Inside Out

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.

The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries

Walt Disney Pictures

Film released 2001

Director: Gary Marshall

Writer: Gina Wedkos

Based on the books by Meg Cabot

Starring: Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore, that guy from Brink, Sandra Oh!

Rated: G

Grade:  4/5

Not another TWEEN movie! Let’s take a queer look at that old favorite, The Princess Diaries.

Can you believe this was Anne Hathaway’s big film debut? Neither can I. ALSO JULIE ANDREWS FTW! Btw, did you know that Whitney Houston was a producer on this? Cool, right?

Now that I’m done fangirling over the powerhouse actors in this movie, let’s get on with it.

First, let’s get a few things straight (wink wink). If you were a tween during the late 90s/early 2000s, then you might have been obsessed with the original books series (like me). 

'Sup Meg Cabot

There were a few things that the movie didn’t get quite right that I want to point out quickly. Whether or not they contribute to the movie’s queerness, eh idk, you can be the judge of that. The two biggest things you need to know are 1) Mia’s dad isn’t dead, he was just kind of an absent father until they had to tell her about the whole Princess thing. Ultimate uncool dad move. And 2) the grandmother in the books is actually a horrible human being that Mia hates and she has tattooed eyebrows that gave me nightmares. Ugh. These changes make sense for the movie’s story arc, but what I liked about the original books was Mia’s rebellious, fuck the man, attitude, and she really loses that in the movie. Having her dad die instead of just being absent puts a sentimentality and “excusable reason” on her rebellion, which lessens Mia’s queerness. And the grandmother (if memory serves me, I think she had to call her grandmere?) served as an antagonistic figure on whom Mia could throw her frustrations. As much as I love Julie Andrews, the conflict between traditional norms/the strictures of being royal and Mia wanting to be a normal freaky teenager get diluted.

Anyway, on to the film.

Mia is so very queer. She and her bestie Lily Moscovitz (the awesome and OUT Heather Matarazzo) are outsiders at their high school. 

Who's that dude messing up our bestie pic?

They look at the popular, uber-hetero, kids with admiration and disgust; that particular mixture of feelings only present in the teenage mind when you still gave two fucks about your popularity status (right?). Mia is invisible and weird to her classmates. She pukes during her public speaking class and gets laughed out the door. She’s awkward and clumsy, not to mention the glasses and untameable hair. She’s invisible, crushing on cool-guy-douchebag Josh from afar, wishing she wasn’t queer, and wishing for the popular kids’ normalcy. It’s hard out there for a queer.

But Mia’s got some things going for her. She lives in an abandoned firehouse (LITERALLY THE COOLEST THING EVER) with her artist mom whose idea of a night in is throwing darts at water balloons full of paint, 

Take that patriarchy!

and she works part time at a rock climbing place. Her life isn’t really as bad as she makes it out to be. Despite her frustrations, her queer life is actually pretty cool.

Then, everything changes. Julie Andrews comes to town and tells her she’s next in line for the throne of Genovia. Oof. This little queer girl is a bonafide princess. You can’t get much more normative and traditional than a princess, no matter whether you are talking about fairytales or IRL royalty. The whole movie ends up being about Mia’s identity and her queerness battling the normative expectations closing in on her life.

Here are the two things I want to look at with this.

First, the big beauty transformation. Hellooooooo Anne Hathaway.

bow chika wow wow

What’s telling here is her reaction to the makeover. It makes her super uncomfortable. She gets really defensive when Lily sees her new ‘do. And when she gets to school she doesn’t want to show off her new look, she hides it all under a hat. When someone finally steals the hat off her head, her newfound normative beauty makes heads turn. People start to notice her, but it’s not really what she wants. She doesn’t know what to do now that she’s no longer invisible. She’s lost some of her queerness and she’s having a hard time adjusting. She’s starting to conform to normative beauty standards and it feels weird, unnatural even.

Next, her decision to become a princess (after she tries to run away). I’m not so interested in the whole legacy, father part of the storyline. I want to focus on how Mia eventually comes to terms with her queerness and this new normative world she must navigate.  The defining moment here is when she smears ice cream all over popular-girl Lana’s (Mandy Moore in her early 2000s prime) pristine cheerleading outfit. Mia decides that, after the whole beach party/Josh fiasco, there are parts of the normative world she doesn’t want to participate in. The part that’s frivolous and fake and judgemental and basically just awful. Instead (and after quite a bit of turmoil), she decides to take advantage of the position she has been handed within the normative world. She decides to use her queerness to infiltrate and invade that normative world. She decides to “care about the other 7 billion people out there instead of just [her].” She decides to be an advocate and voice for the people. She realizes how much power she has access to and that she can use that power for good.  I think this is an incredible model for how those with enormous privilege should use their voices to lift up those 7 billion+ people who do not have the same power/resources/rights/etc. You go girl!

