Well I last week I finally managed to get myself down to see Inside Out, the latest film from Pixar, and whilst I was writing a review of it I decided to also add on my review for the other major animated blockbuster that came out this summer, Minions.

Inside Out:

Pixar have made a whole host of great animated films in their twenty or so year history; the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Wall-E and Up to name just a few, but Inside Out is one of their best, ranking up with the greats of the animated film genre.

The story of 11 year old Riley’s emotions; Joy, Anger, Cowardice, Disgust and Sadness. Inside Out manages to tell an incredibly small scale and intimate story, that of a young girl struggling with moving home, yet maintain a grand scale to it due to the nature of it taking place inside a person’s mind. To know the quality of Inside Out you just have to look at the fact that there have been suggestions it could be the first animated winner of the Best Picture OSCAR.

Inside Out hits all the notes for a top quality animated “kids” film, most importantly it blends a lot of laughs with real heartfelt emotion, that brought me, and many others I’ve heard from to tears. Plus there are gags, such as the cat’s mind, that will appeal to the target audience. Whilst there are still plenty of jokes for older viewers, the mixing of fact’s and opinions and a brilliant Chinatown reference (which I was the only person in the cinema to get) were particularly standouts for me.

The characters are great fun, and kids will love them. Whilst they still manage to tell an honest and meaningful story, that truly captures the turmoil a young child can go through in times of big change.

An absolute must see for people of all ages, Inside Out for me come very very close to my favourite Pixar film, Finding Nemo, if you want to know if it beats it, ask me in 10 years to see if I still find it as endearing and heartfelt as I do right now.

Minions:

The spin off film from the Despicable Me franchise is very similar in feel to the Penguins spin off from Madagascar, although I thought slightly less successfully, but that maybe because I’ve always preferred the Penguins to the Minions.

It succeeds in being an extremely funny film, with loads of gags that everyone will love. However it clearly falls down on plot, even more so than in Penguins of Madagascar. That stops it from being a truly great animated film, but it’s certainly entertaining enough to warrant viewing.

The best stuff in the film in actually removed from the main plot, particularly the beginning parts where they are trying to find masters to serve, that definitely the funniest parts of the film.

There are also a lot of great references and Easter Eggs in the film, the most obvious being Villain Con’s parodying of Comic Con, even including their own Hall H. Along with this is some great songs in the soundtrack, featuring artists such as The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Madness and The Doors, amongst others. Finally what’s not to love about Jennifer Saunders playing the Queen?