Photo Credit:  Youtube

Inside Out, Pixar’s latest venture emotionally crippled me today. After a long shift I sat down in a fairly quiet 3D showing, mostly amongst families or young couples, and I cried like a baby. I know the thought of a 20-year-old man with a glorious beard crying at an animated film might be hilarious, but I hope that by the end of this little review you might be welling up yourself.

 

The story follows eleven year old Riley as her and her family move house across the country, and before you ask, yes, that’s the plot for our human characters… But the story only really begins here. I say this, because the majority of the story takes place in Riley’s head, following her five controlling emotions, pictured above (Anger, Joy, Sadness, Disgust and Fear). These characters need no real explanation, almost onomatopoeic in character if you will… Essentially Joy and Sadness become separated and must find their way back to Headquarters (the base of operations) in order to save Riley’s emotions! Once again I want to avoid any plot spoilers given that the film has only been out two days, but what ensues is an hour and a half of genuinely familiar teenage problems, dealt with in a totally heartfelt and honest way. There were many moments which brought a tear to my eye, once such involving the brave imaginary friend Bing Bong, an elephant/bird/dolphin made mostly from candyfloss (I wish my eleven year old self had such an imagination!). What’s obvious is that the film is fantastical, yet stays true to real life experiences, which I see to be a very difficult line to stay true to; yet as ever, Pixar have delivered, and this is evident in the fact that Inside Out has been the second most successful Pixar release, behind Toy Story 3 only… You don’t have to do much thinking to realise they’re onto a winner here.