Inside Out- Pixar’s Imaginative and Moving Look into the Mind of a Child

When revisiting Inside Out after all these years before seeing the sequel, I was astounded at how imaginative the film still is. There's so much creativity put into crafting this world inside the mind of a little girl. From core memories to islands of personality, each part of the world-building contains some fascinating representation of the human mind. It may be a simplified portrait of the human mind, but the joy of Inside Out stems from how it uses such simple world-building to represent the complexities of the human mind. Having Riley's memories stored in spherical balls might've been done for simplicity's sake so that the film could show them as simple, tangible objects that the characters could hold and interact with. But in doing that, they also realistically represent how memories get moved from one part of the brain to another. The film uses that design philosophy of taking a simple concept to represent a more complex function of the human brain for every part of the world-building, and it's why I find the film so effortlessly imaginative throughout the entire runtime. 

The film is also so emotionally honest in its messaging. At the film's core, Inside Out is about dealing with your emotions and not letting one single emotion dictate your personality. It's a simple message, but through Joy's arc in the film, it's so beautifully told. It's also a film about letting go of childish thoughts and ways and learning to deal with sudden change. What makes it all work is how written each emotion is; each is consistently written as a different part of Riley's personality, with them talking and viewing the world as a child would. It's why the plot holes that surround the film no longer bother me as they once did, as while the story may have multiple solutions, there are ones that the emotions, who think and act as Riley does, wouldn't necessarily make themselves in my eyes. 

There are so many aspects of Inside Out that make it such a fantastic film. But more than anything, what I've always admired about it is how well the film captures the mind of a child, every aspect of the world-building, story, and the characterization of each emotion feeling like representations of Riley's mind and her struggles learning to grow up and deal with change. It makes the film into an incredibly imaginative spin on the coming-of-age film, which could've only come from the mind of Pixar.

Now Streaming on Disney+ in the U.S