Friday night: After a great diner with our friends watching a movie together is the perfect desert. What to watch? There is nothing on television (as usual) so Netflix to the rescue! After a little bit of browsing through the movie collection we all agree to watch "Inside Out".
"Inside Out" is a 2015 Disney/Pixar animation movie. The movie won the Academy Award for "Best Animated Feature Film" and the Golden Globe for "Best Motion Picture Animated" earlier this year.
The concept of the movie is great (in my onion). Do you ever look at someone and wonder what's going on inside their head? The story centers on a little girl named Riley Anderson and the 5 core emotions that make up her personality: Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear and Disgust. The movie starts out in Riley's mind (called Headquarters) with her first personified emotion Joy. As Riley grows up in Minnesota, her other emotions come to life and together they take charge of Riley's mind. Joy is in charge of Riley's happiness, Fear keeps her safe, Anger keeps her life fair and Disgust keeps her from being poisoned in every way. And then there is Sadness, she feels she doesn't really have a purpose in Riley's life. Together they react to all that is happening while Riley is growing up and they are in charge of forming Riley's memories. These memories are housed in colored balls and the color of the ball shows the emotion of the memory. The most important memories in life are called the core memories and they power the Islands of Riley's personality (Family-, Friendship-, Hockey-, Honesty- and Goofball Island). Although Riley's life is a bumpy road, the emotions (with Joy in charge) are doing a great job and they create happy core memories. ( Are you still with me ? It's not as complicated as it seems. )
Then Riley turns eleven and her life is turned upside down. Her dad gets a new job in San Francisco and the family has to move to the big city. This a big change and Joy has the responsibility to keep Riley (and the other emotions) happy throughout the move. As mentioned before Sadness does not really feel she has a purpose in Riley's life and she is being kept away from the controls all the time. But when things get a bit messy because of the move, Sadness touches a happy memory and turns it into a sad one. On Riley's first day of school, Sadness messes up further by creating a sad core memory. In the struggle that follows this moment all core memories get knocked out of their containers and together with Joy and Sadness they get sucked into a memory tube that transports them to the back of Riley's mind. This leaves Anger, Fear and Disgust in charge, while they try to get Riley through the problems that come with the move. Every wrong decision they make, results in the collapse of an Island of Personality. For example when Riley fails at hockey try outs, she gets mad and this leads to the collapse of Hockey Island. In the meantime Joy and Sadness have to make their way through Riley's Long Term Memory to get back to Headquarters and save the day.
I loved this movie. The concept is very original and they way the makers portray the emotions is absolutely great. There were moments I laughed myself to tears. Especially Riley's imaginary friend Bing Bong made me laugh out really loud a number of times. Also the casting of the voice actors is spot on. I especially liked Lewis Black as Anger and Richard Kind as Bing Bong. The animations are great, as to be expected in a Pixar/Disney movie. Although I prefer the traditonal old school animation over computer animation. Nevertheless the personalisation of the emotions was a job well done and the movie was very colourfull. It left me with a happy feeling. Watch this movie!
Write a comment
Maria (Monday, 20 June 2016 16:21)
The part where Bing Bong and Joy rocketed to get back to Riley's core was the saddest part for me. It brought me to tears.
Nya (Saturday, 02 July 2016 15:11)
I have watched this movie a while ago, but I absolutely loved it! It's so heart warming, and funny at the same time! And everything has a meaning, even if subtle. The fact that it was an animation movie, well took me a while to convince my friends, and in the end they all loved it as well :)
Postcard Pretty (Thursday, 14 July 2016 04:57)
This movie isn't just a kid's movie--Inside Out is full of wonderful insight and philosophy too. It was funny and full of learning as well. There is really some good content there, and I'm quite happy for Pixar/Disney that they are able to make movies like this.
elle (Friday, 12 August 2016 12:01)
i really wanna watch this movie because i started to like animated movies after watching monster university. they're all cute, plus animated movies' concepts are always original. after reading this post, i wanna go find a copy of this movie so i could watch it asap.
Mia Foo (Wednesday, 17 August 2016 17:27)
it's fun reading someone else's thoughts on the movie i really enjoyed. i think the bing bong part really broke many people's hearts. and it makes us wonder if we every had a bing bong ourselves when we're young and when did it got erased. T.T
making the core emotions breaking down and restructuring it to indicate puberty was an amazing idea in my opinion. some didn't buy that idea and felt that our character isn't just governed by a simple 5 core emotions, but hey. when we're young, we're simple, weren't we?
Teresa (Tuesday, 30 August 2016 04:35)
My family loved this movie, too. It has a lot of life lessons, both for the kids and adults alike. I plan to integrate the lessons in our homeschool activities in the future. I actually found a good material from the internet that teach about emotions and would be perfect with this movie.
Freelancer Philippines (Wednesday, 14 September 2016 14:24)
I hate to admit it, but this movie made me cry.. when Bing-bong sacrificed just to get Riley back up.. I mean, he had no friends, and yet when he found one.. ohh.. that's an awful fate.. but well the movie was in overall very great movie.. not to mention it's 3D animation.. I love animation movies.. hope to see more movies like this..
Laveena Sengar (Wednesday, 21 September 2016 08:19)
I have had this movie for such a long time with me now but I haven't watched it till now. I just wanted an assurance before. Thanks for the review.
Me-An Clemente (Sunday, 25 September 2016 20:46)
Like you, I love that movie. It's very original. And there were some scenes that made me cry. I also got heart broken when Bing Bong had to leave himself behind so Riley can return. Anyway, I look forward to Disney's thanksgiving movie, Moana.
Nicole P. (Monday, 26 September 2016 04:05)
I also loved this movie. And no matter how many times I watch it, I always get tears whenever bingbong has to leave, just to get joy rocketed out, just to get her and sadness into the headquarters. Also, I think this movie perfectly shows that one need not be 'happy' all the time- how else can we experience and appreciate true happiness if we don't feel sadness once in a while.
Neri Ann Narvaez (Tuesday, 27 September 2016 02:02)
I so love this movie! I am teary eyed on the part of Bing Bong. The movie depicts that its ok to feel sadness to make way for the learning's that we can learn and after that we can truly appreciate happiness.
Madz | Mommy N' More (Wednesday, 23 August 2017 22:48)
I love this movie. It is the first animated film I've watched that gives life to emotions. I think it's really important that kids these days be in touch with their emotions instead of escaping reality through video games and social media. I also love that it showed how Sadness plays a vital role in our lives. It is not something we need to overcome but just experience. Feelings are not bad, they're there cause we're human.