Inside Out is a more mature Pixar effort telling the story of Riley Anderson (Kaitlyn Dias) through the medium of her core emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) & Fear (Bill Hader) who we see based in Rileys mind. It is their job to manage Rileys well being through her thought processes and core memories. In general it is relatively easy for Joy to keep things in check and manage Rileys mind from day to day however when Riley has to relocate to San Fransisco because her father needs a job which is on offer she begins to struggle emotionally and thus Joy begins to struggle to remain in control. When Sadness begins to change some of Rileys long term memories Joy steps in to regain control and inadvertently sets the wheels in motion where she ends up being transported along with Sadness to the deepest parts of Riley mind leaving the other, less organised, emotions to hold the fort with disastrous consequences. It is then a race against time for Joy to get back to the fore front of Riley’s mind before it is irreparably damaged.

Taking the above paragraph it hardly sounds like Pixar material but it is done so cleverly by the animators that kids will not even realise the dark subject matter around the effects of depression which is on screen and will love the comedy adventure film which it actually is. The voice acting is brilliant, the tale itself is excellent and although it’s a children’s film it doesn’t feel like one. Riley struggles in her new school, when her parents give out she storms to her room, her mind is filled with moments and objects you recognise from real life and there’s a hilarious take on Riley’s Bieber-esque imaginary boyfriend which ties it all together nicely into a plausible situation which makes the movie. The reactions of the emotions and how they are shown impacting Riley is genius, we’ve all been in those situations and have wondered afterwards why we reacted the way we did and for such a supposedly simple movie it is very complex behind the brightly coloured animations.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6.5 Out Of 10