Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) | Toy Story 1995 |  London Boulevard 2010

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) | Toy Story 1995 | London Boulevard 2010

June 23, 2026 · 50 min · Episode 213

About this episode

The episode discusses the emotional impact of Toy Story, the overlooked British film London Boulevard, and the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Grab your mashed potatoes and start sculpting mysterious mountains—it’s time for another episode of Podcast Assemble! Tommy revisited Toy Story and was reminded that Pixar once had the power to emotionally devastate you with a talking cowboy. Meanwhile, DL checked out London Boulevard and highly recommends it: a criminally overlooked British crime drama that deserves more attention. Then it’s onto Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind - the film that convinced an entire generation to look nervously at the night sky. Timecodes: (00:00) Intro (05:46) What Have We Been Up To? (10:20) Toy Story (11:54) Studio Ghibli (17:04) MAIN TOPIC!! Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (17:59) Stupid Plot Summary (18:40) Actual Plot (21:32) What Would You Do? (24:17) Who Stays Human If Everyone Are Muppets? (26:51) Do We Believe? (30:24) Themes (31:49) Favourite Scenes (39:52) Dislikes (43:53) Critical Reception (44:42) Better or Worse Than Aquaman (2018)? (45:26) Trivia True Trivia False (48:26) Final Thoughts (48:50) Wrapping Up Main Topic: Close Encounters of the Third Kind is Spielberg at his most optimistic, trading laser guns and alien invasions for wonder, mystery, and…

People in this episode

Hosts: Tommy, DL

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Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Toy Story, London Boulevard, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Aquaman

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