Inside Out is about an 11 year old girl named Riley, whose family has just moved to San Francisco. This is a stressful time for her, and the movie shows this by delving into her mind and showing how each of the different emotions are dealing with this new experience in Riley’s life. Her emotions are the main characters, and they live in her mind’s control room. They are Joy, Sadness, Disgust (my favorite), Fear, and Anger. I don’t want to give away any more about the plot than that, because I really want you to see it for yourself.
Honestly, I think this is one of the best concepts that Pixar has ever come up with. After so many movies (before Cars 2) that delivered so many different emotions on so many different scales, it was the perfect idea to have a movie literally centered around the emotions themselves. It’s an extremely clever movie that was perfectly thought out, perfectly executed, and is overall… ingenious. It takes ingenious writing to perfectly represent the inner workings of an 11 year old’s mind through metaphor, especially when the 11 year old is going through a tough time in her life. She’s in a new place, she’s got no friends there, and she’s struggling to adjust to a new life. What she’s going through is shown in a fun, ingenious way. A lot more brains were behind the making of Inside Out than the last few Pixar movies combined, and it shows.
I think that adults may end up liking this movie more than the kids do. Yes, kids will love it. There’s a lot of genuinely funny moments and a lot of things kids can relate to. But the adults will be able to better appreciate the intelligence and creativity that went into it more than kids will. And the same things that relate with kids can also click with older audiences as well, because at some point in almost everyone’s life, we’ve all felt similar things or had similar experiences. It connects with everyone on a level that a lot of movies these days don’t accomplish. It’s also going to be one of those movies where kids who are 7 or 8 years old now will grow up and discover that there’s more to this movie than just the enjoyment, and they can fully understand and appreciate it even more as they get older.
I think it’s obvious that the best element of the movie is the emotions, both the ones the audience feels and the personified characters. The personified emotions are all show-stealers. They’re part of what’s so relatable about the movie. The other kind of emotions (the ones that the audience felt) were delivered excellently. They’re powerful, they’re well written, and they have an impact. They’re the emotions that Pixar used to give its audiences before the little rut they dug into with Cars 2 and the couple of films after that. It’s what Pixar has always been about, and Inside Out reminds people of what they loved from older Pixar movies, and is hopefully a sign that this can be what Pixar’s future has in store for us.
The other major strong point is the animation. Pixar always has fantastic animation, even with their weaker movies, and Inside Out’s visuals are no different. The world of Riley’s deeper mind has a nice, intricate design, the characters themselves look good, but I think most of the effort went into the facial expressions, which pays off. The animation further drives the emotions into your heart, making the characters and the mind of Riley feel more full of life. The music is also nice, but I couldn’t help but feel like it could have been better in some parts. It wasn’t bad, but there was only ever one really memorable track throughout the whole thing.
In the end, I’d say that Inside Out is one of my new favorite Pixar movies ever, as well as possibly one of my favorites of the entire year. It’s not a simple kid’s movie that’s just noise and movement, it’s way deeper than that. It’s surprisingly deep, surprisingly mature, and surprisingly made me cry. Twice. The second movie this year to do so. I’ve just always loved psychological movies, which is really what Inside Out is. It’s a metaphorical representation of pretty much everyone’s mind. I know I’ve said this already, but it does connect with everybody. If you’ve ever felt an emotion in your life, and if you are continuing to have emotions, you will connect to this movie, and you will like it.
Inside out is one of the must-see movies this summer. It’s good for kids, even better for adults. I think this will become an instant animated classic. Do yourself a favor, and see this film.
FINAL RATING: 49 / 50
STORY: 5 / 5
VOICE ACTING: 5 / 5
CHARACTERS: 5 / 5
ANIMATION: 5 / 5
COMEDY/DRAMA: 5 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 4 / 5
TONE: 5 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 5 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5
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