Movie Plot Summary | Review of Inside Out

Review of Inside Out – Everyone has different brain functions that regulate how we react to different circumstances. Growing up can be challenging, and Riley is no other. Riley is dislocated from her Midwest upbringing when her father accepts a new job in San Francisco. Riley, like everybody else, is driven by her emotions, which are Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness. The components accountable for Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust are characterised, and the plot is driven by the intricacies of the actions they perform to manage the life of the young girl Riley beginning with her birth. The emotions reside in Headquarters, Riley’s mental control centre, where they assist her in navigating daily life. As Riley and her feelings acclimate to their new life in San Francisco, unexpected events in Riley’s life disrupt their pattern; they try to exert much more control over the situation, which adds to her distress, and thereby chaos reigns in Headquarters. Riley’s primary and most significant emotion, Joy, strives to keep things upbeat, but the emotions disagree on how to handle a new city, residence, and school. The plot of this film revolves around their experiences in an attempt to re-establish normalcy.

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Review of Inside Out-Characters Representing Human Emotions of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger_©https//:www.disney.in

Architectural Illustrations

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Riley’s Mind Map_ ©https://www.facebook.com/Pixar/photos/a.127437064077/10159173427924078/?type=3 –

In this film, the elements of the mind are depicted in an architectural form to aid in understanding how the brain works. The following are some examples of brilliantly employed elements.

Headquarters of Emotions is Riley’s mental command center, where all five Emotions dwell and work, monitoring Riley’s daily experiences and helping her along the way. It has the semblance of a condominium. Riley’s memories are displayed on the walls, and there are even couches and a staircase. There is also a long vacuum tube capable of sucking out anything. The control panel has a giant screen in front of it where the emotions can look through Riley’s eyes and project memories, dreams, and daydreams.

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Review of Inside Out-Headquarters of Emotions_©https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery

Memories are represented in a spherical shape. The core memories are stored separately with the help of a designed mechanism that stores them. These core memories are connected to Riley’s Personality Islands.

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Core memories track and storage_©https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery

Riley’s Islands of Personality are propelled by core memories, which are remembrances of pivotal events in Riley’s life. As her personality grows over the years, new Islands form from composite Core Memories. Her mind has five personality islands i.e. Family, Friendship, Honesty, Hockey, and Goofball Islands at the film’s start, and about nine by the end.

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Review of Inside Out-Personality Islands as viewed from the Headquarters_©https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery

Long-Term Memory is a massive storage area with floor-to-very-high-ceiling level consoles that contain millions of Riley’s memories. Mind Workers, along with the Forgetters, who assess the usefulness of each memory and discard those that no longer appear relevant, maintain Long-Term Memory.

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Long Term Memory Maze_©https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/InsideOut
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Long Term Memory Storage Consoles_©https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery

Imagination Land is a location inside Riley’s head. Riley’s imagination lives there. It is designed in the style of a theme park filled with fantastical creatures. The floor, for example, is patterned like a puzzle. Riley’s imagination land is continuously changing and expanding as she matures.

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Dream Productions is a movie studio located inside Riley’s mind. Riley’s dreams and nightmares are constructed here using her documented daily events, subconscious fears, and very little logic. It only operates at night and/or whenever Riley sleeps.

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Dream Productions_©https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery

The Subconscious is a murky chamber with a single level lower than Riley’s other mind locations and is sealed off by a massive door. The subconscious guards keep vigil at the door. Its goal is to imprison and contain troublemakers. As a result, it contains Riley’s deepest fears. A broccoli-like forest, the stairs going to the basement, her grandmother’s vacuum cleaner, and Jangles the Clown are among them.

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The Train of Thought is a self-propelled fantasy train energised by overhead wires that form in front of it and disappear behind it. It autonomously travels about Riley’s mind, delivering supplies such as daydreams, facts, ideas, and memories. The train only functions while Riley is awake.

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The Train of Thought_©https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Train_of_Thought

The Memory Dump is a vast pit filled with forgotten memories beneath the Headquarters of Emotions and the Islands of Personality. At the bottom of the pit are hills of faded memories that, if entirely forgotten, will vanish

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The Memory Dump_©https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery
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The Memory Dump_©https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery

Architectural Impact on Psychological Response

This film keenly demonstrates the impact architecture has on its users. Concerning the context of the film, it particularly deals with the change in environment and surroundings in the lives of Riley and her parents. The shift from Minnesota to San Francisco takes a toll on all the movie characters in different ways. Riley and her parents recall their fond memories of their home, backyard, Spring Lake, and hikes in the woods of Minnesota. Minnesota is rich in agriculture, forests, lakes, and recreation, and it exudes a contrasting mood compared to a commercial and financial city like San Francisco. The changes are shown visually and physically in the lives of the family members concerning their daily routine. Everyone’s routine is altered as the surroundings change. While the family struggles to adjust to their new surroundings and changes in routine, the emotional relationships between Riley, her father, and her mother are frayed. The child is most affected because of her young age and the beginning of her exposure to numerous life situations.

Conclusion | Review of Inside Out

Inside Out is a fantastic film that uses an imaginary city to describe our brains to assist and make the process of brain activity understandable. It is an impressive attempt to translate the intangible process of the working of a human brain into a tangible expression through architecture. The brain’s operation is made up of several components. The emotional characters, the thoroughly planned mental city, linkages, and respective spaces make it a highly recommended movie for an inspirational and insightful understanding of oneself.

References:

Articles

1) Ahmad, A. (2015). Film Review: Inside Out. [online] Medical Humanities. Available at: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2015/07/24/vivek-santayana-film-review-inside-out/.

2) Anon, (n.d.). ‘Inside Out’ The Minds of Architecture Students – Arch2O.com. [online] Available at: https://www.arch2o.com/emotions-inside-out-architecture-students/.

3) Disney Wiki. (n.d.). Inside Out/Gallery. [online] Available at: https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out/Gallery.

4) insideout.fandom.com. (n.d.). Inside Out Wikia. [online] Available at: https://insideout.fandom.com/wiki/Inside_Out_Wikia.

5) Judd, W. (2015). A Conversation With the Psychologist Behind ‘Inside Out’. [online] Pacific Standard. Available at: https://psmag.com/social-justice/a-conversation-with-psychologist-behind-inside-out.

6) Perez, C.E. (2019). The Emergence of Inside Out Architectures in Deep Learning. [online] Intuition Machine. Available at: https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/controlled-hallucinations-in-deep-learning-architecture-fd617150d677,

7) Porter |, D.B. (2015). Inside Out’s Take on the Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Perspective. [online] Dr. Blake Porter. Available at: https://www.blakeporterneuro.com/inside-outs-take-on-the-brain-a-neuroscientists-perspective/.

8) www.imdb.com. (n.d.). Inside Out (2015) – IMDb. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/plotsummary?ref_=ttkw_sa_2.

9) Peacocke, A. (2015). Two philosophers explain what Inside Out gets wrong about the mind. [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/2015/6/25/8840945/inside-out-mind-memory.

Author

Rethinking The Future (RTF) is a Global Platform for Architecture and Design. RTF through more than 100 countries around the world provides an interactive platform of highest standard acknowledging the projects among creative and influential industry professionals.