elijahhandley

I almost never go out of my way to review a film I just saw but I just couldn't resist here. I am a huge, huge fan of Disney/Pixar's work, and for a solid 12 years my favourite was 2003's Finding Nemo. I did not expect anything to replace it considering I am an adult now and I was a child in 2003. But Inside Out is quite simply something else entirely.

First of all, the concept of the film is something so delightfully original that I knew from the start I would at least be partly impressed by the movie. Cars, for example, is a nice enough film with a good message and funny characters, but at the end of the day, it's just an animated movie about talking cars. Inside Out, however, is set primarily in the mind of an eleven year old girl, Riley. Specifically, the main characters are representatives of her five basic emotions: namely Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear. These five, de facto led by Joy, influence Riley's actions, decisions and feelings from 'Headquarters' inside her conscious mind, and together they store Riley's lifetime memories as either being happy memories, angry memories etc.

This brings me on to another important point - the characters. Sometimes, even some of the best films have main/supporting characters that really don't need to be there. Not so with this one. All five of the emotions are important to the film - they all provide solid humour in their own unique ways. The same goes for other supporting characters in the film who I will not mention here, as you may want this to be a surprise if you haven't seen the film yet.

Another excellent point is the key aspect of any film - the plot. I will not spoil anything from the film, don't worry. But the plot of the film essentially sees Riley's emotions struggle to cope with a troubling event that badly impacts Riley's life. The event is not a huge deal by Pixar's standards - there's no death involved like with Finding Nemo or Up, but the way in which the film presents this simple event is part of what makes the film a triumph. Inside Out somehow manages to be perhaps the simplest, and yet the most complex, Pixar film to date, meaning it can be enjoyed immensely by small children, older children, teenagers and adults (parents with children or simply adults who love an animation). This film is easily capable of making you cry with both joy and sadness, which in itself is a key aspect of the film.

Inside Out is not as simple for children to understand as a film like Cars or Toy Story is. But, at least in this reviewer's opinion, Pixar have outdone themselves with their most outstanding release to date. A lot of critics have noted that animation has been in a bit of a funk lately - with Toy Story 3, Cars 2 and Monsters University, as well as Finding Dory, Cars 3, Toy Story 4 and The Incredibles 2 on the horizon, Pixar have started to rely far too much on making sequels and prequels to their films rather than creating new material. So I wouldn't be surprised if you were sceptical about going to see Inside Out. But if you are a classic Pixar fan, I HUGELY recommend that you give Inside Out a try. You will be very glad you did.

The Mighty Boosh has always been one of my favourite programmes, sitcoms and beyond. It is nothing like the traditional sitcom - it is far more surreal and outlandish (in a positive sense), with plenty of strange characters that are a lot of fun.

The plots for each episode are almost highly unbelievable and silly, but that just adds to how lovable the series is. There are only 20 episodes at the current time, with no signs of another series being produced anytime soon, but each episode differs completely in terms of the plot with new characters introduced in pretty much every episode - be it a green-skinned hitchhiker with a Polo sweet for an eyepatch, a half-fish deep sea transsexual, or the legendary Yeti on heat, you never really know what to expect in any episode.

If you have a strict sense of humour, requiring the jokes and comical situations to be direct, rather than subtle, the chances are you will not like Boosh. There is no laughter track and the jokes/gags are generally deadpan, or at least low key. This is why the series often puts off American audiences. What they may not realise is that one character (as well as a variety of minor characters portrayed by the same actor), Bob Fossil, usually defies this sense of humour. Fossil, incidentally, is portrayed by an American (Rich Fulcher). He tends to be very direct with his humour, rather than the subtleness as depicted, by the main characters, Howard and Vince, as well as recurring supporting character Naboo the Enigma.

This is definitely a TV show you must not judge based on one viewing. It may take a few episodes to get used to the humour. And in all seriousness, you will often start with the first episode, 'Killeroo', which is the weakest episode of the whole 20 in my opinion. There is no explaining this to my beloved girlfriend who hated the show when I showed her the first episode. On reflection from this, I'd suggest starting with an episode like the 'Nanageddon' episode, one of the best of the bunch. This episode features an army of Satanic old ladies killing people across London using weapons such as OAP free bus passes and knitting material. No, seriously.

It's not to everyone's tastes, but I advise giving it a try. For me, it's a perfect 10. I imagine this show is like Marmite - love or hate. I don't know anyone who thinks the show is "all right", "okay", or "pretty good". It's either "brilliant" or "a load of rubbish/trash/garbage. Give it a try.