Inside Out (2015), PG, ★★★★

Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Joy in one brain.

We all have inside voices in our head and we, ourselves, individually, process on what's going on on how we think about certain subjects, what we are imagining, what we remember and what we are dreaming about. I am not a psychology expert but we can also look and observe people on their behavior by the way they produce their own body language, facial expressions and tone of people's voices. How do certain people know when they have to speak? Do you know the expression: think before you act or say something? How do we know what to say? Based on animation, five emotions control our mind on what to say. It is a unique and original concept created by Pixar and their latest film is an exceptional and brilliant piece of work.

Five physical forms of emotion are created in Riley's (Kaitlyn Dias) mind: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust (voiced by Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black and Mindy Kaling). The emotions organizes Riley's memories which are housed in "memory orbs" and the orbs that are relevant in her life are stored as the "core memories" in which it links to five "islands" in Riley's subconscious, each having a distinct reflection of her personality. Joy keeps her life happy, Anger keeps her life fair, Disgust controls her from being harmed physically and emotionally and Fear keeps her safe. Sadness, however, does not think she is relevant to her personality and the other emotions are oblivious to her.

Riley turns eleven and her family relocates to San Francisco after her father, Bill (voiced by Kyle McLachlan) got a job and her mother (voiced by Diane Lane) follows him and supports him. The emotions try everything to make it a poignant and pleasant experience. However, when Sadness turns a core memory into a sad memory, Joy tries everything as the core memory cannot be changed back.

On Riley's first day of school, Joy tries everything in her power to prevent Sadness from not touching anything as the emotions do their work. However, when Sadness touches a memory which causes Riley to cry in front of the whole class which creates a core memory, Joy desperately needs to get rid of the core memory into the vacuum tube. But, during a struggle with Sadness, the core memories are knocked off the container causing Joy and Sadness and the core memories to be sucked off leaving the other emotions to control Riley. How is Riley going to be "restored" into a normal human being?

A family dinner. 

Welcome back, Pixar! You have made a great movie again! This movie identifies with not particularly with little children but mostly with older children and adults as we witness a child being detached from making friends at a new school but also with her parents. She becomes sort of a blank wall which makes her confused and decides to run away. However, that section of the runaway has been done before in other movie but not in this sophisticated and complex fashion. But, the pay-off is quite remarkable and may make you shed a tear as Pixar does earn your emotions quite well and this is the right movie to do it. It is not a cliched giveaway, it is an earned sentiment.

Pixar has made complex movies with Wall-E and Toy Story 3, but this might be their most personal and complex films that identify with the audience on how we feel towards their movies. It is an opinionated thought, but, come on, how many animated films have you cried on? On the top of my head: Bambi and The Lion King. But, what about Pixar animated films? About half of the movies the audience cried upon.

Both the interior portion and exterior portion are quite handled beautifully accompanied by Pete Docter's direction who created Up and Toy Story 3. He knows how to push the audience's buttons. And, also the score by Michael Giacchino transitions well as the music transitions the mood in an imaginative and fantastical way as his score again echoes John Williams' best work. He did it with Jurassic World last week and mostly brought us back to the early days of Jurassic Park. Giacchino is one of the best composers around right now.

The inside voices, aka the characters, are characterized with subtlety and humor as Fear is the tool of slapstick as his butt is set on fire, providing laughter for the younger demographic of children 8 years and younger. What Pixar does very well is creating works for children and the inner child inside older audiences and this movie fits that category perfectly. This is a movie for children and adults like that will convey for initial emotions with gentle happiness. I was very entertained by this moving film and this is one of Pixar's best movies. This is one of the best movies of the year and one of the best animated movies lately.

****