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Inside Out - how does your brain work?
Puzzle is an amazing animated film by Pixar studio. Firstly, because it tells about such a complex system as the structure of our brain and psyche, and secondly, because its two parts were released almost 10 years apart, and the second one became even more popular than the first one!
Let's understand how and what is arranged inside this cartoon and the human brain. There is a huge number of symbols, metaphors, references and Easter eggs, so I'll try to highlight the main ones.
Let's understand how and what is arranged inside this cartoon and the human brain. There is a huge number of symbols, metaphors, references and Easter eggs, so I'll try to highlight the main ones.
So, the cartoon tells us about the life of a girl Riley - in the first part she moves with her parents to Seattle from Minnesota, in the second part she goes to a hockey camp. In both parts, she faces traumatic situations that Riley is helped to cope with by the emotions in her head. They are presented to us one by one: as she grows up there are 5 main ones, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. At the age of transition they are joined by 5 more - Anxiety, Envy, Shame, Boredom and Nostalgia.
Their colour coding is immediately noticeable - each emotion has its own colour and peculiarities. And the lighting of each emotion is different. Joy shines brightly, while Sadness is much dimmer. Disgust is even dimmer, and Fear has no obvious glow. Anger, of course, has an impressively hot head when it rages.
One emotion is the leading emotion - in Riley it is Joy, but when we are shown the brain structure of other people, such as her parents, teachers or even animals, we see that the leading emotion can be both Sadness and Anger. Perhaps it depends on a person's temperament, or perhaps it depends on age. Emotions are all similar to their masters, often in hairstyle, and they are also usually all the same gender. Riley, on the other hand, has mixed-gender emotions, perhaps because she's still a teenager and figuring out her self-identity, or perhaps because she's a member of the popular Tomboy trope - the kind of girl who has a lot of muscular features, the kind of "your guy" in the yard. Riley plays hockey, so she's really a bit of a "shirt guy".
One emotion is the leading emotion - in Riley it is Joy, but when we are shown the brain structure of other people, such as her parents, teachers or even animals, we see that the leading emotion can be both Sadness and Anger. Perhaps it depends on a person's temperament, or perhaps it depends on age. Emotions are all similar to their masters, often in hairstyle, and they are also usually all the same gender. Riley, on the other hand, has mixed-gender emotions, perhaps because she's still a teenager and figuring out her self-identity, or perhaps because she's a member of the popular Tomboy trope - the kind of girl who has a lot of muscular features, the kind of "your guy" in the yard. Riley plays hockey, so she's really a bit of a "shirt guy".
Their colour coding is immediately noticeable - each emotion has its own colour and peculiarities. And the lighting of each emotion is different. Joy shines brightly, while Sadness is much dimmer. Disgust is even dimmer, and Fear has no obvious glow. Anger, of course, has an impressively hot head when it rages.
One emotion is the leading emotion - in Riley it is Joy, but when we are shown the brain structure of other people, such as her parents, teachers or even animals, we see that the leading emotion can be both Sadness and Anger. Perhaps it depends on a person's temperament, or perhaps it depends on age. Emotions are all similar to their masters, often in hairstyle, and they are also usually all the same gender. Riley, on the other hand, has mixed-gender emotions, perhaps because she's still a teenager and figuring out her self-identity, or perhaps because she's a member of the popular Tomboy trope - the kind of girl who has a lot of muscular features, the kind of "your guy" in the yard. Riley plays hockey, so she's really a bit of a "shirt guy".
One emotion is the leading emotion - in Riley it is Joy, but when we are shown the brain structure of other people, such as her parents, teachers or even animals, we see that the leading emotion can be both Sadness and Anger. Perhaps it depends on a person's temperament, or perhaps it depends on age. Emotions are all similar to their masters, often in hairstyle, and they are also usually all the same gender. Riley, on the other hand, has mixed-gender emotions, perhaps because she's still a teenager and figuring out her self-identity, or perhaps because she's a member of the popular Tomboy trope - the kind of girl who has a lot of muscular features, the kind of "your guy" in the yard. Riley plays hockey, so she's really a bit of a "shirt guy".
