While the plot, nominally, is about 11-year-old Riley adjusting to a new life in San Francisco, the real action of Inside Out happens inside her mind, where we see her various emotions control her actions and memories slot into place. Her brain is inhabited by five emotions: the green, opinionated ‘Disgust’, the red and liable to explode at any minute ‘Anger’, the scrawny purple ‘Fear,’ the blue mopey ‘Sadness’ and Joy, the selfappointed leader of the group, who looks weirdly similar to Tinker Bell and has made it her mission in life to ensure Riley is happy at all times.
What other emotions could it feature?
While Inside Out features five main emotions, which other characters could have been included?
STUBBORNNESS
‘Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.’
CREATIVITY
‘That painting is lovely, but next time you could consider doing it on paper rather than the wall.’
‘NOT-QUITE-THERE’
‘Sorry, I wasn’t listening, but do you a think a child will ever be born who can swim faster than a shark?’
SCREAMING FIT
‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.’
What does it mean?
As children’s workers, we’re quite often fixers. We see a problem in a child’s life and bound in, children’s work manual in hand, ready to sort out whatever they’re facing. Yet we’ve all faced situations where this hasn’t worked. One aspect of the fruit of the Spirit IS joy, but that’s not the full extent of it. Sometimes we need to sit with children in grief, sadness or empathy. Too often our approach as a Church, as children’s workers, as friends, is to promise that everything is going to be OK. Inside Out reminds us that to be human is to embrace all of our emotions, and it is only by grasping them all that we can share in the humanity of others. Inside Out is a must-watch for anyone that interacts with other humans or has ever felt any kind of emotion. It’s beautiful and profound; watch it, cherish it, reflect on it and let it shape you.
