Inside Out —Bill Bodkin
This decade has produced some amazing and iconic animated films — Toy Story 3, Up, Zootopia, Moana, The LEGO Movie, How to Train Your Dragon, Coco, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and of course, Frozen.
However, it’s Pixar’s Inside Out that tops them all.
Pixar is renowned for hitting you right in the feels — do I need to remind you of the incinerator scene at the end of Toy Story 3, or that devastating opening scene in Up? However, none of them delves into more complex emotions — literally and figuratively — than Inside Out.
The film focuses on the emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) inside the mind of 11-year old Riley who has moved to San Francisco because of her dad (Kyle McLachlan) has taken a new job. Joy’s determined to keep her girl Riley happy at all costs, and that determination leads to her and Sadness doing immense damage to the structures within Riley’s mind.
It’s absolutely fascinating to watch the decisions of the emotions play out through Riley. Despite being an animated film that’s such a realistic, visceral aspect of the film that grabs you — because we’ve all been in these situations as children. As a parent, this film also hits you way harder because a big portion of the film deals with a child’s transition from the idyllic days of “single digit years” to becoming a teenager. It also teaches a number of important lessons such as sometimes we need a bit of sadness in our lives to help us appreciate joy more, and that being sad is a necessary way for humans to deal with situations.
And if that doesn’t just make your eyes water, there’s Riley’s tragic imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind). He’s a character that realizes his own mortality and ultimately sacrifices himself in order to get Joy back to save Riley. Watching Bing Bong evaporate before our eyes while telling Joy to go save Riley is absolutely devastating. If you don’t have a tear in your eye during this scene, I question if you’re actually human.
Inside Out isn’t a non-stop weep-fest though. It’s genuinely hilarious, charming, and like many a Pixar film, utterly heartwarming. This is a film that I feel is absolutely necessary viewing for any parent and the kids’ll love it too.
