Review of Inside Out (2015) by Colginator — 14 Sep 2015

Do you ever look at someone and wonder, "What is going on inside their head?" Well, the reality is the answers pretty dull. It's just a big brain sending messages across your body to determine your actions. But in the minds of the creators at Pixar the answer has no limits, with every persons head containing a fully functioning world, where small beings create and store every idea and memory we have in life. And at the centre of this world is a control panel, similar to something like the deck of the Enterprise, which is controlled by our emotions that lead us through every decision we make in our lives.

Inside Out follows a girl named Riley (Katilyn Dias) and the five emotions that lead her every action- Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Riley's most important emotion that has shaped all of Riley's core memories that make her the person she is, Joy (Amy Pohler). They all care for Riley and one another like one big family, always looking to give Riley the best life she can have. This includes everything from remembering to avoid Broccoli to maintaining Riley's goofy attitude to remain her parents happy little girl.

But Riley is entering a difficult period in her life of great change. She is moving to a new home in San Francisco, leaving her friends behind, and her father has become too busy with work to look after her the way he used to. This causes the emotions to conflict on the best way to deal with it, with the ensuing chaos causing Joy and Sadness to get lost in the furthest reaches of Riley's mind and forcing them to go on a journey to return to the control room, or Riley might never be happy again.

In some ways the film is a nice reminder of how even after 20 years, Pixar has stuck to what made them so engaging to audiences to begin with. The journey that Joy and Sadness go on is a great buddy travel movie, that's in a similar vein to Buzz and Woody in 'Toy Story'. And just like 'Toy Story', Pixar has continued to remain focused on developing memorable characters that will help shape many childhoods, with the likes of Joy's energetic personality and simplistic but lovable design bound to stick in our heads the same way that Buzz Lightyear did when 'Toy Story' was first released.

But in other ways the film is a reminder to show how far both Pixar and CGI animation has come, with the worlds Pixar's movies take place in going from the constraints of a child's bedroom to creating an entire world within the mind of a child. And the world that they create is something truly special. Other films have taken place in a person's mind in the past with their own distinct styles, from the epic mind bending action of 'Inception' to the fragmenting chaos in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. But no other film has ever approached the inner workings of a mind with the same creativity as Pixar has.

The film includes as much as it could of developing how a mind works and what an 11 year old girl would be thinking about, incorporating it as either a great gag or as a way the world is designed to function. There's a literal train of thought that's able to carry memories across Riley's mind, a place called Déjà vu that keeps popping up, and even a dream centre that operates like a movie studio to give Riley something to watch at night. Even small sayings like getting a song stuck in your head are incorporated in to the film in some of Pixars funniest running gags to date. Plus I'm relatively certain that anyone who's seen the film will be humming Triple Dent Gum for the rest of their lives.

As always, at the films heart remains the human drama that has kept Pixar movies so relatable over the years. In one of the most touching scenes, we watch as Joy turns on one of Riley's treasured childhood memories of her skating to pick up her spirits and slowly begins to skate with her in perfect synch. It's a beautiful moment where we're shown both the close bond that Riley and her emotions share, whilst reminding us all on the way we all hold on to out childhood in a way that only Pixar can.

It's moments like this that can be universally related to, mixed with Pixar's stunning animation and their ability to create such original worlds that ensures Inside Out is another addition to Pixar's constantly growing collection of treasured classics.