When I was young, I had a temper. I’ve mellowed somewhat since then, but from time to time, my irritability still gets the better of me. The new Pixar Animation Studios movie, “Inside Out,” made me feel less ashamed about throwing the occasional tantrum, though, because I now know my flare-ups aren’t my fault.
The little red guy inside my head is responsible.
Hear me out. According to Pixar, five tiny people live in a control room inside each of our heads. Each one represents a different emotion, including joy, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust. Depending on the situation, one or more of them will take control and guide us through whatever is happening.
For example, imagine you’re driving, and someone zooms ahead of you and cuts you off at a merge point, forcing you to brake. Anger involuntarily wells up in you like saliva, and you heatedly blare your horn. The other driver gives you a one-finger salute.
Do you feel better? No. But controlling our emotions is hard because they’re a big part of who we are. If you were a quilt, they would be the stitching that holds your pieces together; if I were a painting, they would be the canvas on which my colors were overlaid. How can we control something that powerful and essential?
The ways in which our emotions help to define who we are form the basis of “Inside Out.” While that might sound like heady material for an animated film, Pixar was in rare form while making this movie, folding complex themes into a highly entertaining adventure that should please both kids and adults.
“Inside Out” is set in the mind of a young girl, Riley Anderson, whose core emotions guide her actions as she leaves her childhood home and moves with her family to a new city. The movie begins with her birth, when her core emotion, Joy, appears and takes control. As Riley grows up, the emotions she feels each day form her memories (which look like glowing marbles), suggesting we remember how we felt about something that happened a long time ago more accurately than the details of what happened. Each night, these memories are zipped off in a vacuum tube to a maze-like vault that serves as Riley’s long-term memory. (I love the marriage of real world mechanics and abstract concepts.)
Some memories have an overwhelming impact on Riley, and become core memories that serve as the building blocks of her personality. These aspects of her character are represented by small islands that float above a dark abyss. For instance, when Riley was very young, she enjoyed play time with her dad so much, goofiness became a part of her character. An island that looks like an amusement park corresponds to this part of her personality.
All of this is explained in a few minutes of awkward exposition. The folks at Pixar are masters of subtext, meaning they rarely explain things but usually show them in natural and organic ways. Since they were dealing with abstract concepts, though, perhaps a little blunt exposition was necessary.
Either way, for most of “Inside Out,” Pixar masterfully paints a picture of the impact Riley’s experiences have on her psyche. For example, when the stress caused by moving to a new city reaches a boiling point, her core memories begin to falter, and the tiny islands begin to crumble.
As Riley experiences an identity crisis, she begins to do things she’s never done before, like snap at her dad. Joy does her best to put a happy spin on things and maintain control, but like Riley, she must learn that all of the other emotions, including sadness, are as vital as she is.
One of the brilliant things about “Inside Out” is how the filmmakers don’t just preach about striking a balance, they practice what they preach. They don’t just say, “Sadness is as important as joy,” they allow a lovable character to sacrifice himself for the good of Riley in a real tear-jerker of a scene. That kind of bravery in storytelling is rare in the animated realm.
I also love the concept of the control console. It’s okay for our emotions to guide us, Pixar seems to be saying, we just need to make sure no one emotion takes over. The concept of striking a balance is beautifully expressed late in the film in a shot in which Joy and Sadness work the controls together. “Inside Out” suggests Riley reached the point where this is possible by learning from her negative experiences and allowing the difficulties she faced to help her grow.
There is much in this film to love. While it wrestles with complex ideas, it does so with humor and poignancy. “Inside Out” is thematically deep, but it’s also tremendously entertaining and profoundly heartfelt.
Also, while this should go without saying, I’m going to say it anyway: the animation is as masterful as we’ve come to expect from the creators of “Toy Story” and other technically and artistically innovative movies. There are a lot of talented artists working at various animation studios around the world, but no one is doing these kinds of films better than Pixar.
We are often told not to act or make decisions based on our emotions, but “Inside Out” says it’s OK to let our feelings guide us. While logic and rational thought are important, so are emotions. When we don’t follow ours, we aren’t being true to who we are – or so says Pixar in their characteristically inventive ways.
Four stars out of four. Rated PG for mild thematic elements and some action.
David Laprad is the assistant editor of the Hamilton County Herald and an award-winning columnist and photographer. Contact him at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com.
