Director: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Starring: Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black, Bill Hader, Phyllis Smith, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan
Release Date: June 19, 2015
Joy, Disgust, Anger, Fear, Sadness. They’re Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black, Bill Hader, and Phyllis Smith. They are also the essential human emotions that are each a strength and weakness (though Joy would beg to differ).
Pixar’s latest isn’t groundbreaking artistry. There aren’t inspiring sequences as in WALL-E‘s opening scene. There isn’t an impressive visual scope, like Finding Nemo‘s fractured undersea lighting, evoking a renaissance of the possibilities of CGI animation. But Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter (Up, Monsters Inc.) and first-timer Ronaldo Del Carmen, is Pixar’s most expressive and intellectual yet.
To know less about Inside Out is to appreciate it more. Joy, Sadness & company operate 11-year-old Riley’s control board, dictating her emotional reactions. Things go off kilter when Riley’s family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. She has a hard time adapting and Sadness has her fingerprints all over it.
Inside Out is an adventure movie. Joy and Sadness move through the brightest and darkest parts of Riley’s conscious and subconscious to set Riley’s emotional tilt level again. Riley’s brain is a labyrinth of personality traits, with islands, bridges, tunnels and winding aisles of memories — a digestible, remarkable and entertaining “Intro to Psychology”.
A generation of children is gifted a movie validating human emotions — even the undesirable ones — necessary for human survival, empathy and personality. It isn’t a bygone princess’ fairy tale wherein a handsome prince charming rescues a heavenly voiced, distressed damsel. Inside Out is a film that an entire generation can grow up with — like you or I with Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or The Lion King. But better, smarter, and moral.
Adults will walk away with a hefty heart. Riley losing her innocence to intense sadness is bittersweet — a reminder that childhood is simple, but adulthood is rich in sentimental wisdom. For children, Inside Out is entertaining, energetic and quotable. It’s a subliminal lesson that a child can carry throughout their adolescence — a better lesson than royalty’s shallow beauty. Both young and old benefit from the emotional honesty and fortitude of this film. It’s a style that I hope becomes a trend.
This is summer’s must-see — one of 2015’s best.
