REVIEW - INSIDE OUT

Inside Out is a gorgeous new entry from Pixar.The story of Inside Out is so heart-warming and emotional, that in the space of the film's ninety-four minutes I felt just as invested as I did when watching the third Toy Story film - and my bond with those characters is one which has developed since early childhood. Inside Out steps beyond simply being a film about how our minds work - it cleverly explains common psychological conditions, teaching the audience empathy as it entertains.

Inside Out follows the story of Riley - an eleven year old girl from Minnesota, whose happy life with her affectionate parents is perfect until a career change necessitates moving house - all the way from Minnesota to San Fransisco. The rest of the film follows the tumultuous emotional journey which moving house (and changing schools) is for any child. This tale is told from the perspective of 'Joy', the personification of one of Riley's five emotions. Along with Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger, Joy lives in Riley's brain striving to help her navigate everything she is faced with, and make as many days as possible good ones.

Like all Pixar films of recent years, the first thing to strike you about Inside Out will be the visuals. The concept of Inside Out allowed for a particularly large amount of artistic freedom, and the creative team have, once again, done a stunningly beautiful job. Creating a visualisation of how emotions function inside a human brain is a task Pixar took to spectacularly. The brain is represented as a kind industrial city, populated by places such as Dream Productions, the Subconscious, the Longterm Memory Archive, and Imagination Land. Overlooking it all is Headquarters, from which the five emotions work. HQ is linked to the rest of the brainscape by the 'Islands of Personality' - representations of aspects of Riley's personality. 'Memories' are represented as basketball sized glass baubles, which are different colours, depending on which emotion dominates the memory. These get processed at the end of the day - being sorted in long term memory.

The lesson as the centre of Inside Out is a simple one. Sadness  is just as an important part of life as happiness, and it is only through accepting our sadness that we will be able to move on. Although an obvious lesson for most adult viewers, its obviousness does not lessen the potency of this message - for we all learnt it the hard way, and it is likely that Inside Out will dredge out your emotional memories of growing up, and hit you right in the feels. The writing of Inside Out feels very true to life - the portrayal of Riley's family dynamic felt familiar, warm and accurate, and the humour was really great. Particularly funny were the short sequences in which  you glimpsed the inner-workings of other characters brains; Riley's mother, father, other children, even animals. While Riley's character was very well developed, these little glimpses did feel a bit more like caricatures of roles - mum, dad, pre-pubscent boy et cetera.

All of those articles floating around the Internet discussing why it is great that the main character of Inside Out is female made me notice the interesting way emotions are gendered in Inside Out. The inner workings of each character's brain are portrayed as having five emotions - the same as Riley. However, while in the mother's brain all are portrayed as female personifications, and in the father's brain all are portrayed as males, Riley's are a mix. Joy, Sadness and Disgust are personified as female, while Fear and Anger appear male. It is hard to say whether this way a deliberate move by Pixar to represent the fluidity of gender, especially in children, but bravo to them if it was.

With a story so heart-warming and emotional that I felt almost as connected to its characters as I did when watching some of my all time childhood classics, Inside Out is a beautiful feat in animation.The film has intelligence and humour, but packs a hearty emotional punch as well. Well worth leaving the house to see.