By Cyntia Santos – Staff Reporter

The latest animated Pixar movie, “Inside Out,” is about an 11-year-old girl Riley. Riley leads a pretty good life, with her loving parents and a love of hockey and her native Minnesota, but her world turns upside down when she and her parents moves to San Francisco for her father’s new job. Riley’s emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) try to guide Riley through this difficult event while living in Riley’s “Headquarters”.

While Joy tries to keep the move positive, the weight of it brings Sadness in the lead and Riley’s core memories turn sad. In an attempt to return the core memories to their happy state, Joy and Sadness are recklessly swept into the back of Riley’s mind where they get lost in Riley’s long term memory. As Joy and Sadness are on an adventure to get back to Headquarters, the only emotions left are Anger, Fear and Disgust.

Like many other Pixar movies, like “Nemo” and “WALL-E,” the film deals with the issue of loss. This time, that emotion was captured by ‘Inside Out” co-writers and co-directors Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen. For his part, Docter had the idea for this movie about over six years ago, after he saw his own 11-year-old daughter become sad, and tried to imagine how the world looked through her eyes.

“Inside Out” also shows how all emotions are important in life, and how they work together in complicated situations to go through life. Though odd, the humor grows on the viewers throughout the film with help from its interesting and creative concepts. For example, Riley’s imaginary friend, Bing Bong, voiced by Richard Kind, is a pink, fuzzy elephant with orange striped legs in a hat, bow tie and blazer. Bing Bong really shows the creativeness in this film.

This is a family movie that can connect to all ages. Adults can feel connected to Riley’s parents through Riley’s rough patch and think about what they would do in their situation. The concept having a “Headquarters,” where all the emotions live, and the spheres of memories in the movie can be too complex for younger children. For a child, they would really have to process what’s happening first to understand.

This 94-minute, PG-rated Pixar movie brought tears to the audience’s eyes. It’s emotional, adventurous, and humorous film for all ages.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars