Inside Out Will Bring You To Tears

Credit: Pixar

“Inside Out” is a movie that will not only make you marvel at its depth, but also bring tears to your eyes. The movie’s protagonist is an eleven-year-old girl named Riley. The movie doesn’t focus on her as much as it does the personality traits inside of her head.  These characters have a lot of unique characteristics to them. Joy, a happy go lucky personality, is in charge of Riley most of the time. There are other personality traits, however, such as: Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness. These personality traits don’t play as big of a role in Riley’s life as Joy does, but they are all vital to her as a person.

Riley’s life is turned upside down when she moves from her beloved Minnesota to San Francisco. Joy tries to make her see the positive side of this bleak situation. She manages to make her feel happier, but then the unthinkable happens. Joy is separated from Riley along with Sadness. With these two personality traits gone, Anger, Disgust, and Fear are left in charge of Riley. They try to keep a semblance of normalcy with Riley, but they fail miserably. Without Joy, Riley can never be happy again. Sadness doesn’t seem to be missed as much, but she plays a vital role later on in the movie.
This movie, like many other animated cartoons, has a deeper plot than originally advertised. I believe it is more of a grown-up film, than a children’s film. There are too many adult themes that a child would not understand. I’m not sure a child would enjoy the movie as much as an older child or adult. I personally loved the movie, because it was beautifully animated, emotional and focused on abstract themes.

Imagine moving to a place you’ve never been to and you’re expected to pretend everything is the same as your old home. It can’t be feasibly done, because everyone will rebel against the new place in some way.

The movie focuses on core memories, memories that cannot be forgotten and islands. These islands are like the fundamental parts that make us who we are. For example, Riley’s islands consist of: Family, Friendship, Honesty, Hockey and many more. This can be related to, because we all have metaphorically speaking, islands that make us who we are.

There are some comical events in the movie such as when a memory of a gum commercial is played in Riley’s head over and over again. Anger gets mad and says, “Not this again!” It’s funny because we can all relate to something that keeps popping up in our minds time and time again, be it a commercial or an event. Another comical part of the movie is when it changes from Riley’s mind to her mom and dad’s. The mom’s personality traits are all wearing glasses like the mom is wearing. They look like Riley’s personality traits only older. The scene depicts the mom trying to get the dad’s attention, when she notices Riley is acting strange. The movie goes into the dad’s head then and the personality traits are all wearing mustaches like the dad’s. The funny part is the dad is imagining a sports game and is not even paying any attention to the situation at hand. The dad looks at the mom confused and she is seething inside. Her personality traits say in an annoyed voice, “We should have gone with the other guy.” It then pans to a handsome man with flowing dark brown hair.
The movie makes it a point to emphasize that Joy is not the only important personality trait in Riley’s head. Sadness plays a big role in Riley’s life, because without Sadness, Joy would never have been able to be a part of Riley’s life again.

“Inside Out” will mostly make you feel sad, but there will be a myriad of emotions that will go through your head as you watch this film. I give it a 5 out of 5 because its plot and comical moments will truly resonate with memories old and new.