Unmarked spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Why Inside Out is a good movie? Yeah, pretty shocking, coming from me, huh? But after ranting about it in several posts, I supposed I should maybe actually say a bit about why I like it.
Because I do like it. It settled itself comfortably in my top three of Pixar universes, right after the Toy Stories and the Monsters movies. It has tons of potential, and while, yes, much of that has been left untouched, a lot has also been explored and worked with. So let me just rave about the movie’s strong points for a change.
- Characters: This is always my number one favorite thing about Pixar movies, and this time as well, the Pixar folks deliver. The characters aren’t just sets of traits written on a piece of paper somewhere, they’re personalities. You want to see them do stuff, and you want to learn more about who they are. Given my long list of favorite characters and their similarities, I wasn’t at all surprised when I gravitated towards Fear almost immediately (he’s been my favorite since April), but I can see the endearing traits in everyone – all the nine characters with large speaking roles, and even a lot of the supporting characters. Like Joy’s surprisingly deadpan sense of humor (“It doesn’t matter, I read it, and it’s great.”), Sadness’s benevolence that you only really notice when the blue Core Memory makes her stand up for herself for the first time, or the fact that everyone cares about Fear enough to not want him to freak out over earthquakes.
- Music: The soundtrack is just gorgeous. I honestly can’t decide which theme I like best. Bundle of Joy? Nomanisone Island? The Forgetters? Imagination Land? Dream Productions? …Triple Dent Gum? 😉 (I do quite like that one!) There’s just so much awesome music in this movie that it’s hard to believe, and especially on those occasions when it intertwines with the visuals, it makes those scenes pieces of art. In particular, the moment when Joy pushes the first memory into the system still gives me the shivers when I just think about it.
- “Feels:” Pixar is good at this kind of stuff. We all know that. But I’m not gonna cite the “obvious” scenes here, like Joy’s tears or Bing Bong’s sacrifice. Those are great moments, and heartbreaking, but what really makes the movie awesome are those little instances that convey so much. For example: I love the moment when Fear goes: “WE’RE CRYING! AT SCHOOL!” Or more specifically, the fact that it’s Fear. Not because of him, but because of Riley – remember, they’re her Emotions, they’re what she feels, and this just speaks volumes about how Riley believes letting others know about her feelings is wrong. Very subtle, very relatable, and just one of many, many examples that make the movie ring true for me in an emotional sense.
- World building: …wow. Just wow. The amount of time, effort, and especially creativity that went into all those sets is just insane. And since I know the Pixar movie pipeline, I’m pretty sure there must be a ton more of these. Don’t have a favorite in particular here; they’re just all awesome. But what really gets me about this are, again, the tiny details. Example in this case being the scene in Riley’s room after the family argument. When Dad starts making monkey noises, Anger says: “He’s trying to start up Goofball.” Let that sink in for a moment. Is that how you would have worded it? Probably not. You might have said “he wants her to be silly” or something along those lines. But Anger (just like all of the Emotions) has been familiar with these Islands for eleven years (depending on when he manifested in Headquarters, of course), and he’s been around them, and the Core Memories, and that entire system, for as long as he can remember. This is natural for him. This is how the world works. He doesn’t know anything else. And that cleverly worded line right there conveys all of that if you just pay attention. In other words, the Emotions are not “basically humans just doing weird stuff,” they’re actually entirely different beings, and it’s the little things like these which cement that. (Pixar is always awesome with this kind of stuff, too, by the way.)
- Message: I usually don’t care about what a movie “wants to teach people.” If it’s made because it wants to teach people something, chances are high it’s not gonna be a good movie. In this case, though, the message is one that was truly, desperately needed. Actually, it’s a bit like Monsters University there, in the sense that it doesn’t tell you to “keep your head up, always try hard, enjoy life, yadda, yadda,” but instead lets you know that “it’s okay to be human.” Or more concretely in the case of Inside Out: There are no “good” or “bad” feelings. They’re just feelings. And while it’s immensely important not to hurt others over them, it’s equally as important not to hurt yourself by denying they exist.
- Visuals: That this is so far down on the list says a lot about how awesome the other stuff is. But there’s still so much to love here – for example, the stark contrast in color and saturation between the outside and inside of Riley’s head. The degree to which Pixar’s humans have become realistic over time. The fact that the Emotions are consequently color-coded – that doesn’t just look great, but it adds so much to the viewers’ understanding of the system. And I just adore the fact that there are almost no straight lines in the mind world because it’s all heavily inspired by DNA strands and such stuff.
- Science: Last but certainly not least, the degree to which this is actually accurate to how the human brain functions outside of fiction should have us all gaping. Much like in Monsters Inc., it feels as if you could just take a blueprint and build this stuff and it would work. That alone probably already ate a year of production time, if not more.
So yeah, I do like this movie a lot. There’s a reason I keep writing for it. And I’m still fairly certain that we’re gonna see a sequel. Or just any supplemental material would be fine with me, really, as long as we get to spend a little more time in this awesome world and get to know these lovable characters a little better.
UntoldStories113 