When I watch a film I always look at the creators. Film authorship plays a big role in my moviegoing decisions. I'm not usually a fan of animations, but when I saw that Inside Out was written and directed by Pete Docter, the man behind Up and Toy StoryT, I was sold.
The tagline of the movie is "Meet The Little Voices Inside Your Head", which sounds both inviting and creepy at the same time, and alludes to the basic premise of the movie. A little girl, specifically a white American girl, is born to her loving parents in Minnesota, who name her Riley and proceed to give her the best life they could possibly provide. We see Riley toddling about the house, learning to eat her greens, discovering a love for ice hockey, and generally having a wonderful childhood. All is hunky dory until she's about eleven or so and Daddy gets a new job and they're packed off to San Francisco. The move is hard on everyone, especially Riley. The twist in all of this is that we experience everything through the inside of Riley's mind, through her emotions. These emotions are personified through individual characters, namely Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger.
The movie suggests that every person has a dominant emotion within them. In Riley's case, it is Joy, who is everything one thinks of when the word 'joy' comes to mind. She does her best to keep Riley happy, managing Headquarters, which is where the core memories that power the "islands" (facets of Riley's personality) are stored. Conflict arises when Sadness accidentally causes Riley to cry in front of her class on her first day at school, creating a sad core memory. Joy tries to dispose of the sad memory, but she accidentally knocks the other core memories loose in her struggle with Sadness. The islands are shut down in the process, rendering Riley's personality unstable. Joy and Sadness are sucked out of Headquarters through the memory tube that leads to the rest of Riley's mind, and therefore set out on a long journey to get back to HQ and restore everything to normal.
The beauty of the film is in its ability to engage both children and adults, on similar and different levels. While children may find the emotions funny, adults will see the poignancy in the way one's emotions work together to form our reactions towards what happens around us. I was particularly struck by Riley's imaginary friend, Bing Bong, who wants nothing more than to relive the happy times he had when he and Riley were best friends.
There is a heartbreaking scene where Bing Bong and Joy are trying to get out of the Memory Dump, a kind of barren wasteland, by riding Bing Bong's old wagon rocket. After several failed attempts Bing Bong realises he has to sacrifice himself in order for Joy to succeed, symbolising the death of childhood innocence and imagination to the harsh reality of life.
Overall, Inside Out was an excellent effort from Pixar. There were some parts I questioned, such as the library scene where Joy and Sadness are lost - there were ladders that Joy could have climbed to see her way out of the maze of bookshelves. I also found the stereotypical depictions of the emotions rather flat - why does Sadness have to be a chubby, bespectacled girl? However, it was refreshing to see Riley portrayed as a gender-neutral girl who plays ice hockey, wears jeans and still has close girl friends. With a runtime of 1 hour and 42 minutes, Inside Out is a film I would recommend for an enjoyable and slightly thought-provoking moviegoing experience.
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