“Inside Out” is another one of those “it’s for the kids but it’s REALLY for the parents” kind of animated movies, you know, the ones Pixar has excelled at for about two decades or so, the movies that are cute, brightly colored and imaginative in a way that sucks in the young ones and holds their attention, but traffic in ideas that are decidedly the stuff of adults, requiring some life experience and perspective for the themes to really resonate, which rest assured they do. Want to take the kids to a movie about the imminent end of their childhoods? Then “Inside Out” is for you! That’s what I’d put on the poster anyway.

In “Inside Out,” 11-year old Riley moves with her Mom and Dad (because where else is she gonna go?) from somewhere in Minnesota to San Francisco. The move is due to Dad getting involved in some fledgling tech business, with Mom and Riley dutifully coming along, and this all has some negative effects on Riley, who has trouble adjusting to her new surroundings. A pretty dull set up, as far as plots go. But while this story plays out, a majority of the movie takes places inside Riley’s brain; the emotions of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear are personified as five little characters that “work” inside Riley’s head, looking through her eyes like a giant viewscreen and collecting and collating her memories around the clock and storing them in the right places, with Joy leading the charge, doing her best to ensure that Riley is having a happy life.Continue Reading …