1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Welcome to Red Panda Report. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Buckle up for two-fisted pulp action as I talk about the terrific Twosome of Toronto. 3 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:20,320 Red Panda Adventures, episode 30, originally aired December 1st, 2007. The episode is called 4 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,760 Tis the Season. Here's the copy written by Greg Taylor, the writer and director of the 5 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:31,240 Red Panda Adventures, as well as the voice of the Red Panda. Yes kids, there's a man 6 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:36,320 in red on the rooftops, but it ain't Saint Nick. In this very special slice of two-fisted 7 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:41,000 pulp justice, with all the trimmings, we tip our fedoras to the great Will Eisner and the 8 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,760 classic Christmas stories he wrote for his much-loved mystery man, the Spirit, and in 9 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:54,160 so doing turn 1930s Toronto on its ear. Please enjoy with our best wishes, Tis the Season. 10 00:00:54,160 --> 00:01:02,280 So I have many multi-layered reasons that are deep-rooted and go far back into my life, 11 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:07,360 which is really two ways of saying the same thing, to dislike Christmas. I don't like 12 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:11,360 Christmas, I don't celebrate Christmas, I haven't celebrated Christmas for decades, 13 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:16,600 possibly, and that's something we can talk about at another time, doesn't really matter 14 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:24,680 right now. However, Tis the Season, this episode of Red Panda, episode 30, has joined Die Hard 15 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:29,840 and Gremlins and I don't know what else, I guess Ron Howard's The Grinch, I didn't see 16 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:35,400 the other one, Ron Herron and Jim Carrey's The Grinch, as fantastic movies, stories, 17 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:41,440 whatever that I love, despite the fact that they are Christmas based, Christmas themed, 18 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:48,120 whatever, because the storytelling is so fantastic. Greg Taylor is not only an excellent writer 19 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:55,920 in general, he is very skilled at a multitude of different things. He's a novelist, he can 20 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:01,200 write audio dramas, he directs them as well, he's a voice actor, fantastic voice actor, 21 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:07,700 and he also is able to write a rhyming, I think a Christmas Carol or a Night Before 22 00:02:07,700 --> 00:02:11,920 Christmas style, I know, a Night Before Christmas style type of thing. I don't know if Will 23 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:19,040 Eisner in the Spirit wrote rhyming dialogue like Twas the Night Before Christmas, but 24 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:24,640 this certainly contains it and it's fantastic. The whole thing is written in verse and Stephen 25 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:30,960 Burley does a fantastic job narrating the whole thing. I've mentioned Finn's Golem recently, 26 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:35,040 Finn's Golem, so, Dakota Ring Theatre has a long history, it's, you know, 12 seasons 27 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:43,800 of Red Panda, I believe 10 seasons of Blackjack Justice, if not 12, and also they did a bunch 28 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:50,320 of summer audio stuff collaborating with other people who are making audio dramas and just 29 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:53,640 audio shows in general, because they weren't just dramas, they were comedies, they were 30 00:02:53,640 --> 00:03:00,040 whatever. Finn's Golem is this, think of Total Recall and then make it cooler, and that's 31 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,160 what Greg Taylor wrote, and Stephen Burley starred in it, and he has this very interesting 32 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:11,280 quality to his voice, and he did the whole thing of Finn's Golem, and it was amazing. 33 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:14,720 I don't know if it's in the Dakota Ring Archives, I'm sure it is, if you look for it, Finn's 34 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:20,520 Golem, you can find it there. It's an audio adaptation, audio drama adaptation of the 35 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:26,080 book that Taylor wrote also, so I really gotta get that book, because the adaptation is great, 36 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,920 but without Stephen Burley, I'm not sure. Now, I'm sure it's fantastic, but Stephen 37 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:35,000 Burley really does a great job, and he's the narrator here, and he does a fantastic job, 38 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,640 so just the whole thing is really fantastic, it's really fabulous. It's about doing the 39 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:47,320 right thing, it's about justice, it's about Harry Kelly. It's about Harry Kelly, he stars 40 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:53,640 in this thing, and yeah, so young Harry Kelly is an agent of the Red Panda, he's been moved 41 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,240 from a spotter to a runner, I believe is what they said, or a runner to a spotter, one of 42 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:02,080 the two, so we get to track Harry Kelly's career throughout the whole Red Panda series, 43 