Inside Out

Pixar Animation Studios ceases to amaze me with the quality of their work. Their ability to take the simplest of premises and expound on them into creative, insightful works of art is mind-blowing. "Toy Story", "Cars", Monsters, Inc.", "Finding Nemo", "Up", "Wall-E", "Brave" all delineate simple life concepts that we all, young or old at heart can learn from all the while being truly entertained. Well, we can now add "Inside Out" to that ever flowing list of gems under the Pixar umbrella.

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father (Kyle MacLachlan) starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions-- Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley's mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, a new house and a new school.

Others to round out the cast are Diane Lane as Kiley's mother, Richard Kind as Bing Bong, Kiley's past imaginary friend, Paula Poundstone as Forgetter Paula, Bobby Moynihan as Forgetter Bobby, Paula Pell as Dream Director/Mom's Anger, David Goetz as Subconscious Guard Frank, Frank Oz as Subconscious Guard Dave and Josh Cooley as Jangles the Clown.

This was brilliantly paced and staged well by director, Pete Docter ("Monster's Inc." '01,"Up" '09) plus shorts. This guy has been with Pixar and has learned his craft well by his predecessors. The company definitely knows the meaning of the word, team. They all work together in such harmony that these films give the appearance that it was effortless in putting these gems together--and it was not easy at all. It was co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen. This was equally well written by Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley and Docter based on a story by Docter and del Carmen. This premise and execution of it was pure genius! Think about it--giving the different emotions in your head distinct personalities in order to work together to help this young girl deal with her everyday concerns. the character development was so well delineated and as with Pixar's past films, this too has a great message all the while entertaining you. You see, the emotions we have are all to be used for the good theoretically. One isn't better than the other, and if used properly, each emotion has its place to getting us to make the most prudent, important decisions we need to make in life. And, of course, the animation in this was seamless as with all the other Pixar productions.

As I've said before, how do these guys at Pixar do it?! How do they keep coming up with these simple ideas and turning them around where they are so creative and entertaining? Oh, and not to worry, if you want more of Pixar fun, "The Good Dinosaur" will be out for a Thanksgiving release. Whoo Hoo!!

Out of 4 Stars: 4                            Rated: PG                         95mins. +8mins "Lava"