Inside Out

[Mr Light]

I couldn't find a thread?

I thought Inside Out was very good and the best Pixar movie since at least "Up". Great visuals and adventure and humor. A surprising amount of depth and psychology; this was no Cars 2!

I want a Joy figurine/vinyl-head.

I'm probably over-rating Inside Out right now because it's just so nice to have a GOOD Pixar movie again, but...

Incredibles > Nemo > Monsters Inc > Inside Out > Up > Wall-E

 

[Unicron]

I saw it today and enjoyed it. I'd probably give it a solid B if we wind up getting a poll/grading thread. I thought how they structured parts of the mind was interesting.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I admit I'm a bit confused as to why 'Disgust' and 'Anger' would be considered separate emotions...but I'll overlook it, because any movie with Mindy Kaling is OK in my book!

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

This movie looks like it will give me a headache.
Joy: Let's get pizza.
Girl: Let's get pizza.
Mom: Pizza sounds great.
Emotions: Yay Pizza..
Me: really? This is good writing????

 

[HIjol]

This movie looks like it will give me a headache.
Joy: Let's get pizza.
Girl: Let's get pizza.
Mom: Pizza sounds great.
Emotions: Yay Pizza..
Me: really? This is good writing????

I feel your Pain, FSM. Let's go get a pizza or something, and talk about it!

 

[HIjol]

Have not seen Inside Out, but I gave "Up" a B- . I always did like Ed Asner as an actor.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

This movie looks like it will give me a headache.
Joy: Let's get pizza.
Girl: Let's get pizza.
Mom: Pizza sounds great.
Emotions: Yay Pizza..
Me: really? This is good writing????

It's actually exceptional writing, the equal to an adult drama, if you don't parse tiny segments of it out of context instead of analyzing the writing of the film as a whole.

Like most of Pixar's films, this works on numerous levels that will appeal to all audiences, and the film's premise will be illustrated succinctly when you see young children embody the emotion of pure, carefree joy and laugh at scenes their older siblings or parents are tearing up at, because they've got that greater experience and understanding of the need for grief as a coping mechanism, to bring loved one's together over a shared loss or disappointment, or as a cathartic release.

Young kids won't get all the subtle nuance of the film, but they'll still enjoy it for the vibrant colors, the amazing visual craftsmanship of the world of Riley's mind and the fun characters inhabiting it (and brief visits to the minds of her parents and during the credits, other people and even dogs and cats in a great sequence). There's a great running gag about how an irritating commercial jingle becomes an earworm to everyone in the film, one that might actually end up becoming an earworm to viewer's of the film as well.

There's genuine heartfelt loss and sorrow in the film, dealt with in a mature way that's not typical for most children's films and which perfectly illustrates the Pixar philosophy of not pandering or talking down to children. Trek fans will be intimately familiar with the themes as they've been dealt with in Trek films before (TWoK and TFF), namely confronting and not cheating your way out of grief, and how you need your pain because it helps you to learn and is part of the wealth of experiences that define you as a person.

Joy in the film is unabashedly played up as the chief protagonist at first, but we find out (as does she) as the film goes along that her desire to suppress sadness, to both literally and metaphorically keep it confined in a circle that represents bottling up our feelings and putting on a happy face, is not a healthy or mature response, and can lead to acting out in dangerous ways (like running away), lashing out at people, or in loss of friendships and interests, which is depicted in a rather amazing yet terrifying way as the cities that represent the primary elements of Riley's personality begin crumbling away into the abyss of her subconscious.

Michael Giacchino's music alternates between the whimsical, poignant, and harrowing with the same deft precision he always employs, using his favorite instrument, the piano, to good effect.

The casting is perfection, especially among the emotions:

Joy: Amy Poehler from Parks & Rec
Sadness: Phyllis Smith from The Office
Disgust: Mindy Kaling from The Office and The Mindy Show
Fear: Bill Hader from Saturday Night Live
Anger: Lewis Black from The Daily Show

The parents are well played by Kyle McClachlan and Diane Lane, and there's an imaginary friend named Bing Bong, played by Richard Kind, who plays a large part in the middle of the film and gives us one of the film's more touching scenes.

If it's not already obvious, I can't recommend the film highly enough. It's among the better films of the almost always great Pixar pantheon, and it can be enjoyed by adults, young kids, and older kids alike on multiple levels. "A+".

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I miss the days when "castin g to perfection" for animated films meant finding awesome voice actors, not actors that ahve been in a million live action films that people have seen.

As much as I love Aladdin, having Williams as the genie has ruined all of a animated films from that point on.

 

[Mudd]

I miss the days when "castin g to perfection" for animated films meant finding awesome voice actors, not actors that ahve been in a million live action films that people have seen.

