reference

24 Apr

Mortal Kombat Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This Mortal Kombat article contains spoilers. There’s a new Mortal Kombat live-action movie out on HBO Max, and it comes after nearly 30 years of games, cartoons, and movie adaptations. With such a long history to pick through, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the new movie has more than a few easter eggs and references to the series’ most famous moments and characters. Why wouldn’t there be? Why even make a new movie if you’re not going to throw your fans a bone or twenty exploding skulls? We’re keeping track of all the neat easter eggs that fill the 2021…

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06 Mar

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 9: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WandaVision spoilers. The final episode of WandaVision is here, and it’s 45 minutes of big screen Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster chaos magic action…but on the small screen. And while pound for pound it’s a little lighter on Marvel Comics and MCU Easter eggs than what we’ve seen in previous weeks (let alone sitcom references, now that we’ve left that world long behind), there’s still PLENTY to dig in to and fun things you might have missed. In particular, this episode sets up at least two upcoming big screen adventures with both Captain Marvel 2 and Doctor Strange…

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27 Feb

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 8: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WandaVision episode 8 spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU. “You didn’t think you were the only magical girl in town, did you?”  Agatha Harkness makes good on that line from last week’s episode in WandaVision episode 8, which functions as a trip through Wanda Maximoff’s entire MCU history. Not only does it reveal previously hidden (and crucially necessary) depths to her character and her relationship with Vision, but it successfully adds new elements to her established origin story. These new wrinkles pull from Wanda’s entire Marvel history, and have massive implications for magic users and…

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19 Feb

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 7: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WandaVision episode 7 spoilers and potential spoilers for future episodes and the wider MCU. WandaVision episode 7 is probably the final episode that is going to adhere to the sitcom format. As we’ve seen in recent episodes, the show is spending more and more time in the confines of the “real” MCU, and with its TV homages now brought up to modern day, it can spend its final two episodes bringing more surprises and wrapping up its incredibly ambitious story. But WandaVision episode 7 is ambitious enough in itself, and like previous episodes, it’s positively full of…

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13 Feb

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 6: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WANDAVISION spoilers through episode 6, possibly beyond, and for the wider MCU. It’s Halloween in Westview, and WandaVision is going all out. From the most comics-accurate looks for Scarlet Witch, Vision, Quicksilver, and even Wiccan to an eerie “Wicked Witch of the West” getup for Agnes, this episode isn’t messing around with its pop culture references. Oh yeah, and the whole thing feels faintly like an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, too! Let’s get to work, because there’s a lot to unpack on WandaVision episode 6… Halloween in Westview The episode’s title is “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!” which on…

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05 Feb

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WandaVision spoilers through episode 5, possibly beyond, and for the wider MCU. WandaVision episode 5, “On a Very Special Episode…” took everything we liked about the first two episodes and shook them up. For the first time, we have a fully blended approach to the storytelling, with the episode alternating between the altered “sitcom” reality of Westview, NJ and the actual, current MCU events. And then there’s that multiverse-shattering ending to contend with. There’s a lot to break down with this week’s WandaVision, so we’d better get to it… Sitcom Influences WandaVision took us to the ‘80s…

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30 Jan

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 4: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WandaVision episode 4 spoilers, as well as potential spoilers for future episodes and the wider MCU. WandaVision episode 4 ditches the sitcom format in favor of something that gives us a much clearer picture of what’s happening in the “real” MCU. Primarily functioning as a Monica Rambeau origin story, and one that gives us a better look at the inner working of SWORD (and puts FBI Agent Jimmy Woo front and center!), this week’s WandaVision also answers some big questions about what’s going on in Westview. Or does it? Let’s get to work… MONICA RAMBEAU This episode…

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23 Jan

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 3: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WANDAVISION Episode 3 spoilers, and potential spoilers for future episodes, the wider MCU, and Marvel Comics. We have a spoiler free review here. WandaVision episode 3 is the first full color episode of the series, and moves the setting from the black-and-white 1960s of the previous episodes to a vibrant Brady Bunch-esque Technicolor of the early 1970s. There’s lots of fun weirdness to find between the lines, both from a Marvel and MCU Easter eggs standpoint and callouts to classic sitcoms of its era. Let’s get to work… SITCOM INSPIRATION Let’s start with the big one… The Brady Bunch This episode borrows…

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16 Jan

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 2: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WANDAVISION Episode 1 spoilers, and potential spoilers for future episodes, the wider MCU, and Marvel Comics. We have a spoiler free review here. NOTE: This is our reference guide for WandaVision episode 2! If you’re looking for episode 1, click here instead. And you thought this show couldn’t get weirder? WandaVision episode 2 moved its sitcom-flavor a few years into the (still black and white) future, introduced a few new characters, and started leaning a little harder into the MCU than we saw in the first episode. Let’s see what we found… Sitcom Inspiration! The idea of a regular suburban couple needing…

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15 Jan

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 1: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WandaVision Episode 1 spoilers, and potential spoilers for future episodes, the wider MCU, and Marvel Comics. We have a spoiler free review here. Marvel’s WandaVision has finally arrived on Disney+! While two episodes kicked things off, there’s so much goodness (and weirdness) packed into each of the episodes that we’re just gonna go one at a time for now. Here are all the Marvel, MCU, and classic sitcom Easter eggs we’ve found so far in WandaVision episode 1… Sitcom Inspiration! The episode takes most of its style and appearance from The Dick Van Dyke Show. The layout…

