I know this is a bit late. I was meaning to post this a few weeks ago right after I saw the movie, but meh, life intervened.

For the longest time, I was looking forward into watching this movie as I have heard a lot of great feedback about it.

When I first saw the trailer for this film which raised the question  "What if emotions had emotions?" it kind of sounded stupid to me, honestly because it sounded redundant. But after seeing subsequent trailers, the plot of the movie became interesting to me, especially the part with the long term memories and the sections of dream productions and imagination land.

If you look at it, the movie had such a simple plot: Riley is struggling an anxiety stage about the new place where his family just moved into, which is pretty normal especially for a kid her age. But something about the emotions, especially with Joy and Sadness, that stroke a chord into our deepest feelings and emotions that we all were able to relate to.

The movie showed a lot (well in an artful and stripped-down way) about what really happens in the brain, how it processes certain memories, especially the repressed ones. I  randomly experience moments of unexplained sadness (which I associate with some kind of depression). Sometimes memories, which I had no idea I had, would come rushing in. When they were brought to my conscious mind, I felt a lot of anxiety. I struggled with it. Though later on, I began to accept that fact of life. To relate it to Riley's mind, I eventually became friends with the birthday clown and I now treat those memories as old friends who had shaped me for who I am now.

The movie also brought me back to my childhood wherein things were simpler. I cannot remember if ever I had my own version of Bing Bong though (or maybe I did, but he was already erased from my memory? (´∩｀。)). Bing Bong made me cry hard during the movie.

Inside Out thought me that it's okay to be sad, to cry and to let it all out. It's our mind's way of coping and healing. Sometimes, I try solving and hiding a problem by trying to be happy, but apparently it won't help. Instead, it's better to face the problem, trace the roots, and to cry. It's not a sign of weakness, but of coping, to make us stronger.

It's a heartwarming movie that seemed to be made for kids, but I believe the true message of the film will only be appreciated by adults, whom have experienced enough to understand the different emotions that can be felt, and their effects in the short and long term process in life.