Pixar has been on something of a strange trajectory in recent years. The studio that constantly set the standard for Western animated films was constantly topping itself. There was a four year period where it went from Ratatouille to Wall-E to Up to Toy Story 3. Yet almost ten years since Disney bought out the studio, it's been a little touch and go. It's sort of been a rotation of unnecessary sequels and slightly underwhelming original titles. Looking on the horizon as well and it's hard to not notice franchising has become a staple of Pixar's model. Toy Story 4, The Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, and - somehow - a third Cars film are all on the docket.
Despite an incredibly strong start to the Disney era, Pixar has since fallen into the trappings of modern Hollywood fare, often to the detriment of its films. I must admit that the initial trailers for Inside Out made it look pretty much in the same vein. Working for it was the cast, namely starring Amy Poehler. The animation style looked generic and uninteresting, and it seemed like the plot wouldn't work for the type of epic adventures the best Pixar movies are known for.
I was quite impressed though! Inside Out might very well be one of the best entries to date. All Pixar movies are touching, but few feel as personal as this one did. For starters, it deftly balances the epic adventures happening inside Riley's head with the emotionally challenging real world issues she deals with outside it. This perfectly blends the two elements together. The somewhat boring real world stuff feels more epic because of the internal action, while the epic adventures inside feels far more personal because of the familiar real world stuff.
Outside, young Riley has to deal with moving from her beloved Minnesota - where she spent all of her childhood so far - to San Francisco. Though perhaps not everyone has experienced such a dramatic move in their lives, everyone can relate to that basic premise. It's always tough going from what you've always known to something completely new and scary. You have to make all new friends and learn the town all over again to find what you enjoy. It is a difficult transition that will bring out a lot of mixed emotions.
And that is the cause of action Inside. Taking place in Riley's brain, five key emotions are responsible for driving the ship, as it were. Joy (Poehler) is the head honcho. She's the dominant emotion here. Also present is Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith, who straight up nails the voice acting here, possibly even upstaging Poehler!) Joy attempts to keep things together during the move, but Sadness begins take center stage. Most of this is by accident, which makes total sense. No one really wants to be sad. It just sort of happens.
After some shenanigans, Joy and Sadness are launched out of the control center and must hurry to find their way back, or poor Riley will become basically emotionally stunted, unable to balance emotions in a healthy manner, and destined to become adrift.
The adventure of Sadness and Joy making their way back isn't perfect. Though they do a good job creating that adventurous feeling, it ultimately does all take place in a relatively limited area. At times, the road blocks feel a bit forced. Perhaps there's just one too many moments of the characters being all set to return, only to have something crazy happen out of nowhere at the last minute.
Still, what the pacing maybe lacks is more than made up for in pure entertainment value. The action is fun, but more importantly, the world is highly intelligent and clever. Apart from obvious gags like the Train of Thought or the Abstract Zone, but there's a good amount of legitimate psychological science in the cracks as well. I'll just guide you to this article explaining what they got right, rather than listing it all myself. Suffice it to say, for the adults in attendance who have studied - to some extent - psychology and the human brain, it's really fun to watch.
At the end of the day, Inside Out is so great because of how relatable it is. We are all just a giant mixed bag of emotions, and sometimes we don't know how to handle them. Inside Out tells us that we need them all. Sadness saves the day, not Joy, which contradicts what we always hear about how we should just "be happy." Sometimes you can't, and sometimes that's not what you need. Quite literally, the message is simple, "it's ok to be sad." We're bombarded by images of happiness and pleasantries in our daily lives. We are often taught at a young age that no one likes sad people, which can be kind of damaging.
It's a great message for all in the audience. Helping matters is that the movie is entertaining, funny, and extremely touching. (In the spirit of the film, I'll admit that I teared up a little bit.) It's also very clever, and the animation style is actually a lot less generic than it may appear in the previews. It has to go on the short list of best movies of the year so far.
