Friday Film : INSIDE OUT film review by Rehna
Just when you think Pixar has reached it creative peak, the animation studio amazes you again with its originality and unparalleled ability to tell a story.
Inside Out is about the mechanics of the mind, specifically the complex emotions and memories of a 12 year old girl called Riley. From the joy of being cooed at by adoring parents to the disgust of being fed broccoli to the sadness of feeling alone and misunderstood, we are taken into the inner workings of who Riley is.
It’s an incredible concept in itself but to then offer such a subject to an audience in a way that a child can grasp it but an adult doesn’t feel it has been dumbed down in any way, is an amazing feat.
Pixar and Disney achieve this feat seemingly with ease. On top of that, Inside Out is a genuinely, funny, fast paced adventure story full of imagination, sly wit and relateable scenarios.
The film goes seamlessly from Riley’s outer life to her principal emotions hard at work in her mind: joy, sadness, fear, anger and disgust. The latter are characters in their own right. Joy is brilliantly voiced by comedienne Amy Poehler and is always at the mercy of the appropriately miserable ‘sadness.’
In lesser hands the concept could have been a disaster or a schmaltzy mess. In the capable hands of Pixar the film is a triumph and for once a sequel must be called for as Riley, having discovered the important part sadness plays in life, approaches something called ‘puberty’!