Directed by: Pete Docter
Genre: Animated Comedy-Drama
Running time: 94 minutes
Released: 2015
Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animated Studios
Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is a happy, hockey-loving 11-year-old Midwestern girl, but her world turns upside-down when she and her parents move to San Francisco. Riley’s emotions — led by Joy (Amy Poehler) — try to guide her through this difficult, life-changing event. However, the stress of the move brings Sadness (Phyllis Smith) to the forefront. When Joy and Sadness are inadvertently swept into the far reaches of Riley’s mind, the only emotions left in Headquarters are Anger, Fear and Disgust.
Pixar’s latest film Inside Out puts an interesting twist on internal conflicts by depicting them through anthropomorphized emotions. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear take the form of little colored people that influence human actions through a panel in our heads. Each emotion believes that it serves a pivotal role for Riley with Joy considering herself the most important. She behaves like the leader and attempts to control everything; in the process, she ends up alienating Sadness, whom she doesn’t consider necessary for Riley’s happiness.
The story of Inside Out is fairly straightforward. Riley, an 11-year old girl, seems to have the perfect life until her parents move to San Francisco, and the adjustment throws her emotions into a mess. Shortly after Sadness turns one of Riley’s happy memories into a sad one, Joy and Sadness get into a fight and wind up in the outer reaches of Riley’s mind by accident. Chaos ensues as only Disgust, Fear and Anger are left to hold down the fort until Joy and Sadness can make their way back.
Inside Out does a great job at appealing to a wide range of age groups. An ambitious film, Inside Out explores a more mature idea of existential crises while being an animated film targeted at entire families. For the children, there is childish humor and comical and exaggerated animations and personalities. For more mature viewers, there is intelligence and beauty in its exploration of Riley’s existential crisis as she begins to the Personality Islands within her mind.
Inside Out has some interesting and light-hearted moments. It physically portrays how the little people in our heads are affected by brain freeze and how they respond to annoying TV jingles getting permanently stuck in our heads. It also has some tear-jerking moments, including a scene where Riley’s imaginary friend realizes that Riley has completely forgotten about him.
At its core, Inside Out is a film about self-discovery. It speaks on how important each emotion is to our identity and how, while we sometimes want to shut out our negative emotions, they are just as important to our identity as our more positive emotions. I was pleasantly surprised with this film and would definitely recommend it.
Author: Austin
Austin enjoys reading fantasy books and watching a variety of films from actions to dramas. In his free time, he can be found gaming.
Anonymous says
With a smart, funny, sad, visually stunning and also nostalgic production, Pixar's surprisingly original "Inside Out" proves that Pixar movies can only get better.
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