Inside Out
Inside Out
Director: Pete Doctor, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Richard Kind, Kaitlyn Dias
Emotions make up the essence of one’s identity. In Pixar’s newest animated film, “Inside Out”, a child’s emotions are brought to life in a very real way, as a little girl named Riley struggles to cope in a new home after she and her family move to San Francisco for her father’s job. Riley's emotions -- led by Joy (Amy Poehler) -- try to guide her through this difficult, life-changing transition. However, the stress of the move brings Sadness (Phyllis Smith) to the forefront. When Riley’s core memories are lost, Joy and Sadness are inadvertently swept into the far reaches of Riley's mind. Now, they must get back to Headquarters and restore Riley’s true core memories before the essence of Riley’s identity is lost forever.
Emotions make up the essence of one’s identity, and nowhere are emotions illustrated more perfectly than in the character of Riley, herself, and the emotional journey that Riley goes on as her story unfolds.
One of the things that makes “Inside Out” such an extraordinary film is that Riley and her emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust - are not two separate entities, but rather two parts of the same unique whole and Riley’s emotions play a vital role in creating Riley’s memories and her unique personality. As Riley goes through her emotional transformation, her emotions, and their “world” which is created from the essence of Riley’s identity, are likewise transformed.
When she is born, Riley only has one emotion: Joy. As Riley grows up, she slowly develops new emotions: Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, as she encounters these emotions, over time. At first, the emotions are very simple...as are the islands of Riley’s personality, and the console that the Emotions can use to help express Riley’s emotions. When Riley is born, her personality starts out as a single Emotion – Joy – and a single, yellow button on the console. By the time Riley’s journey ends, the console has many buttons that the emotions can use to control Riley’s emotional psyche). Likewise, the memory orbs, which initially represent only one emotion, now represent multiple emotions in the same orb and the islands of Riley’s personality have also increased and become more intricate. As Riley goes on her journey through the movie, she finds herself struggling with the emotional maelstrom that goes hand in hand with being a teenager (especially when her one positive emotion (Joy) is missing.
“Inside Out” is a perfect metaphor for a child’s emotional journey through childhood and how those emotions play a vital role in establishing the child’s identity. One of the things that I loved most about “Inside Out” was how strong the connection between Riley and her emotions was, and how the essence of both Riley and her emotions changed throughout the course of the film. One way that change is illustrated in the film is in the beginning, all of Riley’s “core memories” are happy memories that represent the pure innocence of childhood. Those joyful memories are transformed when Sadness touches the core memories and turns them blue. When the memories are accidentally lost, Joy and Sadness are sucked out with them, and the essence of Riley’s identity and personality begins to slowly deteriorate as Riley struggles to cope with her jumbled emotions. In the end, while certain memories were lost forever, Riley is able to create new memories that reflect all of her emotions instead of just one; thus symbolizing the completion of Riley’s emotional journey through childhood.
Color plays a strong, symbolic role in this film, and nowhere is colored used more perfectly, than in the character of Riley, herself, and how the color of Riley’s clothing and memory orbs symbolically reflect Riley’s emotional state as her story unfolds.
When Riley is born, we are introduced to her very first emotion – Joy- and we see her first memory being born – the moment that Riley sees her parents for the first time. Yellow plays a symbolic role in this moment, because when we first see newborn Riley, she is swathed in a soft yellow blanket – the color that symbolizes Joy – and her first memory orb is also yellow and creates the first island of Riley’s personality after Riley’s Dad says, “look at you…our own little bundle of joy.” When Riley’s core memories are lost, along with Joy, we see Riley’s emotions deteriorate. This is reflected by the colors because while the colors are initially still present, they are much less vibrant, and her emotions are more negative. She starts crying at school when she realizes that the part of her life where she felt most happy is over and this is now her life. When she plays hockey, rather than enjoying herself this time, Riley gets angry when she fails to score a goal and quits.
