As many of you know, Disney/Pixar’s latest film, "Inside Out," just came out on Blu-Ray earlier this week. When the movie came out earlier this summer, audiences and critics alike unanimously praised it. Everyone’s been saying this is Pixar’s big comeback movie. For me personally, this is not only the comeback film for Pixar, but in all honesty, it is the single greatest movie I’ve ever seen.
The best way I can describe this movie is like having a major breakthrough in therapy; it challenges you to confront your own childhood and some of the hard times you went through, and even come to terms with some of these memories. It also reminds you of the important people in your life and that you should never let go of those people. But most of all, it teaches probably the most important lesson that any child could learn: There is no shame in being sad.
It probably goes without saying, but this article is going to have a lot of spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, I advise you watch it before reading further. With that said, let’s look at the story. The film focuses on an 11-year-old girl named Riley, and the emotions inside her head. In the movie her brain is a control room run by five different emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger. The story starts literally at the very beginning when Riley is born, and shows where and when each emotion first comes into play. At the age of 11, she seems to have a very happy life with her parents, a few good friends, and her hockey team. However, that’s all about to change when her family moves from their small Minnesota town to San Francisco. At first, she tries to make the best of the situation, but it turns out it’s not as easy as it seems. Meanwhile, inside her mind, Joy tries to make the best of this situation as well, but after a few mishaps with Sadness, the two of them are sucked out of headquarters along with Riley’s core memories, leaving only Fear, Disgust, and Anger to run things, which of course, makes Riley very cynical, angry, and nervous. And since her core memories are missing, she can’t even focus on things she used to love doing. With the help of Riley’s old imaginary friend, Bing Bong, it’s up to Joy and Sadness to get back to headquarters to set things right, all while Joy learns how important a role Sadness has for Riley.
Literally, as soon as the film started, I was hooked. The fact that Joy is the first one to appear when Riley is born makes perfect sense, because for many of us, happiness is the first emotion we come across. One of the biggest strengths in this film is the writing, as it should be. It's very clever how they have Joy and Sadness get lost when she's 11 and when they're moving away. Think back to when you were that age. I bet a lot of you were all pretty cynical and easily annoyed at that age. On top of that, she's moving to a new town, moving away from all her friends. I'm sure a lot of us have gone through that moment in our lives, whether it be moving to a new town, transferring to a new school, or just transitioning into college. When you're a kid, it's a hard thing to get used to. On top of that, there’s so many small details that hit close to home for many of us. First of all, that Tripledent Gum commercial. We’ve all had that one jingle or hook that, for whatever reason, would always pop in our heads. There’s also the dream sequence. How many of us have dreamt we were in class without our pants? Also, Jangles the clown was pretty scary. I’m sure many of us have had a clown or something similar come to one of our birthday parties when we were really young, and it was too much. I know I’ve experienced this before. The creativity in this movie is spectacular. With every new aspect of Riley’s mind, I was curious as to what they would do with it, and every single aspect was inventive and a whole lot of fun. If I had to choose my favorite aspect, it would have to be the islands made up of the core memories.
On top of that, even though the film is about the physical manifestations of emotions running our minds, nothing in this movie feels contrived. Everything feels natural, because this is something we’ve all had to deal with in our lives, and we all relate to: moving to a new environment. Whenever Riley gets upset or nervous, or even starts to doubt herself, every moment feels like something any kid would go through.
Every single character in this movie is likable, from the emotions to the people. The brilliant thing about this movie is that even inside her mind, there’s no villain at all. It’s just a tough slice of life, but it’s handled in such a way that makes it constantly engaging. All of the emotions are identifiable, touching, and of course, hilarious, with pitch perfect voice casting. Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, Bill Hader as Fear, and Lewis Black as Anger; each one of these actors does a wonderful job bringing these emotions to life. Riley and her parents are done really well, too. They’re just like any other family you’d see in real life. In fact, that’s always been a strength with Pixar movies.
But the best character by far is Bing Bong, played beautifully by Richard Kind. Bing Bong is enjoyably naïve as Riley’s imaginary friend when she was 3, but his heart was always in the right place. You really feel for him when his rocket falls in the dump. When he talks to Sadness about the things he and Riley had always planned on doing, you really feel for how much his dreams were crushed. But that’s not even the saddest part. The saddest part is when Bing Bong and Joy are in the memory dump and Bing Bong starts to fade away. When they find his rocket, they try to get out of the dump a couple times, but to no avail. The last time, Bing Bong decides it’s time to accept that Riley has grown up and jumps out of the Rocket so Joy can reach the top, while he ultimately sacrifices himself. Richard Kind has said that when recording these lines, the lines themselves were so tragic that he was crying through most of the takes, and with his last line before he fades, you can hear him holding back the tears. That makes the scene all the more heart wrenching.
The best moment in the entire movie happens while they’re in the dump. Here, Joy looks at some of Riley’s old memories, and discovers that while they were happy ones, some of them were sad at first. This is where she realizes that joyful memory became joyful because of sadness. This moment, as well as the film as a whole, not only tells a great lesson for kids, but possibly the best lesson for kids nowadays. Be it in public or the social media, everyone, not just children, feels the need to filter their emotions or even hide some. But this film teaches us that the best thing to do is acknowledge these emotions, and if we need to, talk to someone about what’s going on. Life is rough for everyone, and we all have our problems, but if you just talk to one person about it, they can do so much for you. This is made clear at the end of the movie, when Riley comes back home after planning to run away. She finally tells her parents what’s going on, and they tell her that they miss their home as well, and they talk about it like any other family would. Also, you’ll notice throughout the whole film, Joy tries to keep Sadness away from everything, much like how many of us try to hide whenever we’re feeling sad or depressed. The lesson to be learned here is that there’s nothing wrong with being sad, and we don’t need to hide it. The most important thing you can do is learn to be honest with yourself. Being honest to yourself is probably the most important step in growing up. If you ever feel sad, another thing you can do is talk to someone you love, be it a friend or your parents. You’d be amazed how much talking to one person can help you.
I identify a lot with this film. I had some tough times growing up too, and I can tell you, all the pressures, all the talks, and all the fears of adapting to a new environment, as well as the fears of letting your loved ones down, are properly represented here. The stuff they show in the movie is tough to deal with for everyone, and this movie didn’t sugarcoat any of it. When the islands of personality break down, they don’t just come back up when Joy and Sadness get back to headquarters, but rather, they are rebuilt and improved.
"Inside Out" is a truly unique Pixar film and in my opinion, the absolute best of them all. I say this is the best of them all because this is the one that contains all the best elements that Pixar has shown before: Thought-provoking messages, the complexity and creativity of a very simple premise, clever writing, but most of all, the ability to reach out to the child within us all. That’s the reason so many people cried at the end of "Toy Story 3" was because many of us were close to Andy’s age when the "Toy Story" movies came out. The reason I cried so hard to "Inside Out" was because it reminded me of what I went through in my childhood, even the things I forgot about. I also cried at this movie because it reminded me just how precious all those memories we make are, as well as the friendships we make. I’ve never seen a film elicit such emotions and analysis from me to this extent. That’s the sign that a film has gone above and beyond doing everything right.
This film made me feel like a kid again. But as an adult, I can appreciate so much more about it, not just from a humor level, or animation level, but from a writing level, from a character level, from an emotional level, it’s just so strong. It’s one of the few films I can declare an instant classic, something that even though it just came out, I can guarantee years from now, people will still be sharing with their kids or even other adults. For all these reasons and more, if I even needed anymore, "Inside Out" is not only my favorite Pixar film, but is now my favorite movie of all time.
