Inside Out by Pixar (2015)

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Info on upcoming movie by Pixar

We still have to wait more than a year to see it, but now we've got a synopsis for the next ambitious film from Pixar Animation Studios.

It's a bit of a sad year for fans of the now-iconic studio that gave us modern classics like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, as 2014 marks the first year since 2005 that we haven't had a Pixar film to look forward to. The Good Dinosaur was supposed to be released this year, but back in 2013 the studio pushed its release back to November 2015, so we'll get two films next year to make up for zero films this year. The first of those films: Inside Out, from Oscar-winning director Pete Docter (Monsters Inc., Up) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3).

We've known for some time that the film will take us inside the mind of a little girl, that her emotions will be characters in the story, and that the film will feature an all-star voice cast that includes Amy Poehler, Bill Hader and Lewis Black. Now, at last, we've got an official look at the plot.

From the tepuis of South America to a monster-filled metropolis, Academy Award®-winning director Pete Docter has taken audiences to unique and imaginative places. In 2015, he will take us to the most extraordinary location of all – inside the mind of an 11-year-old named Riley.

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it’s no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley’s main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.

There's a look at each of Riley's emotions above. You can probably guess which is which.

So now the wait begins for a trailer to give us an even better picture of what this very ambitious-sounding film will be. We've still got a long wait to see, but with Inside Out, it looks like Pixar could be poised to answer its critics who've labeled the studio as over-reliant on sequels these days.

Inside Out will be released on June 19, 2015

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More on the plot in a well written article from Vulture

In 2009, NPR writer Linda Holmes had a simple request for Pixar, one she put forth in an article titled, “Dear Pixar, From All the Girls With Band-Aids on Their Knees.” The entreaty? “Please make a movie about a girl who is not a princess.”

At that point, Pixar hadn’t made a movie that starred a girl at all. Yes, there were important female characters in many of the company’s most beloved films, like Jessie from Toy Story and Dory from Finding Nemo, but none who could truly be considered the lead of her own movie. Most Pixar films unequivocally starred a male character — or often two, since the studio has made several buddy comedies. “The story is never ‘a girl and the things that happen to her,’” wrote Holmes, “the way it's ‘a boy and what happens to him.’”

That will soon change, and in a big way. After delivering its first female-led film with 2012’s Brave, Pixar brass came down to Los Angeles last night to preview their big title for next year, Inside Out, which is completely princess-free. It takes place in the mind of a little girl named Riley, but she’s not exactly the lead; instead, thanks to the ingenuity of Pixar, Riley is more like the setting.

The film’s real protagonist is Joy (voiced by an effervescent Amy Poehler), one of five emotions who steer Riley through life via a control center in her mind that’s akin to the bridge from the Starship Enterprise. Joy and her cohorts — including Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) — all work together to keep Riley emotionally balanced, and for the first 11 years of her life, the primary influencer is Joy, as evidenced by Riley’s sunny demeanor.

But as adolescence sets in, Joy finds her lead role usurped. Suddenly, Sadness wants to pipe in at inappropriate times — coaxing Riley to cry during her first day at a new school, for instance — and as the two emotions jostle for control, both of them fall into the deepest reaches of Riley’s mind and have to work their way back. Meanwhile, left to their own devices, Fear, Disgust, and Anger collude to transform Riley into a moody preteen.

“The whole story sparked from watching my daughter grow up,” said director Pete Docter, who also helmed Monsters Inc. and Up. As his daughter Ellie grew older, she started to lose the natural joy that once seemed so inherent in her personality, and as Docter mused on why that was, he hit upon his movie. “Also, as we did our research, psychologists told us there is no one more emotionally attuned than a 12- to 16-year-old girl,” he told Vulture after the presentation. “They are just totally dialed in to read everything — for whatever reason, it’s sociologically true.”

The real spin on the Pixar formula comes when Joy and Sadness have to work together to make their way back into Riley’s mind; unless you count Merida’s misadventures with her non-verbal, transformed mother in Brave, Inside Out qualifies as Pixar’s first female buddy comedy. Producer Jonas Rivera says that decision came naturally. “Joy just felt like she’d be female,” he said. “It wasn’t something that we engineered or overthought — it just felt right to us.”

Docter concurred. “It’s not like I set out to make a girl-power movie,” he told Vulture. “But I think this story and the subject matter really speaks to that.”

And it will likely speak to millions of little girls, too. I thought of Holmes as Docter played the first five minutes of his movie, a fleet and touching montage that emotionally rivals what he accomplished in the famous first act of Up. As Inside Out begins, Riley is born, and Joy enters her mind for the first time, awed at what she beholds. As Riley grows, playing games with her parents and roaming around the house as a toddler, Joy stores those memories in glowing marbles, each of which coaxes elements of Riley's personality to come to the fore.

One of those memories flashes by in a flash, but it's pivotal: Tottering around on an icy lake with her parents, young Riley inadvertently hits a hockey puck into a nearby net, scoring an accidental goal. Joy files that experience away as a treasured memory, and Riley's interest in sports grows commensurately; moments later in the montage, when we see an older Riley, she's skidding across the ice again, this time equipped not with a tiara and a scepter but with a hockey mask and a stick. She's in the middle of a game, manipulating the puck like a master, driven as can be. In an instant, you know: This is a girl with band-aids on her knees, and the movies (and Pixar) are all the richer for it.