Grade: A-
After exhausting the premise of films about inanimate objects (with Cars, Toy Story, Planes, Robots, Trains…have I forgotten any? Have they made Toilets yet?), Pixar turns inward with Inside Out. A young girl is uprooted from her comfort zone in Minnesota to San Francisco, and we spend most of the time inside her head, as her 5 primary emotions (Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness) run the show. There is some impressive voice talent here; Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black (of course he’s the voice of Anger), Mindy Kaling, Richard Kind, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, Paula Poundstone, Frank Oz, John Ratzenberger, and Flea are among the names I recognized. Where lesser films might have screeched to a clunky halt in storytelling to feature an overlong mindless expensive action sequence, there is not a single moment of action here that is unnecessary. Every last bit helps drive and serve the story. At a crucial point toward the end, I feared the plot would veer off into a conclusion that would have been a less than ideal moral for kids and would have left a nasty taste in my mouth. Not only did that not happen, but I was treated to a development that was stronger than any I could have predicted. There is no boring denouement – things are still building as it ends, in the most funny, touching, exciting, and refreshing ways. This is a minor miracle of a movie, and isn’t it fun to think maybe there’s a colorful cast of characters inside all of us trying to navigate through everything? Grade: A-
Film Reviews by Mark 
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