Pixar’s Inside Out: 5 Of The Funniest Moments (& 5 Of The Saddest)

Inside Out is one of Pixar’s most brilliant features, in that it’s not only entertaining, but it teaches its audience about what’s going on inside our minds and why we feel the way that we do in many different circumstances. Adults and kids alike can gather a lot of information about themselves while watching what has quickly become one of Pixar’s most celebrated films, being nominated for a plethora of awards upon its release, including a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

This movie about feelings will make you feel a lot, from Joy to Sadness to Fear to Anger, Inside Out gives us a full range of emotions in a very entertaining way.

10 Funny: Baby Riley Gets Her Feelings

At the beginning of the film, we meet baby Riley. When Riley is born, she has one emotion, Joy. Riley sees her parents for the first time with Joy in charge. Quickly, Joy meets her permanent roommates in headquarters. First comes Sadness, on Joy’s heels. Then, as Riley grows into a toddler, Fear moves in to keep Riley safe, followed by Disgust to keep Riley from being poisoned, and then finally, Anger. All of the emotions in headquarters grow with Riley and alternate control depending on the situation.

9 Sad: Riley Has To Move

Riley has a pretty good life, being the only child of two wonderful and doting parents, but things change quickly when Riley and her family move across the country from a small town in Minnesota to city life in San Francisco.

At first, Riley does her best to make the most of it, even after she sees the new, ugly house and the moving truck gets lost and her dad has to dive into work. Riley does her best to keep a smile on her face, but it is a struggle both for Riley and the ones watching her.

8 Funny: Inside Riley’s Parents Heads

Riley and her parents are having dinner and everyone seems to be a bit on edge after the big move. At this point, Joy and Sadness have left headquarters, leaving Anger, Fear, and Disgust in charge, which causes Riley to act unusually. Her mom picks up on this, and at Riley’s mom’s headquarters, we meet her emotions, which look a lot like Riley’s, but they’re older and wearing glasses. Riley’s mom signals Riley’s dad for help, but he’s caught off guard because, as we soon see, at his headquarters, all of his emotions are watching sports.

7 Sad: Sadness Touches A Memory

It’s Riley’s first day of school and her teacher asks her to introduce herself to the class. Riley hesitates but eventually does as she is told. She tells her class her name and where she’s from and her teacher asks her about where she used to live.

Riley starts talking about ice skating and ice hockey, her favorite thing to do, but this joyous memory quickly shifts and Riley starts crying in front of her whole class. Back at headquarters, the group turns to see that sadness has just touched Riley’s hockey memory and has created a sad core memory for Riley.

6 Funny: Riley’s Imaginary Friend

Once Sadness and Joy are out of headquarters and venturing through everything that makes Riley who she is, they get to meet a lot of key players in Riley’s makeup and are also reunited with some old friends. One old friend they are ecstatic to cross paths with is Bing Bong. Bing Bong was Riley’s imaginary friend growing up. He is a bright pink elephant, and possibly part hippo, made out of cotton candy, with a purple-striped raccoon tale, wearing a brown jacket, a tiny hat, and fingerless gloves.

5 Sad: Riley’s Core Memories

As Joy and Sadness wander outside of headquarters, and Anger, Fear, and Disgust are left in control, Riley’s entire makeup starts to shift and change. At the beginning, Riley has five core memories that make up her personality, called Personality Islands.

There’s Hockey Island, Goofball Island, Friendship Island, Honesty Island, and Family Island. The more Riley’s outside circumstances shift, the closer these islands get to breaking off and going away for good, and some of them actually do before Sadness and Joy can get back to headquarters.

4 Funny: Riley’s Imaginary Boyfriend

There are a lot of islands and lands and rooms in Riley’s being. After all, a lot goes into what makes us human, and the main purpose of this film is to show that. Not surprisingly, one of Bing Bong’s favorite places in Riley’s makeup is Imagination Land, which Joy also loves. As they walk through, they see something new, a machine that creates Riley’s Imaginary Boyfriend. The machine operator presses a few buttons, and out comes a cute, shaggy-haired teenager who says things like, “I would die for you” and “I live in Canada”.

3 Sad: Riley’s Imaginary Friend Dies

After a series of unfortunate events, Joy and Bing Bong get stuck in the memory dump, which is where memories go to die. If they get stuck down there forever, Riley will permanently forget about both of them. It’s normal to forget about an imaginary friend, but to forget about your joy?

Bing Bong knows that Joy has to make it out of the dump and back to headquarters if Riley is ever going to have a happy life again, so although Joy tries to help Bing Bong get out with her, it’s to no avail, and Bing Bong is left behind.

2 Funny: Riley’s Dreams

Inside Out gives us some great insight and theories into what different parts of our makeup could actually be. One of the funniest and most fun parts of the film is seeing Pixar’s take on our dreams. Joy and Sadness enter Dreamland, which looks a lot like a sound stage on a studio lot. There’s a unicorn getting into hair and makeup, lights, cameras, and strange-looking characters acting out different parts of Riley’s day. There’s even a guy dropping fake teeth in front of the camera, so that to Riley, it looks and feels like her teeth are falling out, a popular dream everyone’s had at least once.

1 Sad: Riley Tries To Run Away

Nothing seems to be going right for Riley and with Anger, Fear, and Disgust left in charge, Riley decides to run away from home. Riley sneaks downstairs and steals money from her mother’s purse, then pretends to go to school, but really she hops on a bus, presumably back to Minnesota. At the same time, Joy and Sadness are making their way back to headquarters. By the time they get there, Riley has run away. To get Riley to go back to her parents, it’s Sadness who takes charge, and it works. Riley realizes she is sad about leaving her family and decides to go back.

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