Inside Out

We laughed and cried and LOVED this movie (Inside Out) today... 

Sadness: [in trailer; Joy is walking through Riley's mind, carrying the memory spheres] It's long term memory... you'll get lost in there. 

Joy: [calling over her shoulder] C'mon! Think positive! 

Sadness: Okay... 

[pause]

Sadness: I'm positive that you'll get lost in there!

Heather pretending to be the character Sadness and me smiling as Joy... We've been blessed with a deep friendship over the years and are grateful for the perspectives we both bring to the table. As the movie says, "it turns out that we need all the voices in our head." 

"The relationship between joy and sadness is at the heart of Pixar’s new film, Inside Out. The film takes us inside the head of an 11-year-old girl named Riley and depicts her emotions as anthropomorphic characters. Chief among these is Joy, who has dominated Riley’s childhood experiences until now. Joy and Riley’s other emotions have never quite figured out what to do with Sadness, portrayed as a blue blob and voiced by Phyllis Smith with captivating despondency. The situation changes, though, when Riley and her parents move from their small town in Minnesota to San Francisco, where her father has started a new job. Riley’s emotions struggle to cope with the upheaval of a cross-country move. Initially, Riley is confused by her sadness and pushes it away, but gradually she learns to accept it as an integral part of her identity.

At the crux of Inside Out is its gentle acknowledgment of the important function of sadness in an emotionally healthy person. Sadness is not portrayed as a negative emotion. It is not a necessary evil to be pushed away until it’s absolutely unavoidable. Instead, Riley needs sadness. It’s the only appropriate response to the turmoil and confusion she feels.

Sadness—in the movie and in real life—can be a positive emotion. It is not the absence of joy, or a stubborn, Eeyore-like refusal to look on the bright side. In its proper place, sadness is merely right. At such times, no other emotion will do.

............

The path to Christian joy always leads through sadness. In the first half of Inside Out, Joy flits around anxiously, trying to ensure that Riley’s desires are gratified and that her happy equilibrium is maintained. But as the story unfolds, Joy herself undergoes a transformation. By allowing Sadness to occupy a more integral role in Riley’s experience, Joy discovers a fuller, more transcendent version of herself than she had ever known before, poignantly illustrated in the climactic moment of the film." -Ethan McCarthy (July 20, 2015) 

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/july-web-only/inside-out-and-christian-sadness.html?start=1