What happens inside the head of a little girl? 11-year-old Riley is sure her mind is controlled by a panel of emotions presided over by Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger, who help and protect her in every moment of her life. But when Riley and her parents move from their small town to San Francisco, her team of emotions gets lost in the shuffle: an accident on the panel sends Joy and Sadness into her longterm memory, leaving Riley without two of her most important emotions. They must find their way back to the panel to help Riley in her time of need…

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It hard not to look at the praise being heaped upon Inside Out and see undeniable (and disconcerting) proof that Pixar has a very special place in the heart of critics and the public, who are more or less blinded by their seemingly unconditional love for the makers of Toy Story, Finding Nemo and other classics. Because although the premise is exciting, their new adventure soon reveals itself to be dull and simplistic, even outdated in its worst moments – as evidenced by Riley’s parents’ very binary division of the sexes. The movie’s design is ugly, overly condensing Riley’s emotions, with a superficial plot and a pat moral to the story. This movie by Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc., Up) meets neither its emotional expectations, nor the usual creativity and imagination Pixar usually brings to the table. Instead, Inside Out seems to have been put together by a cynical team that has calculated just what the audience will expect, with emotions activated at the push of a button, thanks to basic plot points wrapped in a likeable but anecdotal adventure that manages to deal dispassionately with a passionate subject.