The Big Picture: The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman!

Published 2026-06-05; 2:23:52 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and 'Masters of the Universe,' with Griffin Newman!”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey. Guests: Griffin Newman, Samara Weaving (second segment), Adam Rehmeier (second segment; transcribed 'Adam Raymeyer').

Subject films: Masters of the Universe (2026), Carolina Caroline (second-segment interview).

On the transcript: No speaker labels and the two male voices (Sean and Griffin) are often indistinguishable, so many attributions are low confidence. Despite the title, the transcript does not contain a formally numbered 'Top 10 Fantasy Films' or an inducted 'Toy Movie Hall of Fame': Griffin offers five fantasy picks and Sean adds two, then Griffin walks a loose toy-movie canon, so those films are recorded as recommended rather than ranked. The second half is an unrelated interview about Carolina Caroline.

Films that came up

Claims (57)

industry (box-office comp): Obsession → Get Out. Get Out's single-digit second-weekend drop is the closest legs comparison, though that was a drop, not a gain.
“something like get out having a single digit drop in the 2nd weekend is kind of the closest comp to this.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:04:48 · unknown (Griffin or Sean) (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (box-office comp): Obsession → Paranormal Activity. The speaker checked Paranormal Activity's numbers against Obsession's and found nothing like a five-million Wednesday.
“The movie that I was looking at, data wise, this morning, just to see if it matched up at all was paranormal activity”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:05:51 · unknown (Griffin or Sean) (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career-launch comp): Obsession → The Sixth Sense. Obsession might be like The Sixth Sense, a breakout that puts a new filmmaker on the map and starts a brand.
“is it more like maybe a 6th sense kind of thing where that kind of puts Shamalan on the map and then there's like a Curry Barker brand?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:06:13 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (forerunner): Obsession → The Blair Witch Project. Blair Witch is named a forbear of a word-of-mouth phenomenon among young people.
“obviously the Blair Witch Project is a forbear here in a lot of ways.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:08:44 · unknown (Griffin or Sean) (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (tone critique): Taika Waititi → Masters of the Universe. Waititi's deflation jokes read as embarrassment about the material, and the movie's jokes feel defensive in the same way.
“Feels like it's coming from a place of, I'm a little embarrassed that I'm making this movie.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:09:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (quality comp): Obsession → Weapons. Both drew discourse but ended up with a quality force field around them.
“It is very similar to weapons where like, weapons did have a lot of discourse, but for the most part, people were like, well, that movie is good.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:11:53 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (timelessness): Obsession → Wes Craven. Obsession is a hook movie Wes Craven could have made 30 years ago, not tied to this moment.
“Wes Craven could have made this movie 30 years ago.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:12:15 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Obsession → Backrooms. Unlike Backrooms, Obsession could have come out of any era instead of the YouTube-and-internet moment.
“it's not a movie like back rooms where you go, well, this could only come out of this current moment”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:12:46 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (authorship comp): Obsession → M. Night Shyamalan. The star of the movie is the mystery of who made it, as with early Shyamalan films.
“And that's why I think Shyamalan's the real comparison point is the star of the movie becomes what's going on here?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:15:52 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (performance comp): Obsession → Haley Joel Osment. The lead performance has the same where-did-this-person-come-from magic trick quality Osment had in The Sixth Sense.
“this has a little bit of that magic trick feeling that Hilley Joel Osman had where you go, where did this person come from?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:16:33 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (handmade lineage): Obsession → The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Foundational horror films like Night of the Living Dead and Chain Saw were handmade and unpolished, an essential quality Obsession shares in kind though not in quality.
“But so if you look back at Night of the Living Dead or, um, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Last House on the Left or even Halloween to some extent.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:17:36 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
craft (visual comp): The Texas Chain Saw Massacre → Terrence Malick. Leatherface in the field with lens flare looks like a Malick movie, accidental poetry loaded with dread.
“there's the shot in that movie of leatherface in the field with the sort of lens flare in the sun where suddenly it feels like you're watching like a Terrence Malik movie”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:20:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (origin): Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope → Masters of the Universe. He-Man (and the 80s toy boom) was a response to every company having passed on Star Wars merchandising.
