

Eli Price (57:32.092)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (57:35.636)
Yeah, so my defense would be, unless I am grossly misremembering it, Christmas not being like happening during the Ice Queen's reign, right? The White Witch's reign. And so then the conclusion of them defeating her is Christmas can come back, right? Or Father Christmas can come back. And I don't know. I mean, it feels...

Eli Price (57:50.789)
What is it?

Eli Price (57:58.595)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Fossier (58:05.288)
It feels more connected to me than like, okay, say, Iron Man 3. Like, oh, it just happens at Christmas. I'm not gonna go there. Like, that's too broad. But I feel like since it's not just like...

the location or the plot. Like it's not just in the background, it's kind of Christmas is affected by the plot. Makes it more Christmasy than the Harry Potter movies. But I mean, I'm not gonna, if it's split, if I can't convince you, I'm not gonna take it.

Eli Price (58:30.065)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (58:38.336)
Yeah. So, and I like, so the, my initial like thought when I was looking at this was, because I had it actually had it on my list for the, the action horror fantasy portion. Because I was thinking like, well, is it really a, would it really be considered a Christmas movie? Because it's like, it just, you know, it mentions Christmas, but

Andrew Fossier (59:01.089)
Mm-mm.

Eli Price (59:07.556)
But when you really think about it, it is like Christmas can't come. Part of the whole thing is there's this melancholy that is hanging over Narnia because it's always winter, but never Christmas. And the whole resolution of the problem that where Iceland,

Andrew Fossier (59:22.072)
But never Christmas. Yeah.

Eli Price (59:34.584)
sacrifices himself and then like Christmas can finally come it's like this idea of Christmas being like rebirth and like representing that in the same way like that it represents like the incarnation of Jesus like Jesus coming And so like when you like think about it a little bit like underneath the surface there is that theme running through

But yeah, I don't know. I can kind of see both sides. Um, I don't know. What do you think Harry? Do you think, do you think we shouldn't let Andrew take it or here? Here. Here's what we can do. We can let them take it and then the people will decide if, if they see it and they're like, Andrew, that Andrew cheated, he picked the witch in their wardrobe, then they won't vote for him. You know?

Harrison Fredericks (01:00:16.27)
I mean, it's your show, so it's ultimately your call.

Andrew Fossier (01:00:18.668)
Hahaha!

Harrison Fredericks (01:00:25.666)
That's perfect.

Andrew Fossier (01:00:28.684)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:00:31.996)
Okay, yeah, you know, I stand by it. I feel like maybe letting the people decide is fair. I mean, I don't know if I wanna stake my entire draft on this one film when I could just pick another one.

Eli Price (01:00:47.)
Do you, so you're going to stick with it? Are you going to, uh, it's up to you. I'll let you stick with it. If, if you're going to stick with it, it's definitely made for good podcasting.

Andrew Fossier (01:00:51.468)
Huh.

My problem, well yeah, I agree. My problem is I don't have a runner up to even go with because I just feel like, I don't know, I feel like it embodies not only, it not only is deeper than just occurring at Christmas like other movies do, but it's.

Eli Price (01:01:04.741)
Okay.

Eli Price (01:01:18.31)
Mm-hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:01:20.792)
Christmas is both directly implicated by the plot of the movie, but then it's also kind of the idea. I mean, so in the, Christmas existed before the White Witch, but so in that case, it's not exactly a one-to-one with, you know, Christ, but the idea of something preventing Christmas from happening and then Christ coming in Aslan, that's the picture there. And so,

Eli Price (01:01:31.952)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:01:39.855)
Right, right.

Eli Price (01:01:43.556)
Hmm.

Eli Price (01:01:49.041)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:01:51.521)
I feel good picking it.

Eli Price (01:01:52.376)
Yeah. Uh, you know, if you would have just been like, well, it mentions Christmas, then a program, but you have like a legitimate argument for it. So yeah, we'll, we'll let it stand. Um, you came ready to defend it and that's, uh, there, you know, respect there, we'll let you take it. And then the people will decide if you're, if you're ludicrous or not. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:01:57.248)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:02:01.804)
Thank you.

