Look Inside

August 3, 2015 by Ray Morgan

Look Inside

8pm on a Saturday night. It had been a warm day, I'd been sea swimming and had a haircut and was feeling good. But instead of, say, getting ready to go out like most people do on a Saturday night, I was crying my eyes out. Not just a few little tears, but proper sobs. Snot and puffy eyes. The whole deal. What was the matter? I was in the cinema watching the new Pixar movie, Inside Out.

OH GOD, THE TEARS. This is a heart-breaking - and heart-warming - film. It focuses on Riley, an 11 year old girl who loves her life in Minnesota where she plays ice-hockey and has lovely friends. Then, all of a sudden, her family moves to San Francisco where there's no snow, no friends, and she feels alienated and lost. But here's the clever part: the film is led by 5 characters inside Riley's head. Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear.

This is basically a film about psychology, covering everything from core memories, abstract thought and dreams to the subconscious and the looming, confusing advent of adolescence (I particularly loved when Joy says "What's puberty? Oh well, it's probably nothing") - however these issues are addressed in a film that is animated for kids, and funny, and sad, and clever - and relatable.

When Joy and Sadness get locked out of Riley's 'mind headquarters' during a particularly awful first day at a new school, she cannot function. She feels nothing. Up until now, life has been simple and easy to understand, but now with growing up and a new life to get her head around, it shocks the poor kid into numbness.

It feels extremely important for this film to be made now, acknowledging mental health issues in a blockbusting animated Pixar film. It speaks more to modern life than the frankly banal Frozen (sorry to all children born since 2005, but I thought it was awful) and will create conversations between children and their parents about what they're feeling, what's going on inside their heads.

Children should never be patronised about emotions and feelings. We all have them, and it's important to talk about the bad ones as well as the good. The film's main message is that sadness shouldn't be ignored; sometimes you need a bit of sadness to work with happiness and create complex thoughts and acknowledge what can be a big and scary world.

I once read a children's book called The Red Tree by Shaun Tan and I loved how it was basically teaching children about depression. It shouldn't be shied away from when you consider that nearly a fifth of adults experience some form of anxiety or depression - and that's just in the UK. The Red Tree explains that some days, you may feel as though life is getting on top of you - illustrated by a girl in a tiny boat on a massive, stormy ocean for example. But on each page is a tiny red leaf, symbolising hope. And right at the end, the character sees a red tree made up of these gorgeous hopeful symbols, and knows she is going to be okay.

Even though I spent my Saturday night crying in the cinema, it was definitely worth it. Go and see this film whether you have children or not - for it is beautiful.

My top 5 Pixar moments

1. The death-metal loving Mom in Monsters University
2. Anything involving Dory from Finding Nemo ("I can speak whale!")
3. Bing Bong and Joy's determination in Inside Out (still not over this)
4. Mr & Mrs Potato Head's squabbling in all the Toy Stories
5. The dogs in Up

Tagged in:

Blog