Inside Out (2015)
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_poster.jpg) "Do you ever look at someone and wonder, What is going on inside their head?"
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Inside Out is a 2015 American 3D computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. A sequel was released on June 14, 2024. Additionally, a spin-off TV series named Dream Productions is scheduled to be released on Disney+ in 2025.
Docter first began developing Inside Out in 2010 after noticing changes in his daughter's personality as she grew older. The film's producers consulted numerous psychologists, including Dacher Keltner from the University of California, Berkeley, who helped revise the story by emphasizing the neuropsychological findings that human emotions affect interpersonal relationships and can be significantly moderated by them.
Plot
Riley is a happy, hockey-loving 11-year-old Minnesota girl, but her world turns upside-down when she and her parents move to San Francisco. Riley's emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear (voiced by Bill Hader), Disgust, and Anger (voiced by Lewis Black) try to guide her through this difficult, life-changing event. However, the stress of the move brings Sadness to the forefront. When Joy and Sadness are inadvertently swept into the far reaches of Riley's mind, the only emotions left in Headquarters are Anger, Fear, and Disgust.
Why It's Emotional
- Clever and creative concept by Pixar of the human mind and how things such as emotions, memories, imaginary friends, dreams, and the subconscious work.
- Beautifully done animation. The real world has a down-to-earth style, and Riley's mind is very bright and colorful, especially by Pixar standards.
- The emotions (Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger) are very interesting main characters with their creative designs and one-dimensional personalities that are handled very well.
- Funny moments, such as when the emotions are thinking of ideas of what to do, and Anger suggests, "We could lock ourselves in our room and scream that curse word we know - it's a good one!", and the end credits scene when the dog's emotions were discussing to grab the food and the scaredy cat scene was funny as well.
- Fantastic direction by Pete Docter, like with his previous films Monsters, Inc. and Up, with a nice balance of emotion and humor.
- Heartwarming and nice-sounding musical score by Michael Giacchino. You should listen to the entire soundtrack, but here are some of the most notable tracks out of it:
- "Bundle of Joy", played during Riley's birth and the subsequent introduction of Joy as well as the opening logo.
- "Nomanisone Island/National Movers", is played when Riley and her family are headed off for her ice hockey match as the film comes to a close. Sweet and heartwarming as many of the tracks here, the stirring, soft instrumentation shows the joy of family as Riley's emotions are all back at work, all with a clear purpose.
- "We Can Still Stop Her", a tense song played when Riley is running away from home, while Joy tries to reach the HQ in time to stop her.
- "Tears of Joy", played during Joy's breakdown in the memory dump.
- "Rainbow Flyer", is used when Joy and Bing Bong attempt to escape the memory dump in their wagon rocket.
- "Joy Turns to Sadness/A Growing Personality", which is used during Riley's breakdown with her parents, Joy learning that being sad is an important part of living, and Riley's console getting an upgrade as she gets older.
- The ending theme is "The Joy of Credits", which is essentially eight minutes of orchestra/light jazz music.
- Bing Bong's death and Sadness saving Riley from running away are emotional and touching moments. What can we tell you? Inside Out being about emotions, can give you some very sad moments.
- It delivers powerful messages about accepting change and embracing all of your feelings since they're all important. It's fine to have negative feelings too.
- There is also another one is that it is alright to cry and/or feel sad sometimes. Many, many people feel that you need to be happy all the time, and even some people believe that if you aren't always happy then there's something wrong with you. Those are the people who need this anvil.
- The Tripledent Gum jingle is very funny and catchy, hence its status as an earworm in the world of the story. At 13 seconds long it's probably the shortest piece of music from the film. What's awesome about it? The fact it's an intentional earworm written specially for the film is no easy feat! No wonder Anger gets so mad when he hears it.
- The voice performances of Amy Poehler (Joy), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Richard Kind (Bing Bong), Lewis Black (Anger), Bill Hader (Fear), and Mindy Kaling (Disgust) are all amazing.
- Most of the film's messages aren't portrayed with dialogue but are shown visually rather than outright explained to the audience.
- The movie shows that clichés are easily avoided and strongly uses this fact.
- Like in many Pixar movies, there is great chemistry between the characters, like Joy and Sadness.
- Throughout the film, no real villains appear except for Jangles, who could count for some people. He doesn't have a large amount of screen time since he only appears for one scene when Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong are escaping.
- Bing-Bong is a great and hilarious secondary character with an interesting arc. He becomes annoying, self-centered, not very helpful, and detrimental to the quest at more than one point. Then he sees that Riley has outgrown him, and given the pattern that both Disney and Pixar movies were showing at the time, it would have surprised very few viewers if he were to become Inside Out's "Hidden Bad Guy." Then he defies all expectations with a surprising and very moving heroic sacrifice. Way to go, Bing Bong. Way to go.
- It shows that complex and serious subject matter can work well for kids' movies, as demonstrated by the topic of depression explored throughout the movie.
Qualities That Are Stuck in Memory Dump
- It feels a little confusing and never explained how Riley's emotions have different genders, but everyone else's emotions have only their sex and the same gender. It was probably to stand out in Riley's emotions more than the others as they were the protagonists.
- It's also confusing how all the emotions act like their person, but Riley tends to be people controlling her and referring to her as a third person, but this was probably for the same reason above.
- Most of the story has the typical Pixar beats of "Two characters forced to hang together and need to get back somewhere in a limited time while dealing with their differences" which can feel a bit tiring at this point with pacing, which does go pretty slow at times, even if it puts into strong used and the pacing works well.
- Joy is not above lying, as she told Fear that earthquakes don't exist when they do.
Reception
Inside Out was praised for its concept, screenplay, subject matter, Michael Giacchino's musical score, and vocal performances, particularly those of Poehler, Smith, Black, and Richard Kind. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 98%, based on 370 reviews, with an average of 8.93/10, making it one of the highest-rated animated films of all time when ratings are adjusted for the number of reviewers. The website's critical consensus reads, "Inventive, gorgeously animated, and powerfully moving, Inside Out is another outstanding addition to the Pixar library of modern animated classics." The film also topped the site's Top 100 Animation Movies list and occupies the third-highest position of a film released in the 21st century on the Top 100 Movies of All Time list at number 8. On Metacritic the film scored 94/100, based on 55 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Trivia
- Co-director Peter Docter was inspired to make the film after watching his daughter change as she was growing up.
- Joy’s effervescent skin was originally supposed to be limited to just her, but the producers liked it so much that they applied it to every character – even though it increased the budget significantly.
- Pixar animators originally drew six emotions – including "Surprise" and the final five.
- The movie featured about 45 animators, about half as many as previous Pixar films.
- The dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs inspired the distinct personalities of the different emotions.
- All of the emotions in the film have intentional shapes. Joy is shaped like a star, Sadness resembles a teardrop, Anger looks like a brick, Fear is tall and thin like a nerve, and Disgust is shaped like a piece of broccoli.
- In an early version of the script, Joy and Fear got lost together, instead of Joy and Sadness.
- Peter Docter enlisted the help of psychologists and other experts to serve as consultants throughout the making of this film to make the way Riley’s mind works scientifically accurate.
- When Peter Docter originally pitched the concept for the film, he'd envisioned someone like Lewis Black voicing the part of Anger. Ultimately, Black ended up playing the role himself.
- She was moved to tears when they pitched Mindy Kaling, who would ultimately land the role of Disgust. She said, "I think it's great that you guys are making a film that shows it's difficult to grow up and that it's okay to be sad about it." Co-director Peter Docter quickly exclaimed, "Quick! Write that down!"
- The film was nominated at the 88th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Screenplay, winning the former.
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