Magical RewindGrab your imaginary friend as Will and Sabrina watch “Fuzzbucket” starring Chris Hebert, Phil Fondacaro, Joe Regalbuto, Wendy Phillips and Robyn Lively.
The film premiered in 1986 as a Magical World of Disney film.
Did you have an imaginary friend growing up?
I didn't, That's the first question that popped in my head. At least I don't remember having one.
I don't know if maybe, like you, maybe had an imaginary acquaintance.
No, I don't remember it being a thing with my parents.
They've never brought it up since, so I can't imagine that I did.
If I did, it would have been I guess, really little.
But to me, I kept thinking, I can't imagine really doing that, talking to a sofa or wherever this person or creatures.
Right which we don't know city. No, but the I think I did. I you're gonna laugh too, because it made me go, oh my god, that's right, because I thought about this. I think when I was very very young, really briefly, and I mean seriously briefly before I because my stuffed teddy bear, Charlie was always with me, so I would talk to Charlie, obviously because Charlie was real, But I also briefly had an imaginary friend ready for the name Monroe. Not I had an imaginary friend named Monroe when I was When I was growing up, yep, So I thought about you when I was the first time I heard that crazy. One of the things I sparked. It was like I remember as a little little kid, probably you know, three four years old, going like Monroe.
Yeah, it was so oh wow.
Or maybe they say little kids are more attuned to ghosts, so maybe it was an actual ghost I was talking to.
You never know, Yeah, that could have been it, probably, I mean, I do think of the doll I had.
I had one.
I always call her Gidget, but that was not her name. But she had a tape recorder in her back, and she was I was really released little and she was about the same size as me. She was like an over size yeah doll and and so she would read stories and I was I would do her.
So she was she was the female version of my buddy, my buddy and me.
That's kind of Patria, cute, little blonde hair. She's still in my garage attic. And if you ever accidentally pop your head up there, she's right there.
She's freaking so scary.
Looking now, hurry, so scary looking now, But I did. That's the closest thing that I can remember, but not as scary as this situation that we were put.
Through a perfect segue into what we're doing this week. First of all, welcome to Magical Rewind, the show that makes you want to grab your friends, your pj's, and your popcorn and go back to a time when all the houses were smart, the wave tsunamis and the high Schools musical.
I'm Wilfordell and I'm Sabrina Brian.
Oh well, folks, this is a ride.
It appears that we have now arrived at the deepest, darkest corner of Disney Plus as this week we're entering a pocket of the streaming service that most of your probably didn't even know exists. It is the nineteen eighty six family Adventure Move slash Absolute Nightmare.
Fuel fuzz Bucket.
Yeah.
So, when Disney first released the lineup for e streaming service back in twenty nineteen, fanatics were wondering myself included by the way, we're wondering which the original movies they were going to be.
Able to see, which ones weren't, what was going to be left off?
Uh?
But this title I think bewildered them the most.
So fuzz Bucket, which get used to hearing that word, because we're gonna be saying fuzzbucket quite a bit, was released as a Disney Sunday movie, which was a weekly tradition at the time. It was hosted by the CEO of the company then the CEO of the company, Michael Eisner. And the rumor is, which we're going to have to really delve into because it makes a lot of sense. The rumor is that this was actually a failed television pilot. So they tried to shoot this as a pilot. It didn't work, and they didn't want to just throw it away, so they rearranged it into a movie. And they were doing that at the time nineteen eighty six, mid eighties, because they were hoping to capitalize on some of this success of ET, which of course was hugely influential. This was not ET, This was not it. This was no, this was not it was this was and so uh yeah, Now, before we were even assigned this movie for this podcast, had you heard of fuzz Bucket?
Never, not even a little bit. I had no idea what to expect either.
I got a little nervous when I turned it on on Disney Plus and saw what I was assuming a fuzz Bucket was.
I didn't know, and kind of just baared down, was like.
There we go.
I'm not sure what this is, gonnap.
I'm about to happen to me. Yes, I had heard of it just in the title Fuzzbucket, because Ryder Strong said do you remember the movie Fuzzbucket? And I said, what are you talking about? So i'd heard the name, but I knew nothing about this. Let's right off the bat, because we don't want to dwell on this. What did you think of the Fuzzbucket costume?
I just I could not embrace it. I couldn't even I could, I mean barely tolerate it. I hated the way he wobbled around in it, or she or whoever was in that that costume. I couldn't understand what was tearing about it, Like, there was nothing cute to me.
It was really creepy. It was really very creepy, creepy.
You know, et was an alien, so I understood that. You know, you have all of.
The those the space you know TV shows that were around.
Yeah, I never really liked a lot of those. This to me, by far was not well.
This was like a thing. So you had et Alf came out shortly after.
This, which I thought was cute.
Yeah, Howard the Duck was around this time Mac and Me was around this time. These are all kinds of you know, space aliens or something like that, in strange costumes.
But it was such a bizarre thing.
So okay, well we want to want to jump ahead, so before we gulp down a random green milkshake and allow our bones to really creepily appear, let's get into the synopsis here and invisible but not imaginary, which got confusing at the beginning, creature named fuzz Bucket becomes twelve year old Mikey's best friend. Wise and loving, fuzz Bucket helps Mikey cope with his fighting parents which we never see, and the traumas of his first day at junior high. While in exchange, Mikey helps make him visible, right, okay.
With the with the homemade milkshake, with.
