A Pixar Animation Studios Film
Story by Pete Doctor and Ronnie del Carmen
Screenplay Written by Pete Doctor, Meg LeFauvre and Josh Cooley
Co-Directed by Ronnie del Carmen
Directed by Pete Doctor
**** (four stars)
RATED PG
Now THIS is the Pixar film that I have been waiting for!!!
Dear readers, as you may already know, I have been very hard on the wizards of Pixar for several years now, and I remain unapologetic concerning their most recent output. I stand by every harsh word that I have written because I remain steadfast in my opinions that these filmmakers and artists, ones that harbored a new golden age in American animated films, had begun to creatively coast, and then disappointingly slide into levels of pointless mediocrity and the very shameless, artless commercialism that is definitely beneath them.
The poignant sense of finale that was the full core of the fine yet padded "Toy Story 3" (2010) has only been undercut with an unwillingness to just leave well enough alone as Woody, Buzz and their friends have only continued to re-surface through short films, holiday television specials and now an upcoming fourth feature film (we can't miss you if you just do not go away). Even worse, was the shinier, speedier but emptier "Cars 2" (2011), truly the sequel that nobody asked for while "Monsters University" (2013), was the lackluster prequel that nobody deserved. And the less said about "Brave" (2012), Pixar's one, undeniable disaster, the better.
With already announced plans for more sequels in the pipeline including next year's "Finding Dory" plus "The Incredibles 2," "Cars 3" (!) and the aforementioned "Toy Story 4," my enthusiasm for this particular creative force had begun to wane and wilt tremendously. From being the person who would always race out to see the latest Pixar film on opening weekend, the steep decline in quality has made me truly question whether I would perform the same loyalty in the future because would it ever be worth it again if the wizards of Pixar were content with forever chasing the dollar instead of chasing the art? Thankfully, in this case, I decided to remain loyal (albeit with some trepidation) and even more thankfully, the resulting experience was so beautifully worth the wait.
Pixar's "Inside Out," as directed by Pete Doctor, who also helmed the classics "Monsters. Inc" (2001) and "Up" (2009), has emerged with their best film in years. Additionally, the film is unquestionably one of the very best films of 2015 as well as being one of the finest works of art the studio has realized to date. "Inside Out" is an impeccably conceived and produced experience that miraculously finds the sweet spot between the complex and the accessible, the arcane and the sublime. It is a film that is impossible to regard passively as we are taken upon an emotional joyride along with the film's leading pre-teen heroine and the vibrantly visualized representations of her increasingly turbulent and transforming emotional characters. In doing so, Doctor and his team are able to elicit belly laughs and sizable pathos honestly and with seemingly effortless ease while also plunging provocatively into precisely what it means to feel. With "Inside Out," the wizards of Pixar have not only chased the art with vigor and passion, they have grasped it magnificently, making a film designed for all ages that will last for the ages.
"Inside Out" opens with the introduction of Riley Anderson (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias), a girl born in Minnesota to her loving, doting parents (voiced by Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan). Delving inside the mind of Riley, we are also introduced to her initial and primary emotion, the blue haired, wide-eyed pixie known as Joy (superbly voiced by Amy Poehler).
Over the course of Riley's earliest years, Joy is quickly joined by four more primary emotions including the elongated figure of Fear (voiced by Bill Hader), who protects Riley, the green skinned Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling), who serves to keep Riley away from anything poisonous, the stout and steaming Anger (perfectly voiced by Lewis Black), who serves to mold Riley's sense of justice and fairness and finally, the blue skinned, bespectacled Sadness (beautifully voiced by Phyllis Smith), who is unsure of her purpose and is therefore ignored.
The five emotions reside within the "Headquarters" of Riley's consciousness, guiding and shaping Riley's growth and development through the building of the core memories that will come to define Riley's overall being (most notably her love of ice skating and hockey). Her life experiences formulate the construction of the Islands Of Personality (which includes Honesty, Family, Friendship, Hockey and even Goofball Island) and each night when she goes to sleep, Riley's new memories are downloaded into long-term storage.
