Heartwarming / Inside Out

Heartwarming pages are for post-viewing discussion; they assume you've already seen the work in question and as such are spoiler-free.

Between The Power of Love and two emotions.

---

• Riley's birth, especially since she looks so realistic! This Tumblr post compares baby Riley to the Tin Toy baby, commenting on how much Pixar has grown a beard since then.
  • Just look at baby Riley. So cute! Aww... the lighting of the scene is also very soft and sweet.
• Joy's entire goal is making Riley happy.
  • All the emotions, really; their whole existence is centered around taking care of this one little girl, and everything they do is directed to that end. Even though Anger, Disgust, Fear or Sadness don't make Riley literally happy, their entire being revolves on keeping her well, physically and mentally.
• The whole sequence at the beginning showing Riley's happy childhood.
• More cute than heartwarming, but the Emotions' wide-eyed wonder at the "airplane" is too adorable. Especially Sadness.
• When Riley scores her first hockey goal and her emotions cheer, even Sadness is smiling.
• After the disgruntling news about the moving van, Riley (and Fear) notices her parents stressfully arguing. So Joy inserts an idea, encouraging Riley to do an impromptu hockey game which defuses the stress and cheers up her parents for the time being.
• When Sadness realizes that, if Joy isn't in headquarters, then Riley can't be happy. Her saying, "We've gotta get you back up there!", implies that Sadness also wants Riley to be happy, and she cares more about Joy making it back than her herself.
• After Riley's first day in San Francisco goes by rather poorly, she falls asleep and ends up having a bad dream that shows how awful her first impression of the city is like. Joy doesn't want to end the day on a sour note, so she recalls a pleasant memory of Riley and her parents ice skating back in Minnesota. Joy herself admits that she is not supposed to do that, and it becomes clear later that this has prevented Riley from processing these changes, but Joy's intentions are good and she doesn't want Riley to be unhappy. The way Joy mimics Riley’s skating as the film’s theme plays in the background is beautiful and sweet. Joy then promises to make tomorrow a great day as Riley sleeps with a smile.
• Fact of the matter is, Joy is a Control Freak. But rather than insist that the other emotions let her do everything, she finds a way for all of them to work their strengths (with the exception being Sadness, on the justifiable grounds that Joy has no idea what she can do). On the first day at school in San Francisco, she doesn't say "Let me handle the console", she says "Fear, we need to see problems coming. Disgust, we need to look good. Anger, we're going to need a lot of daydreams. Sadness, please don't mess with the memories like you did yesterday. That leaves me with the console."
• The way Riley's new teacher very gently and non-judgmentally empathizes with Riley's sadness in class.
  • Her classmates don't say anything, but they look at her with concern, even the popular girls that most would expect to make fun of her.
  • "Cool girls whispering!" "They're judging us!" In reality, they don't look like they're amused or annoyed - they just look sad for Riley, probably wondering if she's okay.
• There is something heartwarming when Riley's parents' emotions are shown during the dinner scene. Bill's emotions are led not by Joy, but Anger. As for Jill? They are led by Sadness. Up to this point, Sadness still functions as The Woobie, someone whose purpose isn't known by anyone, even herself. But here, we see Jill's Sadness in control of the console, dictating instructions to Joy, who willingly (and diligently, like she's already used to the role) execute it, something that is unthinkable to happen in Riley's case at first. She also has an air of authority and seems to act as the Team Mom of the emotions, a far cry from Riley's Sadness' Shrinking Violet attitude. These foreshadow the fact that all the emotions are meant to share the spotlight and take turns in controlling the console. It is entirely possible that Joy, like in Riley's head, might have been the first leader of Bill and Jill's bands of emotions. However, somewhere down the line, she learned to share her role with the others, which is what happens with Riley's Joy in the climax.
• After the meltdown at the dinner table, Riley's Dad goes into her room to try to talk to her and cheer her up. It doesn't work, but it's a wonderfully sweet moment that shows he really is a good father.
• Sadness consoling Bing Bong after his rocket falls into the memory dump.
  • Especially since it's after Joy has done her best to cheer him up — trying to tell a joke, making goofy faces and so on. When a stunned Joy asks Sadness how she managed to snap Bing Bong out of his Heroic BSoD when Joy couldn't, Sadness simply says "I-I don't know... He was sad so I listened to what-" But Bing-Bong cuts her off by announcing he found the train.
  • Earlier, Joy has her own crowning moment with Bing Bong when she promises to help Riley to remember him again. He's just so happy at the chance to play with Riley like they did when Bing Bong was first created.
• Particularly notable due to the copious amounts of No Hero to His Valet shown to be in effect outside Headquarters: When the Train of Thought is about to fall over the edge down to the memory dump and it seems Joy, Sadness and Bing-Bong will be toppling along with it, a group of mind workers don't hesitate to quickly rush into the train to pull them out just in time.
• One of Joy's memories depicts the day Riley participated in a hockey match, where her team is celebrating by tossing her into the air. It's later revealed that Riley's team lost that day because Riley missed the winning shot. She's seen sitting by herself looking dejected before her parents walk over to comfort her, followed by her entire team coming to cheer her up. This helps Joy figure out that sadness can lead to happiness, and causes her to realize that Sadness is essential.
