Both Pixar films Inside Out and Up illustrate strong caring relationships between characters and their experiences with change. In Inside Out, the emotions Joy and Sadness care for Riley and try to influence her feelings as she adjusts to moving. In Up, Carl cares for his wife Ellie through hardships and opens up to Russell, changing his lonely life. Both films show the challenges the characters face with major life changes and their stubborn reactions before finding acceptance or solutions. The films use adventure narratives to explore meaningful themes around emotion, relationships, and personal growth.

1. Animated films are illustration of human ideas that are being brought to live. The
creation of animated films was a smart idea, to express thoughts, emotions and feelings
through a visually attractive, interesting, simpler and understandable way. Animation
films was a platform for people to escape from the reality, and being immersed in a new,
fun kind of atmosphere where anything is possible. Animated films are very expressive in
terms of the use of the graphics, drawings and illustration. Its interesting to bring out a
message, a story, a realization in such a fun kind of channel, rather than being conveyed
in a realistic way. People, especially young children love this kind of films, that are pure,
eye-catching, memorable and colorful, accompanied with the lively animated characters.
I’ve always been amazed by the stories that are told and expressed in the animated
films, especially coming from the PIXAR. PIXAR has never fail to bring characters and
stories alive, giving a strong impact into our lives, things that we can relate to our own
lives, things that we can just take a moment to think about. There are 2 interesting
animated films that PIXAR has produced, that really shows how creative the producers
are in creating unique, different, and meaningful content. These films are, ‘Up’ (2009)
and a recent film, ‘Inside Out’ (2015). There are a few similarities in these 2 great
animated films.
First and foremost, both films strongly illustrates the love and caring interaction of the
characters in the movie. In the film, ‘Inside Out’, Riley’s emotions, Joy, Fear, Disgust,
Anger and Sadness cares about how Riley feels. They’ve always reacted to a particular
situation that best represents Riley emotions, feelings and expresses it out through Riley’s
experiences. For example, all Joy wanted was to see Riley be happy. Joy always tries to
do something to make Riley happy. Sometimes when Riley is having a bad day or going
through bad moments, Joy always find ways to make Riley happy, like bring up her
happy moments in Riley’s core memories, or even leads Riley to think of things
positively no matter what. Joy prevents Sadness from touching anything especially the
core memories because Sadness will negatively affect Riley’s emotion where all Joy
wants is to see Riley be happy in her everyday life. Joy always tries to isolate sadness
from touching the other memories.
In the film, ‘Up’, Carl and Ellie were childhood friends. They’ve grew up together and
eventually got married and living the life they desire. Carl is a very caring husband and
partner. As an illustration, Ellie had a miscarriage once, and she was devastated. During
that period of time, Carl was always by her side taking care of Ellie, making sure she is
emotionally stable and physically healthy, instead of being angry and sad for the lost of
the baby. Ellie was also sick at the later part of her life and Carl was always there to take
care of her health and never gave up on her. Carl never once had the thought of leaving
Ellie due to her medical conditions. It clearly shows Carl’s unconditional love and care
towards Ellie.
Other than that, another common story plot in both films is the experience of change in
their lives. In ‘Inside Out’, Riley had a great life in Minnesota. There were a tons of fun
times together with her family, she had a lot of friends, she was doing well in her school,
and she joined the hockey team, as playing hockey was always one of Riley’s favorite

