Pixar likely will have another smash hit on its hands when Inside Out reaches theaters in June. We have been hearing a groundswell of support for director Pete Docter’s upcoming animated dram-edy, dating back to the Pixar set visit we covered in April. But how special is Pixar’s latest? Reaction out of Cannes, where the film just screened, suggests it might be Pixar’s best.
Our own Eric Eisenberg made similar claims when he wrote about Inside Out following a Disney/Pixar presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Marveling at the film’s emotional pulls, Eisenberg summarized:
Rarely did a single comedic line or moment come and go without some kind of reaction from the audience – ranging from small chuckles to uproarious laughter. … The film caused the crowd to experience a wide range of emotions. I will probably long remember this Inside Out screening if not just because of the number of sniffles I heard echoing around Caesar’s Palace’s Colosseum, and the number of people I glimpsed wiping tears from their eyes."
The sentiment was shared by many who caught Inside Out in Cannes today. Twitter became an online therapy session for journalists and audiences trying to respond to the way Pete Docter’s film made them feel. Variety Tweeted that Inside Out "proves to be the greatest idea the toon studio has ever had." That’s saying an awful lot, considering the number of gems that Pixar has produced over the years. Anne Hornaday of The Washington Post chimed in with:
Robbie Collin of the UK Telegraph added:
While Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair summed up what several on Twitter were feeling.
Not that Pixar hasn’t dabbled in emotion before. The ending of many of their films, from Monsters Inc. ("Kitty!") to Toy Story 3 ("So long, partner."), moved me to tears. But it sounds like Inside Out will be a full-blown – and welcome – assault on our tear ducts. It opens in theaters on June 19, and we will have our full review on the site closer to that date.
