The center of the story is an 11-year-old girl named Riley (voice by Kaitlyn Dias), who is saddened when her parents leave familiar terrain in Minnesota, where she was happy, to San Francisco, where she feels depressingly lost in her new environment. Her parents, Mom (Diane Lane) and Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) are bewildered by her sullen behavior. The story’s action takes flight when Riley decides to run away.

What goes on in Riley’s mind and what emotions govern her thinking and behavior? The animated portrayal of five basic emotions is sheer delight as they materialize entertainingly, both via the visual conceptions and the assortment of voices—Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Bill Hader as Fear, Lewis Black as Anger and Mindy Kaling as Disgust. The film achieves a complexity not normally associated with animation aimed at wide audiences. Add to this the imaginative locations created for the action to occur, plus other characters such as Bing Bong (Richard Kind), Forgetter Paula (Paula Poundstone) and Forgetter Bobby (Bobby Moynihan) and the film assumes an air of amusing and sometimes moving behavioral inquiry.

Audiences are being treated to an avalanche of visual concepts. For example, there are huge computer-like walls consisting of marbles that can be extracted or moved about, like a giant brain that can be tinkered with as the situation demands. Also, there are threatening chasms to be spanned. What we get is accomplished through the wonders of this age of digital possibilities for animation. The huge staff required merit collective and individual praise.

However, what does happen, at least for this viewer, is that the story begins to wear somewhat thin, even dwarfed by the visual achievements. But eventually the tale itself still has the capacity to grab a viewer when it counts most, and when the film gets around to the conclusion that it is best to love Mom and Dad, I glanced around and notice some tearful adults.