Inside Out: Pete Docter

Pete Docter's Inside Out marks a return to the fastidious creativity and courage that made PIXAR a house-hold name. Beautifully animated, thought-provoking, and unapologetically willing to test the limits of their audience's emotions, Inside Out is the best film PIXAR has put out since 2010 with Toy Story 3 (2010). And yet, I was largely disappointed with the third act. There was way too much slapstick comedic relief during moments that should have been tense with dramatic weight. The anthropomorphic interpretations of Riley's emotions work as characters because they're metaphorical. But in the last act they use Tex Avery-esque logic to overcome challenges (e.g. using hundreds of clones of Riley's ideal boyfriend to create a human bridge) that the entire metaphorical underpinning of the story becomes confused, cluttered, and nearly lost.

7/10