Inside Out
Pixar Animation Studios
Film released 2015
Directors: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen
Writers: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen,
Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley, and a couple other peeps
Starring: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith,
Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias
Rated: PG
SPOILER
WARNING! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK! SERIOUSLY! ALL THE SPOILS!
Grade:
5/5
I’m back! Did ya miss me? Well, I missed
you. Where else am I supposed to channel all of my suppressed inner queer child
feels? Speaking of feels (perfect segue?)…let’s
take a big queer look at Pixar’s newest installment in their hopelessly lost
and miraculously found series: Inside Out!
If you live in a box in the middle of
nowhere, then you probably don’t know what the movie is about. I’m here to help
all the poor queer misanthropes out there.
Our
story begins with Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), a happy little girl who
lives in Minnesota, loves hockey, her family, her friends, and lives a pretty
darn joyful tomboy life.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! |
Cue the actual subject matter of the movie: Riley’s
inner emotional life, literally. Pixar introduces us to Riley’s emotions: Joy
(Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black),
and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). Joy is the ruler of Riley-land and she’s loving
life bossing around the other emotions and making sure Riley stays – you guessed
it – joyful.
Left to right: Anger, Disgust, Joy, Fear, Sadness |
That is until Riley’s parents decide to uproot and move to San
Francisco for Dad’s new job with a startup. The move throws Riley’s emotions
totally out of whack and Sadness starts to challenge Joy’s chiefdom, which she
does not take sitting down. When Sadness touches a core memory (I would explain
this but it’s complicated and you should just watch the movie dumdum) and it
turns from a joyful memory to a sad memory about missing her old life in Minnesota,
chaos ensues leading to Joy and Sadness getting accidentally ejected from
headquarters and they end up between the shelves of Riley’s long term memories.
Riley is left without the ability to feel either Joy or Sadness and Anger,
Disgust, and Fear can’t hold down the fort. Joy and Sadness meet Riley’s old
imaginary friend, the awesome BingBong, and try their darnedest to get back to
headquarters before Riley runs away from home!
They can't tell I'm running away to a spoken word open mic, can they? |
Okay, whew, that’s the basic
plot. Let’s get into the queer stuff.
First! Major points for female representation! We have not one, not two,
but THREE female protagonists (depending on how you categorize protagonist in
this movie)! We’ve got Riley herself, Joy, AND Sadness all presenting as
female. This movie is only Pixar’s second with a female protagonist (Brave was
the first, duh) and they’re going whole hog this time a-round. Despite most of
the story and writing team being almost entirely male (ugh, Pixar, get with the
program already), the female characters are complex, well-imagined, and all
around relatable depictions of women. You go Pixar!
Second. There’s been a lot of internet talk about how gender factors into
the movie. We get a sneak peak at some of the emotional inner life of the other
characters in the movie (primarily Mom and Dad, but there are a ton of others
too) and the genders of everyone’s five primary emotions seem to align with the
characters' genders, except for Riley’s. For Riley, Joy, Sadness, and
Disgust are female while Anger and Fear are both male. People have taken to the
internet to discuss what this means. Is Riley trans? Queer? Genderfluid? Genderqueer?
Non-binary? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!? Well, I hate to burst your hopeful little queer
bubble but here’s a quote on the topic from the one and only Mr. Director Pete
Docter, courtesy of the IMDB trivia page:
When
asked about the genders of the emotions, Pete
Docter said, "It
was intuitive. It felt to me like Anger's very masculine, I don't know why ...
Sadness felt a little more feminine and Mindy
Kaling as Disgust felt
right ... with Mom and Dad, we skewed them all male and all female for a quick
read, because you have to understand where we are, which is a little phony but
hopefully people don't mind!"
Womp
womp womp...But I still think there is hope! Docter is basically saying that he only made everyone else's emotions one gender because of exposition...But I
think it’s actually way more nuanced than that, even if he doesn't know it. But I don't completely agree with the discussions happening
online either.
