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"Inside Out" production designer Ralph Eggleston and historian John Canemaker will introduce some of the screenings.

Whether in the U.S. or abroad, audiences can't stop watching "Minions."

Not one, but two animated features are currently raking in big box office bucks.

Pete Docter's latest smashes opening weekend box office record for an original film.

"Inside Out" is already accumulating praise throwing around the word 'masterpiece' -- and it's well-deserved.

There are moments in life, for everyone, when sorrow creeps into our happiest memories. Time passes. We change. We lose things. We lose people. Our past experiences take on a new shape. Occasionally the shift is sharp and profound; an earthquake. Other times it’s gradual and unnoticed; erosion.

But sorrow isn’t always a burden. Sometimes it’s a salve.

Coming from a culture of children’s stories that focus on happy endings for the good guys, it’s a message that’s at once simple and unexpected. Inside Out isn’t concerned with saving the world or ridding it of evil. There are no villains and there is no hero. There’s simply a girl trying to learn the value of sadness and it’s ability to co-exist with joy; the undeniable collusion of the two.

Inside Out  follows 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), a happy child whose life is uprooted when her parents decide to move from the Midwest to California. While Riley is our protagonist, we spend most of the movie with Riley’s feelings, exemplified by colorful characters living in Riley’s head and controlling her reactions to the world around her. The leader of that crew is Joy, voiced appropriately by Amy Poehler. Joy is the cartoon embodiment of Poehler’s character from Parks and Recreation, the eternal optimist known as Leslie Knope. She wrangles a crew of Riley’s other emotions, including Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black),  Fear (Bill Hader), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). Kaling and Smith channel their characters from The Office, each with an edge towards their specific emotion. Black is, well… Lewis Black, and so on.

That’s honestly the whole external plot: Riley is shaken by the move and the loss of her friends, and suddenly Sadness begins to drive her reactions. But it’s what’s inside that counts here. When Joy attempts to take control of Riley’s reactions, Joy and Sadness butt heads and both end up accidentally being cast out of mission control entirely. The two feelings spend the movie trying to understand each other and make it back to mission control in one piece, but with Disgust, Anger and Fear too afraid to step up and take the wheel, Riley stops feeling anything. The word “depression” is never used, but it’s a clearly intelligent attempt to demonstrate what depression looks like to those who’ve never experienced it. Rather than an exaggerated or temporary dose of Sadness, depression is nothing.

Inside Out feels like a movie written by a parent who watched his or her child suddenly learn to deal with more complex emotions; a child learning how one thing can make you feel more than one way, rather than bouncing from one extreme to the next, and how confusing that can be. But it isn’t specifically a movie for children, either. In addition to a crew of fairly adult comedians and a mature message, the world-building is especially impressive, kids movie or not. We have the emotions “driving” Riley, core memories that shape her personality (they look like glowing bowling balls), and other colorful, physical representations of very abstract concepts.

As heavy as all of this sounds, it’s really the opposite – Inside Out manages to do all of this while being bright, fun, and a surprisingly hilarious movie. It’s fresh, clean air. The voice talent is a huge part of that, as well as the small moments we spend watching the emotional control centers of other characters (just imagine what the Emotional HQ of a hormone-driven teenage boy looks like and you’ll get the picture). But at the end of the day the credit is most likely down to Pete Docter, the film’s writer and director. Docter was the driving force behind Pixar’s 2009 feature, Up, which took home an Oscar for best animated feature.

It’ll be a huge shock if Inside Out doesn’t end up with similar accolades, and in my mind it’s a contender for best picture awards, animated or not. It’s not easy to pull off a movie that says something intelligent without being heavy-handed; that remains rooted in reality while living in imagination. But every now and then the planets align, the Movie Gods smile upon us, and we get a widely-popular, successful film that deserves every bit of it.

Here’s hoping (and knowing) that’ll be the case here.

Other members of Team Beat will be along soon to give their reviews of Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out”, debuting tomorrow. There was mention of a news embargo, but it looks like other sites are beginning to talk about the movie.

