Inside Out

Hmm... I'm not sure exactly. I guess in retrospect the coming-of-age themes were quite adult. I guess it was an overall impression, but thinking on it harder I guess there are some things that would go over kids' heads.

I consider it a "kiddy" movie just because the conflict was so mild. There was no antagonist and the worst that could've potentially happened was the emotions falling into the mind-erasing pit thingy (which ends up actually happening, of course) and Riley running away, the exact consequences of which are left incredibly vague.

So really, nothing too scary or child-unfriendly happens or is even hinted to happen in the movie, which makes it seem like the whole premise was softened up for little kids. All the parts that can only be appreciated by adults are non-essential to understanding the story.

edited 28th Jun '15 10:21:02 PM by spashthebandragon

It's specifically set at a time of being a kid and has a lesson about the transition from being a child to growing up, but it can be appreciated by anyone who remembers being a kid or sympathizes with the parents in trying to understand their kid.

Well, it does make sense for a movie about a relatable kid to be geared towards kids. It's not like that's a bad thing.

edited 28th Jun '15 10:58:55 PM by spashthebandragon

Do you consider any work where the major conflict is internal rather than external to be too "kiddy"? Personally, I'm inclined to say the reverse is more correct, though that would be just as much of a blanket statement as what you seem to be implying. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in assuming this, though.

Honestly, it seems to me that you're taking this movie too much at face value, looking at it far too literally.

edited 29th Jun '15 1:27:40 AM by Odd1

Does nobody understand the concept of BASIC EMOTIONS?

Seriously, try to name an emotion (and only emotions, too, not things like "love" that would probably be islands or some shit) that isn't a combined or exaggerated or downplayed version of those 5.

Sorry this makes me mad.

Edit: Someone already linked that flickr pic. Props, that's exactly what I meant to say.

edited 29th Jun '15 1:57:06 AM by SmartGirl333

It's alright, Lewis Black.

The thing is, for the characters involved, the conflict isn't mild. From the perspective of Joy and the other emotions, Riley and Riley's happiness is their whole world, and everything that has the potential to change Riley for the worse is a Very Big Deal, akin to a potential apocalypse.

And at any rate, I don't consider the stakes or the lack of an antagonist to be indicative of childishness. If anything, it is much, much easier and more simplistic to write a conflict where a villain is responsible for all that goes wrong, and must be defeated in order to restore order.

edited 29th Jun '15 7:18:03 AM by DrDougsh

So the "kiddy" movie part is not a debate just here.

Here you go. The guy is the head of the cultural section of one of France's biggest newspapers (the biggest nationalwide one, actually).

It translates as "Flabbergasted by the number of childless adults who go watching #Inside Out. Infantilization of our society."

Needless to say, he got answered with many pictures from Grave Of The Fireflies.

I saw it Saturday morning with my wife and a friend/co-worker of hers. The theater was about an even mix of adults and kids of all ages. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house by the time it was over...I certainly got misty at Joy's breakdown and Bing-Bong's final scene.

I loved IO and, for me, it's in the top 3 of Pixar's output to date along with Up and TS 3. Lava, on the other hand, was the first short that I've been completely meh about...the animation was excellent, but the song was just alright and the overall concept didn't click with me at all.

Infantilization of our society

I'm sure they'll get off your damn lawn if you keep yelling at them, Pops.

That's not what I said. I said it's kiddy because the conflict is mild. There was never a point where Riley was gonna kill herself or cut herself or spiral into a drug-filled depression. All that happened was Riley moved to a new home, got homesick, almost ran away but didn't, then confessed her negative feelings to her parents.

As a general rule of thumb, if it could be the plot of a typical Barney the Dinosaur episode, it's kiddy.

And, again, that's not a bad thing. I don't have an issue with the movie being kiddy at all. I just think the mild real-world conflict made it seem too emotionally stilted to me. Like, "Oh, Riley's upset, but it's not actually a big deal or anything, so don't get too worked up about it, audience." Which ultimately led to me liking the emotion-world portions a whole lot more than the real-world portions.

Like I said before, I thought the middle of the movie was the best part, and then the ending was kinda meh - which is because that's when the focus shifted from the emotions back to Riley.

There was never a point where Riley was gonna kill herself or cut herself or spiral into a drug-filled depression.

