



★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Inside Out, Pixar have gone meta on us and asked the big question: what if feelings had feelings? When it was announced that Pixar (creator of undeniably some of the finest animated films ever made) was working on a film primarily concerned with human emotions, there really shouldn’t have been any surprise. After all, their entire back catalogue has dealt with emotions; what if toys could feel sadness, what if cars really did experience the joy of racing, what if monsters felt fear? With, Pixar have gone meta on us and asked the big question: what ifhad feelings?





The story of the film focuses on the headspace of Riley, an 11 year-old girl having to deal with moving to a new home, attempting to make new friends and accepting an imposing new environment. Her emotions and thoughts are translated into actions by way of five characters living inside her mind: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. Joy has primarily been in the driving seat, guiding the other emotions up until the big move occurs, when both she and Sadness are stranded in the depths of Riley’s mind, leaving the others in charge…with disastrous results. Thus begins an epic journey as Joy and Sadness are forced to work together in an effort to save Riley before her negative emotions destroy the meaningful parts of her mind.





Inside Out is no exception: each of the individual emotions are wonderfully brought to life: Amy Poehler is infectiously boisterous as Joy, Mindy Kaling is given free rein to do her thing as Disgust, and her Office co-star Phyllis Smith is expertly chosen to give voice to Sadness. Not only are these characters – plus the myriad of strange beings that pop up across Riley’s mindscape – memorable, but so relatable to the expressions of real-life emotions that viewers both young and old will be searching for signs of them in everyone they know. Perhaps more than the massive visual worlds they forge for each film, Pixar are constantly meritorious when it comes to creating instantly memorable and well-cast characters, andis no exception: each of the individual emotions are wonderfully brought to life: Amy Poehler is infectiously boisterous as Joy, Mindy Kaling is given free rein to do her thing as Disgust, and herco-star Phyllis Smith is expertly chosen to give voice to Sadness. Not only are these characters – plus the myriad of strange beings that pop up across Riley’s mindscape – memorable, but so relatable to the expressions of real-life emotions that viewers both youngold will be searching for signs of them in everyone they know.





Now, back to that wonderful world-building! Riley’s brain is Pixar’s most ambitious and abstract creation yet, where complicated ideas and complex concepts are given glorious physical form but never over-simplified for the sake of dumbing-down; it’s just taken for granted that children will recognise enough of their own experience to connect the dots. No depths of imagination are left unplumbed, be it the subconscious, the ‘Train of Thought’, or the vast chasms where forgotten memories lie.





And of course, all of this is realised in extraordinary accomplished animation, in which gorgeous primary colours threaten to pop right out of the screen and there is never a moment where visual quality is exchanged in favour of narrative focus or vice-versa. In addition, it’s encouraging to see that whatever developments have been made in the area of animation, the approach to humans in this film is consistent as it’s ever been, by which I mean they are recognisably human but not overtly so: you’ll find no uncanny valley, DreamWorks rubbish here!





Inside Out deals intelligently (but not always delicately, and usually for the better) with difficult and fresh subject matter, it’s delivered in a familiar box. There are call-backs throughout the plot to the best of Pixar’s back catalogue: the opening is a mirror image to the first 15 minutes of Up, Joy and Sadness sneaking past a terrifying element of Riley’s subconscious recalls Buzz and Woody treading over Scud in Toy Story, and the factory-esque make-up of the halls of memory is the scare-floor from Monsters Inc. on a microscopic scale. The same level of attention is also paid to the narrative, finding relatable content yet also dressing it up in an appealing way. So whiledeals intelligently (but not always delicately, and usually for the better) with difficult and fresh subject matter, it’s delivered in a familiar box. There are call-backs throughout the plot to the best of Pixar’s back catalogue: the opening is a mirror image to the first 15 minutes ofJoy and Sadness sneaking past a terrifying element of Riley’s subconscious recalls Buzz and Woody treading over Scud in, and the factory-esque make-up of the halls of memory is the scare-floor fromon a microscopic scale.



