Since Riley was born, her life has been controlled by her emotions; Joy, Fear, Disgust, Anger and Sadness, but particularly by Joy. However after she and her parents move to San Francisco, her emotions are in turmoil in how to deal with this....
Well this is how you hit back. Pixar, some have suggested had slipped. The energy or spark that fuelled them at their best, some had said it was no longer there, or it was dying. Recent films, with perhaps Toy Story 3 being the exception, were considered not as good as the ones that came before them. Well, if anything, what Inside Out shows is that the spark is still there. Simply put, Inside Out is an ambitious, imaginative and often quite funny film.
The idea that you are controlled by your emotions is not an original idea of itself. There was a TV series called Herman's Head about this in the early 1990's. Plus of course, for those that know and remember it, the British comic book, The Beano, has a series called The Numskulls, which has a similar premise.
But the key word there is similar. Pixar, as they often do at their best, take the premise and have imaginative fun with it. The set-up is simple. Inside Riley's head there is a control centre, run by her emotions. Memory balls are stored in various parts of her mind, apart from the core ones, the ones that define her, which are kept in the control centre. There are 'islands' in her head for friends, family, fun and other things and there are other beings in her head too that sort her memories out, and deciding too which ones she no longer needs. Joy, the first emotion to spark into life, wants Riley to always be happy and keeps a tight control on everything, especially Sadness, who by simply touching a memory ball can taint even happy memories with sadness. But it is only when Joy and Sadness find themselves out of the control centre that joy comes to realise the part that all of Riley's emotions, including Sadness have to play in her life.
If this sounds like it might go over the head of younger audiences, then yes it possibly might. However, what Pixar also do is bring imagination and a lot of humour too, which will keep audiences, young and old, very entertained.
The voice cast are first rate. Amy Poehler voices Joy and she is is very good indeed along with great support from Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Bill Hader (Fear), Lewis Black (Anger) and Mindy Kaling (Disgust).
It helps too that the script for the film is very good too, co-written by Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley and Pete Docter. Docter also co-directs the film, along with Ronaldo Del Carmen and they keep the film moving at a brisk pace through out.
What is perhaps not surprising is how emotional the film can be. At one point we meet Riley's imaginary friend from when she was younger and while he is still in her mind, has really become a forgotten memory. It's a reminder of how as we grow up, we begin to leave some things behind us, even if they might still be in the back of your mind somewhere. Of course this also does lead to a quite fun running gag about an old TV ad also stuck in Riley's head. But while there is a lot of fun in this film, one might come out of it with a slight tinge of sadness too, but that plays right into the heart of the film.
The film looks great, the computer animation terrific as it always is in Pixar films. It boasts a really good score from Michael Giacchino, who is definitely on his way to being one of the best film composers around just now.
If there is a criticism of the film and even then it is only a slight one, it's that perhaps the journey Joy and Sadness make to get back to the control centre maybe takes too long. But the film is never dull and moves at a very good pace throughout.
Pixar have created some of the best animated films since Toy Story came along in 1995. The one thing that defines most of their films is ambition. Wall-E has a first half that is near silent. Up has an old man in the lead role (and in its opening minutes has people in tears!). It's Toy Story trilogy is damn near perfect. Yes there have been some misfires along the way, but then every studio has those. However when Pixar are at their best, the films they come up with are truly original, funny and imaginative. Such is the case with Inside Out. Side note, the short that plays beforehand isn't too bad either.
To use one of their character emotions, it's an absolute joy.
Rating - 9/10
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