Best Movie of 2015 So Far!!!

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2015)

To break down Inside Out is to break down the mind and all of its beautiful complexities. While the idea of characterizing the emotions of the human is not exactly original (look up the short play "Bob's Date") PIXAR tackles it in a very original way. The organization of the mind may seem simple at first in this film, but we see through the amazing digital set designs in Inside Out that the mind is highly complex, and its various parts or sections are very dependent on each other. I am not saying we did not know the mind is complex, but the film illustrates the mind with an original layout while letting the audience know it is still complex.
While the focus is highly on how the emotions control the person, the person herself, Riley, is very crucial to the story. She is a very joyful kid who finds herself moving to a new area with her family in the opening credit sequence. This happens to put Riley, as well as her emotions, through new obstacles, and the protagonist, Joy, struggles to keep Riley happy for the first time in their lives. This leads to an event which separates Joy and Sadness from the headquarters, and Riley's mood becomes similar to depression, though it is never labeled as such but is heavily implied.
What the film beautifully illustrates is the idea that when people have crises, the mind itself is having its own crisis to create or add to the external problems - a beautiful correlation between the external and the internal. The primary struggle is between Joy and Sadness, and it starts out as Joy attempting to suppress Sadness as much as possible and moves towards Joy finding worth in Sadness gradually. This relationship moves towards one of the most sentimental scenes in the history of PIXAR, which brought this viewer to tears.
Aside from having a great story structure and a great character arc for both Joy and Sadness, Inside Out is hilarious throughout with great running gags and clever moments which give character to aspects of the mind other than the emotions (if you really want to laugh, stay for the footage during the credits, and keep in mind there is nothing AFTER the credits). Dreaming is treated like a movie set - an idea that is supposedly illustrated in Inception if viewers pay enough attention - and Fear becomes a sort of film critic for a brief segment. For the funniest running gag in the film, all I will say is it involves when songs get stuck in the head.
This movie cleverly and ironically makes the audience feel the best of joy with its comedy as well as the worst of sadness/sympathy with its sentimental moments. It is simply a must-see film - one of the best PIXAR movies to date, and my favorite to have been directed by Pete Docter!