Pixar Pint #15: Inside Out
A main character who misses Minnesota? She just like me, for real!
Welcome back to Pixar Pints, our summer-long journey through all 25 Pixar films in release order.
I don’t know what it was about this movie that intrigued me. I didn’t really watch Pixar anymore; I had graduated high school by the time Inside Out came out and was “too old” for it. I’m not really that much of a movie person in general, so I didn’t just watch it out of boredom or because there was nothing else interesting in theaters. Maybe it was the basic part of me being a really big fan of both The Office and Parks and Recreation and wanting to hear Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and Mindy Kaling on the big screen. Maybe it was just marketed really well and some promotional material sold me. Whatever it was, the fact of the matter is that this is the most recent Pixar movie I’ve seen (prior to starting this project) that isn’t a sequel, and somehow I don’t think I’m alone.
Let’s get into it.
Inside Out quick facts
Release date: June 19, 2015 | Director: Pete Docter | Music: Michael Giacchino
Starring: Amy Poehler (Joy), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Richard Kind (Bing Bong), Bill Hader (Fear), Lewis Black (Anger), Mindy Kaling (Disgust), Kaitlyn Dias (Riley)
John Ratzenberger as: Fritz, the panel repairman
Budget: $175 million | Box office: $858.8 million
Academy Awards: Won Best Animated Feature; also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
Eli
Aesthetic: 9/10 | The way they envisioned the inner workings of the brain is incredible. I remember watching this movie for the first time and wondering how my personality islands would look or what my brain's take on Imagination Land would be. The emotion character designs (and Bing Bong) are just A+ too. My only negative here is that I think they made the human characters a little too cartoony for such a raw story that's so plainly about the human experience.
Animation: 10/10 | It complements the aesthetic perfectly. The way everyone moves, the way things zoom around inside Riley's brain, the way memories are displayed, and a whole lot more neat features had the effect of making me fascinated by my own brain, even though I know it doesn't quite work that magically. Special shoutout to the abstract thought scene; that rocked.
Story: 3/10 | This script is a mess. The transitions between the scenes in the brains of Riley and other characters to those taking place among the humans in the real world are blunt and awkward; check out this edit of a conversation between Riley and her parents without the in-brain scenes and listen to how inane it sounds. Riley's motivation for running away seems farfetched: all indications are that she's well adjusted, has a good relationship with her family, and was generally excited for the move, but two bad days and she's suddenly ready to throw her life away? What? More than anything, though, I couldn't tell while watching this movie whether Riley's emotions controlled her or she controlled them. The movie wants you to think it's the former — they have an actual control panel through which they seem to dictate her every emotional response — but the primary plot-driving events appear to be consequences of incidents in Riley's life altering her brain chemistry. Inside Out teaches the viewer that putting on a happy face through troubling times is unsustainable and that feeling all of your emotions is vital to good mental health — both excellent lessons — but the way they get there, to me, borders on incoherent. My family also moved to a place I was unfamiliar with at age 11 and my early experience in my new city was probably worse than Riley's, so I feel qualified to say that the way everything in the human world pans out is poorly thought out and makes no sense.
Characters: 6/10 | The plot is centered on Joy, who is fun and literally lights up the screen, but she's also incompetent past the point of believability. She's lived and worked with Sadness for 11 years and still doesn't understand what she does or how she contributes to Riley's wellbeing? Every other in-brain character is a plus. We stan a family of Minnesotan kings and queens, but the humans are a little stiff for me. Riley's dad seems like kind of a jerk and her teacher is sneakily the least valuable player of the entire story, just letting her entire class gawk at Riley as she has a total nervous breakdown and apparently doing nothing to console her during or after it. (Also, they caked up Riley's mom for no reason; thanks Pixar!)
Acting: 8/10 | As Joy, this is supposed to be Amy Poehler's show, but Phyllis Smith's Sadness steals it and Richard Kind's Bing Bong is almost as great. All of the other emotions are fantastic. The problem, again, is with the human characters, who are merely okay (except for Kyle MacLachlan as Riley's dad, who is bad).
Music: 8/10 | The score plays very well into the emotional effects the movie is going for and is decently memorable. I won't lie and say it's Michael Giacchino's best work — The Incredibles is hard to top — but it's a great effort.
Final score: 7/10 | For the third consecutive movie, I've come away thinking that Pixar's taught me a good lesson in an entirely too convoluted manner. I'm honestly stunned this film won Best Animated Feature; I think it definitely loses out in a stronger year at the Academy.
Leah
Aesthetic: 9/10 | I love how creative the mind world is! Pixar hasn't done something that cartoony before, and I thought it was really unique. The visualization of the mind was really fun to look at. The human world was more muted in comparison, but I think that's how it needed to be to work.
Animation: 10/10 | The movements of the emotions have so much personality. I think Joy was my favorite animation-wise; her movements were so bouncy and full of energy. A perfect contrast to the lethargy of Sadness. The whole abstract thought scene was a joy to watch. I love it when animated movies use different styles.
