Inside Out (2015) review

Generally exuberant hockey fanatic Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) has her entire world shattered when her parents (Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane) move from Minnesota to San Francisco, and her inner turmoil is represented by subconscious characters: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. It's a wild, incredibly daring concept, but Pixar is basically the RAND Corporation of Hollywood, taking risky ideas and turning them into pure magic: the transitions from the "external" to the "internal" are seamless, the psychology behind it is solid (though, and this is my only knock against it, it does get to be a bit too academic at points explaining itself), the attention to detail is obsessive (notice how Anger is the dominant emotion in Dad while Sadness rules Mom) and its ability to emotionally stir the audience is awe-inspiring (no one else can make the dissolution of a pink elephant thing named "Bing Bong" more poignant). The fact that this is better able to capture the realities of childhood and the loss of innocence than a huge majority of 'live action' movies says a lot about the current state of cinema.