Pixar's Back at Top-Form

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2015)

In 2011, Pixar, creators of some of the greatest animated movies ever made, released Cars 2. While not a financial disappoint, the film garnered near-universal disgust from critics and audiences alike, marking the first major blunder from the geniuses behind Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Up. The string of disappointments would continue over the next two years with Brave and Monsters, University, both of which were criticized for not being up to par with the studio's best, until the legendary animation house decided to take a break in 2014 and refocus its efforts on quality. Now that the wait is over, Inside Out looks to be the first of Pixar's newest batch of films. And, fortunately, the wait was well-worth it.
Inside Out tells the tale of 11 year-old Riley Anderson, who moves one Autumn day with her parents to San Francisco to help her father succeed in business. Riley is controlled by her core emotions, the perky Joy, the mopey Sadness, the bratty Disgust, the cowardly Fear and the hot-headed Anger, who monitor her brain activity and keep her safe. But when Sadness accidentally messes with Riley's memories, she and Joy are sucked outside of headquarters to leave Anger, Disgust and Fear to rule Riley on their own. But Joy has always been their leader, so now she and Sadness are forced to make their way back before Riley slips into complete depression.
Right off the bat, the most-obvious compliment I can give this movie is the same one I can give all of Pixar's movies: it looks amazing. Pixar is no stranger to rendering environments and details that many animation studios, even the high-end ones, would outright ignore, and this is no exception. But Inside Out has the distinct advantage of tackling the world of the human brain in a fun and colourful way. The main area that deals with emotions, for example, is a simple control panel surrounding by gears, while the memories themselves are colour-coded to indicate the dominant emotion they're connected to. Riley's core personality traits are indicated by literal islands with highways that connect to central, while long-term memory is a labyrinth-like library where memories are stored. And, of course, the forgotten memories are hoisted away and thrown into a dump where they decay. It's little details like these that really stretch the limits of creativity and make the film a perfect candidate for the medium of animation.
The voice acting is also spot-on. Amy Poehler is brilliant as the Peter Pan-esque Joy, showing her energetic side while also highlighting her domineering personality. Mindy Kaling is equally wonderful as the valley-girl-esque Disgust, while Phyllis Smith really adds humanity to the often dour Sadness and Bill Hader makes the one- note Fear into a real joy to watch. But the obvious stand-out is Anger, who's perfectly fitted to Baby Boomer comedian Lewis Black. He not only steals the show whenever he speaks, but his character is so much fun to watch that I often wished the movie was about him. The side-characters are also well-voiced, although I do wish a certain side-character had been given to Jim Carrey instead of whom they did get.
But what really makes this movie work as well as it does is its underlying message about life itself. Far too often, we associate our emotions with obstacles that clash against intellect, hence trying to suppress them. Inside Out, however, argues that that's not the case, reminding us, in-between laughs, that the two go hand-in-hand. More importantly, however, it argues that our negative emotions aren't so negative, but rather instinctive responses that have their place in life. It's a gutsy move on Pixar's part, but considering their past repertoire it's also not too surprising.
Overall, Inside Out was glorious from start to finish. For a studio that's been struggling with quality these past few years, it's nice to see a return to form, even if only temporary. Time will tell if Inside Out becomes a personal favourite, but for now it's easily in my Top 5 Pixar films of all-time. It's also, not surprisingly, the most fun I've had in theatres this year so far. I simply can't recommend it enough.
5/5.