Inside Out

Inside Out

The film Inside Out focuses on 11-year-old Riley, who’s happy life was changed when her parents suddenly announced they would be moving from the Midwest to San Francisco. Riley’s emotions play a huge role in the film as they follow her and try to guide the tween through this life changing move. Within the movie, the audience is introduced Riley’s five different emotions: Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness. These five emotions play a pivotal role in Riley’s life throughout the movie. Joy, being Riley’s main emotion that is constantly at the forefront and seen as the strongest emotion Riley possesses in the beginning. After the move to San Francisco, the emotion of sadness eventually takes over as Riley deals with a new school, meeting new people and losing old friends. Sadness takes over to an extreme extent, in which Riley starts to lose her core memories, which were pivotal happy moments that made Riley who she is a person.

Inside Out would be more of a challenge for a younger child around age 2-10 to cognitively process. The content of movie focuses on humans core memories and the psychological point of view when dealing with emotions. Riley and her emotions were constantly struggling to get along, after making the move and losing some of her core memories that made Riley happy. With Riley’s losing her core memories and going through a big move, Riley’s emotions try and keep her under control, she fights every attempt they make. With such a drastic change in her life, this is where her emotions play a crucial role in helping her adjust to a new school, home and making new friends.

Due to developmental differences in children such as possible versus plausible (Farrar, 2017), a younger child might be more focused on the fact that there are talking characters living in someone's brain. They would understand, however, the characters themselves. A child between the ages of 4-10 would understand the different emotions. The child may not understand the complexity of these emotions and the role they play in Riley’s life,  but the child would understand the surface-level attributes of the characters who play Riley’s emotions. An older child would not be focused too much on the films illustrations, as they know colorful talking characters in someone's head are not real. An older child around 10 years and older, will be more interested in the storyline of the film and how emotions work together in personality makeup.

In addition, a younger child might have trouble understanding the film due to information processing (Farrar, 2017). With the film being complex, pertaining to storyline and vocabulary usage. There are multiple plots going on throughout the film. These plots include Riley move to San Francisco, Riley’s emotions battling among each other, Riley losing her core memories, Riley understanding her emotions, and  Riley’s parents struggling with their own emotions. The films aesthetics might make it easier for younger children to process.  For instance, whenever sadness took over a memory it turned blue. When Riley started losing her core memories the memories went from a fun vibrant ambiance to dark and dull.Through the use of light and vibrant colors for happiness and dark for negative things, younger children might know what connections are being made between the emotions and the plot of the movie.

Overall, a young child might visually enjoy the film and understand some basics of the plot; such as Riley is sad because of moving to a new city, and the emotions of  Sadness and Joy struggling to get along with each other, they might not fully understand and gain the overall message and lessons of the film. This film is great for an older child because they have more of an understanding of how to deal with their own emotions and also be more considerate towards others and their emotions.  A younger child is slated to learn a great lesson on the science of memories, feelings, and emotions. With parental mediation, a young child would be able to learn and have an understanding of their emotions and other people’s emotions. Inside Out would be a great movie for parents and children to watch together because it will give the opportunity for the parent to help their child understand how emotions work. The main messages in this film were good for potential effects on healthy behaviors and attitudes.  The overarching theme of the film is that people will not be happy all the time, but they should find a balance between their emotions and learn how to rationally handle various life situations. Inside Out is a movie for all ages, with vibrant colors, life lessons, and a fun feel on how to deal with your emotions, making it an all around great movie! This is definitely a movie to watch with your kids, by yourself, or with other adults.

References

Farrar, K. (2017). Media Violence. [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from                     https://lms.uconn.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_1218841_1&course_id=_27516_1