Inside Out

— I don’t see many animated films. “Frozen”? I’ve never seen it. “Nemo”? Never. Nor “A Bug’s Life”, “James and the Giant Peach”, “Tangled”, or even the “The Little Mermaid”, but the previews for “Inside Out” were so unusual that I ended up checking it out. I’m glad I did because it is a very clever approach to a pretty abstract concept. An 11-year-old girl’s emotions—personified as the characters Anger, Disgust, Fear, Sadness and Joy—grapple for control of her mind as she and her parents move from Minnesota to San Francisco. It took incredibly creative minds to turn a story that mostly occurs inside a kid’s head into something comprehensible and, even better, enjoyable. It kept me involved and I was amazed to see kids in the audience being attentive too, so it must operate on more than one level. Of course, in the end it’s clear that it takes all the emotions to make a well-rounded personality, that joy doesn’t’ exist without sadness, and that emotions need to be accepted instead of suppressed. It’s being called “Pixar’s Brain Candy Cartoon” and I’d recommend it.

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[2015. 94 min. Directed by Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen. Voices by Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-inside-out.html