I’ve always been curious about Fathom Events.  I see the commercials for it all the time before movies, but there was never an event that compelled me enough to want to try it out.  Then the Insider All Access event appeared in my email, and I knew right away that I wanted to attend.  The price was incredibly steep (I think it was like $26 or $28 something?) to go, so it’s not something I would do regularly, because I don’t necessarily think the price justifies itself.  However, I did think this movie was worth watching before its wide-release.

The Lava short movie was very cute, and I think it was a wonderful way to start this movie.  (I’ll be writing more on that in a separate entry later on.)  The “all access” event started with a tour of Pixar Studios, which was amazing and much better than watching a whole slew of commercials, though I did miss seeing a preview reel.  Those I don’t actually mind.  Right after that, we got to the movie, and let me tell you, the trailers thankfully don’t reveal all the best parts of it!

I’ll start by saying this: I think this is definitely a win for Pixar.  The characters were all endearing, and the story was the perfect balance of funny, heartwarming, and frustrating.  I very much enjoyed the humor scattered throughout the film, and the overall story I thought was well-paced.  There were definitely frustrating moments, where you wonder why the conflict even had to happen, but then of course you have to remind yourself that without the conflict, there is no story.  There were also several points that really brought a tear to my eye (and one scene in particular really jerked me in an Up (2009) fashion), which I thought was absolutely great.  A movie that can bring out the emotions and really get someone invested is a winner, in my book.

If memory serves correctly, they did not include some of the scenes from the trailer in the final product.  I found that to be a shame, only because—as I similarly found with Aloha (2015)—there were a few scenes there that I would have liked to see play out in the actual movie.  It was mentioned in the Q&A at the end of the feature (for the all-access event) that there was a lot of footage cut out of the final product.  A lot of cool ideas were dropped, mostly because they didn’t fit or flow well with the story.  I think that’s a shame, and I do hope that when this gets released on DVD, that the extra features will contain some of these scenes.

There’s plenty here to keep both kids and their parents entertained.  What I appreciated the most was that there wasn’t any overly inappropriate humor, which I feel like has been pervading animated films targeted at kids these days (which I’m assuming is to mostly keep the adults entertained).  There’s something nice about it not having done so, and I think that makes this movie even better to watch.  The animation is all very visually appealing, and it definitely contains that sort of world that could make a person wish they could actually go there, in real life.

I think the best part about this movie has to be how relatable it is.  I thought that being able to catch glimpses of what was going on in the minds of other characters in addition to the main character’s was a great idea, and I think it was all presented very well.

Part of me wishes for a sequel, so I can see more of these characters, but part of me also hopes it kind of remains as a standalone, because sequels usually tend to be not as good.  Oh, and before I forget.  While there is no post-credits scene, you should still stick around for at least the first few minutes of the ending credits.  There’s a few animated scenes that play right before the rest of the credits roll that I’d say are worth watching.  Once those conclude though, there’s nothing else, unless you’re the type that’s interested in reading all of the credits (or at least attempting to).

Final Thoughts: Definitely see this in theaters, especially if you have a family to take with you.  I think this makes for a great family movie.  I also think that this is definitely one for the permanent collection.  I already know that it’s going to be a part of mine, once it comes out!