Andrew Fossier (01:02:16.828)
one last thing I wanted to say about it is it is hilarious to me that Santa's gifts to the kids are all weapons right I don't actually don't remember Edmund's gift but yeah I mean Peter gets a sword Lucy gets a dagger

Eli Price (01:02:29.516)
Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Best Christmas ever. And it relates back to a Christmas story because you know, he gets he gets his Red Ryder BB gun and for Christmas, spoiler alert, my bad. But I feel like that's common knowledge at this point and in history, and in film, the film, the Christmas film history.

Harrison Fredericks (01:02:34.85)
best Christmas ever.

Andrew Fossier (01:02:36.672)
Hahaha

Andrew Fossier (01:02:42.739)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:02:59.804)
Uh, yeah, that was that was really fun. I think, uh, do y'all want to each we can each like read back our picks, our full list of picks in what category.

Harrison Fredericks (01:03:13.026)
Sure.

Eli Price (01:03:16.472)
Yeah, let's do that. Since Harry, since you picked first, you want to read out your, do you have the doc pulled open?

Harrison Fredericks (01:03:24.902)
Yeah, I wrote mine down.

Eli Price (01:03:26.644)
Okay, yeah, go ahead and read out yours and what category you picked them in.

Harrison Fredericks (01:03:31.102)
All right, so the winning draft is going to be for blockbuster, The Santa Claus, action horror fantasy, Die Hard, comedy, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Jim Carrey version, drama, The Polar Express, animated, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, short specials TV is gonna be The Charlie Brown Christmas, and for my wild card, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Eli Price (01:03:33.552)
Hehehehe

Andrew Fossier (01:03:34.188)
Ha ha ha!

Eli Price (01:03:56.12)
Nice and I picked second I'll go ahead and read mine out in blockbuster I got home alone to Action-horror fantasy. I got a nightmare before Christmas in Comedy I took a muppet Christmas Carol and drama. I took miracle on 34th Street the original in animated I took Rankin basses Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and short specials and TV. I took

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original animated short. And in Wild Card, I took a Christmas story. Andrew, why don't you read yours off?

Andrew Fossier (01:04:34.812)
Already, so for Blockbuster, I picked Home Alone. For action, horror, fantasy, I picked Violent Night. For comedy, I picked Elf. For drama, It's a Wonderful Life. Animated, Frosty the Snowman. Short, Special TV. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. And for wild card, I picked The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Eli Price (01:05:01.616)
Very nice. All right. I feel like we all have really solid lists. I'm really interested to see. I'm really interested to see who wins. I feel like it's going to be pretty close. Because if I were to look at the results of the last two

Harrison Fredericks (01:05:07.358)
Yeah, I would agree with that.

Andrew Fossier (01:05:14.381)
Yeah.

Harrison Fredericks (01:05:15.574)
That's what's great about Christmas is there's just so many great movies that people can enjoy for a variety of reasons.

Eli Price (01:05:23.308)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Do y'all have any honorable mentions that y'all wanted to shout out that people should check out?

Harrison Fredericks (01:05:27.614)
Oh man.

Andrew Fossier (01:05:29.8)
I did have, well, I did have one I wanted to mention because I'm actually gonna be able to see it in theaters coming up, so no spoilers. But Tokyo Godfathers, I saw, I don't even know the, I didn't realize the connection, honestly, to Christmas because my friend just said, hey, yeah, hey, buy this ticket, we're going to see this. So I'm really excited to see that later. Yeah? Okay.

Eli Price (01:05:40.646)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:05:44.036)
Yeah, it is.

Eli Price (01:05:52.524)
It's very, very good. It's very good, yes. I actually didn't have it on my list, but that's just because I forgot to put it on there. I very easily could have taken that and animated. Yeah, for nostalgia's sake, I probably still would have taken Rudolph. But yeah, it's right there. It's a very good like.

Andrew Fossier (01:06:03.146)
Yeah, okay.

Andrew Fossier (01:06:18.016)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:06:22.828)
It's very funny and very heartfelt. It's a Japanese animated movie, for those who don't know Tokyo Godfathers. And yeah, I guess I saw the dubbed version. Are y'all seeing a dubbed version? Or?

Andrew Fossier (01:06:45.013)
So we're seeing the subversion.

