I adore Inside Out!

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2017)

Inside Out, is fantastic! In fact, the general reviewer consensus is that this movie is one of the cleverest and most original films that Pixar, or anyone else has ever made. And yes, I know because one of the most frequent words to praise this film is original, the entire internet is now putting in all their efforts to prove to everyone else that it's not.
Now I know that this is not the first movie, or animation to illustrate personifications of emotions, or internal thought processes; And even as far as Pixar goes, this is hardly the first movie about about two conflicting characters going on a journey in an otherworldly atmosphere. But this is the first time it's been done in a full length family animation with these particular emotions, executed with this level of clever metaphor for the progressing emotional development of a child, so yes, it's still pretty original. Besides, concept is one factor, and execution is another, and in Pixar fashion, it is fine-tuned to a tee to be easily comprehensible, frequently funny, emotionally relatable, with fun and memorable characters.
Inside Out is about the interactions of emotions, inside of a person's head personified as characters. The person in this case, is an 11-year-old girl named Riley; an incredibly happy and well-adjusted child, until her life is completely uprooted, when her family moves to San Francisco. And the movie covers the literally emotional journey that follows. Most of the story takes place inside her mind, and the world the filmakers created to represent the various cerebral functions, is one of the most interesting, engaging aspects of a family movie, that I've seen in a while.
Not just in the very likable characters displaying the arguably core emotions, but also how it conveys functions, like long-term memory, personality, dreams, abstract thought, forgetting, subconsciousness, etc. Most of the movie I imagine, you'll be marveling at the incredibly intriguing metaphorical portrayals of these concepts, and also probably thinking about all the extraneous details the film didn't have time to address, like; shouldn't there be some sort of connection between the subconscious, and dream production?
But if there's a single element that showcases the film's brilliant design, with near perfect entertaining execution, it's the emotional characters themselves. You think the characters meant to embody a single emotion would be one-note, but the movie makes it clear that their purpose is not just merely spontaneously reacting to things; The emotions all have motivations to serve a particular need, like fear assesses danger, disgust is her sense of literal and social tastes, and anger protects her from being treated unfairly. They all have very appropriate, and entertaining personalities.
But the true protagonists of the story are joy, and sadness, who are the ones to embark on the journey, to help Riley get through her emotional crisis, after well, causing it. Pixar has this, frankly brilliant habit of telling stories from the point of view of characters meant to represent parents. And joy is right in this wheelhouse, in her caring and her good intentions, but also for her intrusive, perkiness. Along with Amy Polher's performance, the tireless animation, and the writing, Joy was able to work as an intriguingly flawed protagonist, as well as likable, and entertaining. And it's really that ability to make those sorts of characters, under those sorts to conditions likable that really is Pixar's superpower.
Bing Bong was helpful, caring, funny and lovable. Like joy, his success is attributed to the film's execution; culminating with the film's ultimate philosophy about the conflicting relationship between joy and sadness. And by that, I mean the literal relationship between the happy and sad emotions, because the characters, never really connect that much. But then the film's final conclusion is so mutually devastating, uplifting, and accurate, this film would probably become mandatory watching for preteens, even if everything else about it had failed. Overall, this movie was PERFECT.