Film: Inside Out

GENRE: Animated Comedy/Drama

RATING: PG for thematic elements
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 34 minutes

STARRING: Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation, SNL)

Phyllis Smith (The Office); Richard Kind (Bug’s Life, Spin City)

DIRECTORS: Pete Docter (Up); Ronnie Del Carmen (newcomer)

WRITERS: Pete Docter (Monster’s Inc)

Josh Cooley & Meg LeFauve (newcomers)

PLOT: Sadness causes problems for 11 year old Riley as Joy is lost in her subconscious. It makes more sense when you watch it.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 What an unbelievably clever film. Pixar does such a great job creating stories. All their stories are chock full of emotions and this one puts those feelings in the forefront. Along with the emotions, the writers geniusly  create a whole new world inside someone’s head. It’s pretty amazing.

2 Speaking of amazing, the voice cast is top notch. Poehler is the embodiment of Joy and Smith is so effective as Sadness. I also love Lewis Black (Daily Show) as Anger and Mindy Kaling (Mindy Project) as Disgust. Bill Hader does a good Fear but his voice is strangely not that recognizable.

3 Since Sadness play’s a big part in this story, you may cry. I admit to shedding a tear. While many jokes will go over young children’s heads, they may enjoy the visuals and story but are still faced with a lot of sad things. Be ready to talk about sadness and memories.

4 Don’t know why this was in 3-D. Didn’t even notice any 3-D elements which makes me wonder why they bothered.

5 The glimpse inside the eleven year old’s brain was priceless. I could watch that scene over and over again.

RECOMMENDATION: Fun to watch on big screen
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Minions