Inside Out review

First off, NEW ARTWORK! Check out my Inside Out quickies from last night:


I saw this last night and, WOW, I was not expecting it to be as amazing as it was. Seriously, this movie surpassed all my expectations. It was clever, cute, funny, well-written, sad, and had A TON of heart. As a whole, I'm not a huge fan of Pixar. Don't read this wrong, I have nothing against them at all, I like most of their movies, but none of them ever really stood out to me as masterpieces, until now, that is. I honestly keep forgetting it's Pixar. It looked and felt far more like a recent Disney Animation Studio film. Well, I can't really think of anything bad to say about this movie, really, so I'll just give you the complete details on why it's amazing and you need to go see it.

First off, the characters are great. They are so much fun, physically and verbally. Their designs are all original and memorable, and they're all funny. Literally, every one of the five main characters is hilarious, and I mean actually funny. Not your usually CGI kid's movie "funny" of "oh, they referenced sex or pop culture in a half-ass way so it's funny", I mean actual, genuine, laugh your ass off humor. I honestly can't even decide which of the five I like best. At times I think it's Anger, then Sadness, then Joy, then Disgust.... it's impossible. All five were perfect, and there's lots of other hilarious characters and jokes other than them. That being said, the movie does settle for being a cheap comedy (nor does it come close to a "they showed every funny part in the trailer" film) as it has a ton of gushy tenderness. You can really feel for all of these characters, and you really care about all of them, as well as all the human characters. They know when to be funny and when to get real. Just a little warning for some of you out there, something might get in your eye at some parts, if you know what I mean...

Concept-wise, this movie is brilliant. Sure, it's not new territory for Pixar to present a non-human world or concept in the style of human society, but this one goes above and beyond with the cleverness. I feel like they didn't miss an opportunity for metaphors, jokes, and references. I won't spoil the movie, but the way these characters act, the things they do, and the events that take place in the kid's mind are ingenious ways of visually and surrealistically displaying how people go through emotions, and how people (the little girl in this case) reach the emotional states they do in seemingly tough situations. Seriously, everything in this movie is an ingenious metaphor. This movie is really damn smart. Many CGI movies do the "what if a world existed in _" concept, but this may be the best executed and most clever of those concepts thus far.

The movie's also great as a family film, in that, literally, the whole family can enjoy it. As I said, the jokes are very well written so that there's plenty of humor for all ages, and its not awkward or out of place, and, well, the movie's brilliant. It's emotional (no pun intended) because the whole story is based on us. We all have "core memories", nostalgia, and, well, feelings. This movie really strikes your inner child and reminds you how great our memories and emotions are. You feel so much with the little girl, Riley and her mind because we all were her at one time. As a spoiler-free review, I can't give away the ending, but they do an incredible message about joy and sadness.

If I absolutely had to complain about something... hmmm.... this is tough. I guess, as a minor complaint, I could say Joy and Sadness get way more screen time than the other three, but I feel they were the most pivotal to the message. Disgust did seem to get the short end of the deal, as I think she had the least screen time of all, which is a shame, because she's hilarious. Other than that, I've got nothing.

So, yeah, go see it. I can't kiss it's ass enough. It's cute, funny, lovable, smart, and so on. I think the funniest scenes may be the glimpses into other people's emotions.