The new Disney Plus movie Pinocchio is a mostly live-action remake of the 1940 Disney animated classic about a wooden boy who longs to become real, but must first undergo a series of trials and temptations in order to do so. You may already know the story, but director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis has corralled stars like Tom Hanks, Cynthia Erivo, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Keegan-Michael Key to give it new life.
Tags: npr movies, arts, national, pop, tv & film, culture, see, books, radio, film, monkey, tv, morning edition, music, all things considered, public, happy, fresh air, literature, npr, theater, hour, comics, washington, movies, district of columbia
Older Episodes
Queen Elizabeth II died today at the age of 96. She was the longest-serving British monarch, and she was undeniably a major figure in pop culture. Her image on television shows like _The Crown_ , and in movies like _The Queen_ , never seemed to quite capture who she was, …
The excellent new Netflix series _Mo_ is about a man who figures out how to get by: how to find work as someone who can't work legally, how to navigate the asylum process as a Palestinian refugee in Texas, and how to care for the people he loves. The show's …
The children's TV cartoon _Bluey_ centers on a family of four anthropomorphic dogs. Each episode balances gentle humor with some kind of lesson about emotional intelligence. _Bluey_ is an Australian series that first premiered in 2018, and is streaming in the United States on Disney Plus.
The 1991 film _Mississippi Masala_ stars Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington as two very beautiful people who meet and unexpectedly find they're just right for each other. Directed by Mira Nair, it's also about family and displacement, knowing your history, and making your own way in the world. And after …
The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we are bringing you an episode the podcast _Snooze_. It's a show about things people put off, how they conquer them, but most importantly, how they conquer themselves. In each episode, host Megan Tan, the Snooze Squad and guest celebrities …
In the movie _Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.,_ a Southern Baptist megachurch has been rocked by a lurid scandal. The always delightful Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown star as the first lady and pastor of the church, who must reopen their doors and woo back their former congregants. …
Manti Te'o was a decorated college football player at Notre Dame with a heartbreaking story. Early in his senior year, he had learned on the same day of the deaths of his grandmother and his girlfriend. But a few months later, the story broke that there was no indication that …
The HBO series _Industry_ is a workplace drama about a cutthroat investment bank in London, where employees cater to wealthy client egos and undermine one another. Bosses are bad, drugs are plentiful, business jargon is _everywhere_. But even if you care little about the world of finance, the show still …
What makes a good karaoke song? Today, we're suggesting three great songs to sing at karaoke night.
The vinyl record, the CD, the DVD, the VHS tape — even the paper book has been the subject of debate and concern over its future. But we haven't given up our collections just yet. Today we're talking about the physical media we still treasure.
In the new George Miller-directed film _Three Thousand Years of Longing_ , Tilda Swinton plays an academic who buys a glass bottle and soon discovers it contains an ancient djinn, played by Idris Elba. He says he will grant her three wishes, but as a scholar of stories about wish-granting, …
On HBO's reality series _The Rehearsal,_ Nathan Fielder hires actors and production crews to create spaces to help real people practice for real moments in their real lives. Then he puts them through every possible permutation, attempting to account for every variable. Soon, his role as host and director becomes …
This year marks the 25th anniversary of _King Of The Hill_ the animated sitcom _King Of The Hill._ Created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, the series ran for 13 seasons on FOX from 1997 to 2010, and is now streaming on Hulu. The show is in fictional Arlen, Texas …
This summer, NPR asked its staff and contributors: What are the best video games of 2022, so far? [Join The Game](https://www.npr.org/series/820266919/join-the-game), NPR's column on games and gaming culture, has the results in a [sortable guide](https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1111253916/2022-best-games-so-far) of recommendations. Today, we round up a few of those picks, from epic blockbusters to …
The HBO Max series R _ap Sh!t_ feels like a comedy for The Moment. Created by Issa Rae, the show focuses on Shawna and Mia (played by Aida Osman and KaMillion), two aspiring rappers from Miami, and documents the challenges they face as young women trying to break into the …
The sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman was meant to appear in only a handful of episodes of _Breaking Bad_. Instead, Saul (played by Bob Odenkirk) became an integral part of the series and eventually earned his own acclaimed spin-off, _Better Call Saul_. Now, after six seasons, the AMC drama has come …
The HBO Max animated series _Harley Quinn_ is filled with characters from a version of the DC Universe where the violence is frequent, the language is explicitly salty, and the jokes come at you fast. In the show, Harley (Kaley Cuoco) has ditched the Joker and started making her own …
The 1992 film _A League Of Their Own_ is a beloved sports movie classic – thanks to a memorable all-star cast led by Geena Davis and Tom Hanks, _and_ repeat showings on cable TV. It's a fictionalized account of The Rockford Peaches, the real-life professional women's baseball team that was …
The professional women's baseball team the Rockford Peaches were immortalized in the 1992 box office hit _A League Of Their Own_. Thirty years later, they're back in a new Amazon Prime series of the same name. Co-created by and starring _Broad City_ alum Abbi Jacobson, the series showcases a new …