Movie Review 161: Inside Out

Inside Out

Pixar has had a rather tough last few years. I wasn't a big fan of Monsters University. I actually didn't even bother seeing it in theatres. before that was Brave, which was good, not great. then there was Cars 2, one of my least favorite animated films of all time. Needless to say they've had a lot of middling films lately.

That all leads up to Inside out. I've been a bit nervous about this one, it's a very abstract concept, coming off of a weak few movies, and a rather childish look to it. But I walked out of this movie thoroughly entertained and amazed by what they did with this little movie.

This is one of my favorite animated films I've seen in years. The kid friendly exterior hides one hell of a deep and complicated story. The whole film revolved around the five core emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. The interplay between the five of them was great, I liked how Joy was in charge during the adolescent years but as Riley grew up the other emotions had to take over.

The way they conveyed coming of age was completely different than anything I've ever seen before, it felt completely original and actually rather believable that the different emotions would be able to influence you in such ways. Especially when it takes place in the most formative years of one's life.

The various voice actors did their jobs, no super stand outs among them, let's face it, a lot of the voice actors were just reading lines. none stood out as bad or overly amazing so well nothing to report here.

The animation was as fluid as ever for pixar, the purposely cartoony animation was beautiful and the fact that each inner head character was so different was impressive, there was so much creativity in this. The different islands and quadrants of the brain were so wildly different.

My personal favorite part was the 'imagination generator' where the characters were abstracted then deconstructed, then 2d'd then simplified, made for some really weird visuals and some awesome little shots.

After all this, the real Core of this movie is memories. I loved how this movie made you realize how memories can turn from joy to sadness, and how they dealt with things you no longer want and how your life changes.

I cannot recommend this enough, and even if you are initially put off by the style of it, give it a shot, it's an amazingly well made movie, and ultimately if you don't feel a heartstring tug, you are a robot.

Final Verdict: 94

Bonus Review: Lava

This was the animated short in front of Inside out. About a singing Volcano who wants love. It was sweet and cute, but, ultimately not the best of the pixar shorts I've seen.