How can you make a movie about the play of emotions in a young child's mind? Well it seems you can and successfully too. All the pundits who keep saying - it's too much internal stuff and not enough external stuff - go take a hike fellows. Use some imagination.
So we get into the mind of a young eleven year old kid, Riley, and meet five of her major emotions - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. Joy assumes leadership and believes that Sadness might just be destabilising all the good work that she is doing to keep Riley happy. The five emotions live in Headquarters of course and control Riley through a console. Headquarters is connected to five personality islands - family, honesty, friendship, goofball and hockey(?) - and they are fueled by our emotions.
Riley has had a happy time in Minnesota playing ice hockey, having a fun time with friends etc etc. But her world gets derailed when the family moves to San Francisco. Joy is challenged in the process as Sadness touches a crucial moment on Riley's first day at school. Fear, Anger, Disgust get into the act. Riley gets isolated, disconnected from school and family. The five islands start falling apart - goofball, honesty, friendship. Terrible danger is ahead for Riley. It all seems to be Sadness's fault. But is it?
The way our emotions take over and how they create havoc is shown so well that even seven year old Anjali got it. ("It's about feeling all your emotions. It's ok to feel them" she said.) More importantly the idea that one must feel feelings, be it sadness or whatever, to return back to stability is shown so well. In the destabilised state Joy realises that only when Riley feels her sadness can she come out of her unhappiness. Now where's that console? We all need to feel all our emotions. This movie might just heal and connect people back to reality.
There are so many complex ideas that are shown so well too - there is a descent into the subconscious, an abstract thought comes up, a favorite childhood fantasy, deepest fears, forgotten memories in a memory dump, core memories, a dream production house, a train of thought. If it were a novel you'd think Salman Rushdie wrote it - it's so clever. Watch watch. I might want to watch it again and see if I can get another insight into the whole thing. Super stuff.
So we get into the mind of a young eleven year old kid, Riley, and meet five of her major emotions - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. Joy assumes leadership and believes that Sadness might just be destabilising all the good work that she is doing to keep Riley happy. The five emotions live in Headquarters of course and control Riley through a console. Headquarters is connected to five personality islands - family, honesty, friendship, goofball and hockey(?) - and they are fueled by our emotions.
Riley has had a happy time in Minnesota playing ice hockey, having a fun time with friends etc etc. But her world gets derailed when the family moves to San Francisco. Joy is challenged in the process as Sadness touches a crucial moment on Riley's first day at school. Fear, Anger, Disgust get into the act. Riley gets isolated, disconnected from school and family. The five islands start falling apart - goofball, honesty, friendship. Terrible danger is ahead for Riley. It all seems to be Sadness's fault. But is it?
The way our emotions take over and how they create havoc is shown so well that even seven year old Anjali got it. ("It's about feeling all your emotions. It's ok to feel them" she said.) More importantly the idea that one must feel feelings, be it sadness or whatever, to return back to stability is shown so well. In the destabilised state Joy realises that only when Riley feels her sadness can she come out of her unhappiness. Now where's that console? We all need to feel all our emotions. This movie might just heal and connect people back to reality.
There are so many complex ideas that are shown so well too - there is a descent into the subconscious, an abstract thought comes up, a favorite childhood fantasy, deepest fears, forgotten memories in a memory dump, core memories, a dream production house, a train of thought. If it were a novel you'd think Salman Rushdie wrote it - it's so clever. Watch watch. I might want to watch it again and see if I can get another insight into the whole thing. Super stuff.
1 comment:
Wow, the review surely leaves me wanting to watch the movie. Will do it. Thanks !
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