Emotions run the ship in Inside Out

Inside Out is the latest offering from Pixar, and the first original in awhile. 2013 had the Monsters sequel, and 2012 had Brave (which lets be honest, felt a little more Disney and little less Pixar). With the Cars and Toy Story sequels before that, you have to go back to 2009’s Up. So it has been a bit, and thankfully Inside Out lives up to the storied franchise.

Riley is just a normal 11 year old girl with a good life, until her family uproots and moves. She is now struggling with everyday issues, and the battle is raging outside and inside. Most of this movie is the goings-on inside her head. Her primary emotions of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust all run things from time to time, but because she’s had a fairly happy time up to now, her memories are littered with golden orbs showing all the happy moments, and all the emotions are pretty much ok with letting Joy run the show. Now however Riley is facing some true hardship, and the team is left wondering how to “fix” her.

In true Pixar form, there are tons of laugh-out-loud jokes, but plenty of heart-tugging moments as well. I think they did an admirable job of showing the complexity of human emotion, in a way that kids and adults can enjoy together. When Riley is young, events and emotions are black or white, but now that she’s growing, she (and her emotions) are realizing not everything is so clear cut. A very enjoyable film for all ages.