Inside Out
Director: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen
Writer: Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley
Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Oz, Flea, Rashida Jones
Seen on: 4.10.2015

Plot:
Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) and her parents (Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan) have to move to San Francisco. Being uprooted that way causes quite some chaos inside Riley, where Joy (Amy Poehler) desperately tries to keep Riley happy. But Sadness (Phyllis Smith) keeps messing things up and who needs sadness anyway? In her attempt to make things right, Joy and Sadness find themselves a long way from the command center, where Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) are left to try to keep things together, to keep Riley together. But that’s not so easily done.

Inside Out took its time to make its way to Austria – but it was worth every minute of the wait. It was cute and hilarious and very, very touching.

Astonishingly enough, Inside Out feels entirely accurate. I mean, it’s clear that we don’t have anthropomorphic feelings running amuck in our heads who quarrel with each other, but when you distill the narration down to its core, it feels very true about how our brains, personality and decision making processes work. It seems they did a ton of research which woud explain that bit.

But the movie doesn’t hinge on feeling true, it’s just a bonus. (Although it did make me wonder who was in charge of my head. It’s probably either Joy, or judging by my pragmatism, it’s Disgust.) The movie’s core quality are the wonderful characters – the emotions themselves, Bing Bong (Richard Kind) and Riley and her parents are all equally relatable, funny and loveable.

It helps, of course, to have a voice cast this amazing who really bring everything they have to their roles. Although Sadness and Phyllis Smith are particular standouts and immediate fan favorites (I’d count myself among those fans).

When the film was over, I was far from ready to go. I wanted to look into so many more heads and I wanted to see so much more of Riley and how her story continues and I wanted to see puberty hit. I usually don’t hope for sequels but in this case, I hope they make one and that it’s as good as this one.

Summarizing: Absolutely loved it.