Inside Out

[anon]

This one came out a while ago. The Internet says it's both awesome and sad (have deliberately avoided reading more details), so I plan to watch it on a cinema when I get the chance.

[yoco]

Heard good things about this one! Almost beat Jurassic World!

[anon]

I watched it yesterday. Don't want to give any spoilers, so I'll be brief.

The movie gives a really good account of how emotions and thought work, and how growing up and facing hardships affect and mature both. Also, there is no antagonist, because using a villain to drive the story wouldn't have fit well - the struggles depicted ultimately come from within.

The Internet may have hyped this one a bit, but I strongly recommend it.

[slikrapid]

do you ever wonder what is going on inside someone elses's head?

sure, the answer is simple: similar to what happens in your head, just involving different subjects and with different intensities, nuances, angles or ranges of thought

- joy in the beginning?

i'd go for uncertainty/confusion/curiosity - notice that the baby is warmly tucked in and cozy - there is your reason for joy

- sadness after 33 seconds?

didn't jesus die at 33? so some writer may be playing with symbols here, implying how life is joy and afterlife sadness (when viewed from the materialist side)

- fear is very good at keeping you safe?

more like: at keeping you paralyzed or unstable

- disgust keeps you from being poisoned?

not really, it represents aversion towards something, regardless whether it may be toxic to your body or not

- anger is about things being fair?

wold you say people act in fair ways while being angry or upset? didn't think so, they tend to exaggerate or go overboard - what was here meant by fairness is that anger is a dualistic counterpart to happiness/joy and that these two are balanced out

- the buttons?

they represent automated body reactions when experiencing certain emotions, this may be connected to the phrase: 'pushing your buttons' - it speaks of the body as an automated/mechanical system, just what can be expected from things originating in the materialistic realm/universe

- most of your memories are happy ones?

more likely: most of them are relatively indifferent, whereas the more intense ones are better remembered
also, i'd call them pleasant memories, which is not necessarily the same as happy
furthermore, notice how all pleasant feelings end up with an unpleasant ending as they fade away and vice versa (when unpleasant feelings decrease in intensity into a more neutral area), ie. none of them come alone, they are always arriving in (dualistic) pairs, whereas the neutral area may represent the 3rd member (result?) in this equation

- core memories are more important?

all memories are equally important, they are simply memories and each one has its particular importance for some segment of one's life, they are a part of the whole, whereas the whole would be incomplete and dysfunctional without any one of them
in the movie, core memories are basically those more intense memories mentioned above

- more intense memories are the base of your personality? you are your personality?

more intense memories may play a role in attracting you towards them or repeating them in order to experience them again, that aspect within that you enjoy or desire, forming attachments (or addiction) to them

all of these may form a personality, but this personality is an impermanent one that keeps changing constantly throughout one's life simply because all of it changes with time and thus cannot remain a constant or cannot represent a safe haven, you cannot be sure of its strength or permanence - this is what is called a false ego, an idea of yourself based on impermanent values, based on materialistic elements that eventually experience internal change, having an illusion of stability

example: you are a happy person, you experience some life crisis, you become an addict, your life is ruined, your previous personality has changed into something very unpleasant that you wish to run away from - even if you manage to escape or conquer the addiction, your personality will be changed and there is no way back to that previous state you were in so you'll keep being sad when thinking about that past period of happiness

your true personality is your true self, not dependent on any materialistic event or constellation, not dependent on time or changes appearing throughout time, it is beyond the influence of time & space, it is the true goal of your life, it is a constant, it is that permanence or safety or home you're searching for

why the search? because you cannot live in an illusion forever, you have a core need to find out the immutable truth about who you really are and live (within) that truth once you realize it - that is your true home, where you truly belong, which can be reached only by releasing all attachments to any and all kinds of impermanence (which means to any and all things that may be labeled as materialistic or appearing only within the materialistic realm of experience)

so in conclusion: you think you are your current personality, or that this personality is something that changes constantly - yet you want it to stop changing once you manage to adapt to it or live with it, yet it won't listen and it keeps changing, and you keep chasing or adapting to it - in order to be released from this seemingly never-ending cycle you need to look for that which is always permanent and unchangeable, you need to search for and find eternal values, for only such values have the capacity to be proper fundamentals that will never ever crumble or wither, no matter the situation you may experience


returning to the review...

