Inside Out

2015

Directed by Pete Docter

Quick synopsis… When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.

• I find the depiction of the human brain in this movie to be fascinating.
• The human emotional condition has been boiled down to five basics:
• Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger.
• When I first went into this movie, I wondered how it would work to only have those five feelings to deal with.
• The way it all turns out in the end, though, makes incredible sense.
• Not that I have anything against happiness… But why the heck does Joy have to be such a friggin’ dictator all the time?
• If things aren’t going her way, if Riley isn’t joyful all the time, then there’s something clearly wrong.
• And she’s particularly horrible toward Sadness.
• And as the movie progresses, this is something that changes about Joy.
• Joy and Sadness are forced to explore Riley’s memories and have a better understanding of each other.
• In time, they discover that there is such a thing as feeling mixed emotions.
• Which makes more and more sense as we age and our emotions become more complicated.
• The voice actors for each of these emotions are spot on.
• And it’s great when the movie gives us a glimpse inside others’ minds as well.

Thanks for tuning in to Day Nine of the 2020 A to Z Challenge! If you like Disney movies, then stick with me for the rest of the month. I’ll be doing a movie beginning with each letter of the alphabet each day (except Sundays) all month. And I’ll try to give hints about the next day’s movie in case you want to take a guess in the comments.

Clues for tomorrow’s movie are that it begins with a J and it’s a Disney movie. Just kidding… We’re heading back to the land of live action for a lesser-known ’80s flick that takes place during the Great Depression and stars John Cusack. Any guesses?