Inside Out

One of the most affecting works Pixar has produced yet, and absolutely one of their best titles.
Pixar has proven time and time again that they have an incredibly deep understanding of emotion. For years, their movies have not only captivated audiences by making us feel tremendous joy and excitement, but they’ve also proven time and time again that they can tenderly pull on our heartstrings and make us shed tears for characters whom we’ve only known for a matter of minutes. As such, it should be no surprise that director Pete Docter’s Inside Out -- a film that is literally all about emotions – is one of the most affecting works Pixar has produced yet, and absolutely one of their best titles.

Trailer:

Showing once again that Pixar refuses to speak down to the younger portions of its audience, the new film is a surprisingly complex look into the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley, who is going through some serious life changes, and beautifully captures what it’s like to endure that angst-y, troubled stage of adolescence. Craftily playing two linked parallel stories off each other – one following Riley in the “real” world, and the other an adventure of emotions going on inside her head – Inside Out is unquestionably the most narratively challenging movie that Pixar has made, but it’s handled in a unique and clever way that creates something meaningful, painfully relatable, and a tremendous amount of fun.

Inspired by Docter’s own experience watching his young daughter approach her teenage years and transforming into a different person than the one he knew, the baseline story of Inside Out follows the aforementioned Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) as her entire world is turned on its side, forced to move from her childhood home in Minnesota to San Francisco after her dad (Kyle MacLachlan) gets a new job. Understandably, this is a touch traumatic for the young protagonist, forced to leave her friends, sports teams and her life behind her, but it’s at the request of her mother (Diane Lane) for Riley to try and keep a brave face that causes things to get complicated emotionally.

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