Since I paid $25 to see the Fathom Events sneak peek, I’m not really prevented from reviewing it as a fan, but I don’t want to rock the boat…

So here are some random “feels”…

• Disney isn’t marketing this movie very well. Right now, they should do two things IMMEDIATELY: 1) Push this as a great movie to take your father (and mother) to go see for Father’s Day. Yes, the movie centers around a 12-year-old girl, but the family dynamic is important. 2) Release a clip of Joy and Sadness meeting Bing Bong. He’s the breakout supporting character.
• Get there early, because, like every Pixar movie ever, there’s a short before the feature. This one is called “Lava”, and it rivals the Carl & Ellie montage from “Up”. The director wrote the music, and even performed it a few times on television. I won’t link to YouTube, because you should hear it first as part of the cartoon. (And you’ll probably get sick of hearing it from every ukulele player for the next five years.)
• Where does “Inside Out” rank among all Pixar films? Well, I’ve been a fan since watching “Tin Toy” back in 1988… I’ll place it up there with “Up” and “WALL-E”. It’s definitely the front-runner for Best Animated Feature this year, but there are a lot of contenders to come.
• The Fathom Event was good.  AMC Times Square screwed up a bit… First, they started handing out the swag (a lanyard with a secret online code, and a mini-poster) FIVE minutes before the show started, and with only ONE usher handing out stuff.  Some people didn’t get the lanyard, and for $25, well, the disgruntlement can be enflamed. They also had some nice jazzy marimba music as background music, but Disney had little video vignettes with each of the voice actors and their roles.  They didn’t turn on the audio until the previews began, and then we had to yell to get them to do that.
• The previews: The Good Dinosaur and Zootopia.
• Then there was a 15?-minute behind-the-scenes tour of the Steve Jobs Building at Pixar, guided by Pete Docter (the director) and Jonas Rivera (the producer) working a steady-cam. Yes, you’ll want to freeze-frame the movie, just to see all the goodies on the walls and shelves. While John Lasseter’s office is epic (and wait until you see his house!), the smaller offices of the staff are even cooler! Here’s hoping this film gets added to the DVD release.
• Afterwards, there was a nice live-streamed interview with Pete Docter and Amy Poehler in Sydney, Australia. (The Opera House makes a nice backdrop!) They took moderated questions from Twitter, which is something I wish Hall H would do.
• I didn’t notice many Easter eggs, but I didn’t really look for them because I was lost in the movie. John Ratzenberger plays “Fritz”. (I’m not exactly sure who that was.) There is also a reference to “The Good Dinosaur”, quite possibly the most blatant pre-film cameo of all the Pixar movies. No reports of A113 or Pizza Planet yet, although there is a good pizza joke.
• Stay for the credits.
• Oh, and it passes the Bechdel Test. In multiple combinations.

John Lasseter says that Disney and Pixar will aim to increase diversity onscreen—and hopefully offscreen too.

"Pinocchio" screens this morning as part of the Academy's on-going Animation Showcase series.

Festival director Thierry Frémaux continues to show his love for animation.

The Pixar veteran will take to the stage in Toronto to talk about his career, including his latest film "Inside Out."

Disney's promotional campaign for "Inside Out" is heating up with the release of both a new trailer and commercial.

Disney-Pixar has debuted the first full trailer for its next film, "Inside Out," directed by Pete Docter.

If you love animation, you'll want to check out this list of animated features that will be released in 2015.

This Disney France limited edition poster for Pete Docter's "Inside Out" (titled "Vice-Versa" in French) might just be the nicest piece of promo art for the film yet.

Disney has set release dates for its two 2016 releases: Zootopia and Moana.

Some Disney employees who work in Imagineering got an early jump on Pixar's next film "Inside Out" and dressed up as the film's main characters.

The first teaser trailer is out for Pixar's next film "Inside Out" directed by Pete Docter.

Today we look at the work of Chris Sasaki, Cartoon Brew's Artist of the Day!

