Tag Archives: Pete Docter

The best compliment I can give Inside Out is that it would still be a great movie if you lopped half of it off. There’s a worthwhile story to be told about an eleven-year-old girl moving halfway across the country and struggling to adjust to her new environment. The emotional beats of Riley’s story — feeling the need to put on a happy face for the good of her parents, buckling under the pressure, and deciding to run away — are compelling and poignant all on their own.

Likewise, if Inside Out were just a wild romp through the mind of a child, it would still be uproarious and inventive from beginning to end. The movie works just as well as a buddy comedy, with Joy and Sadness traipsing through a colorful labyrinth, leaping over hurdles both literal and metaphorical, and eventually finding common ground. As I discussed on the We Love to Watch Podcast, you could take either of these tales, make it the whole movie, and still create something wonderful and stirring.

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