Let's break down each emotion in more detail
The most prominent emotion that is essentially the main character is Joy. Joy is an optimistic, easy-going emotion whose goal in life has always been to make Riley happy. She resembles characters from Japanese cartoons or anime. This is due to the size of her large eyes, the colour and cut of her hair, the shape of her nose, her tall and thin figure, and mostly her face in profile, which is typical of female anime characters.
Joy is the only multicoloured emotion, she has blue eyes and hair that doesn't match her yellow skin. And her aura is blue, which makes a reference to Sadness and means: you can't experience joy if you've never experienced sadness.
Joy is contrasted with two emotions - in the first part Sadness, in the second part Anxiety. And in both cases, she then turns out to be more like her "reflection" than she originally thought.
Joy is the only multicoloured emotion, she has blue eyes and hair that doesn't match her yellow skin. And her aura is blue, which makes a reference to Sadness and means: you can't experience joy if you've never experienced sadness.
Joy is contrasted with two emotions - in the first part Sadness, in the second part Anxiety. And in both cases, she then turns out to be more like her "reflection" than she originally thought.
Sadness is gloomy and moody, preferring to lie on the floor and cry. She might wish she could be more positive herself, but it's so hard for her. Other emotions, including herself, are at first unaware of her role, filed away and not taken seriously. But things change when she colours some of Riley's memories with her blue colour, and afterwards proves to be most useful when travelling from long-term memory. She's best at making friends with new emotions as well.
All this proves that sadness is not a bad thing. After all, there is light sadness, and life is such a thing, in which you can't go from one end to the other without being sad once.
All this proves that sadness is not a bad thing. After all, there is light sadness, and life is such a thing, in which you can't go from one end to the other without being sad once.
Fear is an anxious and paranoid emotion whose main job is to keep Riley safe. He spends most of his time thinking about potential dangers. His colour is fillet.
Disgust is a sarcastic individual with a weak stomach and a green colour. She prevents Riley from being poisoned, both socially and physically. In the first part in the Russian version, she was voiced by Ksenia Sobchak.
Anger is a red, irascible and explosion-prone (literally) emotionist with a fiery spirit. He is very passionate about making things fair for Riley.
Disgust is a sarcastic individual with a weak stomach and a green colour. She prevents Riley from being poisoned, both socially and physically. In the first part in the Russian version, she was voiced by Ksenia Sobchak.
Anger is a red, irascible and explosion-prone (literally) emotionist with a fiery spirit. He is very passionate about making things fair for Riley.
Memory orbs usually show what emotion triggered a particular memory. And at the end of Part 1, as Riley became more emotionally complex, we see that many of the memory orbs became multi-coloured, indicating that Riley can look back and feel joy and sadness, anger and disgust at the same time, and so on.
Anxiety is the brightest of the new emotions that appear in the second part. It's bright orange, very twitchy, and it immediately takes over the remote control, as if to block out all other emotions, which is very true: by giving in to anxiety it's as if we're allowing it to crowd out all other feelings.
Anxiety repeatedly demonstrates its ability to come up with unrealistic sequences of events and consequences throughout the film. These hypothetical scenarios are what guide Riley or any other person who succumbs to anxiety. Fun detail - when Anxiety gets nervous, she calms herself down by drinking a cup of tea. It's even called Anxi-TEA. Anxiety was the most difficult emotion to develop.
Anxiety repeatedly demonstrates its ability to come up with unrealistic sequences of events and consequences throughout the film. These hypothetical scenarios are what guide Riley or any other person who succumbs to anxiety. Fun detail - when Anxiety gets nervous, she calms herself down by drinking a cup of tea. It's even called Anxi-TEA. Anxiety was the most difficult emotion to develop.
While in Imaginationland, Joy also shows a penchant for unrealistic fantasies, but they are, expectedly, more optimistic. As I said, Joy and Anxiety are mirror characters, so they both try to shape Riley's sense of self by controlling which memories are allowed to create beliefs based on what they think is best for Riley. At the climax of part two, they both realise that they can't choose who Riley is and allow all of her memories to form a new Self-perception.
