Claire Whitley | Rawr Reviews
First of all, any Pixar movie is going to be a fun experience, especially if it’s is all about the emotions inside peoples’ heads. Joy, fear, sadness, disgust and anger are in everyone, but only one really runs the control board. 
“Inside Out” takes place in the mind of an 11-year-old girl, Riley, whose family just uprooted and moved from Minnesota to San Francisco. Riley, while mostly joyful, has a hard time getting used to everything, partly because in the midst of everything, Joy and Sadness get sucked out of headquarters and into the labyrinth of long-term memory.
The remaining part of the film is about Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) working together, even though they are opposites, to make it back to headquarters in order to make Riley happy again, or, in the extreme case toward the end, to prevent her from running away from home.
I was excited to see this movie and ended up satisfied with it. The plot was unique as well as upbeat, even though I almost started sobbing when (spoiler alert) Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong disappeared into the abyss that was her memory dump. I enjoyed the style of animation with the vibrant colors of Riley’s mind in contrast with the regular colors of the outside world. The moral was also a good message and hopefully it resonates with children who see it in the theater.
There were a few things I thought were lacking though. I would have liked to see inside other people’s minds more, not just Riley’s. Throughout the film there were a few blurbs inside each of the parents’ minds, which were hysterical. There were also a few snapshots at the end of several different people, including a cat and a dog.
However, that is just a critique that isn’t necessary to the overall result of the film and probably would have made the movie too scatter brained and harder to follow. The snapshots we got were worth it, even if they were only 10-second blurbs.
In addition to “Inside Out” being an all around feel good movie, Pixar’s short “Lava” made the audience feel every emotion available. There were whispers of how sad it was at times, but people would laugh a little and it had a happy ending. Not that the happy ending helped, as I still felt like it was a really depressing short. Needless to say, singing volcanoes have way more emotion than should be necessary.
Overall, “Inside Out” is a good film. There were some defects and hopes for more, but it wasn’t required. Take the kids, a significant other or even just a friend and enjoy getting all inside out.
Claire Whitley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Cewhitley24