Hey everyone! So recently I saw the new Pixar film, Inside Out, with my family and my friend Paris. I’m a huge Pixar fan, so I was really excited to see this movie! The concept of Inside Out is really unique, and I can honestly say I have never seen a movie quite like this one! The whole idea of our personal feelings being turned into cartoon characters just seemed so creative and cool to me!
Now, before I begin to review this movie, I would like to preface this by saying that I always try to view things from a politically correct standpoint. So, although there were a lot of things I did like about this movie, I some things in this movie to be pretty problematic.
First, I’m going to talk about the things I didn’t like about this film. One of the main characters, Sadness is portrayed as a fat nerd who wears thick glasses and mopes around feeling sorry for herself throughout the majority of the film. Now, although a lot of these things do make sense because of what this character is supposed to be like, I definitely feel that Sadness did not have to be fat. The fact that she is fat reinforces many negative stereotypes about fat women. Like, what is Disney trying to say, that fat girls should just mope around feeling sorry for themselves all the time, being the outcast in their friend group? Another thing I did not like about this film is how when we see the feelings in Riley’s parents’ minds, they reinforce a lot of gender stereotypes. The feelings in Riley’s dad’s mind are all super masculine, while Riley’s mom’s feelings are very feminine and more intuitive. Although we only see the parents’ feelings in one scene, a scene that is meant to be very funny, their stereotypical tendencies are definitely something to think about.
Now, on to the things that I did like about this film. I feel like this movie did a great job of showing just how important each and every feeling is. We definitely were able to see how important it is that we recognize all of our feelings instead of just the ones that are easy for us like joy. I am really glad that I have seen quite a few discussions about mental health and the importance of valuing our feelings, because of this movie. I personally thought Anger was hilarious! He was so extreme when he was angry you could not help but laugh! My mom and I came to the conclusion that if Anger were a real person he would be George Costanza from Seinfeld, since Costanza is so bitter throughout the show. As far as the acting goes, I really liked all of the voices of the characters. Amy Poehler was the voice of Joy and Mindy Kahling was the voice of Disgust, which I thought was really cool! I am a huge fan of both Poehler and Kahling. I also definitely feel that this movie did a great job of keeping a good balance between serious moments and comic relief.
So, overall, I really liked Inside Out despite its many flaws. I wouldn’t say this movie is one of my all-time favorites, but I would definitely pay to go see it again. If any of you have seen Inside Out, feel free to let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!
