What an insightful movie to help explain emotions!

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2017)

What an insightful movie to help explain emotions! Perfect for everyone in the family and an excellent tool to get young people talking about what emotions are and how they feel. Easily relatable, for most viewers. Pixar/Disney artists did a wonderful job with color and animation. The emotions/core memories are solid and primary colored at the beginning of the movie. By the end of the movie the viewer starts to see a mixture of colors in the core memories. Giving the viewer the perspective that one emotion cannot exist without the others. Brilliant explanation with visual concepts! The actor's playing the "emotions" – Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), all made their voices come to life on the big screen. The sound effects and Foley artist (Alyson Dee Moore), made the characters come to life and feel real. The primary emotions are: Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust. The viewer gets the feeling that the writers of this movie, Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, have had their share of emotionally charged young people, to have made this writing flow so easily. As a parent, it was easy for many to relate to these emotions from a child's perspective. Elementary for the first few years, as Riley, the main character, could only understand one emotional feeling at a time. Which is exactly how a child can move from one thing to another without major chaotic overtones in their lives. At the age of 11, Riley's family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Life does not go as simply and easily as it had in the past. The emotions she starts to feel or doesn't feel, all start to become overwhelming and Riley gets to be downright empty. Playing in perfectly with the missing emotions, Joy and Sadness. Completely fitting for a preteen and many of the emotional struggles young people have. All of Riley's decisions rest in the hands of Fear, Disgust, and Anger, for a good portion of the movie and they are not only at odds at how to handle the situations, but lost without their leader, Joy. As the movie progresses, Joy and Sadness meet the imaginary friend Riley had as a child, Bing Bong. The three wonder from one memory island to the next, attempting to get back to the Headquarters, AKA, the brain. Bing Bong gives his existence away to save Riley from running away. Which is a great example of how imaginary friends from childhood, seemingly vanish from our minds, the older we become – as if they never existed. Joy and Sadness, come to the rescue, saving Riley from fully following through with running away, and work together, getting Riley to return home and telling her parents how she really feels about the big changes in her life. As the movie comes to the end, the viewer is pulled into the onset of puberty and feeling that Riley is going to be okay with all these changes ahead of her in life. Her emotions are as excited about life, as Riley is about her passion for hockey. A timeless adventure, helping to explain why and how we feel, through the eyes of child.