Inside Out

So... this was quite a shift. I go from really dark murder mystery to Pixar...

But very similar to Gone Girl, the minute I saw this trailer I was in love with the idea of this movie. I loved the idea of it, I loved the people involved. Everything about this movie I thought I was going to enjoy.

And also similar to Gone Girl, I ended up loving it.

Inside Out all focuses on the inner working of the mind. According to the film, we have five primary emotions, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. These emotions work in the headquarters of our brains and shape our memories and our reactions to them. Sometimes these memories are core memories and they shape who we are.

That's all I'm going to say because I've only given a smidgen of what this movie is all about and just the greatness that it is.

The movie mostly takes place in the mind of a young girl named Riley. Riley was born and raised in Minnesota until her parents moved to San Fransisco.

Riley, for the most part, is a very happy girl. In her mind, Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) makes it her goal to make sure Riley is incredibly happy and continues to have happy memories. Up in the control room, she is joined by Fear (voiced by Bill Hader) Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling) Anger (voiced by Lewis Black) and Sadness (voiced by Phyilis Smith).

However, Joy's quest to keep Riley happy becomes more and more difficult as she begins facing so many difficulties, like her parents being busy with work and the move, moving into a new school, a new hockey team, getting new friends, etc.

The majority of the movie is Joy's quest through the corridors and macinations of the mind of an 11 year old girl.

And in short, its phenomenal.

To start off, I could not get enough of the interactions between these characters in the control room. Amy Poehler is great, obviously. She has the power to carry a movie like this.

Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling and Lewis Black are all fantastic emotions to add to the mix and they fit perfectly into their designated emotions.

The one thing I was worried about was Phyllis Smith.

I mean how do you make a character out of someone who is systemically sad? If you've watched the Office, Phyllis is just a downer. And at a certain point, I got kind of sick of her in the office. I was worried I would get sick of her in this movie.

However, Sadness is actually one of the better characters in the film. First off, this character is hilarious. I did not expect that. I thought Sadness was going to be just that, a sad character. And she is, but at the same time, her sadness is not overbearing, its not annoying, and there are jokes that just hit the perfect mark. I was laughing my ass off with a lot of the debbie downer lines that came from Sadness. But along with that, Phyllis Smith gives this kind performance and the animation just makes you love Sadness just like all of the characters. Its just done incredibly well with Sadness and Joy.

Its one thing to say that this movie is cute. Its another thing to say this movie is entertaining. But what this movie really is is smart.

This movie is so smart that I had moments in the film that I was wondering if young kids would actually get this. Yeah the colors and animation is very kid friendly, but the subject matter is actually really adult. Its the inner workings of the human mind. Yeah they break it down to a tangible conclusion but its also incredibly brilliant.

This is mainly a story about growing up. This movie shows what is going on in the mind of a young girl as she deals with what is going on around her. Because of that, the movie is subject to make you feel. I'm not saying you're absolutely going to cry at this film because, hey, you may not have a soul. But this film just proves that Disney knows how to make their audience feel. This obviously isn't new. Its happened in multiple Pixar films, it happened in Big Hero 6. Its going to happen again, I have no doubt.

This movie is smart because its not just about the emotions in this girl's head, its not just about the girl, its how they connect in such a brilliant way.

Riley is such a great character! She's half the reason you'll be feeling the feelz in this movie. And everything that Joy experiences in her adventure makes up Riley's mind, her personality, her imagination.

I feel like I'm being really vague but its because I want you to see this movie and see exactly how brilliant Pixar is in this film.

I heard a review on this film that praised Pixar for having the ability to make great films that happen to be kid friendly. They aren't necessarily kid films, they are more than that.

I'm not totally sure what more I can say about this movie. Its so smart, so entertaining, so funny. So many sos that its hard to point them all out. I'll have to give it a second watch to know exactly where it stands on my top list of Pixar films but its a damn good one.

But what did you think of Inside Out? Comment and Discuss below! Follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 in order to get updates on new movie news and reviews. You can also shoot me your thoughts on films there and give me requests for future films.

I'll leave you with this. This isn't totally related but since Ted 2 is coming out soon and Inside Out is full of voice actors, I thought I'd shed some light on a funny video Seth MacFarlane did on Fallon with his voice. Enjoy!