Wildcard Wednesday || Digging Into Inside Out

Greetings everyone and thank you for stopping by for another edition of Wildcard Wednesday! I would like to apologize for not posting on my scheduled day last week. I was caught up with work (worked 11 straight days at one of my jobs and worked double at the Disney Store on some) so I really didn't have a lot of spare time. For today's topic I would like to talk about my recent viewing experience of Inside Out.

Since this is about Disney Pixar's recent release I would like to remind you all that the following content represent my own views/opinions and are in no way affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

20 years of film making and Disney Pixar has shown that they still have what it takes to create original and magical content for fans of all ages to enjoy. Pixar definitely made it up to their fans for skipping out on 2014 by giving us a mind-bending treat with Inside Out in 2015, their first of two for this year. (The Good Dinosaur coming in November)

Not watching the movie during opening weekend and listening to people's reactions helped me prepare for the experience I was going to jump into. For many Guests I talked to throughout my shifts working at the Disney Store, they raved about the roller coaster of emotions from laughing to crying, beginning to end. I was also really surprised how deep the story got as the movie progressed. 

I might dig into some parts of the story, but I'm going to try to keep the main parts of the story off the books for those of you who have not had the chance to watch it yet. There are a lot of things that you can absorb throughout Inside Out, as an adult I was able to enjoy more of the small tidbits that the animators added into the mix. Young kids may not understand some of the abstract concepts that revolve around how Disney Pixar constructed how the mind works, but they can still enjoy the dialogue and character interactions.

One very unique and subtle thing that was not included in Inside Out that most films do have is the concept of a villain. You might think this as odd without watching it, but the story really drives on Riley's emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust) and their own differences to create conflicts that a typical villain would. Usually a villain would have a certain characteristic or knowledge that gives them an edge over the hero in order to defeat him/her. In the case for Inside Out, it is in Riley's emotions best interest to keep her happy and safe throughout her life. However, we begin to learn how tough it is when Joy and Sadness are no longer there and it is up to Anger, Fear, and Disgust to adjust to those changes. All without a villain.

I'm assuming viewers might have realized this as well, but I began to catch on that Sadness turned out to be the main character rather than Joy. What we want to believe throughout this film is that it is always important that Riley stayed happy, which is what Joy is mostly responsible for. 

**SPOILER ALERT**

Riley and her family undergo a huge change in their life by moving from Minnesota to San Francisco. From the beginning, Riley's emotions made it their goal to keep Riley happy throughout this transition. As things turn sour and eventually to Riley's emotional breakdown we understand that we all go through tough times in our lives. Sometimes we go to that unhappy place and you can't help yourself. You can't help, but cry. And you know what? That's okay. We can't always be happy all the time. Situations happen where you might need to shed a few tears. You might feel lost, scared, or angry. Crying is okay. Letting Sadness take over is okay. And that's what Joy realizes at the end of the film. She tried to convince us in the beginning that keeping Sadness away from everything else would make things better, but you can't ignore that emotion.

You don't have to watch the entire film to be familiar with what I'm going to talk about. All you need to do is watch one of the Inside Out Teaser where Riley and her parents are at the dinner table and her mom is asking how her first day of school was. You'll notice that when we zoom into the mom's head all of her emotions are women with brown hair and glasses just like the mom. And when we zoom into the dad's head all of his emotions are men with mustaches. However, for Riley's emotions...Joy and Sadness have blue hair, Disgust has green hair, and her emotions are mixed boy and girl. I'm not sure if Disney did this on purpose just so that Riley's emotions stand out compared to all the other characters, or if there is a underlying assumption that since Riley hasn't reached puberty she doesn't know her preferences yet...so as we grow older and mature our emotions start to change appearances based on our personality. I don't know. Maybe I'm just overthinking it. Maybe it's just a coincidence. What do you think?

Lastly, I mentioned earlier that the animators created some fun concepts on how our mind works and I just wanted to list some of the small tidbits they put into the movie:

• Special memories are also known as "core memories" and they make up our personality by the creation of "personality islands"
• Core memories can change. Just like how our personalities can slightly change as we grow older and more mature
• At the end of the day, our memories are stored into long-term memory. 
• "Forgettors" are in charge of throwing out memories that seem old and out-dated (they turn gray/black while they are stored in long-term memory)
• Our dreams are constructed by actors interpreting past memories. And sometimes those actors can be really bad

I hope my little review about Inside Out has convinced you to watch it if you haven't already or you're wanting to watch it again because it's such a good movie. My brother and I are thinking of taking my mom to watch it. I'm pretty sure she'll enjoy it. I might watch it for the 2nd time just to catch some of the traditional easter eggs Pixar likes to put into their films. I was so blown away the 1st time around I didn't really pay close attention to easter eggs. Anyway, that's all I have for you all for this week's edition of Wildcard Wednesday.

Catch ya next week!