Much like the memory orbs mixing colors, we also see another symbolic mix of color – yellow and blue, representing both joy and sadness together as one. While the rest of the emotions are all one color, Joy is unique because she is both yellow and blue…a balance of joy and sadness together. From the beginning Joy is compelled to avoid sadness (both as a character and as the emotion) at all costs. When Sadness is first introduced, Riley is crying, and Joy immediately wants to restore Riley’s joy. When Riley and her family move to California and the first day of school arrives, Joy gives all the emotions jobs for keeping Riley happy that day…all except for Sadness, whom she isolates in a “Circle of Sadness.” When Sadness touches the memory of Riley and her parents’ playing hockey, the memory orb’s color changes from yellow to blue, symbolizing that this happy moment is now a sad one for Riley. Riley’s sadness is also reflected in the moments when her friendship with her best friend and her love of hockey is gone, and she has a bad day at school. Riley is also wearing black now and her sunny personality has completely vanished. When Joy sees the memory orb of Riley’s soccer game, we see the first instance of a memory orb that has more than one color…in this case, while the orb is initially blue to represent Riley’s sadness at losing the championship hockey game, we see the blue orb transform to a yellow one as Riley’s parents and teammates cheer her up. In the end, we see Riley have that beautiful moment of catharsis with her parents, where she tells them the truth about her feelings of loneliness and missing her friends and her home in Minnesota and she has a good cry as the family shares a hug…and a new Core Memory is born; one that reflects this moment as both yellow and blue and creates the first of many new core memories.
Happiness is a powerful theme in this film, and it is defined in three different ways, through the characters of Joy, Sadness and the bond that is shared between Riley and her parents.
For Joy, Riley’s happiness is paramount. Joy believes that it is her sole duty to ensure that Riley is happy, and she takes great pride in most of Riley’s childhood memories reflecting that happiness. She is extremely protective of Riley and her happiness…even to the point where she supersedes the other Emotions (especially Sadness) when they are having a negative influence on Riley’s emotional psyche and constantly brings Riley’s emotions back to happiness. When Joy and Sadness are expelled from Headquarters, Joy’s sole purpose is to return there, with the Core Memories, so that Riley’s happiness can be restored…even if doing so meant leaving Sadness behind to succeed in this quest. It is only when Joy is alone in the Memory Dump and feels sadness, herself, as she is reliving Riley’s childhood through the Memory Orbs, that Joy finally understands the truth…that it is Sadness and not Joy, herself, who has the power to restore Riley’s emotional psyche. When Fear, Disgust and Anger are left alone in Headquarters, trying desperately to restore Riley’s happiness, their strategy for doing this is to return Riley to a point in her life when she was truly happy…back in Minnesota, where she had her hockey and her friends, and she loved her life. While their motives were for good, this plan has the opposite of the desired effect…causing Riley to become completely apathetic and run away from her home in San Francisco.
For Sadness, happiness is defined not by joy…but by catharsis. Her first moment of emotional catharsis comes when she comforts Bing Bong after his rocket…and his dreams of taking Riley to the moon…are forgotten. Sadness made Bing Bong feel better when Joy could not. In the end, it is Sadness who restores Riley’s emotional psyche and the console, and she also restores Riley’s Core Memories. Although these memories reflect sadness in these moments now, having gone from yellow to blue, this is exactly the catalyst Riley needs to share her emotions with her parents and she finds her happiness restored when she releases that pent up emotion. We also see that Riley is happy again. This is reflected by Riley’s love of hockey being restored and Joy telling us that Riley is making new friends and enjoying her life again.
From the moment Riley was born, she has always been her parents’ happy girl. When the family moves to California, Riley’s Mom tells her that Dad is under a lot of stress, due to the move and his new job, and it would be super helpful to Dad if Riley could try extra hard to be that happy girl and put on a brave face for her Dad’s sake…but this promise becomes impossible to keep when Riley’s Core Memories are lost and her personality is slowly extinguished. When Riley returns home, she tells her parents that she is trying to be the happy, brave daughter that they need her to be, but it is difficult because she misses her life back in Minnesota and wants to go home. Rather than being angry with their daughter, Riley’s parents not only understand how she feels…they share Riley’s emotion because they miss that life too.
“Inside Out” is, without a doubt, one of the best films that Pixar has created to date. The animation is some of the most creative and visually stunning work that Pixar has produced since "Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E". The story is one that both children and adults can relate to because the message is so uniquely heartwarming and timeless. I would highly recommend this film.
© 2023 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.
