Inside Out is the latest Pixar movie and it's brought to us by the creators of the beloved Up. The story features Riley growing up through her childhood and adolescence, and the emotions that exist in her head during these times. There are five 'emotions' - joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear - and they basically 'control' Riley's feelings from inside her head. We are introduced to how it works through her childhood events as she builds sweet memories that define her as a person. But as she gets older, her thoughts and feelings become more complicated and this leads to some trouble among the 'emotions' inside her head.
I'm sure that by now, you have all watched the trailer and gotten a grasp of the concept of Inside Out. This idea of emotions interacting in your head may have been done before, but nonetheless it was still fresh for me. Watching the five players interact was intriguing and amusing. The whole system was really cool - how memories are stored and some serve as core memories that build 'islands', which represent the most important values of a person.
The beginning of the movie was excellent. While Riley's childhood is a normal one, it was presented in a genuine manner that allows us to connect and empathize. There was a good balance between scenes in and out of her head to build Riley as a character. Her interaction and experiences with her parents were also well portrayed. Then, when the problem starts to unravel inside her head, joy and sadness's journey through Riley's head begins.
The strongest point of this movie in my opinion is its creative portrayals of different things in your head. There are minor ones that are just a play on words, with the most frequently used one being the 'train of thought'. Others include actual parts of our brain or thoughts. They enter the 'abstract thought factory' and experience the process of abstraction, which I really enjoyed. The subconscious was also well-realized, but I wish it was developed further. Probably my favorite of all portrayals was dream productions. I loved how it was similar to shooting movie with a script and actors, and the addition of a filter that makes dreams crazy like the usually are. Other details I enjoyed include the basic layout of long-term memory storage (the endless rows of memory balls) and little characters like Bing-Bong and the memory-janitors that live in this space. Oh, and you can't forget the gum-advertisement song.
That being said, there were some weak portrayals as well. Overall, it did seem like an over-simplification of complex phenomena in the brain. I know, it's a children's movie... But I still have to point it out. For example, the fact that there are only five emotions or just a few islands was a bit distracting. When joy and sadness are missing, the movie makes it seem like Riley cannot feel happiness at all (which is understandable) but then she also shouldn't be feeling sad - and I'm pretty sure she was sad a lot.
Inside Out's story was alright. Since the trailer shows the dinner table conversation and each of the family member's 'emotions' interactions (a great scene), I expected the whole story to focus on more people than just Riley and her 'emotions'. It would have been great to see a continuation of that. In fact, I really enjoyed the scenes during the credits that showed inside the heads of different people/animals. Instead, they chose to focus on one character, which isn't necessary a bad choice. However, the journey in the head was a bland one, with two characters who don't get along but later learn to appreciate each other, the sacrificial helper, and the convenient wrap-up. I knew they were going to return safely, so I eventually got a little tired of following through their journey and it did feel a tad drawn out.
The movie had good humor and consistent laughs with play-on-words and funny situations. I feel bad for the majority of the Koreans who were watching it with me because most of the humor couldn't be translated appropriately. (Thus I often found myself chuckling alone in the big theater.) The adequate amount of humor allowed Inside Out to be much more enjoyable. Overall, it was a creative work with many relatable themes but lacked a corresponding original story. However, it did leave me thinking about the 'emotions' and 'islands' that are dominant in my own head.
8.0/10
A final note: As soon as the credits rolled, I was ready to give this an 8.5 or 9.0. This was a few days ago. Now, looking back at the movie, I realize that it's not as high as I thought. What changed? - the following can happen with a lot of movies, especially with movies that I go to watch because of its amazing reviews and ratings. (Inside Out currently has an 8.7/10 on IMDb and 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.) What happens is - as I'm watching, I tend to focus on its strengths and overlook some weaknesses to align it with my expectations. Leaving the theaters, I usually overrate it. But after a few days of contemplation, the hype surrounding the movie wears off and I'm left with a more objective point of view. Thus my final score it an 8.0.
Inside Out's story was alright. Since the trailer shows the dinner table conversation and each of the family member's 'emotions' interactions (a great scene), I expected the whole story to focus on more people than just Riley and her 'emotions'. It would have been great to see a continuation of that. In fact, I really enjoyed the scenes during the credits that showed inside the heads of different people/animals. Instead, they chose to focus on one character, which isn't necessary a bad choice. However, the journey in the head was a bland one, with two characters who don't get along but later learn to appreciate each other, the sacrificial helper, and the convenient wrap-up. I knew they were going to return safely, so I eventually got a little tired of following through their journey and it did feel a tad drawn out.
The movie had good humor and consistent laughs with play-on-words and funny situations. I feel bad for the majority of the Koreans who were watching it with me because most of the humor couldn't be translated appropriately. (Thus I often found myself chuckling alone in the big theater.) The adequate amount of humor allowed Inside Out to be much more enjoyable. Overall, it was a creative work with many relatable themes but lacked a corresponding original story. However, it did leave me thinking about the 'emotions' and 'islands' that are dominant in my own head.
8.0/10
A final note: As soon as the credits rolled, I was ready to give this an 8.5 or 9.0. This was a few days ago. Now, looking back at the movie, I realize that it's not as high as I thought. What changed? - the following can happen with a lot of movies, especially with movies that I go to watch because of its amazing reviews and ratings. (Inside Out currently has an 8.7/10 on IMDb and 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.) What happens is - as I'm watching, I tend to focus on its strengths and overlook some weaknesses to align it with my expectations. Leaving the theaters, I usually overrate it. But after a few days of contemplation, the hype surrounding the movie wears off and I'm left with a more objective point of view. Thus my final score it an 8.0.
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