‘Inside Out’ Review Roundup: Critics Raving About New Pixar Flick

Pixar’s Inside Out, which delves inside the complicated mind of a young girl named Riley who’s struggling with growing up as well as a jarring move to a new city, is a hit with critics.

Riley’s emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith )–  take center stage in Inside Out. In Riley’s mind’s HQ, they all attempt to work together to get Riley through her days, which never proves more difficult than when she’s uprooted from the Midwest for a move to San Francisco.

Inside Out Review

The concept for Inside Out would seem to verge on being too complicated for a children’s movie, but critics are largely in agreement that director Peter Docter has succeeded, and then some. With voice work by some of the best comedic actors around, Inside Out delivers the laughs in abundance, but also taps into a broader idea of how complicated a child’s mind can be.

“Inside Out is only 94 minutes long, but stuffed with enough loving detail for five movies…. Above all, there is the film’s stealthy, insightful approach to child psychology and its wonderful distillation of concepts that most filmmakers would never attempt to express in this medium. The movie is unabashed about its sentimentality, because it’s teaching us about the raw power of sentiment: This is how memories are formed. Inside Out isn’t just a sign of renewed youth from Pixar. It’s the reason Pixar exists.” – Andrew Lapin, NPR

“It’s good to get your emotions in check before watching the exquisite Inside Out. You’re bound to feel the whole bunch watching a child’s mind come alive in the most imaginative ways.[…] Inside Out embodies Pixar at its best, hitting on different levels for every age, and as the kids might say, causing all the feels by making them a Joy to behold.” – Brian Truitt, USA Today

“Director Pete Docter, who dared to be scary in the Academy Award-nominated Monsters, Inc. and delve into the pain of loss in the Academy Award winner Up, once again shows an uncanny ability to enlighten as he entertains. […] Buddy films have always been about balancing opposite urges. Here the balance mirrors not only what’s needed for great art, but also for mental and spiritual healing.” – Nancy Churnin, The Dallas Morning News

“From one moment to the next, five conflicting emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust—do what they can to dominate Riley’s inner life. As the action played out, my own feelings ranged from sheer Delight to Wonder tinged with Awe at the film’s ability to turn an abstract concept—the contending forces of our psyches—into a spectacle that’s as funny, stirring, unpredictable, exciting and riotously beautiful as it is profound.” – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

Inside Out is currently in wide release. Get ticket here!