Review: Inside Out (2015) & Lava (2015)

It’s taken me a long time to get my thoughts on Inside Out into words. Let’s just say I hold this film in a very special regard! It’s extremely rare for me to see a film in the cinema twice, but I saw this once with a close friend of mine on the day I found out that my very poorly Granny was terminal, and then again with my family just a few days after she died. 

From the original trailer, it was difficult to determine a plot for Inside Out, but it made the film a complete surprise which rarely happens now. Too often a trailer gives away so much of the plot it’s barely worth even investing the time at the cinema. So, the plot is simple in theory, a young girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) moves to San Francisco with her parents when her Dad gets a new job. Her emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Fear (Bill Hader) struggle to cope with the move, a new school, new friends, and a difficult life at home.

To begin with, let me quickly mention the short played before Inside Out, Lava. As a Disney fan, I get just as excited for the short as I do for the feature film, and although nothing will be able to top Feast for me, Lava was beautiful. Told in song, Lava is about a volcano in Hawaii who is lonely, and wishes he has someone to love just like everything else around him. This song is absolutely making it onto the wedding playlist somewhere my fiance won’t notice, ha.

Back to Inside Out, and one thing I can’t get over is how complex the whole thing is, but also how simple it is at the same time. I mean, any small child would love this. It’s bright, it’s colourful, it has plenty of funny moments, but as a grown up going through some stuff, this film really spoke to me. Riley has ‘personality islands’ which represent her core beliefs and loves, and I spent the car ride home trying to work out what my own islands would be. I’d have a blogging island, for sure!

Everything to do with your mind and thoughts are in this film. There’s a thought train, which is literally a train, and subconsciousness which is scary as hell. Down in long term memory are little workers who dispose of all the memories that have been disused for so long, they’re deemed no longer needed. That’s why I’ve forgotten nearly everything I was taught in Math class I reckon!

The casting for the main emotions was perfect, too. I know Amy Poehler from Parks & Recreation and she just buzzes with Joy. Phyllis Smith as Sadness was a great choice, too. If you’ve seen her in anything else you’ll know that she doesn’t put on any other kind of voice for Inside Out, that’s just her and she portrays it perfectly.

It was the lesson of the film that hit me the hardest. The fact that sometimes, we need to feel sadness to become happy again was something I’d forgotten all about, and it’s so true. Going to see this with my family whilst we all felt so sad was difficult, but we all said we couldn’t remember the last time we all went to see a film together. In fact, we weren’t even sure it had ever happened, and so that night will be a happy memory of mine forever.