The homemade weird green milkshake that he's supposed to make in his kitchen to help make fuzz Bucket appear appear. But so he's there, he's there, and he's invisible. But at the same time, at the beginning, it looks like Mikey's following him around and talking to him, but then he says, where are you? Are you still here? So we couldn't tell if Mikey could see him right, and nobody else could because at times he's then turning to him in the principal's office and saying, talk to them, talk to them. They think I'm crazy, so that got a little confusing. It stars Chris I don't know if it's Hebert Hebert or hey Bear as Michael Gerber like the Baby Food. He is best known for his role in the amazing and so important in My life movie The Last star Fighter. He plays the Little Brother and Last star Fighter. He is awesome in the movie.
He's adorable. It is one of the most adorable little kids. I wanted to scoop him up and to me help this little kid.
He was so cute playing the Little Brother and Last Starfighter and playing young Alex Pekeaton in two episodes of Family Ties. And he does look like a little bit like a reverse Benjamin Button kind of kid. But he was super important in my childhood, so I knew exactly who this was because I was a huge Last star Fighter fan and an enormous Family Ties fan. So he left acting. He retired from the business in the late nineties and is currently a teacher at Fullerton High School, which is very very cool. Right around the corner, right around the corner from you. Phil fonde Caro was the man in that awful, horrific fuzz Bucket costume, but he is a legendary actor. He stands about three feet six inches tall and started his career in the nineteen eighty one movie Under the Rainbow. He's also appeared in Return of the Jedi as an Ewok, the Garbage Pale Kids movie as Greaser Greg, in the movie Willow, and five episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Wow.
He's even a voice in the movie Polar Express, but he was not the voice of Fuzzbucket. Fuzzbucket was actually voiced by Hal Smith, who was best known as Otis from The Andy Grifford Show and Owl from Winnie the Pooh, So he didn't have a whole lot of work to do here, but he is very very big In the voiceover game, Joe Regula Budo plays the dad. That's by the way, how he's credited in the movie just Dad. There's no name, it's just dad.
A lot of the credits were like that. Did you notice that that was a very much The credits were strange.
So you could tell it just kind of threw it together.
But he is best known as Frank Fontana on Murphy Brown and you've seen him in hundreds of things. I remember him from one of my favorite really bad Arnold Schwarzenegger movies growing up, where he played the bad guy in Raw Deal, Oh Terrible movie. Wendy Phillips is mom best known as Gail from Midnight Run, Great great, great movie and as Mary an Airplane Too, the sequel. There's like the cast of this I'm gonna say movie or film, even though it's really not was outstanding.
Yes.
And then Robin Lively, who is part of the legendary Hollywood family, plays Stevie Gerber, Michael's sister, and you would have thought she'd have a bigger part because it was supposed to be a television show, we think, and we're gonna get a chance to talk to her. She's gonna be able to tell us actually what happened. But she's an incredible actress that was barely used. She's known as Louise in Teenwitch, I mean there you go, as Jessica Andrews in the Karate Kit three and even appeared in Yes, and was in a recent episode of Cobra Kai. She's obviously sisters with Blake Lively and also Lori Lively and they've been in a ton of stuff and very well known. Lastly, John Vernon plays principle again. That is how all these people are credited. And he's another unforgettable character actor who was the mayor in Dirty Harry and Dean Wermer in Animal House and is another actor that we assume would have a much bigger part if this was a TV show and not a movie, because he has one entire scene, just one scene that means nothing, It makes no sense, it's bizarre, and you never see him again. So yeah, we have to get the whole story. It was written and directed by Mick Garris, who came out of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories camp and is best known as the writer of pocus Pocus, which is a true Disney classic.
It runs forty six minutes. That is correct.
It runs forty six minutes, well below any target we have had, which validates the rumor that this was first filmed as a TV pilot because it is seriously barely long enough to fill an hour even with commercials. We have already said that it was inspired by ET's success and Disney hoping to cash in on that juggernaut. But also three months later NBC debuted alf which was one of the decades's most popular TV shows and a much more coherent version of what Fuzzbucket was supposed to be. And the weirdest credit hall for this movie is that it was executive produced by John Landis, the director of Blues Brothers, Trading Places of Animal House Coming to America, the legendary eighties director. I mean, just one incredible movie after another, And this project was actually shot while he was on trial for the tragedy that occurred on the Twilight Zone movie where two young actors and an older actor, Vic Morrow, were killed when the helicopter crashed. So just a weird time to be producing fuzz Bucket.
Any weirder and weirder by the second here.
Yes, So the movie just starts with a crane shot into michael'streethouse, which is a major set for the movie. He's pacing the room and talking to himself but also waiting to get answers. And this is where I started my full confusion. Maybe it was easier for you. I could not tell if Fuzzbucket was invisible only to him, like was he invisible to everybody else? But Mikey could see him, because sometimes it seemed like he could and sometimes it seemed like he couldn't, Right.
I think it kind of I Again, I don't remember having an invisible friend, but I have seen it obviously portrayed in other shows, TV movies, things like that, or my friends that have kids that have them, and it's almost like a game to them as well to where they play, like where'd you go?
As if they're hiding, because even said are you still here?
Are you still here?
You know?
Or that that sometimes the invisible friends like they don't live in the house with them, they live somewhere else and they come in like a front would come over. Okay, you know, a play date. So I followed it that way. Okay, they confused me too much. The thing I was really intrigued on. Now, I'm gonna say something kind of positive. I loved the little musical, the party's answering, his answered questions. I loved those those kept making me giggle, were so cute, And I didn't like enjoy that. I was, you know, every time you could see his little influctuation of what his little voice was going to be doing. I kept thinking instantly fuzz Bucket was a boy. I don't know why I just had that, but it to me, it was that was his little voice, and he had a cute little voice, just like you know, like our main character.