Envy is the smallest emotion whose colour is turquoise. So it's clear why she's always jealous. In the original version, by the way, Envy had a twin sister Jealousy, but then they did a study and found out that they are different emotions after all.
Ennui - moping or boredom, as her name translates from French as some combination of both of these feelings, was the easiest to produce. Her colour is a dark, greyish indigo, and she's not holding a phone, as one might think, but a small remote control that serves to remotely control Riley's emotions. Which, by the way, makes a lot of sense, because if we're moping, she can easily override everything else.
Ennui - moping or boredom, as her name translates from French as some combination of both of these feelings, was the easiest to produce. Her colour is a dark, greyish indigo, and she's not holding a phone, as one might think, but a small remote control that serves to remotely control Riley's emotions. Which, by the way, makes a lot of sense, because if we're moping, she can easily override everything else.
Shame has a pink colour, a very small role and yet quite a big heart - he's the one trying to help the blocked emotions back into Riley's head.
And the very cool appearance of Nostalgia, who everyone is always dismissing. From the trailer, by the way, it seemed that it will be one of the main emotions! But no. It's also a popular trick to make trailers so that they can't be believed 100 per cent.
And the very cool appearance of Nostalgia, who everyone is always dismissing. From the trailer, by the way, it seemed that it will be one of the main emotions! But no. It's also a popular trick to make trailers so that they can't be believed 100 per cent.
The Aesop
Dark does not mean bad.
Emotions that are often considered "negative" are just as important and necessary for a harmonious life.
Without Sadness there is no Joy, and suppressing emotions will lead to panic attacks rather than success.
Emotions that are often considered "negative" are just as important and necessary for a harmonious life.
Without Sadness there is no Joy, and suppressing emotions will lead to panic attacks rather than success.
What other entertaining things are going on in Riley's inner world?
Let's look at the structure of the world in which emotions live. The mind is a separate world, each part of which controls a specific part of the brain. Every human being is organised in roughly the same way.
Headquarters is where emotions reside. From there, they sense everything Riley does and control her reactions through the centre console. The décor in different people's heads varies from person to person. The centre of Riley's mother's head is rounded light furniture, while the centre of her father's head is a high-tech cave.
Memories are shaped like coloured balls that are created each time an emotion affects Riley's behaviour. Short-term memories are stored within the walls of the headquarters. At night they are purged and sent to a seemingly endless field of shelves for long-term storage. The most important are the core memories that are stored in the headquarters and islands of the Personality Force and are the basis of what a given mind values most. For example, a happy memory of playing hockey as a child gave Riley a lifelong passion for the sport.
Headquarters is where emotions reside. From there, they sense everything Riley does and control her reactions through the centre console. The décor in different people's heads varies from person to person. The centre of Riley's mother's head is rounded light furniture, while the centre of her father's head is a high-tech cave.
Memories are shaped like coloured balls that are created each time an emotion affects Riley's behaviour. Short-term memories are stored within the walls of the headquarters. At night they are purged and sent to a seemingly endless field of shelves for long-term storage. The most important are the core memories that are stored in the headquarters and islands of the Personality Force and are the basis of what a given mind values most. For example, a happy memory of playing hockey as a child gave Riley a lifelong passion for the sport.
There are various Islands of Personality around the perimeter of Riley's consciousness, including the Imagination Land amusement park where she has her dreams, the Dream Productions film studio where dreams are created, and the mentioned but unseen areas of language, different kinds of thinking, and so on. They lose colour if the memories that produced them are missing.
Old or unwanted memories fall into the Memory Dump, the wide chasm between HQ and the rest of Riley's mind, where they grow dim and eventually disintegrate.
Thoughts are presented as a train and brainstorming as a hurricane of light bulbs.
