Movie: Inside Out

What if feelings had feelings? In this Disney Pixar animation, we look at the 5 main feelings in our brains that operate our bodies. Say hello to Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. They reside in everyone, but the main team supports Riley, an eleven year old who had to move house to a new state. Cue emotional breakdowns, minor family troubles, as Riley tries to navigate her new life without her friends, hockey team and her beloved hometown. 

There was also a short animation before Inside Out started. It's called Lava, and it's about a volcano trying to find love, set to a cute ukulele song. It was cute and alright but nowhere near as impactful as Feast, a story about a dog, which accompanied Big Hero 6.

I expected more humour...seems like all the good parts were used in the trailer already.  The few jokes that were used were also quite feeble.This film was less happy and 'kid' in many aspects, in fact, I felt that the plot itself can be very depressing, despite all the colour styling for the animation. For a 'kid' movie there were also very few laughs in the cinema despite many young ones in the audience. I compared this to Minions, Madagascar, Guardians, Big Hero 6 etc. Of course, these are just my observations (ie. a very small sample size). 

Have also seen a lot of raves about how Inside Out will appeal a lot to Psych majors. Any thoughts, my friends? I thought the visualisation of how our brain functions (ie. the long term memories, the dumps, core memories etc) were pretty cool, but I would have preferred more interaction among the real characters (Riley, parents, teachers, friends etc) and then more action between the teams in each head, just like how it was depicted in the trailer. Bing Bong was interesting but also carried a very depressing message (how imagination/creativity can fade with years).

Having Joy and Sadness bring us through the various islands etc also meant more info dumping, and less story for me. The movie became more of a cute animated tour of our brain and its function, when I was looking for a story with more 'heart'. On this I feel quite disappointed (and frustrated by how the story was unfolding. I felt no sense of real danger/urgency, nor did I really like the characters or want to root for them). I bet you're supposed to love Sadness cuz she's kinda cute and nua, but guys, please take a reference from things like Gudetama on how to really nua. HAHA. 

Maybe I'm just become more cold-hearted over the years, I don't know. I can see that there are many layers to this movie. It's very clever in how it imagines our inner world can be like, but for the storyline I really think its lacking quite a bit of depth. There were so many things to explore and develop, the friendship, the sadness, the feeling of displacement, etc, but I just didn't think it was conveyed very well? Felt like the plot was plodding along very...lamely. I couldn't connect to it. I felt that Inside Out lacked the energy of a film I would expect to see from a Disney Pixar flick.

Also the animation style is a 3D type, just like how Boo was like in Monsters Inc and maybe...Meet The Robinsons. Somehow I just didn't like this, despite being OK with Big Hero 6's animation, which was also somewhat 3D. Can't put a finger on it, but I just don't enjoy this art style. Personal opinion la.

Well, you might enjoy this film more if you lower your expectations a bit? The trailer may have overpromised, in my opinion.

Should you watch this? Hmmm. I'm not very impressed with this, to be honest. It's passable but I wouldn't really recommend it. The characters were not very lovable for me, and the animation style was not my cup of tea either (other than the special sequence in the DANGER zone- the change in art style is interesting but not very helpful to creating a better story).  Ok long story short I am disappointed in this movie. May you  have better luck with it.

P.S. I just noticed that the people who made 'Up' made this animation too. Well, I didn't like Up and was very underwhelmed by it, despite all its fanfare. Maybe that's why I didn't enjoy this movie too. Lol.