Accidental Innuendo: If Sadness telling Joy that being dragged around by her foot "feels kind of nice" wasn't fertile enough for the coarse-minded, the way she drops to the ground and sighs "I'm ready" sounds an awful lot like something sensual.
The peeks into everyone else's emotions, which are all drastically flawed in some way, could be interpreted as "nobody is perfect" and/or "everyone has feelings".
Teamwork is important; don't take all of the duties, responsibilities and especially glory upon yourself, otherwise the other members of the team may never learn how to handle things without you and will also feel unappreciated. Sadness leads the Emotions in Riley's mother, but they all work together rather than her dominating every decision; Joy completely ran the show in Riley's head, so Sadness doesn't feel she can speak up even when she knows that she should be in control, and when Joy isn't there the remaining Emotions attempt to emulate her and fail miserably, don't know how to properly function without her and nearly end up destroying everything.
Riley having two male emotions when most people in the movie have all of their emotions match their gender has sparked a lot of theories from fans. Some people interpret this as Riley being genderfluid, non binary or LGBT+, while others believe it reflects her being a tomboy, among other guesses. One answer is that the emotions eventually reflect the person they are a part of as they develop, though seeing as others are shown to have genders differing from the human they're in, and others, including Word of God, state that it means nothing at all and is as random as any childbirth.
Some fans theorize the real reason that Bing Bong is never so much as mentioned again after his disappearance is that he was even erased from the emotions' memories. After all, Riley wouldn't have any more feelings about him. Then again Joy remembers her promise to him after he fades, so this may be unlikely. And if an official Halloween poster on the Disney website can be counted as canon, he's still alive and celebrates the holidays with them.
Joy is portrayed as genuinely wanting what's best for Riley, but perhaps not incidentally views herself having the prominent role out of the emotions, controlling Riley the most and creating most of her memories, as being what's best for her. The other emotions acknowledge the importance of Joy doing her job (indeed, when they are sucked out of headquarters, Sadness expresses the need for Joy to get back) yet Joy's reaction to seeing a core memory that's not one of hers is to eject it and try to throw it away. It's an open question as to how much Joy's insistence that being happy is what's best for Riley is based on her own feelings of self importance. And Joy's insistence on controlling Riley's actions and the way she imitates Riley skating suggest she might be trying to live through Riley.
The film did very poorly in China compared to the rest of the world, where it only made $12 million on its opening weekend and a mere $3 million for the rest of its run. For frame of reference, the next effort to release a Pixar film in China - specifically, Finding Dory - made over $17 million in its first three days, and nearly doubled the total gross of Inside Out by the end of its second weekend.
Despite being popular at the Cannes film festival in the country, the film also failed in France because it was overshadowed by Minions as well as the locally produced One Wild Moment.
The film failed to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, despite being one of the best reviewed films of 2015. The Academy seems to have something of a bias when it comes to animated films. The film was also ignored in the Original Score category. It did get a Best Original Screenplay nomination, but lost to Spotlight.
The film was nominated for "Favorite Animated Movie" in the 2016 Kids Choice Awards, but surprisingly lost to the critically-skewered Hotel Transylvania 2, a movie that's part of a franchise that's both extremely popular with children and has excellent performance at the box office to the point of beating any competitors that come it's way, like how the third movie outgrossed a film based on a popular cartoon among the same demographic. The snub was somewhat pacified by Amy Poehler winning the "Favorite Voice in an Animated Movie" award for her role as Joy.
Better on DVD: Fans who hate Lava likely appreciate the fact that the home media releases don't automatically play it before the movie (like all non-VHS releases of Pixar movies that originally began with Pixar-produced shorts).
Joy. Depending on who you ask, she's either one of the worst Pixar protagonists or one of the best. Common reasons for the debate around her are the way she treated Sadness and generally how she seems to be hogging attention 24/7, whether or not her personality is endearing or annoying and whether her character arc is well-written or somewhat forced.
Sadness, too. Plenty of people love her for her Moe appeal and generally for providing the movie's message, others hate her for essentially causing the entire conflict by refusing to follow Joy's orders, ignoring that she had no choice in the matter.