Inside Out
Director: Pete Doctor, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Richard Kind, Kaitlyn Dias
Emotions make up the essence of one’s identity. In Pixar’s newest animated film, “Inside Out”, a child’s emotions are brought to life in a very real way, as a little girl named Riley struggles to cope in a new home after she and her family move to San Francisco for her father’s job. Riley's emotions -- led by Joy (Amy Poehler) -- try to guide her through this difficult, life-changing transition. However, the stress of the move brings Sadness (Phyllis Smith) to the forefront. When Riley’s core memories are lost, Joy and Sadness are inadvertently swept into the far reaches of Riley's mind. Now, they must get back to Headquarters and restore Riley’s true core memories before the essence of Riley’s identity is lost forever.
Emotions make up the essence of one’s identity, and nowhere are emotions illustrated more perfectly than in the character of Riley, herself, and the emotional journey that Riley goes on as her story unfolds.
One of the things that makes “Inside Out” such an extraordinary film is that Riley and her emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust - are not two separate entities, but rather two parts of the same unique whole and Riley’s emotions play a vital role in creating Riley’s memories and her unique personality. As Riley goes through her emotional transformation, her emotions, and their “world” which is created from the essence of Riley’s identity, are likewise transformed.
When she is born, Riley only has one emotion: Joy. As Riley grows up, she slowly develops new emotions: Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, as she encounters these emotions, over time. At first, the emotions are very simple...as are the islands of Riley’s personality, and the console that the Emotions can use to help express Riley’s emotions. When Riley is born, her personality starts out as a single Emotion – Joy – and a single, yellow button on the console. By the time Riley’s journey ends, the console has many buttons that the emotions can use to control Riley’s emotional psyche). Likewise, the memory orbs, which initially represent only one emotion, now represent multiple emotions in the same orb and the islands of Riley’s personality have also increased and become more intricate. As Riley goes on her journey through the movie, she finds herself struggling with the emotional maelstrom that goes hand in hand with being a teenager (especially when her one positive emotion (Joy) is missing.
“Inside Out” is a perfect metaphor for a child’s emotional journey through childhood and how those emotions play a vital role in establishing the child’s identity. One of the things that I loved most about “Inside Out” was how strong the connection between Riley and her emotions was, and how the essence of both Riley and her emotions changed throughout the course of the film. One way that change is illustrated in the film is in the beginning, all of Riley’s “core memories” are happy memories that represent the pure innocence of childhood. Those joyful memories are transformed when Sadness touches the core memories and turns them blue. When the memories are accidentally lost, Joy and Sadness are sucked out with them, and the essence of Riley’s identity and personality begins to slowly deteriorate as Riley struggles to cope with her jumbled emotions. In the end, while certain memories were lost forever, Riley is able to create new memories that reflect all of her emotions instead of just one; thus symbolizing the completion of Riley’s emotional journey through childhood.
Color plays a strong, symbolic role in this film, and nowhere is colored used more perfectly, than in the character of Riley, herself, and how the color of Riley’s clothing and memory orbs symbolically reflect Riley’s emotional state as her story unfolds.
When Riley is born, we are introduced to her very first emotion – Joy- and we see her first memory being born – the moment that Riley sees her parents for the first time. Yellow plays a symbolic role in this moment, because when we first see newborn Riley, she is swathed in a soft yellow blanket – the color that symbolizes Joy – and her first memory orb is also yellow and creates the first island of Riley’s personality after Riley’s Dad says, “look at you…our own little bundle of joy.” When Riley’s core memories are lost, along with Joy, we see Riley’s emotions deteriorate. This is reflected by the colors because while the colors are initially still present, they are much less vibrant, and her emotions are more negative. She starts crying at school when she realizes that the part of her life where she felt most happy is over and this is now her life. When she plays hockey, rather than enjoying herself this time, Riley gets angry when she fails to score a goal and quits.
