Inside Out (2015)

Inside Out Trailer

I have to write this film review because I think this movie is very meaningful. It's educational not only to children but also adults who would want to understand more about emotions.

The premise is what's going on inside the mind of a teenage girl, Riley, who newly moves to a new city with her parents. There are five emotions, namely, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness, that lives in the control room / headquarters of Riley's head.

Moreover, there are different islands, namely, Goofball Island, Hockey Island, Friendship Island, Family Island, and Honesty Island, that shapes Riley's personality.

One day, an accident happen which Joy, Sadness and some core memory balls are sucked away from the headquarters. Without some of her core memories and Joy, Riley is becoming more upset and introverted. She loses her temper at her Dad and then her Goofball Island crumbles. Her best friend in the old city befriends with a new girl and she becomes angry and loses her Friendship Island. Her islands crumbles one by one and Riley is unable to have any feeling.

The plot becomes more interesting as we encouter Bing Bong the imaginary friend of childhood who helps Joy and Sadness to find a way back to the headquarters. Bing Bong is an elephant mixed with cotton and cries like a dolphin. He tears are candies.

It is very touching when Bing Bong sacrifices himself for Joy to ride up the cliff. It's so sad to see our imaginary friend fade away.

Joy used to think Sadness is useless, but when she sees a core memory which Riley lost her hockey game, the team and family tries to console her, she realizes that Sadness is indeed an important emotion.

At last, Joy and Sadness make their way back to the headquarters and the new islands are built up. Riley becomes happy again and more confident in her life.

Things happen, and emotions come naturally, but different people has different responses or reactions to the same event. It's how we face / deal with a situation that differs. To the same event, different people have different beliefs. We have to ask ourselves: are our beliefs reasonable? Are we being catastrophic? How true are our beliefs? And our beliefs and emotions will lead to our rational or irrational behavior. To conclude, the takeaway from this movie is that we all have emotions and we need to face them, to acknowledge them, and to understand why we feel that way, so as to become a healthy person.