Inside Out

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2015)

For me, modern day animated films can be a tough sell. I love animation and have since I was a child. I grew up watching a lot of the Walt Disney cartoons that kids today still watch and love. As, I grew older I got interested in more adult oriented animated films such as the work of Ralph Bakshi, Bill Plympton and films such as Gerald Potterton's Heavy Metal. I also found as I grew up that I was not really all that interested in 3D animation which really seemed to be taking off. To me it looked like you were staring at a computer program, or game and I felt it lacked emotion and a lot of the story relied on the new age type of effects and techniques the animators could now use with these computer programs and techniques. I also found the writing of the films got lazier and it just overall did not win me over at all. There were some good exceptions within the last 15 years, or so of some really good animated films such as Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away as well as Sylvain Chomet's The Triplets of Belleville. Such beautifully animated and extremely creative and well written animated films like these were unfortunately becoming a rarity. A lot of the stuff Disney and it's collaboration with Pixar, was unfortunately not working for me all that much either as I found that they often had a hard time of balancing whether to make a film that worked for both adults and kids and I sometimes found that as above mentioned, that I had problems with the 3D animation and the writing relied too heavily on this new technology and effects. There were a few exceptions, but to me something like the Shrek films (I know these are Dreamworks films and not Pixar) and films of that kind which were heavily praised and adored, were to me extremely overrated. Thankfully now with Inside Out, we are getting back to a type of animated film that has animation I like as well as a great story, creativity and will definitely work for both the adult and child audiences going to see the film. This film takes a premise of something that I think we can all relate to and makes a fascinating and very creative movie out of it, that also turns out to be a lot of fun. This one however, particular interested me. The whole human brain and dealing with emotions and the human psychosis has fascinated me ever since I was a child. At a time in my life, I felt like I wanted to be a therapist, or a counselor one day and human problems, emotions and various neurosis of different people fascinated and compelled me. Through the 90's I remember being a huge fan of the animated series, Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist and found the show very humorous as well as also really enjoying the dialogue between Katz and his patients and what was meant to be humorous and was, was also fascinating to me with what makes one think, or feel, or act this way. Inside Out, takes this to a whole new level by giving five of every human's basic chemistry and emotions into fully animated and into talking characters. We have Joy (each character is named after their emotion), Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. The actors who do the voice over work do a terrific job and the writers have given each a wonderfully true and yet fun and playful personality and each depicting the certain feeling that they are meant to represent. Joy (who is one of the main characters of the film) is so bubbly and just an absolute joy to watch that you get enjoyment and just feel happiness just radiating from her that she is literally a joy to watch. All the other characters each have their own priceless moments and really add to the film as well. The human characters in this story each depict average everyday people and the different emotions we go through on an everyday basis making the film easy for a viewer of any age to relate and connect to. The film is creative in both it's writing, voice over work and animation. The film takes us through many adventures and many brilliantly conceived ideas and plot devices, but also hits home once in awhile and makes us think of our own body chemistry and our own emotions at times. This is the most creative and flat our brilliant I have seen in a mainstream animated film in a long time. Inside Out works for both adults and kids and is fun, visually pleasing and has everything that should set off the perfect modern day animated film. Disney and Pixar's best in awhile.