Inside Out

Upon returning from a hockey game one Friday night last fall, I was planning to take care of a couple things on my computer, then go to sleep early. Key word: planning. Just as I was about to shut down my computer and go brush my teeth, my roommates returned and decided to watch a movie. Unfortunately or fortunately for me, they decided to watch Inside Out. I had watched every single Pixar movie*, and would have eventually seen Inside Out, but from the trailers, I couldn’t tell how they were going to make a story out of the idea of feelings. However, everyone who had seen the movie over the summer thought it was great. So instead of working to pay off my sleep debt, I stayed up to watch Inside Out.

I also thought it was great, probably my favorite Pixar movie since Up. Certainly better than Cars 2**. I’m one of the few people who’s not a five year old boy who legitimately likes Cars, and even I thought Cars 2 was bad. But Inside Out was good. The movie follows Riley as her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco, which would be great for people like my brother who need to see tall buildings and people, but Riley legitimately likes living in the middle of nowhere. Riley’s actions are controlled by the five emotions living in her head – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. But soon into the movie, things go wrong for Joy and Sadness – and Riley.

The plot wasn’t horribly complicated (family moves = sad Riley), but the characters were great. The human characters behave like a normal family and do normal things, which was a nice break from the ten billion apocalypse/dystopia/sexy vampire movies in theaters. The emotions did well portraying their respective emotions; there are a few particularly good scenes with Sadness. There’s also a pretty ridiculous/hysterical scene near the end of the movie.

There are only a couple negative things I have to say about the movie. The transition between inside and outside Riley’s head sometimes feels disorienting***, and the islands of personality were a bit plot device-y. Or contrived. Their purpose is to show important aspects of Riley’s life (family, hockey, friends), but the names just felt awkward. Still, it’s two relatively minor complaints that don’t take much away from an otherwise solid film.

*Up to The Good Dinosaur. Probably won’t see that one until the library gets it.
**Why on Earth is Cars 3 in production? I’m thinking if Cars 2 was Mater’s Spy Adventure, maybe Cars 3 should be Cars 3: Mater’s Spy Adventure – In Space.
***I watched Inside Out again over spring break and didn’t have this problem. What was more noticeable this time was that the memories are shown in third person but you’re supposed to be inside Riley’s head, so she should probably be remembering in first person.