Childhood depression made quirky and interesting

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2020)

It's hard to simplify Inside Out into a few sentences. We follow a girl called Riley and the emotions in her head. Riley moves cross country from Minnesota to San Francisco. This has a mental impact on her and it unleashes havoc in her brain. The emotions have to get their act together before Riley falls into a permanent state of depression and causes irreparable damage to her brain.
Inside Out is fantastic. There are so many fantastic touches added into this movie. I love that the emotions in the mother's head resemble the panel on the View. I love the dream sequence. I love the scene where the mind workers are deleting the memories that Riley doesn't need anymore. It is made with the same thought that was put into Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo.
The message from the movie is entirely wholesome. I think it's a great message to give children that it is okay to feel more than one way about an event. We can't always be happy and always be angry. Inside Out shows us the issues with this. The only message that this movie proports that I am not so fond of is that the movie seems to say that when you are depressed, you are emotionless. You can be happy and depressed. You can also be angry and depressed. You can also be scared and depressed. Depression is more of a feeling of dejection and despondency, than it is emotionless.
The ending is phenomenal. The scene where Riley enters the home actually made me feel so incredibly sad and happy at the same time. It is truly great cinema. Very impressed at Pixar pulling this off again. It puts itself on a list with Finding Nemo, Up and Toy Story 3.
So why only a 7? While the plot of the real world Riley and the added touches Pixar throws in are great, the story of Joy trying to get back to headquarters is not as good. We fall into a repetition of "there's only one way back to headquarters" then "oh no, that was destroyed, now we can't get back" then "there's only one other way back to headquarters". This repeats about five times. It just got a little one note and, although it didn't become predictable, none of the revelations felt overwhelming.
Overall, very much worth the watch. I cannot wait to rewatch it again. Great for kids and adults alike.