Bing Bong is either yet another unnecessary comic relief, whose presence in the movie is somewhat convoluted and his death scene being so on-the-nose that it qualifies as Narm, others were more willing to relate to his desire to play with Riley again, which understandably leads to his death being an absolute Tear Jerker.
Anger is also divisive. Plenty of viewers love the voice performance of Lewis Black and appreciate him being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, others couldn't get behind his Never My Fault attitude as he drags Fear and Disgust into the mess, even though running away was his idea.
Broken Aesop: Do not stuff your feelings... only, it's heavily implied that the emotion creatures are what makes Riley feel the feelings (e.g. Fear pushes a button, and that makes Riley afraid). So Sadness not doing her job should logically not be equivalent to Riley not letting herself be sad, but rather Riley not being able to be sad.
Bing Bong is never mentioned again after he fades away. Though no one thinks that's a bad direction to take, people are split on whether or not the movie should have referenced him in some way instead of just moving on entirely.
The complaints of both Disney and Pixar not being inventive with female character designs compared to male characters have also been applied to this film. Namely, the male emotions, Fear and Anger, have unique and alien designs while the female emotions, Joy, Sadness and Disgust, have the same "round face with a small nose" design and, if not for their colors, could pass for human characters. It has led to people criticizing the animators, with some finding it lazy or outright sexist, while others see it as not a big deal. Though most of the complaints faded away after the teaser trailer to Inside Out 2 introduced new female emotion Anxiety, who has a heavily exaggerated, muppet-like design more similar to the design philosophy that Fear and Anger follow.
Common Knowledge: Despite what some fans assume, Riley and Jordan are not dating or in a relationship. It is implied that Jordan has a crush on Riley, but it's not confirmed if Riley returns it. The short film — Riley's First Date — does have Riley's parents assume that the two are dating, but Riley outright says that they're not and are just going out as friends.
Crossover Ship: A lot of folk have been seen pairing off Riley with Hiro from Big Hero 6 due to both movies being set in San Francisconote Though, the San Francisco seen in Big Hero 6 is a fictional city mixed with Tokyo. The shipping usually boils down to Hiro telling Riley that San Francisco is a good town to live in, or giving her a tour of the city.
There's also some people shipping Riley/Miguel, since both are kid characters in Pixar movies that came out within two years of each other. Doubles as a Toy Ship, since both are only 12 years old.
Crosses the Line Twice: Sadness talking about the "funny movie where the dog dies". Double for when Joy desperately brings it up to try to cheer her up. This goes even further in at least one foreign dub, where it's "the movie where the lion's father dies."
Death of the Author: Despite Word of God saying an emotion's gender has no impact on the person it belongs to, some people still insist an emotion's gender is important, particularly in regards to Riley.
For a character who was cut from the story, Gloom gets quite a bit of attention, which is mostly fan art depicting various designs of what the character may look like. In case you're wondering, Gloom was the potential Big Bad for the film. But his/her/its exclusion resulted in its No Antagonist status.
The popular girl with Fear as her leading emotion in the credits. Her obvious insecurities made her sympathetic for some viewers. In one fanfic in particular. she's actually an Ascended Extra and is one of Riley's best friends.
Take every single person, real or fictional, who has ever existed ever in the history of human kind (or even O.C. Stand-in, your own Original Character, or, really, just yourself); what might their versions of the five emotions be like? Doubles as an Obvious Crossover Method.
Now that Riley's control panel has a puberty alarm, what adventures will come about when it goes off and kickstarts this stage of Riley's life?
The way one person's Emotions might behave so differently to another person's Emotions, and have a different leader.
Riley joining NASA when she grows up, due to the line, "Take her to the moon for me... okay?", said by Bing Bong, just as he dies. The idea is that Joy will honor the request and campaigns for it as an eventual goal.
Riley being genderfluid for having both male and female emotions, though in the credits this is shown to apply to at least one other person (and Riley's First Date? shows Jordan to have a female Sadness and Disgust), and those emotions were that way at her birth anyway.
Riley's mother and father having Sadness and Anger as their respective leading emotions has led to speculation that, at some point in the past, the mother suffered from depression while the father suffered from anger issues.
