Inside Out

Voices of: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Richard Kind, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Kaitlyn Dias, Rashida Jones, Paula Poundstone, Bobby Moynihan, Frank Oz, John Ratzenberger
Directed by: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: When a young girl reluctantly moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, her emotions are conflicted about how to best handle the change.

Review:

Tim: While I can't claim to love every Pixar movie as much as some do, I am happy to admit that their track record is far better than most studios out there. Their movies are consistently strong. You can add Inside Out as another achievement for the studio. While I don't believe this movie reaches the heights of Wall-E or the Toy Story movies, it's still one of the strongest offerings they have put out. This might not be a great movie, but it's incredibly strong nonetheless.

I love the idea of seeing inside someone's head, watching as their emotions (who are anthropomorphized) battle it out to find the best way to help the person. Immediately, this concept goes much deeper than the average movie. I find human emotions fascinating- Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Disgust (as highlighted in this film). These emotions couldn't be more different, but we need each and every one of them to function as human beings in this world. I loved the interplay between the emotions, showing how we act when each one is in the driver's seat. This is a high concept film, which is one of the best attributes of it. Bringing a story like this to life isn't easy, especially when you need to make it accessible to young audiences. Pixar did it, though- this is a movie that will appeal to kids, but has enough substance to be interesting to even the most mature viewer. That translates into another win.

The film did a great job of portraying each of the different emotions with their own unique personalities. Each of the emotions described are quite different, and the movie did a wonderful job of highlighting their own specific color and unique attributes. That creates these memorable, vivid characters. It also helps that they did a great job of voice casting. Amy Poehler did a good job in the lead role of Joy. I felt like she did a wonderful job of disappearing into this character. I never thought about her voice as Poehler's, it just came across as this character. Phyllis Smith was perfectly cast as Sadness. Being a fan of "The Office", I recognized her voice immediately. Bill Hader was good as Fear, although he was one of the least memorable characters. Lewis Black was perfectly cast as Anger, although his voice is so distinct, I never adequately separated the character from the actor voicing him. That being said, as an adult familiar with his stand-up routines, Black was the perfect choice. Mindy Kaling did a good job as Disgust, although again, she's not the most memorable character.

In addition to the wonderful, awe-inspiring world inside our own heads (which the film exceptionally portrayed), the movie tells a fairly powerful story about a young girl who is uprooted by a family move and is really struggling with the change. The scenes showing Riley remembering important times in her life or experiencing foundational events were powerful as well. Pixar works best when it taps into real human emotion, and it did so here.

Now, while I thoroughly enjoyed Inside Out, it never felt like a truly top tier Pixar movie to me. It was certainly entertaining, but I never felt truly compelled by the events on the screen. I did experience a few emotions myself at various stages, but the story didn't quite make the emotional impact for which I was hoping. There were certainly strong individual moments, but they dissipated quicker than I would have liked. The story throws a lot at the audience in terms of the world inside our heads. Most of that is interesting, but there were a number of aspects that were too rushed- they should have been cut or expanded. I think adding 10 minutes would have been fine and could have beefed up the explanation of some of those fascinating inner elements.

So, I can't claim to have truly loved Inside Out- it won't make my top 10 of 2015. Still, that isn't putting the film down- this is the 15th Pixar movie and I'd say it is easily in the top 5. That is a great achievement. This is a very well made movie and one I'll certainly show my son when he's older.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Wall-E, Toy Story, Up