notice how the little characters are internally inconsistent:
- fear is joyful when a day ends without dying, he is relieved when not fearing?!
- joy is worried when other emotions take their turns or when external events become unpleasant
- anger is joyful when watching other angry people
- joy is not being joyful about all things, she simply changes the subject (distraction) as soon as others start complaining
- sadness is feeling bad about herself being sad?! she can ruin the child by her actions?
- disgust helps joy in finding joyful events instead of being disgusted with them
- joy reprimands sadness instead of being joyful about it?
- joy has to handle all of them on her own, whereas normally all of them come in twin pairs


- emotions seem to have a mind of their own and seem to be controlling riley without any really individual input from riley, thus riley is basically a puppet of its emotions and a victim of the external influences

whereas in real life, the individual is a conscious entity (consciousness) that attaches itself to a false ego concept formed by living an earthly personality (the consciousness falsely thinks to be identical to that concept, that personality), experiencing emotions that are aligned with the characteristics of that false ego - the individual basically desires emotions that are adequate to the false ego role or personality, thus attracting exactly those emotions that it wants! this is what is meant by saying: 'you're the architect of your destiny' why? because that which you desire really arrives to you, but it is additionally dependent on the materialistic constellation of things and their internal laws of operation, as well as all other beings present in the universe - in other words, life really is what you make it (what you desire), within the materialistic limitations of what can be done at any given moment

so you, as this consciousness or conscious spiritual entity, are only a puppet if you desire to play a puppet, get it? the body does not rule you, the emotions do not rule you, the mind/thoughts do not rule you, they simply arrive according to what you desire, according to the role you want to play, to the false ego you attached yourself to, to which you have identified yourself with, since you didn't know any better while you were growing up, possibly also because the people surrounding you also weren't aware of it themselves

is this normal? yes, that is how consciousness operates in the material realm: by experiencing and attaching your identity with a (temporary) false ego, until you throw away all false notions, and what remains is the absolute/permanent truth about your identity - then you don't need any more false roles or this materialistic realm (which isn't capable of offering anything permanent because of its impermanent nature), ie. you found your true, permanent identity (true self), which you can live to the fullest without any negativities or external limitations (what is meant by experiencing 'bliss')

also, emotions do not fight internally, they simply arrive as logical outcomes of current situations (deterministic)
the same goes for thoughts, which change as the conscious focus moves between things of interest, also as logical outcomes of current situations
the same goes for the body, whose behavior represents logical outcomes of current situations


only 8 minutes in the movie? ouch, i better keep it shorter, much shorter, eh?


9'
the little girl is wearing a top with colors that remind of the gay movement, which might be sending a message of 'gay is okay', even for very young developing children?

11'
- dad just left us, he doesn't love us anymore? - talk about exaggerating things :facepalm:

- what kind of a pizza place serves only one kind of pizza? the movie kind

- crying helps to obsess about the weight of life's problems?

huh? crying helps to release the burden of worries and such, when they become too much to hold/bear, it also appears in emotional situations (empathy) or in moments of joyful relief when things turn out right (tears of joy)
also, rain is a symbol for cleansing, as it washes dirt away
sadness is a symbol of longing for the afterlife, or more correctly for the eternal or eternity (which the material realm cannot offer, as it is itself not eternal or permanent)

18'
- what did we do to deserve you? asks the parent

the answer is: essentially the same she did to deserve them as parents - their desires led them to each other, as a perfect match for what they wanted to do

- riley's imaginary friend to the rescue? looks like a pretty desperate solution, where another personality is formed from the subconscious to handle problems that the usual communication cannot handle (notice the lack of honesty between the parents and the child, they keep avoiding issues or discussing situations in advance, only when there are emotional outbursts do they start thinking about such things)


insert random action here, then some unconvincing drama and finally the imaginary friend sacrificing himself basically to rescue riley (perhaps in a clumsy attempt to say how one needs to let go of any imaginary friends eventually), but since that was not enough, it took dozens of her (imaginary?) boyfriend keanu's clones to help out in a mass sacrifice of sorts

on the positive side, it shows how all the emotions actually work for riley (in her best interests), how honesty, communication and support pays off well within a relatively normal family

in the end, as much as it raises interesting questions, the movie is also quite annoying with overcrowded dialogue and constant complaining of the involved characters, not to mention often a backward view of human life essentials, which is a view popular in the west, so they could obviously use some (ancient) wisdom of the east, to get a better understanding of what their life is all about