Pete Docter is known for being the genius behind Toy Story, Up, and Monster’s Inc, and he delivers again with Inside Out. The film  is another inspirational, and innovative gem from the master storyteller. It follows the tale of eleven year old Riley, an  avid hockey player who leads a seemingly carefree life with her family in rural Minnesota.
The film cleverly imagines the inner workings of Riley’s mind, by personifying the major emotions into exaggerated and hilarious characters.  We are first introduced to Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) who begins the film as a gleeful, and slightly shallow narrator accompanied by the humorous characterizations of fear, anger, disgust and sadness. Joy is however, unable to understand the importance of Sadness,  a blue, and profoundly librarian-like Phyllis Smith.

The emotions dwell in a futuristic white tower simply called, “headquarters” where they jointly operate a control panel which influences the mind of Riley. Every time one of the emotions makes a significant move on the console, a glass memory orb (associated with that emotion) comes rolling down a chute and is sorted into a library of short-term memories.

The emotions are generally respectful of each other and work in relative tandem, albeit they lack a complex understanding of their collective importance. But, things soon go awry when Riley’s family moves from their bucolic Minnesota home to a small, urban apartment in San Francisco. Riley’s world is soon turned upside down, and her emotions are utterly nonplussed. Further chaos ensues when some of Riley’s core memories get lost. Fear, disgust, and anger are left to operate Riley’s mental console when Joy and Sadness get separated from the rest of the emotions and lost amidst the library of Riley’s long-term memories. The film follows Joy and Sadness on their quest to return to headquarters. Leading us through  an imaginative landscape of thought in which dreams are produced in a Hollywood studio, subconscious ideas are stored in a subterranean dungeon, and the ever -whistling train-of-thought is the primary means of transportation. 

The film features a stellar voice cast including the likes of actress Mindy Kaling,  comedian Lewis Black, and SNL’s Bill Hader.  And by the end of the film we’ve developed a deeper appreciation for the characters they voice.  Joy gains a more complex understanding of the need for Sadness, and Sadness a more defined self-esteem. And Anger, Fear, and Disgust a broader view of their own place and each others.  These are the subtle and tender points of character development we can expect from Docter and his crew, and that are often so lacking in the world of cinema.

Overall, Inside Out is a humorous and  refreshingly true-to life tale that’s wit, humor, and imaginative style will appeal to viewers of all ages. Adults for  the winks at  parenting and the depiction of lost childhood and children for the stunning and imaginative world the film creates. The film whimsically ends with the line “Riley’s 12 now, what could possibly go wrong!”  And, while animated films about childhood and adolescence are often trite and impersonal, Inside Out stays true to its protagonist, whose emotional trials and triumphs ring true for us all. A great film, and a must-see.