As Riley reaches the age of 11, her life begins to make profound changes as she and her family move from her beloved Minnesota to San Francisco, thus throwing her emotions into haywire. As Joy desperately attempts to keep Riley's happiness paramount, Sadness impulsively begins to alter Riley's memories from "happy" to "sad," which in turn finds both Joy and Sadness sucked out from Headquarters through Riley's memory tube and out into the vast regions of Riley's brain.
While Fear, Disgust and Anger futilely try to operate Riley's Headquarters, Joy and Sadness, with the aid of Riley's elephantine imaginary friend Bing-Bong (voiced by Richard Kind), travel throughout Riley's mind--including the labyrinthine Long Term Memories, the abyss of the Memory Dump, the carnival-esque Imagination Land, the surreal Dream Productions studio, and the darkest regions of Riley's subconsciousness--in order to catch the "Train Of Thought" back to Headquarters.
However, with growing up and difficult new experiences, come the arrival of new emotions and the discarding of old ones, all the while helping Riley to adapt to her new surroundings plus aiding Joy and Sadness to realize the fullness of their respective purposes within Riley's life.
Pixar and Pete Doctor's "Inside Out" is a blissfully multi-layered cinematic experience. As with every film that has been released under the Pixar banner, the film is as visually dazzling and dynamic as you would expect but unlike the most recent selections from Pixar, "Inside Out" possesses an enormous purity of heart, brains and soul that provides palpable weight and gravity to the high flying and at times, completely abstract material on display. While Doctor applies a straightforward, linear narrative structure to the story, we are indeed given a dizzying platform to leap off from as we soar through Riley's outer and inner life, her present day experiences plus her memories and dreams and somehow, we always know where we are conceptually and how each moment and sequence builds upon each other to create a sumptuous whole.
By crafting a movie that is essentially feelings about feelings, "Inside Out" stands as tall as, and also works as a perfect companion piece to, Director Spike Jonze's "Where The Wild Things Are" (2009), a film that also explored a child's inner emotional state in a vibrant and defiantly artful style with urgency and powerful sensitivity. "Inside Out" is just as innovative as it is beautiful. To be able to take something as abstract as the brain and somehow devise of ways to make the process of thoughts and emotions and how they work and influence each other fully tangible while also remaining a world of endless mystery was astounding to me.
I loved how the Islands Of Personality were conceived visually, how all of the memories looked like large, translucent pinballs scattering around the tracks of Riley's mind and how all of the film's detours ran the emotional gamut. From the hilarious (a short cut through Abstract Thought was a high point as were the quick flashes into the minds of Riley's confused, caring parents) to downright eerie (Dream Productions, where Riley's dreams and nightmares are created, and her subconsciousness, where her deepest fears are housed away) to even heartbreaking (watching "Preschool Land" being tossed into the Memory Dump, for instance), Doctor wondrously entertains us while also inviting us to take stock of the exact same locations that exist within ourselves as well as the experiences that have shaped all of us in turn.
Like the very best films from the Pixar catalog, "Inside Out" is a film that does indeed alter your perceptions as you emerge from the movie, viewing the world, and yourself, in a different and deeper fashion. Unlike most films geared for children that are completely disposable, "Inside Out," like some of Pixar's finest, most challenging features, including "Ratatouille" (2007) and "WALL-E" (2008), is unapologetically sophisticated while tremendously playful, therefore making it a film that children, and all viewers, are able to grow with throughout their lives.
As with Writer/Director Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" (2014), Doctor has created an experience whose meaning and importance will shift and change as we all age. What the film represents to a 5 year old may mean something completely different to a 10 year old or a 35, 50 or 70 year old. For how could one look at this film and not think back to the stages that have formulated our own lives, to our core memories that have shaped the people we are still continuing to become? And for those of you that happen to be parents, I have a strong feeling that the experience of seeing "Inside Out" will be especially profound as you can explore your child, and well as yourselves.
