Thoughts on Pixar's Inside Out: I remember the sheer wonder of the early Pixar movies - Toy Story in particular. Since then they've devolved a little into formula; a more sophisticated one than the story arcs that most mainstream animation manage for sure, but it's that sophistication itself that becomes troubling.
Everything about a Pixar movie is precisely calibrated, even it's flights of fancy. In Inside Out, the sequence where the characters end up in a realm of Abstract Thought reminded me of the God sequence in Studio 4C's Mind Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz7vuwj3AlE
But whilst the latter left your mind reeling with possibilities, suggested meanings, Pixar's sequence did exactly what it was intended to do, and no more.
And that extends to the movie as a whole. Part of the wonder of animations like Totoro and Mind Games is the feeling of anarchy, of the meeting of imaginations, an openness. With Inside Out, you might be moved, you'll laugh, be dazzled - but it'll be exactly in the same way as everyone else. It's a sort of contradiction - a studio filled with incredibly imaginative minds, making movies where the wildest imaginings become part of a preconcieved cookie cutter plan.
