SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.
TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
What if we had a headquarters controlled by five fundamental feelings in the form of little voices inside our heads? In other words, what if feelings had… feelings?
As Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) says: "Without getting too technical…", writer-director-duo Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen screened every aspect of neuropsychological science needed for their narrative and explained it as easy and visual as possible. Memory Orbs filled with emotion-based colours, imagination chips for lava-between-sofas, Daydreams-unloading from Train of Thoughts, Bulbs signifying ideas, extra-illuminative Core Memory Orbs, Critical Thinking, Islands of Personalities representing attributes of a person, DEFCON 2 Protocol for punishment, Dream Productions, matrix-shaped Long-Term Memories, Déjà Vu, Recall Tube, Memory Dump for discarded memories and Subconscious for 'trouble-makers' with staircase leading to a dark basement of hidden thoughts are instantly relatable and understandable.
Inside Out has an excellent story! As our kid protagonist Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) moves out of her hometown Minnesota, her natural feeling is sad. In response, Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith) needs to do her job by trying to get hold of the core memories and provoke tears. But Joy, the headquarters chief prevents her from doing so. A mishap that follows throws both of them out of the office, taking Joy through a journey to understand the roles of the Five Feelings. And the film lands powerful lessons, one after another in typical Disney fashion! It's detrimental to hide what we truly feel by pretending to be happy all the time, just like what Joy's been unintentionally determined to do for Riley. Like Joy, Sadness and the rest have their respective duties to perform. Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling) using Anger's (voiced by Lewis Black) fire-head to burn the headquarters window open would tell you that anger always curbs thinking. In the absence of Joy that leaves Disgust, Fear (voiced by Bill Hader) and Anger to be in charge, a person could crumble in no time.
As kids, feelings could exist on a mutually exclusive pattern. Things were much simpler. One could single out pain, anger, happiness or even fear. But, the harder part is only discovered during and after growing up. The question: "How are you feeling?" is no longer easy to answer. The common reply would be: "Mixed", and the makers portrayed this beautifully in the picture using Amalgamated Memory Orbs, signifying that Riley has grown up and every emotion in her inner department now have their portion to play simultaneously, on a common agreement of coexistence.
Title card insertion as the vehicle exits a highway tunnel, pizza eatery memory ignition, Joy tripping into Memory Dump, broccoli trigger, Mother's (voiced by Diane Lane) and Father's (voiced by Kyle MacLachlan) little voices in head, Joy imitating Sadness to guess where the latter would have been to, Bing Bong's (voiced by Richard Kind) death, boyfriend duplication, Joy rewinding a core memory, rocket fueled by a childhood song, Sadness having read the manuals, Joy's birth that's unexpectedly pursued by Sadness' after 33 seconds and Jangles The Birthday Clown in Subconscious are surely the moments to catch your attention. However, the events certainly started to stale during Joy and Sadness' return journey to the headquarters. Scenes such as the Abstract Thoughts shortcut route, mind workers, Bing Bong the long forgotten imaginary friend plus Imagination Land filled with puzzles and fries are inundating.
Inside Out is an animated exemplum that's conceptually near-accurate, analogically incredible but narratively deficient on the engrossment quotient. While the neuropsychological mechanism is simplified in an absolutely adorable manner, the labyrinthine mind network has overwhelming fabrications at parts. Nonetheless, Inside Out's implicit messages are tools that should be used to comprehend the quintessence of human emotions and its complexity. This factor, makes the movie an important experience for adults, as much as it is for kids.
With Disgust curious about the ‘Puberty’ button on the new console and Joy ending the story with: "After all, Riley is 12. What else could happen?", you know this hints at a sequel in the pipeline. Let's keep our fingers crossed for a more engaging Inside Out the next time around!