Well, the thing is, the scene is literally like five minutes long, and it's just so kid talking to himself. Yeah.
I kept thinking the whole time someone was going to come into the tree house. I did not expect him to be leaving the tree house to come to dinner.
Right, I think we Also, it's a perfect time to talk about the fact that Fuzzbucket himself does not actually show up until like twenty five minutes into the We're like.
Halfway and thank god, there's forty six minutes of the full fuzz Bucket might have just really done me.
Oh is that what he said? I can't take it.
I can't take forty six minutes of fuzz Bucket.
Yeah.
So you think it would not have done better for the movie with more Fuzzbucket, your team less Fuzzbucket, it, Well, it would.
Have been, yes, because then they would unless they decided to have a way for him to disappear again, to not be seen to people. So this milkshake happens, and to me, he gets his milkshake, and I don't want to skip to the end, but it seems like the milkshake situation was for him to right.
But also but they never ever explained why he's invisible, exactly what happened, why he can't get visible again. There's no I mean, none of this it's explained in any way way.
I kept seeing it because I also didn't pay attention that it was only going to be forty six minutes. Did you realize that or did.
You I had no idea.
Okay, I paused at one point to go to the bathroom and I was like, wait, there's twelve and this can't be right.
No, it ended, and I went did something just happen to my internet?
I thought there was a second part?
Yeah? Am I missing it? Is there a second part? On? I was really confused, crazy, And then the credits started happening. I, okay, you know the same thing. So I think him bouncing back and forth would have been really hard to figure out how he obviously couldn't be seen by anyone else, And the fact that he even has the venture into where he ends up and no one recognizes that this giant possum, furry possum thing is walking around with the hat in an outfit.
Well, he does usually walk around under the cover of broad daylight.
Yeah, so you know he's usually sneaking around down busy streets at two o'clock in the afternoon. Yes, so so, okay, we come to realize that is the first day of middle school. But also we witnessed the return of a very decom trope that we're starting to see in most of these movies, The Horrible System played by Robin Lively, who's first line of the movie is she calls him a tumor. She's like, oh, the tumor woke up, so talking about her little brother, referring to him as a tumor, which is pretty harsh, and that is so his mom then forces him to sit down at the table. Is it dinner or is it breakfast? It's dinner.
It's dinner, she says it. While he's in the treehouse.
She does come in for dinner. Okay, because at first I thought maybe it was breakfast. So because what she he comes in and he sits down, he doesn't. There's mushrooms in the gravy. He doesn't want to eat the mushrooms in the gravy. So the MoMA sentally says, pick him out. He says, I don't want to. She says, well, you're gonna sit there until you finish your meal. Common punishment back in the day. And then it cuts to like hours later and he's still sitting there in the dark with his food. I'm glad that it's dinner and not breakfast, but it's still got to be hours that this kid is sitting there in front of his place. Yeah. Yeah, So let's talk about the Gerber household here a little more in depth. Beyond just his sister not being the best, it also appears that his parents' marriage is strained and they're screaming at each other all the time. But again, we don't ever see see any of them, and they don't. I mean, they allude to, like say it flat out when his dad has a talk with him, like, yo, you must hear your mom fighting it all the time, but they don't show it.
He seems to.
They seem to be nice people, and so you never kind of see any disharmony in the family. Right, So yeah, again, they set something up that they don't show payoff or see in any way shape or for him. The dad's always working and doesn't appear to be spending enough time with Michael, who sleeps in his treehouse, which he calls the castle while talking to himself.
With the easiest escape route. If a window I have.
Ever seen, it might as well be a door. It was.
It honestly should have been.
I thought the same thing that is in my Sabrina seas that thing look like a door. There's just no way my kids would ever have a window that they could just easily get out.
And I think it's probably it goes to that the ramp thing that he built that goes right to the castle, So I think it's essentially attached to a the room, which is cool as hell when you're a kid.
Oh my gosh.
But you know that this happens all the time because by the time his mom calls out and says they're going to get pizza, right, she knows where he is.
Yeah, because she erry specifically in her in his punishment when he's sent there. This time, the mom he even says, well, mom didn't mention the castle, so I can go to that. He wasn't allowed to watch TV, he wasn't not to do all this stuff, but he could go to the castle, so he went there.
That is a terrible punishment.
Again, that kid doesn't me and then and then sleeps in the castle while talking to himself.
You can go to your favorite place anyway.
Yeah, I mean, he's he's. It's one of those things where we we get that it's buzzbucket that he's talking to. But they've really set it up where I think the parents are having conversations about getting this kid some serious psychological Yes, yes, it's they've really set it up there.
They should be because it's a little over the time.
So first day of school, he rides his bike there no helmet.
It's the eighties.
That's the first thing I noticed is everybody's riding their bike with no helmet.
It's just the way it is. Student orientation in the cafeteria is also advertising that there's already a school dance on Friday. So this is obviously the party middle school in town where your first couple of days there and you're at a dance when you don't know anybody. Okay, who do you dance with? You just met these people.
But no, that's normal.
Is the first couple of weeks in school. Yeah, like just a really casual on Friday.
You just got them in the.
Multi purpose room.
Yeah, purpose room. Oh jeez.
So Michael waits in line. He's not in the system as a new student, so he's forced to go to the principal's office.
He sits in there now very quick.
Note the woman that brings him into the office teacher, the teacher, if she was a teacher.
As they scanned the teacher, I instantly knew this one's gonna instantly knew we're gonna get back to that one.
And that's, in fact the one that Michael went up to.
