Not so many movies could speak to audience of all ages, deliver piercing sentiments, and send us to a crazy roller coaster ride of emotions, that could make us both laugh and cry. But “Inside Out”, an animated feature, that by default, should (almost) only appeal to kids, cleverly does that with so much sincerity and wit, and it seems not even trying to exert an incredible amount of effort.
This new animated film from the studio that brought us the Toy Story series, is Pixar’s newest masterpiece yet, and it dazzles with breathtaking visuals, but more importantly, it screams with no less than searingly poignant truths that will surely melt everyone’s heart.
The basic premise of the film revolves around the life of an eleven-year old Riley, and the five personified emotions guarding her actions. From the start, the film starts digging our curiosity by asking what really is happening inside someone’s head, and eventually, introduces us to Riley’s world through the different emotions running through her mind.
First there is Joy (Amy Poehler), a jubilant, bright yellow-colored, pixie-looking fairy—or something, whatever she is—who thinks happiness should be perpetually present in anyone. She is soon joined by blue-coloured Sadness (Phyllis Smith), purple Fear (Bill Hader), green Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and the red, and seemingly always exploding Anger (Lewis Black). These five emotions operate in a headquarters inside Riley’s head, processing and storing both her memories and incoming emotions. But when the control room suddenly experiences malfunctioning, Joy and Sadness are forced to go to Riley Central—a place where Riley’s long-term memories (depicted as fibrous luminiscent spheres) are stored—leaving only Fear, Disgust, and Anger, at the maneuver. Unfortunately, Joy and Sadness get stuck at the Central, and with only the other three left to handle Riley’s emotions, chaos is ensued.
A big fraction of the overall proceedings that shares the unlikely duo’s (Joy and Sadness) journey back to the control room, perhaps, is the film’s most endearing part, depicting moments of both humorous and dangerous adventures, that involve the duo analyzing how the brain works, passing through an inventively (and realistically) illustrated zone of abstract thought, stumbling upon a theme park that pretty much looks like Hollywood.
While these adventures are almost entirely sprinkled with glitters of either just fun and thrill, it surely emotionally-cripples audience with bits of tangible moments, most strikingly, an unlikely encounter between Joy and her imaginary friend, (who is as jovial as she is), Bingbong.
Every proceeding is brilliantly told, cleverly knitted with deftly illustrated experiences that exactly represent the whole of not just every human’s emotional journey, but of every person’s adventure as a human being. This is where INSIDE OUT is strongest, and while it is successful at picturing life as crazily fun as Joy is, it gives full credit to Sadness’ equally important role in everyone’s life, while also noting Anger, Fear, and Disgust, as part of the overall journey as well, and not quickly dismissing them as merely lunatic distractions.
This brilliant animation sheds light to themes most important to life, like childhood, and maturity, and it speaks of them with so much eloquence there’s no way the audience can’t relate. And with exhilirating visual extravagance, and powerful voice performances from its actors, comes a result that is never less than stellar.
Yeah, quite an exceedingly overwhelming amount of superlatives right there, and I still feel like I could keep going, but for all its greatness and beauty, “Inside Out”, deserves all the praises. Should it receive a Best Picture nomination from Oscars next year, I totally won’t disagree.
RATING: 10/10 (JE)