As much as I love Aladdin, having Williams as the genie has ruined all of a animated films from that point on.

 

[Richard Baker]

Anybody remember the Fox sitcom called 'Herman's Head'? Same concepts, just aimed at a more adult audience.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

This movie looks like it will give me a headache.
Joy: Let's get pizza.
Girl: Let's get pizza.
Mom: Pizza sounds great.
Emotions: Yay Pizza..
Me: really? This is good writing????

It's actually exceptional writing, the equal to an adult drama, if you don't parse tiny segments of it out of context instead of analyzing the writing of the film as a whole.

Like most of Pixar's films, this works on numerous levels that will appeal to all audiences, and the film's premise will be illustrated succinctly when you see young children embody the emotion of pure, carefree joy and laugh at scenes their older siblings or parents are tearing up at, because they've got that greater experience and understanding of the need for grief as a coping mechanism, to bring loved one's together over a shared loss or disappointment, or as a cathartic release.

Young kids won't get all the subtle nuance of the film, but they'll still enjoy it for the vibrant colors, the amazing visual craftsmanship of the world of Riley's mind and the fun characters inhabiting it (and brief visits to the minds of her parents and during the credits, other people and even dogs and cats in a great sequence). There's a great running gag about how an irritating commercial jingle becomes an earworm to everyone in the film, one that might actually end up becoming an earworm to viewer's of the film as well.

There's genuine heartfelt loss and sorrow in the film, dealt with in a mature way that's not typical for most children's films and which perfectly illustrates the Pixar philosophy of not pandering or talking down to children. Trek fans will be intimately familiar with the themes as they've been dealt with in Trek films before (TWoK and TFF), namely confronting and not cheating your way out of grief, and how you need your pain because it helps you to learn and is part of the wealth of experiences that define you as a person.

Joy in the film is unabashedly played up as the chief protagonist at first, but we find out (as does she) as the film goes along that her desire to suppress sadness, to both literally and metaphorically keep it confined in a circle that represents bottling up our feelings and putting on a happy face, is not a healthy or mature response, and can lead to acting out in dangerous ways (like running away), lashing out at people, or in loss of friendships and interests, which is depicted in a rather amazing yet terrifying way as the cities that represent the primary elements of Riley's personality begin crumbling away into the abyss of her subconscious.

Michael Giacchino's music alternates between the whimsical, poignant, and harrowing with the same deft precision he always employs, using his favorite instrument, the piano, to good effect.

The casting is perfection, especially among the emotions:

Joy: Amy Poehler from Parks & Rec
Sadness: Phyllis Smith from The Office
Disgust: Mindy Kaling from The Office and The Mindy Show
Fear: Bill Hader from Saturday Night Live
Anger: Lewis Black from The Daily Show

The parents are well played by Kyle McClachlan and Diane Lane, and there's an imaginary friend named Bing Bong, played by Richard Kind, who plays a large part in the middle of the film and gives us one of the film's more touching scenes.

If it's not already obvious, I can't recommend the film highly enough. It's among the better films of the almost always great Pixar pantheon, and it can be enjoyed by adults, young kids, and older kids alike on multiple levels. "A+".

Well said.

I saw it with my kids and they all loved it. I thought it was an exceptional film, too. My daughter, who is 10, probably absorbed the themes best. She's starting to express more complex emotions herself and I think the film really resonated with her.

I miss the days when "castin g to perfection" for animated films meant finding awesome voice actors, not actors that ahve been in a million live action films that people have seen.

As much as I love Aladdin, having Williams as the genie has ruined all of a animated films from that point on.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I miss the days when "castin g to perfection" for animated films meant finding awesome voice actors, not actors that ahve been in a million live action films that people have seen.

As much as I love Aladdin, having Williams as the genie has ruined all of a animated films from that point on.

Are you just spouting random negativity now for the sake of it, even if it doesn't have any relevance to this film? None of those people I mentioned above are big movie stars cast purely because of their star power first, and their vocal ability/qualities for the role second. They're all mostly known for their television roles or stand-up comedy, some of those roles rather minor (like Phyllis Smith).

No, those actors were cast because they have distinctive and interesting voices, and in the case of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Mindy Kaling, and Lewis Black in particular, (Bill Hader/Fear does a lot of voice work especially since leaving SNL, like the voice of the Vengeance computer in STiD) the personalities they display in some of their more famous characters (and in real life to some extent) perfectly embody the roles they are playing.

I can't think of another celebrity out there right now who inhabits the role of Anger better than Lewis Black. It's his signature emotional state, the thing you go to see his stand-up or watch his rare rants on The Daily Show for. Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope on Parks & Recreation is Joy to a fault, in all her relentless optimism and multitasking and can't slow down to acknowledge sadness drive. Phyllis on The Office is Sadness, soft-spoken, mopey, not someone the others want to hang around much but secretly essential to keeping things running. And Mindy Kaling has cultivated the part mean girl, part fashionista elements of Disgust in her act and in her writing for the shows she's appeared in and produced.