Some like the idea that Riley has a sixth emotion, with the issue of other characters only having five being hand-waved as the sixth emotion either disappearing or quitting once Riley reaches a certain stage in her life (usually finishing puberty). Love/Romance is the most popular option, the character is usually pink and heartshaped note much like the other emotions are formed after the shapes most associated with them. Some also like the idea of "Love" being out of reach for the other emotions, to hilarious results.
With Steven Universe fans on Tumblr. Fans have a lot of fun with the idea of emotions "fusing" the way that gems do, and thus creating more complex emotions. The two shows also have some character types (Hot-Blooded Anger and Ruby) and general themes (exploring emotions in an open and compassionate way) in common. And then there's this crossover comic.
The Inside Out fandom also naturally gets along rather well with other Disney/Pixar fandoms, the Frozen (2013) fandom being a particular example.
Soul is likely the Pixar movie that the Inside Out fandom got the closest with, since both movies heavily feature psychological and philosophical concepts. Some even thought of ideas for a Crossover between the two movies, and made theories to connect them together. Adding to this is how Soul was originally set to be released exactly 5 years to the day that Inside Out was, and features the same director/co-writer (Pete Docter).
With Turning Red due to both films being about about young protagonists dealing with emotions.
Many fans of the film are also fans of Five Nights at Freddy's. There has been some crossover art between the two.
Some people in both the Inside Out and Winnie the Pooh fandoms feel that Bing Bong looks like he would fit in perfectly with the other characters in the franchise. Most fans seem to pair him with Tigger. Bing Bong fans also seem to get along with Magic Adventures of Mumfie fans due to the two characters' similarities, as well as Yo Kai Watch since Bing Bong is sort of like the Yo-Kai in the show since he's imaginary and can only be seen by one person. There's also some fans of VeggieTales who pair Bing Bong up with Larry-Boy. Also Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, for obvious reasons.
To a lesser extent, some Inside Out fans also like the Trolls franchise, which also used similar expressions when it came to emotional changes and metaphysical depictions. Most of them don't have a habit of crossovering them, though.
Genius Bonus: At one point, Riley dreams that her teeth are falling out. A common dream interpretation for teeth falling out is fear of aging/maturing or becoming less efficient or productive. In other words, it would point to the loss of your means to fully bite into life, to break down what life brings you.
Gotta Ship 'Em All: Before the movie had even been released yet, already some people were shipping the emotions together.
Joy/Disgust has some traction as well, possibly due to the 5 Second Rule TV short. It's like all we need to do is wait for Joy to be shipped with Bing Bong and Riley and she could very well be a Launcher of a Thousand Ships.
Sadness/Bing Bong seems to be getting attention.
Fear/Disgust is pretty well-liked, especially on Tumblr.
When Bing Bong is dragged into the Subconscious, he tries to bribe the guards with candy. Well, there turned out to be something inside that liked his candy alright...
Metafilter user Blazecock Pileon's comment on a video where kids did a prank involving Toy Story 3 to their parents mentions the fact that he thought that Woody would sacrifice himself in the incinerator. Five years after the release of the film, Pixar would do the exact same thing with Bing Bong.
Joy's attitude towards staying cheerful at all cost, the emotions having to save Riley from depression, and Sadness' brief contemplation of Driven to Suicide in the novelization hits harder with the death of Joy's Japanese voice actress, Yuko Takeuchi, in an apparent suicide brought on by postpartum depression. She was described in the media and by acquaintances as the epitome of the Yamato Nadeshiko and a driven, optimistic, and successful person.
When Joy, Sadness and Bing Bong enter Abstract Thought where they start changing shapes and getting their limbs scrambled, Bing Bong comically begins with losing his left arm. The next time he notices the same arm disappearing, it's in the memory dump where he's about to be forgotten by Riley forever.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: Kyle MacLachlan's performance as Riley's father is even sweeter given that his big role immediately preceding this film's release was a heartbreakingly tragic villain who was desperate to connect with his long-lost daughter on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. It's possible to see this film as poor old Cal getting his happy ending after all.
Phyllis Smith garnered a lot of praise for her work as Sadness; before then, she was mostly known for her supporting role on The Office (US) which didn't ask a lot of her. Critics and audiences were very surprised to hear her give a sincerely emotional performance.
Amy Poehler is mostly known for her comedy skills, but she displays some fine dramatic chops in the Memory Dump scene.
