The infinite pleasures of sadness and joy

Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) in Disney Pixar's "Inside Out." Image courtesy Disney/Pixar

What stands out most about Pixar's exceptional “Inside Out” is the current of playfulness swirling just underneath the emotional complexities and mayhem. The film gets dark on occasion, especially when it dips into melancholy and fright while reflecting the confused thoughts of a lost 11-year-old girl, but it never loses the happiness and optimism that starts the moment Amy Poehler's voiceover starts. “Inside Out” reminds viewers that while danger lurks around every corner of the mind, there’s always something there to make it OK, at least for a while.

In what might be the greatest casting choice in animation history, Poehler stars as the embodiment of joy (dubbed Joy) that exists in the mind of 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias). Joy is the leader of the five emotions – she's joined by Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and annoying Debbie Downer, Sadness (Phyllis Smith) – guiding Riley's emotional state and the tone of her memories from a control room in the girl's head. Riley's memories are rooted in what the film calls core memories, which both dictate her outlook on life and influence her hobbies and interests (family, friends and hockey among them).

Props to Disney for showing that girls love hockey.

Things are going pretty well for Riley in the early going – having Joy in charge makes for a pretty sweet life – at least until she moves from her native Minnesota to San Francisco with her mom (Diane Lane) and dad (Kyle MacLachlan). It's a difficult moment for the young girl, and it becomes even more complex when Joy and Sadness, along with the core memories, are sucked out of the control room and into the maze of Riley's memory bank. Joined by Riley's old invisible friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind), Joy and Sadness must navigate through her memories and find a way home before Riley falls completely into emotional emptiness.

“Inside Out” is a blast, a film intent on giving the audience as much fun as it can within a 90-minute window. It plays with language, messes around with animation and the mind's reality, and offers a few moments of respite to smile and laugh at the monkey shines taking place on screen. I hate to use the targeted at kids while entertaining adults trope – how many movies don't try to appeal to as wide an audience as possible? – but “Inside Out” does work on that level, mixing light and friendly colors with Gilbert and Sullivan inspired wordplay involving bears. (Give yourself a second and it'll become obvious given the film's locale.) 

Wrong city.

It does all that without talking down to the target audience, despite a plot much more dense than a person would expect from a kid's movie. “Inside Out's” filmmakers handhold a little just to make sure no one gets lost, but they trust the viewers can do the heavy lifting and find their way through Riley’s mind.

“Inside Out's” plot complications also mirror those of the experience it depicts. With the caveat that I was never an 11-year-old girl, the film captures the complications of Riley's age and circumstances marvelously. Moving is an intense experience for any child, especially at that time when puberty begins to creep in and friendships begin to deepen or fade away. Riley's essentially forced to start over from scratch after more than a decade establishing her proverbial roots. Compounding the move is the broadening of Riley's emotional maturity. She's advanced beyond the age when thoughts and feelings are simple and easy to categorize; she's 11, and life has more nuance than it did before.

That's really the heart of “Inside Out's” story, the realization by Joy that the only way for Riley to grow up become a more complete person is to let go of her control of the memory banks a little and embrace the new emotional depths. The feeling of joy doesn't exist without contrast; people need some sadness, some anger, some fear and some disgust to strengthen the state of happiness. Even “Inside Out's” overarching happiness is contrasted by moments of sorrow (and one of absolute horror for people with coulrophobia) that bring out the best of Joy. The film does plunge deep into the sadness well though; every good Pixar film has at least one moment that just crushes viewers, and “Inside Out” is no exception.

To use a silly, juvenile but rather effective piece of jargon, “Inside Out” evokes all the feels. It brings just about everything out of you in just 94 minutes, leaving viewers a little bit wrecked but ultimately happy and gleeful at the end of its runtime. In other words, it leaves you in the same state as the best Pixar films.

                                                   It never stops hurting.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG

Run time: 94 minutes

Genre: Animated 

Ask Away

Target audience: Families and people who still have faith in what Pixar can do.

Take the whole family?: You're all set if the kids are 5 and up, as long as clowns are not a major fear for them or you.

Theater or Netflix?: I'm on board with a family outing with a little dinner and this movie as a centerpiece.

How's the short film?:  Kind of fun, actually. Simply called “Lava,” it tells the story of a lonely volcano that sings a song of love to attract another volcano. Even though “Lava” doesn't reach the heights of Disney's short “Paperman,” it's still a cheeky and playful appetizer that doesn't overstay its welcome.

Watch this as well?: Pick your Pixar film – my favorites include the “Toy Story” franchise, “Up,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille” and “Wall-E.” I also suggest “Ponyo,” a Hayao Miyazaki-helmed film that also broaches the complexities of emotion amid adolescence.