Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.
In the very clever Inside Out we discovered how Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and Fear worked together at Headquarters to navigate Riley through daily life, including a big transition involving a move to San Francisco. A new city, a new school, and no friends made Riley experience a wide range of emotions, and Joy tried her best to keep Riley happy.
But Fear, Disgust, Anger, and an unrelenting Sadness could not be stopped from emerging.
During such a trying time, Joy and Sadness find themselves separated from the rest of the emotions during an emotional mishap, and they end up in long-term memory - far away from Headquarters.
As they try to make their way back, Riley goes through an extremely difficult, unhappy period, while losing pieces of her identity - her goofiness, her love of sports, her bonds with friends,
But Joy and Sadness are determined to make their way back to Headquarters, and during their quest they meet up with some important characters and travel through some very integral parts of Riley's mind, until they eventually do make it back to Headquarters.
And back at Headquarters, Joy realizes that our memories are comprised out of a variety of emotions at any given moment. It's okay to be sad, fearful, angry, or disgusted. We all want to feel joy, and it would be wonderful if we could feel that joy all the time, but really - without sadness, how would we feel joy?
All of our varied emotions help us shape our memories and the core of who we are.
I was actually surprised with how complex the movie was in terms of not only how the emotions work, but how memories are made, and the role of dreams, imagination, train of thought, and our subconscious in our everyday lives. I thought it was very impressive how each area was depicted in the movie.
As for the emotions - my kids absolutely loved Anger. His actions were always so funny, and whenever his head explode into flames (especially when he heard a funny jingle), my kids would burst into laughter.
My favorite emotion was Sadness. For someone so sad all the time, she sure was cute and funny!
And my personal favorite scene involved a "scary" clown that was part of Riley's subconscious - I'm sure many people could relate to that scene!
The movie was very touching as well, and I shed a tear or two during a scene with Bing Bong, Riley's childhood imaginary friend,
It was very amusing to see all the emotions in not only Riley's minds, but also in her parents' minds, as well as in other kids and even animals.
Inside Out was thoroughly entertaining, and it is one that the entire family will enjoy.
Inside Out is now in theaters.
Great review! Couldn't agree more!
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