Five Word Review: Creative, Beautiful, Witty, Emotional Odyssey

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2015)

The spectacular 15th feature from Pixar's impressive (minus Cars 2) filmography that started with 1995's Toy Story, Inside Out deals with the turbulent emotions of a pre-pubescent Minnesota girl whose family uproots and moves to the big city. With five base emotions represented, the casting is basically perfect. It's hard to imagine anyone other than Parks and Recreation's enthusiastic Amy Poehler as Joy, or Sadness and Disgust being represented by people other than Phyllis Smith and Mindy Kaling (The Office US,) and Lewis Black was destined to play Anger in a film. Bill Hader as Fear is something of an indifferent choice, yet works well regardless.
The Pixar film longest in production and it shows, Inside Out might be the greatest film ever made by Pixar. And considering the competition includes the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Up and Ratatouille, that is a definite accomplishment. I don't want to say much; too much detail would only spoil a film that can be described as nothing but genius. A film for, well, people with emotions, Inside Out is sure to affect anyone who watches it if they've ever felt emotion, because everyone can connect with it so well. Inside Out succeeds on the 3 core aspects that make a Pixar film a Pixar film - specifically the EWA factor. This comprises of Emotion, (the emotional connection, with top scorers being Up and Toy Story 3) Wit (the humour and laughs of a feature, high in all but especially Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo) and Awe (which takes into account the visual quality of the animation, the creativity and the world created in the film. The best ones for Awe are the original Toy Story, Wall- E and Ratatouille.) It just shows how good Inside Out is that it's a top scorer for all three categories. So funny in parts - mostly the Chinatown reference, the Lego Movie-style gags that occur in the imagination centre of the brain and the credits - yet also heart-breaking throughout, and so, so creative and imaginative, both in concept and execution. It has that unique Pixar ability to be hilarious, jaw-dropping and tear-jerking all in a minute.
I really don't want to say this, but the only bad thing about Inside Out is the limitation given to it by its U certificate, which results in a few too many juvenile slapstick gags at the expense of Fear. Also, it would have been fantastic to see a 15-rated version of this with the protagonist going through puberty. But these are minor complaints in what is an almost flawless display of limitless imagination, razor-sharp script, note-perfect voice performances and the most pathos in any Pixar films apart from Toy Story 3 (which only had so much due to its reliance on nostalgia.) Easily the best film so far in 2015, Inside Out is a must-see film, an epic odyssey of a young girl's life and quite possibly the most emotional film ever. 94/100.