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brightwalldarkroom:

Outside ‘Inside Out’, Looking In: A Parent’s Reflections

“Perhaps the most amazing thing about “Inside Out,” then, is that it’s a big-budget, mass-market Hollywood studio movie that embraces sadness as a necessary thing. Think about the last time you saw a film, an animated kids film no less, that did anything remotely like that. Not a film that was sad, or portrayed sadness, but one that actually made sadness something of a hero; something that pointed toward embracing emotional congruence as the best way forward, rather than an endless pursuit of happiness. It goes against most every grain in American media and culture, where happiness is often promoted as the only thing worth aiming for and sadness is thought to be a sign of weakness. “Inside Out” says, clearly and loudly and repeatedly, that things just don’t work that way. We aren’t supposed to be happy all the time—we can’t possibly be—and the more doggedly we pursue an idealized notion of happiness, the less often we actually feel the real thing.” 

—Chad Perman

(Read the full piece, from our new issue, over at RogerEbert.com)