Since they started making feature films in 1995, Pixar has explored the sea, the grass beneath our feet, a child’s bedroom, the roads, the sky, the past, a world of monsters, and space. Just about the only place they hadn’t explored was the human brain and the endless possibilities that could hold…that was until 2015 when they embarked on their perhaps their boldest and best film ever.
Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is eleven years old. Inside her head live Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), who control Riley’s emotions and maintain her ‘core memories’ and ‘personality islands’ which are the building blocks of who Riley is.
When Riley’s family move to San Francisco Joy (who has previously run the show) loses control as she attempts to keep Sadness from disrupting Riley’s core memories, but this causes both of them to be expelled from the control room and lost inside the labyrinthian maze of Long Term Memory. With only Anger, Fear, and Disgust left to control Riley’s emotions things begin to spiral out of control, but Joy can only return once she realises the value Sadness brings.
Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is eleven years old. Inside her head live Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), who control Riley’s emotions and maintain her ‘core memories’ and ‘personality islands’ which are the building blocks of who Riley is.
When Riley’s family move to San Francisco Joy (who has previously run the show) loses control as she attempts to keep Sadness from disrupting Riley’s core memories, but this causes both of them to be expelled from the control room and lost inside the labyrinthian maze of Long Term Memory. With only Anger, Fear, and Disgust left to control Riley’s emotions things begin to spiral out of control, but Joy can only return once she realises the value Sadness brings.
Inside Out is probably my favourite Pixar film of all time, and whilst there’s definitely close contention between it, Toy Story 3, and Wall.E, I think Inside Out might nab the top spot by the skin of its teeth.
Part of the appeal comes from the fact that writer/director Pete Docter has managed to tap into a concept that’s so abstract but such an integral part of the human experience. It makes sense of something so beyond explanation, and it does so in a way that both children and adults alike can grapple with.
This is a pivotal point in Riley’s development, right on the cusp of puberty and her teenage years where the magic and fun of childhood begins to be replaced with responsibilities, social pressures, and an existential need to work out who you are. Having Joy be Riley’s primary ‘pilot’ for her entire childhood, only to find that now the other emotions have much more work to do, Sadness in particular, is a great call-back to the dilemma faced by Woody in the original Toy Story, the fear of being replaced, but done in a way that’s has so much more depth and meaning to it because these are emotions and not just playthings.
Inside Out’s message can ultimately be boiled down to ‘It’s ok not to be ok’, that being sad, angry, scared, or repulsed isn’t a bad thing, and that happiness isn’t an isolated emotion but can be felt in tandem with other more typically negative emotions. Without spoiling too much, the moment where Joy realises that one of Riley’s core memories (which she has always perceived to be a happy memory) was actually born from sadness is one of the most powerful moments in animated cinema, and I think in this day and age it’s so important to have a family film highlight the complexity and fragility of mental health.
There’s also a great demonstration of looking into other people’s minds to see how their emotions handle things with the dinner scene. Normally Riley is primarily controlled by Joy, but at this moment Fear, Disgust, and Anger are in charge, Riley’s mother (Diane Lane) is primarily controlled by Sadness, and her father (Kyle Maclachlan) is primarily controlled by Anger. There’s also a great montage at the end where we get a peek inside the heads of various supporting characters, like the lady who works at the pizza restaurant is primarily controlled by Disgust, and one of Riley’s popular classmates is primarily controlled by Fear. It’s so interesting to see how these characters behave once you know who’s the dominant emotion, and it totally changes your view of the character.
Part of the appeal comes from the fact that writer/director Pete Docter has managed to tap into a concept that’s so abstract but such an integral part of the human experience. It makes sense of something so beyond explanation, and it does so in a way that both children and adults alike can grapple with.
This is a pivotal point in Riley’s development, right on the cusp of puberty and her teenage years where the magic and fun of childhood begins to be replaced with responsibilities, social pressures, and an existential need to work out who you are. Having Joy be Riley’s primary ‘pilot’ for her entire childhood, only to find that now the other emotions have much more work to do, Sadness in particular, is a great call-back to the dilemma faced by Woody in the original Toy Story, the fear of being replaced, but done in a way that’s has so much more depth and meaning to it because these are emotions and not just playthings.
Inside Out’s message can ultimately be boiled down to ‘It’s ok not to be ok’, that being sad, angry, scared, or repulsed isn’t a bad thing, and that happiness isn’t an isolated emotion but can be felt in tandem with other more typically negative emotions. Without spoiling too much, the moment where Joy realises that one of Riley’s core memories (which she has always perceived to be a happy memory) was actually born from sadness is one of the most powerful moments in animated cinema, and I think in this day and age it’s so important to have a family film highlight the complexity and fragility of mental health.
There’s also a great demonstration of looking into other people’s minds to see how their emotions handle things with the dinner scene. Normally Riley is primarily controlled by Joy, but at this moment Fear, Disgust, and Anger are in charge, Riley’s mother (Diane Lane) is primarily controlled by Sadness, and her father (Kyle Maclachlan) is primarily controlled by Anger. There’s also a great montage at the end where we get a peek inside the heads of various supporting characters, like the lady who works at the pizza restaurant is primarily controlled by Disgust, and one of Riley’s popular classmates is primarily controlled by Fear. It’s so interesting to see how these characters behave once you know who’s the dominant emotion, and it totally changes your view of the character.
