If you are more an audio-visual person, I have the video version for you:
Ah inside out… Who doesn’t love Inside Out? A movie about emotions, that can make adults cry…
For me personally, Inside Out has been the best disney-pixar movie ever released. I love the combination of creativity and science! (This film is basically a study of neuroscience for kids.)
Maybe we haven’t really study about emotions as much as we did before we watch this movie. We didn’t think emotions would have their own headquarters, the central system behind human processing.
The headquarters was actually a limbic system, the place in our brain to process emotions. Joy, sadness, anger, disgust and fear.
And there’s a whole other universe about that area. Island of personality. There’s hippocampus, a place to store memories. And a place about abstract cognitive thinking. Dream production, and subconscious nightmare. This movie is legitimately sciene.
But aside from the scientific facts!
There’s one scene from the movie that stand out for me the most. We all know that Riley coming home scene was the endgame here, and Bing Bong’s death is the close second (or the other way around). But, let’s see one overlooked scene that has the most deep message:
When Bing Bong cries.
Watch the scene closely.
As you see, Bing Bong is sad because the rocket he used to play with Riley when she was a child is getting thrown away to the pit of forgotten memories.
It is such a devastating event for Bing Bong because he really care and love Riley so much since she was a child. And now he’s on the verge of being forgotten, completely forgotten. Isn’t that sad?
But look what Joy did… Joy was trying so hard to made him feel okay because all Joy cared about is to saved Riley. Bing Bong was the one key role that can help her, but when he cried, she thinks he’s slowing down the journey. “Nobody had time to be sad.” She thought.
But Bing Bong, like all of us — despite him being a “cat-elephant-dolphin cotton candy” — has emotions too. When he saw his rocketship being thrown out by the memory worker, he needs time to process it. He has planned so many things to do with Riley as soon as Riley remembered him again. But now, that plan looks nothing more than just a dream.
And what Joy did was:
- Tickling
- Silly faces
- She stopped trying and reminded him about the Train station again.
Obviously Joy is not the right friend to console a sad friend.
And who can? Basically, the Sadness itself!
What Sadness did was:
- Gives sympathy
- Reflecting his emotions
- Validating emotions
With that only, Bing Bong finally cried his tears of candy! And because tears has the protein to make us feel better (despite it being a candy) Bing Bong are ready to continue the journey!
That one scene there. Is enough to teach us about compassion and sympathy.
But why can’t Joy do that? It’s not because Joy doesn’t want to. It’s because Joy doesn’t know how to! Joy, of course never knew what it’s like the sadness to be forgotten. She’s doesn’t have the capability to feel that way.
Sadness, as annoying and negative as she is, as much as we avoided and disliked to feel sadness, it’s the emotions that we need for human connection.
When you see someone’s sad, and you’ve felt sad before. You understand how they feel, you know what the pain feels like, and because of that you can make them feel better. You know what to say and what not to say to them, basically you know how to comfort them. And that’s just a powerful human’s connection that can be created out of that!
I love this scene so much, it taught me a lot on how to treat people :)
I hope I can see more of this on so manmovies in the future ❤️