  • In some fridge brilliance, the reason that Sadness says that it's her favorite memory because Riley's sadness became joy when her parents and her team came to comfort her; Sadness wanted to help Riley become happy again.
• "Take her to the moon for me, okay?" Apparently even Richard Kind teared up while recording that line.
• When Fear, Anger and Disgust swarm Joy after her return, begging her to fix the situation, Joy surprises them all by telling Sadness that it's up to her. Sadness herself is at first reluctant and even afraid to take control, helplessly insisting that she can't, until Joy firmly tells her that Riley needs her, in complete contrast with all her previous assertions that "Riley needs to be happy". This, followed by a confident nod from Joy, leaving no doubt that she really means it, is all Sadness needs to hear to find the courage to step up and go help Riley.
  • And then, after Sadness removes the bulb and has Riley getting off the bus, she turns back to her fellow emotions with a pure look of amazement at what she just did, look that is mirrored by the others, their previous disbelief forgotten. It's brief, but after all her struggles to find a purpose and believing herself to be unable to do anything but mess up, seeing Sadness happy to have finally proved herself to be as capable as the others and getting their recognition is extremely satisfying.
• When Riley returns to her house after almost running away, Joy allows Sadness to return Riley's core memories, causing them to turn from joyful to sad. This causes Riley to break into sobs and finally tell her parents how sad she is, and how much she misses her old life back in Minnesota. Riley's parents both hug her and comfort her as they admit that they too miss their old home. It's an incredibly tender, heartwarming scene that can bring anyone to tears.
  • A small but reasonably important detail: after expressing their initial worry about Riley upon her return home, her parents go completely silent through her breakdown, just listening as she lets out all her bottled-up sadness.
  • No words are spoken, but after Joy spends the film trying to keep the core memories away from Sadness, the earnest look Joy gives Sadness while entrusting them to her clearly shows how sorry she is for how poorly she treated her. As for Sadness, she looks unsure as she watches the memories turn blue in her arms, but when she looks up, Joy reassures her with a faint smile and a nod of approval.
  • What seals it is how after Riley has her moment to let out all of her pent-up sadness and has a big hug with her parents, she gives a small (but clearly exhausted) sigh of relief, having finally gotten the teary-eyed outlet she needed for the whole film. It is the movie in a nutshell.
• Joy giving Sadness the core memory she created, which Joy had originally tried to prevent. Then they work together to create a new core memory with both their traits, which generates a new family island with San Francisco as the backdrop.
  • Not just any core memory, but the memory of the scene described above, with Riley and her parents all holding one another and supporting each other through their mutual homesickness. The sphere's blue color is Riley's homesickness. Its yellow swatch is her relief that her parents feel the same. And it's the melding of the colors that makes it the perfect foundation for a new Family Island, the more so in that all three of them are surely sharing the exact same blend of feelings. All of it made possible because Sadness has now found her purpose as the custodian of empathy, and because all five emotions are becoming a team as Riley is growing up.
    • The icing on the cake? Even though she has every right to be upset at how she was mistreated by Joy the whole of her existence, Sadness encouraging Joy to make Riley smile and creating the complex memory shows that she has no hard feelings towards Joy.
    • It goes even further than that. Joy's humbled look as she hands Sadness her core memory can read as shame for her actions, for which she attempts to make up with that gift, but also as acceptance of the fact that Sadness was trying to help Riley from the start and was more adequate than herself for that. Then she starts to turn away, trusting that Sadness can handle the rest on her own from there... only for Sadness to grab her by the hand and lead her to the console, so they can work together. It totally fits Sadness's compassionate nature that she would pick up on Joy's state of mind and decide to cheer her friend up by involving her in Riley's healing process. Aww...
  • The end of this scene, with Joy and Sadness exchanging a smile and leaning against each other to watch the reunion on the screen. Just look at these two◊ and consider how far their relationship has come from the beginning of the movie, where awkward glances and Joy's overbearingness were the norm, to a mutual understanding and a true companionship at last.
• This is followed by a timeskip showing how the emotions have created numerous new core memories, all being mixed emotions rather than Joy dominating them as she had before. This also indicates that the work of Fear, Disgust, and Anger, after screwing up and being inexperienced at being lead emotion, improved in ways that allowed new positive Personality Islands for Riley.
  • Two core memories of note are a Fear+Disgust memory (presumably powering Tragic Vampire Romance Island, as it's of Riley reading a book) and an Anger+Sadness memory (possibly the Friendly Arguments section). Unlike the other two new core memories we see, neither of them are part Joy. Before, Joy panicked at the idea of an non-joyful core memory taking hold. Now she recognizes that such memories are just as important to Riley as the ones she helped form. Not to mention these memories mean every emotion now plays a role in who Riley is.
