INSIDE OUT is genius. When PIXAR is at its best: TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS INC, THE INCREDIBLES, UP, WALL-E, and FINDING NEMO… well, they are GENIUS. Impossible to deny. INSIDE OUT is right there with the best of them!
The thing about that group of titles is that each and every one of them I can make an argument for being the best of Pixar’s films. The curious thing, is I also know people that will argue for titles not in that list. Film and our thoughts upon them are a result of a culmination of experience and knowledge that we illustrate our thoughts with. Don’t believe me… watch INSIDE UP.
Firstly – kids will love it. It’s funny, whimsical and incredibly sweet. They’ll learn more about why they feel the ways they feel – and they’ll never really notice. Because Pete Docter is a friggin super-genius. He may look like a goofy kind of guy, aren’t we all? However, that man has a masterful understanding of what makes us humans tick. In a way, he’s mining Walt Disney’s old WWII propaganda cartoon REASON AND EMOTION. This was shown throughout the U.S. during WWII. It wasn’t made just for kids, in fact, primarily it was made for adults, because too many of us don’t actually understand why we feel or act the way we’re constantly CHOOSING to feel or act. Take a look:
Great, huh? Later, the WWII stuff was removed and Disney used it on WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR as MAN IS HIS OWN WORST ENEMY. Personally, I wish this film was playing before INSIDE OUT instead of LAVA – though LAVA is absolutely fantastic! But back to INSIDE OUT.
You see, REASON AND EMOTION was seen as a way to teach our populace how to handle the news they were reading and hearing. So they could understand the need to get a hold of their own emotions. My parents raised me on Disney like everyone else, but they also showed me all the Disney propaganda.
Now, don’t worry – INSIDE OUT isn’t overt propaganda. It isn’t here to help us to understand our moral high ground to wipe out an enemy ruled only by emotion, so it would be easy to kill them. Nope.
INSIDE OUT is hear to teach all of us about how we work. Primarily, it is a Phantasmagorical venture through a Young Girl’s Psyche where her inability to properly process and deal with sorrow leads her on a self-destructive streak that could ruin her life forever. Over the telling of the tale, we’ll peer into the minds’ of others briefly – but really this film keeps pretty much in Kaitlyn Dias’ RILEY’s developing noodle!
That’s great, because Riley is at a juncture in life. Due to a business opportunity, she and her family move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Minnesota is the only home she’s ever known. She had lifelong friends, interests – and in her limited time on Earth at that point, nothing truly profoundly life changing had occurred. Her core memories were all JOY related. JOY is that yellow character you’ve seen, and Amy Poehler brings her wonderfully to life. However, there’s a wandering SADNESS in Riley’s head. Her mind had been so ruled by JOY, that Riley didn’t know how to handle SADNESS – well, it causes a crisis where JOY and SADNESS get ejected from the Mind’s control panel – leaving only Lewis Black’s ANGER, Mindy Kaling’s DISGUST and Bill Hader’s FEAR manning the controls. And that’s a toxic combination.
The whole story that Riley experiences in her life is something not much complicated by Max Fleischer’s Betty Boop cartoon MINNIE THE MOOCHER. I won’t spoil that story for you, but it also involves a surreal journey into the psyche of a runaway, just more musical and swaying by Cab Calloway! God I love MINNIE THE MOOCHER. BETTY BOOP cartoons projected in the upstairs of my childhood home and singing along with my parents to Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Rudy Valle’ and Duke Ellington… well… it forms a very definite core memory for me. Actually – I feel lucky, I’ve managed to hold on to most of that early pure emotion memories, but as INSIDE OUT shows – age, new experiences and context can transform the emotional attachment to memories. They’re never static.
Like that Betty Boop watching memory… PURE JOY – then my mom turned into an abusive alcoholic bent on self loathing and self destruction that took her life when she was younger than I am now. So when I think back upon that memory now, it’s peppered with sadness, like a whole lot of my memories of mom. That she’s been gone for over half of my life – though I have tons of fantastic memories of her, I’d trade so many to still have her in my life.
This dawned on me in the midst of watching INSIDE OUT. It’s fairly unrelated, but one of the things you can’t stop yourself from thinking about as an older person watching Pixar’s latest – is changing emotion of life. Things we love, we come to hate, or be disgusted by, or fear, or they stay joyful. Sometimes they can be everything at once.
Now – from the control room of Riley’s Mind, you can see the key theme parks of her mind… stuff like Hockey, Family & a couple more. These places are pretty much not explored. Instead, we’ll venture into a lot of other aspects of our psyche. If you took a couple of college Psych classes – you’re admiration for this film will soar. If one were to start analyzing the film on the deeper levels of Child and Developing Psychology. It’s wonderfully well done. And the kids will never notice.
Suddenly, they’ll understand more about themselves. You could find yourself tearing up, or become overjoyed by your own personal realizations – as the film conjures a desire for self-discovery.
I’ve seen Devin Faraci on Twitter claiming the film could make you a better person, and he’s never been more correct. It could possibly not be immediately apparent, but as you reflect upon the film, you’ll recognize aspects of yourself and those you know. Also watch the credits, there’s much hilarity through it.
There’s never been better developed character work in the history of Pixar that was so instantly relatable and helpful for your own personal diagnosis. Of course, applying that window at yourself could be a tad brutal, or you might suddenly be able to empathize with everyone you meet.
Crazy to think of a movie that at one level is this purely entertaining and whimsical, while also being a complete PSYCHE toolbox for understanding yourself and others. The best movies contextualize your life and touch you in some manner. Kids that rewatch this film should become stronger and healthier psyches. This should be an essential film for everyone. But absolutely instrumental in the home. Seriously!
INSIDE OUT is amongst the very best projects not just in Pixar’s personal history, but Disney in general. IT doesn’t immediately feel like a film that would be a thundering runaway hit. It isn’t structured or set up like any other PIXAR flick. It is more stylized, surreal and downright experimental and even slightly freaky and HEAVY. But from FANTASIA to BAMBI to DUMBO and LION KING… and especially PINNOCHIO – these films introduced culture to emotional stories that unified us by giving us a come contextual base to relate from. This isn’t a SING-ALONG – this one will teach parents and kids how to relate. It gives you all a sweet and easy point of reference to build upon.
I know, I’m describing this movie like it’s BROCCOLI, but I promise you, it has just as much Cotton Candy in the form of Bing Bong, Riley’s Imaginary Friend voiced by Richard Kind! Lewis Black was meant to embody ANGER & OUTRAGE in us all – I’ve kinda wanted him to take Andy Rooney position on 60 MINUTES.
The next Pete Docter film can’t be announced soon enough. With MONSTERS INC, he made us rethink the closet monster, the monster under the bed and was brilliant. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself! With UP, he taught us that a movie about an old man floating his house to South America could become the greatest adventure, that would teach us about how it is never too late to learn to live. Now with INSIDE OUT, he teaches us that the greatest adventure is taking place in our own minds daily. That’s incredible.
INSIDE OUT is an immediate cure for the doldrums of sequelitis that PIXAR had been preoccupied with. This could very well be the most unique of all their films. It’s embracing of stylized character design, which makes it feel experimental, yet effortlessly cute. The film will delight you in ways you just will not expect. I’ve also left out a great deal of details regarding JOY & SADNESS’s road trip through the deeper recesses of Riley’s mind – and that’s quite deliberate. It’s best to let you find the film. PIXAR and Pete Docter knocked this one out of the park!
