The Case for Insiders

I have to admit that Brave did not interest me that much, and I have never been able to sit the whole way through that particular Pixar film. 

It was therefore a huge relief that Inside Out got the rave reviews that it has, and I was super chuffed when I found myself amused, delighted and emotional throughout the film.  I was even spotted dabbing at the corner of my eye at the more poignant moments, though I was able to resist blubbering for all of the overtly emotional scenes.

At the time, I didn’t really think about the depth of the concepts behind the film, and mainly just concentrated on the main story: the brain of Riley  is filled with emotions, with Joy (voiced by the awesome Amy Poehler) the driving force who keeps on top of the other emotions (Sadness (a wonderful Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Back), and the fantastic Mindy Kaling as Disgust) that develop as Riley matures.  Key memories are saved and treated with the utmost respect and form part of Riley’s core personality, whereas others are put into storage and eventually disappear.  So when Riley moves, Joy does everything she can to keep Riley happy, eventually ending up lost amongst the memories with Sadness, and needing to get back to the central control room where the other emotions have been left in charge.

The funniest bits of the movie are really when we leave Riley’s head and see how these emotions are playing out and acting in the heads of the other characters of the film.  The mother/father reactions are priceless, though I was almost rolling in the aisles when we were treated to a teenage boy’s shell shocked emotional inner turmoil. 

But there are plenty of laughs and tears to be had inside Riley’s mindscape, Amy Poehler’s relentless enthusiasm and energy the driving force behind story’s sense of wonder and (of course) Joy as we are taken through imagination land and memory lane and a whole lot of other mental metaphors made real.  

The layers did not always work for the kids.  In my session, a few children started to move around restlessly and got a little bored during some of the slower, less colourful, or more wacky parts of the journey.  That, plus their parents laughing knowingly as Mum (Diane Lane) and Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) completely failed to communicate despite everything they actually said might not really have kept the younger ones attention.  Still, for big kids like me, the story itself was magical throughout and kept me thoroughly entertained, if at times a little more emotional than I probably would have liked.

Verdict: Inside Out is another instant classic from Pixar, even if the preceding short film was a bit overlong and more of a miss.  Funny, deep, moving, and incredibly performed, it was a great film to see with all ages, though the younger ones might not appreciate it quite as much as the older folk in the audience.  9 happy memories out of 10.