“Inside Out” will have viewers leaving the theater happy! Pixar Studios has done it again—the story, humor, and imagination combine in a wonderful package that will delight audiences everywhere.
The film focuses on young Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), who moves with her mom and dad from Minnesota to San Francisco. When they arrive before the moving truck, Riley has to sleep on the floor for a night in her sleeping bag. She feels awkward at her new school because she doesn’t have any friends; when she learns her best friend back in Minnesota has a new friend, Riley is even more miserable. Her core memories are not helping because they are about sad times and not joyful ones.
One interesting aspect of this film is that Riley’s emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust—are characters. The character Sadness is blue, which points to the imagination of this film. When Joy is gone from Headquarters for a while, Riley’s life is even more intolerable. The characters have conversations with each other and a lot of the film’s humor stems from the characters such as Fear or Anger responding to certain situations. The movie relates very well to the audience. One example is when a character starts thinking of a song in his head out of the blue and wonders out loud, “Now where did that come from?” Anyone who has ever had a song stuck in his head will appreciate the scene. There are many laugh-out-loud moments for the audience. One such moment is when angry people beep at one another in a traffic jam and Anger says, “Now, these are my kind of people!”
There are a couple of scenes worth noting, such as Riley taking her mother’s credit card from her purse and buying a bus ticket back to Minnesota. However, that situation is resolved and Riley realizes the importance of togetherness. Also, Anger says he would like to “curse” a few times, but he never does.
The story focuses on Joy trying to get back to Riley. Themes include the importance of family and how our emotions are all working together make us a complete person. We are pleased to award “Inside Out” our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal for ages twelve plus. It gives the viewer a lot of scope for the imagination!
