Inside Out...
Over the weekend, I saw Inside Out...
Before the start of the feature, we were treated to a very nice Pixar short called Lava about a lonely volcano who pines for someone to love.
Inside Out follows the exploits of our heroine, Riley, and the emotions in her head as she copes with all of the odd things her new life in San Francisco has to offer. As the story opens, we find that Joy is the first emotion to appear followed fairly quickly by Sadness. At first, when Riley is a baby, Riley's control console is very simple -- it has one big button and whichever emotion presses the big button can make Riley happy or sad and immediately we see some tension between the two emotions as they each want a turn at pressing the button.
As the story progresses, we spend quite a bit of time in flashbacks, seeing Riley grow from a baby, through her toddler years and into a fairly well-rounded adolescent pre-teen. A key part of Riley's inner world are the various islands that are directly linked to her core memories -- a small collection of spherical objects that contain important memories. Early in the story, Sadness creates a sad core memory and when Joy attempts to stop that memory from being added to the collection of core memories, catastrophe strikes and all of the core memories along with Joy and Sadness end up far outside the control room.
Meanwhile, back in the control room, the remaining emotions are powerless to assist Joy and Sadness and are left to struggle with managing Riley's deteriorating world. What follows is a frenzy of activity in the outside world and in the inside world. As things go from bad to worse, we find that the islands which are linked to core memories can collapse and fall into a deep dark pit where memories go when they are forgotten. As Joy and Sadness endure a series of setbacks and overcome each in turn, while they make their way back to the control room, Joy comes to the realization that Sadness, has played an important part in Riley's past and can be a valuable ally in Riley's future.
Inside Out got very melodramatic near its climatic conclusion, but, the ending was very satisfying nonetheless. Overall, the pacing of the feature was a bit slow in the middle, but, I was still very pleased with the feature. I would give Inside Out a 3 out of 5.
I've been looking forward to seeing Inside Out for a while, so, this weekend, Mom and I went to see it in the theater. We left over an hour early, but, there was a lot of traffic on Columbus Boulevard, so, we ended up just in time for the previews. Inside Out was playing in one of the smaller screening rooms and the theater was almost empty, but, the kids in attendance were very well behaved.Emotions run wild in the mind of a little girl who is uprooted from her peaceful life in the Midwest and forced to move to San Francisco in this Pixar adventure from director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters Inc.). Young Riley was perfectly content with her life when her father landed a new job in San Francisco, and the family moved across the country. Now, as Riley prepares to navigate a new city and attend a new school, her emotional headquarters becomes a hot bed of activity. As Joy (voice of Amy Poehler) attempts to keep Riley feeling happy and positive about the move, other emotions like Fear (voice of Bill Hader), Anger (voice of Lewis Black), Disgust (voice of Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) make the transition a bit more complicated.
Before the start of the feature, we were treated to a very nice Pixar short called Lava about a lonely volcano who pines for someone to love.
Inside Out follows the exploits of our heroine, Riley, and the emotions in her head as she copes with all of the odd things her new life in San Francisco has to offer. As the story opens, we find that Joy is the first emotion to appear followed fairly quickly by Sadness. At first, when Riley is a baby, Riley's control console is very simple -- it has one big button and whichever emotion presses the big button can make Riley happy or sad and immediately we see some tension between the two emotions as they each want a turn at pressing the button.
As the story progresses, we spend quite a bit of time in flashbacks, seeing Riley grow from a baby, through her toddler years and into a fairly well-rounded adolescent pre-teen. A key part of Riley's inner world are the various islands that are directly linked to her core memories -- a small collection of spherical objects that contain important memories. Early in the story, Sadness creates a sad core memory and when Joy attempts to stop that memory from being added to the collection of core memories, catastrophe strikes and all of the core memories along with Joy and Sadness end up far outside the control room.
Meanwhile, back in the control room, the remaining emotions are powerless to assist Joy and Sadness and are left to struggle with managing Riley's deteriorating world. What follows is a frenzy of activity in the outside world and in the inside world. As things go from bad to worse, we find that the islands which are linked to core memories can collapse and fall into a deep dark pit where memories go when they are forgotten. As Joy and Sadness endure a series of setbacks and overcome each in turn, while they make their way back to the control room, Joy comes to the realization that Sadness, has played an important part in Riley's past and can be a valuable ally in Riley's future.
Inside Out got very melodramatic near its climatic conclusion, but, the ending was very satisfying nonetheless. Overall, the pacing of the feature was a bit slow in the middle, but, I was still very pleased with the feature. I would give Inside Out a 3 out of 5.