“so much of He-Man and the 80s for toys is a response to every major company passing on Star Wars that Star Wars is the whiff that no one can live down.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:23:25 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (dream fulfilled): Masters of the Universe → Masters of the Universe. Galitzine's transformation is the little boy's dream that the Lundgren film could never deliver.
“this is the realization of a little boy's dream that Dolph Lundgren could never possibly live up to.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:41:44 · unknown (Griffin or Sean) (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (emotional comp): Masters of the Universe → Ghost World. Watching it as a fan-turned-commentator, the speaker thought of Seymour in Ghost World saying he hates his interest.
“I kept thinking of the Sibu semi-character in Ghost World when Thor Burch recommends that he meets a woman his age, who shares his interest, and he goes, I hate my interest.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:42:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (quality contrast): Masters of the Universe → Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Mutant Mayhem triggered a similar spiral in Griffin but is an infinitely better film.
“watching Mutant Mayhem, the Ninja Turtles movie, which I think is an infinitely better film.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:43:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (inverse comp): Masters of the Universe → Barbie. Masters of the Universe is Barbie in reverse: Barbie escapes the fantasy world to become real, Adam wants to go back to it.
“And this movie is is Barbie in reverse, because Barbie is a movie about, obviously, femininity, the glass ceiling, self-determinism”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:48:12 · unknown (Griffin or Sean) (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career turning point): Jared Leto → Dallas Buyers Club. Leto's comeback came with a trans-woman performance that would not be awarded today.
“he has this Dallas buyers club comeback where he plays a trans woman in a performance that wins every single award”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:00:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (filmography pattern): Jared Leto → Tron: Ares. Every Leto movie since Dallas Buyers Club is all about him, with Tron: Ares the latest.
“Suicide Squad. Blade Runner 2049, the Little Things, Zack Snyder's Justice League, House of Gucci, Morbius, Haunted Mansion, and Tron Aries.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:02:40 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (scene comp): Masters of the Universe → Barbie. The Skeletor-in-He-Man's-brain sequence is where the movie cooks the way Barbie does, unconcerned with explaining its logic.
“And that felt to me like where the movie was fully cooking in a Barbie-esque way.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:04:35 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (unexplained-setup contrast): Masters of the Universe → Big. Big reaches its magic machine in under ten minutes with no backstory, which the movie should have emulated instead of over-explaining.
“And there is no backstory of who made the machine or why or why it's possessed with a ghost or why it works or how to undo it.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:05:16 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (influence): Masters of the Universe → Thor: Ragnarok. The movie looks inspired by Ragnarok, which gave executives a template of color, weirdness, and joke tone to copy.
“And it speaks to this movie feels very, um, inspired by Thor Ragnarok to me.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:09:02 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (end-credit tease): Masters of the Universe → Evil Dead. Orko's three-second end-credits cameo feels like Bruce Campbell saying groovy in the Alvarez Evil Dead credits.
“the end of the Fede Alvarez evil dead reboot where in the end credits, it just inserts a shot of old Bruce Campbell saying groovy.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:12:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
lineage (sequel-bait comp): Masters of the Universe → X-Men: Apocalypse. The final shot of slightly updated costumes echoes the end of X-Men Apocalypse promising the classic looks next time.
“it feels like the end of X-Men apocalypse, where suddenly the promise is, wait a 2nd, are they all going to have the 90s costumes next time?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:13:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (old playbook): Masters of the Universe → Dr. Dolittle. The movie is the old-style product, like Dr. Dolittle playing while Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate (the new thing) play next door.
“are we watching Dr. Doolittle? And like Bonnie and Clyde and the graduate are playing on the adjacent screens.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:13:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (genre wave): Conan the Barbarian → Krull. The 80s high-fantasy boom was mostly kicked off by Conan the Barbarian's success.
“mostly, you know, kicked off by the success of Conan the Barbarian, but there was just been so many films in that period of time”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:16:14 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring → The Green Knight. Griffin's five fantasy picks (NeverEnding Story, Green Knight, Mononoke, Willow, Fellowship) are the common-canon list he could not talk himself out of.
