INSIDE OUT DVD (2015)

SYNOPSIS: Do you ever look at someone and wonder what's going on inside their head? Disney.Pixar's Inside Out takes a rollicking journey into the mind to find the answer. Based in Headquarters, the control centre of 11-year-old Riley's mind, five emotions are hard at work led by lighthearted optimist Joy. She strives to make sure Riley stays happy as she operates alongside fellow emotions Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Pete Docter somehow has the ability to toy with our emotions. Remember how he made us tear up within minutes of Up? Now he has gone one step further, exploring the emotions of an 11-year-old girl, Riley.

Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Anger (Lewis Black) reside in the mind of Riley dubbed the Headquarters. Everyday, the five emotions influence Riley’s actions, personality and of course emotions until one day when Riley and his family relocate from their Midwestern home to San Francisco that her personality starts to take a drastic emotional change. Now it’s up to Joy and the unlikely Sadness to bring Riley back to the right track.

Inside Out is far more complicated than an exuberant Amy Poehler doing her voiceover. It is often bursting with complicated ideas, colorful characters and layers of complex storytelling. Finally, there’s an animation that doesn’t take viewers for granted. It’s an adult animation packaged as a kiddy flick and we are sure it’s going to be on the list of everyone’s favourite movies of 2015.

We love how the story present and conceptualized the idea of our core memory and long-term memories. We nearly hyperventilate when we saw the gorgeously created colorful world of Riley’s mind. An imaginary boyfriend machine and a dream studio, gosh it’s more than brilliant. We nearly tear ourselves when Riley’s childhood imaginary friend, Bing Bong (Richard Kind) got left behind once again and we simply can’t stop rooting for Joy to get back to Headquarters to reinstall Ridley’s core memories so she can resume her original self.

Beside the incredible story, the animation team painstakingly created characters, which we could relate to even though we have never come across emotions presented as characters. Sadness for one will win fans over the years despite the obvious fact that they are hard to sell as merchandises unlike the lovable Baymax. Certainly a bold decision on Disney/Pixar’s part.

Pixar’s 15^th movie after the so-so Cars 2 and Brave proved the studio is still a force to be reckoned with. It’s amazingly inventive and clever that it’s compulsory to make repeated viewings to fully appreciate some of the onscreen witty concepts. An absolute delight for the entire family. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The only extra is the musical short film – Lava. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Character designs, textures, details and colors are flawless. This is a Pixar production after all. Sound effects are well placed and immersive while dialogue is rich and clean. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee