Inside Out (2015)

Mind Games: Core emotions--Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust
and Joy--at the controls of a young girl in "Inside Out."

For any befuddled parent that has ever been curious as to what’s going on inside the head of their child, “Inside Out”—the funny and furiously inventive latest entry from Pixar Animation Studios and director Pete Docter—intrepidly journeys behind the eyes of a smart, sensitive 11-year-old girl and opens up the curtains on a warm, wondrous new world full of splendidly offbeat characters, colorfully strange places and endlessly imaginative gadgets.

The main character, Riley (voice of Kiatlyn Dias), is an average, energetic kid from Minnesota whose days revolve around school, friends, hockey practice and spending time at home with her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan). Her life by itself seems pretty mundane, but the magic of “Inside Out” is that what’s happening outside Riley’s head isn't half as interesting as what's going on inside.

That’s where Riley’s distinctly tinted core emotions have taken form. There’s Joy (Amy Poehler, perfectly cast), a yellow bundle of optimism who literally glows like sunshine; Sadness (Phyllis Smith, also terrific), a short, blue figure of depression; Anger (Lewis Black, very funny), a small, red box of grimaces and frowns whose head bursts into flames whenever he gets mad; Fear (Bill Hader), purple, fretful and bug-eyed; and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), green, sardonic and repulsed by anything gross.

The core emotions take up residence in a huge control room in Riley’s mind. There, they anchor and organize her thoughts, collecting memories in small, crystal balls colored for what mood they represent and storing them on towering shelves in cavernous spaces meant for short and long term memory. Beyond the control room are more wonderfully inspired places—floating lands called personality islands (there’s one each for imagination, honesty, and goofiness) symbolizing elements of Riley’s individuality; a deep, yawning abyss where forgotten memories end up; and a surrealistic room for abstract thought that Picasso would have admired.

When dad gets a new job and the family is forced to relocate to San Francisco, Riley confronts an unsettling combination of factors—the anxiety of a new school, having to make new friends, trying out for a new hockey team—that causes her to increasingly miss her old life in Minnesota. Clearly, the dramatic change of scenery leaves her homesick, flooded with melancholy feelings that even she doesn’t quite understand and has difficulty expressing.

Adjusting to a new school is just one of the sweeping changes
for Riley, the main character in Pixar's animated "Inside Out."

Meanwhile, the perpetually upbeat Joy has problems at the controls when Sadness begins touching Riley’s happy memories, turning the bright yellow bulbs to a gloomy blue. Before Joy figures out what’s really going on—that part of growing up requires Riley to need shades of both sadness and happiness to learn to cope with life’s challenging vicissitudes—she and Sadness are whipped from the control room and spend part of the film marooned in other areas of Riley’s mind, each of them visually delightful and highly original.

If “Inside Out” sounds like a carnival funhouse for the eyes, it is that but also a great deal more. Beyond the inventive visuals, amusing one-liners and hilarious sight gags lies an intelligent, perceptive essay about the complexities of being a preteen, the anxieties of communicating with adults, and the challenges of understanding our emotions.

Not since “Pinocchio” has there been an animated movie with such an incisive sense of childhood and such a profound grasp on the nature of growing up. Unlike that dark pit in Riley’s mind where mercurial memories go to be forgotten, the enduring brilliance of “Inside Out” ensures that it’s likely to be remembered—and adored—for a very long time to come.