It’s OK to be sad
sometimes
W
hen I was young, I had a temper. I’ve mellowed somewhat since then, but from time to time, my irritability still gets the better of me. The new Pixar Animation Studios movie, “Inside Out,” made me feel less ashamed about throwing the occasional tantrum, though, because I now know my flare-ups aren’t my fault.
The little red guy inside my head is responsible.
Hear me out. According to Pixar, five tiny people live in a control room inside each of our heads. Each one represents a different emotion, including joy, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust. Depending on the situation, one or more of them will take control and guide us through whatever is happening.
For example, imagine you’re driving, and someone zooms ahead of you and cuts you off at a merge point, forcing you to brake. Anger involuntarily wells up in you like saliva, and you heatedly blare your horn. The other driver gives you a one-finger salute.
Do you feel better? No. But controlling our emotions is hard because they’re a big part of who we are. If you were a quilt, they would be the stitching that holds your pieces together; if I were a painting, they would be the canvas on which my colors were overlaid. How can we control something that powerful and essential?
The ways in which our emotions help to define who we are form the basis of “Inside Out.” While that might sound like heady material for an animated film, Pixar was in rare form while making this movie, folding complex themes into a highly entertaining adventure that should please both kids and adults.
“Inside Out” is set in the mind of a young girl, Riley Anderson, whose core emotions guide her actions as she leaves her childhood home and moves with her family to a new city. The movie begins with her birth, when her core emotion, Joy, appears and takes control. As Riley grows up, the emotions she feels each day form her memories (which look like glowing marbles), suggesting we remember how we felt about something that happened a long time ago more accurately than the details of what happened. Each night, these memories are zipped off in a vacuum tube to a maze-like vault that serves as Riley’s long-term memory. (I love the marriage of real world mechanics and abstract concepts.)
Some memories have an overwhelming impact on Riley, and become core memories that serve as the building blocks of her personality. These aspects of her character are represented by small islands that float above a dark abyss. For instance, when Riley was very young, she enjoyed play time with her dad so much, goofiness became a part of her character. An island that looks like an amusement park corresponds to this part of her personality.
All of this is explained in a few minutes of awkward exposition. The folks at Pixar are masters of subtext, meaning they rarely explain things but usually show them in natural and organic ways. Since they were dealing with abstract concepts, though, perhaps a little blunt exposition was necessary.
Either way, for most of “Inside Out,” Pixar masterfully paints a picture of the impact Riley’s experiences have on her psyche. For example, when the stress caused by moving to a new city reaches a boiling point, her core memories begin to falter, and the tiny islands begin to crumble.
As Riley experiences an identity crisis, she begins to do things she’s never done before, like snap at her dad. Joy does her best to put a happy spin on things and maintain control, but like Riley, she must learn that all of the other emotions, including sadness, are as vital as she is.
One of the brilliant things about “Inside Out” is how the filmmakers don’t just preach about striking a balance, they practice what they preach. They don’t just say, “Sadness is as important as joy,” they allow a lovable character to sacrifice himself for the good of Riley in a real tear-jerker of a scene. That kind of bravery in storytelling is rare in the animated realm.
I also love the concept of the control console. It’s okay for our emotions to guide us, Pixar seems to be saying, we just need to make sure no one emotion takes over. The concept of striking a balance is beautifully expressed late in the film in a shot in which Joy and Sadness work the controls together. “Inside Out” suggests Riley reached the point where this is possible by learning from her negative experiences and allowing the difficulties she faced to help her grow.
There is much in this film to love. While it wrestles with complex ideas, it does so with humor and poignancy. “Inside Out” is thematically deep, but it’s also tremendously entertaining and profoundly heartfelt.
Also, while this should go without saying, I’m going to say it anyway: the animation is as masterful as we’ve come to expect from the creators of “Toy Story” and other technically and artistically innovative movies. There are a lot of talented artists working at various animation studios around the world, but no one is doing these kinds of films better than Pixar.
We are often told not to act or make decisions based on our emotions, but “Inside Out” says it’s OK to let our feelings guide us. While logic and rational thought are important, so are emotions. When we don’t follow ours, we aren’t being true to who we are – or so says Pixar in their characteristically inventive ways.
Four stars out of four. Rated PG for mild thematic elements and some action.
David Laprad is the assistant editor of the Hamilton County Herald and an award-winning columnist and photographer. Contact him at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.com. v