Right fran Ryan I believe was the actress's name who played the part. She's legendary, she'd been in everything and everything, and she had a very tragic story. I was doing my deep dive a little bit, and this poor woman had two husbands die in plane crashes in two years.
I'm in the fifties. They were both pilots.
Both their planes went down within like two years of each other at the same time. I'm crazy. But she brings him into the principal's office while she tries to find his missing name. He sits down on the couch to wait to go to the principal's office. There's a girl that he sees, They make eye contact, they have a little flirty thing, and then all she's gonna.
Be another character that we never see again.
You never see again. And then all of a sudden he bursts out in laughter because fuzz Buckets starts tickling him.
Poor guy doesn't even have a chance again.
Never explained, No, you don't know what's happened. Just here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna randomly start tickling you. Your imaginary friend's gonna randomly start tickling you in the principal's office at school, which also means, then this is what was going through my head. Was fuzz Bucket with him on the bike? Is that how he got there? Did he have to ride fuzz Bucket on the bike?
It did have a pretty big basket on the back of his bike.
Okay, well, thank god he was invisible because they never would have known. Maybe so he wrote him there.
But also to know the principal would not be taking care of this particular situation.
Well, see, here's what I thought. Because I thought the same thing.
It would be the secretary or somebody that's in the office.
But that's what was happening until he went into a tickle frenzy, and so he thought he was having something going on in the day, which is why he called him in.
I wrote it down because they made there was some type of comment that made it seem like he was going to have to see the principle because like as if he was in trouble.
They like joked around, right, Okay, it was just a sho joke.
But I think she was.
And that's when the friend Ryan woman was like, no, no, I can find his name. That's not so. I think he was just acting so strange that the principal took him in to see what.
Kind of came up in that dramatic that dramatic shadow shadow came Yeah, there was the principle, which at at that young age, going to the principal principal was absolutely that feeling.
It was the worst.
This was it. You were never going to finish school, you were going to have to live on the street.
And you're getting tickled by your imaginary friend. By the way, uh, we'd like to point out and We're going to keep doing this. We're twenty minutes and still no Fuzzby. We still have not seen Fuzzbucket. The little invisible tickle monster has yet to show himself. After a creepy and uncomfortable scene in the principal's office, which is really what it is. It is a creepy and uncomfortable scene, never see the principle again, as a matter of fact, never goes back to school. The idea that it's any to do with school or the first day of middle school gone out the window. Again.
If it's a television show, it makes sense.
Yeah, it's so interesting to say like that, the idea of it being a television show, because these are characters. Even the teacher that says your other left son when he gets off of his bike to.
Go, I recognize that guy.
I recognized him too.
I didn't know.
I thought maybe you would, because you're always so good at telling me those and inciting me on these names of actors. But even him, he looked like it was like, Okay, that guy's going to be somebody. He's either going to be a torment or he's going to be a helpful you know, teacher.
No, No, we literally never see school.
So frustrating. I just oh, man, all.
The questions never comes up. No, never, never school.
So now we're back home and still we have no Fuzzbucket. But now we're going to get him because he has moved away from tickling to then giving Mikey instructions on how to make a concoction in the kitchen with the blender that we are starting to understand will eventually turn Fuzzbucket. You know, you're gonna be able to see him visible. It's gonna see it. It's gonna make him visible. Which again, still no explanation as to why he's invisible, why he can't turn visible again? Was he cursed? Was he nothing?
The size of the drink that he made made me think that that was going to be the Maybe the drink would wear off, he'd go back to being it, and anytime he wanted to come like a look like the size drink was gonna be.
I see what you're saying. That makes sense.
You know, in my head, I'm going, oh, okay, this that might be how he comes in and out.
Okay, but then that's not what happened.
No, So he makes this stuff.
There's something magical also on the counter, so it's all normal ingredients. And then he goes, where did this come from? And he puts in this weird blue stuff. It turns into this magic elixir. It kind of reminded me of of what I call flubber face, where you stay on the actor's face and the face turns colors, like turns green and blue, and so it's like, Okay, he's making something magical. They sneak it out. The father walks in and instantly, instantly just goes for dinner. After the mom comes in and.
Says, I noted that too.
That was the old said, what's for dinner?
Already? This poor mom already has just so much going on. Katy daughter, her son doesn't eat any of the food she spends hours making. He now trashes the kitchen. The husband comes in and asks what's for dinner?
He deserved a backhand so hard.
I cannot even like, you can't see what I'm about to have to clean up right now, you're asking me what for dinner.
He walked in in the middle of the mom yelling at Mikey and grounding him. And he didn't even ask what happened. He just passed Mikey on the back as Mikey goes off to his punishment, which was weird.
It was the only part I feel was the tiny hinge of the not great marriage. This is the only part that kind of shed light to that.
They cut out all the rest, but they kept this one. So he takes his he manages to smuggle out some of his concoction. He brings to the castle and they give it to fuzz Bucket and then instead of just turning him in, turning him visible again, they someone decides to take the unbelievably creepy choice of having the thing appear first with like its guts.
Yes, that was crazy, yeah.
And then it's skeleton and then it's like it was. It reminded me of a bad version of did you ever see Was it called hollow Man? Was that the one with Kevin Kevin Bacon? I think it was called hollow Man? And he it's essentially it's a modern day take on the Invisible Man, and he turns it and that's how they do it again, you see. But it was really well done, whereas in this one it's like, what the hell is happening?
Oh man? I oh, I was cringing cringing. And it's not like it got better because once no they came out, it was still sad, so bad I could I I, Oh, you know, I'm rooting for these movies, and I want to think, oh, what a cutie pie.
