Inside Out
2015  PG  ANIMATED  1h 34min
CAST— Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Lewis Black, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan
MUSIC— Michael Giacchino  DIRECTOR— Pete Doctor

     Disney and Pixar unite once again to deliver an emotional experience. Really, it truly is about emotions. You know, those sometimes timely, sometimes pesky feelings everyone must live with. The focus here is on a young girl named Riley, happy in her native Minnesota, lots of friends, plenty of familial love, just warm and fuzziness. When she's uprooted from all she knows and the family moves to San Francisco she has plenty of conflicting emotions. Speaking of emotions, inside her head are the very emotions that make up Riley's personality. These emotions are familiar to everyone; there's Fear, a panic attack waiting to happen; Anger, whose short fuse is liable to go off at any given time; Disgust, the one who deems what is and isn't grody; Sadness, a melancholy character given to moping. And then there's Joy; she's the one who tries to hold everything together with an upbeat attitude and general frivolity. They all monitor Riley's memories, good, bad, sad and everything in between. But when Sadness inadvertently begins to turn happy memories into sad ones Joy takes action, trying to salvage the good times. Joy and Sadness end up on a journey to save Riley's psyche and core memories from crumbling into empty space. Joy begins to realize that despite Sadness' gloom and doom, she is in fact a necessary aspect to Riley's overall personality, and that they need to stick together if they're to restore balance to Riley's very being. There's a lot going on here, obviously. Thought-provoking ideas that personify abstract thought processes are presented in memorable characters, from the effervescent to the tragic, as they traverse scenarios that may be interesting, if not totally convincing. Though this is a bright and cheerful, kid-friendly animated comedy, the adults may actually appreciate it more than the wee ones, due to psychological subject matter that will no doubt go over younger heads. Otherwise, go ahead. See what your emotions make of it. Oscar-winner for Best Animated Feature.
OUR RATING— ** ½