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June 28, 2015

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‘Inside Out’ truly embraces sadness

“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 Dora swimming alongside.

Those moments, sentimental and sublime, come in unlikely places: the sudden understanding of a forgotten toy, the astonished realization of a bitter food critic, the flashback of a grouchy old man. The epiphanies are almost invariably about giving into the natural course of life and time: An acceptance, a letting go.

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 design, but that it’s probably Pixar’s most human story yet: An 11-year-old girl, growing up.

It’s an event observed and subtly manipulated by a gaggle of voices in the head of young Riley: Joy (Amy Poehler), an effervescent, pixie-haired burst of positivity; Sadness (Phyllis Smith), a blue-tinged, bespectacled mope; Anger (Lewis Black), a red block of fury; Fear (Bill Hader), a perpetually nervous squiggle; and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), a snobbish socialite.

From inside the “headquarters” of her head, the quintet have all watched Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) compile personality-forming memories, each of which rolls into headquarters like a glowing pinball, to be filed away accordingly in places like long-term memories or the more central “core memories.”

What’s most refreshing about “Inside Out” is its inversion of the standard prescriptions of big-budget animation: It’s ultimately about the importance of embracing sadness — not exactly the usual moral one finds at the multiplex.

But it’s a fitting lesson to be imparted by Pixar, a master juggler of emotion that has often moved us with radiant bursts of feeling. Who better to remind us of the value of a good cry?




 

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