    • If Tragic Vampire Romance Island is the cause of the Fear+Disgust memory, why would Riley feel fear and disgust toward something that she supposedly enjoys unless she has a morbid curiosity? The book in this memory could be a history or science book, as history and science as presented after elementary school begin transitioning to presenting the full picture (of history and the like) in all its sordid detail.
  • The Fear-Disgust core memory suggests that Fear and Disgust now read romance novels together. Looks like Fear's huge crush might pay off after all! Shippers, to your boats!
• The final scene, in which Riley's parents show up to her hockey game with banners and face paint, cheering loudly, to her embarrassment. A quick zoom-in on each of their heads reveals a) Dad's emotions recognizing that Riley's mom loves the face paint and congratulating themselves on a good idea, b) Mom's emotions happily swooning over Dad for having such a great idea, and c) Riley's Disgust admitting that she thinks Riley's parents are cool, "but we can't show it!"
• The mother's Anger tossing the memory of the Brazilian Helicopter pilot at the end. Doubles as a funny moment when her Fear scoops it back up "just in case".
  • On top of that—look at her collective emotions just before that moment, they give the dad the same dreamy sigh they gave the helicopter pilot.
• At the end, Riley bumps into a boy (revealed to be named Jordan in the short film Riley's First Date?), and he goes straight into Adorkable level when all he can do is stare at her. We then see Jordan's emotions running around in panic while an alarm blares "GIRL! GIRL! GIRL!" in the background and become hysterical.
• The final dialogue between Joy and Sadness. Just three words ("You ready?" "Yeah."), but, along with their expressions, they really say it all about the changed team dynamics.
• It's subtle but the popular girl's memory rack doesn't have many anger or disgust memories, implying that she doesn't act like an Alpha Bitch to make up for her fear and insecurities about staying popular.
• A heartwarming Funny Background Event, but in the end credits, we get to see a cat's emotions. The Cat!Joy nuzzles Cat!Sadness and then tries to play with Cat!Anger.
  • For dog lovers seeing how equally the dog's emotions seem to work and how many joy memories they have.
• The end credits show a message saying "this film is dedicated to our kids. please don't grow up. ever."
  • And also as the credits fade out, we see colored circles representing the emotions fade as well. The last thing we see is the circles representing Joy and Sadness overlapping each other.
• Some Fridge Heartwarming: We get several hints throughout the movie of just how much Riley—and her emotions—love her family.
  • At the beginning, Family Island is clearly the largest of the bunch, showing she values that more than anything else.
  • Later, after everything that could go wrong with the move has, all of the emotions are trying to convince Joy not to interfere when there's no reason for Riley to be happy, only to immediately change their tune once Riley's Mom asks that she stay happy for her father's sake.
    • The feeling is shown to be mutual here too.
    Riley's Mom: (After Riley doesn't hesitate in agreeing to stay happy for her family.) What did we do to deserve you? (Kisses Riley on the forehead)
  • When the islands begin to collapse, most of them do so as soon as Riley's behavior contradicts them, but Family Island takes a lot of punishment before it finally goes down (in fact, we never see it fully collapse onscreen—for all we know it only did so when the new one formed to replace it), showing that their bond isn't broken that easily, and she still loves them deep down despite—if Anger's dialogue is really echoing Riley's thoughts—blaming them for her misery.
  • While the emotions react horrified every time a personality island crumbles and try to avoid it, seeing Family Island beginning to break makes all emotions panic. Not like with Fear trying to force hockey memories to save Hockey Island. It's just the silent horror as they stare at Riley's vision and out to the Island, being too scared to even do anything. It becomes into a Moment of Awesome though when Joy is the one that finds her determination when the worst seems to be about to happen.
  • As Riley's running away, when Mom calls her a second time, Anger is clearly conflicted on the matter. Once Riley rejects the call, Anger finally realizes running away is a bad idea.
  • When Riley finally opens up to her parents about her feelings about the move, and they console her, the memory forms a new Family Island that looks to be bigger than all of Riley's old islands combined.
• All of Riley's early core memories are heartwarming to some degree:
  • Family Island—Riley and her parents making cookies together
  • Honesty Island—Riley fessing up to breaking a plate. Since the memory is joyful, we can probably assume she was forgiven.
  • Hockey Island—Riley's parents cheering her on after she scores her first hockey goal.
  • Friendship Island—Riley and Meg supporting each other as they're walking in perfect sync.
  • Goofball Island—Riley's father laughing along with Riley's antics.
• The emotions in general caring so much about Riley and the islands. The islands define who Riley is and they love her for who she is. When the islands start to suffer, they take extreme punishment to save them: Fear injures himself multiple times by trying to save Hockey Island and Joy is multiple times fueled to hurry by seeing them to the point of risking her life. In fact, seeing the islands getting destroyed is what makes Anger decide on running away with the best intentions and seeing Family Island almost get destroyed is what makes Joy more determined than ever to get herself and Sadness back to the Control Room, all in the hope of making Riley happy and return to the cheerful girl that they love.

[[/folder]]

---