My World

• 85 minutes, U
• Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes

There's just no way you can not like this film. It probably helps if you are familiar with their earlier TV appearances, and have a passing familiarity with British culture (especially of the 'tup north' variety) as there are lots of in jokes, but even still you'll find yourself quoting the film for days after. "I'm just crackers about cheese!!!"

The trivia section on imdb.com for the film is interesting. e.g.:

The film required 2.8 tons of Plasticine in 42 colours and 1000 baby-wipes per week to wipe it off animators' fingers.

Rating: 4/5

Call me "Totty" :-)

• Manga style animation, 100 min
• Japanese, English subtitles

My first ever anime experience. Not really sure what to make of it really. I can understand why its such a niche market, even if you make allowances for having to read subtitles, and for the fact I didn't see the first movie, the plot was pretty hard to follow, although I think I did a lot better than the bunch of teenagers who I overheard saying things like "I just didn't get it" on the way out.

Having thought about it a bit, I think the problem the film has is that it's trying to be both dramatic (in terms of the action) and thought provoking (in the sense of what is really the difference between a machine and a human, blah, blah, blah)

I don't think I'd recommend it, but I did see potential in it, so I don't think I'll rule out watching more Japenese films in the futute.

Rating: 2/5