Emotion Graphics

With 'Inside Out', Pixar once again gets into your heart and head

Say this for Disney-Pixar, it makes some pretty great entertainment out of processing formative experiences.

Like many of us, 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) sometimes is simply a vessel for the voices in her head: Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). Together, they convert Riley's emotional experiences into little color-coded memory balls (literally, her marbles), whose organization supports the essential architecture of her personality. And with the upheaval of a parent-mandated move to San Francisco from rural Minnesota, her personality starts very vividly to crumble.

A nimble ensemble piece, Inside Out exemplifies the platitudes of teamwork that seem baked in to the famously by-committee studio that produced it. The film has a heap of writing and directing credits (with Pete Docter at the top) and a thorough conceptual eloquence—surely the product of many elaborate brainstorms and flowcharts. As its adventurous quest unfolds, any evidence of logic gets swept away by story momentum and sincere emotional appeals (particularly in one noble gesture from an imaginary friend). Crucially, though, there's also a wistful comprehension of what Riley's coming of age really means: Of these blunt but affecting characterizations, Joy is the one with the richest arc and the most to learn.


INSIDE OUT
Directed by Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen
With Poehler, Smith, Hader, Black, Kaling
Regal Stadium 14
PG
102 min.

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