A look at the work of Don Shank, Cartoon Brew’s Artist of the Day.

One of the big questions surrounding the recent removal of Bob Peterson as director of The Good Dinosaur was how would Pixar finish the film in time for its May 2014 release date.

The answer: they won’t.

The Walt Disney Studios announced today that they are pushing back the release date of the director-less The Good Dinosaur from May 30, 2014, to Nov. 25, 2015. That will also bump the release of Andrew Stanton’s Finding Dory from November 25, 2015 to June 17, 2016.

Pixar president Ed Catmull told the LA Times, “Nobody ever remembers the fact that you slipped a film, but they will remember a bad film. Our conclusion was that we were going to give the [dinosaur] film some more time.”

Pixar will not release a film in 2014. Their next film will be Pete Docter’s Inside Out due on June 19, 2015.

This afternoon, Disney announced release dates for all of its animated features produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar through 2018. The two studios will be responsible for fifteen theatrical releases over the next six years. During the previous six-year period (2007-2012), Disney and Pixar released a total of 12 films.

Here’s what we know so far based on available information:

• Pixar’s Monsters University – June 21, 2013

(via @ERCboxoffice and /Film)

By Gordon R. Thompson

Songwriting had gained the Beatles entry into EMI’s studios and songwriting would distinguish them from most other British performers in 1963. Sid Colman at publishers Ardmore and Beechwood had been the first to sense a latent talent, bringing them to the attention of George Martin at Parlophone. Martin in turn had recommended Dick James as a more ambitious exploiter of their potential catalogue and, to close the deal, James had secured a national audience for the Beatles. Nevertheless, as the band grew in popularity, James knew that McCartney and Lennon would attract the attention of other music publishers.

Most fans, unless they bought sheet music, were at best only vaguely aware that music publishers had any role at all in popular music, let alone that they controlled an economically critical part of the industry. Even Lennon and McCartney at first underestimated the importance of music publishing until probably the first royalty checks began arriving at manager Brian Epstein’s NEMS Enterprises offices. Every time someone purchased a recording of one of their songs—no matter by whom—both the songwriters and the publisher profited. And every play on the radio and every television appearance did the same.

The home of Britain’s music publishing industry resided in London’s Denmark Street, a one-block stretch of offices, studios, and stores near Soho, serviced by a small pub, a café, and a steady stream of aspiring songwriters. Dick James’s office sat at the corner of Denmark Street and Charing Cross Road, not far from the premises of Southern Music, Regent Sound Studios, and other music-centered establishments. Brian Epstein had walked into these offices in November with a copy of “Please Please Me” and the hope that James could break the Beatles into the national media. James delivered immediately, booking an appearance for the band on the 19 January 1963 edition of ABC’s television show, Thank Your Lucky Stars.

The traditional role of the music publishers was to plug songs, bringing them to the attention of artist-and-repertoire and/or personal managers in an effort to have them match compositions with performers; but rock and roll was changing that model. When EMI’s Columbia Records released Cliff Richard and the Drifters’ recording of Ian Samwell’s “Move It” in August of 1958, London saw the start of musicians performing their own music. The tradition only deepened with Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’ “Shakin’ All Over” in June 1960. American artists such as Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and Carl Perkins routinely wrote and recorded their own material, unlike singer Bobby Rydell or many other pop stars who performed material written by professional songwriters. In Britain, songwriting recording artists often proved fleeting phenomena.

With “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me,” as well as a number of other originals that would appear on their first album Please Please Me, John Lennon and Paul McCartney demonstrated their ability to write and perform their own material with spectacular results. Nevertheless, they knew the model and their first efforts to write a song for another performer met with mixed results. Touring with Helen Shapiro, the two songwriters futilely attempted to convince her and her management to record their song “Misery.” Another performer on the show, Kenny Lynch happily picked up the tune and very soon other artists would be looking for songs by McCartney and Lennon. Dick James, perhaps worried that with greater success the two ambitious Liverpudlians (and their manager) might bolt for yet another publisher, sought a strategy that would keep them as clients.

