Film
Inside Out
Inside Out imagines the control room behind an eleven-year-old's every mood, staffed by five squabbling emotions who love her and can't agree on how to run her life. It's Pixar at its most structurally inventive — a workplace comedy set inside a person's head — but the ending lands like a gut-punch. Kids laugh at the chaos; adults recognize the machinery.
If you liked this
Up2009
Pixar's other great tear-jerker about processing loss and moving forward — the devastating opening montage feels like a sibling to Riley's story about growing up and letting go.
But That famous opening is so emotionally brutal some viewers can't get past it to enjoy the adventure that follows.

Coco2017
A vivid, musical meditation on memory and family love, especially good if you liked how Inside Out treats feelings and connection as literal places you can visit.
But The Day of the Dead mythology is specific, and pacing dips before the emotional payoff arrives.

Inside Out 22024no page yet
Picks up right where you left off, adding Anxiety and puberty to Riley's emotional cast — same machinery, new and messier terrain.
But Sequel fatigue is real, and it leans harder into spectacle than the quieter, stranger original.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Persona1966
Both are stories about a mind housing more than one self and what happens when those selves stop staying in their lanes — Bergman just skips the metaphor and the moral, leaving you with the vertigo instead.
Bergman's black-and-white masterpiece is the arthouse ancestor of "what if the pieces of your mind were separate people" — a nurse and an actress whose identities start to dissolve into one another.
But It's slow, ambiguous, and deliberately unsettling — nothing like a kids' film, and it offers no tidy emotional resolution.

More like this (8)
Turning Red2022
Another Pixar film about a girl's body and feelings turning against her, this time with a giant red panda instead of a control room full of emotions.
But The tween-specific humor and pop culture references may not land for adult viewers without kids in tow.

Soul2020
Pixar again, this time asking what makes life worth living rather than what's going on inside your head — a more philosophical cousin to Riley's journey.
But The abstract afterlife visuals and jazz subplot feel slower and less immediate than Inside Out's kid-facing energy.

Encanto2021
A family's unspoken feelings become literal magic gone wrong, and the throughline about pressure and belonging pairs well with Riley's internal chaos.
But It's a full-blown musical, so if songs interrupting the story isn't your thing, that's a real barrier.

WALL·E2008
Proof Pixar can make you feel everything with almost no dialogue — a masterclass in visual storytelling and heart from the studio's peak run.
But The back half shifts into a more conventional chase movie and loses some of the wordless magic of the opening act.

My Neighbor Totoro1988
Miyazaki's gentle classic about kids processing an anxious family situation through imagination and wonder, decades before Pixar tried something similar.
But There's barely a plot by Western standards, and some viewers find the pace too slow for modern kids.

The Iron Giant1999
An underseen animated gem about big feelings, restraint, and choosing who you want to be, with real Cold War stakes underneath the tenderness.
But It's more melancholy and less comic than Inside Out, with none of the bright emotional bounce.

Herman's Head1991no page yet
This is one of the clearest ancestors of the "control room in your head" idea — same structural joke, played for cheap laughs instead of catharsis.
A gleefully dumb early-90s sitcom built on the exact same premise decades early: a man's brain run by four characters — Sensitivity, Anxiety, Lust and Logic — arguing over every decision he makes.
But It's a broad, laugh-tracked network sitcom with none of Pixar's craft or emotional depth — pure premise, little else.
Won't You Be My Neighbor?2018
Same thesis, entirely different toolkit — Mister Rogers spent a career teaching kids what Joy and Sadness spend ninety minutes learning the hard way.
This documentary about Fred Rogers makes, in real life, almost exactly the argument Inside Out makes in animation: naming your feelings, especially sadness, is not weakness but the whole point of growing up.
But It's a talking-heads documentary with no plot momentum, and its gentle sincerity is a big tonal shift from Pixar's adventure structure.

People
Cast
Amy PoehlerJoy (voice)
Phyllis SmithSadness (voice)
Richard KindBing Bong (voice)
Bill HaderFear (voice)
Lewis BlackAnger (voice)
Mindy KalingDisgust (voice)
Kaitlyn DiasRiley (voice)
Diane LaneMom (voice)
Kyle MacLachlanDad (voice)
Paula PoundstoneForgetter Paula (voice)
Bobby MoynihanForgetter Bobby (voice)
Paula PellDream Director / Mom's Anger (voice)
Directing
- Ronnie del CarmenCo-Director
- Pete DocterDirector
- Derek WilliamsLayout
- Mark SanfordLayout
- Emily ZulaufScript Supervisor
- Mimi ZoraScript Supervisor
Writing
- Pete DocterOriginal Story
- Ronnie del CarmenOriginal Story
- Josh CooleyScreenplay
- Meg LeFauveScreenplay
- Pete DocterScreenplay
- J. Garett SheldrewStory Artist
- James S. BakerStory Artist
- Matt JonesStory Artist
Production
- Allysa AmundsonAdministration
- Cherise MillerAdministration
- Danielle Rae LevinAdministration
- Gerisa MacaleAdministration
- Heather FengAdministration
- Meghan BenafieldAdministration
- Michelle MorettaAdministration
- Seth Van BoovenAdministration
- Tanya OskanianAdministration
- Valerie GrafAdministration
- Wendy Dale TanzilloAdministration
- Mark NielsenAssociate Producer
- Kevin ReherCasting
- Mickie McGowanCasting
- Natalie LyonCasting
- Andrew StantonExecutive Producer
- John LasseterExecutive Producer
- Annette WangFinance
- Deana WalkerFinance
- Heather D.C. JacksonFinance
- Kacy NaylorFinance
- Karen PerryFinance
- Kate LardiereFinance
- Kentaro HinokiFinance
- Kheron Jones-KassingFinance
- Kristi GambleFinance
- Kristina RuudFinance
- Mark JosephFinance
- Megan AlbertFinance
- Michelle Liu ChungFinance
- Michelle LopezFinance
- Michelle SimonsFinance
- Nancy Garretson CaseFinance
- Rachel ErgasFinance
- Rosana NeciukFinance
- Shari VillardeFinance
- Stephanie PhamFinance
- Sue WilliamsFinance
- Timothy GlassFinance
- Valerie HathawayFinance
- Jonas RiveraProducer
- Dana MurrayProduction Manager
- Briana GardnerPublicist
- Chris WiggumPublicist
- Deborah ColemanPublicist
- Hasia SroatPublicist
- Krissy BaileyPublicist
- Nicole AlbertsonPublicist
- Susanne LallyPublicist
Recommended by
Turning Red, Up, Coco, Soul, Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Brave, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4, Finding Dory