Inside Out Review - Pixar Back on Form

In the middle of 2014, I remember thinking to myself that I didn't really care about Pixar anymore. Back then I just thought it was because I'd grown out of it. I was 12, I was older now, I could legally buy a Marvel film on DVD, I could get library books out without my parents knowing, I didn't need to watch these silly children's films. In hindsight, however, I see it differently. The problem wasn't me, it was Pixar. Just look at the last films they'd made; Monsters University (2013), Brave (2012) and Cars 2 (2011). None of these were awful films by any means, but they weren't really up to Pixar's usual standards.

Then along came Inside Out and I realised that I was being ridiculous. I hadn't grown out of Pixar, there's no such thing. Whilst Minions appealed mainly to younger audiences by being just plain silly, with silly jokes, silly stories and silly characters, Inside Out, just like Pixar's best work, appealed to everyone by being smart, with smart jokes, smart stories and smart characters, but most importantly, gorgeous animation to tie it all together.

I know I said in my Minions review that most animation companies can animate beautifully nowadays, but none can do it like Pixar. Everything they do is just sublime on a technical and creative level and Inside Out is no exception. Every single corner of the screen is bursting with vibrant, energetic animation, all of which is filled with the most wonderfully inventive and clever design I've seen in any film in a long time.

It also helps that the story and the writing is just as creative, with the film exploring surprisingly real and important issues within a story that's engaging at the same time. Also, although the film may not be a constant laugh riot, the jokes that are made are all very well written, although a lot of the humour comes from insightful observations about the way our brains naturally work, that are implemented brilliantly into the film's visual design (notable examples include the 'perfect boyfriend creator' and 'dreamland productions') as opposed to straight up jokes.

Inside Out showcases a welcome return to form for Pixar. After a few average Pixar outings, it's wonderful to see them make a film that may not have you laughing from start to finish, but will constantly impress you with it's amazing animation, visual design and writing in a way that Pixar hasn't achieved since the original Toy Story.

Inside Out - Overall Score: 9/10

Comments

A Horrible Christmas Rant

Horrible, Horrible Christmas, In Every Single Sense of the Word Horrible Christmas - A Quick Rant by Nathan Brooks The Good When you expect one thing, and get something else, you can get very angry. You can get so angry that you refuse to acknowledge the positives of what you have got, and just focus on what you haven't got. For example, Agents of SHIELD. I think Agents of SHIELD is great, but unfortunately I don't appear to share that opinion with a lot of other people. Why? Because they're too busy whining about the lack of all the superhero-y stuff they expected and fair enough, considering you are watching a Marvel TV show. However, I've managed to let that initial disappointment go, and I've found I really enjoy this show. The Bad Horrible Christmas, a Horrible Histories stage production, is the complete opposite of this. As the theme of this post suggests, I expected something great. Horrible Histories is the only children's educatio...

Is Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?! Any Good?

Dude, Where's My Funny?! Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?! - Film Review by Nathan Brooks Nativity's lack of critical success completely baffles me. I thought Nativity was a great movie. It was funny, it had more depth to it than most comedies and was overall just a fun movie. Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger's lack of critical success, I understand a lot better. I still remember it being fairly entertaining, but I was about 11 then, and I didn't have a brilliant judgement of what makes a good movie. Of what I can remember, however, it was nowhere near as good as Nativity in terms of story and character and basically everything important needed to make a good film. I also remember that they spent most of the movie in a bus. Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey is proof that the film makers have given up on trying to please the critics. This is an awful film. Nativity 2 was not a brilliant movie, but it at least kept me entertained for however long it...

Is Avengers: Age of Ultron Any Good?

Avengers Assemble! Again! Avengers: Age of Ultron - Film Review by Nathan Brooks And they say English Weather's bad. Back in the summer of 2012, a little film came out called Avengers Assemble. It wasn't much. It's only the biggest superhero film of all time and it only made $1.518 billion. Everybody loved it, I loved it and clearly moviegoers did as well. Due to its massive success, obviously a sequel was going to be made. In this case, that sequel is Avengers: Age of Ultron, but with all the hype it's received, is it actually any good? Story The story in this film is definitely not for first time Marvel viewers, you really need to see most, if not all, of the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films. It is packed full of references to earlier films and understanding a lot of elements of the story will require you to have seen the others. But is the story any good? I thinks so. The main story centres around the fact that Tony Stark, or Iron Man, has ...

Search This Blog