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!