Re: Pete Docter's "Inside Out" (June 19, 2015)
Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:06 am
I finally saw it last night myself. I've been looking forward to this movie since it was announced, and I somehow managed to avoid reading any spoilers which is a bit of a feat for me. Overall, I liked it. Yeah, early reactions were a bit too "glowing," but it's the best Pixar film since "Toy Story 3." I thought it felt a bit slight, and some of the plot points seemed contrived. I mean, why was it so important to get Riley to wake up? Sure, it would have made their trek quicker if she was awake, but like Joy said earlier in the movie, when Riley's asleep nothing bad can happen. I thought that was was Joy's top priority, to keep as much of Riley's mind intact as possible and she risked that by waking Riley up. That just seemed like an illogical decision the character made so that the story would have more urgency.
I thought the humor was very sophisticated for a movie like this. A lot of jokes that weren't immediately recognizable as jokes. Like the boxes on the train of thought labelled "Facts" and "Opinions." Joy knocks some over and they all spill out, and Bing Bong just mixes them together and say, "Happens all the time." Didn't get at first, but a couple seconds later it made sense. There was a lot of humor like that in the movie. Even a Chinatown reference (I guess Riley's a Polanski fan? Come to think of it, perhaps not the most appropriate reference in a family film about a prepubescent girl...)! I think it'll be easier to catch all the jokes that might have zoomed past me when I get the BD. I noticed that not many people were laughing during the movie, however.
Also, has their been any discussion about just how "Disney" this movie is? First off, it's primarily driven by females, which are the sort of films that Disney is generally most successful with and for Pixar... this is their 2nd female driven film in their entire 20 year history, right? And the universe building is much more fanciful and whimiscal than any other universe building I've seen in a Pixar film. The Islands of Personality looked much more like the Candy Kingdom than Monstropolis or post-Apocalyptic Earth. It's got the darker tones of a Pixar film, yes, and the "two opposites join forces to achieve a common goal" plotline, but of course Disney movies have been using that since at least "The Princess and the Frog," now. I've even found myself saying Disney-Pixar in all earnestness, as though the brands are beginning to blend into one inside my mind. In 1999, "Tarzan" and "Toy Story 2" might not have paired for perfect double feature viewing, but "Inside Out" and "Frozen" feel very similar to me, two movies about women who go on figurative and literal journeys to connect with their emotions. There's been a lot of talk about the Pixarification of Disney, but is anybody else seeing an opposite, if perhaps unequal Disneyfication of Pixar?
I didn't like the short that much. I haven't seen a Pixar movie in the theatre since Wall-E (six years!), and perhaps everybody else in the audience hadn't for a similar period of time because people were so confused when Lava came on. I heard people whispering that they thought they'd walked into the wrong movie. By the way, Disney and Pixar share tech, right? So was Lava a test for Moana, then?
I thought the humor was very sophisticated for a movie like this. A lot of jokes that weren't immediately recognizable as jokes. Like the boxes on the train of thought labelled "Facts" and "Opinions." Joy knocks some over and they all spill out, and Bing Bong just mixes them together and say, "Happens all the time." Didn't get at first, but a couple seconds later it made sense. There was a lot of humor like that in the movie. Even a Chinatown reference (I guess Riley's a Polanski fan? Come to think of it, perhaps not the most appropriate reference in a family film about a prepubescent girl...)! I think it'll be easier to catch all the jokes that might have zoomed past me when I get the BD. I noticed that not many people were laughing during the movie, however.
Also, has their been any discussion about just how "Disney" this movie is? First off, it's primarily driven by females, which are the sort of films that Disney is generally most successful with and for Pixar... this is their 2nd female driven film in their entire 20 year history, right? And the universe building is much more fanciful and whimiscal than any other universe building I've seen in a Pixar film. The Islands of Personality looked much more like the Candy Kingdom than Monstropolis or post-Apocalyptic Earth. It's got the darker tones of a Pixar film, yes, and the "two opposites join forces to achieve a common goal" plotline, but of course Disney movies have been using that since at least "The Princess and the Frog," now. I've even found myself saying Disney-Pixar in all earnestness, as though the brands are beginning to blend into one inside my mind. In 1999, "Tarzan" and "Toy Story 2" might not have paired for perfect double feature viewing, but "Inside Out" and "Frozen" feel very similar to me, two movies about women who go on figurative and literal journeys to connect with their emotions. There's been a lot of talk about the Pixarification of Disney, but is anybody else seeing an opposite, if perhaps unequal Disneyfication of Pixar?
I didn't like the short that much. I haven't seen a Pixar movie in the theatre since Wall-E (six years!), and perhaps everybody else in the audience hadn't for a similar period of time because people were so confused when Lava came on. I heard people whispering that they thought they'd walked into the wrong movie. By the way, Disney and Pixar share tech, right? So was Lava a test for Moana, then?
While many have deliberately blamed Disney for Pixar's downfall, I don't think it's really Disney's fault. Though you've could've seen "Brave" as a part of it. I'm probably going to be slammed for this, but I've felt Pixar was quite Disneyesque with their first films, before they found a different path. But let's not forget that Pixar has always been under Disney's realm. So they've always been Disneyfied in a way.
And exploring the dual nature of joy and sadness and learning not to suppress your emotions, even the "bad" ones, really got to me and my own emotions.