After taking a year off to recuperate, Pixar and director Peter Docter (Up, Monster’s Inc.) have outdone themselves again and calmed the public from what seemed might be the studios’ devastating downfall after it failed to capitalize on spinoffs and sequels resulting in some of its worst work including Cars 2, and Monster’s University. This film’s most insightful message that it offers is that sometimes it’s not only OK, but rather essential to embrace Sadness (and avoid repressing wistful memories with Joy) in order to cope with upsetting events that are created when growing up and to ultimately achieve joy.

The story takes place inside an 11-year-old girl’s mind involving the five anthropomorphic emotions that make up Riley’s (Kaitlyn Dias) psyche, controlling the actions that Riley takes. Leading the team is the effervescent pixie, Joy (Amy Poehler), accompanied by the sullen Sadness (Phyllis Smith) seemingly coming straight out of the Doldrums, the quite literally hot-headed Anger (Lewis Black), the perpetually jittery Fear (Bill Hader), and the sarcastic Disgust (Mindy Kaling).

Riley is a tomboyish tween who at the start of the film is enjoying life in idyllic Minnesota with her caring parents, and friends on her hockey team. However, her life takes a tumultuous turn after Riley’s father receives an opportunity at a tech start-up, and the family of three move out to the broccoli-pizza-laden streets of San Francisco, where Riley is forced to make due, or as her mother puts it, try to put a smile on her face.

Broccoli pizza….augh.

Although it seems that the set-up is drawn out (probably due to the studio trying to make the film at least an hour and a half long) once Joy and Sadness are accidentally sucked into the long-term memory tube along with Riley’s core memories and shot across the other side of her mind (that make up her Personality Islands) after their scuffle involving Joy attempting to stop Sadness from tampering with said memories, the ball gets rolling.

Joy telling Sadness to stay inside the circle.

We are then thrust into the world of Riley’s mental landscape, where the majority of the film takes place, exploring places such as Imagination Land, Abstract Thought, Dream Production studios, and the Subconscious as Joy and Sadness along with Riley’s long-forgotten imaginary friend, Bing Bong, (10% Raccoon, 10% Elephant, 80% Cotton Candy) whom they pick up along the way try to make their way back to “Headquarters,” before the other three unwise and contentious emotions, who, amidst their humorous banter, try to make due as best they can making mundane decisions, damage Riley’s childhood even further.

Joy and Sadness traversing through Imagination Land.

As previously mentioned, the main conflict which takes place in Riley’s mind makes up the majority of the screen time, which is rightfully so since the exterior universe seems somewhat bland in comparison. We’ve seen this done before with the likes of Chris Miller and Phil Lord’s lauded film, “The Lego Movie” as well as the cult-hit “Osmosis Jones”. Despite this, “Inside Out” definitely does a better job keeping the audience engaged with the outside world through its ability to make the audience empathize with Riley’s situation. (In addition, we dive into the “Headquarters” of Riley’s parents throughout the film as well as a multitude of minor characters in its credits sequence, which hilariously aid in the film’s mission to make the audience empathize not only with all of its characters, but also hopefully with people they will come across in their daily lives.)

The emotions of Riley’s mom.

Despite Pixar’s extraordinary take, with the help of referring to neurologists, on the workings of a child’s mind, at times it seems that their imagination and funny gags can get the better of them. As Joy and Sadness continually take the advice of Bing Bong, who seems to know his way around the capacious realm of Riley’s brain, they fail to have the ability to read ‘DANGER’ signs at the front of every obstacle. Yet, earlier in the film, when Joy encourages Sadness to read the brain’s manuals to prevent her from touching Riley’s joyful memories, and thus turning them into sad ones, Sadness is able to do so with ease. Furthermore, despite the fact that the entire plot runs on the basis of Joy and Sadness trying to get back to “Headquarters,” in the film’s third act, Sadness is seen hovering high on her rain cloud. So why could this skill not have been used earlier?

Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong.

Docter’s inspiration for the film came from his own upbringing when he had to move out to Denmark as a child and from the experiences watching his 11-year-old daughter deal with her changing emotional state. And while at times the film can seem more like an educational lesson than a spectacle in its on right or riffs off themes from Toy Story 3 particularly involving Bing Bong towards the film’s end, Pixar’s “Inside Out” is a truly imaginative tour de force that removes any fear about Pixar’s near future and will leave the audience member’s “Headquarters” gleefully replaying their memory of watching it for days on end.

WARNING: Despite my sincere praise for the film, the preshow, titled “Lava”, was by far one of the worst, contrived Pixar shorts I have seen in a while. (Which may have cunningly been purposefully done to greater appreciate the imaginative workings of “Inside Out”?)

NOTE: SPOILER: Also intriguing is the fact that it seems to take Riley nearly the entire day to get to the bus station, which seems rather odd, especially considering the fact that she looked up the place the night before and that she has a cell phone. Riley leaves in the morning, noted by the fact that her parents wish her a good day at school. Her parents are unaware that something happened until in the late afternoon, when Riley’s mom informs the absent Riley that she and her husband are home, which is intercut with Riley about to get on the bus. Hmmm.