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Blu-ray Review: Disney/Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’
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Inside Out
Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
Directors: Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen
Screenwriters: Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley
Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Richard Kind
Music: Michael Giacchino
Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Release date: November 3, 2015

The widely successful Inside Out has finally hit DVD/Blu-ray. Recent Pixar fare has not been a true reflection of the poignant emotions you would normally feel while watching films about toys, seniors who go out on one last adventure, clown fish, and tiny robots. So it seems fitting that Pixar’s latest film brings that poignancy home by focusing on the emotions that drive us: Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear. We all have these emotions, which makes the film that much more relatable – there are arguments that there are different numbers of emotions, but for narrative sake, directors Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen focused on these five.

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Movie Review: Inside Out
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Inside Out
Director: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen
Screenwriters: Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley
Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling
Walt Disney Pictures | Pixar
Rated PG | 94 Minutes
Release Date: June 19, 2015

Ever look at someone and wonder what’s going on inside their head? Directed by Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) and Ronnie Del Carmen, Inside Out journeys into the mind to find out.

Based in Headquarters, the control center inside 11-year old Riley’s mind, the Emotions are hard at work. Joy (Amy Poehler) is a silly sprite whose mission is to make sure Riley stays happy. Fear (Bill Hader) keeps Riley safe, and Anger (Lewis Black) ensures all is fair. Disgust (Mindy Kaling) prevents Riley from getting poisoned and protects her from gross stuff like broccoli, while Sadness (Phyllis Smith) isn’t sure what her role in Riley’s life is – she tries to stay out of the way as much as possible.

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Manic Manifesto: ‘In The Clutch Of A Titan’ Remembering Ray Harryhausen
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A Tribute to the work of Ray Harryhausen, his Special Effect on me, public imagination, and the film industry. Plus a review of the 2013 UK release of Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan.

“This is Dynamation!”

MYSTERIOUS”¦

Whenever that spark is reignited, when a distant memory resurfaces, it brings back all the emotions attached and warm sentimentality”¦

Surprisingly, I was walking through town, past our own chain newsagent to see a huge window display of the latest LEGO Minifigures. Big advertising hoarding passes most people by, with people not registering what they are seeing, unlike the near-future mass explosion advertising found in Transmetropolitan or Minority Report. But I digress… being the big kid I am, this advertising had one character front and centre staring back at me and I said “˜I MUST HAVE IT’. An unexplainable feeling that washes over you that words just couldn’t justify”¦

The Minifig in question was a Cyclops.

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Animation Legend Ralph Bakshi Returns With New Political Short ‘Trickle Dickle Down’
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Ralph Bakshi has always been one of my heroes. The animation legend, who started out working for Terrytoons and Paramount Pictures before making his jump to feature filmmaking with his 1972 cult classic adaptation of Robert Crumb’s Fritz the Cat, has always displayed a unique gift for smashing the boundaries for traditional animated storytelling. He alternated personal projects like Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, and American Pop with large-scale animated fantasies like The Lord of the Rings, Wizards, and Fire & Ice, his wonderful creative collaboration with the legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. It was Bakshi’s version of The Lord of the Rings that Peter Jackson has credited with inspiring him to become a filmmaker and mount his own epic Rings trilogy more than two decades after the Bakshi version failed to set the box office afire.

In the years that followed Bakshi would attempt to make live-action/animated adaptations of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye to no avail. After butting heads with Paramount studio heads over the direction and casting of his 1992 film Cool World, Bakshi retired from cinema and moved to New Mexico to focus on his painting, but his legacy as an animator and filmmaker endures to this day.

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One For The New Zealand Geeks: 25th Anniversary Of ‘Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tale’
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If you grew up in New Zealand and Australia during the 1980s, you would be familiar with a comic strip that was very popular for both Kiwis and Aussies, but never took off internationally: Murray Ball‘s Footrot Flats.

For those who don’t know, Footrot Flats was a comic strip that was written and drawn by Murray Ball that was published from 1975 to 1994. The strip followed the life of Wal Footrot and his dog (named “Dog”) on their farm. There was an abundance of other human and animal characters that were also central to the strip, and it followed the idiosyncrasies of these individuals, poking fun at our human faults.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the release of the Footrot Flats movie, a film release that was testament to how popular Footrot Flats was in New Zealand. The collected publications of the strips were selling in the millions at the time, and Footrot Flats eventually also became the basis for a stage musical and a theme park as well. The elements Murray Ball covered in the adventures of Dog totally resonated with youngsters (and adults) across Australasia, but more importantly became a staple aspect of New Zealand culture.

Be sure to continue on for much more and to see videos relating to Footrot Flats — one a music video and one from the animated movie.

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