“like, it felt like a very kind of unoriginal list, but I couldn't talk myself into saying like, well, actually, BeastMaster has some really cool effects in it”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:18:37 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): The Dark Crystal → The NeverEnding Story. Sean would add Dark Crystal and Excalibur to Griffin's fantasy list as the two worthy of sitting alongside it.
“Yeah, I would I would throw Dark Crystal and Excalibur into that cannon.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:18:46 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
contrast (post-LotR contrast): The Green Knight → The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. After Lord of the Rings, nothing high-fantasy worked in movies until Narnia; Green Knight is great because it does its own thing.
“Nothing works in movies, post Lord of the Rings until Narnia, which then fell off a cliff.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:19:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Conan the Barbarian → Dragonslayer. Conan kicked off the 80s fantasy wave; before it, Weissmuller Tarzan films evolved into things like Dragonslayer.
“that's sort of the Johnny Wart Mueller Tarzan films are sort of what evolved into things like Dragon Slayer and things like that.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:20:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (borderline-genre): Ray Harryhausen → The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Harryhausen movies blur Greek mythology and high fantasy; one of Sinbad or Jason would represent them.
“I could put the 7th Voyage of Sinbad on a list like this, you know?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:21:18 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (tonal comp): Masters of the Universe → The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride deconstructs the same tropes while playing it straight, letting it have its cake and eat it too in a way Masters can't.
“You know what movie, Masters of the Universe has a lot in common with that is in this conversation, is the princess bride.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:22:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (creative match): Rob Reiner → The Princess Bride. Reiner and Goldman were a great match for the story and cast it perfectly.
“I think Reiner and Goldman were like such a great match for that story.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:22:45 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (deflation device): The Princess Bride → Fred Savage. The movie's only deflation is through Fred Savage, whose cynicism melts, unlike Masters' drunk Man-at-Arms.
“I also think that movie makes its only deflation happen through Fred Savage, which has its own emotional arc of watching his cynicism melt away”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:23:11 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career pattern): Idris Elba → Suicide Squad. Elba keeps playing supporting parts in franchises (Thor, Suicide Squad), so Man-at-Arms feels like a continuation.
“I mean, he was literally in the Thor films.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:24:31 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career arc): Idris Elba → Beasts of No Nation. Elba's first real leading part after The Wire was in a streaming film; he won a SAG award for it but got no Oscar nomination.
“he wins best supporting actor at the SAG Awards that year for Beast of No Nation and is not nominated for the Oscar.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:26:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Michael Bay → Transformers (Michael Bay films). Bay is incredible at sounding images and Transformers is an excuse to do that at scale.
“The guy's incredible at putting like sounding images together.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:30:09 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Barbie → The Lego Movie. Barbie sits at the top of the toy-movie heap, along with the first Lego Movie.
“Barbie, obviously, I think now sits as like, arguably the top of the heap, along with, I would say, the Lego movie, the 1st Lego movie”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:30:19 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
programming (recommendation): Mike Flanagan → Ouija: Origin of Evil. The second Ouija film, directed by Flanagan, is really good, as is the Daley-Goldstein D&D film.
“I mean, I do think the 2nd Mike Flanagan Ouija movie is really good.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:35:22 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (lost masterpiece): The Thief and the Cobbler → The Magnificent Ambersons. Williams's never-finished Thief and the Cobbler is one of animation's great Magnificent Ambersons.
“it's sort of one of the great magnificent Ambersons of animation.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:36:30 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (side job): Richard Williams → The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Williams took the Raggedy Ann job to fund self-producing more of The Thief and the Cobbler.
“he took this assignment job, uh, to get the money to self-produce more of Thief and the Cobbler.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:36:43 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (tonal comp): The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy → The Dark Crystal. Raggedy Ann feels like the Jim Henson fantasy films discussed earlier.
