The Movie 'Inside Out'

According to Skip Young, the new-ish Pixar release ‘Inside Out’ offers more than the entertaining, colorful family film that meets the eye. He believes that the movie portrays “the idea of ‘multiplicity of self’” (Young, ¶4), a concept that has been around since the early days of psychology. This concept suggests that a person’s ‘self’ is made up of different personalities that conflict and cooperate within an individual’s mind. Dr. Young states that he supports Carl Jung’s theory that “each of us is inhabited by a variety of archetypes or “characters” that compete for influence in our everyday lives.” (Young, ¶3) Modern research also supports this idea, with new findings that suggest that our brains have a different neural system for each of our primary emotions.

These systems interact and conflict with each other, much like we see in ‘Inside Out’.

The subject of the film is Riley, a typical 10-year-old girl who is forced to move from her childhood home in Nebraska to far-away San Francisco, CA. The movie monitors her changes inside and out, from “the delightful, playful child” to “the mopey, petulant pre-teen runaway”(Young, ¶6). The main emotion in charge is Joy, whose focus in life is to keep Riley happy and only happy. She prefers that the other emotions stay on the backburner, particularly Sadness. Though, as we can see in the main conflict and climax of the film, there is much emphasis on the importance of Sadness in relation to Joy throughout Riley’s young life. This says something about how children develop emotionally during that shift from childhood to adolescence. “Growth can only come through these difficult experiences, and only Sadness can bring this wisdom to young Riley.” (Young,

¶10)

Critique:
There have been many questions and theories alike circulating about ‘Inside Out’, like what the theme truly is, or who Riley really is in terms of personality, identity, who she represents. Why the other characters’ emotions are all the same gender, while Riley’s are multiple genders. Questions even the creators of the film might not have thought of. While these questions remain unanswered, Dr. Young elaborates on his own question; what do the plotline and characters of this film represent as a whole? His answer is the ‘multiplicity of self’ theory. This seems to make a lot of sense, especially in the context of ‘Inside Out’. There are quite literally ‘little characters’ living inside Riley’s head, interacting and conflicting with each other at each turn in the plotline. Each of them contribute to young Riley’s personality; Disgust keeps her away from broccoli and poor fashion statements, Fear keeps her out of danger in every possible way, Anger allows her to release those pent-up frustrations, Joy keeps Riley happy (no matter what she has to do to do so), and Sadness.. Well, what does Sadness do? Dr. Young helps answer this question by mentioning the film’s emphasis on the importance of sadness. He states that Sadness and hardship is a means of growth for Riley (or any other child) during her shift from childhood to adolescence. In order for Riley to reflect on her emotions and deal with the confusion in HQ (aka Riley’s mind), in order for her to feel Joy, Sadness has to be allowed to take control. This resolves the conflict at the climax of the film, and also the conflict in Riley’s head, heart, and family life.