Quick Review of the Movie Inside Out (from a Mother's Point of View)

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Hello Mommies!

Last Saturday, me and my family had the chance to watch Inside Out (hooray for the loooong weekend!).  I can't let this movie passed with my kids not having to watch it.  It has gained a lot of excellent reviews and is still one of the top grossing film not only in the Hollywood but also around the globe so I think it must be a watch-out movie.



The Plot: (Sourced from Wikipedia)
A girl named Riley is born in Minnesota, and within her mind, five manifestations of her emotions—Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger—come to life. The emotions live in Headquarters, Riley's conscious mind, where they influence Riley's actions and memories via a control console. Her new memories are housed in colored orbs, which are sent into storage at the end of every waking period. The most important or "core" memories are housed in a hub in Headquarters and power five "islands", each of which reflects a different aspect of Riley's personality. Joy acts as the dominant emotion to keep Riley in a happy state, but she and the others do not understand Sadness's purpose.
When Riley is 11 years old, her family relocates to San Francisco after her father gets a new job. Joy becomes concerned when Sadness begins touching happy memories, causing them to turn sad, so she tries to keep Sadness isolated. However, on Riley's first day at her new school, Sadness accidentally causes Riley to cry in front of her class, creating a sad core memory. Joy attempts to dispose of the new core memory before it reaches the central hub, but she accidentally knocks the other core memories loose in her struggle with Sadness, shutting down the personality islands and making them unstable. Before Joy can put them back, she, Sadness, and the core memories are sucked out of Headquarters through the memory tube leading to the rest of Riley's mind. They end up in the labyrinthine storage area of Riley's long-term memories and set out to return to Headquarters.
Anger, Disgust, and Fear attempt to maintain Riley's emotional state in Joy's absence, but inadvertently distance Riley from her parents, friends, and hobbies, resulting in her personality islands slowly crumbling and falling into the Memory Dump, an abyss where faded memories are disposed and forgotten. Anger inserts an idea to run away to Minnesota into the control console, believing they can produce new happy core memories there. Meanwhile, Joy and Sadness find Bing Bong, Riley's childhood imaginary friend, who is desperate to reconnect with her. He tells them they can get to Headquarters by riding the train of thought. After exploring different areas of Riley's mind, the three eventually catch the train, but it derails when another personality island falls.
As Riley prepares to board a bus bound for Minnesota, Joy attempts to use a "recall tube" to return to Headquarters, but the last personality island falls and breaks the tube, sending Joy into the Memory Dump along with Bing Bong. While despairingly looking through old memories, Joy discovers a sad memory in Riley's life that becomes happy when her parents and friends come to comfort her over losing a hockey game, causing her to realize Sadness's true importance: alerting others when Riley needs help.
Joy and Bing Bong try to use Bing Bong's discarded wagon rocket to get out of the Memory Dump, but after several failed attempts, Bing Bong realizes their combined weight is too much and jumps out and fades away, allowing Joy to escape. Joy uses various tools from Imagination Land to propel herself and Sadness to Headquarters, where they find that Anger's idea has disabled the control console, rendering Riley depressed and apathetic. At Joy's urging, Sadness takes control and successfully removes the idea, reactivating the console and prompting Riley to return home.
As Sadness reinstalls the core memories, Riley arrives home and breaks down in tears, confessing to her parents that she misses her old life. As her parents comfort and reassure her, Joy and Sadness work together to create a new, amalgamated core memory that creates a new personality island. A year later, Riley has adapted to her new home, and all her emotions now work together to help her lead a content, more emotionally complex life as she ages, with an expanded control console and additional personality islands produced by new core memories comprising multiple emotions.

My take on the movie (from a Mother's point of view)
May contain some spoilers if you haven't watched it yet 
  • The movie had an excellent animation.  It evidently captures the attention of the kids.
  • The movie did a great job on revealing the different kinds of emotions.  It clearly shows how one emotion differs from another that a child can undoubtedly understand and identifies.  For example: Joy always had this positive aura and reaction whatever happens.  She carry this even in the saddest circumstances while sadness continuously feel very low which manifested everytime she cries.  On the other hand, fear always had this second thought in everything which makes him scared in all of the things that he does.  Angers obviously resorts to anger to sort things out while disgust had this distaste in everything that is presented to her.
  • The movie clearly pointed out that it is OKAY to feel sad, stressed and depressed once in a while.  That sadness is not wrong but it is the way we react and respond to it that defines an act if it is wrong or right. 
  • Though it is good to always look at the bright side of things, we should not also ignore the fact that sometimes, it is in our saddest stage that we were able to clearly reflect and sort things out.  In my personal experience, it is when I am at my lowest point that I find hope and space in my heart to move on than pretending to be happy and make believe that everything is well even if it is not.
  • The movie also tells us that accepting and acknowledging our weaknesses and downsides help us to become better individuals instead of rejecting it or having too much pride.
  • The movie is best for kids ages 10 and above.  Why? Because there is a deeper message at the back of those emotions presented which will not be totally understood by younger kids.  I brought with me my two kids ages 7 (Gabo) and 5 (Yani).  Although Gabo quite understood the events in the story, he still needs more explanation from us to totally grasp the cause and effect.  For instance, Gabo cannot understand why I cried (Yes, I cried haha) when Bingbong disappeared. He still cannot comprehend yet the meaning of sacrifice.   On the other hand, Yani constantly asks questions at me (why this, why that). In other words, she cannot relate.  It is totally understandable for she's only 5. But I like that she responds to every emotions that was being portrayed.  For me, it is already enough that she was exposed to the versatility of our feelings and personalities.
In general, I will rate Inside out with 8 out of 10 (as 10 being the highest).  A very touching movie indeed. Please be sure that you (parents) personally accompany your child while watching the movie.  It is important to let the processing came from us because the story evolves in a family setting with lots of love, compassion, parenting and even real family issues were also portrayed.  Do not hesitate to whisper or talk to your kids when something needs to be explained during the film.



There yah go! Happy viewing guys!








About Mastermom Speaks

Hi! I'm Ma. Celin Mendoza but Celin will do. I'm a peace worker, youngest daughter, entrepreneur, contented wife, devoted and meticulous mom of 3 June's and a DIY addict!!! This blog will be your ultimate partner in crime when the going gets tough =) Want to do something interesting together? Shoot me an email to: macelinmendoza@gmail.com

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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 09, 2015

    nice review celin and your kids are lucky to have you as their mom...keep posting what inspires you as a mom. cheers!

    ReplyDelete

Hello, I'm Celin!

Hi! I'm Ma. Celin Mendoza but Celin will do. I'm a peace worker, youngest daughter, entrepreneur, contented wife, devoted and meticulous mom of 3 June's and a DIY addict!!! This blog will be your ultimate partner in crime when the going gets tough =) Want to do something interesting together? Shoot me an email to: macelinmendoza@gmail.com

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