Terribly Heartbreaking

Rating: 3/10 (20 June 2015)

My daughter came to me this weekend and said we HAD to see Inside Out. I'm a big movie guy and usually get a kick out of kids movies because of the beautiful animation and witty comedy. When I read this was a Pixar movie and saw many of the rave reviews I was all in.
It started out with a great premise. Little girl (Riley) is born as an only child to a loving family living in Minnesota. We are introduced to the lead character, Joy, who is part of the team that provides Riley with all of her emotions. Joy is exactly as the name describes, she provides the Joy for Riley. However, we are also introduced to Sadness, Fear, and Disgust.
Inside of Riley's mind is a complex system of "personality islands," thought trains, memory storage systems, and a crew in charge of sending forgotten about memories to a "dump" where the memories are forever forgotten. Basically, Joy is an overachiever who feels it is her duty to control Riley's emotions 90% of the time while limiting the control of the other emotions. Nothing wrong with that as we all would like our kids to be joyous 90% of the time.
Shortly after we establish a relationship with Riley, the director decides to move the family to a dump in the middle of San Francisco. From here the story just tumbles downhill. Sadness begins to take over the control room, touching different memories and causing Riley to fall into early stages of depression. As Joy begins to sense this downward spiral things go wrong in the control room and one way or another Joy and Sadness are sent to the inner reaches of Riley's mind.
I won't follow the details from here on out as I only have a 1,000 word limit. From this point on (from about the 30 minute mark), this movie takes the audience through constant peril and depression as Joy struggles to get her and sadness back to the control room. Constant failure, constant heartbreak. This whole time Riley continues to tumble deeper into a state of depression.
The audience watched the next hour in a state of stunned silence. Nobody made a peep. I was very tempted to end this torture and grab my daughter and leave the theater. I cannot believe a movie like this was green lit, and let alone sent out by Pixar. My only hope for this review is that it helps keep families with high hopes away from going to this movie. It truly is a depressing movie and I heard more tears than laughter. I can't understand how that would get rave reviews. People's lives are hard enough as it is. To try and escape at the movies and see something like this is wrong.
Animation was great, not worth sitting through something as heartbreaking as this.