Inside Out is a story of emotions, with a very deep psychological element to it. Inside Out shows the building blocks of a person’s emotions and brings the message to children that it is okay to be not just one, but a collection of emotional elements, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, as that is what makes you, you. It’s a storyline that a psychologist could pick apart for hours.

Inside Out is an adventurous movie looking into the escapades of the emotions inside Riley’s (Kaitlyn Dias) head. Those emotions being: Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling).

At the age of eleven, Riley and her family has to move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Everything seems to be going wrong for Riley and Sadness is starting to become an emotion that is having more of an effect on her, meanwhile Joy tries to keep things upbeat, even when faced with a missing moving van, tiny bedroom and broccoli pizza.

I know it’s a children’s movie and not really aimed at me, a twenty-two year old, but the plot seemed a bit simple and predictable. I feel like it fitted into the mould of a standard Disney movie: Two characters polar opposites get lost on an adventure learn to understand each other’s differences and become friends; everything turns out okay in the end. They did it in Toy Story, they did it in Up, they did it in Finding Nemo, however the movies I just listed, these modern Disney movies have a spark, a spark that made them amazing. I didn’t feel that spark with this one.

I feel that the spark of a Disney movie comes when you get lost in a world of fantasy where you can escape the bad and allow yourself to just enjoy the adventure. Inside Out felt too depressing and the experiences that Riley were encountering were very realistic, which didn’t allow that Disney flag to fly high. Sadness took over the show a bit more than I would have liked, Sadness was almost pushed as the character you would want to become. Surely it should be Joy, representing happiness and positivity that should be your aim.

Despite my disappointment with Inside Out, I absolutely cannot knock the animation. The detail and the thought that went into the design of the characters representing the emotions were perfect. Disgust being the stylish, smooth and sassy character, Anger being the strong, broad and rough character and Joy being the elegant, bright and creative character. Very clever.

Opening with the line “Do you ever look at someone and wonder, "What is going on inside their head?"”, Inside Out tried a clever and complex storyline, but for me, it didn’t work too well.