Of course, running away can actually lead to many horrible things happening to children along their way.

edited 29th Jun '15 8:50:27 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

Love would only be an island if that's what the filmmakers decided. The exact rules of the emotion-world are completely arbitrary, and I think the restriction of only five emotions had more to do with them wanting to avoid Loads And Loads Of Characters (which I think is a shame because the movie really misses out on jokes along these lines). I mean, we DO know they nixxed Surprise and just combined his/her role with Fear's.

But, like I said, the film leaves the exact consequences of running away super vague, which is the perfect example of how the movie feels "softened up" for kids. Running away is only scary if you're mature enough to grasp the ramifications of it, whereas cutting yourself or something would obviously be incredibly family-unfriendly. Heck, I thought the movie would at least have the police go looking for Riley, but it doesn't even go that far (probably because the movie was almost over and there was no time for a pointless subplot just to up the stakes).

Isn't 'running away is bad and dangerous' something all kids old enough to understand the movie should already know anyway? I don't think there's much of a need to harp on it, especially since the 'outside' plot is only the framing narrative support for what happens inside of Riley.

Well, I still think the "running away" climax sucked big time, so I will continue to harp on it. So much wasted potential...

I agree with your criticisms regarding that scene, and I also think it could've been better, but how would you do it if you were in charge?

Hmm... Off the top of my head, I would've had Riley interact more with her classmates during the school scenes. We get a couple reactions from them when Riley starts to cry in the middle of class, but I feel like that's something the movie didn't elaborate on enough. They could've had some of the kids be obnoxious and laugh at her for crying (Little kids tend to be horrible people), and then later some of them could try and befriend Riley because of the crying, which would tie in with the moral about how Sadness is necessary, like when Sadness consoled Bing Bong.

I'm not sure what I would've done for the climax. If I'd have kept Riley running away, I at least would've had her be missing long enough for her parents to freak out and have the police be searching for her. Maybe I'd have even let Riley get all the way back to her old house only to realize it's empty now because she's there all alone. Then she could get super scared and maybe bump into some creep who would be implied to maybe harm/abduct her and a police officer would intervene at the last second (or Riley could just call the police herself).

The problem with that is that it'd take a lot of focus away from the emotion-world, which I considered the superior part of the movie. So... either the movie would have to be longer, or I could go the other direction and have Riley's screentime cut dramatically and the climax could just be her getting depressed and curling up into a fetal position on her bed and refusing to go to school, and then the ending of the movie (after Joy and Sadness are back) could have a quick scene of Riley visiting a therapist.

I don't know. I'm just spitballing here. All I know is I wanted something more cathartic than "I'm running away WAIT NO CHANGED MY MIND I'm not running away!"

edited 29th Jun '15 9:54:13 AM by spashthebandragon

Disney, which also means Pixar, likes to simplify plots as much as possible for their animated movies. If Riley had a more involved adventure, that would mean there'd be 2 adventures the audience would need to keep track of, and they decided that the emotions' adventure would be the sole focus instead. I agree that it prevented Riley's adventure to be cut short though.

Oh yeah, also I'd have had the parents divorce. The move to San Francisco could've been prompted by Riley having to choose which parent to live with. That's something that really does happen to children, so I think it could've made the story more dramatic and exciting without getting too out-there.

The tricky thing with divorce is that, while barely ever used in animation, it's otherwise a rather overused angst plot device for young characters across mass media.

Personally, I'd have made the parents less stereotypical.

I'm still leery of any plot device that might've further cluttered up the "outside" story. The movie's pretty jam-packed as it is.

Not being snarky, but out of genuine curiosity, how many movies do you know off the top of your head that use divorce as an "angst plot device?" Maybe I just don't watch that many of those types of movies, but I really can't think of any examples.

Anyways, the divorce doesn't have to be the main conflict. It would just be a more dramatic and upsetting reason to move to San Fransico than "something vague involving Riley's dad's job."

edited 29th Jun '15 12:47:43 PM by spashthebandragon

The reason they leave the consequences of running away vague is that:

It's.

Animated.

And animation is thought to be for kids, and do you think the Moral Guardians would allow the real consequences to be seen by kids?

edited 29th Jun '15 2:26:40 PM by SmartGirl333

I don't think you could have those consequences in a PG film!