Inside Out could be a great film, but Pixar's marketing strategy for the movie about the personification of emotions has been fundamentally flawed on several levels.
First, the teaser for the film spent very little time on the actual film and most of the time playing the "It's Pixar so it will be great!" card. This might have worked before controversial films like Cars 2 (which I personally liked as a silly "popcorn film") and Brave (which felt lackluster and overly hyped by the feminist film community), but now it feels like a plea for trust that Pixar hasn't earned the rights to lately. Overall, Pixar has one of the finest track records in the industry, but in more recent years Dreamworks and Disney Animation have been stepping up their game tremendously. Saying "It's Pixar!" has begun to feel outdated and desperate.
The other problem is that the characters just aren't enough to be a lovable marketing force in and of themselves. Films like WALL-E and the more recent Big Hero 6 were able to use a character as a main selling point because they were both likable and unique from anything we'd seen before. If you're been around animation for a while, you've seen personifications of emotions/the mind before in shows like The Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob Squarepants.
Inside Out may be a great film, and I have high hopes for it with Pete Doctor at the helm, but Pixar hasn't shown us anything so far besides a plot that's been done before, one-dimensional characters, and "It's PIXAR" to go off of. Pixar's marketing strategy is to hold themselves up as the saving grace of the animated world when they just aren't anymore. Sooner or later, they'll have to realize they need to return to their roots by selling each film as its own work.
Story may be king at Pixar Animation Studios, but someone needs to make sure marketing gets the memo.
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