Pixar's "Inside Out" Is a Great Idea (And a Great Movie)

Over the past 20 years since the release of Toy Story, Pixar Animation has taken us on many great adventures, from the oceans to outer space to the monsters living inside our closet.

It's newest release Inside Out, takes us on a journey through the thing that has puzzled humanity for most of our existence on Earth: that of the human mind.

The 15th film from the Disney-owned Emeryville studio begins with the birth of Riley, which causes her emotion Joy (Amy Poehler) to come into existence. But she is soon joined by Sadness (Phyllis Smith) right when Riley starts crying. Later as Riley grows up her emotions begin to include Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling).

Everything in Riley's life seems perfect, until her family suddenly moves from their home in Minnesota to San Francisco where her dad creates a start-up company. Being in a new home and going to a new school causes Riley's emotions to fight against one another, the main conflict between Joy, whose top priority is to make sure Riley is happy all the time, and Sadness, who Joy tries to contain as best she can. But once Joy and Sadness accidentally get sucked out of headquarters and have to find her way back, Riley is left with her three other emotions to deal with, causing her to become a moody preteen and run away from home.

Of course the film comes with a happy ending, as you would expect from a Pixar movie. But what makes this one different from all the rest is that there's no clear-cut villain. Sure Joy and Sadness come across a scary clown that is a part of Riley's biggest fears, but other than that there's no antagonist throughout the whole picture. That is because the movie's entire conflict exist within Riley herself. Inside Out deals with her thoughts, her emotions, the choices she makes, her deepest, darkest fears, and what means the most to her.

When I first heard of the movie's plot I was a bit skeptical, but once again Pixar has pulled off the impossible brilliantly. Riley's mind is a world of it's own, a visual wonderland that you can get lost in. There's imagination land with enormous french fries, Dream Productions that produces her dreams, and other parts of her brain and subconscious. There's also Riley's train of thought, which is actually a literal train.

The movie's message is a surprising one, that the emotion of sadness is actually a good thing and can be beneficial to our lives. This message may be somewhat confusing to younger viewers, but will certainly resonate with parents and older moviegoers, especially those who have dealt with depression in their own lives. The film reminds me of The Simpsons episode Lisa Sings The Blues where Lisa is sad for the most of the episode until Marge tells her that sadness is ok and that you don't have to pretend to be happy.

Some of the best moments in the film are when we go through the emotions of other characters such as Riley's parents (moms and dads will get a kick out of Riley's dad replaying a game he saw on TV in his head during dinner while his wife is talking to him). Poehler and Smith make a great pair, with Joy's bright, sunny personality contrasting with Sadness's sad, downbeat demeanor. Sadness's morbid sense of humor is also fun to watch.

While the film deals with some complex emotional issues, it shies away from including characters who have any sort of mental illness, treating everyone's mind as if they are all the same. What about people who are Bi-polar, have post traumatic stress disorder, or any other sort of emotional issue? How do the emotions within their minds interact? As the writer of this blog who has Asperger's surely knows, not everyone's minds works the way Riley's does. As the issue of mental issue has become more prevalent in our society, I'm hoping that if there is a sequel it will deal with some aspect of this. Still, Inside Out is a cinematic delight and another win for the studio that brought you Woody and Buzz. 

15 years after "Titan A.E."

15 years ago today saw the release of perhaps one of the most underrated animated movies in the history of cinema.

The film I am referring to, Titan A.E., is a visually stunning thrill ride for anyone who enjoys science fiction but ended up being a huge box-office disappointment, losing 20th Century Fox $100 million and essentially shut down the studio's animation department.

This however, doesn't necessarily mean that Titan is a bad movie. Most of the blame for the movie's demise had to do with it's botched marketing campaign, which couldn't figure out whether to target children or teenagers. Luckily I was one of the few people who saw it in theaters, and it was a blast I will always remember.

Set in the year 3043 A.D., 15 years after Earth was destroyed by a sinister alien race called The Drej (who were obviously inspired by the aliens from Independence Day) Titan finds a young man named Cale (Matt Damon) who discovers that the ring his father gave him before Earth was blown to smithereens contains a ship called the Titan, which has the ability to create a planet and give the human race a new home. Together with pilot Akima (Drew Barrymore) and her ships's captain Joseph Korso (Bill Pullman), Cale sets out on an adventure through different planets in order to find the Titan, but not without a few twists along the way.

The movie's biggest strength are its visuals, with Roger Ebert citing one sequence as demonstrating "what live action can do and animation cannot". Made by the same team who made 1997's Anastasia, Titan combines traditional 2-D animation with amazing computer generated effects when needed. Together they create a movie that is just stunningly beautiful to look at, and along with its always-moving story and great soundtrack, Ttian is one of those under the radar films that is worth checking out.

"Jurassic World" Debuts to Biggest Opening Weekend Ever

Jurassic World took a huge chunk out of the Box-Office this weekend.

Not only did the fourth entry in the Spielberg franchise debut to $208.8 million, surpassing The Avengers to have the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time, but it also grossed more than three times all the other movies played this weekend COMBINED.

That's insane.

So what led to the T-Rex size turnout that led the T-Rex size opening weekend? A lot of it certainly has to do with audience's nostalgia for the first movie, and the witty banter between Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard didn't hurt. Nor did the performances of Ty Simpkins and Nick Robinson, who play two brothers. And although this is only the second film directed by Colin Treverrow (and the first that cost north of $100 million), Worlds opening has  turned him into an A-list director overnight.

But I believe the biggest reason why this movie did so well and far surpassed expectations is because it took us back to the Jurassic Park franchise but with a twist. How many times have we seen someone being eaten by a dinosaur, chased by a dinosaur, or trying to hide from a dinosaur? What we haven't seen before, what makes this movie seem new and exciting, is that we've never before seen a fully operational Dinosaur theme park filled with actual theme park goers. It's as if we finally get to see what John Hammond's vision was when he invited Dr. Grant and everyone else in the first movie. That is what led people to flock to cinemas this weekend.

Jurassic World's Box-Office record might not end with its opening weekend. There's a chance the movie could also surpass Avatar's $760 million gross to become the biggest movie in U.S. Box Office history. To do so, World will have to gross 3.59 times its record-breaking opening weekend, which would require it to have strong legs in the coming weeks but is not entirely out of the question. Inside Out opens this Friday, but that may end up being more of a counter-programming option for families who didn't want to see dinosaurs maul people. And while Ted 2 might hurt it's chances depending on how well the Seth McFarlane flick does, World's biggest competition may be in three weeks when it faces Terminator: Genysis.