“It feels like the Jim Tanson fantasy films we were talking about.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:36:55 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (midpoint): The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy → Toy Story franchise. Raggedy Ann sits halfway between a child's imagined toy play and what Toy Story later found: that being a toy would be an existential nightmare.
“It's halfway in between feeling like you're watching a film of what a kid imagines their toys are doing. And what Toy Story gets to later”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:37:04 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
lineage (toy origin): The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh → A.A. Milne. Pooh stories are tales adapted from a mythology a boy created for his toys; the film's framing device shows a boy's room of dolls.
“They are tales adapted from The mythology created by kids for their toys.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:37:56 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (movie kink): Clue → Transformers (Michael Bay films). Clue and Transformers touch something personal in the speaker beyond critical distance.
“like clue and like Transformers.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:38:52 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (canon filler): The Hudsucker Proxy → Toy Story franchise. To make a good toy-movie canon you have to cheat and include movies not driven by a product: Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, Hudsucker.
“In order to make a cannon that is good. You have to cheat and put in things like Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, and the Hudsucker proxy”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:39:55 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
verdict (ranking): Barbie → The Lego Movie. Of the whole toy-movie canon, only Barbie and The Lego Movie came from a cynical place and ended somewhere fairly pure.
“And then you're like, really, it's only Barbie and Lego movie that came from the cynical place and ended up somewhere fairly pure.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:40:04 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
craft (tone reference): Carolina Caroline → True Romance. Weaving responded to a tone like True Romance and Bonnie and Clyde that is rarely seen now.
“it just captured like a feeling, a tone of the movies that I really loved growing up that like true romance, Bonnie and Clyde”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:57:16 · Samara Weaving (0.70 sure it was them)
people (casting): Dinner in America → Kyle Gallner. Rehmeier cast Gallner off a single photo after the project fell apart; Gallner then found the script that had been in his inbox for 2.5 years.
“I would cast anybody off of a single image if it showed me their soul.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:06:47 · Adam Rehmeier (0.80 sure it was them)
people (people): Dinner in America → Kyle Gallner. After the first DP and cast fell away, the replacement DP, who was working with Kyle in Romania, told Kyle about the project, which is how Kyle came back to the script.
“I found a new DP, and he was working with Kyle in, like, Romania on a project, and he was like, hey, there's this movie that I'm attached to.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:07:24 · Adam Rehmeier (0.90 sure it was them)
unmapped (reference watch): True Romance → Patricia Arquette. As a touch point, a cast member watched True Romance for Patricia Arquette and its no-weak-links cast.
“I love Patricia Arquette. Oh, yeah.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:08:33 · Samara Weaving (0.50 sure it was them)
unmapped (ensemble benchmark): True Romance → Dennis Hopper. A supporting performer in Carolina Caroline is likened to Dennis Hopper's sequence with Christopher Walken in True Romance.
“There's no weak links, and I feel like almost like Kira's almost like the Dennis Hopper of that.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:08:52 · Adam Rehmeier (0.50 sure it was them)
people (editor collaboration): Snack Shack → Justin Crone. Rehmeier edited earlier films himself; Snack Shack was the first with Crone, and Crone chose most of Carolina Caroline's country needle drops.
“It was my editor, Justin Crone.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:11:01 · Adam Rehmeier (0.80 sure it was them)
unmapped (scoring approach): Carolina Caroline → Dinner in America. Each of Rehmeier's films pairs a score against a different music world: EDM against punk in Dinner in America, pretty score against pop in Snack Shack, synth score against country here.
“dinner in America had this sort of EDM, big thing against the punk aesthetic.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:13:19 · Adam Rehmeier (0.70 sure it was them)
craft (score comp): Carolina Caroline → Heat. The score's driving quality in the robberies is closer to Heat than the country needle drops.
“You've got something driving it too at times that's, you know, more akin to heat or something like that.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:13:47 · Adam Rehmeier (0.50 sure it was them)
programming (recommendation): Reds → Warren Beatty. Weaving calls Reds the best movie she had never seen, a masterpiece epic and love story.
“I watched the best movie I'd never seen.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:18:16 · Samara Weaving (0.70 sure it was them)
unmapped (theater-comedy comp): Jackass movies → Borat. Only some Sacha Baron Cohen has pushed comedy the way Jackass did; Borat was great in a theater.
“maybe some Sasha Baron Cohen stuff, like I, I, you know, um, Borat in the theater was amazing with people.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:20:30 · Adam Rehmeier (0.60 sure it was them)

