Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. The emotions live in headquarters, the control centre inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in headquarters. Although Joy, Riley’s main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.
Set inside the head of Riley, Inside Out explores the developing emotions of a young girl. The main characters are Riley’s emotions. All of them work in perfect harmony at the beginning of the film, but when Riley’s parents decide to move and Riley is suddenly without the security of her friends and home, Joy is suddenly overrun by the others. After a desperate bid to stop the changes, Joy and Sadness are lost in Riley’s head as the other emotions take charge. The film follows Joy and Sadness’ journey back towards the control centre of Riley, as well as demonstrating the importance of acknowledging all of our feelings.
In this clip, Riley is having dinner with her parents. With Joy and Sadness gone, Jealousy, Fear and Anger are left in charge. Rather than embracing their own emotions, they decide to try and act like Joy. What follows is both amusing and poignant as Riley struggles to understand what is going on inside her. An amusing side plot in this clip is seeing inside Riley’s parents’ heads and their emotional reaction. After showing the clip, break into small groups and discuss:
• Is anger only a bad emotion?
• Do you ever feel like you have different emotions fighting to be in charge? Which ones do you let win most often?
• Do you think it’s true that teenagers have more trouble understanding their emotions?
• Have you ever had an experience where you’ve felt one emotion dominate for a long time? How did you allow other emotions back in?
Read Ephesians 4:25-32 and discuss:
• What does this passage imply about anger?
• What do you think are the key qualities we should be striving towards, according to the passage?
• Is this passage setting unrealistic expectations for Christians?
• What could verse 32 look like practically?
Inside Out is a superb film that deserves to be seen by anyone. If you have an opportunity, why not watch the whole film together?
