Jeremy’s Tophunder №57: Inside Out

7 min readJun 23, 2020

Let’s talk about depression.

We all kind of know what depression is, roughly how it’s defined by experts, and how it manifests in a practical sense. Some of us know people who have suffered from depression, and some of us have unfortunately suffered from bouts of depression ourselves. It’s not exactly a popular topic of conversation, but I think at this point most people understand what depression is and how its symptoms are exhibited.

Inside Out isn’t a movie -about- depression. That would be taking too narrow a look at the movie. But speaking as someone who has experienced depression, and studied it from a therapeutic perspective, I would say that Inside Out is the most realistic depiction of depression that I’ve ever seen in a movie.

What was so amazing about it was that it portrayed both the internal processes that cause depression and the external symptoms that the world can see. If another movie has attempted to show both of these things simultaneously, I’ve never seen it. Not only that, but all of this was explored by an animated movie geared towards kids and families. I suppose you could argue that Disney and Pixar have explored themes of greater weight (like the death of parents, for example), but I would say that they’ve never explored themes that are as heavy and also as common as depression.

I would argue that Inside Out is Pixar’s most important movie, and probably the most important “children’s” movie, maybe ever. Plenty of movies feature themes of growth through adversity and overcoming obstacles. But Inside Out is one of the only ones I can think of that basically comes out and says not just that growth is possible through adversity, but that adversity is *necessary* for growth in the first place.

And beyond even that, just think of the practical value that the movie has in giving kids (and parents) workable, relatable vocabulary to talk about their feelings — their fear, their anger, their sadness, their disgust — that they might not otherwise have. In working with kids over the last seven years, I’ve found that one of the most prominent roadblocks to social success for kids is an undersized emotional vocabulary. Some kids act out all the time, and have no idea why. (For the record, some adults do, also.) Some kids withdraw into themselves and don’t even realize they’re doing it. Just about every kid on the planet will go through a stretch where they can’t control or even fully understand their emotions. Providing them with a framework to think about and discuss those issues is so vitally important, and Inside Out did it in a way that actually resonates. Sure, it’s somewhat reductive and over-simplified, but for a 9-year old, it’s just about perfect.

It’s fantastic that the world and the country are slowly but surely starting to move away from the idea that emotions are personal and shouldn’t be discussed with others. But as fantastic as it is, it does come with a price. To some extent, the more we as a society discuss emotions openly, the more there is a trend towards doing everything we can to eliminate the “negative” ones. Perhaps too often, we conflate “feeling depressed” with actual factual Clinical Depression. One of those things greatly benefits from and borders on requiring medication and ongoing treatment. The other does not. I’ve been guilty of this myself at some points. But one of the results of conflating the two is a growing popularity of the idea that any ongoing feelings of sadness and depression can be (and perhaps needs to be) corrected by medication and treatment. That part isn’t true.

In Inside Out, Joy doesn’t understand what value Sadness has in the development of Riley’s life. Fear keeps Riley safe. Disgust hones Riley’s tastes and parts of her personality. Anger comes in handy when Riley plays hockey. But what does Sadness do? Joy doesn’t realize until it’s almost too late — Sadness allows for catharsis, one of the most powerful and impactful human emotions. Sadness can commiserate and empathize with others. Sadness (in the movie and in our own lives) is an incredibly important emotion. It’s not one that we should be trying to squash out, but one that we should be trying to explore and delve. There is so much that we can learn about ourselves and so many opportunities for growth when we examine the sources and causes of our sadness and sit with them, giving them space to breathe and exist. Ultimately, it’s Sadness that saves the day — when Anger and Fear and Disgust reach a point where Riley can’t feel anything, it’s Sadness that brings her back. And in doing so, Riley’s core memories, that were once all curated by Joy, suddenly are more complex, tinged with hints of different emotions. That’s the kind of growth that is so important in adolescence — the realization that it’s the sum total of your emotions and experiences that determine who you are, not just the ones you like.

Director Pete Docter backs me up on this, saying in an interview, “In America, you read about people medicating to avoid sadness. They don’t want to experience sadness, and yet it’s such a vital part of being human.” We see sadness as an inherently negative emotion, but I’d argue that no emotions are inherently positive or negative. They’re all contextual, and they’re all inter-connected. They all have value at different times, and they all tell us something about ourselves when we experience them. The value of our emotions comes from their balance — no one emotion should dominate our life, even if it’s a “positive” one.

There’s one other element of Inside Out (and a few other Pixar movies in general) that I really enjoy, and I can only really approach by asking a question.

Who is the hero of Inside Out? And who is the villain?

While you’re pondering that question, ask yourself the same two questions about Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

Is it possible that for all three of those movies, the hero and the villain are one in the same? In Toy Story, Woody is the protagonist and de facto hero, but he’s also the one who gets jealous of Buzz, pushes him out the window, and has to fight his way back into the good graces of his friends. In Finding Nemo, I would again call Marlin the protagonist and de facto hero, but he constantly doubts and undermines both Nemo and Dory, and it’s his own inability to trust others that causes most of the conflict of the movie. Inside Out is much the same way — Joy serves as both hero and villain. She, like Marlin, doesn’t trust or understand the contributions of her companion, and like Woody, balks at the idea that anyone else knows what’s best for their person.

To some extent, this isn’t uncharted territory. There are plenty of movies where the shortcomings of the main character drive a substantial portion of the plot, even in movies that have clear antagonists. But for the most part, movies geared towards kids and families tend to have very obvious good guys and bad guys. Inside Out is one of the rare instances that doesn’t, and I love it. It presents a much more interesting story where everyone is acting in good faith, but the conflict is still compelling. It forces us to confront the idea that you can believe you’re doing the right thing and still be wrong. Again, it’s a rather heavy theme for an animated movie, but I think it’s clear at this point that Inside Out isn’t a typical “kid’s” movie.

I love Inside Out because of its wonderfully original premise, and how it uses that premise to present incredibly important and valuable themes. While it’s obviously not the most iconic Pixar movie, I think it will ultimately be remembered as one of the most resonant and culturally important Pixar movies in history. There’s a part of me that actually thinks it should be shown in schools, with teachers providing context and facilitating a conversation about how to talk about and process emotions. But that’s obviously rather ambitious. For now, it’s just my 57th-favorite movie of all time.

(For a refresher on the project, I introduced it in a Facebook Post on Day 1)

Here’s our progress on the list so far:

2. A Few Good Men

3. The Social Network

4. Dazed and Confused

5. The Shawshank Redemption

6. The Fugitive

7. The Dark Knight

8. The Departed

9. Saving Private Ryan

10. Inglourious Basterds

11. The Big Short