Much like the memory orbs mixing colors, we also see another symbolic mix of color – yellow and blue, representing both joy and sadness together as one. While the rest of the emotions are all one color, Joy is unique because she is both yellow and blue…a balance of joy and sadness together. From the beginning Joy is compelled to avoid sadness (both as a character and as the emotion) at all costs. When Sadness is first introduced, Riley is crying, and Joy immediately wants to restore Riley’s joy. When Riley and her family move to California and the first day of school arrives, Joy gives all the emotions jobs for keeping Riley happy that day…all except for Sadness, whom she isolates in a “Circle of Sadness.” When Sadness touches the memory of Riley and her parents’ playing hockey, the memory orb’s color changes from yellow to blue, symbolizing that this happy moment is now a sad one for Riley. Riley’s sadness is also reflected in the moments when her friendship with her best friend and her love of hockey is gone, and she has a bad day at school. Riley is also wearing black now and her sunny personality has completely vanished. When Joy sees the memory orb of Riley’s soccer game, we see the first instance of a memory orb that has more than one color…in this case, while the orb is initially blue to represent Riley’s sadness at losing the championship hockey game, we see the blue orb transform to a yellow one as Riley’s parents and teammates cheer her up. In the end, we see Riley have that beautiful moment of catharsis with her parents, where she tells them the truth about her feelings of loneliness and missing her friends and her home in Minnesota and she has a good cry as the family shares a hug…and a new Core Memory is born; one that reflects this moment as both yellow and blue and creates the first of many new core memories.
Happiness is a powerful theme in this film, and it is defined in three different ways, through the characters of Joy, Sadness and the bond that is shared between Riley and her parents.
For Joy, Riley’s happiness is paramount. Joy believes that it is her sole duty to ensure that Riley is happy, and she takes great pride in most of Riley’s childhood memories reflecting that happiness. She is extremely protective of Riley and her happiness…even to the point where she supersedes the other Emotions (especially Sadness) when they are having a negative influence on Riley’s emotional psyche and constantly brings Riley’s emotions back to happiness. When Joy and Sadness are expelled from Headquarters, Joy’s sole purpose is to return there, with the Core Memories, so that Riley’s happiness can be restored…even if doing so meant leaving Sadness behind to succeed in this quest. It is only when Joy is alone in the Memory Dump and feels sadness, herself, as she is reliving Riley’s childhood through the Memory Orbs, that Joy finally understands the truth…that it is Sadness and not Joy, herself, who has the power to restore Riley’s emotional psyche. When Fear, Disgust and Anger are left alone in Headquarters, trying desperately to restore Riley’s happiness, their strategy for doing this is to return Riley to a point in her life when she was truly happy…back in Minnesota, where she had her hockey and her friends, and she loved her life. While their motives were for good, this plan has the opposite of the desired effect…causing Riley to become completely apathetic and run away from her home in San Francisco.
For Sadness, happiness is defined not by joy…but by catharsis. Her first moment of emotional catharsis comes when she comforts Bing Bong after his rocket…and his dreams of taking Riley to the moon…are forgotten. Sadness made Bing Bong feel better when Joy could not. In the end, it is Sadness who restores Riley’s emotional psyche and the console, and she also restores Riley’s Core Memories. Although these memories reflect sadness in these moments now, having gone from yellow to blue, this is exactly the catalyst Riley needs to share her emotions with her parents and she finds her happiness restored when she releases that pent up emotion. We also see that Riley is happy again. This is reflected by Riley’s love of hockey being restored and Joy telling us that Riley is making new friends and enjoying her life again.
From the moment Riley was born, she has always been her parents’ happy girl. When the family moves to California, Riley’s Mom tells her that Dad is under a lot of stress, due to the move and his new job, and it would be super helpful to Dad if Riley could try extra hard to be that happy girl and put on a brave face for her Dad’s sake…but this promise becomes impossible to keep when Riley’s Core Memories are lost and her personality is slowly extinguished. When Riley returns home, she tells her parents that she is trying to be the happy, brave daughter that they need her to be, but it is difficult because she misses her life back in Minnesota and wants to go home. Rather than being angry with their daughter, Riley’s parents not only understand how she feels…they share Riley’s emotion because they miss that life too.
“Inside Out” is, without a doubt, one of the best films that Pixar has created to date. The animation is some of the most creative and visually stunning work that Pixar has produced since "Finding Nemo" and "Wall-E". The story is one that both children and adults can relate to because the message is so uniquely heartwarming and timeless. I would highly recommend this film.
© 2023 Keriane Kellogg. All rights reserved.