Film News

Emotional Intelligence?: Review of Inside Out

Published

11 years ago

July 24, 2015

Admin

Inside Out

Directors: Pete Docter, Ronaldo del Carmen

Voices: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black

Pixar has changed since the merger with Disney almost a decade ago now. Despite the quality of the animation of things like Brave and Monsters University, their films feel more conventional and mainstream than something like The Incredibles. Although Up was brilliant and that was released after the merger. Inside Out does share a partial lineage with Up as one of its directors Pete Docter worked on that. Inside Out is the story of young girl Riley who is forced to move from the MidWest to San Francisco and how her emotions (Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust) are forced to adapt to allow her to flourish in a new place. The film does look beautiful and the animation here is staggering and the idea of bringing people’s emotions to life, implying that everyone has them manifested as real people inside of them, is a clever conceit. However, for me, there is just something that feels very safe, maudlin and predictable about the plot here. Inside Out feels more like a Disney than a Pixar film, except for its visuals. It will play well with a younger teen girl audience and the voice talent are very good with Amy Poehler as Joy and Richard Kind as the discarded imaginary friend Bing Bong being particularly expressive. But there is nothing here for adults to really enjoy unlike Up or The Incredibles. Inside Out is a very good early teen film but it will leave the parents who accompany them a little bit bored. It’s already make a bucketload of money at the US box office so sure it will clean up in the UK too.