Eli Price (01:06:47.168)
Okay, I can't remember what I saw. It feels like... I might have watched this. I usually try to watch the subversion if it's available. So I can't, honestly can't remember which one I watched. But I watched it, uh, actually watched it earlier this year randomly. Um, yeah, I think it was like over the summer. I don't know why. I just, I was bored and I was like, oh, there's this movie. I'm gonna watch it.

Andrew Fossier (01:06:50.186)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:07:03.192)
Really?

Andrew Fossier (01:07:14.368)
I don't think subbed versions very often come to Lafayette from my experience, including just like, yeah, oh, okay. Yeah, but like, I don't even think, unless I'm misremembering, I don't think Parasite came to Lafayette until it won. Until it won, though, did it become four?

Eli Price (01:07:20.812)
Yeah, I watched it streaming, so yeah.

Eli Price (01:07:31.692)
It did. It did. Um, yeah, after I think after, uh, it, it might've been after cause I went and saw it in theaters when it came, came to theaters here. But yeah. Um, is the new Godzilla movie, is Godzilla minus one and in Japanese or is it in, or is it English language? Because it, cause it's, it's showing right now here in Lafayette. Um, but yeah,

Andrew Fossier (01:07:40.909)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:07:50.288)
I'm not sure. I just saw an announcement. I didn't know I didn't see anything about it Hmm, okay

Eli Price (01:08:01.412)
Yeah, Tokyo Godfathers is actually a really good one. Did y'all have any, did you have any Harry that you wanted to shout out that we didn't draft?

Harrison Fredericks (01:08:13.666)
Uh, I don't think so.

Eli Price (01:08:15.932)
Cool. Yeah, I have a.

Harrison Fredericks (01:08:19.921)
I don't think Frozen is a Christmas movie. I just want to say that.

Eli Price (01:08:22.62)
It's not, it's absolutely not a Christmas movie. You could take like the Olaf one, the Olaf little Christmas short. I think there's like, there's, I don't know. There's like one where he's like trying to find presents for people or something. It showed before, was it Coco? You know how they used to do like the shorts before Pixar movies? I want to say it showed before Coco. And I was very angry because it's like,

Andrew Fossier (01:08:24.434)
I'll defend it, let's go.

Harrison Fredericks (01:08:25.482)
See and that's.

Harrison Fredericks (01:08:29.959)
Okay.

Andrew Fossier (01:08:42.025)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:08:51.34)
It's not like a typical Pixar short. It was like 25 minutes long. So I'm like, I'm excited to watch Cocoa, and then I have to sit through a 25 minute long Olaf Christmas special. Oh. So yeah. Even if that were good, I would still hate it because they made me sit through it before I watched Cocoa.

Andrew Fossier (01:08:56.23)
Oh.

Harrison Fredericks (01:09:02.034)
Yeah, that's crazy.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:02.647)
Wow.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:06.72)
I had another.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:13.109)
Yeah, that seems like a wild length to have for a pre-movie.

Eli Price (01:09:17.392)
Yeah, it's strange. It is a strange choice, for sure.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:20.544)
I did have one other short, I wasn't seriously, this was like a back pick for me, I was not seriously considering it, but I had it just in case. Prep and landing, I remember enjoying that. I mean, for what it was, nothing spectacular, but it's funny and Christmasy enough, and also kinda, you know, spy can fit with that too, they're secret agent elves.

Eli Price (01:09:30.331)
Hmm.

Eli Price (01:09:43.564)
Yeah, yeah, I've never seen that. I've heard of it though. Maybe I'll probably check it out. Yeah. Is it a good like little kids short? My son might like it.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:47.468)
Pretty enjoyable. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:52.596)
Uh, I mean, I think that was the, I think that was the like pitch point. Like it was out on TV, like ABC around Christmas and it was relatively, I mean, relatively new. It wasn't, it wasn't very old. It can be 2015, 16.

Eli Price (01:10:04.324)
Yeah. Cool. Yeah.

So yeah, I have a few that I want to give a shout out to. White Christmas is a great classic. I don't know if you all have seen it. It's old, kind of like, it has the old Hollywood musical kind of feel.

