The Movie Gourmet

I’m a huge Pixar admirer, and I usually walk out of a Pixar movie THRILLED.  That didn’t happen with Inside Out, a smart and entertaining movie, but one that got more attention from my head than my heart.

Inside Out is the story of a well-adjusted girl named Riley, who is yanked out of her comfort zone when her Dad’s job suddenly takes the family to San Francisco.  The story is told from the perspective of her emotions, five characters (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust) who command her behavior from a Head-Quarters (get it?).   In watching what happens to Riley, kids in the audience get to understand how emotions are okay and how  even sadness is normal; that’s all fine, but, as The Wife reminded me, Inside Out, along with Pixar’s recent Up and Wall-E, is a little preachy.

As one would expect, the animation and the voice acting are top-rate.  Where writers-directors Pete Dockter and Ronaldo Del Carmen really excel, however, is in imagining and then depicting the mechanisms of human thinking and feeling: the Emotions, Islands of Personality, Core Memories, the Train of Thought and the Subconscious.  It’s very smart and original stuff.

The sad parts are very pronounced and, in my opinion, too slow and deeply sad.   As someone scarred by the death of Bambi’s mother,  I was distracted by worrying about the little kids in the theater.  That being said, I accompanied eight-year-old twins and a ten-year-old to Inside Out.  The eight-year-olds were engrossed, and afterwards didn’t mention being too scared or too sad.  The ten-year-old grunted apprehensively a few times during the movie, but afterwards resolutely denied that it was ever too scary.  So there.  But, still, it was too sad for ME in places.

None of the children at the screening got fidgety, despite there being far less than usual of the slapstick humor that kids favor.   Most of the humor seemed adult-centered, evoking lots of knowing chuckles from the grown-ups.  The end credits – with dog, and then cat, emotions – are hilarious.

After those meh comments, I need to draw attention to Lava, the Pixar animated short that precedes the feature.  It’s seven minutes of cinema magic by filmmaker James Ford Murphy.  It’s a musical love story between two Hawaiian volcanoes.  The volcanoes are named Uku and Lele, and the message is a simple and sentimental one (“I Lava You”), but Lava isn’t the least bit corny.  The story is told through song – just two voices accompanied by ukulele – by Hawaiian musicians Kuana Torres Kehele and Napua Greig.   For sheer beauty, it’s up there with the recording of Over the Rainbow by the late Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.  I’m pretty jaded, but anyone too cynical to enjoy Lava should re-examine himself. Loved it.