So, yeah, I'm sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about here. The casting was meticulously done with an eye to making sure everyone fit their roles perfectly. And I didn't even get into the secondary characters, which are great too and feature some superb voice work.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

All I'm saying is that I'm not interested in this film. To me, Pixar has become almost irrelevant. AFtr Good Dinosaur, their entire slate consists of sequels. for the next five years. What ever subtlety I feel they've had ended with Toy Story, a film which I like a lot.

I also do feel that casting celebrity voices isn't the best trend. It's not entirely bad, I'm not going to broad brush it, but it is certainly taking the jobs away from great voice talent when the main objective is to put some big names above the title for marketing purposes. Animation was doing fine before Robin Williams came along, and it would continue to do fine today.

That being said, if you and your kids enjoy all of its complexities or what not, that's fine. It just doesn't interest me. I also suspect that it will attempt to over-explain the great mysteries like inspiration, that kind of thing.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

All I'm saying is that I'm not interested in this film.

Then why are you in this thread?

Do you go into churches and tell people there that God doesn't exist and religion sucks?

Do you go to comic book conventions and declare "Comic books are a complete waste of time and money"?

What in the world are you trying to accomplish?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

All I'm saying is that I'm not interested in this film.

I couldn't tell by your madly flailing about desperately throwing out random criticisms that don't apply to this movie in the hopes that something would stick and you'd prove to us what a cinema expert you are again. Like the very short scene you misquoted and took out of context to show how bad the writing supposedly is, or your assertion that the casting was done based on these voice actors being big movie stars (which they aren't) instead of them having distinctive voices and personalities that embody the emotions they're playing.

To me, Pixar has become almost irrelevant. AFtr Good Dinosaur, their entire slate consists of sequels. for the next five years. What ever subtlety I feel they've had ended with Toy Story, a film which I like a lot.

So your criticism of THIS movie is that Pixar sucks, and makes too many sequels, even though that isn't a criticism of this film, and this film isn't sequel to anything. My days of taking you seriously are definitely coming to a... no, wait, they ended long ago.

I also do feel that casting celebrity voices isn't the best trend. It's not entirely bad, I'm not going to broad brush it, but it is certainly taking the jobs away from great voice talent when the main objective is to put some big names above the title for marketing purposes. Animation was doing fine before Robin Williams came along, and it would continue to do fine today.

Didn't we already have this conversation in the last post, and I specifically laid out why that criticism is baseless here? Is your goal to just wear people down through repetition of the same tired comments that don't make sense here? That's been your M.O. before.

Actors doing voice work and voice performers doing acting has been going on since the dawn of the film industry. It's such a crock to try and turn your baseless criticism into an appeal for the plight of the working man when it fails on all other accounts. That might actually be a worthy issue to discuss in general, but your accusation that that's what happened in this film is off base, especially since it was just a last ditch attempt to try and be right about something.

All of the main actors have done some animated voice work before on even some obscure TV and films, so trying to portray it as a Pixar or Big Animation thing in hiring them doesn't fly.

The lead voice actress who plays the young girl Riley is almost a complete unknown, and she has a major speaking part. So why didn't they cast a celebrity there?

Bill Hader is known for doing funny voices, whether celebrity impersonations, his characters on SNL, or his prolific voice acting work.

I also suspect that it will attempt to over-explain the great mysteries like inspiration, that kind of thing.

Well, if you had seen the movie before complaining, you'd know that ideas/inspiration are represented pretty simply and in metaphorical terms we've all seen a million times: by having the emotions grab a lightbulb from off a shelf and plugging it into the console that operates the brain, essentially.

But yes, like in all Pixar films there are somewhat more complex ideas aimed at tweens, teens, and adults than at younger kids, like the excellent segment on abstract thought. But then they never forget to have something going on simultaneously to entertain the little ones, like the characters deconstructing and going two-dimensional.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

So basically, FSM is wrong about everything he's said in this thread.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

How can I be wrong about an opinion?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Well, you see, opinions tend to be underpinned by facts, and when the facts on which you base your opinion are incorrect, the opinion itself becomes nonsensical.

Also, when your best response is "hey, that's just my opinion!" you've basically given up.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

A little perspective on voice acting.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGRlJDMNKg[/yt]

 

[Jedi_Master]

I find it beneficial to actually see a film before I explain the reasons I dislike that film. On occasion, I choose not to see a film, but when I choose not to see a film, I tend to avoid commenting on the websites, discussion boards, and other Internet sites that are connected to the film I chose not to see.