Richard Kind is also a more comedic actor, known for his roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Co-Op the Musical - but the Memory Dump scene, especially Bing Bong's sacrifice, showed off a whole other side of his acting abilities.
Props have to be given to Kaitlyn Dias (the voice of Riley) when she breaks down in the hug scene. The same can be said for Diane Lane (Riley's Mom) and Kyle MacLachlan (Riley's Father).
Bing Bong hopes Joy and Sadness get Riley to remember him when they ascend, and sacrifices himself for her good. In a way, he wants them to witness him. There's even a mashup on Tumblr.
The conversation between Fear, Disgust and Anger about whether or not there are bears in San Francisco? The movie's story artist Daniel Chong had something to say about that a mere month later.
In one of his routines, Lewis Black complains that a newspaper describing his routines as often including "mental breakdowns" makes it sound like they were marketing his show to the mentally disturbed. He then proceeds to pretend to be a crazy person arguing with the multiple voices in his head over whether or not to see the show. In this movie, Lewis Black is one of the voices in someone's head, and he argues plenty with the other voices about what Riley ought to do in situations. Bonus points for having him frequently reading newspapers.
In How It Should Have Ended's take on the film, Bing Bong seems to act meaner than he does in the actual movie, even insulting Joy at one point. One of the Deleted Scenes revealed to the public showed a Bing Bong whom acted exactly similar telling Joy to throw a brick at mind workers.
Not quite as noticeable, but the previous year saw DreamWorks Animation release Mr. Peabody & Sherman. The dog's Sadness in the Creative Closing Credits wears glasses that makes it resemble Mr. Peabody's face if it were blue. Also, the dog's Fear wears a bowtie that also reminds one of Peabody.
This educational short film was made using Renderman, the software Pixar uses in all of its movies, in 1994. It concerns how to turn a sphere inside-out. Its title? Outside In.
Iron Woobie: Riley's parents, judging by the emotions that serve as the "leaders" in their minds. Her mother's is Sadness, which implies that she is worried about the state of their family and the big adjustment with the move. Her father's is Anger, which implies that he is under a lot of stress, as seen with the constant phone calls and the fact that he really doesn't know how the family is going to get by. It's a credit to their parenting that they don't drag Riley into their problems.
Les Yay: A fair amount between Joy and Sadness. And then there is this piece from the novelization:
Joy: Sadness smiled at me and took my hand. She led me over to the console and placed my hand next to hers, so we could drive together... I rested my head on Sadness, and we both smiled.
Vincent van Gogh said, "Let us not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it." If only he lived a century-and-a-half later than he did...
There have been several earlier works where different aspects of the human mind are portrayed as anthropomorphic characters:
The whole premise of Inside Out is quite similar to the semi-obscure early 90s sitcom Herman's Head.
In this animated short (made by French digital art students), the characters are more like functions of the brain (control center, vocal chords, memory, curiosity, emotions, reason, judgment).
The concept of emotions as personified beings was also featured in The Fairly Oddparents episode "Emotion Commotion", which also stressed the concept of having emotions to get through life, a concept also crucial to Inside Out's plot development. An earlier episode Tiny Timmy had Timmy discovering that Vicky's brain has tiny people controlling her emotions through control panels in front of a monitor that shows Vicky's optimal vision.
On that note, some elements from Warner Bros.'s Osmosis Jones, including dreams being movies in the body and whatnot, were suspiciously similar to some things in Inside Out. The Nostalgia Critic based much of his review of Osmosis Jones (which came out not too long after Inside Out was released) off of these comparisons.
The brain as a control center full of monitors is also explored in the French-Japanese-Swiss-Italian animated television series Il Était Une Fois....
British comic The Beano has characters called The Numskulls, which were little people inside a boy's head and controlling his thoughts and movements. The Numskulls first started in another British comic The Beezer in 1962 before moving to The Beano in 1992.
An indie cartoon that came out in 2013, called "Brain Divided" dealt with the same concept.
The SMG4 episode "%99% beroken" has Mario going crazy and later getting transported inside his head, discovering his mind is made of Teletubbies working with a control panel.
