Inside Out

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2015)

This new Disney/Pixar film, from the creators of Toy Story and Up, was being advertised a lot a few months before release, including in Sky Broadband and Subway adverts, the concept definitely looked appealing to me, and critics were giving it high praise, so I was really up for seeing it. Basically a girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is born in Minnesota, and her five key emotions were manifested one by one, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Anger (Lewis Black), the emotions live in Headquarters, Riley's conscious mind, where they influence Riley's actions and memories via a control console. Riley's new memories created are stored in coloured orbs, they are all sent to storage at the end of every waking period, the most important "core" memories are housed in a Headquarters hub and power five "islands" each reflecting Riley's personality: Hockey Island - created from Riley's love for the sport, Goofball Island - created from Riley's fun-loving side, Family Island - created from her love of her family, Honesty Island - created from her honest nature, and Friendship Island - created from her ability to have and make friends. Joy is Riley's dominant emotion, keeping Riley in a happy state, she and the other emotions do not understand the purpose of Sadness, it is when Riley has turned 11 that her family are relocating to San Francisco after her Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) gets a new job, and Sadness is somehow causing happy memories to turn sad, and Sadness causes Riley to cry on her first day at her new school, causing a new sad "core" memory. Joy tries to dispose of this new memory, but she accidentally knocks core memories loose in a struggle with Sadness, and the shutdown of personality islands causing them to become unstable, and together Joy, Sadness and the core memories end up being sucked out of Headquarters through the memory tube, leading to the rest of Riley's mind, they end up in the labyrinth-like storage area of Riley's long-term memories. While Joy carrying the Core memories and Sadness are trying to get back to Headquarters, the three remaining emotions Anger, Disgust and Fear are attempting to maintain Riley's emotional state, but they inadvertently cause her to become distant from her Dad and Mom (Diane Lane), her friends and her hobbies, consequently her personality islands are crumbling and falling into the Memory Dump, an abyss where faded memories are disposed and forgotten. Anger decides to insert an idea for Riley to run away back to Minnesota, believing happy memories can be produced there, meanwhile Joy and Sadness have run into Riley's childhood imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind), who wishes to reconnect with her, he guides them back to Headquarters, telling them they can get there riding the Train of Thought, they explore different areas of Riley's mind along the way, including Dreamland and Imagination Land. They do eventually catch the train, but it becomes derailed with the collapse of another personality island, as Riley prepares to board a bus to Minnesota, Joy attempts to use a recall tube back to Headquarters, but the last personality island falls and breaks the tube, sending Joy and Bing Bong into the Memory Dump, she despairs and looks at memories, she finds a sad memory that became happy, when Riley lost a hockey game and was consoled by her parents, she realises Sadness's importance. Joy and Bing Bong find his discarded song- powered wagon to escape, but many failed attempts Bing Bong realises his weight is too much, so he jumps out on their final attempt and fades away in the abyss, Joy uses various tools from Imagination Land to propel herself and Sadness to Headquarters, there they find Anger's idea has disabled the control, making Riley depressed and almost unresponsive, returned Joy urges Sadness to take control, the idea is successfully removed, the console is reactivated and Riley is prompted to return home. Sadness reinstalls the core memories, Riley returns home and breaks down in tears, confessing to her parents she misses her old life, they reassure and comfort her, Joy and Sadness work together to create a combined core memory, it also creates a new personality island is created. A year later, Riley has adapted to her new life in San Francisco, all her emotions work together using an expanded control console and help her lead a happy and more emotionally complex life, with more new personality islands produced by new core memories combined by multiple emotions. Also starring Dave Goelz as Subconscious Guard Frank, Frank Oz as Subconscious Guard Dave, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea as Mind Worker Cop Jake and John Ratzenberger as Fritz. The voice cast are all chosen well, the characters all have good personalities and the colourful nature of this film will appeal to younger audience members, while the voices inside your head concept and complicated emotions working together element will keep the older audience interested, it perhaps becomes overcomplicated in small places, but memories, emotions and the human mind are complex subjects, it is clever, creative and fun family movie, an enjoyable animated adventure comedy. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, and it was nominated for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, it won the BAFTA for Best Animated Film, and it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Animated. Very good!