Story: 8/10 | I enjoyed this story as a metaphor for the way emotions conflict. It's a really imaginative journey through the human mind (and I love a lot of the humor they use, like mixing up facts and opinions and the jingle getting replayed randomly). I know the human story seems a little clunky, especially without the context of the emotions, but the human story wasn't meant to exist without the context of the emotions, so I can forgive some of the awkwardness. The absence of Joy and Sadness leading to depression (and eventually not feeling anything) is very real.
Characters: 8/10 | Joy and Sadness were a fun duo. I like the idea of Joy needing to learn the importance of Sadness. It's easy to feel like you have to be happy all time and that sadness is a "bad" emotion, but it's really important. All the other emotions were fun within their roles. Riley and her family were alright, though her parents were stereotypical.
Acting: 9/10 | They got a really fun cast for this! All the emotions gave memorable performances that felt true to their characters.
Music: 9/10 | Really good score; I think it's memorable and adds a lot of emotion to the film.
Final score: 9/10 | This film wasn't quite as top tier as I remembered it, but I still really enjoyed it. I like the metaphor and the creativity. I think it's one of the most interesting concepts Pixar has put out. Plus it added one to my Pixar cry count!
Maddy
This is the start of modern Pixar.
Aesthetic: 10/10 | This is the stuff. Humans and real world stuff are generic Pixar flair but everything inside Riley’s head: yes, yes, yes. Vibrant, imaginative, full of life, and overly creative. It’s a nice change of pace after the last three Pixar films.
Animation: 10/10 | Aaaaaaaaa! I love looking at this movie. The animation inside Riley’s head is so expressive. After so many movies that felt grounded in reality and didn’t dare try to do something unique with the medium at its hands, this was wonderful to see.
Story: 6/10 | It’s fine. It’s neat. To me, it represents a turning point at Pixar. Pixar has always been the "blank has feelings" studio, yet rarely has Pixar pushed the envelope this far before. The feelings of Riley are the main characters; they push the story. From this point on, Pixar’s modern day slowly came into shape: character-driven, emotional stories about the everyday struggles and problems of life. Some took fantasy-style twists to these stories, like Coco and Onward, alongside the more "grounded" movies like Soul, Turning Red, and Luca. They all pushed this same basic idea for story, touching on different topics, with Soul shining bright as the biggest example of this modern-day Pixar formula. Coming back to Inside Out and seeing the roots of Pixar’s more character-focused emotional stories was interesting knowing how the studio looks in 2022.
Characters: 7/10 | Joy is kinda stinky but I guess that’s how she grows. I am low on words but everyone is cool and neat, even the humans.
Acting: 10/10 | Everyone is A+ gaming here. Shoutout to Bill Hader.
Music: 6/10 | Just another "it exists" score for me. It’s good but nothing special.
Final score: 49/60 or 8/10 | I really enjoyed coming back to Inside Out. It’s such a fun movie with a heartfelt story that laid the groundwork for the future of Pixar original stories.
Fun Maddy note: Pete Docter directed Inside Out as well as Soul, and is now one of the creative leaders of Pixar. There might be a connection here.
David
Aesthetic: Gorgeous. The mindscape deal is still one of my favorite sceneries in all of the Pixar canon. All the vibrant colors come together perfectly, and their usage in emotional identification is perfection.
Animation: It's good. You really get to see how far they've come with a lot of things - their human animation, the non-human animation? Major steps forward that don't always click until you're there seeing it for yourself. This, to me, opens a new "era", as it were, of Pixar's animations - another step forward visually and technologically.
Story: It's not perfect - the human segments, particularly, seemed present more of necessity than of anything else, but the inter-emotional growth is really awesome. I love seeing the way that the emotions have to move past their own obstacles, framed through the lens of puberty and growing up, and seeing Joy and Sadness have their moments together is heartwarming throughout.
Characters: Joy sucks at first, but her growth throughout the movie really moves me. The way each emotion is entirely coded to their persona is really neat, and the way we see those influences play through in the human characters is dope as hell.
Acting: No one misses here. Just an all-star performance from a ton of top-tier actors.
Music: I feel like it does exactly as much as it needs to and not much more.
Final score: 10/10 | I don't always have the easiest time articulating what's going on in my brain. This movie, though a simplification of the myriad emotions that we're capable of feeling on any given day, framed a lot of things in a really accessible way. It's another in the list of Pixar entries categorized under "what if ___ had feelings" - except, someone lit a massive joint and asked "what if feelings had feelings". It's a really sweet and touching story that came out at a particularly poignant time for me, and as such, lands in the top spot of my rankings.
Final notes
Disney-Pixar was sued on three separate occasions for various flavors of copyright infringement in this movie. One of the suits came from a former Canadian film student, who apparently made a similar film with the same title all the way back in 2000. His suit was withdrawn in the U.S., but he successfully appealed in his home country and eventually was evidently awarded $25,000. Which just goes to show you: always sue, no matter how frivolous.
Next up: The Good Dinosaur