It could have been really easy to make the characters very one dimensional, considering that the main characters of the story are emotions. Joy is always happy, she is optimistic, and she is always looking at the good in everyone and everything; whereas Sadness is so depressed she can barely move, she floats around on a raincloud cloud made of tears, and she knows nothing but total despair. But Docter and co-writer Ronnie del Carmen provide a huge amount of depth in these to characters, they are the foundations of Riley’s personality so they’ve imbued as much of her into these characters as they possibly can, and whilst they may be emotionally one dimensional (for the most part) they are still capable of reacting to any challenge that comes their way in a diverse manner.
Along the way they meet Riley’s imaginary friend Bong Bong (Richard Kind). He’s a vagrant, lost in the endless sea of memory banks, and doing whatever he can to avoid getting thrown into the dark pit of the subconscious where memories are forgotten. He’s doing whatever he can to hang on just a bit longer, seemingly unaware that Riley’s outgrown him. Bing Bong brings a lot to the table, helping Joy see another side to things, and giving Sadness the opportunity to step up.
Inside Out is not one of Pixar’s most technologically stunning films. Similarly, to Monsters University the art style is designed in a way where lighting and texture work often aren’t given their time to shine. Joy is made up entirely of little light particles and when the model is particularly close to the camera you can see the particles moving which is a neat touch. We don’t spend enough time in the human world to get the full effect of naturalistic lighting and water effects, but when they are showcased, they are spectacular. Whilst Monsters University looked somewhat plain because of its art style, Inside Out does succeed from a design point because it’s so unique, the look of the long term memory labyrinth, the way that the personality islands are designed, and the character models themselves are interesting, but the environment in particular doesn’t make the best use of Pixar’s new animation engine which is a shame as so far only Brave has shown why the upgrade was so necessary.
This is offset somewhat by Michael Giacchino’s superb score. Giacchino’s last collaboration with Pixar was for Up, and whilst that remains Pixar’s best score, Inside Out isn’t far off. It has a kind of magical and inquisitive whimsy to it. It sounds exactly what you’d expect the inside of a child’s head to sound like, and the main theme in particular is one of my favourite Pixar tunes.
Inside Out is a really special film, and I believe it marks a significant turning point in family animated films where more difficult topics were being brought to the foreground. Mental health problems are hard to talk about at the best of times, but Pixar handles it expertly in a way that’s not only suitable for kids, but easy for them to grapple with and talk with their parents about. It’s incredibly moving, with one or two scenes never failing to move me to tears, but it’s also incredibly funny thanks to the expert comedic sensibilities of Poehler, Kaling, and Hader.
There never has been an animated film like Inside Out before or since, and whilst a sequel is due to arrive next year, it’s a film that works entirely on its own merits with a self-contained narrative that provides a definitive and satisfying conclusion. Inside Out may not be Pixar’s most impressive technical showcase but the story goes above and beyond the remit of the majority of animated films and proves why Pixar are such masters of their craft.
Along the way they meet Riley’s imaginary friend Bong Bong (Richard Kind). He’s a vagrant, lost in the endless sea of memory banks, and doing whatever he can to avoid getting thrown into the dark pit of the subconscious where memories are forgotten. He’s doing whatever he can to hang on just a bit longer, seemingly unaware that Riley’s outgrown him. Bing Bong brings a lot to the table, helping Joy see another side to things, and giving Sadness the opportunity to step up.
Inside Out is not one of Pixar’s most technologically stunning films. Similarly, to Monsters University the art style is designed in a way where lighting and texture work often aren’t given their time to shine. Joy is made up entirely of little light particles and when the model is particularly close to the camera you can see the particles moving which is a neat touch. We don’t spend enough time in the human world to get the full effect of naturalistic lighting and water effects, but when they are showcased, they are spectacular. Whilst Monsters University looked somewhat plain because of its art style, Inside Out does succeed from a design point because it’s so unique, the look of the long term memory labyrinth, the way that the personality islands are designed, and the character models themselves are interesting, but the environment in particular doesn’t make the best use of Pixar’s new animation engine which is a shame as so far only Brave has shown why the upgrade was so necessary.
This is offset somewhat by Michael Giacchino’s superb score. Giacchino’s last collaboration with Pixar was for Up, and whilst that remains Pixar’s best score, Inside Out isn’t far off. It has a kind of magical and inquisitive whimsy to it. It sounds exactly what you’d expect the inside of a child’s head to sound like, and the main theme in particular is one of my favourite Pixar tunes.
Inside Out is a really special film, and I believe it marks a significant turning point in family animated films where more difficult topics were being brought to the foreground. Mental health problems are hard to talk about at the best of times, but Pixar handles it expertly in a way that’s not only suitable for kids, but easy for them to grapple with and talk with their parents about. It’s incredibly moving, with one or two scenes never failing to move me to tears, but it’s also incredibly funny thanks to the expert comedic sensibilities of Poehler, Kaling, and Hader.
There never has been an animated film like Inside Out before or since, and whilst a sequel is due to arrive next year, it’s a film that works entirely on its own merits with a self-contained narrative that provides a definitive and satisfying conclusion. Inside Out may not be Pixar’s most impressive technical showcase but the story goes above and beyond the remit of the majority of animated films and proves why Pixar are such masters of their craft.