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Pixar’s new movie ‘Inside Out’ wows reviewers at Cannes Film Festival

Pixar have made a sensational return at the Cannes Film Festival with their new film Inside Out which has been described as “mind-blowing”. The reception to the film after its premiere has been so good that some have wondered whether it should have been included in the Palme d'Or competition - the best film award - at the event. Directed by Pete Docter and with Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling voicing characters, the film is a kind of Pixar-style Inception where the story unfolds both in reality and in the mind.

My daughter was about nine when she did the voice of Ellie in Up. And then she turned 10 and 11 and at the beginning of this film I saw her looking a lot less energetic and more kind of quiet and reserved and I thought what’s going on in her head? And that’s really what started us working on this film.

The movie’s director Pete Docter

It partly takes place inside the head of 11-year-old Riley, where voices like Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Anger (Lewis Black) compete for the girl’s emotions and memories in her psyche “headquarters”. Pixar delayed its 2014 planned release Good Dinosaur, making Inside Out the Disney studio’s first new film since 2013’s Monsters University and its first non-sequel since 2012’s Brave. Deadline called the film “mind blowing” and is already predicting nominations for best animated film and possibly best film at next year’s Academy Awards. Peter Debruge at Variety said Inside Out is the “greatest idea the toon studio has ever had.”

This adventurous outing manages the great Pixar trick of operating on two levels - captivating fun for kids, disarming smarts for adults - that sets the studio apart.

The Hollywood Reporter