No, we're coming off of going to the Mat for God's Sake, which yet so good, and we've got fuzz Bucket.
That was tough and I had to prep myself. Okay, it's not always going to be a ten. I know it's not always going to be a ten. Don't expect a ten. But this was just a whole.
Other We finally, after this creepy transformation a half an hour into a forty five minute movie, we actually get to see Fuzzbucket, and it's creepy and it's really it looks like a demented kind of squirrel meets a weird leprechaun meets a rat. It is very off putting. Yes, it's just bizarre, and I think it probably would have been better had they just kept him invisible.
Frankly, I know, Yeah, the furry possum just was never something I was gonna be able to really like.
And like a weird for not even like a cute furry possum, like a weird, weird possible.
With not being able to say full sentences with the you know, a strange way of speaking.
And he's got yeah, he's got a halting kind of way of speaking, a weird kind of per and apparently this was they never mentioned this when he's invisible, Like, apparently he's having totally normal conversations with Mikey when he's invisible, but when he becomes visible again, now he can't. He's saying things like wax wax maker, like instead of the crayon.
He's like, yeah, Mike, he's not able to understand him completely either, but he was.
Fine in the monologues they had when they were when he was invisible before.
Yeah, easy flowing conversations back then too. I don't really one hundred percent speak the human language.
But now they're best friends. They do this weird drawing their hands over each other, which it seems like it's supposed to be like a fuzzbucket ritual, which apparently in the fuzz bucket community means that you are like blood brothers. They bring that up, or are we like blood brothers?
Now blood brothers with grants?
And then they watch cartoons together, which I like. Okay, he likes cartoons. I do too, No no judgment there. And then he asks where he's from, and he points, and I thought at first he was pointing to like the heavens, like he was saying, I'm an alien essentially, But then it's no, he's from right outside of town, in a field, in a marsh.
Field over there. That's where I'm from.
Right, But he says, even adults don't go there. It's literally we get there later. It's it's a field with a walking path. It's it's there's. Yeah, it's not scary in any way, shape or form.
It's not dangerous, scary and until you get until you fall down there, fall down the little hole, and you find the other furry giant possums.
Still no explanation as to why he was invisible, why he needs to become visible again. Apparently he's from right just the just the town next door. We're very convenient. Yeah.
My assumption was he could not go home to this furry possible place until he had the drink.
For some reason, the drink had to happen.
I maybe here's another question for you. Did you interpret it that his name was fuzz Bucket or he is a fuzz bucket? Do we go and find multiple fuzz buckets? Fuzzbuck eye? What in the hole is that? I mean, are.
Fuzzbuck guys that they are?
Are the multiple fuzz buckets?
I don't know. I took it as his name was Fuzzbucket. Okay, then I'm with you. At some point in the movie it seems that they.
Are fuzz Bucket.
But then isn't one of them literally named Steve or something like that, like together one at.
The end he's like, it's like and then.
Yeah, Tim, so okay, so then his we think his name is fuzzbuck.
It was strange, it was it went in and out.
It was not so.
Fuzz Bucket falls asleep in the castle with Mikey. He wakes up and panics. He's got to get back to the town next to to where he's from, the marsh next door exactly.
But why was he going to turn over?
Simple? Why did he what was the urgency for him to go?
No? And not and again under the cover of broad daylight. It's like two o'clock in the afternoon, god daylight. Fuzz Bucket jumps off the castle, yells back up to Mikey because of course you want to keep a little profile when you're one of the fuzz Buckets. And and they're yelling back and forth, and he takes off into town, leaving Michael alone. Michael is obviously very upset because he's his only friend.
Again, it's his first day of school. We've never seen he never goes.
Back to school. Little Michael is falling in love with fuzz Bucket and and takes off looking for him. Why didn't catch him right away? We don't understand. Fuzzbucket doesn't appear to be fast, But that's all right, fuzz Bucket. Then we we find him for some reason. Mikey turns down an alley in town where a homeless man yells at him, and then Fuzzbucket, now all of a sudden, also appears to be homeless. He's in a homeless a homeless person's outfit with his tail being on by a rat.
It's been now he now that it's dark, he's decided that he needs to get an undercover costume.
Why that didn't happen during.
The daylight, I don't know, But now that it is dark he needs.
An I have another theory of the film, which is in fact that the concoction he makes his payote and everybody is just tripping at this point. It is, it is, and somehow they've done this thing where everybody watching it is also on the same trip, because it's the whole thing is so weird. So we don't know why Fuzzbucket stops to dress as a homeless person before just moving on to the marsh, which again is in walking distance from where they are.
Yes, and then he also showcases it another time where he runs away and Mike he can't catch.
Up, catch up to him at all.
Move your legs, Michael, He's right, he's not moving fast.
He is not book it.
Okay, this is your only friend.
You need to catch it. Yet, go go cut catch a guy one foot in front of the other. Mic. He's right there, He's right freaking there. Here's a larger issue for the entire film. It's described as their relationship is supposed to be a trade of sorts, meaning like Michael helps Fuzzbucket become visible and fuzz Bucket helps Michael's home life.
Okay, but it is a home.
Life that other than him asking what's for dinner, they haven't really established as being awful, right, so he is it all about fuzz bucket trying to make Michael run away to shed light, like to bring the whole family together? Is that is that was again? Deal?
No? I I it again.
I anyone that watches this needs, as much as I hate to say it, more to to understand what what the point of the relationship was, the trade off whatever there ever, it is giant hole of nothingness.
So weird. So eventually the family comes together that he runs by his sister who was with her friends and essentially says, my little brother's weird. He runs away, then she gets very upset.
The best run with it.
