By Brett Blake After a two year hiatus, Pixar Animation is back, this time with INSIDE OUT. I can’t yet say where - exactly - it ranks on the “Best of Pixar” list, but it would certainly be in the top tier. It hits emotional notes that are so identifiable and relatable, and does it in such a winning and compelling way, that you can’t help but find yourself enormously affected by it. No small feat, considering the bulk of the story takes place inside the mind of a 12-year-old girl and features anthropomorphized versions of the core emotions that govern human behavior. Needless to say, the premise represents one of the tougher sells Pixar has yet faced. As young Riley and her family make a cross-country move from Minnesota to San Francisco, the emotions inside her head - Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) - essentially squabble amongst themselves over how to adjust to the new situation. Through various shenanigans, Joy and Sadness find themselves cut off from the rest of the group, and must travel through the various sections of Riley’s mind (including such locales as Abstract Thought, Imagination Land, Dream Productions, the Train of Thought, and the Subconscious) in order to keep the core elements of her personality from disintegrating. Like I said, on paper, that’s a tough sell, and the very definition of “high concept,” but directors Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen (and the rest of their story team) manage to convey all the important information about the mechanics of the mind’s inner world in remarkably elegant fashion through visual storytelling. We almost instantly “get” the important elements, and how the emotion characters relate to each other. The actors voicing the five emotions all do some extremely effective work; Poehler is - as one might expect from her character’s name - a bright ball of enthusiasm, while Hader, Black, and Kaling get some tremendous moments of humor to play with. It is Smith’s work as Sadness, though, that is basically the heart of the movie; initially, her downbeat line deliveries are played for laughs, but it quickly becomes apparent that there’s a very gentle soul inside her, and her perpetual crestfallen, hangdog quality is absolutely key in providing the story with the kind of emotional heft it needs. There’s something I casually refer to as the “Pixar Difference,” and that is in regards to the idea that basically all of Pixar’s movies are genuinely concerned with real, tangible, non-phony or trumped-up emotion. Sure, other animation studios have released films with big emotional components, but Pixar strives for each of their movies to hit the audience first-and-foremost in the heart. That they’ve been able to do this so well for 20 years now without needing to resort to pandering to the audience to get a reaction is a testament to how strong their laser-focus on relatable emotion is, and that’s on full display with this film. Just how effective is the emotion this time out? Well, INSIDE OUT made me do something I haven’t done in many, many, many years: cry in a movie theater (the last time, incidentally, was another Pixar movie, 1999’s TOY STORY 2; they have my emotional number, apparently). The emotion contained in this film is so potent because it has a foundation in experiences and feelings anybody can relate to. Not even the famed opening sequence to Pixar’s UP (often heralded as one of the most emotional sections of recent cinema) got to me quite like a few particular moments in this movie. There’s a simply remarkable balance of tone here. Yes, the movie is very funny, but there’s an overriding feeling of melancholy, of bittersweetness hanging over everything, and it’s often highly moving. At the same time, though, never does the movie feel like a chore, or like a downbeat enterprise. There’s a vitality and a warmth, even as the movie deals with real, raw emotions, that keeps it consistently upbeat and affirming. This plays into the ultimate message of the film, which is that our emotions - even so-called “negative” ones like sadness - have a huge part to play in who we are, and in keeping us well-rounded personalities. Without getting into spoilers, the climax of the film is simply wonderful in the way it maturely deals with the important role sadness and melancholia have in our lives, and it lets the kids (and even the adults) in the audience know that sometimes it’s okay to feel down. This is a sophisticated film with some wise and knowing things to say about human emotion, and it does so incredibly effectively. In addition to the heart-tugging content, the movie also has some pretty fascinating things to say about our behavior as a whole, and there could even be readings of the film that see it as essentially rejecting the notion of free will. In the story, basically all of human behavior is accounted for through the actions of the five emotions exerting their control over the mind as a whole. A harsh reading of the movie could view them as being puppet masters, with Riley herself unknowingly following the orders of the tiny beings inside her mind; this is a metaphorical representation of the hold our emotions have over all of us, and this particular element is very much in the background, but I foresee papers in psychology journals one day being written about the situation. In that sense, INSIDE OUT is nearly as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally affecting. The animation is strikingly beautiful, from the way the locations inside Riley’s mind are depicted (often whimsical, colorful, and just slightly off-kilter), to the designs of the emotions themselves, who have a slightly fuzzy-around-the-edges look which gives them a sort of effervescent, magical quality. INSIDE OUT looks distinct; visually, one could never confuse it with any of Pixar’s other movies, and it’s a sign of the company’s continued growth and experimentation with the art form. Composer Michael Giacchino continues his stellar run so far this summer (after TOMORROWLAND and JURASSIC WORLD), and his score for INSIDE OUT is his best of the year so far (and the best of the year, so far). Sometimes playful and charming, sometimes ethereal and dreamlike, it’s a lovely score, totally heartfelt without being saccharine or cloying. The movie’s main theme, which is alternately delicate and soothing, wonderfully underlines both the story’s sad elements and its hopeful ones. Giacchino won an Oscar for his last collaboration with director Docter (2009’s UP), and he’s got a real shot at getting a chance to snag another with this score. As I said, it’s hard to rank where INSIDE OUT stands with the other Pixar films; how, for instance, do you compare it to something like THE INCREDIBLES when the goals and tones of the two films are vastly different? I can say this with certainty, however: you will not find many animated films of higher quality than this one, and if you open yourself up to the possibility of having a genuine emotional reaction, you will be rewarded with one of the richest and most touching examinations of the human mind ever put to film. INSIDE OUT is 2015’s best film so far.
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