DUPLICATE: ‘Inside Out’ shows why Pixar is still best

It’s been exactly 20 years since Pixar forever changed the animation game with its debut release of “Toy Story” in 1995. Computer animation was still in its infancy at the time, but the film catapulted the tiny studio into critical and financial success. Twenty years and 15 Oscars later, Pixar is popularly regarded as the best animation studio in the world. But like many Hollywood factories, Pixar has had its troubles in recent years.

The release of “Toy Story 3” in 2010 signaled an end of sorts to Pixar’s dominance. In the last half-decade, the studio has put out only three films: a sequel (“Cars 2”), a prequel (“Monsters University”), and a just-not-very-good movie (“Brave”). The ccreators at Pixar are at their best when they couple beautiful animation with truly imaginative stories that, for all their ridiculousness, still tug on the reality behind our heartstrings.

Luckily for us, “Inside Out” is a great return to form.

Riley is a little Minnesota girl with great parents, great friends and, by all accounts, a simple, carefree life. But when Riley moves to San Francisco for her father’s shaky tech venture, her world turns upside down. Now more than ever, Riley must lean on her emotions to guide her. But the emotions have names and faces and personalities all unto themselves. Led by Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), the gang of Fear, Anger, Disgust and even Sadness attempt to keep Riley upright in her turbulent new world.

What makes “Inside Out” such a success is its own inventiveness. Pixar has always been known for giving voices to the voiceless. In the last 10 years alone, they studio has given us talking rats, talking robots, talking dogs, and of course, talking toys. But to give personalities to our own emotions, while not unheard of in art, is a largely untapped gold mine, and Pixar runs with the concept.

The world inside Riley’s head is rich not only in color but in creativity. All of Riley’s thoughts and ideas are guided in a wisecracking world of neurons and imagination. The jokes hit more often than not, and the detail that went into building and maintaining this self-sustaining internal universe is clearly painstaking. The animators cared deeply about this project, and it shows with every frame.

“Inside Out” is still not without its detractions, of course. In forming such a rich setting, you get the feeling that perhaps not enough attention was paid to questions of plot. The film tends to meander in the middle as it moves toward the climax. And while the gags were hilarious more often than not, you have to sometimes raise an eyebrow at whole scenes centered on them.

But these are admittedly minor imperfections in a film all about the imperfections of human emotions. What “Inside Out” banks on — indeed, its entire premise — is that, as human beings, we bring a limitless collection of core memories that informs our every action. These memories, while oftentimes redundant or unnecessary, make us who we are, whether we like it or not.

So my opinion of “Inside Out” might not be yours or his or hers or theirs, but from the outside looking in, it all comes from the same place as everyone else’s. And this, more than anything else, is what makes us human.

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Michael Lomax is a writer-filmmaker currently at work on a film script to be set and shot in Albany.