Pixar in my opinion (and shared by many) have always been the masters of invoking true feelings from their films. Their stories are always quite simple, your toys are actually alive, a rat who wants to become a chef, a lonely robot who just wants love, a father searches for his lost son (and they’re fish). But in every story there’s always more to it than those plot lines. Pixar continually finds a way to connect with you no matter your age, and as many say, hit you right in the feels.
“Pixar have done it once again”
With Inside Out they’ve literally made a film based on feelings. It could have bordered on the meta, with the film becoming too much of a self reference and turn into a forced attempt of invoking your feelings. It doesn’t, Pixar have done it once again.
This is certainly helped in their continued great choice in directors and writers, with Inside Out we have Pete Docter returning in both roles. Incase the name isn’t familiar he wrote little classics such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Wall-E and Up to name the few.
Doctor has certainly set his sights a little lower in the age range this time, characters are just a little more animated than usual and some of the jokes are simpler. But the film never suffers because of it, this is an animation feature after all and it’s meant to be a family experience.
As usual with Pixar it isn’t the main story that’s genius here it’s how it’s all constructed and connected. The film had numerous moments where I couldn’t help but smile, the “train of thought” and “bright idea” being represented by a literal train and the latter as a light bulb. So simple and so effective. Docter has free reign here to play around with how our mind could work in a cartoon, there are no restrictions of reality or physics and in typical animation the more over the top representation of our mind the better it always came across.
As teased in the trailer the story doesn’t completely centre in our main character Riley’s mind. Some of the film’s best moments are when we jump into the parent’s minds and several strangers and it’s all done with great finesse. Each character jump has intention and not just for the sake of a gag. There’s a particular jump into a character at the end of the film that had me roaring over the cinema. No shame in it at all.
“There are lessons to be learnt from Inside Out even for the grown ups”
The great adventure the feelings characters of Riley go on could have been its own film but Docter so perfectly interweaves it to an overall story of what it’s like to grow up, how things can seem mixed up and confusing when the world around appears to be changing so much. In the film’s case moving house, school and friends.
There are lessons to be learnt from Inside Out even for the grown ups, you can’t be filled with joy all day every day and being sad doesn’t always mean it’s wrong. Simple things to learn but they are delivered in such clever little ways and that is exactly what I like to see in a Pixar film, the continued push to create tales. Simple stories that could last for generations. With every release it’s making more sense now why Disney purchased the company.
Leaving Inside Out as the credits rolled and I’m once again left in deep thought as usual after a Pixar film. Your heart has been pulled, you’ve laughed and sniffled but most importantly its made you think about things.