Recently I went to see the most raved about disney film of the moment Inside Out. I was absolutely captivated by it, the complexity of the themes conveyed in such a simple yet significant way was downright perfect.
If you haven’t seen the film it is an innovative creation that conveys the importance of the different emotions through animation. It is set inside a young girl named Riley’s mind and her 5 main emotions joy, sadness, anger, disgust and fear are all tiny little characters in her head. As big changes occur in her life and she grows up the emotions try to balance themselves to keep her happy.
Without giving too much of the story away it’s a a beautiful story with a message, the film discards the emotion sadness, they try to shove her in a corner and keep her away because they’re are convinced she will cause destruction. During the whole film Joy is constantly trying to minimise and contain sadness however as she faces many obstacles, she soon learns that sadness has a huge part to play within the emotions.
There’s a particular moment in the film where Bing Bong the imaginary friend who is a character in Riley’s mind, is erased from Riley’s memory, Joy tries to cheer Bing Bong up by being positive however Sadness wanders over to him and tells him that she understands, she lets him cry on her shoulder. Signifying that sadness can’t always be covered up by positivity, sometimes understanding sadness is important.
As enjoyable as these new style of Disney films are, they actually provide an important message. Looking back films such as The Little Mermaid and The Jungle Book, yes they were fun to watch and provided good entertainment, but they weren’t as poignant and thought provoking at the films they release nowadays.
Frozen for example was a phenomenon, it quite literally took over the world, children (and adults) everywhere became obsessed with it. As much as I loved the music, the storyline and the characters in the film. What resonated with me the most was the message, Frozen emphasises the importance of sisterhood.
If you’re crazy enough not to have seen the film already, Anna becomes frozen by a curse and can only be healed by her true love, her “boyfriend” kisses her and she doesn’t heal, then when her sister Elsa holds her hand she magically unfreezes and returns back to her normal self. Anna spends the whole film seeking approval from her sister Elsa and finally at the end she receives that.
It wasn’t the typical Disney princess film about love, it stressed the importance of family and remaining close to your sisters.
Even Brave which came out a couple of years ago, it defied the stereotypes of Disney princesses. It was about independence, feminism and women standing up for what they believe in which is what living in 2015 is all about.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the classic films but there is something I admire about the new Disney films, I love their ability to relate to people of all ages because of the messages they project.
So I urge you to go and see the masterpiece that is Inside Out and I’m excited for more influencial Disney films in the future.
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Loved the film Inside Out, it made me think more about how I was feeling at a particular time any why.