Inside Out

It's been a long time since I've done a movie or book review, but it's been a long time since I've seen a movie or read a book that incited such a strong reaction inside me. There have been several good items to cross my path in the last few months, but this is definitely worthy of a fan-rant. I'm talking about the newest Pixar movie, Inside Out.

Before I get started, I need to warn you all that there will be spoilers in this review. If you don't want to read them, check out this trailer link and go see the movie for yourself. Then please, please, PLEASE come back and read my blog so we can  fan-rant together, ha ha.

 DON'T READ PAST THIS LINE if you don't want SPOILERS!!!!!!!

Anyway, Inside Out  is about an 11 year old girl named Riley, who leads a happy life with her family in Minnesota. But then, one day, her parents move the family to San Francisco for her father's job, and Riley has to deal with the traumatic (yet natural) experience of rebuilding her life in a new city with new friends. Most of the story involves her emotions and thought process, which are personified by adorable little characters named: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. These characters live solely to help Riley navigate daily life from her brain's "headquarters."

Every time something happens to Riley, one of the emotions presses a special button and saves the moment as a memory that is permanently viewed with the same emotion that saved it. A few select memories, called the core memories, are saved in a special case in headquarters, and they fuel the different personality islands that make up Riley's character. Throughout Riley's childhood, Joy has always been the dominant emotion, and she believes her purpose is to keep Riley as happy as possible. But after Riley's family moves, she finds it difficult to keep Riley content.

When Sadness touches one of Riley's core memories and accidentally changes it from happy to sad, it begins a chain of events that ends with Joy, Sadness, and all of the core memories being transferred to long term memory storage. If Joy doesn't return to headquarters with the core memories quickly, it will be impossible for Riley to feel happiness. There are so many things about this movie that I could rave about, but I will focus on one for time reasons.

This movie was incredibly deep for a family film. It was light enough that children could comprehend the abstract concepts of growing up and change being a part of life. But older viewers can watch this movie and recognize the subtle nuances of the plot — points that aren't specifically stated but obvious all the same. One of the most interesting scenes, in my opinion, was the scene where Riley is sitting at the dinner table with her parents. In this part, the viewer gets to see the same emotions in the parents' heads, and the differences are loaded with meaning. As the friend I was watching the movie with pointed out to me, Sadness appeared to be the dominant emotion in the mother's mind, while Anger was the dominant emotion in the father's mind.  This made sense at the end of the movie when I realized that Riley's emotions had changed during the course of the story. Disgust developed social awareness, Anger became determination, Fear became common sense, and Joy realized that Riley needed Sadness to be happy. Adult emotions are never as clearly defined as a child's, and Sadness isn't really sad at all. She is understanding, wisdom, and hurt, but, more importantly, she is the other half of Joy. Without her, Joy isn't possible.  I actually had to choke back a couple tears at the end when Joy allowed Sadness to touch all of the core memories to symbolize that Riley was no longer a little girl. Then they created the first bittersweet memory by pressing the special button at the same time, and...yeah...I still get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Overall, I give this movie two huge thumbs up, for kids and adults alike. It has a well-balanced mixture of lighthearted humor and poignant themes that will make you choke up if you're a melancholic person. If you're reading this review even though you haven't seen the movie yet, I highly encourage you to go. I haven't spoiled the entire thing (just the main plot), and I promise you that the trip is worth it.  

Way to go, Pixar!

Rike's Playlist

Okay. Here's Rike's playlist. I'm not listing everything in my computer file because I don't want to give away future plot moods, but this collection is pretty accurate for where he is in book three.

Rike's Playlist

Immortals — Big Hero 6 Soundtrack (Fall Out Boy)

The Impossible — Joe Nichols

Huron Beltane Fire Dance — Loreena Mckennit

Far Away — Nickleback

This Means War — Nickleback

Hero — Skillet

Assassin's Creed III Theme — Lindsey Stirling

Halo Theme — Lindsey Stirling

Skyrim Main Theme — Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens

The Celts — Enya

Lord Mayo — Joanie Madden

Believe it or not, I can actually concentrate better when listening to these songs while writing Rike's scenes. I hope you enjoy them. Maybe you'll even find a new favorite.

Until next time...

 

Rike's Origin

Hi everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything. Yesterday was my last final for the school year, and now, for the rest of summer, I can focus on writing. I was just going to follow up on my last post "Maia's Playlist" with a list for Rike, but I started thinking and decided it was just a little too impersonal. Instead, I'm going to tell you the story of how his character came to be.

The Last Abecedarian Series was originally going to be written just from Maia's point of view. She was supposed to be a travelling gypsy, and Hugoh wasn't her cousin. In one lost draft of Violet Eyes, he was actually supposed the one to rescue her from the Umbragh soldiers in Briarpatch, and that was how the Resistance was supposed to find out who Maia was. My intention for the romance aspect of the books was to have a classic, cut-and-dried, prince-meets-princess kind of story, because I was more interested in proving that classic fairy tale principles could be applied to modern literature than in coming up with something new.

Rike was no more than a character I created to deliver the news to Briarpatch that Umbragh soldiers were coming to destroy the village. He didn't even have a name in the first draft. I just wanted a brawny farm-boy to ride into town, Paul Revere style, and say, "Umbragh is coming!" However, the draft felt too stiff by the time I reached chapter six, and so I started again with a twist. Instead of having Rike merely bring bad news to the town, I had him flirt with Maia in order to demonstrate that she was attractive and kind. At that point, she was still a gypsy, so they weren't old friends or anything. It was just a flirtation on his part.

In order to make the scene realistic, I thought I had to name him to give him a believable persona. So I searched for a word that I wanted to describe him in the scene, and I discovered the adjective "rakish," which means "dashingly or carelessly unconventional." It can have a negative connotation sometimes, but I loved the way the word sounded, so I found a piece of paper and started rearranging letters to make the word look different. Then I had the idea to substitute "i" for "a" in rake, and that is how Rike got his name.

The result was that Rike's character became so much fun to develop that I couldn't eliminate him from the story when I began the version of Violet Eyes that eventually became published. I made him Maia's best friend, but I still had no intention of making him a possible romantic interest for the heroine.  There will be no spoilers on this blog, but those of you who have read my books probably have your own theories on whether or not they're going to end up together. What I will admit here is that  Rike's character is the most drastically developed character in the series, and it still makes me smile when I hear readers say, "I love Rike!" It wasn't my intention to give him a large role in the story, but his character is the one that made me understand what it means to have characters with minds of their own.

The Last Abecedarian Series is about Maia, but most of my readers have expressed partiality to Rike, so I thought it would be fun to tell you his origin story. If you're looking for Rike's playlist, then don't worry, because it is coming. This just seemed like a more fitting post after more than a month of hibernation.

What do you think? Does anything about this story surprise you? Do you think Violet Eyes could have been just as good without Rike? Let me know in the comments below, because I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Until next time....