After just having gotten back from the movie theater, here are my thoughts after having seen Inside Out. I really liked it!
What the film is I believe, is a very clever commentary/metaphor on the way a person's mind, emotions, and memories work, along with how they all interact.
Our story begins literally moments after a girl named Riley is born and inside her brain, an entity called Joy appears. Joy is what her name implies, Riley's happiness and it's her job to keep Riley happy which shouldn't be hard since she's the only emotion around . . . for about 32 seconds as another one named Sadness manifests. As Riley grows older she also gains Disgust, Anger, and Fear. All the emotions have aspects of Riley they have to look after with Joy being the senior emotion and leader. She can see the use of all the emotions . . . except for Sadness that is. Joy just can't see what use Sadness is, all she does is bring everything down, she's just a killjoy (pun fully intended.) So Joy tries to make sure Sadness has as little to do as possible.
Throughout her life, Riley's memories have mostly been happy, but Joy's job get's kind of hard when Riley's family moves and there doesn't seem to be a lot to be happy about. Things go awry when Sadness touches a memory (which are stored in little orbs) and it suddenly turns from happy to sad. In a series of events, Joy and Sadness end up getting lost in the various aspects of Riley's mind and have to find their way back to the central headquarters. Meanwhile the other emotions try to manage things as best they can with (very) limited success. Throughout their journey, Joy comes to see that Sadness actually does have value to Riley (as she finds that her usual methods of cheering people up sometimes don't work). All of this leads to some very heartwarming and tearjerker moments as they journey through Riley's mind and we are treated to a very unique and interesting display of how a mind works.
One of the best things about this story is how well it works. The concept is not too original, but much like Pixar's best work, their execution is brilliant. And the ultimate message, of the importance for times to grieve and adjust, and the potential for grief to turn into joy, is a very good message.
All in all, Pixar hits another one out of the park. Go to see it, you won't regret it.
A Good Concept with a Great Execution
After just having gotten back from the movie theater, here are my thoughts after having seen Inside Out. I really liked it!
What the film is I believe, is a very clever commentary/metaphor on the way a person's mind, emotions, and memories work, along with how they all interact.
Our story begins literally moments after a girl named Riley is born and inside her brain, an entity called Joy appears. Joy is what her name implies, Riley's happiness and it's her job to keep Riley happy which shouldn't be hard since she's the only emotion around . . . for about 32 seconds as another one named Sadness manifests. As Riley grows older she also gains Disgust, Anger, and Fear. All the emotions have aspects of Riley they have to look after with Joy being the senior emotion and leader. She can see the use of all the emotions . . . except for Sadness that is. Joy just can't see what use Sadness is, all she does is bring everything down, she's just a killjoy (pun fully intended.) So Joy tries to make sure Sadness has as little to do as possible.
Throughout her life, Riley's memories have mostly been happy, but Joy's job get's kind of hard when Riley's family moves and there doesn't seem to be a lot to be happy about. Things go awry when Sadness touches a memory (which are stored in little orbs) and it suddenly turns from happy to sad. In a series of events, Joy and Sadness end up getting lost in the various aspects of Riley's mind and have to find their way back to the central headquarters. Meanwhile the other emotions try to manage things as best they can with (very) limited success. Throughout their journey, Joy comes to see that Sadness actually does have value to Riley (as she finds that her usual methods of cheering people up sometimes don't work). All of this leads to some very heartwarming and tearjerker moments as they journey through Riley's mind and we are treated to a very unique and interesting display of how a mind works.
One of the best things about this story is how well it works. The concept is not too original, but much like Pixar's best work, their execution is brilliant. And the ultimate message, of the importance for times to grieve and adjust, and the potential for grief to turn into joy, is a very good message.
All in all, Pixar hits another one out of the park. Go to see it, you won't regret it.