Reviews of a Dark Echidna

Okay, I'm going to make it simple.  Here is where you will see reviews about either things I have read, seen, played, etc.  Please keep in mind that my views are mine alone, they do not endorse the companies for which the products are owned by. 

*The following review is my opinion and nothing more, the views presented here do not represent the views of Pixar, Disney, Universal, Illumination or those involved with the production of these films.*

There are two animated films that within the past few weeks that people have been gearing up for…and it’s just my luck that I’ve seen both of them so it’s time to do a back to back review of Pixar’s Inside Out and Illumination’s Minions so let’s go in order of these two films as they were released.  We’ll start with Inside Out first then Minions and then a little extra near the end.   

Synopsis: Pixar’s newest film and so far a first original film since Brave, Inside Out takes the concept of what it would be like dealing with the emotions that lie within our heads.  Our story focuses on eleven year old Riley and her inner emotions consisting of Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger.  Things seem pretty good for Riley and her emotions but when her parents decide to make a move to San Francisco for her father’s job, these big changes play a role in what is to come.  The movie’s main focus is on her emotions and how they try their best to do what is best for her and at the same time coping with the changes.  Joy and Sadness accidently get pulled into Riley’s long term memory while her other three emotions do their best to keep things running without them. 

Rating: Considering that the past couple of movies that Pixar has released have been mostly sequel based and Brave wasn’t exactly as good as their usual stuff, it’s nice to see something that can compare to their early days.  I feel confident that Pixar has found their groove again and will slowly be back on top within the animation industry once more.  While the idea of our minds having those little voices isn’t entirely new, how Pixar has done it was definitely very unique.  I loved just how everything was designed and how all aspects of Riley just was pulled together in such a neat and creative way.  Along with that, the portrayal of our tween was damn well spot on.  You see, one of the main problems that movies that use tween or teen characters have is that they are always so clichéd.  It’s almost like writers of movies like that turned to teen sitcoms to try and portray their characters but Pixar, wow, they definitely had it down to a science.  Riley’s character in both her moods and how she acted made her so credible of a tween.  Then we turn to our emotions, not only are they adorable in their design and personalities but wonderful choice of voice acting.  I would have to say that Disgust was definitely my favorite especially since she had a bit of a sassy personality but then again, she is Disgust so that’s no surprise.  The main plot of the film follows Joy and Sadness as they not only try to get back to headquarters to help Riley but also the path that they have to take in realizing that all of the emotions are very important and no one emotion matters more than another.  The story is definitely a wonderful film for parents to take their children, especially ones who are around that awkward stage of teen hood.  I’m not going to lie, I was moved by this movie very much emotionally and considering that the last Pixar film to really do that to me was Toy Story 3, that’s definitely a compliment.  If you’ve skipped out on Pixar because sequelitis was really getting to you, I highly recommend seeing this one because it’s worth it.

Issues

Emotional genders- I would have to say that this is probably a nitpick but it’s still an issue, I noticed that Riley’s emotions were of mixed genders with Fear and Anger being male and her other emotions were female yet when shown her parents emotions, the emotions matched in gender to their host.  Even during the ending credits, this still carried on.  I wondered why that was, could it be that as a teenager her emotions are set this way due to her age?  Did it have something to do with the fact that she is a bit of a tomboy?  Honestly, I think the world may never know the reason but it was one thing that I did notice once we were shown the emotions of other characters. 
 

Now our next movie in the lineup…Minions.

Synopsis: The story of Minions is basically two main things, it’s an origin story and a buddy film.  An origin story because it does explain not only how the minions came to be but also by its end how they became followers of Gru.  Then there’s the buddy film aspect to where the movie follows the journey of three main minions in their quest for a boss.  So as the film explains it, minions are a species whose sole purpose is to follow a villainous being (though mind you, not all of their bosses are villainous per say).  They serve such bosses as a way to give themselves purpose by making their bosses happy.  There’s just one little problem, these little guys are quite accident prone and so have a nasty little habit of accidently killing off their masters.  As you can guess, this does take a toll and at one point they did isolate themselves and even created their own civilization but unfortunately, without a ruthless boss to follow, they slip into deep depression.  In steps our main characters of the leading minion Kevin with the rebellious teen Stuart and young and innocent Bob traveling to find their new boss, a female villain by the name of Scarlet Overkill. 

