Time to talk about Disney's Inside Out! I went to see this one last week, actually, and I really liked it. I had been planning for quite a while to go see it, not only because of it's uniqueness, but because of it's message. Most Disney films portray a similar message: That the only way to achieve true happiness is to be beautiful and meet someone equally as beautiful and fall in love. This one shows something completely different. I'll let you watch the movie to see what I mean. Riley, the little girl whose mind is the setting, is a topic of interest amongst many fans. She's one of the reasons I really wanted to see the movie.
I first heard about the movie itself on tumblr, where discussions about the gender of Riley crossed my dash. This isn't spoilers really, as you can see this in the trailer. In the mother's head, her emotions are all female, whereas in the father's head, the emotions are all male. In Riley's head, the genders of each emotion are mixed. You can see her emotions in the picture above as well. Does this mean that Riley is bigender? Or gender neutral? The fact that bigender and/or gender neutral individuals are rarely shown in entertainment media is something that really sparked my interest.
Well, now to the movie itself. Young Riley and her family move from Minnesota all the way to San Francisco, where her emotions, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness try to take over her emotions and how she feels about her new city, home and school, leading to many problems inside of her head. It's something that is really relatable too, you know? How you try to be as happy as you can be, but sometimes the sadness is too strong. If you want to see one movie this month, I suggest that you go see Inside Out. Let me tell you though, a lot of people are hating this movie, though some the reasons seem a little weird. Some say that this movie will barely hold the attention of a child, but I can debunk that. My own little sister, who has serious attention problems, was glued to the screen the whole movie.
This is for those of you that have seen the movie and disliked it, saying that the movie would depress you.
Did you really get it? The film wasn't saying that in order to be happy, you have to be sad first, it was saying that all emotions tie together. It was saying that although something upsets you, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I suffer from depression as well, and I didn't walk out of the theater in a depressed state. It's hard on a child to move halfway across the country. You leave all your friends behind; you leave your whole life behind. You enter a new school, with whole new people that you've never met before. Your friends back home have other friends there, and you feel replaced. Inside Out wasn't "depressing" and a "waste of time" it was realistic. Depression can take over when something like that happens.
Someone is probably going to argue that people's lives are hard enough as it is, and trying to escape that at the movies and seeing this movie is wrong and all that, but did you even finish seeing the movie then? If you had, then you would have noticed that Joy realized that you can't be happy all the time, and that sadness isn't always a bad thing. Following sadness, will come happiness, even if it takes a little while. Riley was depressed at first, because she had just moved away from everything she knows and was thrusted into a whole new world. If you can stay happy through all of that, then wow. I am honestly surprised. But that doesn't mean that everyone can. Inside Out is a realistic film that gave showed kids that sadness doesn't last forever.
After I saw the film, I got skyped with a friend of mine who had moved to the other end of the country a few months ago. She had also seen it with her younger brother. So let me tell you a story. Her younger brother, who is almost ten years old, was devastated when they moved all the way to Nevada. My friend told me of his plight. He didn't have any friends for several weeks. He would barely eat. He wouldn't talk to anyone. He wasn't the same. I skyped with my friend several times since they moved and I saw how he was. He looked dead in the eyes. Well, my friend had seen the trailer for Inside Out, and took him to see it the day that it came out. And when I Skyped with my friend after I saw Inside Out, I saw her younger brother. He was smiling. His eyes were full of life. I mentioned this to him, and he said that he didn't have to sad anymore because Riley wasn't sad anymore.
Do you understand what I'm saying here? This movie helped a nine year old boy through his depression. He was undergoing a very similar situation and this movie helped him.
It's up to you. If you want to go see Inside Out, go ahead. It's a good movie. I liked it. If you don't want to, well you're entitled to your own opinion. But don't go around telling people that all this movie does is depress everyone who goes and sees it because that is not the case.
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