This one's about feeling our feelings

Arkadev Ghoshal, June 28, 2015, DHNS

Inside Out
English (U) Director: Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen
Voices: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias and Richard Kind

There’s a buzz around social media circles over how Disney and Pixar came up with the premise for “Inside Out”. Having made films about what would happen if insects, cars and even monsters had feelings, someone finally decided to go meta and ask: What if feelings had feelings?

That bit of snark pales in comparison with what Paul Docter has created and helmed, with Ronaldo Del Carmen as co-director. “Inside Out” has been made with a lot of feelings, that which end up leaving a feel-good warmth in your heart.

Eleven-year-old Riley (voiced by Dias) is uprooted from her Minessotta home by dad and mom, and taken to live in San Francisco. An upheaval of emotions — the little voices inside her head, which also happen to have functioning bodies — leads to Riley’s Joy (Poehler) and Sadness/Sorrow (Smith) being sucked away from the headquarters (presumably the brain), along with the core memories, which make up Riley’s personality.

As they try to return to HQ, Disgust/Envy (Kaling), Anger (Black) and Fear (Hader) try to keep Riley ticking. However, under their guidance, Riley keeps losing key personality traits, and they decide to take drastic measures. Meanwhile, Joy and Sadness enlist the help of Riley’s childhood imaginary friend Bing Bong (Kind) to avert imminent disaster.

“Inside Out” manages to be a wholesome entertainer, especially for the kids, thanks to some taut screenplay, a dash of imagination, and a couple of plot holes that could have either ended the film in minutes or made it entirely incredulous, had they been plugged. And where, pray, are the other emotions, like love and hate?

What keeps the film ticking is a continuous sense of action. Also, thankfully, nobody seems to have the propensity to break out into songs. As for the characters, you tend to like Smith as Sadness more than a lot of the others.

This is definitely a good watch. Oh, and don’t miss out the short film “Lava” by “Toy Story” and “Cars” director John Lasseter, at the beginning of the film. It kind of sets the whole tone of what is to come.