Jones and I took the boys to see the new Disney Pixar movie Inside Out.  It’s solid.  I recommend.

This is going to be one of those movies that sticks in the lexicon of culture for a long time because it illustrates advanced concepts like memory, subconscious, emotional response, etc.  It’s like an animated Psych 101.  Given that I got a solid B- in that class, I cannot confirm whether any of the concepts outlined in the movie are accurate.  But I like the idea that memories are bowling balls in our cavernous brains.  I’m pretty sure that’s how it really works.

This movie hits home because we’re really fascinated by our own selves. How did I become who I am today?  How do I become who I’m supposed to be in the future?  Why do I act the way I do?  All of our little internal buttons are pushed by Pixar’s stellar ability to tell a moving story.  As you watch, I guarantee you’ll be thinking about your own idiosyncrasies and what a horrible job you’re doing as a parent!

Or maybe that was just me.

Soren Kierkegaard believed that every person’s task is to become a self, which is not easy for complex human beings created in the image of God yet affected by sin.  Even though it’s an animated cartoon geared toward kids, Inside Out does a surprisingly good job at illustrating our internal and relational complexity with entertaining simplicity.  The one thing missing — and I’d like to think Kierkegaard would say the same — is divine revelation.  We need to have Someone on the outside of our situation to invade and change us from the inside.  That, friends, is exactly what Jesus does in the incarnation.  Without Light, we wouldn’t know to call it darkness.

But a Christian movie this is not.  As far as I can tell, Kirk Cameron is not involved.

Therefore, I give it 10/10 and will probably watch it again someday.