Oh, it's the greatest run.
It is such a good little kid.
Runs the best run. It was such a little kid running. Good little kid runs, so funny.
And it leads to just Michael eventually just aimlessly walking around town now at night, and the town is empty. And when I mean empty, I mean not a car, not a person, nothing.
I don't know if this this has to be now two o'clock in the morning, because literally no one is out doing anything.
It's a ghost town. There's no one there. He eventually gets to dead Man's marsh, which I guess the title is supposed to be dangerous and sounds scary.
But he's not even in the woods. He's on a trail. He's just he's walking on grass.
It's literally short grass, and he just keeps saying buzz bucket over.
Over and over this. Now you counted it. It probably is now one thousand, eight hundred and it's only been yebi two minutes.
Producer Tara texted last night that if there was a drinking game where every time the name fuzzy, we'd be dead by the first commercial break, everyone would have died from alcohol.
Yes, it would have been awful.
It was.
It's so he's just running around yelling fuzzbucket. He then climbs a tree, or I should say the obvious stunt person climbs a tree. It cut cuts right to somebody with hair four times as dark as the kids as he climbs a tree. And it was an instant cut, so it wasn't even wasn't like they tried to hide it. Still yelling I don't love you. From now fuzzbucket, I don't need you. It comes thats the last see he comes down disappointed and he falls in a hole which is a perfect slide, and the slide is about three feet long. I mean they live right underground, right.
Under Yeah, it's you could see the whole above him.
Yes, this is not he does not travel a distance here.
If he's like, yes, we went to Jordan and I went to do this slide at the super tall building in La and I swear we set stood in line for forty five minutes and I swear this is how long the slide was.
And that's it. O.
That's so you went on a fuzz Bucket slide?
You did?
You fuzz bucketed a full we out.
So if you if if Mikey had raised lifted his hand, he would have pushed through the ground and been able to wave at the people.
He would have been feeling the air above the ground.
E exactly. So he's he's there, he says essentially, why did you leave me? He says, this was a trade off? Now your family is isn't everything better at your household? Which again fuzz Bucket has done nothing at all, nothing, but apparently it was a trade off. Fuzz Bucket said, you can't stay.
Here, Mikey, You've got to go. We'll always be best friends.
Now, by the way, in perfect English, he's not doing the broken up thing anymore.
The broken up thing is done now and he's figured it out again.
We meet Steve, the other fuzz bucket, who's kind of shaking his head. Mikey gets out of there, and.
He's not happy about Mikey being there, no at all.
We cut to my favorite part of the movie, which is a guy from the search party, because there's a giant search party now searching for Michael goes, hey, wait a second, there's something there, maybe three feet away from a sleeping twelve year old. Yeah, so how about I found him there? He is, No, there's something there.
He does mission that we are on. Yeah, we have come across some very big Yes, the.
Thing we were looking for we have found.
Hey, heyes, right here, No, right here.
Something there And the dad walks in and they have a great scene with with Mikey.
Hey, Mikey, you gotta come home.
You can. Even the mom's on board now like maybe fuzz buckets at home. Mikey gives annoying look like, now, Fuzzbucket's under the ground about six inches from here. But yes, by the way, I'd like to point out at this point his father perfectly clean. Okay. They then cut to the car on the way home. His dad gets out covered in dirt in the face.
That was a Sabrina seas we got dirty.
On the car ride home.
We don't know how well.
Even still, why are they so dirty regardless for.
Walking around dead Man's Marsh, which again is grass.
It was not even forest like.
Nope, very dirty and then so weird. At the end of the movie, Michael's parents are in their bedroom and they each find a gift, a gift.
Wrapped gift perfectly a present, a present his little furry possum fingers could not perfectly gift wrap this.
He's not an elf from North Pole.
Hey, this is absolute bullshit, bitch.
I'm fissed, right, I was so annoyed about the gifts.
But it's also it wasn't anything magical or anything to help. He gave a giant hershey kiss to the dad and a music box to the mom, which then made them look at each other and kiss like their relationship is fine again. And then you once again see Fuzzbucket running away from the room under cover of one o'clock in the afternoon.
Into the grass, which like wait a minute, that was right there.
It's like you can now see it from their bedroom, and.
It's like I almost feel like this was a reshoot where they went, Okay, well, well now we're gonna make it. We gotta do something.
Yeah, if he gives.
Them a hershey kiss at a music box, their relationship will be fine.
Right, But at the same time, don't you think the husband's going to be like, who the hell gave you that?
Who's that from? Excuse me?
Yeah?
Did somebody else giving you get hey?
Who just gave you a gift? Because that's not from me.
I didn't give this to you. Who's giving you music boxes? And what's for dinner? That were me?
I'd be like, I did not give you that two dollars and ninety nine cent hers she kids, No, exactly, not my gift.
Also, to show us that it was Fuzzbucket that did it, there are now radioactive footprints that are green which have never happened before.
Which we've never seen before.
Yeah, otherwise Mikey could have followed them to find him.
Yes, exactly, so they ruined. He also ruined the carpet while he was there.
Right, this is when I went, wait a minute, are we done? Is this open?
Then?
And then roll credits? Literally and then roll credits and just roll credits.
Yeah, it was movie.
It was like, we're not we don't know anything about what's happening at school anymore.
I mean googled if there was a second part. I thought this was part one of two. I googled them, like, all right, well, this can't be the end.
No, no, yeah, I looked online how long it was and too finally forty six minutes. This is it. This is really okay.
Literally just end. And so if you had to come up with a moral for this movie, what is this movie trying to teach anybody?
Don't drink the coup.
