# Inside Out 3D - Blu-ray Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=57609[/img] 
*Title: Inside Out 3D* 

*Movie:* :4stars:
*Video:* :5stars:
*3D:* :4stars:
*Audio:* :4.5stars: 
*Extras:* :4.5stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*92




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=57617[/img]*Summary*
What’s with the stinking ONIONS in Pixar movies!? I know, that’s the only reasonable explanation for making a grown man snuffle and cry like a 12 year old boy. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Pixar has always deal with emotions, giving life to toys, helping a Scottish princess find her heart, and NOW they’ve given emotions….well…..emotions. I didn’t get to watch “Inside Out” in the theaters for some strange reason (I’ve seen every Pixar movie in theaters for the last 12 years I think), but was EAGERLY awaiting the Blu-ray to get back into one of my favorite studios. “Inside Out” is a bit different than normal Pixar movies, being a stranger and a bit more abstract than the fans are used to. However the guys behind the writing team know how to pull the right strings and tweak the right emotions to have me giggling, smiling, feeling sad and snuffling tears of joy all at the same time by the end of the hour and a half film. .

Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) has had a pretty easy life up until now. She’s had her bouts of sadness, anger, and disgust, but most of her memories are pretty happy. That is until her Mom (Diane Lane) and Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) decide that they have to move from their happy little town in Minnesota and transplant to San Francisco (I know, it made me even shudder) for a new business venture. While it may seem obvious to us that there would be conflicting emotions upon the subject, so Pixar has taken the story one step further than you would expect. Delving inside Riley’s head, we get to understand the actual emotions that drive her (quite literally). Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and due to the extreme happiness that Riley has had up until now, Joy (Amy Poehler). 

Joy is having a hard time dealing with that fact that Riley is growing up and now has to deal with a much more complex mixture of emotions than she was previously dealing with. Frustrated at Sadness even being there, Joy does her best to keep the 11 year old girl happy and trouble free. Sadly, with a new move and all of her comforts of home gone, Riley is not as cooperative with Joy’s attempts as she would have hoped. In a freak accident when dealing with sad memories, Joy and Sadness get sucked out of the control center and down into Riley’s long term memories, leaving Riley without Joy OR Sadness to help guide her in this troubling time. The leftover emotions soon come to realize that without Joy or Sadness, Riley isn’t a complete person anymore, and they can’t run the ship alone. Riley soon becomes moody and angry, fearful of everything around here. A shell of her former self. 

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=57625[/img]
While Riley is trying to come to grips with the fact that she has lost two major emotions, Sadness and Joy are desperately trying to make their way back home. However, without their guidance, Riley’s core personality starts changing, destroying links to the control center as they start to crumble and fade in her memory. With the help of Bing Bong (Richard Kind), a distant memory of Riley’s imaginary childhood friend, the duo has to trek through the recesses of Riley’s mind and hopefully restore balance to the young girl’s life.

“Inside Out” is a distinct change of pace for Pixar. The story is more chaotic and almost schizophrenic at points. I guess it’s to be expected, as going inside a person’s mind has always been portrayed as being rather abstract. Movies like “The Cell” and “Inside John Malkovich” come to mind, but in this case much softer and more childish. The trek through abstract thought and imagination land come to mind here. Still, the basic core of a Pixar movie is intact. The heroes gain an obstacle in the path, and have to fight their way back home and learn some life lessons along the way. Joy, as much as she is the main character here (the real world people are really more of background characters), has to come to grips that her role is changing ever so slightly. With Riley maturing, or at least growing up, she battles the ever present notion of change. Unwilling to accept the idea that Sadness has a place in her world, she fights for the status quo, even if that unwittingly may end up destroying all of Riley’s core personality.

The emotions really make the movie for me. There’s no better person to play Anger than Lewis Black himself, the comedian who has made a career out of being constantly angry. Amy Poehler as Joy is great, but not as stereoptyped, as the actress has suddenly had a massive surge in popularity recently. Bill Hader is fantastic as the Steve Erkel nerdy Fear and Mindy works it as the diva Disgust. Phyllis Smith (“The Office” anyone?) makes you just blue with sadness listening to her voice, and combined, the make a perfect team. I couldn’t stop laughing at the interactions between the opposing emotions as well as the INSANELY funny emotions within the parents (the dad will make anyone double over with laughter), and a goofy young teenage boy who takes a shine to Riley.



