Movie Review - Inside Out

Pixar have almost done everything. They have shown us things seen from the perspective of superheroes, toys, bugs, monsters and *sigh* cars. And until Cars 2 came around, nearly all their films were big hits. All of them were receiving awards after awards and having big ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. So after a year or 2 of hiatus, Pixar have returned to give us their most original piece of work so far (for them anyway as I know of other non Pixar films doing something similar). This is going to be quite an emotional review (literally) so let's get to it:

So the film is told from the perspective of a girl called Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) who is just your average girl who loves hockey and enjoys her life. Her life is controlled by the 5 emotions in her mind which are Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Fear (voiced by Bill Hader), Anger (voiced by Lewis Black) and Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling). They guide her, make memories and store them. Some being more important than others. And with those memories, islands inside her mind are formed to show her personalities. Joy acts as the dominant emotion with her and the other emotions having some kind of purpose. Except for Sadness who's purpose is a mystery. Riley then turns 11 and she along with her parents move to San Francissco which for anyone, is a pretty big deal and quite emotional. Sadness then causes a ruckus in Riley's mind and then she and Joy get caught in a tube that leads them to Riley's massive vault of memories (I know there is a name for it, but that's how I see it). With Anger, Fear and Disgust left to guide Riley, Joy and Sadness go on a quest to get back to HQ before an emotional breakdown happens, meeting some peculiar faces and uncovering things not known to them about Riley along the way.

I'm glad that Pixar are back doing what they do best. I know Disney expects them to make marketable franchises, but with Inside Out, there is more to it. It shows to the world that growing up is a difficult thing to do, but its OK to be sad about it. It also has some kind of impact on those with mental health (from what I've been told). Its very colourful, very moving, its got its fun side as well as its mature side and just shows how life is. How life can be tough and growing up is just hard to do. In my opinion, this film is another one of Pixar's greatest films and I hope that they continue to give us more films like this. I think its fair to say that a film like this was always going to be tough to make, but Pixar have done a great job and even did it without any help from John Lasseter and the late Steve Jobs. 10/10

But before I end this post, this being Pixar, there is a short film so let's have a look at that:

So quite a simple and straight forward short film. We meet this volcano who sees a lot of animals in pairs and wants to be paired with another volcano and when I say paired, I mean in love with one another and the way he does it, is through song and does this for many years, unaware that an underwater female volcano can hear his song. Do they pair up and fall in love? See it to find out.

A simple story and scenario it may be, but its well animated and looks great. For most short films, its hard to find something that can be squeezed into something that can only be under 10 minutes long which isn't a problem here as such. The music is OK, but could be better in my opinion. 7/10

And yes, I saw both films in 3D and they both looked great.