Um, but yeah, white Christmas is really good, really enjoyable. Um, uh, let's see. And that would, I guess that would be a drama or a wild card. It's yeah, it's a musical, but I guess it's a drama. I don't know. Um, I did catch up with a few, um, in the action horror fantasy category cause I wasn't sure what I might be able to get there. Um,

So I watched actually this Norwegian Christmas movie called Rare Exports, A Christmas Tale. And it's like this really strange, it's kind of like a horror fantasy movie. And there's like these Americans digging on the border of Norway and Russia. That is supposed to be like the grave of Santa Claus. And there's this little boy. And

Him and his friend are mischievous. So he's like looking up Santa Claus to figure out what Santa Claus is. And he realizes like, Oh, Santa Claus is evil and like tortures kids. And so it's like that version of Santa Claus. And then this like kids start going missing in the town. And, uh, and then like, yeah, there's like a little twist that I don't want to give away in case anyone decides to.

Andrew Fossier (01:11:43.896)
Ha ha.

Eli Price (01:11:58.212)
check it out but yeah definitely an inch I had a good time with it because it was like a strange Christmas story that I've never like seen done before so definitely worth checking that one out and then let's see like I said I did check out violent night the other one that I wanted to shout out if you have if you have a kid the snowman

It's like a 25 minute short. It's based on, um, it's based on a book that is kind of like, um, comic book panel style with no like words or dialogue or anything, um, of this like little boy building a snowman and then it comes to life and, uh, he like shows them around his house and the snowman like takes him flying off. So we read the book, uh, from the library and then watch the short with my son. And it was.

It was pretty cute and the animation is really, really cool too. Um, kind of like that hand drawn comic booky looking animation. Um, very like a very like just cute one. And then the last one that I'm going to shout out and, uh, I'll make it, uh, the official recommendation of the week is go see the holdovers in theaters. Cause yeah, I didn't draft it. Um, I.

Andrew Fossier (01:13:19.856)
I was wondering if that was going to come on your draft list.

Eli Price (01:13:25.4)
because I ended up getting a Christmas story in Wildcard, but I had kind of planned to possibly take the holdovers in Wildcard. It's fantastic. Yeah, I loved it. It's got that classic movie kind of feel to it, not in the sense of like it's going to become a classic, but just like it feels like the classic movies. It's like a d***.

Andrew Fossier (01:13:38.209)
Really? Okay.

Andrew Fossier (01:13:53.707)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:13:54.316)
Yeah, it's a dramedy and I feel like there's not a lot of like really good dramedies made anymore. It's very heartfelt. I would say like the major theme being explored is, I want to say it was Josh Larson from the podcast Film Spot Ink. I think he said something like, it's about the hard work of being kind to one another.

Andrew Fossier (01:13:57.676)
All right.

Eli Price (01:14:23.824)
Um, but yeah, you have like three major characters and, um, it's, it's set at a boarding boys boarding school in the seventies and there's a, there's like a grumpy professor that none of the boys like that is in charge of watching the boys that have to hold over the Christmas holiday that like have to stay at the boarding school and, um, so there's the teacher, one of the main boys. And then the there's the cook.

lady that like, um, she had lost her son went to the school and she lost him in the Vietnam war. And so there's like, um, that font, like there's that like really like funny dynamic between those three characters. And then like each character hat kind of has like a full arc too. And like, they're. Yeah. Dealing with, you know, their past and you know, who they're going to be and that sort of thing. It's just really.

It's a, it really does have that classic movie feel and is like really funny. And also like really, really like touching and heartwarming. Like I walked out of the theater and I was like, man, that was so like heartwarming. Like I was smiling. Um, so yeah. So any, any movie where it's like set at Christmas and you walk out, like. Feeling like you have a warm heart, like that's a good Christmas movie, you know?

So yeah, I highly, highly recommend seeing the holdovers before it leaves theaters. It'll probably stick around for the holiday season, I would think. But yeah, very good movie. Paul Giamatti. Gotta love him. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:15:50.338)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:16:06.784)
Yeah, I was considering seeing it because I see so about it, but yeah, definitely will check that out.

Eli Price (01:16:13.74)
Yeah, yeah, highly recommend. Have you, you haven't seen it either, Harry?

Harrison Fredericks (01:16:17.902)
No, I haven't. I remember seeing the trailers when, I mean, it was like in every trailer for like the month or two of movies that I saw in theaters beforehand. So it definitely got a lot of promotion.