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26 Dec

Wonder Woman 1984: DC Comics Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains Wonder Woman 1984 spoilers. Our spoiler free review can be found here. Wonder Woman 1984 has brought its message on the importance of truth onto screens worldwide. With retro stylings and a Hans Zimmer score, the second installment in Diana Prince’s story shows a more mature Amazonian who has adapted to man’s world and her solitary life, developing her skills as a superhero and her ability to keep out of the limelight. Wonder Woman 1984 takes place well before the introduction of the other heroes of the DCEU and largely exists as a standalone film. However, there…

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20 Oct

DuckTales’ Most Deep Cut Disney Reference Yet

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This DuckTales article contains spoilers for season 3 episode 12. While watching DuckTales I sometimes think about what writing the show is like. While I know there’s considerable time spent on writing the complex characters, their arcs, the world, and just making a great story? I have no doubt there’s also got to be at least an hour long discussion every week of “okay but what deep cut Disney reference can we do in this episode?” Throughout the 2017 DuckTales there’s been references big and small to Disney’s past. In the recent Darkwing Duck episode of DuckTales, “Let’s Get Dangerous”…

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31 Jul

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Complete Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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The following contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 2.  The Umbrella Academy wears its influences on its sleeve. Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s original comic and the Netflix series it was adapted into pay a great debt to properties like X-Men, Doom Patrol, and even The Royal Tenenbaums. Now for its second season, The Umbrella Academy is even more devoted to Easter eggs, references, and many other real life and pop culture homages. This batch of episodes takes the Hargreeves family back to the early ‘60s where they encounter a whole new host of inspirations. “There are tons,” showrunner…

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15 Jul

Psych 2: Lassie Come Home Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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The following contains spoilers for Psych 2: Lassie Come Home. As fun as 2017’s Psych: The Movie was, its 2020 sequel Psych 2: Lassie Come Home will likely supplant it in Psych-Os’ hearts, because it’s got 500% more Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson). But how does it stack up to its predecessor in terms of Psych callbacks and pop culture homages? Using our Spencer powers of observation, we’ve tried to catch every recurring inside joke between Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez) and Gus (Dulé Hill), plus all the episodic-specific bits. It’s a feature-length Hitchcock homage, but it’s also the toughest Easter egg…

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03 May

Netflix’s Hollywood – Episode 7 Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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This article contains major Hollywood spoilers. You can find our easter egg guide for the previous episode here. Don’t you just love a happy ending? Ryan Murphy clearly did with regards to Hollywood, and while we had mixed ideas of our own about that conclusion, there is no denying how gratifying it is to see representation shared with those whom society marginalized for years and centuries. There is a real sugar rush of “what if” good cheer about the series’ version of Oscar night 1948. Here are some of the facts the series changed, and some other shout-outs it enjoyed…

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03 May

Netflix’s Hollywood Episode 6 – Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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This article contains Hollywood spoilers. You can find our easter egg guide for the previous episode here. The sixth and penultimate hour of Hollywood attempts to ask some difficult questions about what would happen if a major Hollywood studio attempted to make a film with an African American lead and an interracial romance. The latter aspect is key in understanding the events that occurred. While there were several black stars in Tinseltown by this time, most notably Lena Horne, who Camille Washington is very loosely based on, they were either in supporting roles, usually as a glorified musical act, or…

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02 May

Netflix’s Hollywood Episode 4 – Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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This article contains Hollywood spoilers. You can find our easter egg guide for the previous episode here. A lighter episode for inside baseball winks and nudges, the fourth hour of Hollywood still crucially introduces us to the concept of Avis being friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as the prospect of turning “Peg” into “Meg.” So like Ace’s blood pressure, let’s get cracking. Hollywood Episode 4 -As far as I’m aware, there is no Gene Tierney movie in which she plays a fake nun who seduces William Holden, nor is there a movie where Humphrey Bogart plays Indian-slaughterer William Henry…

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02 May

Netflix’s Hollywood Episode 5 – Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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This article contains Hollywood spoilers. You can find the easter egg guide for the previous episode here. In what might be the most glamorous episode of Hollywood yet, George Hurrell’s decadent photo sessions get name checked, and (probably) Mickey Cohen’s mob gets involved. Let’s get cracking at those eggs! Hollywood Episode 5 -The episode begins with Avis and company lamenting how terrible Walt Disney’s Song of the South is. And they’re not wrong, although one of its stars, Hattie McDaniel, is about to get a pretty glamorous treatment beginning in this episode… -As production of Meg gets underway, we hear…

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02 May

Netflix’s Hollywood Episode 2 Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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This episode includes Hollywood spoilers. You can find our easter egg guide for the first episode here. Ah, the episode of Hollywood introduces us to Anna May Wong and the 1940s studio caste system. There’s a lot to unpack in this hour, which may give you nightmares about how a studio cafeteria is apparently not that different from a high school… except, you know, with racism. Hollywood Episode 2 -When Ernie bails Jack out of prison, Jack laments he cannot have a record. “Yeah you can,” Ernie answers, “Ever heard of Frank Sinatra?” Ol’ Blue Eyes was arrested in 1938…

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02 May

Netflix’s Hollywood Episode 1 – Easter Egg and Reference Guide

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This article contains major spoilers for Netflix’s Hollywood. Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series is here. And as Hollywood begins tripping the light fantastic on your streaming service, we’re here to provide you with some texture, color, and insight on all the little easter eggs about the Dreamland that was. We’ve already gone further in-depth here with regard to the real historical players bouncing around Murphy and co-creator Ian Brennan’s fantasy, but here we begin a nice overview of all the little nods (and perhaps come-hither stares that accompany their winks) in the show. Go here to find all our coverage,…

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