Fun items (27)

fun, about Obsession: A tiny indie horror movie made a stunning five million dollars on a Wednesday in its third week, which Griffin says breaks his brain.
“Obsession made $5000000 on a Wednesday in its 3rd week of release”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:02:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Dick (1999) weekend: The first weekend of August 1999 was Griffin's favorite box office weekend: Iron Giant, Mystery Men, and Dick all bombed while The Sixth Sense won; Dick opened outside the top ten.
“It is a dick, which opened outside of the top 10.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:07:02 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Obsession: They cast an imaginary Wes Craven version with Beverly Hills 90210 actors, naming each part.
“Shannon Doherty and Brian Austin Green?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:12:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about He-Man cartoon / deregulation: He-Man broke the wall that kept toy-selling cartoons off the air, ushering in 22-minute commercials.
“G-Man is the one that basically breaks the Berlin wall of these can be 22 minute commercials now.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:23:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about The Power of Grayskull (documentary): A good documentary on how the He-Man toy line was made, home of the viral clip about painting the cat green.
“Power of Grayskull, which is a really good documentary about how the toy line was made”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:25:54 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about He-Man (toy line): When the toy line lacked a vehicle they borrowed Big Jim's jaguar; it was too big for He-Man, so they painted it green.
“The cat's too big for He-Man to ride, and they go, just paint it green or some shit.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:26:15 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Orko / Griffin Newman: Griffin voiced Orko on a Kevin Smith-run He-Man show after a writer called to pick his brain in 2019 and then pitched him for the part; he calls it his hardest-won scale job.
“I ended up voicing Orco on a He-Man cartoon show, showrun by Kevin Smith”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:34:00 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Orko: Orko is the self-insert for kids too powerless to relate even to He-Man.
“Orco is the little tiny thing who messes everything up.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:37:36 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about He-Man cartoon: Mandela effect: He-Man almost never uses his sword in the cartoon, and his transformation is basically a tan and a vest swap.
“He literally never uses it.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:52:42 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about He-Man cartoon PSAs: Episodes end with a PSA-style moral to the kids, like lying is bad.
“today we learned why lying is bad.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:53:24 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Travis Knight: The director is Phil Knight's son, was given an animation studio, turned it into Laika, and once had a failed rap career, which the speaker thinks suits He-Man's too-perfect hero.
“He had a failed rap career.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:56:23 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Masters of the Universe: A scene where He-Man's father disapproves of his son's toughness made one critic joke about the shoe business.
“I wish you understood the shoe business.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:57:10 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about He-Man fandom: He-Man was kept afloat in lean years by the Latin American and LGBTQ communities, more than by nerdy white boys.
“What basically has always kept He-Man afloat are, uh, the Latin American community and the LGBTQ plus community.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 0:58:57 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Jared Leto / Skeletor: Leto is the best thing in the film, helped by the fact that you never see his face and Skeletor needs an overplayed performer.
“I think you have to admit he is the best performance in this thing.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:01:57 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Skeletor: Skeletor's motivation is simply being evil, which the movie plays with; the Skeletor-in-He-Man's-brain sequence is the movie at its best.
“What's his motivation?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:03:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Big: Rewatching Big, the fortune-teller machine arrives within ten minutes with zero backstory, the model for how fantasy used to skip setup.
“And he gets to the fortune teller machine within less than 10 minutes.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:05:11 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Orko / Masters of the Universe (2026): Orko appears for three seconds in an end-credits tease; Griffin finds withholding him maddening.
“And I'll just say like withholding Orco from the masters of the universe movie, it's just fucking annoying.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:11:29 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Masters of the Universe (2026) screening: Fans at the New York screening applauded whenever anything looking like a toy appeared, which embarrassed the speaker.
“Anytime anything showed up on screen that looked like one of the toys, they would applaud.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:15:27 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Transformers: Sean saw the original Bay Transformers at its premiere and it rocked his world.
“I was at the premiere of the original Transformers Michael Bay film, and it just rocked my world.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:29:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about The Brats movie: A cheap toy cash-in with Chet Hanks as the nerd the Brats pick on and Jon Voight as the principal.
“the brats movie, which stars uh, Chet Hanks, uh, weirdly as a nerd who the brats pick on, and uh, John Voight as the principal”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:34:13 · Griffin Newman (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about The Hudsucker Proxy: Griffin's pick for the toy-movie canon because it is about the business of toys: a film entirely about the hula hoop.
“It is a movie entirely about the hula hoop.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:34:41 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy: Richard Williams's nightmarish toy musical, watchable on YouTube; skip to the number 'Blue,' sung by a camel with four legs, for astonishing animation.
“There is a musical sequence in this uh, called Blue, uh, sung by a camel, uh, with 4 legs”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:37:24 · Griffin Newman (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Pirates of the Caribbean: Seeing the first Pirates at age 12, Weaving blacked out with wonder and left furious at not being part of it, then asked her dad how to do make-believe for a living.
“how dare they make this without who?”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:46:59 · Samara Weaving (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about The Money Game: Rehmeier's $13,000 microbudget feature, co-made with Rod Lean, sold to territories and got banned in the UK.
“it ended up getting banned in the UK.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 1:49:50 · Adam Rehmeier (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Dinner in America: Kyle Gallner had been sent the script 2.5 years earlier and ignored it; when it fell apart and a new DP mentioned it, he found it in his inbox.
“He read it and like the next day we're talking on the phone.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:08:01 · Adam Rehmeier (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Reds: Weaving watched Reds for the first time in a theater built under her house, and loved the final train sequence.
“But Reds. I, it's a masterpiece.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:18:53 · Samara Weaving (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Jackass 1 and 2: Rehmeier saw both at the New Beverly with Knoxville, Tremaine, Lance Bangs, and Rick Kosick present and got to talk to Tremaine.
“And Johnny Knoxville was there.”
The Big Picture · The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman! · 2:19:47 · Adam Rehmeier (0.80 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Sean Fennessey (host): A lifelong He-Man collector who admits the film has his number even when he thinks it is flawed. He loves Henson fantasy, Excalibur, and unvarnished, handmade movie moments, and prizes sincere emotional entry points. He is allergic to Marvel-style end-credit teases and sequel bait, and is a sucker for Hensonian creature work and toy nostalgia.
Griffin Newman (guest): A deep pop-culture archaeologist who loves He-Man (especially Orko), Henson fantasy, Toy Story, Barbie, and the Lego movies, and who voiced Orko himself. He is skeptical of masculine man-defends-his-castle fantasy and of defensive, self-embarrassed jokes. He is a sucker for the Hudsucker Proxy, odd animation like Raggedy Ann & Andy, and word-of-mouth box office oddities.
Samara Weaving (guest): Loves 70s-style romance crime like True Romance and Bonnie and Clyde, and fell for the adventure of Pirates of the Caribbean as a kid. She values chemistry she believes can't be faked, and is a sucker for epics like Reds.
Adam Rehmeier (guest): A former camera operator and DP who grew up on low-budget horror (Madman, The Grim Reaper) and classic studio movies. He loves sincere, heart-forward stories and early-80s studio variety, and is a sucker for Jackass in a packed theater.

