Friday, June 12, 2015

Inside Out


 When it comes to Pixar, there are some big name talents that come to mind the most. John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Brad Bird, and Pete Docter, the latter of which is today's subject. Being one of the key members of Pixar, Docter has worked on several projects at the studio, being the writer and director of “Monsters Inc.” and the film that won him an Oscar, “Up.” Needless to say, he's one of those directors that takes his time with his work, and always making sure that they are as perfect as possible. Earlier this year, I got to meet Pete Docter at my university, when he, producer Jonas Rivera, and co-director Ronnie del Carmen, came to do a press conference for all fine arts students about their new film, “Inside Out,” as well as their experiences with working at Pixar. Heck, I even got Pete Docter to sign my hat AND get a picture with him.



Because I, and many others, attended the conference, I was also granted the opportunity of attending a preview screening of “Inside Out” with my friend Ashley. So is the film something we should all be looking forward to? The answer to that is...yes. Yes, you should be looking forward to this film. It is one of those films that I am begging you to go out and see.

“Inside Out” tells the story of the emotions that live in the mind of a little girl named Riley. Among these emotions, we have Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. Their jobs are to make Riley the person she is, all the while monitoring the memories they create, with the most special of them being core memories. After moving away from her home town to San Francisco and attempting to make Riley happy, Joy and Sadness are accidentally thrown out of HQ with the core memories, leaving the rest to monitor Riley the best they can. It's a race against time for Joy and Sadness to get back with the core memories, before something bad happens.

That's as much as I can talk about in terms of the plot, but let me say this is definitely one of Pixar's most imaginative and heartfelt films in a while. The animation is spectacular to look at. While the real world is nice looking, especially with how far Pixar has come along with drawing humans, the real highlight is with the world inside Riley's memories. With the sky being the limit in a film like this, the creativity in this film is astounding, seeing how the system works, and what lies within one's memory bank, whether it's real or unreal. I also love the character designs, and how each of the emotions look as if they're made of particles, and how their shapes truly represents their jobs. The film also has some great visual humor, that manages to lighten up the mood fairly well, during those harsh moments, which we'll get to shortly.

The voice acting was also done extremely well. Being that it's Pixar, they almost always make us believe that these voices aren't from onscreen actors, but the actual voices of these characters. You got Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan as Riley's parents, Bill Hader as Fear, Lewis Black as Anger (fitting), and Mindy Kaling as Disgust. Joy and Sadness are played by Amy Pohler and Phyllis Smith, acting out as our main leads in the film. Being polar opposite emotions of one another, you really do buy their relationship together, not only being funny but also very believable. Kaitlyn Dias as Riley was another that gave a spectacular performance. Being a fresh new name, she really captures that right amount of tone and emotion, simply through her voice alone. Interestingly enough, Dias was originally brought on as the scratch-voice for Riley (a scratch-voice being a fill in actor, before the real cast member comes aboard), but with how good she did, they decided to make her the official voice of Riley. If she does decide to keep acting, then I'm hoping to see her do more work in the future. I also loved how they made the emotions more diverse characters, instead of being stuck in one mode, and treating their positions as a job. There are times when Anger can be scared, Disgust can be angry, Fear can be confusingly annoyed, Sadness can be happy, and Joy can feel sad. And trust me, when it gets sad, it's REALLY sad.

The moments of when this film gets touching are really heart breaking. There were multiple times when I found both me and Ashley shedding tears during this movie, and rightfully so. I think the last time I cried this hard at an animated movie was “Wreck-It Ralph.” And trust me, if a film is powerful enough to make a grown adult cry, that's saying a lot. This film truly had guts to dive into a subject matter that I didn't expect it to go to: mental illness. And the way it's handled is done in a way that not only will adults be able to relate to, but kids as well, in a way that doesn't pander to them. The troubles of moving away, adapting to a new environment, not being in touch with your hobbies as much as you used to, letting go of childhood, getting sad over happy memories, and acting like everything's okay but it's not...we all go through it at some point. Even with today's internet and technology to help people stay in contact, it's still a harsh feeling to fight. That's reality for you, I guess.

Overall, “Inside-Out” is my favorite film of the year so far, and I can't wait to see it again when it comes out. It's touching, it's beautiful, it's emotional, it's funny, it's an all around good time. I may still need a bit more time to think about where this ranks in terms of Pixar's best, but as of now, I know it's among the Top 5.


Rating: 10/10

1 comment: