Take A Look at Disney

4/25/13

Mike Ryan: A Tribute To A Great Podcaster




Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  Today's article is a rather personal one for me.  You see one of my favorite Disney, favorite podcasts in general is Mousterpiece Cinema.  A weekly review series taking a look at all of the movies in the Disney library.   The show had three hosts,  Josh, who created the show, Gabe, the youngest member but still quite intelligent about film and then Mike.  Mike was the heart and energy of the podcast but sadly, Mike  passed away not too long ago.   


Now this one was tough for me to take because yes, he is part of the Disney community and it's always sad when we lose someone from this community but unlike when Annette passed,  this one was more personal because I listen to Mousterpiece Cinema every Saturday either on my IPad or laptop and as strange as it may sound,   listening to the conversations the hosts had about the films, made me feel as though I was part of the conservation that was going on.   


And with Mike,  I loved being part of that conservation as he very rarely had anything bad to say. Yes, there would be films that he didn't like and would set him off and those were always humorous but there were other great running jokes that he had on the show. One of my personal favorites being whenever the discussion was about a Pirate film, Mike would always open the podcast in pirate talk.  You would think that would get old but Mike was so infectious with how he did it, that I sometimes found myself also doing it along with him Or  another one would be whenever they would review a film with ducks in it such as The Mighty Ducks,  (which I believe was his first episode before he became a host),  he would stop Josh mid-intro and take it over and turn the show into Ducksterpiece Theater.  This also reflects the fact that Donald was his favorite character.  But in my opinion, his best episodes were the reviews of the Herbie movies because just as with me, he was a huge fan and even bigger fan as he loved Herbie.   So much so, that after they had reviewed every theatrically released Herbie film,  Mike on Podcast told Josh, we can't stop here because there was the Bruce Campbell film and the TV series.  Which became a Facebook challenge, if they got a certain amount of likes, they'd look at  the TV film and then series.  Well, they reached both goals as they did take a look at both of these and they were great listens. In response to this,  Josh set up another challenge for Mike to review a direct-to-video sequel as he had not appeared on any of those reviews because Mike had labelled them as cinematic atrocities.  This goal had not been reached along with another one that was set up after Disney purchased Lucasfilm, where the show would've taken a look at Lost Ark and Howard The Duck in a Double feature.    That's a shame because  I would've to hear what Mike would have to say about both of these films and that would've meant another Ducksterpiece.   Which would've been cool as we haven't had one of those in a while.  Well Mike in honor of your memory, I'll review Raiders of The Lost Ark.  


Thank you for all the joy and insight you brought  when discussing Disney films and the smile you brought to my face when listening to you discuss these films is something that I'll be eternally grateful for.  I think the best way to close this out is with Herbie for Mike.






Again, thank you and you'll be missed.   

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