Emoticons

This title of Emoticons seems to me the most intuitive for the latest Disney-Pixel collaborative work of cinematic art 'Inside Out' because of the powerful way it imagines emotions at the same time making them visually accessible and understandable to all age groups and audiences.

Emoticons are unanimously understood in our daily communications as expressive of our moods and of different aspects of our personality at a specific point in time, as well as showing what we might be feeling or doing as a result of the emotions we experience. 

From the same standpoint, 'Inside Out' tells the story of a 12 year old animated hero and her relationship with herself, her parents and her friends/peers from the view point of how she is feeling at different times and of how she reacts to those feelings.

The break down of emotions is simple: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and the 'green one' which I found a bit intrusive at times because more complex and in a league of its own -the green character does not come across so much as an emotion as a coming of age feeling of being outraged by anything none cool or embarrassing-. 

Funnily enough the other emotions being so well and clearly defined are memorable whereas the green 'Inside' character as I like to refer to it is less evident as an emotion and sensed rather as being a state of mind of a young women on the threshold of young adulthood.

This brings us to the theme of story; mainly a coming of age growing pains story of a girl learning to deal with sadness as well as joy in a mature way. 

The message is that sadness needs to be acknowledged and assimilated to all the other emotions, working together in the brain or 'headquarters' as they refer to the brain in the film, in order for things to function well. 

Ignoring pain and sadness do not bring happiness, and joy alone cannot make the personality grow or reach new heights of maturity and emotional intelligence. These changes happen with both experience and a healthy balance between all the feelings a growing child should both internalise and externalise. 

The story is thus about all these colourful animated characters embodying emotions and this brings these emotions to life inside the growing girl. The characters are equally the 'outside' characters and these 'inside' emotions characters. 

The plot takes these moving talking emotions from one place to the next inside our heroine helping her come to terms with her pain and fears into a new becoming in a new place in her life and within herself. 

It teaches her that being the strong happy one for others isn't the only way forward and that sometimes sadness is required to bring Joy back through the love of family and friends.

The personalities are depicted as islands within her and this is very creatively done by bridging the islands to the 'headquarters' where the emotions and core memories are held.

Core memories are colour coordinated according to feelings and there is even an actual place for the imagination where all her wishes are depicted, a train of thought -literally-, as well as an abstract area of the brain shown to us as an actual place where emotions can be fragmented and disintegrated from one dimension to another.

The imaginary friend and the cute boy fantasies are also objectified and represented in the girl's mind as brief but well thought out characters who fulfill a certain role as they would do in her actual life.

The animation is of course very nicely worked out with strong voices and naturally fitting voice overs but the most extraordinary aspect of the film is this original idea of creating characters for emotions instead of just emotional characters.

The entertainment value is huge with laughs and big personalities but the educational aspect is also clear; it summarises and clearly explains how emotions may work together for or against us and how we can enhance our personalities through a marriage of emotions rather than a disintegration and fragmentation of feelings.

A very imaginative concept and very creatively achieved. A new way for understanding emotions: an 'Emoticoncept.' 

A moving film and a 'EmoJiOY' to watch.