Pixar genius.
Inside Out
Grade: A
Director: Pete Docter (Up), Ronaldo Del Carmen
Screenplay: Docter, Del Carmen, et al.
Cast: Amy Poehler (Are You Here), Bill Hader (Superbad)
Rating: PG
Runtime: 94 min.
by John DeSando
“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.” Samuel Ullman
While the emotions of a pre-adolescent girl, Riley (voice of Kaitlyn Dias), in Inside Out are depicted in a Star-Trek like control room as real characters, Joy (Amy Poehler) is the Captain Kirk, the major influence in Riley’s life so far and at the helm with other players such as Fear, Sadness, Disgust, and a plethora of memory pods. Riley's had a happy Minnesota life so far with ice hockey and hiking and a much simpler life than now faces her in the family’s move to San Francisco.
The depiction of these raucous emotions is sheer Pixar genius, a human menagerie of inner players, making sense of the conflicting feelings of a young person, and all of us for that matter. The visuals are stunning, as colorful as has been seen in any other animation, and the big-eyed ‘toon characters have distinct personalities developed in a short time.
Besides the anthropomorphic emoticons, I am most impressed by the emphasis on memory in fashioning a life. My personal fear is losing that great gift, for memories form the core satisfaction of my life, a hedge against mortality if you will. Inside Out emphasizes the primacy of those memories while it also frames the inside fight around the necessity for the conflicting emotions, even sadness as a major player in mental health.
Well, it is Pixar after all with its brilliant combination of fun and intelligence, a work of art that indulges the physical and cerebral. All this in an animation—who would have thought except that Saturday cartoons at my local theater helped me shape a loving attitude toward cinema and a career in film criticism? That’s my Joy.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
