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What’s Behind The Emotional Story Of Pixar’s ‘Inside Out’?

By Alanna Vopni
Published on: 10:54 PST, Jun 27, 2015

[WARNING: Spoilers ahead]

Pixar has always been great at digging deep into the emotional moments of their movies. So it seems only fitting that they should have created Inside Out, a movie that anthropomorphises five key emotions — Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) — and plumbs the depths of emotion even further, causing everyone who sees Inside Out to shed rivers of tears.

With Inside Out, Pixar examines how these five emotions, inside 11-year-old Riley’s brain, deal with a traumatic move across the country, followed by a mishap in Headquarters that leaves head honcho, Joy, in the wilderness of Riley’s mind with her nemesis, Sadness, in a race against the clock to make it back and save Riley from the dark path she’s been on since their absence.

The Inquisitr‘s already given you five reasons you’ll love Inside Out but here are three ways Pixar will rip right into your heart and give you so many feels — only in the absolute best way, of course.

Pixar Pits Joy Against Sadness

Joy, the golden bundle of happiness with the bright blue hair, is the main character in Inside Out with the most to learn. She loves Riley and just wants her to be happy — all the time. Joy feels she needs to be in control and Sadness is something to be avoided at all costs. At the beginning, she just tries to find things for Sadness to do to keep her out of the way — like reading boring manuals and keeping her inside a circle she draws on the floor.

Joy’s character arc in Inside Out is to understand that not only does Sadness have a role to play but it’s just as necessary an emotion as she is. So, when Joy gets ejected from Headquarters to the far away region of long-term memory, it’s Sadness she’s saddled with. Joy, literally, has to drag Sadness around by the foot until she realizes what the teary emotion brings to the table.

All Emotions Serve A Purpose (Pixar’s Main Message: It’s Okay To Be Sad)

Each emotion we feel has a service to render. Joy makes life worth living. Fear assesses risk and keeps us away from danger. Anger makes sure we stand up for ourselves when things are unjust. Disgust keeps us from being poisoned, physically or socially. And Sadness is, usually, literally a cry for help.

Inside Out sets Riley up with an imaginary childhood friend named Bing Bong who’s long been forgotten and has been lurking in her long-term memory, hoping to be remembered so that they can finish their rocket trip to the moon. He helps Joy and Sadness but becomes despondent when the rocket gets tossed away. Joy gets no where with him when she tries to get him to forget about it simply by thinking happy thoughts.

Sadness then steps in and says, “They took something that you loved. That’s sad.” She gives him understanding, compassion, and a space to feel the weight of that sadness, which is exactly what he needed to feel better.

Joy now becomes curious and asks Sadness how she was able to help Bing Bong but she doesn’t wait for the answer. She’s not ready to hear it. She doesn’t yet understand the destructive effects of trying to pretend you’re not feeling sad when you are.

Parts Of Yourself Must (Figuratively) Die To Make Way For Growth (Major Spoilers Ahead — Turn Back Now If You Haven’t Seen Inside Out!)

When Joy and Bing Bong fall into the pit of forgotten memories, from which nothing comes back, Joy hits her low point and all is lost. Until she happens upon an old happy memory of Riley’s involving friends and family having fun but she rewinds the memory to finally realize that the happiness would never have happened if she hadn’t been sad before about missing the winning goal and rallied friends and family to her side.

To get out of the pit of despair, Bing Bong ends up having to sacrifice himself. It’s an incredibly sad moment but at the age of 11, Riley’s more interested in having an imaginary boyfriend than a pink elephant made mostly out of cotton candy and she needs her joy.

The old must always make way for the new. The endless cycle of life and that is why we need Sadness — to mourn for these lost and forgotten pieces of ourselves, only then can we move on.

If you haven’t already seen Inside Out, catch a little of the magic in the trailer below.

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Amy Poehler Mindy Kaling Bill Hader
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