2. things to do since young. Her relationship with her family was close together, and most of
her core memories was made in Minnesota. After changing to a new environment,
arriving in San Francisco, everything changed for Riley. Entering a new house that didn’t
felt like home and pleasant as she’d imagined, entering a new school, meeting new
friends, living in a city where she had to adapt wasn’t easy for Riley. Even the people that
are the closest to her, her family, wasn’t as close as the times in Minnesota. The main
reason of all this change was because of Riley’s dad that had to work in San Francisco,
the whole family had to bare with the changes in their lives in this new environment.
In ‘Up’, the appearance of Russell, a young wilderness explorer, totally changed Carl’s
life. After Ellie left, Carl was always living in a dull life. He was lonely and tied up with
the past. Adding the character, Russell into Carl’s life somehow changed Carl’s well
being and personality. At first, Carl didn’t like Russell as he finds him annoying and had
tried to get rid of Russell multiple times. Carl never deal with any kids before in his
lifetime, therefore, having the kind of repel-feeling towards Russell was normal. Carl just
couldn’t stand Russell being in his life. Throughout the adventure, Carl slowly accepts
Russell being a part of his life. Russell had brighten up Carl’s dull life, and brought out
the smiles that Carl had hidden for a long time. You’ll see the transformation of Carl from
a person who fears of change, and being overly attached to his past, becoming a person
who slowly learns how to accept changes, learning how to let go certain things in his life,
and living the moment. Russell was the one that brought these changes to Carl’s life due
to he’s bubbly personality and his heart of gold.
Furthermore, both films has its share amount of adventure. In ‘Inside Out’, things start
to messed up when Sadness starts to touch Riley’s core memories. Joy was trying to stop
Sadness from touching the memories. Before Riley could place the memories back to its
place, Joy, Sadness and the core memories was sucked out of the headquarters into
Riley’s long term memories. This is where the adventure of Joy and Sadness embarked.
They’ve never been to this part of Riley’s mind. Thus, they had to explore the place and
find their way back to headquarters. Along the process of finding its way back, they saw
how Riley’s Personality, Trust, Friendship, and Family island slowly deteriorate. They
saw the worker’s that are managing Riley’s memories, eliminating some old memories.
They’ve also met Bing Bong, Riley’s long forgotten imaginary friend. The adventure that
Joy and Sadness gone through in Riley’s long term memory, to find a way to come out
from it and also find a solution to fix things and make things right was well illustrated in
the film. It was a fun and depressing journey, uncovering the little things in the long term
memory, and also at the same time losing the islands and even Bing Bong.
In ‘Up’, Carl have decided to accomplish his dream that he once had planned with Ellie,
which is to one day go to Paradise falls. He released a large amount of helium balloons
that allows the house to float and head to his destination. Russell was a sudden surprise
and he came along with this adventure. The journey heading towards the Paradise fall
wasn’t easy. On their way, they’ve encountered a thunderstorm, met a colorful and
flightless bird, that Russell named “ Kevin”, and also a friendly dog named “Dug”, with a
collar that allows the dog to speak. After that, they’ve met Muntz, that attempt to steal the
bird, Kevin. There was some conflict and Muntz burnt Carl’s house and asking him to

3. make a decision whether to save the house or Kevin, the bird. The bird was captured and
Carl didn’t safe it. After reading a message that Ellie left in their scrapbook, asking Carl
to find and create new adventures in life, Carl decided to join Russell and head back to
Muntz to safe the bird. In the end the bird was safe. Carl house eventually landed at
Paradise Fall and it was an interesting adventure indeed after everything that occur.
Last but not least, both characters in the animated films shown elements of their stubborn
actions. In ‘Inside Out’, there is one point where Joy and Sadness wasn’t in the
headquarters as they were sucked out of it and being stuck in Riley’s long term memory.
During that period of time, Riley’s emotion was in a mess and all the islands in her mind
was slowly being destroyed. Under this uncontrollable situation, Riley became stubborn.
She hated her life and didn’t want to live the life in San Francisco. Thus, in order to fulfill
her sudden drive to escape from this nightmare of hers, she had decided to leave this
place, and head back to Minnesota. Riley’s action was caused by the unstable control of
Riley’s emotions and without the present of Joy and Sadness. Riley packed her stuff, and
planned to leave the house at night. She bought the bus ticket and she was determined to
move on with her life, leaving the place without her parents. Riley’s stubborn act was
caused by chaos in the headquarters. Riley started to lose her emotions and feelings. She
no longer could feel anything. Luckily, Joy and Sadness found a way back to
headquarters and was in time to change everything. Joy found out the way to solve this
was let Sadness to take control. In the end, Riley ended her stubborn act and everything
was back to normal, in terms of being able to express Riley’s true emotions.
In ‘Up’, the stubborn act can be shown in Carl’s character. Since Ellie’s passing, Carl
couldn’t move on with his past. Ellie was everything to Carl. Now that Ellie’s gone, Carl
felt empty. His life started to became dark and dull. Carl’s house was full with his
precious memories with Ellie. Carl was determined and stubborn to give out his house
even the whole neighborhood was torn down for new construction. Carl was persist not to
give up on the house.Thus, he came up with the idea of creating a massive amount of
helium balloon, so that the house can be brought along with Carl in his adventure to
Paradise Fall. Eventually, his plan worked. This shows how stubborn Carl is in not giving
away his property and his memories with Ellie.
The nature of human are the same. We tend to experience the similar kind of issues or
incident in our lives, reacting to it, solving it, going through it, and eventually learn
something from it. Its a whole growth process and learning process that are being brought
out in both films. The kind of love and care we share, the changes we might face
throughout our lives, the challenges and adventure we have to go through in different
phases in our lives and even having the stubborn kind of act surfacing in some point of
your life. These are elements and the messages that the producers are trying to express
through animated films, in a more indirect, a more memorable and a more influential
way.