Movie Reviews - Inside Out

When I first saw trailers for this movie, I was genuinely worried. It reminded me of a movie from several years ago, Osmosis Jones, which was about a white blood cell cop who does impossible things to save the human that he lives in, with the help of a cold pill, which, in the movie, is like a kind of Robocop-esque guy. It is an interesting enough movie, and kind of fun, but these characters do things which are biologically impossible, because white blood cells and cold pills aren't sentient. They don't have their own free will, or a desire to do better and try harder. I was worried that this movie would be the Osmosis Jones of psychology. I know enough psychology to know that our individual emotions don't have their own agency beyond the fact that we sometimes can't help feeling them. Our emotions are dependent on our experiences, and they work for us whether we always realize it or not. Thankfully the movie sticks to this truth, and does it very well while telling a very good story about the human condition.

This movie is about a girl named Riley, you just might not realize it at first because the story is told from the point of view of the voices in her head, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Fear (Bill Hader), and Anger (Lewis Black). These little characters each drive Riley's behavior whenever she would appropriately feel their corresponding emotion, but it is still Riley who acts on that emotion depending on her experience. They don't directly control her, and how often each of them is in control is based on how big a part that emotion plays in Riley's basic personality. For example, Riley is, first and foremost, a happy kid, so Joy is the dominant emotion and takes charge the most. Because of this, Joy sees herself as the leader, and she doesn't understand the need for Sadness.

However, when Riley moves away from her home state with her family and things begin to change, the emotions learn that Sadness can change the nature of Riley's memories and experiences (in the form of orbs colored for the emotion most prevalent in them) and cast them in a sad light. Joy overreacts to this when Sadness almost turns one of Riley's core memories, the ones which make up her basic personality traits, from happy to sad, and those core memories are dislodged in the struggle and lost in the large world that is the rest of Riley's psyche. It is up to Joy and Sadness to return those core memories to Headquarters (get it?) and restart Riley's core personality traits, represented as islands, as without the core memories she feels disconnected from these things and they, and her, have started to break down, with Riley becoming more and more detached. Not to mention that without Joy and Sadness around, Riley can't feel happy and is becoming depressed. It is only once she learns the purpose of Sadness, that it is perhaps the most important emotion, as it is the emotion which allows us to work through things and grow, that Joy is able to set things right and prevent Riley from making a huge mistake.

And that's all that I can say about the movie. I don't even like saying this much, as this is a story that shouldn't be spoiled. It is, appropriately, a character driven story which relies on invoking certain emotions to accentuate the events as they unfold, and if you know those events going in, it diminishes the impact. This movie manages to paint a picture of the complex human psyche that is simple enough to immerse yourself in and enjoy, without being dumbed down. It is cute, touching, funny, and triumphant, and is absolute proof that the writers at Pixar are more than capable of making their loyal viewers feel the entire spectrum of emotion with these deceptively simple stories that are much deeper than they seem. Just try watching this movie without coming out wondering what the little guys in your head are like, and what core memories make up who you are. And you should see this movie. It is beautiful in story, design, and message, and is likely to teach the viewer something that he or she didn't know about him or herself. Pixar, you have done it again. Now please, do more stuff like this instead of more Cars, because this movie genuinely surprised me in a very good way. I give Inside Out my highest regular score of 9 out of 10.