Rating: Considering that this film was a first film for the minions themselves to take the spotlight, I would have to say that I enjoyed it.  The jokes were pretty good, both for the young and older audiences.  Not only were there references to the sixties era but also the music was a perfect fit for the film.  The three main minions also were pretty developed as well with each one having their own personality or in Kevin and Stuart’s case, having quite a bit expanded on their personalities from the main Despicable Me films.  While Stuart and Kevin I remember from these films, I’m not going to lie, Bob is instantly my favorite for this movie and this probably has to do with the fact that since he’s portrayed as the youngest, you can’t help but find him adorable especially with his mannerisms.  Now to the human characters, a lot of the cast were definitely interesting but Scarlet and Herb Overkill clearly are the most appealing.  Sandra Bullock did a very good job with her character although Herb at times kind of stole the show with John Hamm’s performance.  If there is definitely one thing that I can praise Illumination for is their portrayal of Scarlet, this is how you make a villain.  Here’s the deal, the previous DM films didn’t have good villains, Vector was pretty dumb, El Macho was better but not by much and Gru…ah, yeah, villainy just isn’t his thing but Scarlet, damn, now that’s a villain.  This is what a villain is supposed to be, she’s supposed to be cruel, malicious, and dark as a character.  She’s supposed to make her henchmen fear for their lives and hope that for their sake, they do not screw up.  That’s what a villain is supposed to be but yet, as much as I love her as a villain, she may not be an ideal boss.  If she did become the boss of those little guys…well, let’s just say that their numbers would have decreased greatly and chances are, she would have made them extinct.  The film is definitely entertaining but I do warn you on two things.  First, parents with small children, be warned, there is definitely some scary scenes at the end so use parental discretion if you think your child can handle this film.  Two, if you’re not a fan of minions or even didn’t like them that much in DM and DM2, this isn’t the movie for you.  It’s clear that this film was made for the young and young at heart who enjoy these little guys so if you think they’re annoying in small doses, watching an hour and a half with them will probably drive you nuts so can’t say I didn’t warn ya.      

Issues

Really Stuart?- My first issue had to do with Stuart “volunteering” to go.  The joke is that Stuart was volunteered by his friends (yeah, some friends).  He was happy to go forward because he was being cheered on but while it’s clear that eventually he would have found out what he was volunteered for, you would think that he would have actually questioned it.  I don’t know, maybe if it was me, I would be like “Uh, what was I chosen for again?”  Just one little thing that bothered me as far as how he joined the little posse for our film. 

 
The magical disappearing bear- During a scene where the minions were in a department store, Bob carried with him his little bear, Tim who stayed with him in one scene and somehow magically disappeared in another?!  While we see that Kevin had found him, still, how did the bear get lost in the first place?  We see in a later scene that clearly Bob will do whatever he can to get back his little Tim but yet he loses him in a store and doesn’t lose his mind?  I’m sorry but I have younger brothers and I’ve seen how children handle losing a favorite toy, it doesn’t end well.  I guess the excuse is that the grandeur of that store distracted him but come on, realistically, he would have started hunting for Tim once he noticed that he was gone. 

 
Hello operator- Okay, I know that at this point I’m nitpicking but someone explain to me how the hell you can call to Antarctica and somehow have electricity running in a place like that, I know that if something like this happened in a videogame then you would go by the explanation of game logic in where there isn’t any.  So in this case you have movie logic in where there is none as well I guess.  I understand that Kevin somehow had to contact his tribe in order to get them down to England and even rejoin them but we couldn’t have tried a different method like good old snail mail, even that would have been more credible.  Honestly, this joke while humorous just bothered me the most so yeah…there you go. 
 

So as I had explained in the beginning that after reviewing both films I would have something extra to bring to the table and it’s not much but here it is.  I’m immediately noticing that so many are comparing these two films in how one or the other is better and what not and I hate to say it but other than being animated films, they really have nothing else in common.  The stories of these two films are almost completely different genres.  In one you have a story of the coming of age while in the other it’s exploring the need and want of bettering one’s own society.  Emotionally, you connect to them in different ways because in Inside Out, you feel for Joy and Sadness’s struggles and Riley having to endure the error of their goof up.  In Minions, you feel for what Kevin is trying to do, in the beginning he did it more for himself but the love he has for his people motivated him to do more than he could ever do.  If there was one character who stood out the most in both films it would be Sadness and Bob.  Sadness because she finally started to realize her purpose and found her role amongst her fellow emotions.  Bob because out of the three he probably matured and changed the most despite his young age.  Both stories are good in their own right and chances are that depending on the audience they shoot for, sometimes that seems to be the audience that receives movies like these best.  I enjoyed both films for various reasons, I enjoyed Inside Out because it took me back to that time of the awkward stage of teenage years and how sometimes those times are hard to deal with and Minions because despite it’s slight absurdness and silliness, it gave me something to laugh about and enjoy.  I can gladly say that at the age of twenty eight, I have no problem going to see either film even if they would be labelled as “kids movies” because to be honest, live action can only amuse me so much and more often than not, depending on the movie, animation is just more enjoyable for me than realism.  That’s not to say that I never watch live action or even more mature films, I do but it just has to have a little something more for me to consider it worth my time.  Basically to put it simply, a movie, live action or not, has to be about something I like or find interesting because if not then why would I bother to go see it.  In the theaters that I saw both movies in, there were more adults and teens then there were parents and kids which in a way can speak for itself.  I’ve seen many argue that films like these would only be enjoyed by kids but the more that I see others my age, or even younger and older go, it just seems that the label of a kids movie seems more and more like a myth.  One can question why this is, could it be that directors and producers in Hollywood that are involved in these projects are more emotionally invested so in part it shows or maybe our writers are getting better or heck, it could be good marketing?  I guess the main point I’m getting at is this, overall, these two films are both great and what makes them great is the appeal that they hold in very different ways.  Normally I would encourage those to see these two films and honestly I do feel that at the very least they should be given the chance but when it comes down to it, the only one who can make that decision is you and that should be based upon whether or not you feel that these films are worth your time or even perk your interests.