Review of Inside Out (2015) by Andres M — 14 Jan 2016

Spoilers Ahead. Don't Read until you see the film.

Celebrating 20 incredible years of CGI motion pictures, PIXAR has blown us away. Inside Out is a hilariously inventive, intelligent, emotionally moving masterpiece, a profound, masterfully crafted landmark that's perfect in every level. Directed by mastermind Pete Doctor, director of Monsters.Inc and Up, Inside Out exceeds his previous films, and probably cooking up the most bizarre, yet most gorgeous Pixar film yet.

This new classic will certainly attract moviegoers of old and young, and the glorious amount of pure brilliance and attention to detail is all but too much to discover in just one viewing, because it's a rare film that will age brilliantly with time, as the whole experience improves the more viewings you give.

Premise/Setting:

The premise is no less of absolute genius, even from PIXAR. The world of Inside Out takes place in the mind of a young girl, where she is powered by 5 emotions who must guide her to the discoveries of life.

If told by other studios, they would just settle to just her emotions. But PIXAR takes the premise and goes an almighty step beyond, and instead creates an entire world inside her mind.

Every day, the girl's head receives orbs, each orb is her memories, where they will go to long-term memory. However, the most important memories go straight to the core memories, and each core memory would power an island, each island that would power the girl's personality. The girl's mind would feature various locations, that would power and create her dreams, thoughts, and imaginations. World-building in this film is absolutely brilliant, taking a step beyond from other ideas. 10/10.

Story/Script:

In the vibrant life in Minnesota, Riley, 11 years old, is enjoying a wonderful life, with wonderful parents, great friends, and a winning hockey team. Riley is power by 5 emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. However, Riley and her parents are moving to San Francisco, shocking the emotions, who must do their best to guide her to her new life the best way they can. However, one day, her core memories were removed, and Joy and Sadness get sucked out of headquarters, and now the two must get back to headquarters and fix Riley, before it's too late, all without a villain or antagonist.

From the the minds of the glorious Monsters.Inc, and Up, PIXAR proudly presents a story that every other studio would dare, leaving its rivals in the dust.

In a world, full of unnecessary sequels, adaptations, and remakes, we finally get an original story that is completely void of clichés, villains, and explosions, and instead relying on sharp wit, vibrant characters, and most importantly heart. The film is genuinely and unbelievably creative, taking the simple but effective story, to their advantage. PIXAR goes one step beyond, delivering a hilariously moving experience, but one that is emotionally driven, gorgeously animated, and masterfully written.

If it were done by a different studios, instead of going for their gut, would go for the easy route, and underwhelm the gorgeous idea, with a cheap story, forced cruelty, lame jokes, dated trendy slangs, and pop music that so many non-PIXAR films strive for. Instead, PIXAR gives it all, taking risks and inspiring people to strive for excellence, and is treated like an adult film, with dark tones, sharp wit, dry humor, and sophisticated writing.

Inside Out builds upon what tools it has, and wows us like all their other films. The most impressive element of the film is the world building. We have headquarters, were our emotions live and work. We don't just remain entirely on headquarters, but outside is entirely different new world. We have a labyrinth where all long-term memories travel. Train of Thought, were all of Riley's thoughts are transferred to headquarters. Imagination Land were all of Riley's imaginations are created. Dream Productions, a Hollywood-like locations where dreams are created. And the Abyss, a dark pit where all unwanted memories crumble, die off, and are forgotten. These world's are so gorgeous and imaginative, it makes you want to go inside someone's head and explore.

The film always remember the audience and on what they want. One of the film's strengths is it's comedy. Like other PIXAR films, they have written comedy of many kinds, they will strike the minds of anyone. You'll be laughing your ass off, by what they have made, and it's just as impressive as the story itself.

However, what truly moved me most is it's human touch. PIXAR has once again takes us to the next level, making us cry buckets, and change the way we think of our mind.

PIXAR films since the early years have always been constructed with a great story, ones that are fun and enjoyable. But PIXAR goes one step beyond. If you look at every PIXAR film to the core story, they are not simple: their stories are universally adult topics. If you put them all together, PIXAR films are a continuing series of books; each and every PIXAR film representing a topic of all but one universal theme: The Human Condition. In this film, there are numerous topics such as learning to let go of what you left behind and moving on, but most importantly: learning how to embrace Sadness. So often, people try to avoid being sad, but have so often forget that sadness at one point, will be one of, if not the most important emotion of their life. It's a message so profound, so deep, but mostly so complex that you will never see a DreamWorks, or even a Disney film embrace such a message or concept. A concept very difficult to market and so risky, that other studios would never explore. But that's whats makes PIXAR groundbreaking, because they take risks in exploring deep, universal concepts in the most profound, entertaining, and highest quality possible.

As fun and exciting as it is, Inside Out is brave enough to deliver something that is not only profound, but will wreck you with sequences and themes, that are incredibly dark, and emotionally heartbreaking. It is a story of emotions who must discover the dark and gritty realities of leaving behind what you love and starting fresh. We get to see Riley go through an identity crisis, as her emotions are struggling to keep her functioning properly, and from her on then, and we learn that it's okay to be sad, because in the end, we are all energies of life that need emotions, because it whats makes us human.

