Mind Set

Rating: 8/10 (2 July 2015)

(Rating: ☆☆☆ out of 4)
This film is recommended.
In brief: Insightful and thought-provoking, but not as mind-blowing as expected.
GRADE: B
Critics have been raving about the latest Disney / Pixar offering, Inside Out. While it doesn't take one to the dizzying heights of animation perfection like the award-winning Holy Trinity of Animation (Toy Story, Up, and Ratatouille), it still is entertaining and insightful, far better than most standard animated films these days.
￼Literally, the moviegoers are given a introspective tour into the mind of an 11 year old girl named Riley. This fantastic voyage takes us into the brain's central work station manned by Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). This quartet of emotions help keep Riley in balance.
That is until Riley's outside world starts to come undone with real-life issues changing her life. Inside, things are beginning to disintegrate as well when Sadness accidentally starts a domino effect that alters Riley's behavior and mood swings. (The fact that Riley is headed for those teenage angst years doesn't help matters either.) So Joy takes over to try and rectify this imbalance causing even more issues.
￼Well directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Ronaldo Del Carmen, Inside Out is animation with adults in mind. The screenplay by Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, and the director, takes an intriguing premise but never fully succeeds in expanding its mind games. And while the intentions are good, the end result is a bit scattered. With all the language about core memories, deductive reasoning, and abstract thinking being bantered about, one wonders if a psychology major is required for the minors in the audience. The film's target audience may have been children, but only those with the highest of IQ's.
The voice-over work is consistently strong, especially Poehler, Smith, and Kaitlyn Dias as Riley. However, while some of the emotions are well defined like Joy and Sadness, the other trio is regulated to secondary roles that are less nuanced. Other major emotions are never even represented or acknowledged for that matter. Paging Sigmund!
￼The real scene stealer of the film (in Freudian terms, our Id) is Bing Bong (wonderful vocal work too by Richard Kind), a pink confection of cotton candy and various animal parts who cries candy tears and was once Riley's imaginary best friend. This character is the heart of the film and the emotional center of Inside Out. The film laments the loss of childhood in the subtlest of ways and effectively taps into any moviegoer's emotional "core".
￼The film's animation is as highly accomplished as we expect from the Disney / Pixar Studios. Its textural details and imaginative Rube Goldberg devices show the inter-workings of a child's mind with its floating islands, glowing orbs, and neon lit chutes and ladders...a Disneyland for the mind. Its stylized humans have enough realistic touches to make their characters seem authentic especially in sharp contrast to the cartoon qualities of the more obviously color-coded crew. The musical score by the talented Michael Giacchino superbly links its haunting melodies with the visual images on display. It is also refreshing that this film never resorts to inane slapstick chases and sophomoric humor, so prevalent in today's animation.
￼Inside Out shows the ins and outs of growing up in a refreshing and intelligent way in which adults can easily relate while their young children will pass the time wondering why their parents are enjoying the film more than they are.
Visit my blog at: www.dearmoviegoer.com
ANY COMMENTS: Please contact me at: jadepietro@rcn.com