'Inside Out' A Review

Inside Out is a computer animated family-fantasy-adventure about an 11 year old girl Riley and the five anthropomorphised emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger based in her cerebral control room, that help her navigate through life. An almost universally happy childhood is put in jeopardy when Riley's family picks up and moves across the country pitting Riley(and her emotions) against their biggest challenge to date.

Balanced perfectly between scenes of Riley's real life and her emotions travelling through the different parts of her mind the story has a fun, heartwarming, even suspenseful pace that builds to a satisfying and cathartic conclusion. All the voice over performances are excellent especially Phyllis Smith as Sadness who, from both an acting and narrative stand point, steals the show.

The journey the film goes on is both imaginative and illuminating. We are thrust into Riley's story at a crucial time, at the precipice of puberty, she has some hard but ultimately fulfilling lessons to learn. We are visually stimulated by the personifications of abstract neurological ideas like the subconscious and dreams but we also learn something about maturity, complexity, and that pain and sadness are sometimes necessary for growth.

Creative and emotional, compelling and entertaining. A return to form for Pixar.

See It.