My Review of Inside Out · 8:06pm Nov 5th, 2023
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, everyone! Happy November! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing Pixar’s “Inside Out” which was released in 2015. Now, I initially never saw this movie before, and I never thought I would ever check this out. But after learning about the premise behind this film and seeing how many people have often praised this movie, I finally considered giving it a chance.
Plus, many of you guys recommended this movie in my Pixar movie blog, so your wish has been granted! So after seeing this film on Disney+ for the first time, I…was absolutely blown away! The movie is amazing!
“Inside Out” is about a group of emotions inside a little girl who has a positive upbringing and fun times growing up. But once she reaches eleven years old, she and her parents move out to a new city. Overwhelmed by a complex series of emotions, Riley has a hard time adjusting to her new life. This all happens due to the conflict between Joy and Sadness struggling to co-exist.
I gotta say that this concept had a strong execution. We see here how our emotions can dictate how we feel and how we express ourselves; we can also see how these emotions present themselves in a positive way or in a negative fashion.
So these emotions are Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Now these characters have pretty distinct personalities, but there’s some things I like and dislike about them. Joy is someone who does her absolute best in enlightening Riley’s spirits with her bright, happy, and optimistic attitude. However, I didn’t like how she constantly kept shutting out Sadness because she had a distaste for anything unhappy.
This is where we jump to Sadness; granted, she touches everything with her sorrowful spirit, but she also possesses the ability to sympathize or have empathy for someone else. That, right there, is something very important to have because that maintains the emotional stability of the whole family and ourselves.
It makes sense why Joy would have such a hard time with Sadness; I didn’t like her at first, but she fortunately had a character arc where she grew from being an overbearing gatekeeper to being a supportive friend to her polar opposite. Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith did a great job providing their emotional voice acting for these characters.
Anger was kinda entertaining to watch honestly although I really wish we saw a more positive side to his fiery personality. The way they wrote him in this movie was more driven to the negative side but not so much on a more justified note. I wanna see his reaction to someone getting bullied, mistreated, someone getting scammed, someone being unfairly yelled at, etc. I wanted to see him doing something positive for Riley, but I get it. Anger can lead us to do something or say something we might regret later on.
Nonetheless, Anger isn’t always a negative emotion. There’s such a thing as righteous anger, you know. But hey, I’m sure Lewis Black had a lot of fun voicing this short-tempered midget.
Fear was pretty funny from start to finish despite the fact he was underutilized for quite a bit. Disgust was a decent character for the most part, but just like Fear, there wasn’t much else to her character I can admire about. Regardless, I can appreciate Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling for their voice work for their respective characters.
The animation looks really stunning and appealing to look at, and how the world of emotions was designed is a stroke of genius. Pete Docter held nothing back in bringing this heartbreaking, emotional, and heartwarming story into existence. This film has fantastic storytelling, world-building, character development, flawless voice acting, and so much more!
Basically, what the movie is teaching us is how toxic positivity can lead us to depression, anxiety, and heartbreak. Joy was literally embracing that concept which led her into this whole mess, destroying every personality island, imaginary memories, and anything highly positive for Riley. We need Sadness to help cope with difficult and harsh situations so that we can understand each other better and clear our thoughts via emotional maturity.
We can’t be happy all the time, and that is something I had to learn over the years. It’s great to be happy…but there is a time to also be sad. There must be a balance between both emotions in order to be emotionally healthy and intelligent. The same principle applies to all other emotions as well.
Lastly, this movie hits a little too close to home. Ever since I moved from New York State to Maryland, I’ve always had dreams of my old hometown where I grew up. I’ll never forget the fun childhood, the friends I made, the schools I attended, the house my family and I lived in, and the great times we’ve had. Maryland is great and all, but…I’ll never stop missing New York. So I can actually relate to Riley here and get why she felt so homesick.
Wow, I really appreciate you guys recommending this work of art to me. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best animated movies Pixar ever made. Aside from a couple nitpicks I have, this is definitely a near-perfect movie. I rate this a solid 11/10! Hopefully, the sequel will be given the same amount of love and care through the writing and direction. Surely, they can’t mess that up.
Peace!
Please don't tempt fate.
What were your thoughts on Bing-Bong, by any chance? Along with the performance of Richard Kind?
5753847
Splendid on both accounts.
5753851
I agree.
It’s been a long time since I saw “Inside Out”, but I remembered having a great time watching Bing-Bong. And when he sacrificed himself to help Joy get out of the Memory Dump before fading out of existence, I couldn’t help but feel so emotional over that.