Pixar Animation Studios has achieved remarkable success by anthropomorphizing everything from automobiles to tropical fish. Things get more abstract in their latest feature, Inside Out, which imagines the conflicting emotions of 11-year-old Riley Anderson as a quintet of luminous humanoids: Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). The fivesome squabble for control of Riley’s actions at the control panel in “Headquarters,” with each striving to produce memories embodied as colorful orbs.
Everyone seems content with their role, until Sadness grows restless with de facto ringleader Joy’s attempts to restrain her. This coincides with Riley’s family moving from rural Minnesota to San Francisco, which unsurprisingly provokes a crisis for the change-averse tweenager. Through a series of mishaps, Joy and Sadness are ejected from Headquarters and into Riley’s wider mindscape, forcing them on a journey through Long-Term Memory and other perilous environs. Along the way, they encounter Riley’s nearly forgotten imaginary friend Bing-Bong (Richard Kind), who is helpful but of questionable value as a guide.
The most conspicuous triumph of Inside Out is its sheer inventiveness. Recalling Norton Juster’s novel The Phantom Tollbooth, Riley’s interior life is visualized as a wondrous fantasy landscape with a complex society and infrastructure. (The conceit leads to some delicious visual and conceptual gags, not to mention groan-worthy puns.) As one might expect from a Pixar feature, however, the visceral appeal of Inside Out’s glorious design and charming characters conceals a poignant and emotionally sophisticated story. The film eventually reveals itself as a fable about growing up, and in particular about confronting the challenges of more adult, multifaceted feelings that defy simple labels. It’s the kind of inspired, textured family filmmaking that defines Pixar, and Inside Out is one of their most ingenious creations yet.
Inside Out opens in wide release on Friday, June 19.
