As the trailer promised, Mascots has a healthy serving of quirky and entertaining characters. A very special selection of unusual people gathered in one place for the 8th World Mascot Association Championships; a sports mascot competition in which the very best sports mascots compete for the ‘Golden Fluffy Award’.

I’m one of those people who stopped watching television talent programmes because I could no longer take all the seemingly forced and inauthentic sob stories. I also decided that life’s not long enough for me to be ok with sitting through the numerous delusional performer’s unbearably cringeworthy interactions with the judges. Luckily for me, there’s none of that nonsense in Mascots.

I loved the humour and the stories of people unapologetically being their – often very peculiar selves. Sid The Hedgehog (Tom Bennett) and Alvin The Armadillo (Parker Posey) are my two favourites.

Mascots is perfect for a relaxed evening’s viewing. I spent most of the time smiling rather than laughing but in this instance, that’s not a bad thing. I like the shooting style which towards the end really had me feeling as though I were right there in the venue audience.

I’m not quite sure if Mascots is based on a real sports mascot competition of this kind but if someone had tickets, I wouldn’t be so quick to say no.

Written/ directed by Christopher Guest and also starring Chris O’Dowd,  Zach Woods, Sarah Baker and Jane Lynch, watch it because the characters are ‘unhinged’, in a good way.

Happy Film Loving

G