With B-Fest occurring this weekend (March 6 & 7, 2026), CatBusRuss feels there can never be too many monsters to chat about around Northwestern's annual event. So he reached back in the original "Ninety For Chill dot Com: The Podcast" feed for his first conversation with the crew of the B3 Podcast. Rae and Ween join the then Cool Movies Darth to discuss James Whale's most famous monster features, "Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man".

Since ThePoeticCritic was on the most recent episode of "I Dig Crazy Flicks", and CatBusRuss will be chatting with her about B-Fest 2026 for the next canonic episode, our podcast host decided that there needs to be a little more variety when it came to the voices on the feed.

Russ and the duo of dames from Cleveland have a conversation where nothing is off limits, so this will be a longer episode, and perhaps a bit raunchy. It is from a time where the three "B's" stood for something, so you may want to brace yourself for the next two and half hours.

To honor his friends from the Buckeye state, our host decides to try "Tubi or Not Tubi". He may have cheated since he always meant to get around to this Z-budget "Fantastic Voyage" X "Jaws" feature, but "Nanoshark" may serve as further evidence that cheaters never prosper.

CatBusRuss and ThePoeticCritic get ready for B-Fest 2026 by having a conversation about an overblown b-movie premise, "Kpop Demon Hunters". The feature is about to get a blu-ray release. Our host does not have an issue with that. What he takes issue with is that it gets to hold a spot in the Criterion Collection.

Russ would refer you to Screen Junkie's Honest Trailer for this feature to support his argument. His big sister thinks its okay to let Netflix have its fun. And then she suggest that it will get the Oscar for best animated feature, which that leads to CatBus on a it would be better for Chris Benoit to be in the WWE Hall of Fame rant.

This conversation also serves as a birthday gift for TPC's little brother, so she seems a little more patient with his controversial takes. She provides a means of reason, but how can she deny the damage this fad of a flick will cause. Kids will just throw around copies of "Kagemusha", "Killers", and "Koko: A Talking Gorila" to fight over the tale of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey".

At least the other animated features in the Collection are further away in the alphabet. Films like "Fantastic Planet". This may have been one of the first Criterion blu-rays he had purchased, but he thinks there is a particular mood one may need to be in to watch a French film that has a trailer with gives off "Mad God" vibes. To be done, done, done with the Huntrx, the mood has been found.

CatBusRuss returned to Morton, IL to visit his family which includes his big sister, ThePoeticCritic. If it is not a comic convention or film festival, the two rarely have schedules that allow them to record a podcast together in person. Thus, our podcast host was happy to rap with her about the poor state of the box office.

It is hard to nail down when the older sibling got jaded against Disney. Russ thinks it may be every time an animated feature under performed. With all the live-action remakes of animated classics, a piece of her seems to die. We have heard rant a plenty about the House of Mouse being responsible for superhero cinema once dominating the box office.

But in the end, she just wants them to return to creating great animated features, be it the Walt Disney Animation Company or Pixar. She just is not optimistic about "Hoppers" and is fed up with sequels to the billion dollar franchises. As always, her primary worry is a lack of personal stories being told on the big screen.

CatBus pities for her not appreciating Star Wars' tale of fatherhood, "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu".

Russ also focuses on the fact that if a story is good, it should impress all, even if it is not the target demographic. We need more musicals for the lasses. Exploitation is not a bad thing (just come to a B-Fest).

Our host actually thinks Disney is not as bad off as ThePoeticCritic thinks it is. Inspired by this conversation, he finally sat down and watched the feature that the supposed fans of the oldest animation studio were determined to despise "Wish".

It may just have been released at the wrong time. Perhaps the film should not have sold itself so blatantly as 100 Years of Disney. Russ left thinking this is the appropriate feature for children at this time. You will have to check out catbus316.bsky.social to see the two Stevens argue about the revolution CatBus thinks Asha, Valentino, and Star are calling for.

For CatBusRuss⁠ and ⁠"Couchman" Andrew Tiede, UI-Con truly kicked of for them at 8 pm on Friday night. The convention had taken a break from panels to let the visitors kick it to Otter Chaos and to prepare for the anime-themed rave. In other words, if you were there to be nerdy, the evening panels were where you wanted to be. Even if some may have lacked that Japanimation flair.

This was "I Dig Crazy Flicks" debut for a new panel, "1986: RAD Movies or BAD Movies". CatBus had listed the similar movies and Andrew brought the box office stats to see what audiences thought at the time. It was a time where the important thing was to be first to a new film premise.

Some would say one flick would be a blockbuster while the other a mockbuster. This panel takes you back to when there was no direct-to-video market for studios to spend little on a VHS tape to capitalize on a major motion picture. It was a time to go big or go home.

Some match ups included in the panel are: "Iron Eagle" vs. "Top Gun", "An American Tail" vs. "The Great Mouse Detective", and a Robot Triple-Threat Match. Was it the audiences who won or was it just Steve Guttenberg?

The two panelists/podcasters' first panel was 4 pm's "Ninety for Chill: The Panel". With its poor attendance (At least the staff found it cool.), the two got to talk shop about their remaining two panels. Here is where they realized that "Big Trouble in Little China" may have had a similar battle in 1986 with "The Golden Child". To be ready for the next time Russ runs this panel, he gave Eddie Murphy's Chinese dark magic adventure a watch.