(Movie) It's all in your head...a look at Inside Out

While this review was going to be about Mad Max, turns out they took the movie down from the main cinemas on Tuesday.

So I ended up going to see Inside Out.

I had the theatre.

I'd heard good things about it prior to watching it, but as it was all spoiler free, I didn't know what to expect.

As a side note before we start: If you feel like you repress a lot of your feelings, I'd advise going to see this movie.

Let's begin!

Story/Dialogue: Story goes that since Riley was born, she has had Joy. Joy's goal is to make Riley feel happy. Along the way she works with other emotions including Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear.
When Joy tries to maintain order, she ends up in the bowels of Riley's mind with Sadness. They have to get back before Riley loses her mind.

Okay, the concept alone is fantastic. Emotions that feel and function are wonderful and the intricacies of how Riley's mind works is delightful.

Amy Poehler channels some serious Leslie Knope vibes as Joy and all the other characters play their parts excellently.

The dialogue was witty and well received with laughs. Each of the characters were incredibly endearing and their dialogue matched their personalities.

Cinematography/Animation: The animation was exquisite. I loved the little detail in each of the emotions where they look slightly smudged if you look close enough.
Looking at the inner workings of the long term memory that looks like a brain, the memories, the vividness of the colours and the textures! Oh my goodness they must have taken eons to render!

There's one particular sequence that I will not spoil, but makes the movie. It's very...abstract.

Audio: One thing that bugged me was the repetitiveness of the music. They had a theme and they stuck with it predominately throughout the movie. There were moments of atmospheric music that complemented the situation, but the overarching theme weaved throughout the movie. While I normally don't mind this, it irritated me because of how simplistic the tune was.

On top of that, while it was simplistic, it wasn't memorable.


Overall: Part of me was incredibly thankful that I was the only one in the theatre.

I have never come across a movie that brought me so close to tears. It was overwhelming. As I write this message, just thinking about it makes my eyes well up.

This movie MAKES YOU CARE! While story is structurally the most important part of the movie, connecting with the audience is just as, if not more important.

We all have emotions, so we can relate to these characters. We've all had moments where we feel so out of control that we do stupid and drastic things.

We all feel.

This movie is like finishing a huge meal at Christmas. Fit to burst, yet satisfied.

5 stars.

(Movie) Havin' a ball! (But only 'til midnight)....a look at Cinderella.

Walking out of the cinema, I found myself a little disappointed....


BY THE LACK OF COLOUR IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD!!!! Holy crap was that movie was so colourful!!! It was like watching a mantis shrimp getting into a fistfight with a unicorn.

In any case, this movie is the live action retelling of a young girl who was abused by her stepmother and two sisters, only to end up at a ball and win the heart of a monarch.

I feel that this time, they did it so much better.


Story/Dialogue: Some of you may be asking if it stayed true to the original story. For the most part, I would say yes. However, they did include extra parts in it which only improve the original story. One example is when Ella and Kit meet early on in the movie. Adding this in made so much more sense and a whole lot less creepy later on in the movie. There are other little things, like Kit asking instead of ordering her to marry him.

But by far one of my favourite parts of this movie is Ella herself. She's a well rounded character who can be kind and still smack you down without seeming arrogant or obnoxious. Seeing her break, only to become stronger as a result and still maintain her kindness only made her more appealing.

With this said, the exposition at the beginning was rather slow to start. I found myself groaning at the narration and the, 'I must get everything out in a single breath so that you learn something,' lines.

That was one of my only beef with the movie, honestly.

The actors performed wonderfully. Cate Blanchett is fantastic at being anything she steps into. Hayley Atwell left too soon, in my opinion. Overall, the story, dialogue and characters were wonderful.


Cinematography: For this part, not only will I cover the lighting, framing and angles, but the CGI.

Visually, this movie was a sensory wet dream. The colours were rich, the lighting grand and the framing tight.

It had the grand scale of the Great Gatsby, but most, if not all of the characters were likeable in some way or another.

The symbolism of the natural robin's egg blue of Cinderella's dress versus the artificial colours of her step sisters was a nice touch.

Whatever team performed that epic transformation from pumpkin to carriage should be given all the awards. That scene could only be described as, 'Magical.' The animators of this film did an amazing job at transitioning each of the animals and the dress! Seeing that blew me away.


Audio: There's something about audio that makes visuals so much more intense.
Listening to upbeat music with bright colours around makes them seem brighter. Sinister or sad music makes the colours seem dull.

They interweave with each other and it's a delight when both audio and visual are in perfect harmony.

However, one thing that struck me odd is that the audio track sometimes didn't match up to the mouth movements.

This was my other beef.

Overall: This movie was an absolute delight to watch. Visual and audio candy. Aside from those two hiccups aforementioned, this movie was as pristine as the glass slipper fitted to Ella's foot.

5 stars.