Inside Out Review

There isn’t a single film studio on earth more associated with raw emotion than Pixar. Since Toy Story left audiences weeping over motile pieces of plastic, the fine people at Pixar have made it their mission to ensure no heart string be left un-tugged by the end of their beautifully animated adventures. They achieve this goal through the perfect combination of old-fashioned sentiment, vibrant color, passionate score, and impeccably-timed sight gags. They are so good at what they do that it’s almost cheating at this point, since they’ve basically written step-by-step directions right to the human heart. So, when you hear that the studio responsible for more tears than Bambi, Old Yeller, and sliced onions combined is making a movie where the main characters are personified emotions, the need for a healthy supply of Kleenex is expected. Well, while this assumption may be true, it greatly oversimplifies Inside Out’s filmmaking prowess. It’s easy to just say this movie is good because it’s sad, measuring the quality by the amount of liquid drained from eye-sockets, but the film is actually much more than that. It’s funny, it’s exciting, it explores concepts that most people would assume are way too advanced for a family film, and it does all of this with a sincerity not found outside of Spielberg or Capra. In fact, Inside Out may be the most deftly crafted film Pixar has ever produced, which is saying a lot coming from a studio that seems to view imperfection as beneath them.

Inside Out was recently released on DVD and I, being a huge Pixar geek, bought my copy immediately. I first saw it in theatres around mid-July, but I had been anticipating this film way before then, from the very moment I learned it was going to be written and directed by Pete Docter. Docter’s previous work includes Monster’s Inc., and my personal favorite Pixar movie, Up. He’s built a reputation of making animated films with storylines that, when summarized, sound borderline insane. For instance, Up is a movie where an elderly man ties thousands of balloons to his house so he can fly off to South America, where he goes on an adventure accompanied by an eight foot flightless bird, a talking dog, and a vaguely Asian boy scout. This sounds less like a plot and more like a drunken game of Mad Libs, and I’m happy to say Inside Out continues this trend of wackiness.

The film follows an exceptionally normal eleven year old girl named Riley, living with her parents in Minnesota. Inside Riley’s head are five characters representing her core emotions, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. These characters take turns guiding Riley’s emotional state via a control panel inside the headquarters of her mind, with Joy being the leader as she is Riley’s most prevalent emotion. However, when Riley moves with her family from a small town in Minnesota to San Francisco, her emotions have trouble dealing with the change. The new setting is very stressful on Riley, and as a result Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust become much more prominent in her life. This power shift results in Sadness and Joy beings separated from the control room, leaving Riley with an incomplete spectrum of emotions. The rest of the film focuses on Sadness and Joy’s journey, as they try to make their way back to headquarters to help Riley feel happy again.

So, what we have is two stories being told simultaneously, one taking place around Riley in the real world, and the other taking place in the world inside Riley’s head. And what a world it is. One of the greatest achievements of Inside Out is its ability to create characters and locations to represent abstract concepts of the human mind. For example, whenever an event occurs in Riley’s life, it creates a memory. These memories are depicted as glowing orbs, color coordinated to their distinct emotional significance. When Riley falls asleep at night, these orbs are deposited into her long term memory, which is a giant maze of shelves that are seemingly endlessly. From here they are either forgotten, which means dumped into a dark pit representing her unconscious, or left in storage to be recalled at a later time. There are also a few memories of special significance, called core memories, which help power aspects of Riley’s personality. All of this sounds very complicated and tedious, but the way the story unfolds makes it feel effortless. There is no opening title crawl or long conversations of exposition. Just a short narration at the beginning and a line of dialogue here and there to explain some of the more complicated sequences. This allows the film to explore some fairly high-brow ideas about emotions, while still making accessible entertainment for all audiences.

Another stand out quality of Inside Out (and pretty every Pixar film pre-Cars 2) is the casting. Pixar has somehow found a group of actors who were seemingly born to play their respective emotions. Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live, Parks and Rec) voices Joy, a bright yellow burst of pure energy that makes sure Riley is happy and content. Joy is basically an animated version of Poehler’s Leslie Knope character from Parks and Recreation, complete with ceaseless optimism and a near-obsessive work ethic. Her fellow SNL alumnus Bill Hader plays fear, a scrawny purple neurotic who does his best to keep Riley safe. Stand-up comedian Lewis Black is Anger, a stubborn red block who’s prone to shoot flames from the top of his head when provoked. Black is the type of person who should only be quoted in all caps, so casting him as the personification of rage was pretty much a no-brainer. Disgust is voiced by actress Mindy Kaling (The Office, The Mindy Project), as a green tinged valley girl persona with an easily offended sense of taste. However, the best casting was reserved for Phyllis Smith (The Office) as Sadness, who is basically a blue version of the droopy circle from a Zoloft ad.  Smith excels in this role. The warm, almost raspy tones of her voice, and the way she ends every sentence with a downward inflection, perfectly captures a feeling of melancholy.

What this adds up to is a visionary director, fulfilling creative ideas, with a flawless cast. It’s no wonder that upon release, this film received rave reactions from both audiences and critics. Inside Out currently holds a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 94 on Metacritic, is rated the 80^th best film of all time on IMDB, and has grossed over $800 million dollars worldwide. That is a pretty indisputable positive consensus. Even notable film troll Armond White said it was “not so bad”, which for him basically means it’s the second coming of Christ. But all of this positivity is not without its detractors. One such contrarian was Julian Roman of Movieweb, who wrote that the film was “depressing” and a “total bummer”. I would prefer to say that the film is sad rather than depressing. To me, a film like Saw or Transformers is depressing because when they’re over I’m left feeling empty, as if the movie didn’t better me in any measurable way. I left the theatre after seeing Inside Out in complete jubilation, because it was exhilarating, hysterical, and (yes) fairly emotional. I won’t detract from a movie for making me feel too much, when there are so many films that do their best to make me feel nothing at all. Another common complaint of Inside Out is that the constant cross-cutting between the real world and Riley’s head becomes muddled and confusing after a while. This was never a bother for me because what happens inside Riley’s head actively effects what goes on around her, and vice-versa. So every cut is made with a purpose, to keep the audience informed of how an occurrence in one world influences the other. But I might be biased on this matter, because truthfully, I think I may love this movie more than most of my immediate family.

I could go on forever listing off all the things I like about this movie. I could mention the score, which smoothly changes its instrumentation depending on the current mood (drums=anger, strings=happiness, etc.). I could talk about how every joke gets a laugh, including a recurring gag about the never-ending recollection of annoying commercial jingles. But, the most important thing Inside Out does right is it uses all of these elements to build to a moral that is downright profound. No spoilers, but with Inside Out, Pixar has done something special. Not only have they made a movie that entertains, but also one that enlightens. They’ve made a film that may actually change the way a person thinks, as well as the way they feel. Even months after my initial viewing, I still catch myself thinking things like, “Which emotion is controlling me right now?”, or, “Which emotion is in charge of that person?”. One minor issue I might have with Inside Out is that some of its ideas can be a bit too complex for small children. And yet, I still think children should watch this movie, just to absorb some of its positive messages. Because the people at Pixar understand more than anyone that with each of their films, they aren't just giving moms and dads a 90 minute break from their paternal obligations. They’re crafting the imaginations of future artists, and shaping countless childhoods. Movies like this make me look back to when I first saw Toy Story, and began wondering what my toys did when I wasn’t around (don’t laugh). Because of this misunderstanding of reality, I began to treat my toys with a greater amount of care. Now, with Inside Out, my only hope is that future generations will come to a similar conclusion, and show that same level of respect for each other’s emotions, that I showed my G.I. Joe.