Movie Review - Inside Out

Inside Out 

Inside Out is a 2015 American 3D computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen, with a screenplay written by Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, adapted from a story by Docter and del Carmen.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Out_(2015_film)

Main Characters of the movie Inside Out are the following:

·      Joy – one of the first emotions formed when Riley was born along with Sadness

·         Sadness – one of the first emotions formed when Riley was born along with Joy

·         Riley – a loving daughter that is guided by her emotions that ensure her well-being

·         Bing Bong – Riley’s childhood imaginary friend

·         Fear – one of the emotions that Riley developed

·         Anger – another emotion that Riley has

·         Disgust - another emotion that Riley has

·         Riley’s mom – Riley’s caring mother that guided her daughter as she grows

·         Riley’s dad - Riley’s hardworking father that guided her daughter as she grows

The movie started when Riley was born, the first two emotions of her showed up which were Joy and Sadness in her mind. As Riley grows up as a little kid, Joy and Sadness had more emotions named Fear, Anger and Disgust. All of them made Riley, Riley. As time passed by, islands began to form inside Riley’s mind through the core memories of Riley namely: Goofball Island, Family Island, Honesty Island, Friendship Island and lastly Hockey Island.

Riley’s father started a new business investment that is why they decided to move out from Minnesota to San Francisco. Riley expected a lot as they travel from her beloved home to their new home but all none of her expectations has been met. The moving van that carried most of their things were also delayed. Riley somehow saved the moment when they played hockey with the whole family with a piece of paper, but Riley’s dad received a call that made her dad leave. Joy blocked Sadness when she was about to take control and Joy instead gave the idea of having a pizza, but it went wrong as the place only serves pizza with broccoli which Riley hates. As Riley and her mother walks to go home they talked about their favorite part of the trip so Joy then served the memory of her dad taking a picture of a dinosaur statue then the car suddenly rolled to the hill and crashed another statue, but suddenly the yellow memory turned blue when Sadness touched it. Joy cannot turn it back, so she just made Rile slide down the railings but suddenly changed her mind when Sadness was standing by the memory cores that made the Goofball memory core fall and made the island lose its power. Joy quickly returned it to place. Joy decided to order Sadness to just read the manuals to prevent further troubles.

Riley’s first day of school came, Joy aims to make this day a better one so she assigned everyone in the emotions headquarters a certain task, but Sadness’ task was a different one which is to just stand still in one place. Riley entered the class and the teacher asked her to introduce herself. As she was introducing and sharing about hockey she suddenly turned sad when Sadness touched the memory Joy rushed to remove it to stop Riley from being sad, but Sadness controlled the console and made Riley cry a core memory showed up Joy tried to stop it from coming an planned to dump it but Sadness doesn’t agree which lead them to be sucked by the dump tube along with all of the core memories that powers all of the islands.

Fear, Disgust and Anger were the ones left in the headquarters and all the islands were lifeless. Joy and Sadness are on their way to go back to the headquarters, but it is a long way. Riley was having dinner with her family but because the left emotions in the headquarters can’t generate happiness all of the things turned bad which resulted to made Riley’s dad frustrated. Riley didn’t respond when her father acted goofy and just faced the wall. The goofball island collapsed that moment, so they went to the friendship island. Sadness read the manual so she knows the way back. Riley was talking that time to her friend in Minnesota but Anger dominated that made the friendship island collapsed. The two lost emotions met Bing Bong which is Riley’s childhood imaginary friend. Bing Bong guided them to get back to the headquarters and went to imagination land to catch the train of thought were Bing Bong saw his rocket but was later on dumped that made Bing Bong cry of candies. Joy can’t cheer him up but Sadness him feel better. That time is also the first time Joy saw Sadness’ purpose. On the other hand, Riley was in the try outs for the hockey team but without the core memories and Joy, Riley didn’t play well that lead to her frustration. The three was able to catch the train but unfortunately Riley went asleep that made the train shut down but using the Dream Productions they managed to wake Riley up nut not by Joy’s idea of an exciting dream but of Sadness’ fault that turned into a scary dream. The emotions left in the headquarters were also awaken by what happened which gave the idea of Anger that Riley should run away back to Minnesota. Part of Anger’s idea of running away was stealing from her mom’s purse for money that is why when Joy and company was on the train back to the headquarters the Honesty Island collapsed and made the railway also collapse the train fell off the cliff but the workers managed to save them. Joy had the idea of getting back through the tube but the core memories will all turn sad when came with her so she decided to get back alone but the tube wrecked and made Joy and Bing Bong fell in the dump when he was about to save her. Joy and Bing Bong was about to get back up the cliff through powering Bing Bong’s rocket by singing but Bing Bong jumped out so that it will be easier for Joy to get back up there and Bing Bong was left in the dump and slowly faded out of existence. On the other hand, Riley was already in the bus station on the way to Minnesota and ignored her mom’s call. The console turned black and then Riley cannot feel any emotions. Joy found Sadness in a floating cloud crying. Joy found the imaginary boyfriend generator and stacked them up to catch sadness and at the same time get back to the headquarters using a trampoline.  They managed to get back and then Sadness removed the idea of running away. Riley went home and cried because Joy let Sadness take control. Riley confessed to her parents that she is really having a very hard time to adapt to their new home and really miss Minnesota. Joy handed the sad core memory but Sadness held her hand and they both touched the console which made a new core memory with a mix of Joy and Sadness.

