Inside Out: Pixar is Back!

This review comes late in the game but when Pixar's Inside Out released almost exactly two years after their last film, Monsters University, some due consideration felt necessary. Having now seen it in both 3D and regular viewing, I can call it a film to appreciate and a film that's emotional value does not fade - even when you know how soon the tears will come.

The animation captures attention first, as the audience is focused on the appearance of Joy, who seems to be made of millions and millions of small particles. This holds true for each emotion in headquarters; and, as the film progresses, the movement of these particles becomes less attention-grabbing but still fascinating. The detail, true to Pixar, is extraordinary. Not to mention, their baby animation has definitely improved since their start.

(c) Pixar

One of the most fascinating elements of this film is the pure innovation behind everything in Riley's mind. How the console becomes progressively more complex, how the emotions come slowly one at a time, how some memories are more important than others, why the brain forgets some things but keeps others, how dreams work, or how big events like moving or parents' stress can affect a child - these are all questions addressed in the film. And each answer is so plausible it's believable. It's easy to believe you have dominant emotions running everything, and it's become part of the hype to decide which of those emotions leads all the others. For Riley, it was Joy; for her mother, it was Sadness, and for her father, it was Anger.

The emotion panel in Riley's mom's mind. (c) Disney-Pixar

I cried both times. I laughed just as hard both times. I noticed things I hadn't noticed the first time around. And, maybe because I lived in San Francisco so long and then moved away, I rooted for Riley the whole way through. Perhaps Pixar meant for us to root for Joy and Sadness, as they conducted the main action, but I found myself focused on Riley - she made the decisions that made sense to her, that seemed to hold the answer to being happy again. But she wasn't being silly or too hopeful or naive; she was a lot like Joy - always trying to keep others happy, her parents mostly, instead of confronting how she really felt. That's a tough spot to be in, and it creates an enormous amount of pressure to stay the "happy girl." And, at the end of the day, it's okay to not be happy, but to be sad, to be angry, to be scared, to be disgusted.

(c) Disney-Pixar, the dominant emotions

Inside Out is open to so many different kinds of interpretation - I've heard so many explanations, so many appreciative comments, and so many assertions of how the film could bring representation of mental illness, like depression, in a more positive way to mainstream media. Sweet, kind, brutally honest, and just so real, Inside Out earns Pixar top marks and reminds the audience of the Pixar we remember when we think of Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

Have you seen Pixar's Inside Out?