Pixar’s brilliant romp through human psychology (honestly, they cover more in this movie than my freshman psych course did), Inside Out, is another feather in the cap for the studio’s most accomplished director at this point: Pete Docter. The film won a much deserved Best Animated Feature Oscar last year. It’s not as funny a film as some of the Pixar classics, but it is endlessly imaginative and at times packs as big an emotional punch as any film in Pixar’s canon. The number of people who have told me that Bing Bong messed them up for days is stunning. That’s not to say that the film isn’t hilarious in parts while exploring human thought processes. The pinnacle of the look inside our minds is the dinner scene in which Riley’s parents do a pretty fine job of exemplifying the difference between how the genders think in a three-and-a-half minute sequence. It doesn’t just work for Inside Out, though. I found this brilliant smash-up of the dinner scene with Walter, Jesse, and Skylar from Breaking Bad cut together with the same mind processes and it’s just as good and just as funny. Pixar recently announced that the sequelizing of their previous films (with Cars 3, Toy Story 4, and Incredibles 2 on the horizon) will end and they’ll be back to making original features. That’s good news for all movie fans, because when they’re on, Pixar pushes the bound of imagination like no other studio can.
Something happened to Pixar post-Toy Story 3…..it became just another animation studio. Whereas (with the exception of the abomination that was Cars 2) Pixar has been cranking out some of the best animated films ever created since 1995’s original Toy Story, the last few years have been just…good. But good isn’t good when great is the expectation, and ever since I heard the concept for Pete Docter’s (Monsters Inc, Up) film, I’ve been longing to see Inside Out. Docter does not disappoint and delivers Pixar’s most imaginative triumph to date. I’m not saying Inside Out is Pixar’s best film, but I can’t think of any other title in their catalog that has so many literally mind-blowing ideas stuffed into one movie. Continue reading My Favorite Scene: Inside Out (2015) “Family Dinner – Inside and Out”