Inside Out would be the movie of the year if animation and family friendly films were not treated with condescension by the Academy. Most likely, the winner will be some film few saw, easily forgotten, but full of portentous meaning. This you can know: we will be watching Inside Out when all the creators are gone and blessing them for it the way we bless Disney and the wizards at his company for Fantasia, Mary Poppins, and Snow White.
They have used the better tools technology has given them to equal or surpass the masters of the golden age of animation.
In discussing the film, because in our house we always discuss film, I realized that Inside Out also was a helpful way to understand theism and why human emotions suggest the existence of a Creator God. This is easy to overlook since the “emotions” (we first see Joy) are born at the birth of the child and grow based on experience. Isn’t this a materialistic account of the human mind where it is all just the brain and experience?
A moment’s reflection shows that this is false to the film and false to our own experience. The problem is that some of us think of the soul as a mere “ghost” in the machine . . . rather like we picture demon possession. The only function it serves is immortality. This is unfortunate. Such an image (and all we have are images to picture the mind) can be helpful to our understanding, but it is also limiting. There is an obvious relationship between brain and mind . . .our whole bodies and mind . . . that goes both ways. Our minds can make our bodies sick and our minds can make (within limits) our bodies well. Our bodies (especially our brains) can make our minds suffer and our bodies can make our minds glad.
Inside Out gives us a picture of the mind that contains many parts. Some of the parts are the structure of the mind . . . and, while these might be housed in the brain, would not just be the brain. The mind in the film is constantly building and rebuilding areas (such as Imagination) based on the young girl’s experiences. The brain is the matter and the emotions often conflict with each other in the film as they utilize the matter, but there also exists the “girl herself.” She is a whole that is greater than the sum of her parts or her mere body. The emotions impact her “console” and this console can be upgraded as she is able to gain new experiences, but it is “automatically” here.
Riley is not merely “hardwired” to understand the world, though that would be troubling enough to a non-theist. Riley exists apart from her emotions, which do not always respond properly to the world or work in harmony, and her brain. The brain, the body, and the emotions all work together in Riley, but are not Riley. She permeates the whole.
Of course, one can quibble about when Riley is first aware. Plainly an unborn child reacts to stimuli within the mother. This may not be “Joy” (the primary emotion in the film), but it is something. We are left with a picture of Riley as containing her emotions (and other mental objects), using her body (particularly her brain), but forming Riley. How do we know this?
We recognize when Riley is working well as opposed to badly. Joy is not enough, sadness helps as well. How do we know this? We know it because we know what Riley should be. The harmony of all her parts is a sign her soul is whole and yet this harmony changes from moment to moment. There is a substratum that we call Riley that is her soul.
The “soul” is the organizing principle that prepared the brain (if it was given proper matter to use) and a seat for the emotions. It is the “knowledge” that the emotions have as to when Riley is doing well and when Riley is doing badly. The soul wrote the books that the emotions use to understand the mind. Inside Out is a delightful, funny, well made film, but it also is a profound film. It prevents the folly of some Christians who think emotions, experience, and body do not matter, but it also refuses to reduce us to our bodies. It leaves the soul as the deepest, unseen, organizing principal of who were are.
Pixar has made a profound work. That it is also jolly makes it all the better.
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