Note: This essay is part of my psychology film course but written in English to be published on my film blog, a part of my final course in English.
Inside Out (2015) is the story of 11-year-old Riley and her emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. These personified emotions oversee her mind from a mission control-like headquarters. During sleep, the memories of the day come rolling down a track in the form of colored, emotion-specific orbs and are sent to a sprawling archive of long-term memories. Some memories are stronger than others – these are called “core memories” in the movie. These memories form the basis of Riley’s personality and take the form of floating personality islands. Joy acts as a self-proclaimed leader of the headquarters. This can be seen in the core memories, which are all happy. She actively tries to keep Sadness away from the console which controls Riley’s emotions. When she must move away from her childhood home and friends, Riley has poor first experiences. Sadness accidentally makes Riley cry in front of her new class and creates a sad core memory. When a panicked Joy tries to dispose of the memory, she knocks the other core memories loose, deactivating the personality islands. Joy and Sadness are accidentally ejected from the headquarters and the rest of the movie chronicles their way through Riley’s mind while Fear, Anger, and Disgust try to maintain her happiness.
Inside Out (2015) is the story of 11-year-old Riley and her emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. These personified emotions oversee her mind from a mission control-like headquarters. During sleep, the memories of the day come rolling down a track in the form of colored, emotion-specific orbs and are sent to a sprawling archive of long-term memories. Some memories are stronger than others – these are called “core memories” in the movie. These memories form the basis of Riley’s personality and take the form of floating personality islands. Joy acts as a self-proclaimed leader of the headquarters. This can be seen in the core memories, which are all happy. She actively tries to keep Sadness away from the console which controls Riley’s emotions. When she must move away from her childhood home and friends, Riley has poor first experiences. Sadness accidentally makes Riley cry in front of her new class and creates a sad core memory. When a panicked Joy tries to dispose of the memory, she knocks the other core memories loose, deactivating the personality islands. Joy and Sadness are accidentally ejected from the headquarters and the rest of the movie chronicles their way through Riley’s mind while Fear, Anger, and Disgust try to maintain her happiness.
But why these five emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust? Inside Out borrows its theory of emotions from renowned psychologist Paul Ekman. He theorized that there are seven basic emotions with universal facial signals. Two of them were cut from the film: surprise and contempt. Ekman served as a consultant on Inside Out along with psychologist Dacher Keltner. He suggested that writer and director Pete Docter should take into consideration the full array of emotions now studied in modern science but for the purposes of the story, Docter chose to focus on five characters. (Ekman & Keltner, 2015).
A point of reference for the Pixar team was the 1943 cartoon short Reason and Emotion. Like we see in Inside Out, Reason and Emotion are personified in the mind of an individual. The short argues that Reason’s job is to think, plan and discriminate, pitting Emotion as an enemy of rationality. This had been a prevailing thought in Western society and the short was created to harden Americans against fear tactics used by the Axis powers in World War II. (Klein, 2015) (Puschak, 2015). Ekman and Keltner argue the opposite; “emotions organize – rather than disrupt – rational thinking”. They theorize that emotions shape how we relate to people, our perception of the world, our moral judgments and our memories of the past. “Studies have found that when we are angry we are acutely attuned to what is unfair, which helps animate actions that remedy injustice”. This is shown when Sadness touches a joyful memory and it becomes tinged blue with sadness. This is true for our memories – they can change as we evolve and our current emotions affect our memories of the past (Ekman & Keltner, 2015).
But why these five emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust? Inside Out borrows its theory of emotions from renowned psychologist Paul Ekman. He theorized that there are seven basic emotions with universal facial signals. Two of them were cut from the film: surprise and contempt. Ekman served as a consultant on Inside Out along with psychologist Dacher Keltner. He suggested that writer and director Pete Docter should take into consideration the full array of emotions now studied in modern science but for the purposes of the story, Docter chose to focus on five characters. (Ekman & Keltner, 2015).