Disclaimer: This opinion is mine and mine alone as a cis gender woman who does not have a mental illness. Please feel free to chime in with your opinion if you disagree with the following theory.
That said, here’s my take:
I have found that my gender identity is not at
all tied up in my emotional life. My emotions have a much stronger connection to my
gender expression rather than my identity.
I am and always will be a tomboy. I am happiest when I get to live comfortably
within that expression. I am unhappy when I’m forced out of that comfort zone
and, for example, am forced to wear a dress, skirt, or anything like that.
Gender identity and gender expression are two totally different things. I am a
woman but I tend to wear mens clothing. That doesn’t make me trans*, that makes
me a tomboy, as per my personal preference for that label. I am a female and I
am a tomboy. That identity and that expression are not contradictory or in
conflict, they actually compliment each other quite nicely. I think that the
genders of Riley’s emotions represent femininity vs masculinity instead of
female versus male. Riley’s emotions are personifications of concepts and
concepts inherently have no gender. They are actually genderless (so they are
actually, technically non-binary). But they present
as either feminine or masculine. Rather than her emotions representing
Riley’s gender identity, I think they are a manifestation of her gender
expression, aligning with her clearly identifiable tomboy proclivities. Riley
is a girl with a slightly masculine expression, that’s why 2/5 of her emotions
present as masculine. As for the other characters, their emotions’ gender
ratios align with their gender expressions. Mom dresses femininely and her
emotions are all female presenting; dad dresses masculinely and his emotions are
all male presenting. This idea applies to all the characters whose emotions are
shown, even the dog!
Okay, there’s a lot to unravel in there. I’m
gonna leave it at that for now cause I could write a thesis on that topic
alone.
Moving
on. This is a big one: mental health. This movie is
basically a giant PSA for kids that growing up is hard and it’s okay to feel
your feelings, even when you are sad, or mad, or happy, or scared, or disgusted,
and that KIDS’ FEELINGS ARE LEGITIMATE. So often kids’ emotions are disregarded
because young people are just that, young. But young people are also people with rich inner emotional lives.
And because kids are also people with these huge inner emotional lives, they
also need to take care of their mental health, the same way adults should.
Riley can’t function properly or process the huge change that is going on in
her life because she can’t feel either Joy or Sadness. Both are equally
important. And Joy’s journey throughout the movie, coming to accept that Sadness
is a necessary part of Riley’s emotions is SO IMPORTANT. Everyone needs a good
cry every once in a while, am I right? This movie is putting mental health
front and center in an incredibly accessible way. I really hope this helps kids
who are depressed and have serious mental health issues identify what is
happening to them and get them to seek help, knowing that it’s okay to talk
openly about their feelings.
You're future looks...sad |
And last but certainly not least, THEY MADE A TASTEFUL EXPLICIT GAY JOKE!
I can’t remember the exact quote but
Fear says something about being scared of bears attacking Riley, and the other
emotions are like, “there aren’t any bears in San Fransisco,” and Anger says
that he saw a bear walking down the street earlier and I almost died of shock/happiness/laughter.
This joke was 1) hilarious, 2) super casual and nbd, and 3) AN EXPLICIT GAY
JOKE IN THE MIDDLE OF A HUGELY GROSSING PIXAR MOVIE THAT MILLIONS OF KIDS ARE
SEEING AROUND THE WORLD! This. Is. Huge. And while the joke will most likely go
over most kids' heads, parents will certainly catch it and that’s enough for me.
One small step for gays, one giant leap for gay-kind.
MVQ:
BingBong. He’s my hero. Also, his flying wagon is
powered by rainbows, which is just the best thing Pixar has ever thought up.
BingBong BingBong |
OTP:
Joy and Sadness. The perfect yin-yang. They’d make
a well-balanced couple, maybe?
Favorite
Moment: I lol’ed so hard when Sadness, Joy, and
BingBong were in the abstract thought chamber. That was some seriously funny
intellectual humor and I’m a total sucker for nerdy stuff like that. I’m
really glad they put that in a kid’s film.