140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Typical Pixar magic from co-director Pete Docter w/ great emotional stuff leading to leaky eyes & lots of laughs. So why didn’t it grab me?
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Inside Out:
When the idea behind Disney/Pixar’s latest joint, Inside Out, was announced, there was a sort of déjà vu feeling to the whole affair. Yes, like most people, I instantly realized the story was not in fact original at all, but an echo of the 90’s FOX TV sitcom Herman’s Head, but that wasn’t the entirety of it.
(Although I have no idea how Pixar and the writers have avoided legal challenges thus far – it really is completely derivative. Maybe they can argue that the Mouse got there first with the 1943 Disney propaganda short Reason and Emotion? More probably because the TV show was produced by Disney-owned Touchstone.)
No, there’s more to it than that; an underlying sameness to the whole thing. There’s a familiarity that’s hard to shake, even as the picture handles issues and scenarios new to the screen. There’s a lot going on visually, and I’m sure I’ll get more out of it on repeated viewing, since there’s a lot of Easter eggs I caught even the first time.
I feel somewhat apologetic about criticizing Inside Out without a firm explanation of why it didn’t totally stay with me. Perhaps that’s exactly what I’m objecting to – it didn’t stick. I was intrigued by the idea, laughed a lot and genuinely was impressed with what the filmmakers had accomplished. And then I left the theater and I haven’t thought of it once since. I didn’t even have much enthusiasm for talking about it in the car on the ride home; I’d already moved on.
Now of course I am aware that I’m not the target audience for these pictures and the fact that so many of the Pixar films have resonated with me is a nice plus, not a designed feature. A younger audience, by definition, doesn’t bring the same history and experiences into every film and is almost certainly more enchanted with the idea of a control room in every person’s head, likely never having dealt with these abstract ideas previously. For the most part, I’m going to chalk my lack of infatuation with Inside Out to that; it’s a powerful movie, just not for me. That’s fine…
Pete Docter & Ronaldo Del Carmen came up with the story partly on Docter’s childhood and partly based on a dream of Docter’s regarding his young daughter. The pair also shared directorial duties and additionally utilized a co-ed pair of screenwriters to help flesh out the script (including Meg LeFauve & Josh Cooley). This duality of male & female voices throughout the production really provides rounded perspectives and a great depth of realistic feelings that play out vividly on screen. The team also consulted with psychologists to create accurate depictions of many concepts, and all the research pays off, as Inside Out is remarkably insightful.
One major criticism, though: Joy is white. All of the other emotions are colors, but the hero isn’t the yellow that her emotion signifies in the whole “emotions have colors” design – she’s Caucasian, i.e., “normal”. C’mon, Pixar, you’re better than that…
My biggest takeaway from Inside Out, actually, is how wonderful it is that this movie will be instrumental in giving children and those who work with children a language in which to communicate. Even before seeing the film, I was genuinely pleased that Pixar had made a popular picture that help so many people develop a vocabulary for talking about emotions and behaviors. As an educational tool, Inside Out is a masterful achievement.
And so perhaps it’s fine that as pure entertainment I found Inside Out to be a little underwhelming. It’s certainly a very good, solid picture which my family all enjoyed, and if it isn’t one of Pixar’s more impressive films, perhaps they’ve achieved something more important.
Oh, and Pete Docter, please stop making balloon animals out of my heart with these movies. While best in class movies like Finding Nemo (which is about a father and child and therefore perfectly engineered to tug on my heartstrings) and Wall-E are true masterpieces, they don’t make me tear up. But all of your pictures – Monsters, Inc., Up and Inside Out have coincided with a sudden unexpected occurrence of leaky eye syndrome. I suspect these films were experimenting with a Smell-O-Vision broadcast set to “Onion Cutting”. Which is also encoded onto the Blu-Rays. And plays every time…Yeah, that’s probably it…
Poster:
Trailer:
Bechdel Test:
Pass
The Representation Test Score: B (9 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Amy Poehler Joy (voice) Bill Hader Fear (voice) Lewis Black Anger (voice) Mindy Kaling Disgust (voice) |
| Rating | PG |
| Release Date | Fri 19 Jun 2015 UTC |
| Director | Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen |
| Genres | Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy |
| Plot | After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness – conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 94 |
| Tagline | Meet the little voices inside your head. |
| Writers | Pete Docter (story) &, Ronaldo Del Carmen (as Ronnie del Carmen) (story) … |
| Year | 2015 |
