Have you ever known someone who has said they sometimes hear voices in their head? Perhaps what they're hearing are conversations being had by their emotions — behind the scenes, so to speak.

The new Disney/Pixar animated film “Inside Out,” is a fascinating, computer animated 3-D fantasy with an interesting take on the inner workings of our subconscious, specifically, our emotions and memory.

Riley Anderson (Kaitlin Dias) is a happy 11-year-old girl from Minnesota who loves hockey and is quite content with her life — until her father's job moves the family of three to San Francisco.

In addition to her parents, the other characters are in Riley's head, referred to as “Headquarters”: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.

This is where the brilliance of this film comes in.

The emotions take the form of small people: Sadness (Phyllis Smith) is blue inside and out (and adorable); Anger (appropriately Lewis Black) is red and “keeps things fair”; Disgust (Mindy Kaling) is Ga-reen and keeps Riley “from being poisoned physically and socially”; Fear (Bill Hader) is purple and keeps Riley safe; and Joy (Amy Poehler) is full of light, the epitome of positivity. As Joy tells the other emotions, it’s her job to make sure Riley is happy.

The emotions all watch Riley's life through her eyes via a TV monitor in a room filled with memories. Happy memories are gold. There's a cylinder that houses Riley's core memories, those moments where her bond with her parents was cemented, and those that built on that foundation. The memories are round, like small bowling balls.

The tricky part for Joy is managing the group of emotions whose reaction to situations is not, she feels, in Riley's best interests. To Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness, well, they are just interpreting and then reacting to Riley's situations the only way they know how. And, when it comes to Sadness ... if she touches a happy golden memory ball and it turns blue, that memory cannot be changed back.

There are very clever structures, such as Goofball Island, where Riley's personality and sense of humor are based: Friendship Island, Family Island, Honesty Island, the Memory Dump, and others.

When the family lands in San Francisco, the new house is dreary, the moving van has not arrived with their belongings, her father is stressed out from the job, and Riley becomes the new kid at school. Anger, Fear and Disgust find themselves vying for control of the console.

When Sadness takes hold of a core memory ball while Riley is telling her new class about herself and her old life, Riley becomes sad and begins to cry. In class.

Disgust is going crazy — she can't cry at school!

Joy is frantic because now that a core memory has been changed from happy to sad, Riley's personality will be affected.

What to do? Joy knows she has to remove the blue core memory from the core memories holder — and fast. But wait! The blue memory globe rolled near the vacuum cylinder that led to Long Term Memory. Phew! Joy gathers up the golden memory globes, but trips and drops one. It rolls across the floor toward the vacuum cylinder. In a desperate attempt to save the rest of Riley's core memories, Joy lunges toward the cylinder and whoosh! She and Sadness are on their way to Long Term Memory.

Now Joy and Sadness must get back to Headquarters, as quickly as possible, but to do so means they will travel through areas that are labeled dangerous, like Abstract Thought, and others like Imagination Land, Dream Productions and the creepy Abyss of Subconscious.

They meet the Mind Workers, or “Forgetters” (Paula Poundstone is one of them), who remove memories no longer needed like telephone numbers because they're all on her phone.

Will Joy and Sadness get back to Headquarters in time? They can, but only by catching a ride on the Train of Thought!

This creative and fascinating look at how memory and emotions are controlled by the brain, or headquarters, is crazy good. Oops, did I say crazy? Hmm, that must have floated in from my subconscious!

The color and characters are extremely well done and should be enough to keep the younger kids from 4-7 happy, but a lot of what goes on will be a bit over their heads.

This one should spark many a family conversation ’round the dinner table or while kicking back on the living room sofa. And what could be better than that?

“Inside Out,” rated PG, is playing at The Harbor Theatre Friday, June 26, through Tuesday, June 30, at 7 p.m.; Sunday, June 28, at 2 and 7 p.m. and on Thursday, July 2, at 7 and 10 p.m.

The Harbor Theatre is located at 185 Townsend Ave., across from Hannaford's Supermarket. For more information call, 207-633-0438.