The show's recurring bits

Drafts: Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument.
Hall of Fame: A star's or director's best, ranked and argued.
Countdowns: Ranked lists, top five or top ten.

Names the transcriber got wrong

'Sean Fantasy' is Sean Fennessey (also a deliberate bit at 0:43:37)
'Dolph Ungrin' = Dolph Lundgren
'Nicholas Galatine' / 'Galaxine' = Nicholas Galitzine
'Tyka' = Taika Waititi
'Eric Krasco' = Eric Carrasco (guess)
'J. Michaels Prazinski' = J. Michael Straczynski
'Thor Burch' = Thora Birch; 'Sibu' = Seymour
'Orco' = Orko
'Croll' = Krull
'Dragon Slayer' = Dragonslayer
'Death Stalker' = Deathstalker
'Jim Tanson' = Jim Henson
'Nijah 2' = Ne Zha 2
'Back rooms' = Backrooms
'Shamalan' = Shyamalan
'Hilley Joel Osman' = Haley Joel Osment
'Lowry' = David Lowery
'viewest universe' = unclear, probably a Grunge obsession like the Whoniverse; unverified
'Adam Raymeyer' = Adam Rehmeier
'Chris Bears' = Chris Bear
'Rick Cossack' = Rick Kosick
'Daily Goldstein' = Daley and Goldstein
'Sasha Baron Cohen' = Sacha Baron Cohen
'Kira' at 2:08:42 is unclear, possibly Kyle
'Tron Aries' = Tron: Ares
'Letsian' = Lettermanesque? unclear, possibly 'Lethem/Letterboxd-level'; unverified

The Big Picture: The Top 10 Fantasy Films, The Toy Movie Hall of Fame, and ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with Griffin Newman!

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (2)

anecdote (9)

passing (67)

compared (23)

recommended (22)

dismissed (9)

Claims (57)

Fun items (27)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong