I’ve wanted to see Inside Out since I first saw the trailer, and yesterday I finally got to see what all the fuss is about.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Inside Out is about a young girl, Riley, who moves to San Francisco. While there, her emotions – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust – get in a bit of a tizz as to how to navigate the new city, house and school.
While I don’t think the trailer does the film justice, it’s gives you a small taste of what you’re in for. Check it out:
Like with most Pixar films, there were two levels of understanding: The lower level of standard humour for the kids, and a higher level with a few bits that went over the little ones’ heads. However, I felt the levels of understanding were a lot closer together in this film, but younger children may not fully appreciate this film after watching only once. They’ll get most of the humour but not all of the clever psychological references (the best bits).
Inside Riley’s head, the film explores emotion, long-term memory, personality and even touches on things such as déjà vu. The film personifies the battle of emotions as the characters fight to be in charge of the control panel that dictates how Riley feels. Along the way, we find that you can’t be happy all the time and that sadness has an important role to play in our lives too. In life, we meet new challenges every day and these challenges can help form us as a person.
I love how the film illustrates how the brain works, whether it’s little blobby men sending that annoying (but catchy) song to the front of your mind, highlighting the importance of core memories made in childhood and how they affect your character or showing how our emotions develop as we get older. Although simplified, the film does a fantastic job at exploring how our mind works and reminds us that our minds (we) are always changing, evolving, outgrowing things and picking up new ones – even as adults.
I’d definitely recommend going to see the film. I’ve touched on the impressive picture the film paints of the human mind, but there’s a lot more detail to be gained by watching the film (as well as a pretty good storyline to experience).