*Rating:* 

Rated PG for mild thematic elements and some action 



*Video* :5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=57633[/img]Do I really have to tell you that “Inside Out” is a stunner in the video department? Well, since there IS this whole section for me to write, I will oblige. “Inside Out” comes to Blu-ray with an absolutely stellar 1.78:1 AVC encoded image. Complete with every color imaginable, the movie just sparkle with incredible detail and spectacular digital animation that is as pure and straight from the tap as one can get. The detailing in the animated film is just something to marvel at. Riley pulling her mom’s credit card from her purse had my jaw hanging on the floor, as the animated in a billion tiny bumps and textures to the purse in ways that really had me marveling at how far animation has come. The picture is razor sharp, with no signs of digital artifacting or anything else that might distract from the movie. Blacks are deep and inky, with no sing of crush, and the colors are richly saturated with golds, reds, blues and every color in between. Simply put, an AMAZING looking 2D image. 







*3D* :4stars:
I find it hard to ever get a PERFECT 3D image, as 3D has some natural quirks to the process (at least in its current form) that make it ever so slightly less pleasing to the eye in comparison to the 2D image. Still, Pixar has done a wonderful job with the 3D presentation, focusing much more on the depth of the picture, and the layering, rather than any pop out effects. Sure there is some great pop out moments, but the depth of the imagery and the detailed background layering are the real stars of this encode. I didn’t notice any major ghosting or crosstalk from the picture and the image is only EVERY so slightly darker than the 2D disc. 





*Audio* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=57641[/img]Mmmmmmm, again, I really feel like I’m beating a dead horse, but the 7.1 DTS-HD MA track is simply SUPERB. I’ve noticed this with the last couple of Disney/Pixar releases (Toy Story that Time Forgot had this as well), but “Inside Out” comes with three different English audio tracks. The first is the 7.1 DTS-HD MA lossless track, but there is also a 5.1 DTS-HD HR lossy track as well as a 2.0 Dolby Digital track for night listening. While the DTS-HD HR might not be 100% lossless, it does make a good option for those of you with 5.1 whose receivers introduce audio artifacts when folding a 7.1 track into 5.1 (the Onkyo 605 I had before suffered from this). The 7.1 experience is worth every bit of praise, as it is wonderfully articulate and finely detailed all the way around. The LFE is punchy and tight, but doesn’t act as a huge mainstay of the film, acting as a support role in many ways. Dialog is crisp and clean, located up in the center channel, while the surrounds are wildly active with all sort of activity from rolling memory balls, to the crash and bang of an old rocket ship that Bing Bong and Joy use to escape “the pit”.









*Extras* :4.5stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=57649[/img]
• Lava
• Audio Commentary
• Riley’s First Date? (Animated Short)
• The Women of "Inside Out"
• Mixed Emotions
• Trailers
• Story of the Story
• Mapping the Mind
• Our Dads, the Filmmakers
• Into the Unknown: The Sound of "Inside Out"
• The Misunderstood Art of Animation Film Editing
• Mind Candy
• Deleted Scenes 





*Overall:* :4.5stars:

Witty and charming, “Inside Out” doesn’t make you cry as much as “Toy Story”, or laugh as much as “Monster’s Inc” or “Ratatouille”, but it certainly is a lot better than the slight duds that have been “Planes’ and “Cars 2”. I enjoyed the fractured storyline quite a bit and was REALLY impressed with the copious amount of extras on the disc. Recently we’ve seen a downturn in the amount of extras tossed on board home media, but Pixar really went all out and loaded up the disc with a LOT of goodies. Audio and video are spectacular (which is really to be expected from Pixar/Disney), which allows me to give this one two thumbs up. Highly Recommended. 



*Additional Information:*

Starring: Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Lewis Black
Directed by: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen
Written by: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 7.1, English DTS-HD HR 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Studio: Pixar
Rated: PG
Runtime: 94 Minutes 
Blu-ray Release Date: September 29th 2015


*Buy Inside Out 3D Blu-ray on Amazon*
*Buy Inside Out 2D Blu-ray on Amazon*



*Recommendation: Highly Recommended​*







More about Mike


----------



## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

Thanks for the review. We saw this when it was in the theaters and we watched the 2d version. We all enjoyed it. We will get this one. A great gift for the holidays!


----------



## Jon Liu (May 21, 2007)

Thanks for the review, Mike. I really wanted to see this one in theaters, but missed out on it. I am picking this one up today and will likely watch this with the wife today.

My wife's not the crier in the family, so I'll have to have a bag of fresh cut onions nearby to bust out as my excuse, I'm sure!


----------