Riley's depression is both this and tearjerking, especially how very grounded and serious it is when we see it from the outside. Riley isn't just unable to feel Joy, she's also unable to feel Sadness, and as a result all she is Angry, Disgusted and Afraid (Fear). By the end of it, her mind has been shut down and she can't even feel those. We get a good look at her expression by the end, and she just looks... dead.
In a way, the simple fact that her depression doesn't have an embodiment like everything else. There's no Big Bad force of evil... just her mental world slowly crumbling apart and falling into the pit of forgotten memories, with all of her remaining emotions losing any influence. The lack of a face to put all this with makes it all the more terrifying.
Riley nearly ends up running away, and it's scary to see her parents in what might have been the beginning of a horror story as they fail to track her down and frantically try to remember what she was wearing when they saw her last.
Gloom has an Ensemble Dark Horse entry for a reason. Most of the depictions of the character tend to lean closely towards the original concept; a large male figure with dark sunglasses and a suit, usually stylized after a black stormcloud. They are Sadness' Evil Counterpart more often than not.
Hope is a character that people have latched onto, mostly to fill the lack of an orange emotionnote Though Inside Out 2 would eventually introduce an orange emotion named Anxiety. She's Always Female and often stylized after a firefly, usually acting as a Foil and moderator to Joy and Sadness, being more realistic than Joy while more idealistic than Sadness.
Surprise is less popular the other scrapped emotions, but gets recognition for being Adapted Out from the original Six Basic Emotions. Her color is often pink and she's often made to be the Distaff Counterpart to Fear.
Ron the Death Eater: Some fans have a tendency to exaggerate exactly how selfish, cruel and dictatorial Joy is. While Joy's control over Riley is suggested to be at times unhealthy and she's pretty thoughtless and dismissive towards Sadness, it is made clear at several points that Joy genuinely cares for Riley and believes that keeping her happy is best for everyone. Her actions are not motivated out of malice but from a well-meaning and sincere misunderstanding of what is best for Riley, and while her treatment of Sadness is not exactly nice all of the time she's not nearly as cruel and bullying as these fans tend to make out. Furthermore, the whole point of the story is Joy coming to realise why Sadness is necessary and learning to defer to her when Riley needs her to, and her Character Development clearly builds to this point.
Tear Dryer: When Joy finally steps aside and lets Sadness take control, Riley pours her heart out to her parents about how she really feels about the move and missing everything they left behind in Minnesota. Afterwards, Sadness brings Joy back in, and Riley breathes easy as a new core memory is formed.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Minor, but still notable is that some viewers thought Disgust was underutilized. While she has a strong personality and a good number of quotable moments, she isn't nearly as involved in the subplot as Anger and Fear are.
Tough Act to Follow: While the film itself was a great success that was viewed as a great step, Pixar's best in a long while, the film ended up doing this to The Good Dinosaur, whose Troubled Production resulted in it being released shortly after Inside Out was, and it was inevitably viewed as a disappointment in comparison by both critics and the public.
Trailer Joke Decay: Try to find a trailer or TV spot that doesn't show the 'brain freeze' gag.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Baby Riley is designed in an extremely realistic manner, which can look unsettling if you're more used to cartoonishly-proportioned baby characters like Jack-Jack.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The emotions have detailed, extremely fluid movements and effects. It's quite the accomplishment that those can then be put in sequences as expressive and stretchy as a Looney Tunes short without sacrificing quality.
Win Back the Crowd: This seems to have been Pixar's attempt to do so after they had to put one already-in-troublemovie on hold to beef up this one out of fear of continuing their streak of less-belovedfilms. Judging by the critical and box office success, it worked!
Riley. The poor kid has the misfortune to be uprooted from her home, her friends and everything that she loved at an especially turbulent time of her life, and it takes her a while to come around to admitting how bad she feels.
Sadness seems to be made for this. A small pudgy girl with huge glasses and a turtleneck sweater and big, sad, blue Puppy-Dog Eyes; you just want to give her a hug.
Bing Bong, Riley's imaginary friend. The guy was all but forgotten by Riley, but not once does he hold anything against her. And to top it off, he ends up performing a Heroic Sacrifice, with no Disney Death in sight.
Fear. Not only is the poor guy afraid of his own shadow, but he suffers more physical abuse than any other emotion in the movie.
◊ as a response. At least one other crossover fanart also exists.
