Review: “Inside Out”

An animation that feels all too real.

Both as a moviegoer and as a growing adult, I’ve learned two things from my limited experiences: children are smarter than we give them credit for and parents must be constantly learning and adapting. I know this from my keen public observations and personal events. (Un)Fortunately, most of these observations and events took place within a cinema. And the cinematic storyteller with the best resume for teaching the above? Pixar.

Their latest, Inside Out, might also be their best. In terms of technical cartoon effects, Pixar is almost always ahead of the curve, giving us the visual stimuli we need to connect with the characters and plot. In terms of pure pathos, engrossing emotions and even heavy concepts, Inside Out has brought Pixar a step further in front of everyone else.

The movie tells the story of Riley and her parents, who have just moved to a new home. On the surface, it’s all so simple; the young girl is confused and anxious for the familiar. Under the surface is where the pot boils, and where her main emotions (Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust) see and feel everything in a control room of sorts. This is almost exactly how I imagined my brain worked back when I was a kid, though a bit more practical like in Osmosis Jones. Things are much more abstract (both literally and figuratively) here, and appropriately so. For example, neither the control room emotions nor Riley herself seem to be in “control” of anything. This is perfect, as a youngster’s bodily chemicals are typically a mixed up cauldron of new and frightening feelings.

With individual life being given to the internal processes of Riley, we are given themes that are grander and way more thoughtful than have been presented in a cartoon movie before. Themes and questions involving yin and yang, the existential, free will, and the scariest one of all, maturity, make Inside Out greater from a philosophical standpoint than say something like The Matrix, which wore its philosophy on its sleeve. Things are more subtle here, and even slightly more simple, yet more complex.

When asked about my initial thoughts, I said to imagine the opening sequence from Up (a previous Pixar flick), expanded to a full feature film. That sequence encompassed the span of an entire relationship in a few minutes, from romance to death and everything in between. After that, a house flies away using balloons. In Inside Out, there are no balloon rides to pull us back from reality — just harsh / beautiful reality and what we feel.

I worry sometimes that the foundation for my emotional and mental workings are made up mostly by movies and experiences at the movie theater. Honestly, I’ve spent a lot of time with and in both. Attempting to look from the outside in, I come to a fairly well rounded conclusion. Of course, it IS MY brain telling me that, so I guess I’m biased. Then again, that’s a pretty abstract thing right there — the concept of thought. Does that really matter? IS that matter? Does anything matter?

Man, to be a kid watching Inside Out for the first time. Mind would = blown.

5 / 5