Today's Review: Inside Out

After last year's excruciating absence of a Pixar movie, I am ecstatic to be rewarded with two in 2015, and two originals no less. The first of these is Inside Out, an adventure inside a young girl's mind, that seemed like a return to the imaginative Pixar I know so well. Inside Out stars (Amy Poehler) as Joy, one of the primary emotions who lives inside the head of a young girl named Riley, alongside her co-workers Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. Together they work to regulate Riley's emotions and take care of her memories as they come through headquarters. But when a dramatic change occurs in Riley's life, things go awry inside her head, and Joy and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) find themselves stranded in the long term memory banks, desperate to get back and let Riley feel happiness again.

It's a tough subject, emotion. As such, there's an awful lot of stuff visualised in this movie. Short term and long term memories, core emotions, they're turned into a whole lot of great visual ideas, and it's in these kind of situations where Pixar really shines. The complexity of emotion is displayed in some very arresting visual scenes, and while there's certainly a lot going on, it's mostly handled very well, with a lot of jokes thrown in that poke fun at the little quirks of memory and emotion. Despite the abundance of intricate set pieces, this movie remains, at its core, an exploration of emotion. The story of Joy and the rest of the emotions is shown alongside Riley's life on the outside, and it's a very deep story about the changes we can all face during life, that does well to teach the kids about how their emotions might be working, and make people like me well up more times than they'd care to admit.

Supporting the deeply original story is a great cast. Poehler and Smith steal the show as Joy and Sadness, bringing all the comedic chops they're used to in their respective series, but also lending a great deal of emotion to their roles, so to speak. I can't really fault anyone in this production, all the emotions are well cast, and their interactions with each other are great. They all look the part as well, and every aspect of this movie just looks great. I could go on talking about how great Inside Out is for a long time, but the fact of the matter is it's a fantastic return to form from Pixar, an emotional roller coaster that looks great and will appeal to adults and kids alike. Go and see it.

My rating: 5/5