Share this story:
By Kai
Pixar and Walt Disney pictures have released movies in the past that have been encoded with big life lessons, some so brutal that some would rather not talk about them. This is why today I’m going to talk to you about Inside Out.
This movie is about an 11 year old hockey-loving girl named Riley and 5 emotions named Fear, Disgust, Anger, Sadness, and Joy who live inside her brain (or Headquarters), and control what she feels. Riley’s life is filled with nothing but happiness, until one day, she and her parents move to San Francisco. When the emotions try to help Riley through this tough time, Sadness begins to act strange and becomes uncontrollable. Joy tries to hold back Sadness, but gets the both of them thrown to the far reaches of her mind, far from headquarters, leaving only Fear, Disgust and Anger in charge of Riley’s emotions.
Assuming from Riley’s age, this movie is probably targeted at kids entering puberty, and what I really like about this movie is the creative and simple way it goes about explaining the emotional changes that occur at this state in life. To add, it does a really good job of covering most of the emotional spectrum with only five certain emotions in the film. On the downside, I feel that the way the 5 emotions in the movie act is portrayed by today’s society, meaning that these 5 “emotions” are merely stereotypes from today’s world. For example, Fear is based on fears in the current world, such as fears of spiders or the simple thought of not doing an action simply because you are too afraid that things won’t go the way you think they will. Also, children won’t realize the fact from watching this movie that you can feel certain emotions in different ways.
To top this all off, I would recommend this movie to anyone going through puberty. Secondly, I also feel that the life lesson of accepting other emotions is very important to everyone, because everyone can feel that a life filled with nothing but happiness is the best life, but in reality, it’s not. For example, in advertisements everywhere, you see people going to island resorts or shopping for cars, and they always seem to be smiling and happy. This can make people think that feeling other emotions such as sadness or fear is in a way, wrong.