[yasr_overall_rating]
After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness – conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.
“Inside Out” has enough emotions to fill a carpool route. The wonderful thing about it though is that the display of emotional transformation is equally pleasing to children as well as adults. I can’t remember an animated film in recent history that gave such a high level of definition to a subject and at the same time, injected humor in the most basic display of human behavior. This film, which appeals to all ages, was directed by Pete Docter whose previous work includes “Monsters, Inc.” and “WALL-E.” This prior experience has apparently carved a successful niche for him and Co-producer, Ronaldo Del Carmen, allowing them to be creatively successful in this area of animation and dimension that is growing by leaps and bounds.
Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) goes through a range of emotions as her father (Kyle MacLachlan) and mother (Diane Lane) encourage her to be positive as the family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco due to a career change for her dad. When the eleven-year old realizes that everything she is connected to is coming apart at the seams, her emotions of joy (Amy Poehler), fear (Bill Hader), sadness (Phyllis Smith), anger (Lewis Black), disgust (Mindy Kaling) and a few others, rally together with the goal of developing coping mechanisms that will make sense of it all. When it appears that nothing is going as it should, Riley comes up with a plot to run away and get back to Minnesota where she can feel loved, appreciated and accepted by her old friends and her hockey team members. Her emotions, which have struggled with each other throughout the film, put their differences aside to form a bond and a plot with Bing Bong (Richard Kind) that will get Riley back on track and ensure her happiness.
I can’t say enough about how well this film works as a learning tool for children who are coping with life changes and understanding what goes on with the rollercoaster of emotions they experience. The delicate handling of these emotions impacts self-esteem and total well-being which could be life-changing for anyone. It is creative genius for the directors to show how raw emotion really works on a child’s level of understanding, supported by anecdotal relief that has massive appeal to adults. The punch lines are appropriate and ever-present providing an entertaining and heartfelt experience to be had by all who hope to be functional in life.
In theaters June 19th
