While sitting inside the Dolby Screening Room at a recent MOMS screening of Disney Pixar’s animated movie ‘Inside Out‘ three pairs of eyes looked over at me to see if I was crying. I had taken my 9-year old daughter, Kameko, my 7-year old son Kai and his friend Lexi Anne also 7, along to the screening.
At a particular point in the movie Kai and Lexi Anne began whispering to each .I then noticed that they were staring intently at me to see if I had tears streaming down. I quickly said before they could say anything, “Hey, guys are those tears I see in YOUR eyes? ” They each quickly replied “No”, with Kai admitting soon after with, “Oh just a little. That was a sad part.” I in turn replied, “Yes that was a sad part and I did cry just a little.” My daughter Kameko hearing our whispers chose then to announce matter-of-factly, with Kai in the background nodding, “Mommy cries a lot at movies. She likes to let her feelings out. She also cried during [Rihanna’s movie] Home, and at [ Michael Rapaport’s] Little Boy.
” Shhh, don’t tell anyone, I say to Kameko as Lexi Anne looks on and a mom sitting in earshot turns around and smiles at me.
I learned then that kids are always paying full attention and especially taking in our emotions. Yup, my kids are definitely paying attention to mine.Which gets me back to Inside Out.
I truly enjoyed this film and so did the kids. They have already asked to see it again and I have promised a movie night over the summer break. I definitely see it becoming one of our Pixar family faves the same way, Toy Story and Wall-E has become. I also already know that this movie including all its merchandising products will be on their Xmas lists this year.
About the movie if you haven’t seen it yet. The movie centers around pre-teen Riley, an 11-year-old girl who is uprooted from her Midwest home and life as she knows it -to now reside in the urban city landscape of San Francisco when her dad takes a new job transplanting the family almost 2,000 miles away.
For Riley this couldn’t come at a worst life stage- the pre-teen years – a ball of emotions . Her feelings of being taken away from life-long friends, from ice-hockey games on the lake — to now being the new kid having to make new friends and at a new school .Overwhelming? To her , it’s the end of the world.
But this is where it gets interesting – Yes , Inside Out is about 11-year-old Riley, but behind the scenes the real stars that take center stage are her emotions that are wrecking havoc in her brain — enter the five brightly colored characters that represent joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust . Riley’s emotions.
These five conflicting emotions literally take over the pre-teen’s life as she attempts to try to fit in to her new surroundings but her emotional “headquarters ” where these five characters reside is full of non stop activity. Joy ( voice of Poehler ) the mother hen, leader and voice of reason tries to keep Riley happy and positive while the other emotions each vying to be the “top-dog emotion ” to dominate Riley’s inner life, they just seem to complicate matters sending everything into a tailspin and lending to a movie that is laugh-out-loud, funny, exciting, colorful and splashed with traces of sadness mixed in.
It will definitely be a walk down childhood’s memory lane and filled with nostalgia for most adults .
Seeming to be at the forefront though is the message that sadness and joy can work hand in hand for an outcome of happiness and good. In reality, we do go through sadness or loss in order to encounter happiness at the end of the rainbow. This message though, might go over kids’ heads as they are watching the movie with it brightly colored and cute as ever characters. So the take-away lesson of, “it may take sadness before you get happy” may be a bit too much for them to take in –older ones will get it – but this is one of the messages I found to be recurring.
Stopping by just before the start of the screening for a quick Q&A with the MOMS’ co-creators, Denise Albert and Melissa Musen Gerstein was actor Bill Hader. The actor plays the voice of Fear in the movie.
Speaking to the kids Hader says , “When you see Fear come in , thats my voice, ” adding “Do you know that this ( movie) is from the same guys that made “Toy Story ” and “Monsters Inc” and “Up?”
On how he snagged his role Hader recently told PEOPLE he “stalked” Pixar execs . He did say at the screening, “I was such a fan of Pixar [their] movies that I went to where they worked and I asked, ‘Can you please put me in one if your movies’. I wouldn’t leave and now because of my persistence, I play Fear in the movie.”
The actor also told the kids that he’s done some other well known kid movies. ” I have been in “Cloudy and a Chance of Meatballs,” I played Lachlan,” he says.
On his favorite character in the movie and no, it is not his character! Hader declares, “My favorite character is a character by the name of Bing Bong.” Adds the former SNL star, “When Bing Bong shows up just brace yourselves. He’s the best character in the movie!”
The movie took a few years to make . ” It took five years . I’m not kidding, says Hader of the making of Inside Out. Adds Hader, “Back in 2011, I went to Pixar and I started recording with Amy Poehler who plays Joy and Mindy Palin who play Disgust and others. So five years of recording. That’s how long it takes to make one of these movies.”
To finally see it Hader says, “It is a beautiful, beautiful film and we are so happy.” Say the father of three, “The cast and film-makers all got to see the finished product three months ago. We all went to Skywalker Ranch, that’s George Lucas’ ranch where all the Star Wars stuff is. We got to watch the movie in a room(screening room) like this and we were laughing and crying.”
Yes the movie will make you laugh and cry.
I recommend that families go together to see Inside Out. I loved that the movie in a special way lets both children and adults know feelings of joy, sadness, anger disgust, or even fear do work harmoniously together inside of us .
The kids gives their ratings. Inside Out gets 5 out of 5 POPCORN STARS! 
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The kids summed up their feelings in this pic below:
Also read what they had to say about the movie below:
I loved that sadness and joy worked as a team even though they are opposites— KAMEKO, 9
Anger always made me laugh…KAI, 7
I loved that Joy was alway happy and never gave up on Riley and holding on to her happy memories.–KAMEKO, 9
Joy is always happy. I like when people are happy. LEXI ANNE, 7
Even though Sadness is always sad, she has courage.–KAI, 7
It was a very emotional movie and it was about emotions. It actually made me feel sad at some places.—-KAI, 7
My favorite part of the movie was when Riley was a little girl and she had an imaginary friend named Bing Bong. I liked how Riley made up a song about her imaginary friend.—LEXI ANNE, 7
The Lyrics to Riley’s and Bing Bong’s song….
Who’s your friend who likes to play?
Bing Bong, Bing Bong
His rocket makes you want to yell hooray
Bing Bong, Bing Bong
Who’s the best at every way, and wants to sing this song to say
Bing Bong, Bing BONG!
Check out the trailer below and go see ‘Inside Out’ at your nearest movie theater in your city ,See Fandango for listings
INSIDE OUT is now playing WITH THE VOICES OF: Amy Poehler (Joy), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Richard Kind (Bing Bong), Bill Hader (Fear), Lewis Black (Anger), Mindy Kaling (Disgust), Kaitlyn Dias (Riley), Diane Lane (Mom), Kyle MacLachlan (Dad).
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