The Disney-owned animation company Pixar was on a rare downturn following Toy Story 3, with both original films and sequels underselling at the box office. Suddenly, in 2015, Inside Out restored faith in the magic of the emotionally charged filmmaking spirit of the beloved company’s output. Since then, enough viewers have held onto the powerfully nuanced message of Inside Out to generate sequel interest for 2024, so let’s revisit why this could be considered the best of Pixar’s filmography.
Inside Out Synopsis
Inside Out personifies the emotions of an 11-year-old girl named Riley, who we see in a moment of disruption in the normalcy of life when her parents move her from their home state of Minnesota to the unfamiliar territory of San Francisco. As the embodiment of Riley’s Joy attempts to keep the girl happy at all cost, her conflicting emotions of Fear, Anger, Disgust, and particularly Sadness have other reactions to this troubled period for Riley.
Critics Shouted Praise for Inside Out
On Rotten Tomatoes, Inside Out comes in fourth among all Pixar films on its critics’ aggregate ranking, with a score of 98%, with only Toy Story 2, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo ahead of it. Though Toy Story will always remain the most significant release in Pixar history, releasing one of its best films ever on the 20th anniversary of the company is rare for any film studio, let alone one with such a reputation for quality. Inside Out appeared on numerous best lists of the year, decade, and animation history, all while winning several awards, such as the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Theatrical and Streaming Audiences Still Adore The Film
‘Inside Out’
Inside Out is not an outlier for commercial success, but especially given Disney’s modern difficulty in getting audiences for its original film slate, Inside Out is a notable success. This film came out after Monsters University, Brave, and Cars 2, the last of which is considered one of the worst Pixar films ever, so Inside Out‘s box office and critical uptick could not have had better timing. Audiences responded to the film’s lovable voice cast and the authentic message about growing up, thought by some to be one of Pixar’s most poignant, human-centric stories of all time. Inside Out still gets enough streaming popularity on Disney+, enough for the franchise to start on a TV show rumored to be expanding the emotion options from five to the double digits.
Inside Out is Critical to the Modern Pixar Legacy
In every facet, Disney and Pixar’s releases in the streaming era are not doing as well as in previous decades, especially in the department of animated original films. On the Disney side, Strange World showed record-low interest in the long-running studio globally, while Pixar just released one of its most critically panned movies to date (Elemental still got positive reviews, but relative to Pixar’s legacy, the results were worse than anyone hoped). In the past decades following Finding Nemo, Inside Out stands out in every regard for its universally applicable, evocative story that appeals to any age. Historically and critically, Inside Out is the essential modern Pixar watch, and we can only hope that Inside Out 2 stands out as well, not just yet another Pixar sequel but a return to unforgettably moving experiences.
Inside Out is streaming now on Disney+.
