Five reasons to watch Pixar's Inside Out

Pixar has done it again. The guys in the studio down at Emeryville, California have made yet another delightful film. It's the kind which like Toy Story, Wall-E will be discussed even decades later.

It's Pixar. They rarely go wrong: The last time Pixar made an ordinary film, the one which didn't meet the sky-high standards the animation studio sets and made viewers shrug their shoulders and go "Meh", was Cars 2. Especially the older lot. It felt like a superfluous sequel made only to set the cash registers go ker-ching and sell more toys which, to the studio's credit, it did. So who are we to talk?

But what makes Inside Out a classic Pixar film is the ingenuity of its idea. Five emotions - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust - have lived "happily" inside the head of a girl, Riley, for 11 years. And then all hell breaks loose or more like life happens. Riley moves from Minneapolis to San Francisco, misses her friends and can no longer play on her beloved ice-hockey team. That's her external world. Internally the five emotions living in the emotion headquarters led by Joy are trying to battle the emotional crisis, which they have never confronted before. They see Riley transform from a happy-go-lucky girl, dominated by Joy, to a morose one with Sadness taking centre stage.

That director Pete Docter, who has been consistently brilliant at Pixar, having made Monsters, Inc and Up! has created a heart-tugging film is to say the least. Inside Out is one of the studio's best conceptualised films. It is stupendous filmmaking, striking a fine balance of laughs and tears, appeasing to the eye and to the head and heart.

It delivers a poignant message without being preachy: That's no easy feat. The core message of the film is complex and profound - that happiness is not a solution to all our problems, that experiencing sadness is equally important to our personal development. That's life. There are highs and lows. You can't escape them by living in a bubble, full of happy memories. Repressing your emotions isn't healthy. Expressing them - all kinds- is important. A similar experience can be seen in more than one way. That joy and sadness can't do without each other. Ultimately, we need a sum of varying emotions to become a more complete human being. Inside Out does all of the above cleverly, swiftly and with a magical dose of humour.

It shows what emotions could look like and how they behave: Pixar has taken us underwater (Finding Nemo), see the world from the point of view of toys (Toy Story series) and shown Earth as a wasteland (Wall-E). But who could have thought of giving a visual representation of our own emotions in the form of characters and make it so visually striking and compelling? Docter with his adept team of animators' shows memories as transparent marble-like objects in which the memories are visible. It's not all hunky-dory inside Riley's head. You see destruction of memories, negative zones and a dark pit of forgotten memories. It makes you appreciate how writers Docter, Josh Cooley and Meg LaFauve have tackled the inner workings of the mind and show memory and emotions work. There are simple concepts - imaginary friends, dream productions, train of thoughts, core memories, subconscious to name a few - which are brilliantly executed and made relatable and funny. You walk out of the theatre wondering, What is going on in my head? What conversations are the emotions having now? How many memory and imaginary islands do I have?

To hear the terrific voice cast especially the work of Phyllis Smith, Amy Poehler and Richard Kind: On paper, there is no protagonist in Inside Out. But if there is one character who wants to be one, it is Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler). She is a bundle of energy, an eternal optimist, a problem solver, a planner, the leader of the pack and therefore also the controlling and lecturing sort especially when it comes to Sadness (voiced by Smith). Joy, the film's narrator, can't seem to handle all the negativity which Sadness carries around with herself, all the time. Poehler does a commendable job of never making Joy come across as annoying. Her voice is pitch perfect to highlight Joy's earnestness and her own coming of age as she cedes control and values the significance of sadness both in Riley's life and in the memory headquarters. But Smith stands out, being gloomy and still so funny. You initially think of Sadness as the baddie and gradually the slightly heavier and dorkier character grows on you. When Sadness says, "I'm too sad to walk" or "Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems," you just want to give her a big hug. Watch out for the scene when she consoles Riley's imaginary friend, Bing Bong (voiced by Kind).

Family entertainment at its best: Inside Out is not fun aimed solely for psychologists. Like most Pixar films, there is something memorable to take away for both adults and kids. The former will walk out getting a perspective on how to deal with their kids swinging emotions. Meanwhile, the kids have amusing characters to keep them amused - Bing Bong is the next big thing in toy stores - and Riley as a spokesperson for the host of feelings they go through. Needless to say, Inside Out is not a keep-your-brains-at-home kind of entertainment. Yes, it entertains but it does so by making you think.