Review: Inside Out

For the past few years it's looked like Pixar was running out of its trademark greatness, Cars 2 was horrible, Brave wasn't as good as it could've been and Monster's University was pointless. Then comes along Inside Out and all is restored, this is not only one of Pixar's most imaginative and original productions it's also one of their best and shows that there's life in the old girl yet.

Set primarily in the head of an 11 year old girl called Riley, the film's general concept is that the five main emotions of Riley's personality - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust - all work together to define Riley's actions through her memories and the most important elements of her life designated by Riley's Core Memories, although main party Joy is unsure what purpose Sadness has. Things take a sudden turn when Riley is moved from her comfortable life in Minnesota to the hustle and hipster bustle of San Fransico, suddenly the emotions don't know how to react and Joy finds the more negative emotions playing a bigger part in Riley's life, none more so than Sadness who changes any memory she touches into a sad one with no apparent way to change them back. After Riley's disastrous first day of her new school creates a new core memory, the first sad one, Joy's attempts to keep it away from Riley's mind results in the loss of all core memories as well as Joy and Sadness being taken away to Riley's memories.

With only Anger, Fear and Disgust to pilot Riley's emotional centre, Joy and Sadness must traverse the back alleys of Riley's mind, through her imagination, her subconscious and her dreams in order to get back to Head Quarters before Riley loses all her personalities and falls into an unfeeling depression. Along the way the two extremes of Joy and Sadness learn to co-exist and help Riley together.

It's a very smart film that brings in a very unique concept that not only fits into Pixar's typical use of relatable and emotionally investing films but actually uses real fucking emotions as its main characters. The way it manages to create an almost death-defying set-piece all within the emotional construct of a pre-teen girl growing up and saying goodbye to a childish world of black and white is something that really needs to be seen to be believed because it's quite difficult to really put into words, suffice to say that this hits all the right notes and even a few you would've have expected regarding how the human mind operates.

Characters were a lot of fun, despite being used as a massive breathing robot for the majority of the film, the effects on Riley's behaviour that the emotions had helped showcase her as a struggling teen girl trying to fit into a strange land she doesn't understand, having grown up with a younger sister I can tell you know that teenage girls are complicated creatures that I still don't fully understand and Riley's way of never sticking to one emotion is not only very realistic but also telling of her as a person.

The three negatives of Anger, Fear and Disgust don't have as big roles as Joy and Sadness but all play their parts, voiced by Lewis Black, Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling respectively, part of the fun of the film is watching the three of them try to make Riley happy but not fully understanding how to operate a person which only makes things worse. All of them have some great moments, Black especially as he feels tailor-made to fit the tiny, rage-filled shoes of Anger while Hader's nervous chattering fits Fear and Kaling's high levels of Sass match Disgust. If nothing else it's interesting to watch a person operate without any Joy in their lives, it actually makes for a strangely effective look into depression towards the end.

Amy Poehler is in full-on Leslie Knope mode as Joy, a ridiculously chirpy and enthusiastic bundle of fun that clearly loves Riley but is so use to being the top emotion due to her being the first one created when Riley was born that she's unsure about how to share the emotional control and gets distraught whenever Riley gets too unhappy. After getting lost in Riley's mind-set Joy has to come to terms with not only her own importance to Riley but the importance of everyone else in helping to keep Riley a stable and sane person. Poehler's seemingly natural enthusiasm helps create Joy's... um, joyful nature intact but still able to showcase her arc as she learns how to see things from a different perspective.

Phyllis Smith plays Sadness in a role that is so much more than just being down and out all the time, because of her extreme downer nature Sadness is often one of the most humorous characters if for her deadpan delivery more than anything else - I see her "Too sad to walk" line becoming a gif favourite for the internet. Much like Joy Sadness had to learn her place but hers was more about acceptance from her peers whilst Joy was about self-acceptance, it helped that the two of them spent so long together because it provided a nice back-and-forth, especially when Joy's happy, bubbly nature proved to be more trouble than it was worth, Sadness was there to keep her grounded, showing that one cannot work without the other.

As is the case with all Pixar films the whole damn thing looks bloody amazing, especially the bright and colourful world of Riley's mind because as you'll notice, San Francisco appears primarily dull and grey, allowing for Riley's darkened world to mirror her own fall into depression while inside her head maintains its vibrant aesthetic to showcase the wonders that still inhabit Riley's consciousness, it's quite surreal how well the Pixar team manage to capture the inner workings of a teenage girl's brain and how it operates, from her wild imagination land filled with french-fry forests and Chinatown references to the movie-like Dream Productions which recreates the day's events like a movie set, it's crazy and yet in the context of what the film is selling us it makes sense. This is easily one of the most well designed and brightly coloured films to come out of the Pixar library and due to the nature of the film the vivid settings serve to highlight the actually quite deep themes of Riley's life.

Never one to shy away from more adult concepts, the fact that Pixar actively make use of depression and sorrow as not only plot points but full-on emotional consequences due being trapped in a scared and unknown world is very brave but very welcome, this film is going to speak to kids most of all who are scared of growing up and confused about where their lives are heading, especially those like Riley who are old enough to know the world but not old enough to fully understand it. It would've been all too easy for Pixar just to have Riley huff and pout and get pissy but they go the extra mile by including an ever growing emptiness that threatens to take over, even if children don't fully grab the particulars they'll understand the concepts and adults will be able to mirror their own childhood confusion to Riley's life, or more likely her parents who can't get through to the girl they thought they knew. This is up there as one of the smartest scripts to come from Pixar and one of their most emotional, the ending does get you before the last few minutes leave on a happy note.

And much like the film, we'll also leave this review on a happy note, the humour of the film works on a very relatable level, because the film is about the inner workings of the human brain, seeing the behind-the-scenes of some of the more human qualities of living makes for some very funny moments - a recurring joke about an advert jingle never failed to make me laugh. Outside of that though some of the biggest laughs came from how the emotional reacts to their surroundings, Joy kept trying to put a smile on everyone's faces even though they were all tired and confused, Sadness' deadpan downer had some great lines, Anger blew a fuse at everything - also look out for his ever-changing newspaper - Fear treated it all like the worst case scenario and Disgust simply had too much sass to properly run things despite her best efforts. It's a very funny film that will raise you up as much as it drops you back down.

It feels redundant to say Pixar are back since they never actually left but Pixar are back and they hit it out of the park with this one, Inside Out feels like a refinement of Pixar's own formula, a metaphor for their own audience growing up and losing interest in childish things but never being able to fully let go of them, the fact that Pixar's main audience is probably more adults than children at this point says a lot for them as a company and what they do with film-making. The smartly written and unique storyline is exactly what they needed to make this incredible concept work, the bright and differing characters all serve to help showcase Riley's emotional centre with Poehler and Smith making a great double-act while Pixar creates one of their most intelligent, colourful and emotionally investing films to date which isn't afraid to make you laugh whilst simultaneously bringing you to tears with its subtle but effect themes of depression and loneliness. Put simply this is a must see and a heavy hitter for best animated flick of the year and most likely a high scorer for one of the best films of the year.

9/10