A point of reference for the Pixar team was the 1943 cartoon short Reason and Emotion. Like we see in Inside Out, Reason and Emotion are personified in the mind of an individual. The short argues that Reason’s job is to think, plan and discriminate, pitting Emotion as an enemy of rationality. This had been a prevailing thought in Western society and the short was created to harden Americans against fear tactics used by the Axis powers in World War II. (Klein, 2015) (Puschak, 2015). Ekman and Keltner argue the opposite; “emotions organize – rather than disrupt – rational thinking”. They theorize that emotions shape how we relate to people, our perception of the world, our moral judgments and our memories of the past. “Studies have found that when we are angry we are acutely attuned to what is unfair, which helps animate actions that remedy injustice”. This is shown when Sadness touches a joyful memory and it becomes tinged blue with sadness. This is true for our memories – they can change as we evolve and our current emotions affect our memories of the past (Ekman & Keltner, 2015).
Inside Out also shows us how memories can be forgotten from our long-term memory. This is imagined as a “memory dump”, a deep abyss filled with colorless orbs. Joy and Bing Bong, Riley’s old imaginary friend, end up in the memory dump during the film’s final act. Joy makes it out, but Bing Bong is left behind and fades away completely as Riley forgets him.
With Inside Out, Pixar offers a refreshing take on the importance of sadness and a vital contribution to the cultural discourse surrounding the “pursuit of happiness” in modern Western culture. We are social creatures – we use sadness as a tool we use to let others know we need their support, yet we also seem to think that to express sadness is to show weakness. Though not intentional, we tend to pass on the message to our children that sadness is bad. We are quick to say to a sobbing child “Don’t be sad. Cheer up.” Riley’s mother does this in the film, telling her to “keep smiling” for her father, essentially communicating to her that she needs to pretend to be happy. Our tendency to avoid or repress sadness can be counter-productive. For example, we may fail to pursue our goals in an effort to protect ourselves. We may engage in activities such as work to keep us busy enough to ward off difficult emotions, limiting our time with those who matter to us. Some may even develop substance addictions such as alcohol dependency to numb themselves from sadness. But we can not numb this pain without also numbing our joy. This is expressed to us in the film when Bing Bong watches his rocket wagon being thrown into the memory dump. Joy’s efforts to cheer him up are futile but Sadness consoles him by sympathizing with his loss and eventually gets him up on his feet.
Joy eventually realizes the importance of the other emotions, specifically Sadness. She discovers that a sad memory of Riley losing a hockey game turned happy when her teammates came over to comfort her. Sadness induced empathy in them, prompting them to reach out to Riley and offer emotional assistance. Joy offers Sadness to reinstall the core memories, turning them sad in the progress. This reflects how, for many, sadness clarifies what has been lost - in this case childhood. The console that controls Riley’s emotions expands, making room for all the emotions to work in harmony. Memory orbs start to appear in more than one color, signifying that Riley is able to experience multiple emotions at the same time and allowing her to lead a more emotionally complex life.
The film offers children the basic vocabulary to express their emotions while giving parents a device to make it easier to talk to their children about these emotions. Many family films tend to offer rather simplistic and naive morals but Inside Out delivers a nuanced and relevant take on emotions and should be considered a vital family viewing.
Docter, P., & Carmen, R. D. (Directors). (2015). Inside Out. Walt Disney Studios.
Inside Out (2015 film). (2018, March 20). Retrieved March 21, 2018, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Out_(2015_film)
Keltner, D., & Ekman, P. (2015). The Science of Inside Out. New York Times, 3.
Klein, T. (2015, June 08). Pixar Finds It's "Reason and Emotion". Retrieved March 21, 2018, from
http://www.indiewire.com/2015/06/pixar-finds-its-reason-and-emotion-123313/
Puschak, E. [Nerdwriter1]. (2015, December 02). Inside Out: Emotional Theory Comes Alive. Retrieved March 21, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXYhua4IwoE