Inside Out is Pixar at its best #FandangoFamily

Name a movie studio that produces quality films and Pixar is almost certainly one of the first ones that you mention. Sure the other studios have hits and produce quality films, but Pixar has an expectation level that accompanies no other studio. Inside Out is Pixar’s 15^th feature film and stands beside Toy Story in regards as what to expect from them and how good an animated film can be.

I haven’t set your expectations up to high, have I? Mind you, I’m no Pixar sycophant, Monster’s University was lame, Brave was OK and Cars 2 was so-so, but the eight movies that preceded those were entertaining for adults, as well as, children for various reasons.

Inside the mind of Josh Baskin is a Pixar film. Josh Baskin is the character from Big, the 1988 film. That script, along with Tom Hank’s acting made us believe that a 12 year old became a mid-30’s toy executive. It was written and acted with such wonder that you wanted him to succeed in the corporate world and return to his mother as a child again.

The best Pixar movies are like that. It’s one film that operates on two levels.

I saw Inside Out with a 14 and 12 year old.  We all loved it, but for different reasons, yet had the same reactions at critical moments in the film.
And Inside Out, on the surface, isn’t a film that I would get emotionally attached to. It stars a pre-teen girl, whose main characters are her emotions and a period in her life when she’s going through lots of change.

I saw this film before and I think that John Hughes directed it.  But wait, that’s a different film and that character had red hair with a soundtrack that really rocked a la 1984.

Inside Out is the most moving, complex, strange and intelligent Pixar film since Up. It’s also earnestly emotional, tells a fabulous story and takes you back to your childhood in a way that you haven’t seen since Toy Story.

It does all of this without scraping story elements or goodwill from previous films in a film that is entertaining from start to finish.

During the film I heard my co-movie watchers sniffle. At the same time I flexed my calf in an effort to distract my emotions from crying so that they wouldn’t see me cry. A crying uncle in a film may not be too cool, but I’ll have to check the teen handbook on that one.

Inside out is the film that you’ve been waiting to see. It’s a family film. It’s a great film. It’s a film that will stand up against time and have people writing about it the same way that people still heap praise on Toy Story.  Inside Out is rated PG for mild thematic elements and light action.  We saw it in 3D, but that’s not necessary to enjoy the film.