Too Cerebral without an Entertaining Enough Story

Rating: 6/10 (14 March 2016)

Just based on the movie, it deserves a rating of a 4 or 5 but I'm giving it 6 stars because of its intellectual aspect.
I was so excited to see this film. I missed it in theaters and didn't get to see it in 3D so I'm not sure what that would add to the movie. I am a Pixar lover but this one was a major disappointment. On some levels, the movie is amazing and the writers obviously did a lot of research and carefully laid out their story - so much to the movie is brilliant. How what is happening inside of Riley's (the main character) brain and how it affects what she is doing "outside" is seamless. The sections of the brain like memory and imagination are wonderful. The whole aspect of how suppressing emotions affects us is great. However, while the representation of the inner workings of the brain in a fun way that is accessible to children was exceptional, it didn't translate into an interesting story. (By accessible to children, I mean even if they didn't understand it, they wouldn't be confused by it either.) The story is just OK, a bit boring actually. The goal of the movie wasn't to be a laugh-fest but I also didn't get the emotional connection needed to sustain it either. Also, the cast was great.
I still give a major kudos to Pixar for attempting such a layered film with so much potential. Intellectually, I appreciated the effort of trying to give us a children's movie with so much depth. Unfortunately, the end result was mediocre.