Undressing 'Inside Out'

Recently, I have rewarded myself with an hour and 42-minute movie in the theatre entitled Inside Out. I still remember witnessing the trailer of this critically acclaimed Pixar movie last year for the very first time.

Promotional image from Pixar

I've been waiting on it for what felt like five years! I've always been so in love with movies that perfectly depict mental illnesses or how the mind works, so I definitely had high expectations towards this movie. To be honest, I don't usually like or watch Pixar movies, (The only one that I overtly say that I love was the movie Up) so I was definitely excited for this one.

Going into the movie theatre, I was jumping with excitement. A couple of my friends had already watched it before I did — since I opted to watch it with my Mom and sister — so they already promised me a good two hours. After all the exciting trailers, a studio logo came out and I commanded myself to stop fidgeting and enjoy the movie.

To my surprise, a title card came out, but it wasn't 'Inside Out'. It was LAVA. 

Title card of Pixar's short film 'LAVA'

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into. At the beginning I thought, "Oh! This is pretty cool. I guess they have a short clip that kind of shows how inanimate objects have emotions too. Nice work, Pixar."

LAVA was great. It was perfect! Not only were they able to perfectly tug on my heartstrings, but they were also able to send on a very good moral for the kids who would be watching this. 'Sometimes, you're looking on far too high to know that what you're searching for is right beneath you.' 

And regardless of that, the song in this clip is SOOOOOO compelling!

Kudos to Pixar for that.

Enough misdirections, let's move on to the movie! Okay. In a rating of 1-10, I would give Inside Out an 8.5. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie. I came out of the theatre with tears in my eyes, but it just didn't feel perfect to me.

One thing I loved was the science of the movie. How they were able to perfectly incorporate how the mind works was amazing. I was very satisfied on the first half of the movie, when they were introducing everything. I especially loved the idea of the islands, because I think it was perfect how they had all these 'core memories' that builds a person's personality. So I think that was great. Upon finishing the movie, I was very satisfied as well. Especially when they ended it with how the mind reconstructs itself upon reaching a certain age.

It was great how all the personality islands broke apart and reemerged as a more developed island or personality, because as a person ages, that is exactly what happens. The more unified personality gives way to different personalities that may develop across time. So, I definitely appreciated all of that. 

Plus, I was blown away when Bing Bong got sent into the subconscious. I think it was great! Because according to Freud, every human being has three levels of consciousness; the conscious, unconscious and the preconscious. Fears and pleasures are supposedly part of unconscious. But laymen usually combine the unconscious and preconscious and call it the subconscious. So how the clown, Jangles, was in there just made me smile so big because of the scientific reference!

As I have mentioned above, I loved the beginning and the end of the movie. The focal point of the movie, however, was not as appealing to me. I guess this part of the movie is the part that I hate seeing in all of the Pixar movies. This part probably exists for the enjoyment of the kids, so maybe that is why I dislike it so much (cause I'm not a kid).

For the movie Up, the part when they were fighting off the bad guy was the part that I really hate. Whereas for Inside Out, there wasn't exactly a specific part that I hated, but I just dislike how it felt like they were just dragging the story by making all their attempts towards headquarters a complete fail. That was the only part that truly bothered me.

Over all, I recommend this movie to everybody. Most especially to Psychology majors! And if you dared say a bad thing about it, I would hate on you so badly. It's the kind of movie that I would support all throughout my life, but I don't LOVE so much. I can't really decide right now which Pixar movie I loved more, Up or Inside Out, but both of them are definitely must-watch movies.