The new animated movie, Inside Out (2015), has the effect of instructing us that human beings are truly important.
This is not only because of their emotions—the inner being of the little girl Riley contains Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger, all personified—but also because (unlike animals) they have in their minds Abstract Ideas and are perfectly capable of critical thinking. The latter is not reified in the film, but the former—Abstract Ideas—manifests itself when Joy and Sadness briefly lose their three-dimensionality. See the movie and you’ll understand what I mean.
We are also told about the human subconscious—rather a letdown, this, since we don’t even know if the subconscious exists. . . But Inside Out in toto is no letdown. It’s delightful. It’s not merely for children; it may not be for children at all. They do laugh at it, though: I heard them in the audience. One is obliged to point out that it is funny as well as deeply moving apropos of the need and love for family.
A moviegoer is unlikely to undervalue human beings, or human life, after seeing this smart Pixar film.
