The Merriam-Webster dictionary site defines “art” as follows: something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings. In short, Pixar’s latest triumph, “Inside Out” is the very definition of “art.”

Great art, in its many wonderful forms, always expresses ideas and asks the hard questions. What does it mean to be a hero? What does it mean to be a villain? What is freedom worth? What is love? Worthy questions all. “Inside Out,” an animated “children’s movie” that takes place inside the mind of a young girl, dares to ask one of the greatest, if not the greatest, question of our species – what makes us, us? What is life but a collection of memories and the resulting chemical and electrical responses to moments past and a tenuous hope for the future?

I absolutely adored “Inside Out.” It’s brave, it’s beautiful, it’s unfailingly smart, it’s hysterical and it’s important. Everyone, everywhere, should see this movie immediately. Lead by a cast of wonderful voice actors, “Inside Out” takes us inside a gorgeous metaphor of a working human brain where Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear are more than cardinal emotions, they’re characters.

One of the film’s greatest technical and design achievements is the spectacular, mechanical construct that simulates neural processes. When the main character, Riley, has an experience, it is stored in a glass sphere as a memory that is color coded based upon the primary emotion and is eventually shipped off, via suction tube, to long-term memory for storage. The filmmakers made an unconventional setting feel real, scientifically feasible, and best of all, intimate. There is so much in “Inside Out” said without speaking a word, so many interactions that we all can relate to. The metaphor is perfect. This is a film that will be very entertaining to the kiddos out there, but as for me, I desperately want someone to this type of construct out of my brain. Therein lies the great victory of “Inside Out:” it made me yearn for introspection, turning within to find the answers. We are more than our jobs. We are more than our relationships. The human experience is shaped, every day, by everything. Each moment has a chance to become intrinsically core to who and what we are and not all of them are happy.

This film deserve the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature without breaking a sweat. That said, I want to see “Inside Out” nominated for, and potentially win, Best Picture. A lesser film would simply make the emotion Joy the hero and Sadness the villain. “Inside Out” courageously states the simple truths of the world that artists turn into masterpieces. Light cannot exist with darkness. Time and people change. The beauty of life is that it will fade.

“Inside Out” over-delivers on every promise it makes and makes real the elusive hope that there are new frontiers left to be explored. What a wonderful gift.

6 of 6 stars