Inside Out movie review

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We took most of our children to see this movie last week.  Can I just tell you that it was amazing?  I loved the movie, loved the message, loved all the psycho-emotional drama and even cried during and animated movie, and I'm not even pregnant!!

Drew and I previewed it one day with Sport.  The next day, Sport, Scuff, and Sun saw the movie.  Then a few days later when he didn't have class, Speedy, Shorty and I went to see it.  Sport and I got to see it twice, and I would go again I might add.

As a psychology nut, part of what I loved about the movie was recognizing the interplay of our emotions.  And personally, I am very much Joy, and think she should be in charge all the time.  I have trouble acknowledging Sadness and letting her have her day.  In fact, in my life, I have to make time for her because otherwise I can keep myself totally busy always trying to let Joy have the spotlight.  This movie spoke volumes to me personally.

As for my children, Sport needed to see it twice because he is studying animation and he just enjoyed looking at the movie from the technical details.  Shhhhh don't tell anyone, but he did shed a tear or two during the first viewing.

I have another kiddo, Shorty, who lets Anger be in control all the time.  If Joy isn't in charge in his life, Anger is manifesting itself.  It was super important for him to see the movie so he could recognize that the other emotions are in there and think about what he is feeling, how, and why.  It was also significant for him to see that Anger is simply masking deeper emotions, like hurt, or fear, or sadness.  Before he watched the movie, I gave him a list of questions I wanted him to think about during the movie.  Yes, I actually gave him movie homework.  True story.  Here are the questions I wanted him to consider:

• What emotions did they label?
• What other emotions do you have that they did not label?
• How did Riley behave when Anger was in control?
• What happens when Joy tries to be in control all the time?
• Why is it important to let Sadness be in control sometimes?
• What happened to Riley's thought train when she made a bad decision?
• What did Sadness say her purpose was? (Crying helps me to slow down and obsess over life's problems.)
• Can Joy fix everything?
• Why did Riley need Sadness?
• Why did the console turn black?
• What did the fall of Goofball Island symbolize?

Now, these are not the only questions that you could come up with, but for my child and for what he needed to learn, these are the questions we needed to discuss in helping him to understand the emotions going on in his head and body right now.  Shorty is heading into the beginnings of puberty and like I said before, most of his emotion manifests as Anger---which is simply lovely for all of us.

If you have any children or adults at your house that need a little deeper understanding of their emotional processes with a very non-threatening, enjoyable and entertaining presentation, take them to see Inside Out!

"It's a major Emotion picture!!"  Go see it today! :-)