A family sitting at a dinner table, in a discussion about the daughter's first day in a new city, and all of a sudden, zoom into their heads revealing their personified emotions working as a team and we see how the back and forth of the family members are reflected as these different emotions respond to other emotions that literally 'drive' the humans. And so is the premise of Inside Out, Pixar's latest film. It is a colourful, fun and an inventive joy ride that is really creatively executed by director Pete Docter (UP 2009), in what could be Pixar's return to form for a foreseeable future.
The film revolves around an eleven year old girl named Riley and the 5 emotions inside her head, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. The main story involves around Riley's Core Memories, the important ones that define her, and I would tell no further unless I wanted to ruin the emotional experience.That being said this movie is definitely not a story-driven/heavy movie, nor is it so much a character driven movie as much is it an idea-driven movie, where the story/plot seems to serve a singular purpose to showcase these wild ideas throughout an 'exploratory tour' of the movie world, akin to Toy Story or Wreck it Ralph (which is not even a Pixar movie).Though with UP, Docter did deviate from this formula as it told a story first rather exploring a concept. But with Monster's Inc. we do know he can go further than the formula.
And this proves true here as well since those ideas are so fun and inventive. Even though to my realisation that the overall premise is not entirely novel as other reviews have pointed out, but it is what the movie does with its premise is what makes it stand out from the competition. In true Pixar fashion, they built the world wonderfully and showcases just how may layers are there in the brain and how busy it gets in there using wildly creative analogies (Dream Productions being my personal favourite) with a vibrant colour palette coupled with Pixar's tech prowess in terms of details and animation certainly makes this movie good eye-candy and invites the audience to experience this 11 year old's brain.
This movie also boasts with some great voice talent including Amy Poehler as the over enthusiastic in-charge, Joy , Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Mindy Kaling as Disgust and Lewis Black as Anger that form up the basic emotions that control the 11 year Riley, played by Kaitlyn Diaz. This list of characters does go further that are equally entertaining and serve the story well. All the emotions do play off each other very well and also show character depth which makes each one distinct enough both from character design and performances. Joy and Sadness are the main characters here as they find their way back to the Headquarters(from where they drive Riley), and on the way they realise the importance of each other while the other emotions struggle to keep Riley stable. The arc here is satisfyingly good
The one area where the movie falls short is in the real-world story, most of it coming from Riley herself. She just does not feel like it's her own character and her Emotions seem too independent to make it seem that they are a part of Riley since those emotions don't represent in Riley very well. Furthermore, this hinders character motivation since it always feels like the Emotions are driving this vessel and Riley is just not aware of her emotions and have any sort of input to it like a human should. Even the some of the other characters and relations in the real world feel not so fleshed out and makes this part of the movie very secondary to the 'Brain' where it should compliment each other. Not that it doesn't work at all, because the overall story uses the dichotomy well but the level of detail in the Brain-world just lacks in the real world. That is disappointing.
In essence Inside Out celebrates childhood, growing up, and not always having a singular experience or response to life. The story produces heart-warming moments which are super-effective. It's great entertainment for audiences of pretty much all ages. Kids can admire the colourful worlds and inventive ideas while finding their own take on the message while the adults can reminisce on those days and get the deeper angles. It is a family entertainer through and through. However, again lack of motivation and weight between the humans and emotions does make me cringe, though not really movie breaking in the grand scheme of things since it has such a wild imagination to make up for it. Pixar was getting worn down by competition but with this movie I can say with assurance and 'joy' that Pixar is still in the game and has some tricks up at sleeve still.
The film revolves around an eleven year old girl named Riley and the 5 emotions inside her head, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. The main story involves around Riley's Core Memories, the important ones that define her, and I would tell no further unless I wanted to ruin the emotional experience.That being said this movie is definitely not a story-driven/heavy movie, nor is it so much a character driven movie as much is it an idea-driven movie, where the story/plot seems to serve a singular purpose to showcase these wild ideas throughout an 'exploratory tour' of the movie world, akin to Toy Story or Wreck it Ralph (which is not even a Pixar movie).Though with UP, Docter did deviate from this formula as it told a story first rather exploring a concept. But with Monster's Inc. we do know he can go further than the formula.
And this proves true here as well since those ideas are so fun and inventive. Even though to my realisation that the overall premise is not entirely novel as other reviews have pointed out, but it is what the movie does with its premise is what makes it stand out from the competition. In true Pixar fashion, they built the world wonderfully and showcases just how may layers are there in the brain and how busy it gets in there using wildly creative analogies (Dream Productions being my personal favourite) with a vibrant colour palette coupled with Pixar's tech prowess in terms of details and animation certainly makes this movie good eye-candy and invites the audience to experience this 11 year old's brain.
This movie also boasts with some great voice talent including Amy Poehler as the over enthusiastic in-charge, Joy , Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Mindy Kaling as Disgust and Lewis Black as Anger that form up the basic emotions that control the 11 year Riley, played by Kaitlyn Diaz. This list of characters does go further that are equally entertaining and serve the story well. All the emotions do play off each other very well and also show character depth which makes each one distinct enough both from character design and performances. Joy and Sadness are the main characters here as they find their way back to the Headquarters(from where they drive Riley), and on the way they realise the importance of each other while the other emotions struggle to keep Riley stable. The arc here is satisfyingly good
The one area where the movie falls short is in the real-world story, most of it coming from Riley herself. She just does not feel like it's her own character and her Emotions seem too independent to make it seem that they are a part of Riley since those emotions don't represent in Riley very well. Furthermore, this hinders character motivation since it always feels like the Emotions are driving this vessel and Riley is just not aware of her emotions and have any sort of input to it like a human should. Even the some of the other characters and relations in the real world feel not so fleshed out and makes this part of the movie very secondary to the 'Brain' where it should compliment each other. Not that it doesn't work at all, because the overall story uses the dichotomy well but the level of detail in the Brain-world just lacks in the real world. That is disappointing.
In essence Inside Out celebrates childhood, growing up, and not always having a singular experience or response to life. The story produces heart-warming moments which are super-effective. It's great entertainment for audiences of pretty much all ages. Kids can admire the colourful worlds and inventive ideas while finding their own take on the message while the adults can reminisce on those days and get the deeper angles. It is a family entertainer through and through. However, again lack of motivation and weight between the humans and emotions does make me cringe, though not really movie breaking in the grand scheme of things since it has such a wild imagination to make up for it. Pixar was getting worn down by competition but with this movie I can say with assurance and 'joy' that Pixar is still in the game and has some tricks up at sleeve still.