Inside Out is the latest Pixar film directed by Pete Docter with a story by Docter and Ronnie del Carmen. It’s premise is the inner workings of a young girl’s brain. This is represented by the Emotions led by Joy, the always energetic Amy Poehler (who shines in Parks and Recreation) and her counterpart, Sadness played by Phyllis Smith (from the American The Office series). The film opens with an introduction of the girl, Riley, played by Kaitlyn Dias. She’s a baby just waking up to see her parents played by Diane Lane and Kyle Machlachlan. My favorite is the parents calling Riley monkey and making monkey faces.
Her awakening has the Headquarters in her brain bringing in Joy who looks very pixie-ish like Tinker Bell. She is joined by Sadness (they both share blue hair) then her other emotions, Anger (Lewis Black), Black is identifiable and has more humor than just ranting, Fear (Bill Hader), Hader is panicky, but his wild comedy is not unleashed here from his SNL days, and Disgust (Mindy Kaling from the Mindy Kahling Project), she plays the Valley Girl hipster perfectly. The Emotions look like they were made of felt like puppets. Joy is content when the spherical memory ball rolls out in joyful yellow, she sees the other memory ball colored by other Emotions, but likes that there is more happy memories. The memories are collected and the special ones are kept in the Core Memories in a central console. These power the different lands of her personality; Family, Friendship, Hockey, Honesty, and Goofball Island.
All of the Emotions are there to protect or help Riley except Sadness. She tampers with the memories turning them blue. Riley lives the life of Riley in Minnesota, but then the family picks up and moves to San Francisco. The road trip is in the opening credits. Joy tries to rally the other Emotions with the change including a dead rat that Riley sees, all of her belongings held up by the moving truck, and of course the broccoli pizza from Yeast of Eden (a Simpsons-esque store). This is Anger’s best line, “Congratulations San Francisco, you ruined pizza! First the Hawaiians and now you!” Riley’s first day of school, Joy has the Emotions ready, unloading the Train of Thought which stops at Headquarters. It contains facts, opinions, and daydreams. Fear worries about being called on by the teacher which of course leads to the teacher asking Riley to introduce herself. She starts on happy memories of Minnesota, but then is saddened and starts to cry.
The Emotions are horrified that Sadness has touched the Core Memory. Joy rips it free with the other Core Memories spilling out and then tries to restore it. She ends up getting sucked into a tube to Long-Term Memory along with Sadness. Joy has to drag Sadness along through the corridors of Long-Term Memory to try to cross the Islands of Personality to Headquarters. Anger, Fear, and Disgust try to act like Joy and try to steer Riley right, but the Islands begin to crumble; an argument with Riley’s parents ends up with her father sending Riley to her room and Goofball Island falls. Joy sees the Forgetters vacuuming up memories, they are played by Paula Poundstone and Bobby Moynihan from SNL. They send up a memory of the Triple Dent gum commercial jingle which they sing and is a running gag for the film. Joy discovers next a strange figure, a pink elephant named Bing Bong voiced by Richard Friend. He was Riley’s Imaginary Friend when she was younger and he still hopes to go to the Moon with her on the Rocket, a wagon powered by singing.
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| Inside Out float, Pixar Play Parade, Disneyland, photo by the author. |
Bing Bong takes them to a short cut labeled “Danger.” They walk to reach the station for the Train of Thought. It suddenly turns them abstract, de-constructed, and two dimensional. This is incredible that such sophisticated art concepts are put in a kid’s movie. They manage to crawl out into the next door, but the train has gone. The trio reaches Imagination Land. Very funny is the Imaginary Boyfriend who repeats, “I would die for Riley.” Also, Dream Productions which brings in happy dreams and nightmares. They need to wake up Riley so the Train of Thought can reach Headquarters. Fear has the idea of trying to scare Riley awake using Jangles, a birthday clown distorted into a massive demon. Inside Out is a bold move for Pixar. It has a formidable voice cast made up of comedians and actors. The film may be challenging and maybe slow for young ones, but if it makes kids think about their emotions and actions, this can be a step forward for animation and film.
Four Core Memories out of Five!
#InsideOut, #PeteDocter, #AmyPoehler, #PhyllisSmith
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