Click here to view the embedded video.

McCartney and Lennon were not the only songwriting performers in London. Southern Music had contracted eager songwriters and willing performers John Carter and Ken Lewis (later the core of the singing group the Ivy League) to write for the publisher. Their mentor at Southern, Terry Kennedy had even dubbed their band the “Southerners” (with a young Jimmy Page on guitar). However, they tended to write tunes for other singers and to perform songs written by other songwriters, all under the umbrella of their publisher.

Dick James’s big idea was to have John Lennon and Paul McCartney become part owners of their own publishing venture: Northern Songs. The arrangement that Epstein, McCartney, and Lennon made with James must have seemed good at the time, especially given that most young composers had no income from their work other than their author royalties. Northern Songs rewarded the two Liverpudlians with a larger piece of the pie, dividing the ownership of company between (i) Dick James Music, (ii) NEMs, (iii) Lennon, and (iv) McCartney. Dick James Music held a 51% voting share, leaving Lennon and McCartney each 20%, and NEMS Enterprises picking up the remaining 9%; however, James also took a 10% administrative fee off the top, so that in practice, the songwriters and their manager shared about 44% of the income.

Lennon and McCartney already had an agreement with Epstein to write songs, but a company dedicated to their music brought the game to an entirely new level. This would not be the last time that they would be the first to explore new territory in the business, from which other rock and pop artists and their managements would learn.

Gordon Thompson is Professor of Music at Skidmore College. His book, Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out, offers an insider’s view of the British pop-music recording industry. Check out Gordon Thompson’s posts on The Beatles and other music here.

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The post The Beatles and Northern Songs, 22 February 1963 appeared first on OUPblog.

From Goodreads.
Me?

A leader?

Okay, I did prove that there's more to Inside than we knew.

That a whole world exists beyond this cube we live in. And finding that led to a major rebellion—between worker scrubs like me and the snobby uppers who rule our world. Make that ruled. Because of me, we're free. I thought that meant I was off the hook, and could go off on my own again—while still touching base with Riley, of course. He's the one upper I think I can trust. But then we learned that there's outside and then there is Outside.

And something from Outside wants In.

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By: Kate, on 2/24/2011
Blog: I Just Wanna Sit Here And Read! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Review, maria v. snyder, inside out, Add a tag

Publisher: Harlequin Teen (April 1, 2010)
Paperback: 320 Pages
Genre: YA Dystopian/Sci-Fi
Series: Inside Out #1

From Goodreads.
Keep Your Head Down.

Don't Get Noticed.

Or Else.

I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution.

Review by Kate
INSIDE OUT, by Maria V. Snyder, is a fast-paced and unique story that will keep you on the edge of your seat....the entire time!  Snyder created phenomenal characters, hair-raising plot twists, and a resolution that will make your head spin.

I immediately connected with Trella. She was a bit of a loner who kept one good friend. She kept low key, which enabled her to explore her way through the air ducts all over the Inside, and it earned her the name 'Queen of the Pipes'. But, her extended knowledge of the Inside roped her into a situation that affected the lives of everyone on the Inside.

I loved the relationship dynamic between Trella and Riley. Two people from different 'levels' finding more in common than they ever dreamed fueled the rebellion and its leader. I hoped and hoped that these two would get together throughout the whole book. And no, I won't tell you if they did!

Snyder is truly a fantastic writer. Her prose is amazing and I was able to visualize everything that Trella saw in the Inside. The book was detailed and very thorough and I found myself tuning out everything else around me while reading. At the end of the book in the Acknowledgement section, Snyder said that this was a 'dream book'. She saw the characters, twists, and ending in her dream and wrote it all down. I am always looking to my dreams for inspiration and I am happy to know that it is possible!

It's extremely hard to write an un-spoilery review for this book. I spent all my non-reading time trying to figure out what was Inside and Outside and I was absolutely blown away. All I can say is.. GO GET THIS BOOK!

Maria Snyder's Website | Blog

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