Eli Price (01:16:20.497)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:16:29.1)
Yeah. Yeah, it's I feel like it even has some like Oscar buzz, which is. Which is, I guess, surprising before you see it, but after you see it, you're like, OK, like, I get it. Like, there's some like very Oscar, dramatic performances, that sort of thing. So it's like, oh, OK, I see it. But yeah, go see the Holdovers and then watch your favorite Christmas movies with your family.

It's Christmas time. But yeah, I think that's all we have for this episode. Do you guys have any random Christmas things you wanna say? Encouragements, a tradition, I don't know. Y'all got anything?

Harrison Fredericks (01:17:21.351)
I will say...

Eli Price (01:17:21.785)
I'm throwing y'all on the spot.

Andrew Fossier (01:17:21.893)
Well, Merry Christmas. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, Christmas with family is great. Being around family on Christmas is great. And I'm looking forward to it this year.

Eli Price (01:17:30.714)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:17:34.46)
And if you can't be around your family on Christmas, find some people to be family with. That's what Christmas is all about.

Andrew Fossier (01:17:41.332)
Yeah, I can't believe we're recording this on the first, it's already December. So that's wild.

Eli Price (01:17:45.676)
It is, yeah. It is. Yeah, man, it is already December, December 1st. As we're recording, this isn't releasing on December 1st. So everyone listening is going to be like, why are they talking about it being December 1st? But yeah, any last words, Harry, before we sign off?

Andrew Fossier (01:18:03.5)
It'll be even closer to Christmas.

Harrison Fredericks (01:18:10.966)
I was just gonna say that one of my favorite traditions is seeing Christmas lights. I just love what people can do with them. Like the people who go all out and do the house synchronized to music is just like so intense and I love it. I will say though that like last year I developed an astigmatism in my eye. So now Christmas lights are just 10 times better than they used to be because it's blinding and I can't see anything.

Eli Price (01:18:15.809)
Mmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:18:24.804)
Mm-hmm.

Eli Price (01:18:34.029)
Mmm

Andrew Fossier (01:18:34.41)
Hmm

Andrew Fossier (01:18:38.828)
Hahaha

Harrison Fredericks (01:18:41.318)
So Christmas lights are the best and I gotta go find some.

Eli Price (01:18:41.364)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:18:44.992)
Yeah. Yeah, it's fun driving at night with that too, huh?

Andrew Fossier (01:18:50.363)
Mmm.

Harrison Fredericks (01:18:50.73)
Oh yeah, it's fantastic. I can't see anything.

Eli Price (01:18:53.804)
Yeah, yeah, I've had some astigmatism in both my eyes for a long time now, so totally get that. The glasses help, but you know, yeah, not the best. Yeah, they actually make these like, they look like the old 3D glasses, they're like cardboard, and they're like have like a colored like thing, but they have like a design built into it.

Harrison Fredericks (01:19:06.803)
Yeah, Christmas will never be the same.

Eli Price (01:19:23.472)
And you can like put it on and it'll like make all your Christmas lights look like little Frosties or Santa Claus's or something. Uh, they're yeah, those are fun. Um, I don't know where you get those, but I've seen them before and they're, they're fun to look at Christmas trees with, with your kids. Uh, but yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah. So basically go watch the Holdovers, spend time with your family.

look at Christmas lights. That's all we have for you. Yeah, had a great time. Looking forward to spending Christmas with family and doing some traveling, but we'll be signing off. I'm not sure as of our recording day if I'll have any kind of filler episodes for the rest of December. This should be coming out December 15th.

And so we'll see if I can put together some filler episodes to release those last two weeks of Christmas. But if I don't, you know, you can keep an eye on my socials and see what I have coming up. If I don't have anything coming out, I'll see you in the new year. No promises because, you know, it's Christmas time.

This isn't the priority during the Christmas season. So, um, yeah, I look forward to the new year. Um, I don't think Andrew and Harrison know, but I, or I don't know if they've listened to the episode that released literally today, probably not because it just released today, but I did announce I'm going to be doing, um, my next series is going to be early Spielberg. It's going to be doing the first two decades of Spielberg's films. So that'll be fun.

Andrew Fossier (01:21:11.341)
I'm in it.

Eli Price (01:21:15.964)
I'll be starting that up sometime in the new year, so be looking forward to that. But until then, I've been Eli Price for Andrew Fosier and Harrison Fredericks. You've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We will see you next year, maybe? We'll see. Bye.