Inside Out

Inside Out could only have been made by Pixar; any other studio wouldn’t have the balls to make a movie where the major plotline concerns what happens when anthropomorphic representations of joy and sadness (Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith) have to get back to the ‘control center’ of an 11 year old girl’s mind so she can again experience these emotions. This allows for some wonderfully weird scenarios as Joy and Sadness travel through strange parts of the mind like ‘imagination land’ and ‘abstract thought land’, with the help of imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind – google him, you know who he is) who is kind of like koosalagoopagoop, Didi’s imaginary friend from Dexter’s Laboratory, a camp, pink elephant/cat/candy floss hybrid. My only criticisms would be that Riley, who would normally be the main character kind of takes a back seat to Joy and I felt like I didn’t get to know her as much as I should have, and most of the film takes place in Riley’s brain and not the outside world, though Joy is part of Riley, so I’m not really sure if it is a criticism and this confusion as to how it should be interpreted is what I love most. What’s at stake is whether or not Riley’s joy and sadness will return, which is really powerful because it is so literally represented. Throughout most of the film, when Joy and Sadness aren’t in the control centre, it was very tense as she was literally unable to experience joy. It’s a great trick, Riley’s never really in danger, it’s all internal, but it’s represented in a way that’s so easy to understand, you really worry about this girl. To say it’s not the best Pixar movie is far from an insult, and it’s a bit of a change of pace for the studio, more intellectual and less sentimental, though it will still probably make you cry. And as it’s Pixar it’s funny and gorgeous and the cast are fantastic, it has the quality and charm you’d expect while being really interesting and unique. I loved it.