What I didn't "lava" about "Lava."
If Inside Out was a great tale with a worthwhile message, the preceding short feature "Lava" was the opposite. Admittedly, I can't totally remember all of the shorts before every single Pixar film, but "Lava" has to be one of the worst.
"Lava" tells the story of a male volcano in the sea as he just sits there, doing his volcano thing, watching all these couples around him. Basically, he's jealous that everyone around him is part of a couple, but he's just by himself. As a result, he literally prays for the Heavens to send him someone to love. ("Lava," in this case, because oh man they're so witty!)
Things get a little dark as time goes on and the sea levels rise. Unbeknownst to him, there's a lady volcano just in front of him, but hidden in under the surface. She can hear his prayer song and desperately wants to rise above the water to meet him. Yet as he is slowly sinking and becoming less active, she is rising and becoming more so. By the time she's finally able to sprout up over the water, he has sunken below it. It appears as though they have missed each other, and both volcanoes are destined to be alone.
Of course, this being a thing for children, the he-volcano manages one last eruption that is strong enough to lift him back to where he was, and the two volcanoes embrace to form an island. They're now a couple, finally happy to be part of the couples club around them.
Ok, so listen: I totally understand they were never ever going to make a short all-ages movie wherein the romantic characters just miss each other and it's all sad and dreary. Just because that's how I like my movies doesn't mean they're going to do that here - or really, ever. But maybe you can see where my problem might lie with the message of this one.
Let's just think about this for a second: the he-volcano has no idea the she-volcano even exists until the very end. And then POOF! They're in love? Quite literally, they're only together because they don't have any other volcano dating options. They're together because they hate the idea of being single. I put forth the idea that neither volcano is actually in love with the other; rather, they're both in love with the idea of being in love.
Think about it. The he-volcano just sits around watching all these other creatures in pairs. He's a single person in a world full of couples. Even though he's surrounded by potential friends, he still feels lonely. That itself seems to cause him to re-evaluate his self-worth. It's literally at the point where he's praying for a deity to send him someone to love. He's not praying "to meet someone." He's praying for them to "send him someone."
Meanwhile, the she-volcano sits below the surface, listening to his prayers. She doesn't know who this guy is, or if he's a good volcano or a jerk of a volcano. For all she knows, he could be the next Mount Tambora. Yet she desperately wants to rise to the surface to meet him. Why? She can't possibly have feelings for him. No, she's in love with the idea of being the object of someone's affection. All she knows about this guy is that he wants to really love someone.
On that matter, for all he knows, she didn't put her energy into meeting him. The gods sent her. Both of those mentalities seem totally healthy and like a good foundation for a completely reasonable romantic relationship...
Ok, again, I totally get that I'm probably the only one reading - well, anything really - into this, but just hear me out. As a perpetually single person who sometimes struggles feeling worthwhile in a world constantly telling you something's wrong with you if you aren't in a relationship, I find it tiresome and problematic that we're constantly bombarded by an overvalue in romantic relationships. Couldn't that he-volcano been totally happy being the only volcano in the area and having tons of whale and bird friends? Why was he an incomplete volcano until he found his she-volcano? What kind of message is that to send to people? Whether you read into it or not, the premise of the film is quite literally that this volcano is incomplete on his own. And it's only until he finds his romantic partner that he is complete.
But that's incredibly flawed, because as corny as it sounds, it is still true that if you can't love yourself, how can you possibly truly love someone else? If he can't be happy on his own, how will he be happy with another person, never mind make the other person happy?
It's a crappy message, and it's damaging. And it had no place as the short film preceding a film that teaches a great and healthy message.
Oh, and that song got pretty bad. It started off fine, but halfway through, it lyrically started falling apart and sounded pretty clunky. My sister tends to sing the first verse (or rather, the opening), and that's about as good as the song gets. It's fine for a while, but then the novelty runs off and the lyrics get messy for the sake of singing the story.
