Movies

'Inside Out' Early Buzz: Pixar Makes A Sweet Return To Form

Inside Out
By Angie Han

Pixar never stopped being good, but for a little while it stopped being great. Cars 2 was the first Pixar movie to get a "Rotten" score, and while Brave and Monsters University fared better they couldn't live up to the likes of Up and Wall-E.

So there's a lot riding on Pete Docter's Inside Out, which with its inventive premise and emotional appeal, looks like a potential return to form for the studio. And now that the film has made its debut at Cannes, it seems our hopes were not misplaced. Get the Inside Out early buzz after the jump. 

So far, the Inside Out early buzz ranges from really positive to really, really positive. It may not be definitively better than Up or Wall-E, but it's reportedly strong enough to stand with them, and that's high praise indeed. If you've been hoping for Pixar to regain its former magic, Inside Out is at least a very big step in the right direction.

The Playlist (B+):

[O]nce the gigantic machine is up and running, these issues mostly fall away like booster engines from a space rocket, and the film, in the second half of its slim 94 minute run time, soars right into that Pixar-trademarked sweet spot in the tender area between deliriously happy and tremblingly sad.

Irish Times (4/5):

A Numbskulls for the digital generation, Inside Out is funny enough, sweet enough and wise enough to sit in an adjacent room to Up and WALL-E. It is not in the same class as those films, but the team is clearly back on the right road.

The Guardian (4/5):

It hasn't anything as genuinely emotionally devastating as Up, or the subtlety and inspired subversion of Monsters Inc. and the Toy Stories which it certainly resembles at various stages. But it is certainly a terrifically likeable, ebullient and seductive piece of entertainment, taken at full-throttle. There is that sheen of pure professionalism that I associate with its executive producer and presiding deity, John Lasseter.

Variety:

Pixar's 15th feature proves to be the greatest idea the toon studio has ever had: a stunningly original concept that will not only delight and entertain the company's massive worldwide audience, but also promises to forever change the way people think about the way people think, delivering creative fireworks grounded by a wonderfully relatable family story.

HitFix:

What truly makes "Inside Out" remarkable, however, is how incredibly creative it is. [...] There is a wealth of new ideas here that put recent Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios films to shame.

TheWrap:

[S]uffice it to say that this stands with "Up," "WALL-E" and "Toy Story 3" as one of Pixar's richest and most satisfying films.

Coming Soon (8/10):

As we've come to expect from Pixar, Inside Out is another gorgeous, colorful film that often makes you forget you're watching animation. Inside Out is a bittersweet look at childhood's end that might be Pixar's most layered and complex film since Ratatouille.

Cine Vue (4/5):

It's quite simply a triumph and one of post-Toy Story Pixar's best, sitting next to 2009's Up in terms of heart.

Telegraph (5/5):

This is a humane and heart-wrenchingly beautiful film from Docter; even measured alongside Pixar's numerous great pictures, it stands out as one of the studio's very best.

And let's wrap up with some quick tweets.

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