“Inside Out,” the latest Pixar punch to the heart, navigates the labyrinth of a young girl’s mind in an antic, candy-colored romp through childhood memory to arrive, finally, gloriously, at epiphany.
By now it’s a familiar Pixar trajectory from wackadoodle to waterworks: We know it’s coming and we know there’s nothing we can do about it. The wave of tender nostalgia is going to crash down and wash us - happy, misty-eyed saps - out to sea, maybe with Nemo and Dora swimming alongside.
Those moments, sentimental and sublime, come in unlikely places: the sudden understanding of a forgotten toy, the flashback of a grouchy old man. The epiphanies are almost invariably about giving into the natural course of life and time: An acceptance, a letting go.
What’s most striking about “Inside Out” isn’t its inside-the-brain gee-whiz design, but that it’s Pixar’s most directly human story yet: An 11-year-old girl, growing up.
It’s an event observed and subtly manipulated by a gaggle of voices in the head of young Riley: Joy (Amy Poehler), an effervescent, pixie-haired burst of positivity; Sadness (Phyllis Smith), a blue-tinged, bespectacled mope; Anger (Lewis Black), a red block of fury; Fear (Bill Hader), a perpetually nervous squiggle; and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), a snobbish socialite.
Better is the tenderly depicted daily life of Riley as she struggles to adjust to a new school and city.
What’s most refreshing about “Inside Out” is its inversion of the standard prescriptions of big-budget animation: It’s ultimately about the importance of embracing sadness. This, you may have noticed, isn’t exactly the conventional moral one generally finds at the multiplex.
But it’s a fitting lesson to be imparted by Pixar, a master juggler of emotion that has so often moved us with radiant bursts of feeling. Who better to remind us of the value of a good cry?
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: