Inside Out Movie Review

Reviewed by Lynn Barker on Jun 19, 2015

Rating:

Check Kidzworld’s take on the new Disney/Pixar film about those little emotions in your head. Wonder why you feel the way you do? Inside Out provides one wacky answer.

By: Lynn Barker

If you were a tween yanked away from friends and moved far away, how would you take it? Would you miss your friends, your sports team, try to fit in or just be sad? Riley has zero idea why she feels the way she does and is clueless about all the crazy emotional antics going on in her head.

Emotions check out Riley's Personality IslandsCourtesy of Disney•Pixar

Story Goes

When Riley (voice of Kaitlyn Dias) is uprooted from her Minnesota home due to her dad’s new job in San Francisco, she is sad, scared and more. All of us are the victims of our emotions; Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Fear (Bill Hader) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). We see inside Riley’s head where these emotions are personified by cute characters who live in “headquarters” and control Riley’s mind. They advise her, give her ideas (both good and bad) and in times of great change, do double-time trying to keep their girl on track.

Emotions (L to R) Sadness, Fear, Anger, Digust and Joy Courtesy of Disney•Pixar

When Sadness starts taking over, chaos is created until Riley is making bad decisions, feeling basically nothing and is ready to run away from her new home. Can her most important emotion Joy, work with the other emotions and a few stray memories to get Riley back on track until she is happy in her new home?

Riley with her mom and dadCourtesy of Disney•Pixar

Wrapping Up

Inside Out is very clever, gorgeously animated, funny, sad, colorful and just interesting. Basically, what it is telling us in the end is that joy can’t really exist without sadness balancing it out. You can probably identify with tween Riley who must leave her home and friends and start over in a very strange city. She has loving parents but sometimes, that’s not enough as kids go into puberty and Inside Out examines many of the changes growing up brings, including losing old friends both real and imaginary.

Tween RileyCourtesy of Disney•Pixar

All voice actors do a great job. I especially liked Sadness. Younger kids will enjoy the physical, visual antics and jokes but it will take older tweens and audience members on into teen years to really grasp all the advanced thinking that the “emotions” are expressing. Some of the jokes will leave parents and older teens laughing while little bros and sisters are clueless. There are some big emotions at play here. Some might produce a tear or two.

Joy is happy even when things are going badly

Also showing with Inside Out is a delightful all musical Pixar short called Lava in which a very lonely Hawaiian volcano hopes for a mate. Narrated in song with voices accompanied by ukulele, it is adorable.