“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 Dory swimming alongside.
Those moments, sentimental and sublime, come in unlikely places. Part of the magic is that, even when out in space or in a rat-run restaurant, Pixar films stay earthbound. What’s most striking about “Inside Out” isn’t its inside-the-brain gee-whiz design, but that it’s probably Pixar’s most directly human story yet: An 11-year-old girl, growing up.
The film may be about a young girl, but it’s really from a parent’s perspective—even the inside voices are guardians of Riley, adjusting as she matures out of childhood.
As he did with “Up,” Pete Docter has married a rainbow-colored palate with a gentle fable, mixing reality and fantasy—sometimes awkwardly, but always with warm-heartedness!