Animation studios figured out a long time ago that in order
to make a hit, their movies needed to be equally entertaining to parents and
children alike. Above and beyond the bright colors, slapstick comedy, and silly
catchphrases, there needs to be a serious storyline that packs an emotional
punch, with some clever one-liners thrown in for good measure.
In the case of the new movie Inside Out, it’s possible that Disney-Pixar tipped the balance too
far. I honestly don’t know if this will be another Toy Story that kids ask to see again and again. In fact, parts felt
more like a college psychology course than an animated kids’ film. But it does what few animated films can claim to do: it really makes kids think, and on that score, it earns an "A". With a plot
that manages to break the mold of “believe in yourself” storylines, Inside Out tells a compelling tale that
reflects life’s real complexity.
Riley is the movie’s 11-year-old protagonist, whose family
moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Despite a store of mostly joyful “core
memories” from her childhood, her world – inner as well as outer – is turned upside down by the
change. The film illustrates how that inner struggle to make life make sense again actually looks like.
No film I’ve ever seen has ever accomplished this. There have been plenty of films about preteens challenged to adapt to life changes, but
they can only show us what everyone else sees – outward expressions of emotion.
And perhaps they give us ringside seats for some intimate conversations in
which the child experiences a breakthrough, often with the help of a Mike
Brady-like parental figure whose sound bite wisdom saves the day.
In movies like that – and in life –
the best thing we can do is play amateur psychologist, judging what body
language and facial expression and tears mean. The inner processes that produce
the outward behaviors are hidden to us. Inside Out jumps back and forth between
the world of the characters and the emotional “head quarters” of their brains. Only animation could accomplish this.
You get to see the fast-paced interplay between Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust,
and Fear, all vying to impose their filter of reality on the situation at hand,
and hard-wire that understanding into a memory.
How accurate is all of this? I confess that this is the
film’s main difficulty: how to communicate a technical subject in sufficient
detail (it is brain science, after all) without becoming boring or preachy or making your own head
hurt. But this isn’t just a
90-minute Schoolhouse Rock primer on
your emotions; there’s a real story here, too, about growing up and family
communication and accepting things you can’t control. And we, the audience, are
the real winners, because over and above the lessons learned by the characters,
we know infinitely more, because we know the characters “from the inside-out”.
So you get to benefit from all that Riley’s parents don’t
see. In the end –
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
though they are all feeling regret about their move, they do
not “make it all better” by going back to Minnesota. Riley misses her friends
in the movie, and at movie’s end, she’s still missing them. The furniture still
hasn’t come. Dad is still working long hours trying to get his new company off
the ground. We have no assurance that things will be roses going forward. But
we do know this:
*** SPOILER OVER ***
Riley grows.
Through her sadness, she eventually experiences Joy. (And kudos to the
producers for not calling that emotion “Happiness”). Riley becomes more
fully alive. As sad as it is to see a happy little girl go through that,
is there any truer way to tell the story?
To me, that’s the takeaway from this film: when joy
manifests itself (kids are smiling, happy, playing contentedly), it doesn’t
mean that sadness, fear, disgust, and anger are absent, or don’t have the
potential to step on stage. And those not-joy emotions aren’t “bad” or even
inappropriate. They are human.
Sometimes we oversimplify emotions by just telling people to “put on a happy face”. Or we think if we’re healthy, we won’t ever get angry. To be sure, anger is upsetting, and often a sign that something needs to be changed, but upset is a part of life. When we impose this on kids, either because we want them not to pout, or not to fight with one another, or not to complain or cry, we are pressing them into a mold that isn’t real. In fact, in Inside Out, we find that Sadness is necessary for Riley to experience Joy.
Sometimes we oversimplify emotions by just telling people to “put on a happy face”. Or we think if we’re healthy, we won’t ever get angry. To be sure, anger is upsetting, and often a sign that something needs to be changed, but upset is a part of life. When we impose this on kids, either because we want them not to pout, or not to fight with one another, or not to complain or cry, we are pressing them into a mold that isn’t real. In fact, in Inside Out, we find that Sadness is necessary for Riley to experience Joy.
Our world worships happiness, so much so that when someone
isn’t happy, it’s naturally assumed that they should take the quickest possible
route back to happiness. But is that really what we want to teach our kids –
make yourself happy, no matter the price? Think about where that could drive kids.
The happiness rat race is no place to live. Either you’re constantly anxious
that you don’t have happiness, or you’re constantly anxious that you’ll lose
what you have.
Much better to help kids live to be who they are – which is
a fully-orbed human who experiences the full range of emotions. Inside Out contains the powerful message
that we are each more than meets the eye, and that even the “bad” emotions are
not abnormal or something to be suppressed or wished away. It’s a much more
realistic picture of life as a journey of growth, rather than the endless
pursuit of thrill.
