A nice animated film, but pretty linear in storytelling

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2015)

Inside Out is a good animated film that was able to tackle a very difficult subject in a decent manner. The animation is nice, the characters are interesting, the jokes are pretty good... and yet... there is something missing from this film...
We'll get to that later.
Now, praise where it is due, Inside Out is a clever story about the emotions inside someone's head. All of the emotions control different aspects of the human (Riley) and they must work together to make sure everything is running A-OK. What is really good about this movie is that it directly shows that you can't simply be one emotion and be emotionally stable. To be emotionally stable, you need a full spectrum of emotions. However, the self-proclaimed leader is Joy.
Joy always wants to be happy and always wants to have fun. Any emotion that hinders Joy is seen as a nuisance (Sadness). Sadness is the polar opposite of Joy. She is slow, tired, and doesn't feel like doing anything. This obviously causes some conflict between the two and this is where our plot kicks into gear.
Long story short, Joy and Sadness fall out of the emotion control center and must find their way back to it before everything collapses and Riley loses emotional control.
While this seems like a good set-up, it suffers from some pretty glaring issues. The biggest issue is originality. Ironically, for as an interesting premise as this is, Inside Out is pretty predictable and doesn't have many twists and turns. To make things worse, it follows a VERY similar premise to Wreck-It Ralph.
Two figures lost in an abstract world full of glitches and bugs.
They need to get back to their own game/center before everything falls apart.
They are met by a strange character who is an outcast/glitch in the abstract world they live in.
The color palette is VERY similar.
Even the gags are similar in taste.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of difference between the two movies (the tasks are different), but the amount of visual similarities and plot similarities is a little odd. And as I said, this becomes a problem because the movie feels very similar to a lot of other Pixar films. Heck, the ending has dialogue almost EXACTLY the same as that of The Incredibles.
Aside from similarities to other films, how does the plot hold? It's good. Not fantastic, but it is good. I think the biggest issue with the movie (and movies like Osmosis Jones or other "Inside" movies) is that the stakes are realistically low. All that is really happening is this movie is that a girl is upset and doesn't know how to handle emotions. To me, this isn't a big deal, and is never will be a big deal unless it tackles a BIG ISSUE with emotions. The movie only tackles the basic issues with emotions, but it doesn't really go the extra-mile to say anything incredibly profound.
That being said, how do the characters hold-up? Good characters can save a mediocre-plot. Well, they are good... all two/three of them. This is a movie where MORE character interaction and development was needed. Joy and Sadness definitely interact with each other, but I never felt like there was a lot of connection between the two until the end. Granted, they both had their moments, but it never felt enough. If the movie has 5 emotions and only 2 of them get any attention, then they need to be complex and have a lot to say... but they don't. An extra character joins along (Bing Bong) who is Riley's imaginary friend. While an interesting character, he doesn't really do much other than work as a device to save Joy from death.
All in all, I could go on and on about the nitpicks and issues I had with the movie. Was it perfect? No. Was it good? Yeah. I'm glad I saw it. It had heart, the soundtrack was nice, there were some really good jokes, and it was entertaining. Is this movie a masterpiece by any means? Not really.
Check it out for yourself.