A bitter-sweet masterpiece from Disney/Pixar

Rating: 10/10 (25 August 2016)

This Disney/Pixar film is primarily set in the head of eleven year old Riley Andersen where five emotions; Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger are based. They live in 'Head Quarters' from where they control her temperament and help organise her memories. Overall they are primarily joyful but when her family moves away from her friends in Minnesota to a new home and a new life in San Francisco things start to go wrong. As Riley goes to her new school for the first time Sadness accidentally causes her to cry in front of her new classmates and for the first time a sad core memory is created. Joy tries to stop it being processed and in the process disrupts the other core memories deactivating Riley's 'personality islands'. As Joy struggles with Sadness the two of them and the core memories and removed from Head Quarters; this leaves Disgust, Fear and Anger trying to control Riley's emotions with disastrous results if Joy and Sadness can't get back with the core memories Riley will suffer permanent emotional damage.
I had heard that this film was something very special long before I eventually watched it for me it definitely lived up to the hype. It is rather appropriate that a film about emotions is one of the most emotional I've seen for some time and fittingly, given that Joy and Sadness are the main characters, I shed tears of both joy and sadness before it was over. The creators did a beautiful job anthopomorphising the emotions in a way that created a story that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. The voice actors do a fine job bringing these characters, as well as the human characters, to life. The story is told at a good pace and there are some gentle scares as well as some loss; particularly in an emotional scene of self-sacrifice involving Riley's previously forgotten imaginary friend. While it is sad at times there are just as many joyful moments as well as some good laughs. Overall I'd definitely recommend this film to people of all ages; I've only just watched it but want to watch it again soon.