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Returning to 2015 films, Inside out was Pixar's foray into the human mind, as we see the journey of the feelings of a preteen girl named Riley adjusting to the emotional complexities of growing up as well as moving to a new city. I absolutely love Pixar films and this is the first but certainly not the last of their films to make an appearance on the list. This film I believe is a very important one as it tackles some really important issues of dealing with trauma and emotions in general in a very palatable way and I think it's the kind of film literally anyone can relate to.
I rewatched this film just the other day with a friend and she and I were both on the verge of tears at certain points, Pixar is so good at appealing to emotions that they literally were able to make an amazing and inventive film about the idea of emotions. The film is so well done and clever and absolutely deserved the best animated picture oscar is won. The way the film presents some of the more complicated concepts of the human mind (abstraction zone was a personal favorite of mine) is really very impressive and my hat's off to the creatives over at pixar.
The characters are all very endearing as the Riley's parents get a decent enough amount of characterization to be believable in little screentime, and the emotions, who get most of the screen-time, are all unique enough, however the main character of the film and the one who has the most growth is Joy, who, like Riley and perhaps even representative of Riley, learns the importance of sadness and that things are very rarely just one emotion, they're always a mixture of good and bad, and this growth represents a huge amount of growth and maturity for both Joy and Riley (though it does beg the question of if the emotions themselves have emotions since they're capable of different emotional responses and if so where that trail ends).
One thing that I was curious about upon seeing the film was the differences between how the emotions in Riley's head worked in comparison to her parents. In Riley's head, Joy is in control, the emotions are vying to use the control panel and can't all be working at the same time, until the end when they get an upgrade (with a very clever puberty reference). More to the point though, is that her mother's primary emotion is sadness while her father's primary emotion is anger. Does this mean that the dominant emotion can change over time (and if so how is that facilitated), or were her mother and father just predisposed sad and angry people from birth, and how did that manifest itself in a child, and if children are innately happy creatures that are corrupted by the world which leads them to become overwrought with sadness or anger (a tad depressing but not altogether inaccurate sentiment) or if people are born a certain way and that's just who they are (an equally depressing sentiment).
Also, I find it interesting that all of her father's emotions were male and all of her mother's emotions were female while Riley's were mixed in gender. Does this perhaps suggest that gender identity is not something that is as clear cut in childhood and doesn't really flesh out until later in life (and that time is different in different people as the pizza girl also had mixed gendered emotions) in which case the emotions all become the right gender for that person (presumably matching the sex of that person if they're cisgendered or not match if they're transgendered). Or perhaps this instead suggests that the genders of the emotions don't change and that Riley (and the pizza girl) is of a non-binary gender identity. Granted in the grand scheme of things none of that really matters but it was food for thought for me, if you can't tell I absolutely adore the concept for this film and thinking deeply about it was very entertaining for me. Personally, I'd ascribe to the 'genders form properly of the emotions later' theory, just because I find the capacity of the emotions to change form and degrees of control to be more in line with my worldviews than predetermined nature does, and also simply just feels more comforting to me.
Anyway, speculation aside, this is a fantastic, thought provoking, charming, emotional, important film and I absolutely loved it.
26. Inside Out
Returning to 2015 films, Inside out was Pixar's foray into the human mind, as we see the journey of the feelings of a preteen girl named Riley adjusting to the emotional complexities of growing up as well as moving to a new city. I absolutely love Pixar films and this is the first but certainly not the last of their films to make an appearance on the list. This film I believe is a very important one as it tackles some really important issues of dealing with trauma and emotions in general in a very palatable way and I think it's the kind of film literally anyone can relate to.
I rewatched this film just the other day with a friend and she and I were both on the verge of tears at certain points, Pixar is so good at appealing to emotions that they literally were able to make an amazing and inventive film about the idea of emotions. The film is so well done and clever and absolutely deserved the best animated picture oscar is won. The way the film presents some of the more complicated concepts of the human mind (abstraction zone was a personal favorite of mine) is really very impressive and my hat's off to the creatives over at pixar.
The characters are all very endearing as the Riley's parents get a decent enough amount of characterization to be believable in little screentime, and the emotions, who get most of the screen-time, are all unique enough, however the main character of the film and the one who has the most growth is Joy, who, like Riley and perhaps even representative of Riley, learns the importance of sadness and that things are very rarely just one emotion, they're always a mixture of good and bad, and this growth represents a huge amount of growth and maturity for both Joy and Riley (though it does beg the question of if the emotions themselves have emotions since they're capable of different emotional responses and if so where that trail ends).
One thing that I was curious about upon seeing the film was the differences between how the emotions in Riley's head worked in comparison to her parents. In Riley's head, Joy is in control, the emotions are vying to use the control panel and can't all be working at the same time, until the end when they get an upgrade (with a very clever puberty reference). More to the point though, is that her mother's primary emotion is sadness while her father's primary emotion is anger. Does this mean that the dominant emotion can change over time (and if so how is that facilitated), or were her mother and father just predisposed sad and angry people from birth, and how did that manifest itself in a child, and if children are innately happy creatures that are corrupted by the world which leads them to become overwrought with sadness or anger (a tad depressing but not altogether inaccurate sentiment) or if people are born a certain way and that's just who they are (an equally depressing sentiment).
Also, I find it interesting that all of her father's emotions were male and all of her mother's emotions were female while Riley's were mixed in gender. Does this perhaps suggest that gender identity is not something that is as clear cut in childhood and doesn't really flesh out until later in life (and that time is different in different people as the pizza girl also had mixed gendered emotions) in which case the emotions all become the right gender for that person (presumably matching the sex of that person if they're cisgendered or not match if they're transgendered). Or perhaps this instead suggests that the genders of the emotions don't change and that Riley (and the pizza girl) is of a non-binary gender identity. Granted in the grand scheme of things none of that really matters but it was food for thought for me, if you can't tell I absolutely adore the concept for this film and thinking deeply about it was very entertaining for me. Personally, I'd ascribe to the 'genders form properly of the emotions later' theory, just because I find the capacity of the emotions to change form and degrees of control to be more in line with my worldviews than predetermined nature does, and also simply just feels more comforting to me.
Anyway, speculation aside, this is a fantastic, thought provoking, charming, emotional, important film and I absolutely loved it.