Movie review: Inside Out

Hello!

The latest Pixar movie finally came out in my country, so let’s review Inside Out (despite the fact that I’m two months late).

I have probably already explained that, in my country, animated movies are dubbed, while all other films only have subtitles. Naturally, it takes more time to dub a movie than to add subtitles, so, as a result, animated movies have a later release date, while live action flicks usually come out in the same week as in the US. The only recent animated film that had a worldwide premiere date was Minions (review), because that film didn’t need a lot of dubbing – minions’ language is universal.

Anyway, let’s talk about Inside Out – a film that, to my mind, all kids should watch. I even go as far as to state that if all children watched movies like Inside Out, the so called Z-generation wouldn’t be regarded as bad as it is and the members of aforementioned generation would definitely have higher levels of emotional intellect, less psychological problems and, most importantly, less bullying between each other.

Not surprisingly, I have seen all Pixar films. I grew up with them! (Pixar released their first film – Toy Story – 2 years before I was born). My favorite top 5 Pixar films are (in no particular order): Ratatouille, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Inside Out. Yes, my dearest movie fanatics, Pixar did it again – they created an amazing film for both kids and adults, which is funny, smart and emotional (as we would expect from a Pixar movie). Although, I was probably the oldest person in the theater (I’m not counting parents who came with their children), I felt like I was a kid again. Inside Out brought back memories of going to the cinema with my mom when I was 4 or 5 years old. In addition, it not only had the nostalgia factor but was interesting for me as an 18 year old. Let’s talk about the different aspect of the film a bit more down bellow.

IMDb summary: After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness – conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.

Directing

Inside Out was directed by Pete Docter who has previously worked on a plethora of Pixar films. He directed the tear-jerker Up and the touching and adventurous Monsters, Inc. Moreover, he received story credit for his work on the first two Toy Story films and WALL-E. He was also the Head Animator on the first computer animation – Toy Story from 1995. His accomplished resume raises expectations for Inside Out to be good and Docter definitely does not disappoint. The film looked amazing visually. The characters were wonderful, the way they moved and talked perfectly represented the emotions that they were conveying; the settings looked like they came from a dream and the memory bubbles and the sounds they made just tied everything together.

Writing

The film’s scripted was written by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley. Docter and the co-director of Inside Out Ronnie del Carmen created the story. (On a side note, Meg Le-Fauve is currently writing Captain Marvel script – she is a good team player for Disney, working first with Pixar and now with Marvel). Inside Out’s script and story are both wonderful. First of all, the premise of creating the film about emotions is genius. I have never seen anything like this done before and, although, I like book, comic book, TV show or video game adaptations to the silver screen, I always appreciate the original idea a lot more. Secondly, not only are the 5 main emotions very realistic, but the insides of the brain are as well. You have the long-term memory, core memories, personality islands, imagination, abstract thoughts, which are all very important and are all equally represented in the movie. I also loved the fact that they acknowledge the fact that you start to forget things as you grow older and make new memories. Furthermore, they main idea of the film that the memories are complex and can be both sad and happy at the same time is just brilliant. The human mind is extremely difficult to understand and the Inside Out, although made for kids, manages to portray this inter-connective mess that we have inside our heads understandably, while doing it justice and not oversimplifying it. I can’t sing enough praises for the script of this film. I hope it gets an Oscar nomination for Best Original Script. I have no doubt that the film will be nominated for Best Animated Feature, unless The Lego Movie incident will resurface.

Characters

I cannot really discuss the voice work because, as I’ve said, I watched the dubbed version of the film. I can, however, talk about the actual emotions. While all the kids loved Joy (I’m guessing that based on how many kids bought Joy’s action figures with their popcorn in the cinema. The line was huge, so I had time to observe, while waiting to get my tickets), my favorite was Sadness. She was the cutest of them all and I felt the strongest connection to her. Maybe that says something about me – my shyness, social anxiety and introvert side might be the one thing that turns me towards Sadness more than towards the other emotions. Moving on, I also really loved the sassiness that Disgust brought and the comic relief that Anger and Fear added to the film. Although, both of these emotions are not that fun in real life. Ending full circle, I enjoyed how the creators of the movie allowed both Joy and the viewers to go on this journey of discovery and understanding and made sure that they would arrive to the same conclusion that it’s okay to be sad and to feel down sometimes. The important thing is to get up and try again.

The actual human characters were also very well realized. Riley’s slow loss of personality islands perfectly reflected on her actions. Her parents were really great parent examples as well. However, I have to say, with all the action happening Inside, the Outside characters were a bit overshadowed. People were the supporting cast, while emotions played the lead.

Pixar’s shorts

The short film Lava (directed and written by Pixar’s animator James Ford Murphy) was shown before Inside Out. It’s a quirky and quite sad (Pixar playing with our emotions as usual) love story of two volcanoes, which ultimately has a happy ending. The short film is a great introduction to Inside Out, which will have its short very soon. Riley’s First Date? will be included in the home video release of Inside Out and will explore Riley’s jump into teenager years and dating. I would love to see the short film when it comes out, however, I don’t think it will be better than my favorite Pixar short – Partly Cloudy. If you have never seen it, go watch it, just bring a box of tissues with you. That short is directed by Peter Sohn, whose first feature-length directorial debut will be released later this year. The Good Dinosaur will come out in November, making 2015 the first year that Pixar released two films.

All in all, Inside Out is my favorite animated movie of this summer and definitely will make it to my top favorite animations of all time list. It’s a complex story, which appeals to all age groups. Moreover, the film is both the funny, impeccably animated adventure flick and the emotional masterpiece that only Pixar can make. If Disney is know for making timeless fairy tales about princesses and Laika – for wonderful stop-motion animation, then Pixar is the king of emotions.

Have a great day!

Rate: 5/5

Trailer: Inside Out trailer

P.S. I love the Inside Out iPhone game. Have you played it? I’ve finally reached the level 50. #soproud