REVIEW: INSIDE OUT

I hate to say it but the last time Pixar really delivered the magic to me as they usually do was half a decade ago! With two other friends, fresh out of middle school, I remember being relatively close to the front of the theater for Toy Story 3. When you're a millennial growing up in daycares, you've knowingly or unknowingly watched the Toy Story franchise alone at least 15 times a year. Maybe I couldn't rattle off the script verbatim like some can, but if you sit me down and ask me to explain the entire plot of the original to you, I think I could. That's how deeply ingrained Pixar and its cavalcade of wonderful films is in my blood, and although their last offering, the prequel Monsters University was cute, it nowhere near held a candle to the charm of the original, and even though this will date me I saw it in theaters when I was five.

We all know Cars 2 was clunky, and you either loved, hated or just weren't affected by Brave despite the typically lovely animation. I was in the latter, which makes my absolute love for their new venture Inside Out a delight to see Pixar returning to the breath of fresh air it was, even when it was on its third movie in a well-loved franchise. In a noteworthy Facebook post I scrolled through, it read something along the lines of "Pixar's Thought Process" and underneath said "What if toys had feelings?" and "What if bugs had feelings?" and "What if cars had feelings?" Rats, robots, the monsters under your bed, Pixar takes familiar notions we're all familar with and turns them on your head. For this film the post read "What if feelings had feelings?" I'm so glad they asked.

This is the film to beat for the rest of 2015 folks. It's that good. Pixar has harnessed the magic sometimes it forgets it has and completely makes you forget about its offerings that maybe haven't landed so well as a Toy Story. We're thrown into a world of literal imagination, where a bulk of the film simply takes place in one setting: the mind of pre-pubescent (or shall I say poo-bescent) Riley, your average American girl, if a little on the shier side. Then again, what is an average American girl, or an average girl for that matter? In their own magical way that fills even someone who hasn't even left his teens yet with nostalgia, Pixar shows the "mechanics" of how our minds work, with anthropomorphized emotions running the show. All five emotions bring such, well, JOY! to the picture, but especially Amy Poehler as Joy, really anchoring the movie and keeping the audience engaged.

Her cohorts are Fear, Disgust, Anger and Sadness, the maybe not so desirable emotions that filled and controlled all of us as we were growing up. In so pitch perfect casting it's kind of scary, Lewis Black (which if you've seen any politically-tinged stand-up of his is the epitome of profane anger) is perfect as mini-brick Anger, and Mindy Kaling, channeling Kelly from "The Office" so well as Disgust really makes you wish there was an Oscar for casting directors. There's so many wondrous, colorful and truly innovative decisions at play here I couldn't attempt to rattle them all off.  So I guess you'll just have to see it for yourself. Though it may not be as kid-friendly as say Nemo or The Incredibles, it certainly will speak right to the adults and teens in the audience. Don't be afraid to let it take you over with emotion.

Rating: 4/4 stars