Inside Out review - one of Pixar's best

Take a trip inside the human mind to see how our emotions take charge.

Inside Out is pretty complex stuff, even for feted animation house Pixar. The majority of it takes place inside the cranium of an 11 year old girl called Riley as we get to see how her every action and reaction is ruled over by her five primary emotions – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger.

The emotions are brought to life on screen, together with an internal command centre and a beautifully complicated series of inter-connecting systems and areas. That includes concepts like trains of thought, the imagination, abstract reasoning and the source of dreams.

Memories hold pride of place, colour-coded depending on which emotion was in charge when it was made. And a number of very important moments, called core memories, are held as shining examples of the best moments in Riley’s life, and the source of her personality up to that point.

The level of design detail and work which has gone into every aspect of Inside Out is truly mind-boggling and one of the great jobs of experiencing it but the biggest surprise is that it all makes sense. Director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, inc) somehow keeps these complex concepts in play without derailing the story.

The plot is mostly about leading emotion Joy (voiced by an effervescent Amy Poehler) and her attempt to keep Riley happy at all costs. She wrangles the other emotions and keeps her hands on the all-important console as much as she can. Until the dramatic events of the narrative send her on an amazing adventure.

Inside Out is wonderfully designed and executed, with the bright and colourful scenes inside the mind nicely contrasted with the full and flat reality peopled by voice stars like Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan. But it’s the theme and the message, and the emotion which really stays with you.

This is a film which manages to give us a glimpse at the way the human brain changes from its early years to later in life. At the growing complexity in every facet of reasoning and thought and the often painful process of trying to make yourself heard.

There are many funny moments in the film – mostly thanks to Phyllis Smith’s Sadness – but also some terrific emotional peaks which show the strain of what Riley is going through. And the message of the film is a powerful one, and something you don’t often get in movies for people of any age. That it’s ok to be sad and it’s the full range of human emotions which lets us truly express ourselves.

In the grand Pixar tradition there’s something for everyone in Inside Out, and it’s also their smallest film with the biggest ideas they’ve ever explored. Even if these cute characters aren’t running the show inside our minds, it does confirm the never-ending wonder which is human consciousness. And it also has a weird elephant/dolphin/candyfloss thing and jokes about how men are stupid.

It’s Pixar’s best in years, and rests firmly as one of their greatest accomplishments.