Inside Out review

2015’s 3rd feature film.

http://playvids.xyz/watchmovies/playnow/46634

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. I AM BACK. I know you all think I suck, and abandoned the blog for 4 1/2 months, after promising that I would be more active. Working just took out a lot from me, and then starting University, and then I was having some issues with WordPress hindered things, but I am slowly catching up. Now I have to review all of the remaining 2015 films in 2 months. Yaaaayyy. Hopefully, you are all doing well.

My opinion right after watching film

My opinion right after watching the film is that I am shocked with how in depth the film is. Usually with films like this, there is a whole lot of creativity, but it is unlike how it really is in real life, but there is a lot to relate to, and the creativity is pretty astounding. I am shocked that this film went to take some of the routes they did, and the journey was very touching and enjoyable to watch. Pixar is back, if you ever thought they were gone.

Production

Production started around 2009, where director Pete Docter was noticing the change in his pre-teen daughter’s behavior, which made him think about how it was similar as to how he was her age, and not handling moving to Denmark well (which was used for the story of this film). He then started to research more about the mind, and Pixar soon put the production and development of the movie into motion. He then found out through research that pre-teen and teenage girls have the widest range of emotions, which is why he decided to make the main character a pre-teen girl.

Story

So the film starts off with us being introduced to the baby Riley (Kaitlyn Diaz) being born, and her emotion of Joy (Amy Poehler) and a few seconds later, Sadness (Phyllis Smith) being born, forming the first few memories of joy and sadness, with these memories being formed in the matter of born. We get a montage of Riley going through her toddler and early childhood years, where Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black) are soon born as well, as she goes through those traits more often than not.

After a day, all of the recent memories get sent to the “Long Term” area, and there are islands at the back of her mind, where her personalities, traits, and interests are held, like hockey, family, values, friendship, so on. Everything goes perfect until Riley is 11, and she is told that they are moving. This reminds me of Wreck-it Ralph, which is by no means a bad thing.

So her father (Kyle MacLachlan) got a new job at San Francisco, so they leave Minnesota, and Riley is starting to get disgusted (though mostly sadness) from the new city, and the old memories of her being happy in Minnesota, so Sadness ends up touching those memories, which worries and bothers the others. I was worried with how they are going to handle the emotions, but I like that Sadness had no control over whether to touch it or not, since Riley’s actions automatically took over, which happens to humans.

It is clear that Joy does not like Sadness very much, though she tries to be optimistic, which is pretty self explanatory as to why it fails on Sadness. Riley’s father becomes very pre-occupied with his job to the point that he stops paying attention to Riley.

Riley ends up balling her eyes out in sadness after she is explaining her old life longingly to her class, which ends up as a sad core memory, which Joy tries to fight off, but those two cause a destruction within her mind, and they get sucked up in this vortex, after Joy knocks over the core memories, and all of her personality islands end up getting fucked. It is clear the plot is starting here.

With Riley only being left with Disgust, Anger, and Fear, she ends up having a meltdown and lashes out her father. We ended up seeing the emotions of her mother (Diane Lane) and her father, which were interesting to say the least. What I do not get is that while her mother’s emotions are all female, and her father’s are all male, why is Riley’s mixed just because she is a child? Will they remain like this? I get it is just a nit pick.

The father tries to goof around with Riley when she is going to bed, but her goofball personality (goofball island) collapses, which Joy and Sadness barely makes it out of. The two have to make it to Headquarters (where the other emotions are).

Most of the other islands start to crumble, making Riley even more unstable, and null of emotion, values, or a stable personality. They end up seeing Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind), who wants to reconnect with her, and he shows them to take a train to get to Headquarters. Riley is at a tryout for the hockey team, and her interest in hockey goes down as she is embarrassed.