At the beginning of part two, Riley's Self-Awareness appears, a macguffin that will be the main battle behind. It is an object consisting of her core beliefs. Joy holds carefully selected memories that allow her to consider herself a good person. When Anxiety takes over, it sends the basic emotions to the back of the mind, forming a new Identity, but in the end, as in the first part of the cartoon, a harmonious personality emerges only through the combined efforts of all the emotions.
Old or unwanted memories fall into the Memory Dump, the wide chasm between HQ and the rest of Riley's mind, where they grow dim and eventually disintegrate.
Thoughts are presented as a train and brainstorming as a hurricane of light bulbs.
At the beginning of part two, Riley's Self-Awareness appears, a macguffin that will be the main battle behind. It is an object consisting of her core beliefs. Joy holds carefully selected memories that allow her to consider herself a good person. When Anxiety takes over, it sends the basic emotions to the back of the mind, forming a new Identity, but in the end, as in the first part of the cartoon, a harmonious personality emerges only through the combined efforts of all the emotions.
What other interesting facts, tropes and stylistic devices do we see in the cartoon?
Artistic Shift: As Joy, Sadness, and Bing-Bong go through stages of thought, each stage simplifies them more and more until they become simple figures.
Some very cool jokes appear in the closing credits and beyond:
- In one early scene, three-year-old Riley is crying because her stuffed toy has had its head ripped off. As Joy, Sadness and Bing-Bong pass through Imaginationland, they witness the destruction of the Museum of Soft Toys, which is replaced by the same plush hero whose head comes off in exactly the same way.
- Early in the film, a car is stuck in San Francisco traffic, and Wrath notices that all the honking drivers are "[his] kind of people." The closing credits show the mind of the bus driver, whose emotions are all clones of Rage in different colours with a ton of red memories.
- Riley jumps from chair to chair, imagining that there is lava between them. Later, emotions have to cross that lava with the chairs floating in it.
- Riley's teacher from Part 2 fantasises about the very Brazilian helicopter pilot that Riley's mum still sometimes thinks about.
- When Riley first meets the cool girls, Disgust insists that they should be friends with them because one of them uses eye shadow. In the closing credits, you can see this girl's head dominated by her Fear insisting that everyone will realise she's a cheater. The tough girl's Anger insists that this is impossible because "we have eyeshadow". Also, her Joy seems to stand in the background, implying that her status is much the same as the one previously held by Riley's Sadness.
Some very cool jokes appear in the closing credits and beyond:
- In one early scene, three-year-old Riley is crying because her stuffed toy has had its head ripped off. As Joy, Sadness and Bing-Bong pass through Imaginationland, they witness the destruction of the Museum of Soft Toys, which is replaced by the same plush hero whose head comes off in exactly the same way.
- Early in the film, a car is stuck in San Francisco traffic, and Wrath notices that all the honking drivers are "[his] kind of people." The closing credits show the mind of the bus driver, whose emotions are all clones of Rage in different colours with a ton of red memories.
- Riley jumps from chair to chair, imagining that there is lava between them. Later, emotions have to cross that lava with the chairs floating in it.
- Riley's teacher from Part 2 fantasises about the very Brazilian helicopter pilot that Riley's mum still sometimes thinks about.
- When Riley first meets the cool girls, Disgust insists that they should be friends with them because one of them uses eye shadow. In the closing credits, you can see this girl's head dominated by her Fear insisting that everyone will realise she's a cheater. The tough girl's Anger insists that this is impossible because "we have eyeshadow". Also, her Joy seems to stand in the background, implying that her status is much the same as the one previously held by Riley's Sadness.
Rule of Three:
Emotions are screamed three times when Riley's family moves in, once for each scene change.
Running Gag:
Gum Adverts. After the mental labourers sent it as a joke, it pops up every time Wrath tries to recall a memory.
Paschals and References:
The large lamp in Coach's office is the same lamp from Pixar's very first short film, Lucas, Junior (1986).
In the second cartoon, the stars on the ceiling in Riley's room are glowing, which she represented in the first part.
