Remember when children movies were more than just one note? When their themes transcended childhood and spoke to adults as well? Inside Out is that kind of movie. It's Pixar's best work since Toy Story.
In Inside Out we follow an eleven year old girl, Riley, as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Moving is of course very stressful on the young girl, and we as the audience get to experience this both inside her head with five personified emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, as well as on the outside as she interacts with the world based off of the commands the emotions input into the "emotion" command center.
The premise is fantastic. It's simple, yet robust. And best of all, it's relatable, perhaps even more so for adults than children. The theme of identity runs through both of the main stories of the movie. It's what we watch Riley develop as she learns to deal with the changes of life. It's what the emotions inside of her struggle to maintain as their roles inside Riley's head change; she requires some of them less and less (and others more and more).
Inside is a great film that will invoke the same kind of discussions after the credits roll that movies like The Land Before Time and Toy Story had their audiences asking 20 and 30 years ago, respectively. It's an instant classic, go see it if you get a chance, pick it up when it comes to video if you can't, you don't want to miss this one.