731: Shang Chi and the Legend of the Brown Bear

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is everything you'd expect from a Marvel movie: fast, funny and full of action. I loved it, but I also understand that it lacks what most Marvel movies lack ... a sense of consequence and emotional weight. Which is why the end isn't that memorable. But – in classic SMB style – let's contrast it with something else, from Captain Beaky and his Band. P.S. Here's the full text of the poem I mentioned. NEARLY FOUR by Jeremy Lloyd A teddy bear sits on a mattress One glass eye and threadbare paw Looking at a cuckoo clock Which shows it's ten to four. Four o'clock is teddy's teatime Lots of friends and fancy cake Although it's only pretend eating Oh how long ten minutes take. Shadows grow on distant hillsides Orange sun on glassy sea All in his amber eye reflected And still ten minutes left 'til tea. The mattress, striped, is old and broken Rusty springs through stuffing show The cuckoo clock is also broken But how's a teddy supposed to know? Unaware he's been discarded That this is not the nursery cot The hills and sea just glass, old papers On a disused rubbish plot. A telephone that no one answers Empty tins that once held tea The clock that still says nearly teatime Where can all the children be? For ages now he's lain unwanted Saluting with his threadbare paw He'll never know he's been abandoned 'Til the clock reads after four. Don't tell him that the clock is broken For as long as teddy doesn't know It'll always soon be teatime As it was so long ago. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/731:-Shang-Chi-and-the-Legend-of-the-Brown-Bear