Inside Out's Teaser is Disappointing

From left to right: Shaggy, Velma, Fred, Daphne and Scooby-Doo.

I was really looking forward to seeing Inside Out. The teaser, among other things, makes it less of a "Oh yes, this is going to be awesome" movie, and more of a "Fingers crossed it doesn't suck like everything leading up to its release has suggested so far" movie.

When I first heard about it, I thought it was going to be a really unique take on the human mind, but then I heard that they were going to personify emotions. Been there, done that. And very cleverly, I might add. Check out Brain Divided. Not only is it streamlined, (only four characters), it's full of visual gags, and the animation's pretty great too. We don't need a feature-length movie of that, it works fine as a short. Do I like the concept? Of course! It's a great concept! But Pixar hasn't done anything surprising with it so far. I thought it was going to be more abstract, watching beams of light travel through the cranium or something, and over time we'd learn how to spot what was going on when light was illuminating a particular tube.You know, something controversial and interesting.

Now, about the teaser. I don't care that they show clips from old movies, that's fine. They've done that for other teasers and if they released the teaser with just the material they have it'd be ten seconds long. But I do take issue with their choice of clips. Hey, remember what you love about Pixar! The touching moments, the brilliant writing, the incredible animation, the expert design and composition and lighting and of course, all the farting!

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

My favorite thing about Pixar is how much they downplay juvenile humor. When it appears, I cringe and carry on, knowing it's probably the only crude joke I'll have to sit through. Good job, Pixar, you made me disgusted. I sure hope that's what you wanted.

Also, am I the only one who doesn't like the emotion character design at all? They look like gumdrops. Why is their hair sparkling like that, do they all have dandruff or something? Why is Joy colored so terribly? Blue hair and orange skin?! And why is she glowing like a bad iMovie Bloom effect?! That's going to bug me throughout the whole movie. Remember, this is a studio that makes extensive color scripts for the entire film. COLOR SCRIPTS!

Okay, there's still some hope. From what little I saw of Riley, I can tell she's going to be an interesting main character. We'll probably get a contrast between the colorful world inside her head and the mundane world outside. Also, the fact that she has two male-looking emotions in her head is an interesting take on femininity/masculinity, (I doubt that's what they had in mind, but I'll remember that while I'm watching in case they point to it). I'm also curious to see how they're going to convey when one emotion is predominant over the others.

I wrote this piece because I looked all over the internet, (or spent two minutes of my time searching "Inside Out terrible", whatever you choose to believe), and I didn't come up with an article expressing the same opinions I just expressed here. Maybe that means people are going to like it, maybe it means they're in for a fall. In the meantime, I'm going to wait it out for the next trailer, and decide whether I'll see it based on that.