There are a lot of references to cartoons, talk shows and films. For example: the rat looks a lot like Remy from Ratatouille, the control centre inside Riley's mum is a parody of talk show sets, mainly The View, when Joy and Sadness go through Imaginationland, you can see the board game "Find Me" with cartoon Nemo on it, the Dreams Productions movie poster "I've been falling in the pit for a very long time" is based on the classic Vertigo movie poster. And so on, a great many references you and I, as speakers of another culture, won't even understand.
Interrupted Arc:
The final scene of the first film and "Riley's first date?" kind of establish that Riley is dating Jordan, the boy who has a crush on her. Jordan doesn't appear in this film, but he is in Rushmore, which depicts Riley's crush in Imaginationland.
Emotions are screamed three times when Riley's family moves in, once for each scene change.
Running Gag:
Gum Adverts. After the mental labourers sent it as a joke, it pops up every time Wrath tries to recall a memory.
Paschals and References:
The large lamp in Coach's office is the same lamp from Pixar's very first short film, Lucas, Junior (1986).
In the second cartoon, the stars on the ceiling in Riley's room are glowing, which she represented in the first part.
There are a lot of references to cartoons, talk shows and films. For example: the rat looks a lot like Remy from Ratatouille, the control centre inside Riley's mum is a parody of talk show sets, mainly The View, when Joy and Sadness go through Imaginationland, you can see the board game "Find Me" with cartoon Nemo on it, the Dreams Productions movie poster "I've been falling in the pit for a very long time" is based on the classic Vertigo movie poster. And so on, a great many references you and I, as speakers of another culture, won't even understand.
Interrupted Arc:
The final scene of the first film and "Riley's first date?" kind of establish that Riley is dating Jordan, the boy who has a crush on her. Jordan doesn't appear in this film, but he is in Rushmore, which depicts Riley's crush in Imaginationland.
Cultural Translation:
The Japanese version replaced Riley's most hated food broccoli with green peppers and visually changed the broccoli scenes. This is because green peppers are better known in Japan and are considered the equivalent of broccoli in terms of the most despised food by Japanese children.
Similarly, the dinner scene in most international versions (with the exception of the Russian, Spanish and French-Canadian versions) shows the emotions of Riley's father watching football instead of hockey.
The Japanese version replaced Riley's most hated food broccoli with green peppers and visually changed the broccoli scenes. This is because green peppers are better known in Japan and are considered the equivalent of broccoli in terms of the most despised food by Japanese children.
Similarly, the dinner scene in most international versions (with the exception of the Russian, Spanish and French-Canadian versions) shows the emotions of Riley's father watching football instead of hockey.
The Rage papers not only have funny headlines ("No Dessert!"), but also subheadings worth paying attention to ("Experts agree dessert is good").
During Riley and Wing Wong's game of Spotify, you can see an abacus with beads of the same colours as the memory balls. It is also present in Imaginationland.
In the house of cards in Imaginationland, there is a "King" card that looks like Riley's dad, a "Queen" card that looks like her mum.... and a "Riley" (R) card that looks like Riley herself.
The wagon they climb into after Riley wakes up has the abbreviations of the various personality islands embossed on it (HKI = Hockey Island, etc.).
During Riley and Wing Wong's game of Spotify, you can see an abacus with beads of the same colours as the memory balls. It is also present in Imaginationland.
In the house of cards in Imaginationland, there is a "King" card that looks like Riley's dad, a "Queen" card that looks like her mum.... and a "Riley" (R) card that looks like Riley herself.
The wagon they climb into after Riley wakes up has the abbreviations of the various personality islands embossed on it (HKI = Hockey Island, etc.).
There was supposed to be a gag in the film where the main emotions visit the Land of Procrastination. But it was cut because it didn't fit the pace of the film. Also, the scene where the old emotions are locked in the vault was cut due to time constraints.
What was your favourite part of Puzzle? Write in the comments, what would be your main emotion in your Control Centre? I think it would be Joy, along with occasional Anxiety. And you?
What was your favourite part of Puzzle? Write in the comments, what would be your main emotion in your Control Centre? I think it would be Joy, along with occasional Anxiety. And you?