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Well I'm happy to report that with this movie, Pixar finally has its mojo back. They've got a movie that's not only fun, moving, and engaging, but also not controversial. We've had 2 sellouts so far and two shows today with about 3/4 attendance, and word of mouth looks to be really good.
The movie is VERY inventive in its visuals, as it seeks to top the originality of the original film, in which we find out how the inner workings of 9-year-old Riley's mind function (and dysfunction). Riley is a typical kid with typical parents, and her various emotions like Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Disgust team up to help keep her on the right track to becoming a "good person."
This movie has a similar story, but dives into what happens when Riley turns 13 and Puberty sets in -- a literal wrecking crew shows up at "headquarters" and begins tearing the place up, you know, just like what happens in real life. Several new emotions show up to cause trouble for the new teenager -- Embarassment, Envy, Ennui (some kids might be inspired to look that one up) and especially Anxiety, who seems to be helpful at first, but eventually causes more trouble than the rest of them combined.
The proceedings are surprisingly moving in spots, especially when Joy, who ruled the roost in the first film, suddenly finds out she's not "needed as much" anymore. It's up to Sadness to save the day, in a series of plot twists too twisty to go through here, which leads me to my only complaint about this film.
I noticed some of this in the first movie too, but to me Pixar's only failing is, sometimes, they fall victim something I call Lazy Writer Syndrome. This occurs when the writers have painted themselves into a corner, storywise, and have to concoct some improbably impossible solution to get themselves out of it. In the Pixar classic "Up," it happened when the talking dog showed up. In this movie, it happens when Riley has lost her "sense of self" and while tracking it down, the emotions from the original film find themselves stranded at the "back of the mind," having gotten stuck on the wrong side of the "sar-chasm," (which is a literal chasm) and need to blow up a cliff of the chasm to cause a huge avalanche of bad memories and then ride the avanlance back to headquarters to restore Riley's "sense of self" to its proper place. (See what I mean?) The only thing dumber than that solution is the way they get the "dynamite" to blow up the cliff.
Having detailed all that, I'll still say that I found the movie immensely entertaining and would highly recommend it to any parents of adolescents. Kids might not understand all the plot intricacies, but will still be entertained with the colorful characters, action, and the mind-numbing enthusiasm of Amy Poehler, who plays Joy as if she has recently consumed about 200 gallons of coffee with a chocolate milkshake chaser.
The animation is amazingly unique, especially in some scenes where some "traditionally-animated" characters occupy the frame alongside the usual computer generated characters.
The bottom line is, this is my #5 favorite Pixar movie, after Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Ratatouille, and Coco. (The original Inside Out is just as good as this one, so I call that a tie for 5th place.) 4 out of 5 stars.
The movie is VERY inventive in its visuals, as it seeks to top the originality of the original film, in which we find out how the inner workings of 9-year-old Riley's mind function (and dysfunction). Riley is a typical kid with typical parents, and her various emotions like Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Disgust team up to help keep her on the right track to becoming a "good person."
This movie has a similar story, but dives into what happens when Riley turns 13 and Puberty sets in -- a literal wrecking crew shows up at "headquarters" and begins tearing the place up, you know, just like what happens in real life. Several new emotions show up to cause trouble for the new teenager -- Embarassment, Envy, Ennui (some kids might be inspired to look that one up) and especially Anxiety, who seems to be helpful at first, but eventually causes more trouble than the rest of them combined.
The proceedings are surprisingly moving in spots, especially when Joy, who ruled the roost in the first film, suddenly finds out she's not "needed as much" anymore. It's up to Sadness to save the day, in a series of plot twists too twisty to go through here, which leads me to my only complaint about this film.
I noticed some of this in the first movie too, but to me Pixar's only failing is, sometimes, they fall victim something I call Lazy Writer Syndrome. This occurs when the writers have painted themselves into a corner, storywise, and have to concoct some improbably impossible solution to get themselves out of it. In the Pixar classic "Up," it happened when the talking dog showed up. In this movie, it happens when Riley has lost her "sense of self" and while tracking it down, the emotions from the original film find themselves stranded at the "back of the mind," having gotten stuck on the wrong side of the "sar-chasm," (which is a literal chasm) and need to blow up a cliff of the chasm to cause a huge avalanche of bad memories and then ride the avanlance back to headquarters to restore Riley's "sense of self" to its proper place. (See what I mean?) The only thing dumber than that solution is the way they get the "dynamite" to blow up the cliff.
Having detailed all that, I'll still say that I found the movie immensely entertaining and would highly recommend it to any parents of adolescents. Kids might not understand all the plot intricacies, but will still be entertained with the colorful characters, action, and the mind-numbing enthusiasm of Amy Poehler, who plays Joy as if she has recently consumed about 200 gallons of coffee with a chocolate milkshake chaser.
The animation is amazingly unique, especially in some scenes where some "traditionally-animated" characters occupy the frame alongside the usual computer generated characters.
The bottom line is, this is my #5 favorite Pixar movie, after Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Ratatouille, and Coco. (The original Inside Out is just as good as this one, so I call that a tie for 5th place.) 4 out of 5 stars.
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