So, don't do drugs, don't drink that kool aid weird green shake.
I don't know. I literally can't.
There's not because it's not about he didn't overcome anything. What he was nervous about going to junior high.
No, we never saw it again.
Yeah, there was nothing. He didn't overcome that and make a friend. Yeah, the parents, maybe there was an idea. Again, we never knew understood what there were issues really were, So the parents coming together is really the only completion of any story.
Your parents can be happy if you run away, right.
Yeah, you've got to run away.
I mean, is that what it is? I mean, you know his sister's kind of nice to him. Now, is that?
I mean a sister is understanding him a little bit? She sticks up for him.
He's not weird, even though I just called him weird two hours to come.
Yeah, but it's truly nothing is learned. I know, nothing is. There's no truth, there's no story. I mean it's it was the strangest forty five minutes right that I can remember.
And the weird thing is is And again, I'm not a fan of what buzz Bucket turned out to be like looking wise, but they set up some things.
That I really felt I needed to know more.
I want it again. I wanted to I wanted to see what was the relationship with his sister was going to be. You know, what was her what's her journey like? Yeah, what's his journey in junior high?
You know all of these things? I want, yeah, to want more.
Yeah, he could have made a friend in junior high and not have to know visible friend anymore.
It just was it was rough because it was rough.
Again, it was stacked with such a great cast what they could have done.
And no script or story. And again, this is the guy who wrote hocus Pocus, so he's a good writer. Right, this was a it was so bizarre.
Yeah, all right, well let's do some real reviews, okay, I why don't you take the one star review this time, Sabrina, and and we'll go from there.
All right, I'm gonna do this one star review from Calvin C. There's absolutely no plot to this movie. It's as if you gave a group of second creators an assignment to create a story involving a stuff possum.
Calvin, pretty spot on, what's great, that's pretty spat on.
I have the five star review, which is by Noah h.
I'm going to read this exactly as written, and I agree with every word of this, by the.
Way, Okay.
A cinematic treasure that rivals generational classics such as Shawshank, Redemption, the Godfather Trilogy, and Casablanca. It's a coming of age film that stands alone in its willingness to wrestle with the most provocative topics of our day head on without flinching. Fuzzbucket is the exemplary archetype for Freud's theory of development as it delves into the inner recesses of Michael Gerber's subconscious through the homely yet charming, gremlin esque title character Fuzzbucket.
One cannot walk away from this film without a change perspective on American society.
That's really all you gotta hear.
I frankly, I think it's a little insulting to fuzz Bucket to put it in the same category as shawshank Redemption, the Godfather Trilogy in Casablanca, because I think it's better, much better. But Wow, we're going to debut a new little game here. It's called Shoot the Reboot. So let's say for some reason, Disney has done the unthinkable and decides to remake this movie. Who do you cast as Michael who voices Fuzzbucket? And what's the actual story since there isn't one?
Oh my gosh, that is do we have? How much time do we have.
To do this?
I've got a great one.
Uh, who do you think would be Michael?
I would not make Michael a kid, I'd make him an adult, and I'd make him Will Ferrell.
Oh my, I am down for anything Will Ferrell's in. So yes, let's do that. Let's absolutely do that. I love that.
I want to do fuzz Bucket with Will Ferrell I would do.
I would do Kevin Hart for fuzzbuck That's.
A great one. I was gonna say, he talks.
Like this, Ah, Bobcat Goldthwaite. I would do Bobcat goth Wait as the voice of fuzz Bucket and Will Ferrell as the star. But Kevin Hart would actually be pretty great as the voice of fuzz Bucket too.
His voice is so awesome and he's just got so many equations, and oh, it would be great.
And I think, yeah, I think Will Ferrell as a guy who is like the principle of a high school. So he's surrounded by kids, and his imaginary friend from when he's a kid comes back and is now invisible and he's got a visible he's got a visibilize them. And then when he does come up, Will Farrel's like, oh God, I don't remember you looking like that. Like that could be that could be a ton of fun.
It could be too that that was his his uh invisible friend from little and then come back and it comes back.
Is that what you mean? It comes back when he's an adult. Amazing.
I think that could be good amazing.
Let's let's add a moray to this one. How how would one do that? I mean, I guess it's kind of easy as buzzbudget. Well no, no, you just have taj come in and Mikey actually has a friend.
Yes, that would be the easy.
I love that Mikey has no friends. It should be. It should be he's leaving real friends for an imaginary friend. And so it's like you put in Taje and you have a nice friend there, somebody the kid could talk to who isn't going to tickle him inappropriately in the principal's office. Weird. Oh man, what about Sabrina Seeds? What what do you got for Sabrina Seeds this week?
All right? I mean, there was so much I'm gonna keep it super short. First of all, I had a really hard time believing this kid was going into junior high. As hard as it was for you to believe that they were not in high school and gotta kick it up, it was hard for me.
He was so teeny tiny. He seemed way too young.
And what is junior highs?
That's his mannerisms were very young. Seventh and eighth grade, so that means he's, you.
Know, twelve, eleven eleven or twelve?
Kid did not look eleven, would be would be really young for a boy. There's some eleven year old girls. But he seemed just his mannerisms like everything, Like the idea of him not wanting mushrooms. That that's a little kid thing, right, you know, not eating broccoli, that was like super little. So I feel like they played him little and he was just young.
So that bothered me a lot. Okay, Then after the no helmet.
Bike situation, he puts his bike in without a lock? Is that an eighties thing?
I saw that too.
No, you always lock your bike up, of course.
Okay.
We also never rode bikes to school though, nor did any of my friends. I didn't have any friends that rode.
Bikes to school.