It is even more impressive that, in the end, there is no villain. There is no bad guy or antagonist that tries to stop Riley or her emotions. It's just a simple story about vibrant emotions interacting with their new life, and that is more entertaining and intriguing than big robots who want to destroy the world, the plot that so many blockbuster films use nowadays, but thankfully this film doesn't use.

In the end, the film's inventive story, masterfully crafted script, and emotionally moving heart, rivals the best live-action films in the last 20 years, all in just 94 minutes. 10/10.

Animation/Visual Effects:

What's a PIXAR film without groundbreaking animation. With PIXAR's industry-standard technology, an astonishing $175 million budget, and the world's greatest animators, Inside Out incorporates some of the most gorgeous animation in history. Everything is done with top-quality detail, with photorealistic textures, blending with stylistic designs and settings.

The use, style and tones of animation are exhibited brilliantly in this film. First we have 2 worlds: The Human World, and Riley's mind. Both worlds contrast each other beautifully, and looking like two completely different but gorgeous films.

First lets talk about the Human World. The Human World is a very interesting topic. First we have 2 primary settings. We have Minnesota: portraying itself as heaven with bright colors, and a happy undertones. However, Riley and her family move to San Francisco. San Francisco is supposed to portray hell, with the isolating undertones, extremely dull colors, and a dark and gritty look; a massive and polar opposite contrast to Big Hero 6's San Fransokyo.

However, the main highlight of the animation and the film is the world inside Riley's mind. This part of the film shows the true potential of the true ambitions and creativity PIXAR is capable of making. The world is filled with bright colors, abstract art style, and pure imagination, that only Pixar can deliver.

The character designs are a true work of art. The emotions perfectly match the look of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, as they perfectly exaggerate the character animation with Looney Tunes-style comedy, perfecting the use of squash and stretch. It uses abstract character designs that homages the Looney Tunes, but also use sophisticated, and realistic movements to balance the overall feel, because the film remembers to treat it like an ambitious work of animation, and not a dumbed down cartoon. Every emotion is also shaped to represent a certain figure. Joy represents a star; Sadness represents a tear drop; Anger represents a fire brick; Disgust represents a piece of broccoli; and Fear represents a brain nerve.

Everything in the films looks gorgeous, proofing that PIXAR delivers the best animation in the world that will blow you away, but you will have to watch and see for yourself. 10/10.

Characters/Casting:

PIXAR can't have a film without any lovable characters. Inside Riley's mind lie our film's main stars. Inside her mind lies Joy, played by Amy Poehler. Sadness, played by Phyllis Smith. Anger, played by Lewis Black. Disgust played by Mindy Kaling, and Fear, played by Bill Hader.

One of the most fascinating elements of these characters are the portrayal and concept of these characters. They aren't one dimensional or simplistic. It's actually unbelievably surprising by how complex and genuine they are. If you really get to the core of the characters, each emotion is made up of multiple emotions, In fact, the film's original story consist up to 27 simple emotions, but somehow were all condensed to 5 core emotions. And instead of being simple figures, they are all created as moving shapes of energy with bubbly textured skin. And they are all hilarious as s%^t.

Casting was perfectly chosen. Instead of finding celebrities by popularity, PIXAR has chosen stellar actors that perfectly match the tone, which is what an actor is suppose to do. They are all naturals. Amy Poehler's happy goody persona works perfectly with Joy. Phyllis Smith's has truly brought us the sadness in Sadness. Lewis Black has brought Anger to life, who's performance is stellar. Mindy Kaling has brought Disgust and nailed the emotion. Bill Hader is a natural as Fear, delivering one of his best roles yet.

The casting is nailed. However what made these characters human is their relations with each other. Living in a young girl's mind, you always wonder, what do they look like? How do they act? What do they think? And how do they interact with each other. It's what make this film a classic. These characters all interact with each other, and solve their problems together, and the act like what emotions they are, and they all serve one main goal: guide Riley to her new life.

What makes PIXAR film's classics is their abilities to take bizarre characters, and make them real, and let the audience understand these characters. These emotions are all so relatable. And they are unbelievably human, because we all know what it's like to feel what they're feeling. We know how Joy feels when she get excited. Anger knows how we can feel when we don't get what we want. Disgust knows when something is good or bad like us. Fear wants to protect Riley, and gets scared when he sees something scary, and we all know what's it's like when we get scared. Sadness cries, and always thinks about the memories that are sad, because it's okay to be sad when we need to.

Each emotion represents a certain element of our personality and how we feel, because in the end, these characters are real. We do get happy. We get sad. We get angry. We get scared. And we get grossed out. These characters represent each emotion we feel, and they're in all in our heads. In fact, these characters are more human and believable than most live actors in many other films, and that is saying a lot.

Although, there is a special character so profound and lovable, you will have to watch the film to meet him. 10/10.

Inside Out is a profound, hilarious, inventive, ambitious, and emotionally fueled piece of storytelling that proves the PIXAR is practically the greatest studio of all time that repeatedly churns out masterfully crafted classics, that will define not just your childhood, but your life in general. Inside Out is a perfect example of how animation is not a kiddie genre, but a crucial art form that can be just as profound and incredible as live-action.

Bravo PIXAR, for bringing us the best film of the summer. Here's praying The Good Dinosaur is just as terrific as this film. 10/10.