Bing Bong, Joy, and Sadness finally get to the train, and at Headquarters, Anger creates an idea for Riley to run away to Minnesota because all of her happy memories were there, and things changed when they moved. Fear is trying to talk them out of it, but to no avail. The train stops since Riley fell asleep, and Sadness creates an idea to wake her up. Since the train stopped right in front of the Dream area, they disrupt it to make sure she wakes up. So they scared Riley awake with Sadness’ idea, which Joy appreciates.

Riley ends up going through with the idea to run off, as her mother is talking to someone about her moving truck going to Texas. The train collapsed, as Joy and Bing Bong falls into a pile of forgotten rubble. They try to get back, but Bing Bong sacrifices himself and fades away, so Joy can get back. I think Bing is supposed to be emotional, like whenever a good guy dies, but I was not that affected, since it is the inevitable that we forget our imaginary friends.

As soon as she finds Sadness, she tries to run off, saying that Riley is better off without her, but they reconcile, since Sadness’ purpose is to get people to realize when she needs to be comforted and nurtured. Joy creates an elaborate plan of using Riley’s ream boyfriends to get into a sack, and to somehow make it to the pipe, which of course works. Disgust uses Anger’s flame to burst a hole for Sadness and Joy to get back to Headquarters. So Sadness makes her feel sad before she becomes completely numb, so Riley has an epiphany and returns home.

Riley tells her parents that she misses home, and after comforting her, she receives her first mixed emotion memory. The family gets used to San Francisco, and Headquarters gets a new control panel, signaling that she is going to start puberty extremely soon.
I really, REALLY like this film. Even though it is kind of cartoony, it makes sense because it is from the perspective of a child. Despite that, it is very realistic. I remember going through that stage where you were just angry, confused, and wanted a change when I was that age, and to see how they combined some of the cartoony aspects with realism is SO Pixar. I like plots like these, and I like complexity.

Characters

The characters are not much to brag about, but with the way they handled both the humans and the emotions, it kind of makes sense. The film is more so about the journey than getting to know the characters. It is kind of impossible to make a single emotional trait multi-dimensional.

She is happy go lucky, and the strongest personality of them all, and because of this, she is a bit entitled. I like that she had to learn that she is not the only emotion with a purpose.

She is gloomy, sad, and kind of negative. She learns that she has a purpose, and more useful than she initially thought.

Honestly, he was a side character. He is very angry and negative.

She is a side character who is snooty about everything.

There is not much to really say. He is cowardly and fearful.

Animation

The animation is just as good as the other animation that Pixar has in their movies. It is a bit more characteristic in design, and there is a lot more emphasis on color, especially to use it to tell apart the emotions, and the different function of the mind. The human designs are nothing to brag about, but they are not a big focus. The animation in the mind is a lot more impressive.

Music

I honestly barely remember the score or any type of music in the soundtrack, which might be the films weaker point. But it is not like there are a bunch of songs or epic scores that is supposed to be remembered.

Reception at Release

I was not anticipating to release this review as late as I did (4 months), to the point where it is out of theaters, and I will have a definite box office number. The movie premiered on June 19, 2015 and since its release, it has grossed $355.3 million in North America and $486.9 million overseas, with a worldwide total of $842.2 million.

It is critically praised, pretty much everyone saying that Pixar is back from the minor slump it was in. People liked almost everything about it.

EDITED on December 17th, 2016: Regarding its accolades, it swept through Awards season. It won 52 awards, and was nominated for 114 awards altogether. Pete Docter won many awards for his direction, Amy Poehler won many for her voice acting, and I think it won all of the Best Animated Feature awards.

Reception Today (as of December 17th, 2017)

It’s current reception is that it was the only great film of 2015, and the only great film post Toy Story 3 to match up to Pixar’s earlier works, and its a break from the sequel-itis the studio has been going through. Many people see this as the return of Pixar, as there has been a lot of doubt before this film was released.

Final Score

Story: 9.5/10

Characters: 8/10

Animation: 9/10

Music: 8/10

= 34.5/40 = 86%

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