Okay, that did it? I did West Coast, East coast coast. You don't know, Yeah that I know.
Because the winter and stuff. We never just nobody really got into riding bikes to school.
Yes, what's the thing?
Is it a Disney egg?
Is that what you call an easter egg?
An easter egg for Disney? Is that what you say, like it's like a fun find.
Yeah, like something in there that's kind of a Disney easter.
I'm sure our producers caught onto this. But the gym was red and white and they were the Wildcats. So that that you don't know about because you haven't seen high school musical.
But I didn't notice that.
That was like a little bit of an easter egg.
So that's a high school Okay, So wait, could the high school musical kids go to fuzz Bucket high.
Maybe I don't know. I'm sure they'll dive into that. Oh my god, I've already. And then I've got two quick ones. The jump off the castle for a buzz bucket was so horrible. He instantly he went as if he was going to jump forward and then obviously was going to turn around to hit the crash pad. It was so that stunt was not done well at all.
They also made it seem like he jumped forty two stories down right, like like Michael is in a sick like he's in a redwood tree.
Yeah, three hundred feet up in this thing.
Crazy. Yeah.
Yeah, Michael wasn't great about getting down that rope either, but that's not too bad. And then the last one was the surf. The search party officer had one direction for everyone. It was literally and we're looking for the kid, all right, now go just he was the worst. There was no no nothing, no parameters. Let's let's have these missions and if you see this, do this.
Here's a whistle. I don't know.
I've never been on a sturs party, but I would think there would be more than just find the kid.
All right?
So now comes the time where we have to rate this movie?
Do we do one out of ten? Blowing green milkshakes, immediate school dances, tickle fits in the principal's office, buzz bucket smooches. You wouldn't even talk about how he actually had Michael kiss him in the tunnel.
Forget it?
Yeah, I can't go back, go back, let's not.
Or unexplained gifts in your bedroom? Which would you like to go?
I think I want to do tickle fits?
You got it?
So one? One tickle fit in the Principal's office is a bad movie. Ten tickle fits is a great movie. How many tickle fits? Does I need you to go first? You want me to go first? Well, okay, yeah, you go first. I'll go first. If we're talking about films where I can sit there for forty five minutes with my mouth the gape, going, what the hell is this? It's a ten out of ten. Yeah, it is by the first ten and only ten I'll give. If we're talking about actual movies, it's a three or a four tops.
I mean it's there's no story.
The fuzzbucket is weird and doesn't show up until thirty five minutes in. The acting's good. I mean again, you've got great actors that are that are doing other you know, have gone on to do phenomenal things. But this there's no literally no story. That's not an exaggeration. There is literally no story.
Well you think there's stories, but then there's no completion.
But yes, there's nothing. Yeah, I will be I will be generous, and I will give it for principal office. Tickle fits four four.
I feel like you've given a four to another movie.
What did I give a four?
Two?
There's been nothing as low as a four?
No, okay, no, I.
Be a three.
I'll say it you three and a half, three and a half.
I think I'm doing like a two point five.
I mean, it's it's bad. It's so weird.
But with the hope that something does come from this one day because I want to know where these characters were gonna go. I feel like it could have been developed into a full movie of some sort.
Yeah, given.
Right, Yeah, but it just never did.
So I'm going with a two point yeah.
No, this is Oh.
I feel horrible.
I know people sometimes give me especially grief for being harsh on these movies, but.
It's there is.
No movie here. It's not a movie.
There was no answers to anything, and it's so when you watch the movie, you will also have answers.
Yeah, I'm telling you. If it is just you want a forty five minute romp of going, what the hell is this? It's ten out of ten, you're not You're seriously not gonna beat it. You're not gonna beat it because it is just it's it's such a an acid trip. It's so weird. Yeah, it's just bizarre.
Again, though, you're you're gonna want more because the cast.
Is so good. The cast is great, the cast they would have been great together. You know, I really feel the chemistry everything. The principal, the one teacher that we recognize but can't put our thumb.
On that is actually Robin Lively's dad not a Robin Lively's dad plays that character.
Who's also an actor, and we've been okay, wow, okay, now I really need to see that. I mean, wouldn't that have been funny to see scenes with them in the like a classroom together, anything, just so much, so much.
Anything would have been great to see at this point, answer one of the questions. Just something. And we are going to be able to get some of those questions answered because we're gonna be interviewing Robin Lively. We cannot wait as she tells us all about the process. It is going to be over on our Park Copper episode on our other feed for Magical rewind. So here's a quick clip because we want you to check out this interview.
You've done so much stuff?
Is this the first interview solely.
Based on the joy that was fuzz Bucket?
Yes?
Is it really? I literally don't think anyone's ever mentioned fuzz Bucket in my entire career.
You guys are the first.
Okay, next question, is that a good thing or a bad thing for you?
Oh?
I mean I love everything that I've done.
I don't have no shame good, I have no good good now.
And there are so many stories about the making of fuzz Bucket over there. It drops on Monday on the Magical Rewind Feed, So go and check out the interview because it was a great one. Thank you all so much for joining us today. Go and watch this movie. You will know exactly what we're talking about about. How it just it? You just go what is this?
What is so many questions? You just can't believe it's over.
Oh I know.
And then to just add roll credits.
Don't forget to check out the interview with Robin Lively over on our Magical Rewind feed on Monday, and we will see you next time.
Do we know what we're doing. We don't even know what we're doing next.
We'll figure out. I think we just need a moment to let Fuzzbucket wash over us and we'll figure out what the next movie is after that.
So thank you all so much, everybody, and we'll see you next time.
Bye bye.
