Directed by Pete Docter, Disney/Pixar's 2015 film "Inside Out", was a difficult concept to crack, as well as technically challenging. The film follows Riley, an 11-year-old girl, dealing with big life changes (her family moving to San Fransisco) and entering the trials of adolescence--but this story is primarily told from within her brain, as the central protagonists are anthropomorphized emotions. Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear (condensed from an original list of twenty-seven possible emotions) are behind the control panel of Riley's mind, and things go haywire when Riley is overcome with Sadness, and it is up to the de-facto leader, Joy, to track Sadness down and try to bring an equilibrium. The film was a tremendous success, a hit with families, and one of Pixar's best reviewed films, one that handles its potentially abstract concept and heavy emotions in a very clever, insightful and emotionally resonant way.
Reuniting with Docter, after their Oscar-winning collaboration on "Up", was composer Michael Giacchino. Giacchino treated the score with equal parts whimsy and melancholy. Thematically, the score is anchored around the delightful, long-lined melody for Joy, a theme that puts Giacchino's penchant for delivering emotional gut-punches through the use of solo piano. This theme perfectly captures the full range from joy to sadness perfectly. There is also a jovial supporting theme for Riley, as well as old-timey jazz influences as the gang goes on a journey of discovery through the many corners of Riley's mind.
The official Walt Disney Records album, released digitally and on CD, contains an hour of Giacchino's score. The cover uses a very retro, 60's minimalist design. It's a strong and singular choice as a cover, but not one that really reflects the film. After seeing the sequel a few weeks ago, I was inspired to dive back into the art for the first film, and I ended up with a collection of twelve new covers, which to my mind better capture the story, characters, and colorful visuals of the film.
Covers 1-10 all use official studio artwork, either from the theatrical poster campaign, wallpapers, or other advertising materials connected to the film. One of the biggest challenges design-wise with these images is fitting in the title logo, having a roughly square-shaped logo at a diagonal angle is quite tricky to fit into your average composition. Picking a font style for the complimentary text took some toying around with, for the composer's name, I ended up using the stylized title font, but made some alterations to make it a little less wacky.
All the image required a bit of tweaking, mostly with colors, and shifting some things around here and there. Cover 7 (the roller-coaster) took the most work, as I chose to center the characters, rather then having them at the bottom-right edge of the image, which meant I had to paint in the right sixth or so of the image, and then move up the brain matter background to be visible in this new edit. I stole the idea from Cover 6 from the sequel film, to make a matching cover option for that. Overall, I think these images are rather fun, and a nice visual change of pace from the projects I often gravitate to.
Covers 11 and 12 use fan-created pieces of original artwork, commissioned for the Bottleneck Gallery. Cover 11 uses art by illustrator Tom Whalen, who has a very singular style, with a very modern graphic style, using a limited color set and flat 2D style. Cover 12 uses art by Ben Harman, known for his ultra-wall banners, I quite liked the bottom portion of the image, with the characters. In fact, I probably could have created two different covers from this one, one the top, another the bottom section, but in the end, I just kept the top, creating a nice contrast for those that prefer more minimal artwork.
Hope you enjoy, and let me know which images you feel best capture the film and the music overall!
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