It’s taken quite some time to finally review Inside Out, and it’s not because I missed it in theaters. I saw it, and was going to review it, but was stopped by the little fear emotion inside my mind. See, I don’t hate Inside Out, in fact, I really enjoy it—but I don’t love it, at least not to the extent of so many viewers and critics. I enjoy Inside Out, which to me is a critic's worst nightmare: finding a critically acclaimed film considered a masterpiece to merely be “very good”. At least when I hate a beloved film, there’s passion within my words (Boyhood, Sicario, etc…)—a way to expressively release anger and disgust against the majority’s decision. But how does one go about praising a critically acclaimed film while making clear they don’t adore it?
Majority: “Hey did you see Inside Out?”
Me: Yeah, I thought it was really good
Majority: I know right!? I absolutely loved it!
Me: Well, I mean, it had some bumps here and there…
Majority: Wait what? I thought you said you loved it?
Me: No, I said it was really good. Like three-and-a-half stars out of four.
Majority: Oh that’s a pretty high rating. So you do love it.
Me: Nooo, I thought certain parts were great, but there were areas that could have been better refined. AKA really good.
Majority: Hmm? Oh, sorry wasn’t paying attention. Too busy humming that addictive TripleDent Gum tune…TripleDent Gum, will make you smile!
Me: >:/
It’s a difficult position to express, and frankly I chickened out, deciding to give the film a second viewing when it came out on DVD—a chance for Inside Out to improve from my initial viewing (perhaps my theatrical viewing was impaired due to tiredness or hunger). After a second viewing, I will say my appreciation for Inside Out’s main theme has grown—yet aside from that, my opinion remains the same. Inside Out is a solid Pixar installment—filled with beautiful animation, witty comedy, touching themes, a faulty middle, and a well of underused potential.
Since birth, Riley’s (Kaitlyn Dias) life has been driven by her five basic emotions: Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black). Her emotions reside within her mind, each possessing their own unique personality closely related to their given title. The oldest emotion Joy, has always been the closest to Riley—largely responsible for her cheerful and lively personality. At age eleven, Riley and her family move from Minnesota to San Francisco after her father changes jobs. Despite trying her best to maintain Riley’s happy state, Joy finds it difficult with Sadness continuously trying to affect the core memories (Riley’s most important recollections, which to this point have all been joyful). During a difficult situation for Riley, Sadness ends up creating a new sad core memory; panicked and determined not to let Riley be sad, Joy tries disposing the new memory, accidentally getting herself and Sadness sucked out of headquarters through a memory tube. Landing far away in long-term memory, the remaining film focuses on Joy and Sadness’ journey to return back to headquarters.
To discuss Inside Out’s main theme is to reveal the film’s ending, so…MAJOR SPOILERS BEGIN: The five emotions are largely symbolic towards Riley’s way of thinking. Yes, I know this sounds redundant considering they ARE her feelings, yet taken from a real life perspective—visualizing Riley as a real-life child in our world—the emotions become a clear allegory for human thought processing, ingeniously simplified so both young and old viewers can comprehend. From the very beginning, Riley’s shown to be a happy and playful girl—her life up until the big move being an enjoyably stable one. Moving to California represents Riley’s first major change in life: going to a far-off state, away from her friends and known surroundings, to start a whole new life. I can relate to such drastic change: having once been a fourteen year old homeschooler switching to public high school for the first time. I remember feeling incredibly nervous, scared, and very overwhelmed. It was a new environment with a ton of new people (there were only two students I knew from before), and for most of my freshmen year I chose a very anti-social lifestyle. Considering Riley’s three years younger, plus moving to a whole other state, her situation must be at least ten times harder than my own.
For the first time in her life, Riley’s joyful demeanor wavers—overwhelmed by such an uncomfortable change. Yet Riley’s always been a cheerful girl, identified by friends and family as a happy, silly, high-spirited person. An identity is a powerful thing, giving us a sense of individuality; subconsciously, Riley feels she must remain joyful—even if it’s only a façade—lest she lose her sense of self. It doesn’t help matters when Riley’s parents inadvertently enforce such belief, saying stuff like, “everything will be ok as long as you and I keep smiling” and “where’s my happy girl?” Here, of course, is where the symbolic emotions come in play. Joy is an overbearing force in Riley’s mind, acting as the emotions’s unofficial leader. The stressful move is likewise Joy’s first major obstacle, an obstacle she’d much rather avoid than face. Sadness represents Riley’s genuine feelings towards the move, and instinctively tries changing the core emotions to better fit Riley’s current scenario. Joy tries tactically removing Sadness from the situation, taking sole responsibility as the one to “make Riley happy”: forcefully going against Riley’s true feelings, that in turn represent Riley faking happiness to preserve what she once had. The film’s following journey is about Joy coming to understand how ALL the emotions are important, and through experiencing the more undesirable ones such as sadness, can create even more beautiful versions of happiness. The inner story represents Riley coming to grips with her feelings, finally able to express her melancholy thoughts in a heartwarming scene—creating a mixed core memory balanced between joy and sadness: bittersweet, my favorite emotion found within a storTRIPLEDENT GUM, WILL MAKE YOU SMILE!STOP INTERRUPTING!!
