Direction: Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen; Cast:
Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Richard
Kind, Kaithlyn Dias, Diane Lane Kyle MacMaLachlan; Story and Screenplay:
Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen, Meg LeFaueve, Josh Cooley; Production
Company: Walt Disney Picture, Pixar Animation Studio; Music: Michael
Giacchino; Producers: Jonas Rivera; Genre: Animation; Location: Minnesota, San
Francisco Distributor: Walt Disney Running Time: 102 minutes
Technical assessment: 4
CINEMA Rating: V13
MTRCB rating: PG
The
life of 11-year old Riley (Dias), is almost perfect until her father gets a new
job in San Francisco and relocates the entire family. The once happy daughter slowly breaks down with this new
episode in her life as she copes to let go of what she has been used to and
learns to embrace the sudden changes. And we see all this emotional struggle
inside her mind as five personified emotions—Joy (Poehler), Sadness (Smith),
Anger (Black), Fear (Hader) and Disgust (Kaling—man the control center of her
brains and help develop core memories which in turn fuel personality islands
that make up Riley's character.
Inside Riley's mind, Joy desperately attempts to keep the former happy
and Sadness out of the way since she does not find her existence useful. During
a struggle, Joy and Sadness are accidentally sucked out of the control center
of her consciousness and into the deep recesses of Riley's subconscious mind. With
Riley already emotionally unstable because of the events in her life and Joy's
absence, Fear, Anger and Disgust try hard to regain control. Meanwhile Joy and
Sadness, with Riley's long lost imaginary friend, Bingbong, discover each
other's purpose in a person's life.
There
is an undeniable genius in Pixar and Disney's attempt to visualize the abstract
concepts of emotion, memory and personality. While there had been professional
arguments discounting accuracy of the interpretation, Inside Out is foremostly a movie and not a psychological dissertation,
so it has license to be more lax in its interpretation of scientific concepts. That being said, CINEMA can name four
main reasons why it is a film that deserves its own niche in the “movies you
should not miss” section: (1) The
brilliant story and storytelling, as it clearly shows us Riley's
struggle to face a new chapter in her life and brings us along Joy and Sadness’
journey to discover their purpose. As a side trip, we see how the different
emotions mature and shape a person. (2) The
humor and drama are perfectly balanced, so that a child, a teenager and
an adult will be treated to an emotional rollercoaster ride with Riley and the
team. (3) The creative amalgamation of
truth and fantasy, such that it is able to tread along the world of
science with fun, creativity, and functionality as it translates abstract
concepts like nightmares, imaginary friend, forgotten and long term memories
into something tangible and relatable. (4) The audience leaves with a message that feels made just for
him/her. Whether it is the humorous way five emotions have matured inside Daddy
or Mommy's heads, or how nightmares are hidden in the recesses of our
subconscious and resurrected as nightmares or how part of our childhood fantasy
struggles to resurface as we grow up or how an adolescent boy panics at the
sight of a girl, or how our external apathy is actually an internal chaos, the
movie speaks directly to its audience. And speaks loud and clearly.
There are so many things that could be picked up
with Inside Out but we will zero in
on two very strong messages. First, a well rounded person has mature emotions
that do not control each other but work together to create layers in the
personality and respond to the situation in the best possible way. For a while,
it seemed that Joy and all her energy and positivity are the only ones needed
for Riley to overcome her issues, but it turned out Sadness is not just about
feeling down and needy but showing vulnerability and crying for help so that
love and support may be felt. But
for an emotion to serve its real purpose, it has to mature and get over the
initial automatic response to stimuli. We saw how Mom
and Dad, with more mature emotions, do not have Joy commanding the control center.
What is more important than staying positive all the time is learning how to
harness that positive behavioural
response of one’s basic emotions: caution and preparation
in fear, assertiveness and identity in anger, sensitivities of values and
hygiene in disgust, resilience and perseverance in joy, and love and sympathy
and empathy in sadness. Second, the movie shows that to move forward, we must learn to
let go of part of ourselves. In the same way that Joy let go of her notion that
Sadness does not help fix a situation, or how Riley let go of old memories to
make room for new ones. And who can forget that heart- wrenching scene when Bingbong
literally let go and allowed himself to fade away so that Joy can move on and
save Riley. Love, although not personified as a character, spoke loudly every time
someone chose to forget himself/herself for the sake of someone else. Overall, Inside Out is more than a fantastically
crafted story—it shares with us a message of knowing and being true to one’s
core. Very young children might not fully appreciate its metaphors and symbols,
but for older children and adolescents, with proper parental guidance, Inside Out makes a superb textbook for Self-Knowledge 101.
