Lava:
Loved the animation.
Loved that it was Hawaiian’esque.
Didn’t really care for the song/narration (but that also had a Hawaii feel to it).
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
As always, I did not see this in 3D; I didn’t see a point in doing so.
When I first saw the trailer for this, I knew I was going to see it in theatres, being a Pixar movie and all. But I wasn’t incredibly excited to see it until about a couple days before its release. Just before it was released I became very eager to see it, and I’m not sure what caused that.
One thing I absolutely love about Disney Pixar is that they have a way of going beyond the typical plots; they push the boundaries in ways other animated movies haven’t done. Inside Out has an incredibly original storyline, especially when it comes to animated films and more so, I loved how they put it together.
What this movie boils down to is this: an eleven year old girls mental stability presented through 5 of our basic emotions: joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. Obviously these are very simplified, but, that’s exactly where this movie needed to stay. I liked how they kept it at the basic emotions; they didn’t add new emotions or veer towards mental illness. If they had, the plot would have gotten a bit to convoluted.
It’s hard for a young kid to have to up and leave everything they know and be put into a foreign environment. To leave everything and everyone you know behind is complicated, and this movie symbolizes that with the main characters emotions. As the viewer, when the goofy island crumbled and faded, we saw the moment in Riley’s life that she was no longer a kid. We see her struggle and as the movie progresses, she learns how to balance her emotions and cope with the reality of moving away from where you grew up and created your core memories.
I thought Amy Poehler’s voice was going to annoy me, but low and behold, she had the best voice. I was hoping that sadness would be my favourite character, but the moment her first words came out, I really didn’t like the voice of Phyllis Smith; it wasn’t what I imagined and that kind of took me out of it. The voice actor picked for anger was perfect, but I don’t like that guy’s voice. I didn’t mind disgust and fear; they were secondary characters anyways.
Some other things I liked that I wanted to mention:
-that the core memories were represented as islands
-loved how they presented her memories and how they were created
-how the console in Headquarters got bigger and more buttons/levers were added as Riley grew up
-liked how each emotions colour went with what the emotion it was representing (yellow for joy, blue for sadness, green for disgust, purple for fear and red for anger)
-loved the visual aspect of the ‘train of thought’
-long term memory and faded memory
-how each emotion character didn’t have solid lines as outlines
-that we all have that one stupid jingle from a TV commercial we can't get out of our heads
-I really liked how Riley's parents had different emotions leading the pack
-I really liked bing bong – it was neat seeing an imaginary friend in Riley’s subconscious.
-I think the part where Bing Bong, Joy and Sadness go into abstract thought was a bit rushed and not as developed as it could have been, but I got the point the movie was making
-I don’t think this movie had any connections to other Pixar movies; I didn’t feel as if there was much chance for it to begin with considering most of what we see was in Riley’s head
-I absolutely LOVED how this movie didn't have a villain
Everything combined, its the subtleties in Pixar movies that make them amazing. Guaranteed to win best animated flick. I would highly recommend this to anybody that’s 10+ years old. As I think about it more and more, I like it more and more.
Some of the lines I really liked:
Sadness: Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems.
Bing Bong: Take her to the moon for me, Joy.
