Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.
Inside Out is a conceptually brilliant Pixar film that earns its reputation through an extraordinarily inventive premise — personifying emotions as characters navigating a child's mind. The plot is emotionally resonant and structurally elegant, using its high concept to deliver genuine psychological insight about the necessity of sadness and complex emotions. Novelty is well above average: the film's conception of memory, personality islands, abstract thought, and dream production is unlike anything in mainstream animation. The ending delivers a powerful emotional payoff that recontextualizes the entire journey. Acting (voice work) is solid and well-cast but not exceptional enough to stand out as a category highlight. Cinematography in animation terms is competent and colorful but not visually groundbreaking compared to Pixar's most ambitious visual work.