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
I couldn't agree more!
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