FILM
INSIDE OUT
FILM
– all of them, especially
the uglier ones – which I
think is greatly overdue as
a theme, and not just for
kids. It seems that a willingness in parents to go
there might well be requisite in order to reap full
benefit from the abstract
storyline. It would help
navigate emotional terrain brought up in the film
that I’m guessing many
kids would find new and
challenging. Since the
movie is all about depicting what a healthy emotional frontier looks like, if
you’re a parent, it’s worth
seeing the movie first on
your own so that you are
best equipped to get it
as a family later. The film
is certainly worth the extra trouble since who
couldn’t use the reminder
of its message, on repeat,
at any age?
The story unfolds within
eleven-year-old, hockeyloving Riley Anderson’s
brain, referred to as headquarters. With its stacked
bowling ball-like storage
mechanism for memories – short-term ones,
long-term ones, and core
B
y any standard, Disney Pixar bit off a hugely complex chunk of subject matter to convey
in the film, Inside Out, written by Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, as inspired from a story
by Ronnie del Carmen and Pete Docter. The film was directed by Docter, whose previous
directorial films include Monsters Inc and Up.
I sat in the darkened theatre alone, no sidekick under age ten making my presence more
legit - and also on the plus side, no bathroom runs mid-film, or popcorn costing the same
as a chest of gold doubloons. I suspected I’d need to focus all of my grey matter on the
screen to produce a coherent review. Boy, was I right.
I’ll say here that I really liked the film, but a heads-up for the emotionally squeamish: its
mixed bag of psychological content reevaluates and validates the necessity of emotions
memories, tinted in the
colour of the emotion that
ruled the memory – blue,
was of course for sadness.
After the surprise move
her family makes from
Minnesota to San Francisco, the varied feelings
felt in the quintet of her
emotions – Anger (Lewis
Black), Sadness (Phyllis
Smith), Fear (Bill Hader),
and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), has Joy (Amy Poehler) working overtime to
try to manage the situation using a mixing boardlike affair to quality control Riley’s emotions and
keep her happy. Joy is,
of course, the most easily
likeable emotion, yet the
necessary role the other
emotions play in Riley’s
ability to feel Joy’s presence is beautifully told.
The teaching moments for
kids are choc-a-bloc, and
the Disney camp clearly
get that the time for this
theme in film has come,
and that the students are
ready not only for this one,
but for its sequel.
the usual comedic relief
found in other Disney Pixar
films, although I chuckled
a few times. Also, parents
may take exception to
the part in the film where
Anger, in his desire for Riley
to create new memories,
has her run away, back
to Minnesota, through the
purchase of a bus ticket
online using her mother’s
stolen credit card. Maybe
not the best teaching moment there…
Inside Out, in its unique
way, examines and in the
end proves flawed the
don’t worry, be happy
manner in which most of
us have been expected to propel ourselves
through life. It illustrates
that in keeping up this
pretence, resolution of
emotional difficulties is
impossible, and actually
keeps true happiness at
arms length.
Four and a half stars for
me.
While Inside Out was
dubbed as animated
comedy, I didn’t find
A full-fledged Renaissance woman, Lizzie Shanks self-describes, with
tongue firmly lodged in cheek, as having severe career ADHD. She is a
freelance writer, emerging author, and ia Juno Award nominated singer/
songwriter, with three critically acclaimed album releases from her years
with the band Besharah. She is also an interior designer, and has provided
treatment foster care to at-risk youth for over ten years. She is currently
working on a new musical project.
She blogs weekly at www.bigbanglife.org.