Review: Pixar’s Inside Out takes viewer on fascinating emotional journey
REVIEW: With complex themes and clever insights, Inside Out is not your typical animated movie.
Leigh Paatsch
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Inside Out (PG)
Director: Pete Docter (Up)
Starring: the voices of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black.
Rating: ****1/2
Playing a mind game where everybody wins
“Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head?” asks Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) in the opening act of Inside Out.
While this is not the kind of the deep and meaningful question you expect to hear in an all-ages animated movie, Inside Out is hardly typical of the genre.
And what of the eloquent answer you will be given?
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Well, let’s just say this light, playful and irrepressibly engaging animated adventure succeeds where so many heavy, serious and thematically complex live-action productions have failed.
Even better still, Inside Out marks a stunning return to form for Pixar Studios.
The trailblazing animation powerhouse has been coasting for the past five years, churning out so-so sequels (Cars 2, Monsters University) and just the one original stand-alone feature (2012’s disappointing Brave).
With Inside Out, Pixar once again hits the same exalted standards set by last decade’s WALL-E and Up, delivering superb crowd-pleasing entertainment of a style and a substance that genuinely offers something for everyone.
The refreshingly innovative, yet wholly accessible tale told by Inside Out unfolds entirely inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias).
Having just moved with her parents from an idyllic life in smallltown Minnesota to the metro bustle of San Francisco, Riley is really doing it tough.
How she will ultimately cope with her new surrounds all comes down to the efforts of five, literally emotional beings that operate the operations centre within her brain (aka ‘Headquarters’).
The most upbeat, can-do operator at Headquarters — which can be best likened to an air-traffic control tower fitted out with the slickest retro tech imaginable — is of course Joy (a role which fits Poehler’s vocal talents to perfection).
Then there’s the equally downbeat Sadness (Phyllis Smith), the always appalled Disgust (Mindy Kaling), the square-headed stack-blower Anger (Lewis Black) and the perpetually panicky Fear (Bill Hader).
Despite their differences, this quintet invariably pull together to save (or even make) the day for Riley when it seems all hope is lost.
Learning how each emotion works with the others to make Riley a complete person is handled in ingenious fashion by director Pete Docter.
Many would assume the whole experience should be too complex for younger viewers to understand and appreciate, but that is in no way the case. As for adults, the clever insights and innovative creativity on display resonate powerfully.
The many peaks of excellence scaled by Inside Out come into sharp relief when events take a dramatic turn midway through.
Joy and Sadness find themselves accidentally exiled from Headquarters, and Riley’s entire personality shuts down as a result.
As a state approaching outright depression sets in, Joy and Sadness must journey back from the far reaches of Riley’s mind — where the only available mode of transport is a “train of thought” — to resume their vital duties at Headquarters.
In the grand Pixar tradition, this odyssey at the heart of Inside Out is at once a delight, a source of fascination and a complete emotional journey.
Not only is this the clear top choice for audiences this coming school holidays. It is also one of the best films of 2015.
Originally published as Review: Pixar’s Inside Out takes viewer on fascinating emotional journey
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