Disney’s Inside Out: A Movie - Or A Plausible Tool To Explain Mental Health To Children?
Disney was always a big part of my childhood, in terms of its beautiful storytelling, and captivating heroes and heroines. Since before I can even remember, we had a TV in the back room which became a source of comfort for young Meg; my early moments of understanding the world around me. Disney videos were full to bursting in a wooden cabinet, awaiting their turn to enchant me with their bedtime story essence - from pirates in Peter Pan, to mermaids in The Little Mermaid, and lions in The Lion King.
Before I watched Inside Out, I already had pretty poor mental health. Post-pandemic and post-university, life just appeared that little bit more bleak than it should’ve been. As a lively and optimistic person ‘inside AND out’, I just couldn’t process how life had suddenly turned on its head. I then realised that people can turn on each other inside their own heads too - albeit a constant threat of war within your own mind.
When Inside Out had first been released in 2015, it is sad to admit that I didn’t immediately race to watch it. The Disney films I grew up with just didn’t seem to emulate the same ideas of fairy tales and castles, so I gave it a miss. One miss I sincerely regret.
Before securing a job working for Disney Cruise Line, I realised I still hadn’t watched the movie. This became especially pressing when, upon researching the ship for my interview, I noticed that they had a themed gelato and candy store called Joyful Sweets, dedicated solely to emulating all the core characters in the film.
I therefore made it my mission to watch the movie in its entirety.
The main protagonist, an 11 year old girl named Riley, comes across as this typical American pre-teen character, experiencing troubled thoughts and feelings due to her move from the comforts of her home in Minnesota, to the big city of San Francisco.
Despite having a female lead, which in my eyes, is fabulous for a Pixar movie, I think we can all resonate with her personality and some of the challenges she has to face. The story depicts Riley’s core emotions, including Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear and Disgust.
Having a focus that is universal across every person on the planet, allows us to scope in on normalised approaches to thought and feeling. In this case, we can accept how they interact within her own mind.
Whilst a Disney Pixar movie has to, on the surface, be fun and exciting for its younger audience, if you look deeper into the storyline, we can learn so much about mental health. So much so that it doesn’t surprise me to find reviews online that call the film ‘a movie for our mental health’ or states that the sequel ‘changed therapy’..’
We are finding more reasons to inform us and our children about the struggles to balance our own mental wellbeing, even if it is inexplicit in its approach.
Inside Out 2 is an exciting sequel to the first movie, due to featuring new emotions - Anxiety,
Ennui (Boredom), Embarrassment and Envy. Whenever I talked to my guests about the movie, particularly about the second one, as it was released in June 2024 during my second contract, nearly everyone admitted to resonating with the movie’s cute and clever depiction on handling our inner self’s thoughts and feelings during tough and difficult times.
The Walt Disney Company stated in an interview about the film that they wanted to provide entertainment, most importantly, but they also wanted to equip viewers with tools to visualise these abstract ideas, and answer mind-boggling questions about how memories work - especially for younger audiences.
Yes, Pixar has created a film with laugh-out-loud moments and imaginative ideas, but what it really does, more than that, is depict the reality of what it is to live. It takes a risk - and uses a young person as their main character - and in doing so, invites older viewers to confront the fact that mental health can plague us from a young age. Moreover, for the younger viewers, it gives one important message - it is normal and okay to struggle. It gives shape to these scary abstract emotions.
I couldn’t possibly pin down every single factor that you could take from watching this brilliant movie, but the two important ones for me which I have taken into my healing journey include…
It is ok to feel down. Sometimes you just won’t feel as optimistic about life as you may want to. All the positive mantras that you may read whilst scrolling on Instagram, or echoes of voices from generations before us informing us that we are ‘lucky to live the life we live’, can become overwhelming. People don’t like to always be around people who are feeling sad or depressed, but Sadness is an emotion we can’t run away from. When life throws you a curveball, it’s perfectly ok to feel negative emotions, as long as you can see the good in each day. The juxtaposition between the characters Joy and Sadness, really shows how this plays out in real life. Joy visually represents happiness and always tries to see the good in everything, and attempts to dictate the best possible outcomes for Riley. However, she realises Sadness is a natural emotion, allowing us to cope with many situations we will face in life.
And secondly, true happiness and artificial happiness don’t go hand in hand. I am sure many of us are guilty of putting on a front and showing we are happy on the outside, but not really feeling this on the inside. We perceive emotions like Sadness, Fear and Anger as negative emotions, and ones that should be hidden away, in comparison to Joy. Despite Joy showing excitement and positivity throughout, you also see another side to her as she controls her life. The film serves to show us that all emotions need to work together to get us through tough times, and in order for humans to be truly happy in themselves, you need to look deep within. We need to allow ourselves to feel all emotions we need to, rather than hiding them away and pretending.
Settling into a new environment, especially one that is literally in the middle of nowhere, was very scary for me. I felt all of the emotions presented in Inside Out, but I made sure I gave myself time to process it all, and move forward in the right direction.
In the end, I believe this animated movie and sequel gives a clear message to its viewer: we need to let ourselves feel ALL our emotions - whether that be joy or sadness. Feeling anxiety, fear and shame is the reality of being human. But we can always take warmth in the fact that, even when things are hard, there will always be Joy sitting right next to our Sadness.
Written by Megan Evans
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