So i watched Inside Out…

I have to say that Pixar are masters of addressing complex life issues through the levity of animation. Technically they make ”children’s movies” but the stories they tell are so much deeper than that. That’s what makes their movies appeal to adults who often have to sit through these movies for the sake of their kids. They address issues we all have to deal with, in this film they take an existential look at our emotions and what makes people who they are.

Okay, basic plot: imagine your five basic emotions: joy, sadness, disgust, fear and anger as little people in a control centre in your head that control how you feel about everything in your life. It’s basically Osmosis Jones for your emotions.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. Like I said before, Pixar knows how to tell the complex stories that  make up our lives with real humour and fun.This movie is a story of acceptance. The five emotions don’t really know what Sadness’ role in their world is. They just think she makes things worse and don’t want her touching anything but through the progression of the movie they realise how important Sadness is. Isn’t that a lesson we all have to learn sometime in life? We all want to be happy all the time but moments of sadness, although terrible at times, can lead to moments of joy and self-growth.

The voice acting in this movie is also really amazing. Phyllis Smith who voices Sadness is absolutely amazing. She sounds so…well sad. Depressed. Morose. Her voice perfectly embodies the spirit of the character and she was definitely my favourite thing about this movie. Mindy Kaling and Lewis Black also do some superb work as Disgust and Anger respectively with Kaling’s Disgust stealing a lot of scenes in this movie. I feel like Amy Poehler did an okay job but I didn’t really get the bubbly merriness that you’d expect from a character who’s supposed to be the living personification of Joy.

This movie is also really funny. There’s some great moments where they deconstruct people’s reactions to things and show what the emotions in their head are doing. But this movie’s best feature is its emotional depth. It pulls on your heart strings and doesn’t let go for the entire run-time of the movie. There’s an intense spectrum of emotions in this movie (guess that shouldn’t be a surprise – this is a movie about emotions). This movie will make you smile, laugh and if you’re a big baby like me, even cry. It’s some of Pixar’s best work actually.

I don’t know if this movie has the memorable characters that will make it a Pixar classic but as a whole, it’s one of my favourite Pixar films. It’s definitely worth a trip to the cinema! 9/10