With "Inside Out," we, along with Riley and her family, are taken on a journey where the innocence of early life begins to transform into a deeper emotional and cognitive universe, a process that can often be fraught with pain, sorrow and loss, most notably with regards to the character of Joy and the presence (or lack) of happiness within our lives. While I do not have children of my own, my life as a preschool teacher and being housed with all manner of very young emotional landscapes at any given time from one day to the next was not lost upon me as I watched "Inside Out." At points, I did have to admit to myself to some feelings of slight guilt when it comes to the nature of happiness and the pressure that I and we, as adults, just may place upon children to be happy all of the time. But going even further, "Inside Out" also illustrates the pressure we place upon ourselves with seeking, pursuing and remaining happy even when our emotions are instructing us otherwise, informing us that what we need is not necessarily happiness but some sort of understanding and compassion.
Within "Inside Out," the demands of being happy, or in this case, allowing Joy to remain as Riley's primary emotion, especially as she undergoes a life-altering transition plus the natural phenomenon of aging can be Herculean. At one especially powerful point in the film, when Joy and Bing-Bong are trapped within the Memory Dump, and repeatedly trying to escape from being eternally forgotten (i.e. depression), it truly hit me. That finding and maintaining a sense of joy is often so very difficult for myself as an adult so how could I, or parents and teachers for that matter, demand of our children or even expect them to hold a perpetual state of happiness regardless of what obstacles life throws into their direction? Childhood can be a wonderland but it is also a lengthy period when one is completely at the mercy of inner and outer environments they cannot possibly understand and definitely are not able to always control.
For Riley, she is indeed at the mercy of her family, as well as her emotions, due to her physical, cognitive and emotional development, which is compounded by being uprooted from the home and life she loved and planted into a new location. I felt that Doctor and his team were brilliant with visualizing San Francisco with a heavily drab and grey palate, clearly not how San Francisco looks in reality but entirely because of how Riley is feeling. The world that was once so bright is now a shadier, more uncertain place to reside inside of. With that, her emotions also begin the painful process of transformation where both Joy and Sadness each realize that the extent of their roles will change as Riley grows, ages and adapts to new settings.
Where Joy first exists as the leader of Riley's Headquarters, her relationship with Sadness continues to shift and emerge throughout the course of the film, bringing them, and us, to a new realization where we can see the futility of Joy and the essential nature Sadness plays in Riley's life, as well as all of our lives. In doing so, "Inside Out" is about the end of innocence and the death of childhood. Goofball Island and imaginary friends may not last forever, but what is born in their sacrifice is a new and more expansive universe and vocabulary. Where once were 5 primary emotions for Riley, the possibility of those 5 emotions combining, congealing and re-contextualizing themselves into the larger worlds of melancholy, euphoria, elation, pensiveness, anxiety and bittersweetness for example. Joy may not ever remain as the dominant emotional state of Riley's being but she just may become the base for a grander inner world. Sadness may discover that she is not useless after all, but necessary in being that signal to others that Riley is in need of connection, of assistance, of recognition and love and providing all emotions with a wider, deeper texture.
At long last Pixar has triumphantly returned to the precise qualities that have made the studio and their films so rightfully beloved. It is not enough to just be a visual treat, for a story still has to be told and told as well as possible in order to create the tightest connection possible with viewers. Pete Doctor's "Inside Out" finds Pixar operating at the very peak of their powers making a film that is enormously entertaining, fast paced, perceptively introspective, tenderly empathetic and fully representative of the life experience itself.
"Inside Out" also provides us with a clear victory for the presence of originality in films as this motion picture does not serve as any sort of sequel, prequel, remake, re-boot, re-imagining or otherwise and the feeling is tremendous. This winter, we will see our second original Pixar film of 2015 with "The Good Dinosaur," and then (sad sigh), it's back to the merchandising, those aforementioned sequels already in the pipeline and serving no interest to me whatsoever. But, even so, once that batch of films come and go, I seriously hope that the wizards of Pixar remember this film, this moment and the greatness that once seemed to serve as an artistic mission statement for themselves and the audience. I have been so harsh on Pixar in recent years because I know that they know better, and that is because they have done better!
With Pete Doctor's "Inside Out," Pixar has performed at their very best.
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