Reviews WesternAnimation / Inside Out

An Emotional Masterpiece That Pulls No Punches

Inside Out is wonderful. Let's get that right out of the gate.

This is perhaps one of Pixar's first films that deals with an uncomfortable part of life: depression. How do you go around showing depression without it being offensive? Just give the straight truth. The people who don't understand will most likely understand, and the ones who do will be ecstatic that there is a good film that represents their plight well.

As a person who has dealt with depression for most of their life, I can say that Inside Out is accurate in its portrayal. Although it (usually) isn't as severe as outright having all joy disappear, their is a certain disconnect. It often happens that it becomes hard for me to understand a situation, know when to slow down in public. You also get radical ideas that won't leave you, such as Riley's idea to go back to Minnesota, or my occasional (and always discarded) idea of suicide (which I could never do, because my family would be devestated).

I also have extremely low self-esteem and self-worth, which I believe comes through in Riley's belief that only going back to Minnesota will make her somehow better. This is healed (if only it were always that easy...) when she lets her emotions show to her parents, who comfort her and let her know that she is not alone, bettering her view of herself.

I don't know when I first got depression (it's kindof like sleep: you can't keep track of when it comes on you), but there are sometimes things I nearly reject out of bursts of anger - like my friends in robotics, or my brother - which happens because of one bad day. And that brings me to the next point: difficulty of emotional control.

When Riley loses Joy and Sadness, she obviously starts to show trouble, like at dinner with mom and dad. And it's not because she means to. It's because it becomes difficult to process the emotions that are coming, and you've mostly lost the ability to express any in the form of happiness and sorrow, so (almost) no more joy or the ability to say what's bothering you, for fear that people will reject you.

In my opinion, Inside Out is perhaps the greatest showing of the process of depression in cinema. It doesn't try to hide things "for the kids", and it well represents what happens to a person. And no naysayer will change this mind.