Pixar has a fabulous track record and this is just another great entry in a long run of hits. What does that mean? It means you can expect a few tears, plenty of character development, solid animation, and a great story. Inside Out is simply a great film, regardless of the style, in this case computer animation.
The main character isn’t a character, but the manifestation of her emotions. Riley is a young girl who winds up on an emotional roller coaster. Having to leave her life behind, moving from Minissota to San Francisco can be culture shock enough, but mix in problems with the move, school and more, well, this could have been a story showing how rough it is for anybody. On top of this Riley’s age, going through adolescence, adds another layer of great storytelling potential. What we have is the set-up for a great human drama. So what does Pixar do? Instead of making the human characters the main focus, they are the secondary characters to the emotions inside Riley’s head.
What we get is a fantastic view of what it is like to make the dramatic shift from one major phase in life to another. We think of things in complex ways, we understand things on multiple levels. We also know that our children do not. Sometimes we need to be reminded of this, either through discussions with our kids, or even a movie.
The voice acting is fantastic and spot-on. I want to particularly single out Richard Kind as Bing Bong, Riley’s imaginary friend. Whatever he does professionally from here on out – it’s all downhill. I don’t think he can ever top his performance here.
Pixar does great when they focus on the characters and their interactions. While we do have characters, the emotions themselves needed to come to life. They are manifest as characters, and the way they are realized and interact with each other is what makes Inside Out work. It is hard to give life to an intangible, but somehow the team at Pixar has managed to do that.
Inside Out manages to strike a balance between pulling on your heartstrings as well as making you laugh. Much like life itself the film is full of ups and downs. Each emotional twist and turn has a logic to it, and while it can be frustrating they each make sense when you think about who is the character is.
Pictured (L-R): Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, Joy. ?2015 Disney?Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
The Blu-ray comes with a bunch of special features, starting off with the new short Riley’s First Date. This is another great look at these characters and essentially seems like the pilot for a whole series of shorts (think Maters Tall Tales). Co-screenwriters/directors Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen host an audio commentary that doles out a good bit of information and is definitely worth checking out. I would have preferred to have a picture in picture option with storyboards, animatics and more, but this is still a decent option.
A whole host of other special features are present, either on the same disc as the film or on a second disc. These include deleted scenes, bits on the editing, sound, design, story, etc. This is a solid offering of special features that gives viewers a great look at not just the making of Inside Out but the Pixar process as well.
One of the better movies of the year has arrived on Blu-ray in a package that is pretty worthy. If you haven’t seen the film yet, and you have kids, you owe it to yourself and them to at the very least rent it. That said, you’re going to want to own it, and this package makes for a decent purchase.