Inside Out

I know I had previously said that I wouldn't be doing any more posts on this blog because of my 'lack of interest' in animated films. But to be perfectly honest with you readers, I still absolutely love watching them. After dealing with extremely personal issues over the past year (which made me miss doing last year's Animation Advent Calendar which I've already been preparing to make it up to you guys), I feel much better within myself & want to get back into reviewing what I love. And what better way than to return with this year's Best Animated Film Oscar winner, Pixar's Inside Out! Starring the likes of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Bill Hader & Mindy Kaling and directed by Pete Docter, was this movie able to make me bawl like a baby like their past movies or will this make me feel angry & embarrassed for watching it? Let's take a look after nearly a year!


Story: Given that Pixar is known for coming up with the craziest of ideas in terms of concept, but manage to make it believable and enjoyable, this is definitely is another addition to their long list. The ideas & concepts of emotions may not be new with movies like Osmosis Jones & Herman's Head doing virtually the exact same thing, this actually manages to expand the concept to infinity & beyond. With various aspects of the head like memories, imagination, thoughts, dreams & the subconscious being touched upon during Joy & Sadness' adventure to get back to headquarter's, they are all interesting to know about thanks to the creativeness of the writers. Another part I love about the plot is the parallels between the real world with Riley trying to adjust to her new life in San Francisco along with adventure/journey plot with Joy & Sadness going on inside her head & how it affects her as the other emotions have to try & step into Joy's shoes, but obviously don't know how to. This definitely can be a challenge given that it could've easily solely focused on either one while leaving the other to the sidelines, but somehow Pixar managed to share each plot equally as they easily connect to each other. And given that this is obviously a movie centering on emotions, they are VERY strong in this, as the overall message is handled very realistically: it's OK to be upset. Nobody can be happy ALL the time otherwise that will just make you feel out of control & put so much pressure on yourself (trust me, I know that very well). I have never seen such an innovative concept be used to its full potential, but given that this is Pixar, what else did you expect?

Animation: Do I really need to say that the animation in this is absolutely amazing? I must say that this is probably Pixar's most creative animation I've seen yet both in the design & technical aspects. Not only do the physical representations of things like general & core memories, the personality islands & the console for controlling what the characters do/say all make sense for the world, but they are all also highly memorable. The character designs all fit each emotion with their personalities like Anger literally being a red brick & hot headed, Sadness being sort of the female equivalent to EEyore (am I the only one who noticed that?), Fear being a stereotypical nerd. But even at that, I felt the other characters inside Riley's head just looked like jelly beans with eyes & stick arms & legs. It's not as bad given that, but it still bothered me with how simple they are And even if the character animation is different in the real world with more restricted movements on the people & the more cartoony movements on the emotions, they actually work together very well as it knows how to blend the fluidity of realistic movements & the squash and stretch techniques used for the latter. The attention to detail with the textures are nothing short of amazing. The backgrounds of inside the head are so vast & grand like in Long Term Memory, Imagination Land & Dream Motion Pictures (I know Osmosis Jones did something like the latter, but it's used much better in this movie) that every action scene makes you forget this is all going on in somebody's noggin! And even then, the way they represent San Francisco in the real world makes it look like more than just a generic city but with the Golden Gate Bridge. While the animation looks amazing with the technical achievements, this is nothing compared to the innovation in the designs.

Characters: given that this is Pixar we're talking about, of course this provides us with three dimensional and loveable characters! Joy (Amy Poehler), Riley's head memory is pretty much what you'd expect as her main goal is to keep Riley as the same optimistic and happy girl despite all the changes going on in her life, although I will say that she can push it a bit too hard especially with Sadness despite her good intentions. Sadness (Phyllis Smith) can easily be qualified as the black sheep of Riley's emotions and is repressed by Joy, but she is surprisingly really important and her interactions with Joy as the pessimist and optimist being forced to work together can lead to some funny and emotionally deep moments. Anger (voiced by Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) may not contribute as much in the plot with Joy and Sadness, but they all have unique personalities like Anger being the hot-headed, Disgust as the snobby fashionista and Fear as the overtly cautious-neurotic and it is interesting to see how their actions affect Riley as they try to fill Joy's shoes in headquarters while obviously being incapable of doing so. Given that all of these emotions are controlling her, Riley is probably the most interesting character in this, as we see how her conflicting and out of control emotions react to how she deals with moving from Minnesota to San Francisco while Joy and Sadness are trying to get back to headquarters (and given that she's 11 & on the brink of puberty, it's done surprisingly accurately). As for her parents, they may not be the most interesting characters to know about compared to their daughter, although you could argue that they can be when you take into account her mother's head emotion is Sadness while her father's is Anger...Anyway, one final character I wanna quickly bring up is Bing Bong (Richard Kind), Riley's former imaginary friend. I'm not gonna lie, he kind of annoyed me at first with his goofy & over the top personality, but as the film progresses, it's understandable why he's like this along with a very surprising moment which really made me feel for him. And before I forget, I just want to mention that there isn't a single antagonist in this movie! Seriously, the conflict in this is actually much more realistic than just having a villain to make Riley's life miserable & even Anger isn't portrayed as a bad guy despite his, well, grumpy attitude. With amazing voice acting to complement the characters, they all manage to have their own form of development & a unique personality which makes them highly memorable.

Inside Out is most definitely one of the strongest Pixar films so far with an emotional story & innovative concept, amazing animation from the best in the business and loveable and developed characters both inside & out of the head! Given that Pixar had been going through somewhat of a 'dark age' recently, this definitely felt refreshing and had brought them back in form. I haven't seen The Good Dinosaur by the way, but judging the reviews, production troubles (including numerous delays, changing the director, direction the plot was going & even virtually the entire cast a few months before the release), & the plot itself, it doesn't really interest me as much despite the gorgeous animation (even if I don't think the character designs suit the mood the movie's going for at all). But still, I'm so glad this was the movie to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature & is actually my new favourite Pixar film outside of the Toy Story franchise!
Story: 10/10
Animation: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Overall: 10/10