There’s Inherent Heartache in Growing Up
I love Disney’s “Inside Out” for many reasons, but mostly because it reminds me of both my girls.
I love children’s movies, particularly animated movies of the Disney Pixar variety. My kids aged out of wanting to see these movies exactly nine years ago. In 2015, they were 14 and 11. I know the year because I recall the last animated movie I saw with both of them — Disney’s Inside Out.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I would become obsessed with this movie after my older daughter died in 2017. I clung to that damn movie like a lifeline from 2017 through about 2019.
Some movies inspire me to take a deep emotional dive that I’m compelled to revisit. Inside Out inevitably left me a sobbing, emotional wreck. I subjected myself to that movie repeatedly, like picking a scab.
At first, rewatching it felt like punishment for not being able to save Ana and for being alive when she had died. The fact that it was our last Disney movie likely had something to do with my obsession too, but it was so much more than that.
If you haven’t seen the movie, there are some spoilers ahead.
Inside Out follows the story of Riley, an 11-year-old girl who has just moved from Wisconsin to San Francisco. The…
