One the best films I've seen this year! Welcome back, Pixar!

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2015)

Last year we didn't get a Pixar movie, and the year before that, the only thing they gave us the fans was that easily forgettable "Monsters University," so it's good to see Pixar returning, full force, with this latest masterpiece, INSIDE OUT, which reminds us of how good Pixar is when they make well-written, well thought-out heartfelt original stories instead of sequels. INSIDE OUT is one of the best movies I've seen this year and I hope it would ultimately be a potential Oscar contender come award season because it deserves all the success.
The way to describe Pixar's INSIDE OUT without wording it too much is that basically the minute you sit in that theater's seat to watch this movie, you're practically enrolled in Pixar's study of adolescent psychology 101. But I can assure, it's more fun than your regular boring class lectures. Co-directed by the man behind my #1 all-time favorite Pixar movie, "Up," Oscar-winning filmmaker Pete Docter and along with Ronaldo Del Carmen and scribes Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, they crafted this elaborate, engaging and entertaining story that essentially could help parents everywhere who suddenly have to face the fact that their kids are no longer the little adorable kids they once knew; that stage between childhood and teenage years without necessarily going into the teenage years because Pixar is not in the business of doing horror movies. All joking aside, this movie wants to explain, in a very Pixar way, how young ones may resist change but that change is ultimately something to be accepted, and the emotions they go through in order to deal with that change.
INSIDE OUT introduces 5 different emotions and present them in five very eccentric characters: Joy, anger, sadness, disgust, and fear. I'm not sure how many emotions we humans biologically have but Pixar settles on these five. And each of them is very into who they are, for example, fear would extremely be afraid at all times and joy can be so optimistic that she sounds annoying, makes you want to just punch her and tell her to shut the hell up. These five emotions live to serve a little girl named Riley who had a beautiful childhood, evidenced by her many fun and loving memories. Her childhood is every kid's envy, not that her family is rich but that her parents and friends were always there for her, and she loved her school, her neighborhood, her town. Until the day when Riley's family has to move to San Francisco and it's a completely drastic change for Riley. Joy is somewhat of the leader of this emotion command control, the rest would look up to her when they don't know what to do or when they don't know which emotion Riley should be feeling. And in Joy's mind, Riley should literally always be up and happy all the times. And that's when sadness comes in and feels compelled to touch the core memories. Long story short, without spoiling any critical plot points. Joy and Sadness end up by themselves, separated from the others, and away from the control room, so they have to find their way back and it's not an easy journey.
The concept itself is brilliant, Pete and his filmmaking team created these 'Islands' to represent certain aspects that we humans may be surrounded with as a child: friendship, family, the ability to be goofy. But as we grow up, those islands will crumble. In their journey back, Joy and Sadness encounter imagination character named Bing Bong and at first when I watched the movie, I thought Bing Bong was going to be the antagonist, but there's not really an antagonist in this story. Even these emotions themselves, just like Riley, would have to learn that things aren't always going to stay the same forever. The animation is Pixar's most pristine work yet. The moment Riley was born, the emotions miraculously existed and their hair and body look like they're made up of some sort of sparkling floating firefly lights of blue, green, yellow, red, and purple, like you want to get close and just examine them in details.
Pete Docter was very smart to have cast this amazing group of funny people to voice these emotions. Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Bill Hader as Fear, Mindy Kaling as disgust, and the legendary Lewis Black as Anger. I mean c'mon here, all these guys are practically born to voice these particular emotions, especially Lewis Black who's spent most his career being labeled the angry comedian, that's how he banks his humor. The stars are aligned for INSIDE OUT. The tone is what you'd expect in a Pixar movie, a mix of fun, thrill, adventure and moments that can make you cry, but it's a healthy cry, composer Michael Giacchino's music knows which buttons to push to get those tears flowing. I don't think INSIDE OUT means to tell parents that this is what you should or shouldn't do. It's simply an illustration, Pixar-style, describing that change is inevitable, it's part of growing up, but if you'll be there for your loved ones and just listen to them, they'll invite you to be part of that change and that's family moving forward.