Amy Poehler is perfectly cast as Joy—as in the feeling of—in Pixar’s wonderful Inside Out, a thrilling return to form after a couple of lazy sequels. We’re inside the head of Riley, an 11-year-old hockey-playing happy-go-lucky kid whose world is rocked when her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Poehler’s natural warmth, quick wit and channelling of Leslie Knope’s pathological need to make everything OK is a poignant combination for Joy, the benevolent dictator of Riley’s brain. Also up there are Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Anger (Lewis Black, not exactly stretching but killing it) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith, of The Office) who is not Joy’s enemy but she sure is a pain in the ass, trying to taint all of Riley’s memories with her emo turtlenecks. Like all Pixar movies, it’s about getting lost and trying to find your way home; like hardly any Pixar movies it’s about a little girl’s journey. You’ll cry at least twice. In a summer that’s barely trying, this is one of the most original things you’ll see all season, and all year.