The console got upgraded ready for puberty and everything was running well after what happened. New islands were also built made of mixed emotions and not entirely just of happiness. The story ended in Riley’s hockey game with her parent’s faces painted cheering her up.

The movie was a very deep one when you look at it in another perspective. It is not mainly for kids but for everyone since it talks about emotions and as humans all of us have emotions since birth. The movie is very recommendable because we can learn and adapt the values of the movie as we live our daily lives. The movie met all the aspects of a great movie which for me is an essential in making a great movie which has balance like in cooking everything should just be right for the food to taste good not too much and not too less. I give this movie five out of five stars because it is a very amazing movie which made expect more of an animated movie which I think is very underrated.

The representation of the “human person” in the movie is simply Riley. Like us Riley is human which has emotions, struggles and challenges that is needed to be faced to move on in life. As a human person, emotions played a big role I every life of a person because it is the one that adds a little bit of spice to our lives. Like in food, all of us has different tastes about it. Some food that I like may not be delicious to others and vice versa. I think emotions make all of us unique in our own little ways.

One of the elements about the human person is the balance of things. We can see from the movie that all the emotions should complement with each other to pass through life. Everything should be balanced in life to live it to the fullest and live an easier and enjoyable kind of life. Another thing is about happiness, the movie showed that things cannot be solved through straight happiness only. We are all humans and we should never be afraid of losing happiness sometimes and still push ourselves to be happy, it is normal for a person to show some emotions not only happiness. Like in the movie time came that happiness is not only the key to solve all things because Sadness found a way to solve the problem through her own ways not only by pure happiness. Another thing is about sadness, all of us never want sadness but I think that sadness will someday result into happiness. Sadness should never be avoided because it is sadness that lightens our burdens that will made it easier for us to move on in life.

Because of the movie I somehow manage to formulate some philosophical questions like “Is it really happiness that we should seek?” because it seems that happiness should not be only one we should seek but for me balance because everything will follow not only happiness but even the other things that we seek in life. Another question is that “Are emotions really helpful in life?” because I remembered the saying “Don't promise when you are happy, don't reply when you are angry, and don't decide when you are sad.” Emotions affects our decisions so is it really an essential because from that saying I think it says that emotions should be putted in the side to make things right.

I can relate to Joy because I always try to show happiness to the people around me because I don’t want other people to feel sad because they see me sad. I also try to keep my self motivated at all times and try to look all the bright things our life has. I also keep myself focused and optimistic on my goal in life like what the some say,” eyes on the prize”.

The movie taught me a lot especially the things we cannot see which is what happens on our mind. Through an animated film I learned that our emotions played a really big role in our daily lives. These lessons I got from watching the movie will open my mind in learning more things about the Philosophy of the Human person because the movie portrayed the nature of the human person and how it affects our lives. The movie can be my source of inspiration and mindset in life that I should never be carried away by my emotions and learning to somehow control it to make better decisions in order to succeed in life.