Yay Depression!...

Rating: 2/10 (17 February 2016)

It seems like the message that the writers of "Inside Out" were trying to pass on to its audience (adults and children alike) was "It's OK to feel sad when traumatic events happen in your life." But instead, it came across more as "Feeling optimistic and trying to be happy in the face of adversity isn't realistic and is actually harmful to your mental well-being, Sadness is IMPORTANT and you have to let your Sadness run free when bad things happen."
The core concept of the movie-- personifying the emotions that drive us-- is an interesting one, but they run into a major problem. By personifying an emotion like Sadness, you take something that is a tragically everyday part of life, and turn it into a cute green lump with her own personality and emotions. So instead of being an abstract concept that really sucks to experience, Sadness is now somebody you have to root for and cheer on. So when the climax of the movie hits, the film-makers are trying to get you to cheer Sadness on. Go Sadness, we're on your side, feel important and save the day! Meanwhile, Riley, the actual girl, has Sadness take over her mind, corrupting her happy memories that shape her entire personality, and realistically the experience would leave the girl with depression that she has to spend the rest of her life treating. But hey, that green blob get's to feel special for a while, so it's all good, right? Hurrah, kid's movie!
Inside Out does have plenty of funny moments, and a solid voice cast, but it is ultimately majorly dragged down by both a script that tries to be deep and insightful but completely bungles the execution, and a story that feels artificially drawn out, making the hour-and-a-half run-time drag at times, making the movie possibly Pixar's worst (though to be fair, I haven't seen either of the Cars movies yet).