Why So Blu?

Inside Out (Blu-ray Review)

From the imaginative minds of Disney-Pixar comes Inside Out on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere October 13th and on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray Combo Pack and On-Demand November 3rd! Additionally, along with the extensive line-up of bonus features including deleted scenes, the theatrical short film LAVA and “Paths to Pixar: The Women of Inside Out,” comes the all-new animated short “Riley’s First Date?”  Inside Out stars Amy Poehler (“Freebirds,” TV’s “Parks and Recreation”) as Joy; Bill Hader (Monsters University, TV’s “Saturday Night Live”) as Fear; Phyllis Smith (“Bad Teacher,” TV’s “The Office”) as Sadness; Lewis Black(“The Aristocrats,” TV’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”) as Anger; Mindy Kaling (“Wreck-It Ralph,” TV’s “The Office”) as Disgust; Richard Kind (A Bug’s Life, TV’s “Spin City”) as Bing Bong; and Kaitlyn Dias (voice acting debut) as the voice of Riley.

Film 

Do you ever look at someone and wonder what’s going on inside their head? Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out takes an exciting and hilarious journey into the mind to find the answer. Based in Headquarters, the control center of 11-year-old Riley’s mind, five emotions are hard at work, led by lighthearted optimist Joy. She strives to make sure Riley stays happy as she operates alongside fellow emotions Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness.

Inside Out brings a very unique and powerful story to the Pixar canon.  While the concept here doesn’t seem like too much like something that hasn’t been thought of before, it feels really original and I can’t think of a film I’ve really seen that’s like this.  The film is colored with a wonderful voice cast and makes for such and engaging event for people of all ages.

What’s most interesting is how deep this movie is, even for a Pixar one.  But I guess when are main characters are those who are in charge of controlling the emotions of a human being, its going to be that way.  The film’s thematics appear very on the nose, and yet not.  While they are, this production does its best to layer them and make the film’s journey much more interesting than that.  Inside Out delivers a big, in your face message, but its a good one and strong one for adults and children alike to take in.

I had missed this movie this summer (Life was plenty busy for me for a few months), so this was my first time freshly seeing it.  And, it did not disappoint.  For me, it felt really new and different for Disney/Pixar and overall it was a damn fine film.  Shame though, that after The Good Dinosaur, it looks like we’ll be heading into a bunch of sequel territory for them (Cars 3: Toy Sales Are Down) and we’ll be waiting on another original.  But, we have Inside Out and I like it quite a lot.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Clarity/Detail:  Inside Out looks absolutely wonderful and it jumps right out of your TV screen with such a gorgeous, sharp and well detailed image.  The texture of all the characters in Riley’s head is incredible as they could’ve been just smooth and carried a similar weight, but this goes the extra mile and give them an almost felt-like texture.  Things in the real world carry a wonderful amount of thoughtful detail in the modest house Riley and her family live in.  Being Disney/Pixar and Blu-ray the chance for fail is extremely small and luckily this one follows the rule and is never the exception.

Depth:  This image carries an outstanding depth to it with smooth movements and good focus on all background imagery.  The film was intended for and released in 3D (As well as a 3D Blu-ray), so it goes without telling that this one would hit this mark highly even in 2D.

Black Levels:  Blacks are solidly represented here with no crushing, great shading and outlining and a pretty accurate depiction of what you’d expect.

Color Reproduction:  Colors are pretty jovial and pop wonderfully inside of Riley’s head.  They’re left to a more rustic and natural appearance in the “real world”.  Its a nice balance and the palette on display is appealing.  Blues look pretty gorgeous in all their tones and tints.

Flesh Tones:  N/A

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 7.1 DTS-HD MA, English 5.1 DTS-HD HR, English 2.0 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish

Dynamics:  Well, its what you expected.  TERRIFIC.  You actually get a 7.1, 5.1 and 2.0 tracks here to chew on.  That’s a great slew of options I don’t feel are particularly offered for modern releases.  Everything here is perfectly balanced with its score, vocals and effects.  The effects are a well layered and distinct sounding bunch that make this journey a lot of fun.

Low Frequency Extension:  Crashing, bumping, slapshots, music and more are all bumped up by a nice precise subwoofer participant.

Surround Sound Presentation:  A playful presentation, the 7.1 track makes sure all channels are active and gives them their own identity throughout out.  The sides and rear get more to do than just play supporting with ambiance.  Movements, sounds from afar or in a different spot are well documented and displayed in this charming mix.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is loud, crisp and you can hear every little breath or sound a character makes when speaking.

Extras 

Inside Out is a 3-disc set that features 2 Blu-ray discs, a DVD Copy of the film and an UltraViolet Digital Copy.

Disc 1

Audio Commentary

• With Directors Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen and Director of Photography Patrick Lynn.

Lava (HD, 7:12) – The short that ran before the film theatrically.

Riley’s First Date (HD, 4:40) – A little short that has a boy coming to take Riley to hang out and the parent’s heads trying to figure out how to deal with it.

Paths to Pixar: The Women of Inside Out (HD, 11:22) – Women in the cast and crew talk about growing up, finding themselves, the characters they connect with in Inside Out and various other production aspects.

Mixed Emotions (HD, 7:17) – Production talks about the different emotions to work and put in the film.  Lots of research went into figuring this out, tightening and streamlining it, they also talk about the look and personalities of them.

Disc 2

This disc features subtitles for pretty much every territory.

Behind The Scenes

• Story of the Story (HD, 10:30) – Discusses in detail how the story came about and figuring out the characters, arcs and such.
• Mapping the Mind (HD, 8:24) – Production talks about coming up with the look, ideas and building the setting of Riley’s mind.
• Our Dads, The Filmmakers (HD, 7:25) – The daughter of one of the directors and the daughter of the composer follow their dads around and see their work.
• Into The Unknown: The Sound of Inside Out (HD, 7:09) – A featurette on the foley work for the film.  Something that is usually of interest to me, so I’m glad they had it here.
• The Misunderstood Art of Animation Film Editing (HD, 4:43) – This piece goes step by step through the grueling editing process of an animated film.
• Mind Candy (HD, 14:26) – Just seems to be a lot of random animated sequences from the film.

Deleted Scenes (HD, 16:53) – Features an intro from Pete Docter for the whole and each scene which is in storyboard form.

Trailers

• Remember (HD, 1:38)
• Experience (HD, 2:19)
• Japan Trailer (HD, 2:30) 

Summary 

Inside Out is a fantastic journey into some deeper emotional and psychological territory for both adults, youth and children.  It manages to be a happy, fun adventure about sadness.  The voice talent on display in the movie is exceptional and may be the best put together by Pixar to date.  Blu-ray-wise, this film is perfection in terms of its audio and video display and is that sort of demo-worthy material.  For once, I feel like they didn’t skimp out on extras for a new Disney release.  I don’t know what more they could have offered after watching through it, so I’d say that’s a good thing.  Its a full package for an great little animated film.