I really enjoyed the movie and its had me thinking over the past few days that fear is a strong motivator in my life. For example a do things in afraid of because I'm more afraid of the consequences of being a coward or letting opportunities slip away.
It's a wonderful movie. Pixar did really well this time! SPOILERS: I especially liked how the moral of the story was that it is ok, and sometimes necessary, to express sadness. The rest of our culture is obsessed with telling us that we ought to be happy all the time, and if not, we should consume until we are. Inside Out was a welcome and refreshing corrective to this.
More spoilers. I thought the moral of the story was more about growing up and how when your environment changes the way you interpret memories also changes. For example when I was a kid fishing with my grand father always made me happy now that he has passed those memories are bitter sweet. That's why Sadness was trying to touch Rileys core memories with blue before everything else went down. Those were no longer happy memories.
I liked it, but it was definitely over simplified from a psychological standpoint. This article with the scientific consultants for the movie says they had to limit it to 5 emotions just for narrative sake, but they wanted to include a broader range initially.
I thought it was one of Pixar's best movies. It made me cry a lot.
Naturally, the movie is incredibly symbolic and metaphorical, since it takes place in the mind, so I thought it was interesting that each person had a different emotion in charge. Sadness was at the forefront of the mind of Riley's mom, while Anger gave out orders in the mind of her dad.
I thought it was also clever that the emotions in her parents were all coordinated and dressed the same, while Riley's emotions all had their own unique style. The most amazing part of the film, for me, was when Sadness began to take center stage. It was an eye-opening moment, and Joy really put my feelings into words when she began to have the same epiphany as me about the importance of sadness.
It's unfortunate that we couldn't see the full gamut of emotions that are running the show in reality, but that would've probably turned into a TV sitcom rather than an hour-and-a-half long kids movie.
Upon further reflection, though, I realized that each emotion serves a similar purpose in the sense that it helps people gather support in different situations. This NY Times article that theNiliad shared elaborates a bit on this, and mentions that Anger is what helps people come together against injustice or unfairness. But each emotion helps people come together in different ways. This is my take on it:
Joy can help people come together in support of something exciting and fun.
Sadness helps people come together over grief and loss.
Fear can help people come together against something new and potentially dangerous.
Disgust can help people come together and collectively avoid toxic and unhealthy people, places, and objects.
The move was so real. It made me think and it almost made me cry (which is saying something! I can usually hold myself together, but this one ruined me). I, too, have been thinking about what drives me to do the things I do. I've been up to trying new things, among other things, after seeing the movie.
I was really close to it, honestly. I wanted to cry but at the same time I didn't. Lol, I'm weird. My driving personality force? Well dang, I'd just have to say it would have to do with something like how I want others to be happy and that makes me happy. I can't put a word to it right now, being 2 AM.
It took a while for me to work out. But fear kept popping up in my head and I kept shoving it down. So when I sat down and confronted why I kept thinking fear i made some realizations. I think I let so many opportunities slip by when I was younger that at this point in my life I'm afraid to let any more go so I make a point to try and do everything I can. I was afraid of being old and alone so I struck out and found my partner, who I love dearly. I'm not an angry or jealous person so those aren't really motivations for me. I'm not even really that ambitious I just have a high opinion of my personal abilities and don't want to get trapped in a job I hate so I work hard to advance, again elements of fear. I know there is a deeper more complex reason than just fear so I have plenty to think about for a few days.
Really interesting to see this discussion. I was having a discussion on this movie here and this is what I said there (slightly edited) in response to romeomike's comments on sadness: The idea of sadness helping you feel better is shown when R finally expresses her feelings to her parents and they say that they feel sad too and miss Minnesota too. The hear her and she doesn't have to carry her sadness around by herself. At the end we see Joy handing the core memories to Sadness and each memory changes colour somewhat. Each memory is tinged with sadness, as our memories are in life, because they are past. Joys and sorrows both. caeli says it well also -- emotions and memories become more complex and nuanced as we grow up.
Empathy includes letting another person feel her feelings and work through them.Yes, yes, yes. Sadness is essential -- Joy (like R's parents) won't let Sadness touch the memories and be part of R's experience. Joy first starts to understand the importance of Sadness, when Sadness listens to the imaginary friend's feelings -- and helps the imaginary friend feel better.
I just saw this movie last night, it was great! I think the best part of the movie, for me, was the subtle maturing of the emotions. When Riley was a child, there was just one button to fight over... By the end, their control panel has expanded to accommodate the rest of them a little better. I found Riley's mom the most interesting for this: not only did all of her emotions have equal seata/positions at the panel, but the emotions seemed to cooperate very well with each other. Example: the memory of hot Brazilian pilot? Sadness was the one who pulled it up, and happily so. The message this movie sends to kids as a powerful one. I think if kids rewatched this movie as they aged, they'd understand more every time.
It made me feel really grateful, thinking about what happens to children without honesty and family. Knowing what might happen to her without her core memories is scary. I hope this helps children put the pieces back together themselves. With all the damage princess crap did, I am glad Disney is finally trying to help children grow. I can see the outline of several mental illnesses. Depression, Anxiety, Anger Issues, Bitchiness, and Mania, depending on who is at the wheel. Unfortunately, I have the one were the clown can get out, when I'm awake... :( I am mostly bipolar, so I am pretty happy most of the time. I don't get myself into trouble, like some, so I just mostly take medicine for depression. Ohh, I want to see the ADHD character. Or would that be a processing mechanical issue.
I quite enjoyed it and I would definitely see it again. One big problem that I had with it, however, is that it seemed predictable a couple minutes in advance. I loved the concept behind it and the way that the characters were portrayed, but it was easy to guess what the characters were going to do a couple minutes before they did it. The movie made it a little too obvious for my taste, but that really was a minor thing and it's not like it matters now that I've seen it.