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:08,320 basically, more or less, overall. And this is a big deal for him, he wants to go sing 44 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:14,960 for his mom in this Christmas thing, but then he finds out about this plot where these terrible, 45 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:22,880 they say rat-faced Jake, this terrible game creature, excuse me, led by a bad fellow named 46 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:28,400 Jake, wants to steal all this stuff that Red Panda's alter ego is sending to these orphans 47 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:36,400 somewhere, orphans who are kids with no mom or no dad. Red Panda is himself an orphan, 48 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:40,920 at this time his parents are dead, he's the last living member of his family, the soul 49 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:46,760 heir to everything, somehow. Well, we won't talk about how, but anyway, that's his deal, 50 00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:50,680 that's his story, and so maybe for that, in part, he has sympathy for these kids, but 51 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:56,560 I'm sure also Kit is very strongly pushing him to give to these kids, because she definitely 52 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:00,920 adds an edge of humanity that I believe is missing from his character. He wants to help 53 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:05,480 people in the macro, I think is how you say that, and she wants to help people in the 54 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,960 micro, she wants to help everyday people in everyday ways, and what better way, like they 55 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,000 give money to the poor box and things like that when they take it from criminals, but 56 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:16,560 you know, directly giving stuff to these kids at Christmas is a great, you know, it's a 57 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:21,360 great gesture, especially in the culture, whatever. All my qualms with Christmas aside, 58 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,640 that's a wonderful thing to do, and you should do it at any time, not just when there's, 59 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:30,120 you know, Christmas cheer in the air. But anyway, yeah, I mean, it just tells a fantastic 60 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:35,280 story, it's a lot of fun, the whole thing rhymes, which is wonderful, and the performances 61 00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:40,480 are fantastic, even like there's some lines that you could tell, well, like, we're difficult 62 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:45,360 to pull off, and yet they did it, and it all sounded fantastic, so, anyway, it's a lot 63 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,480 of fun, I'm not going to blather on about it, because it's just, it's a really great 64 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:54,440 fun episode, you should check it out. I think I called my episode for the title, or my thumbnail 65 00:05:54,440 --> 00:06:03,480 for it on YouTube, is A Very Merry Harry. Anyway, yeah, it's just great. Shannon Arnold 66 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:08,520 is the voice of Harry Kelly, and she does a fantastic performance, and the whole crew 67 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:14,720 does a great job. There's even some special decoder-ing theatre humor in the middle of 68 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:19,720 it, because in the break, they go on with this little skit about the guy who's doing 69 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:24,640 the voice of Jake, I can't remember his name, sorry, I remember Stephen Burley, for sure, 70 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,840 which is kind of like the point of the skit, that he's carrying the whole show, and so 71 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:38,880 this other guy wants to, is it? No, I'm not going to guess. Anyway, anyway, it's a funny 72 00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:42,320 little skit in there, and it shows some of the personality and some of the, well, at 73 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:51,360 least the decoder-ing persona of the people who are doing the show. So, Greg, Clarissa, 74 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:56,680 and I guess Shannon is probably the other person who drops in there and does some stuff. 75 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:02,200 It must be Peter Moyle, I think, is the last one. Pretty sure of that. Anyway, and yeah, 76 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:07,760 it's a lot of fun. Very fun episode, light, but like, you know, it's not like adding to 77 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:14,960 the overall lore of the Red Panda. It's just really fun and really cool and really enjoyable. 78 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:19,160 I mean, it kind of adds to Harry's mythos for who he becomes later or what he becomes 79 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:24,920 later, but I don't know if Taylor had that in mind at the time. I kind of think he did, 80 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,280 but regardless, it's very cool, very fun. 81 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:34,360 I hope you enjoyed that. Like, share, and subscribe. I invite you to comment, ask questions, 82 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,160 and share your thoughts with me. It's always more fun when you're part of the conversation. 83 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:43,680 Until next time, be well and hold high the lamp of justice. Visit MJMunoz.com for more 84 00:07:43,680 --> 00:08:08,080 of my work and help me build up the Fortress fiction.