As you wish, Julie Andrews

MVQ: Mia’s mom! She’s the coolest. I mean the paint-balloon thing! The firehouse! Genius.

OTP: Lily and Mia. Does a ship name for them exist? Mily? Lia?

Favorite Moment: Mia coning Lana!

The Little Mermaid

The Little Mermaid

Disney Animation

Film released 1989

Directors: Ron Clements & John Musker

Writers: John Musker & Ron Clements

Based on the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen

Music & Lyrics: Alan Menken & Howard Ashman

Starring: Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Samuel E Wright, Kenneth Mars

Rated: G

Grade:  3/5

We’re back to the classics today!

Let’s dive into the deep with this one.

First, we’ve got the walking and talking human world with Prince Eric and his regal cohorts. Then, we’ve got the swimming and fishies of the underwater world, complete with trident.

Queer vs norm is always difficult when we are dealing with two worlds because the main character usually transitions from one world to another. Let’s start at the beginning with Ariel.

Evidence of Ariel’s queerness lies in her love for Eric (it’s kind of creepy stalker love, but oh well), Trident’s reaction to it, and finally Ursula. Let’s break it down.

Ariel is a total misfit amongst her royal mermaid family.  She’s late for her singing debut, she doesn’t hang out with her fellow mer-teens. She’s also a total hoarder. But most of all, she wants to be where the people are. Not mer-people. People-people. She dreams of a place completely out of her reach, outside of her world. She dreams of a home for her queerness.  “Part of Your World” is Ariel’s ode to her queerness and her longing for a place where she can be herself.  

I whip my hair back and forth

It reminds me of the period in my life where I was out to myself and started exploring my queerness, but I was still hiding my L Word Netflix history and hadn’t really come out yet. I collected gay culture, researched, and read anything Google would point me to on “how to be a lesbian,” but I wasn’t actually a part of that world yet.

Side note: I wonder about the implications of a trans* interpretation here, of a girl who grows up feeling like she is somehow in the wrong body; that she should have legs instead of a fin….interesting.

This little piggy went to the gay bar...

And major points to Ariel for taking up the hero’s mantle and saving Prince Eric, her damsel in distress. At first I thought this was really subversive and cool, but taking another look at it, Disney is mostly just abiding by ancient mermaid mythology where the mermaid saves the drowning human-dude. Well, points for sticking to a vaguely feminist history of mythology?

Lose some weight, why dontcha?

On to dear old dad. When King Trident finds out about her secret human love and her collection of bits and bobs and thingamawhatsits, he flips his shit. His reaction to Ariel’s forbidden love (sound familiar) represents old school homophobic ideals that are still very real. This mentality gets out kids kicked out on the street, or in Ariel’s case, left out at sea.

You can't sit with us

And who comes to save her? Ursula. Or, The Drag Mother Supreme. Did you know that Ursula’s character design was modeled off of the noted drag queen Divine?!? Cool, right? 

Weeeeerk

But, she’s another queer villain. Ugh. Again? Disney? I’m getting pretty tired of this trope. At least she has a kickass song? But what’s interesting about her very clear queerness in her animation is that she facilitates Ariel’s transition from the underwater world to the human world.  Ursula acts as a kind of queer guide. While she fulfills Ariel’s queer wish (within the underwater world) to get rid of her fins in lieu of legs, she forces Ariel to maintain a queer status (in the human world) by taking her voice. Ariel’s differently-abled-ness (and obvious cultural naivety) keep her queer. And that’s all Ursula’s doing.

But, despite Ariel’s queerness, her character just completely falls flat in the second half of the movie. 

My bow is as big as my face...

She loses all her agency (not that she had tons to begin with) and drive and the whole thing turns into a bitch fest between her and Ursula as her human alter-ego and the movie gets way less interesting and a little emotionally scarring between the lack of consent in “Kiss The Girl” and Ursula turning into a ship-wrecking monster.

But Sebastian always manages to keep it real.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE

MVQ: First half of the movie Ursula, not human-Ursula or monster-Ursula.

OTP: Sebastian and the French cook. It’s the classic he’s-mean-to-you-because-he-has-a-crush-on-you schoolyard scenario. Except the stakes are a little bit higher.

Favorite Moment: “Part of Your World” takes the cake.