I didn’t cry however. I didn’t cry at Bing Bong’s death, and I didn’t cry at Riley’s confession. Maybe the little sadness in my head has also gone missing, or maybe it’s because I feel Inside Out only skims the surface with its potential, particularly during its middle section. The middle section’s nothing BAD mind you, but, it…oh how do I put it…feels fillerish? Inside Out has a great opening and a great finale, but its middle part splits away to become more an exploratory of Riley’s inner workings—which honestly isn’t as interesting as the big headquarters. The film has this amazing A-Plot, yet decides to waste time on an inferior B-Plot involving imaginary friends, time-wasting nightmares, and tired jokes such as déjà vu, imaginary boyfriends from Canada, done-to-death China Town references (forget it Jake, it’s ___ town) and déjà vu. It’s a rather standard, predictable section, with jokes and concepts feeling more aligned with an average Futurama episode (not a good Futurama episode, an average one)—which in turn sullies the opening and ending’s effectiveness.
Perhaps rather than focusing on Bing Bong (Richard Kind), more effort could have been given to Riley’s three remaining emotions: Fear, Disgust, and Anger. Unlike Joy and Sadness, the other three are fairly underdeveloped, serving primarily as comedic relief and a way to further Riley’s descent into emptiness. By the end, Fear remains cowardly and clumsy, Disgust’s snobby attitude only helps the situation once, and Anger has only made foolhardy, damaging decisions. I like these characters, and would have enjoyed seeing them go through a similar transition to Joy and Sadness—for example, Fear could have been good for a facing your fears situation (an idea that seems to have been used for The Good Dinosaur instead). Yet any such developmental changes are hastily placed into a time skip finale, used only for a few extra gags.
Before concluding, I need to mention some additional features I enjoy/noticed in Inside Out:
- I really, REALLY appreciate how much effort was placed into making Riley such a well-balanced female character. (link)
- I appreciate how there’s ZERO focus on romance for the main female character.
- I appreciate how natural and subtle Inside Out’s focus is with female characters, unlike Brave’s “THIS FILM IS ABOUT FEMINISM” approach.
- I appreciate how Brave is no longer the token female focused Pixar film.
- The voice acting is great, and I like how the emotions’s thoughts can be heard when viewing Riley from an outside perspective.
- Lewis Black as Anger is an absolute delight, hilariously standing out as the film’s finest comedic aspect—“Lock the door and use that curse word we know!”
- I like the extra touch where Anger’s newspaper headlines state the “current events” in Riley’s daily life.
- The animation is gorgeous and wonderfully expressive.
- In particular Joy, who is just so enjoyably bouncy, bubbly, and full of energy—running, spinning, and jumping about in an delightfully lovable manner.
- The additional focus on other characters’s inner emotions, particularly Riley’s mom and dad, are witty and hilarious.
- Being a reviewer, I too enjoy friendly argument island.
- I honestly thought the frustrated bus driver’s “happy place” was going to be the Brazilian helicopter pilot—I wish it had been since it’d have been way funnier than…than the TripleDenTRIPLEDENT GUM, WILL MAKE YOU SMILE!!!AUGGGGGGH!!!!!
MAJOR SPOILERS END:
Majority: …..so you enjoy Inside Out?
Me: Yes! I really like Inside Out! It’s a good film, a really good film—and unless Kung Fu Panda 3 or Anomalisa can surpass it (and there’s a possibility they can), it’ll end up being my favorite animated film of 2015. Inside Out isn’t perfect however: its middle is underwhelming compared to the opening and finale, while Fear, Disgust and Anger feel underdeveloped. Inside Out misses greatness, but it’s still a solid Pixar addition—there finest, in fact, since Toy Story 3...though I wish it could have been as great as Toy Story 3…understand now?
Majority: …..TRI-
Me: DON’T DO IT!
Majority: …..
Me: ಠ_ಠ
Majority: ………………..TRIPLEDENT GUM, WILL MAKE YOU SMILE!!!
Me: I hate you.
