Pixar Studios is consistently the most innovative and original animation studio in Hollywood, and I hope they stay that way forever.  That being said, however, I’ve lost some of the tight connection I had with the studio through their early triumphs. For as much as I respect any studio which looks to create something original rather than endlessly copy their successes, I haven’t loved any of Pixar’s recent roster.

Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen, takes us inside of a girl’s brain, where five emotions vie for control of her everyday life.  We learn how memory is created and stored, and how seemingly fragile a psyche is, when she faces self-doubt and rebellion for the first time.  It’s deep stuff for an animated film, and the psychology is complex.  To its credit, just about everything rings true, especially regarding the importance of sadness to understanding life’s experiences.

Where I get hung up is just how artificial everything seems to be.  Sure, it’s not real; nobody’s brain works this way, and it is just a cartoonish representation.  Even so, many of the constructs (the islands of personality, the crystallized balls of memory, the lack of a system to retrieve memories) seem antithetical — and far too fragile — to support the film’s structure.  The whole personality chain (outside of the insulated headquarters area) seems more whimsical than studied.  I didn’t buy into it.

Just to be clear: the big stuff works well; the emotions generated are powerful; the colors and effects are quite stunning.  The oddity of the details is what bothered me. Most kids won’t care, nor their parents.  If you don’t mind accepting someone’s really kooky idea of how the mind works, then you will probably love this film.  But I’ll still be waiting patiently for The Incredibles 2.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  15 July 2015.