Inside Out and When Marnie Was There

I’m late posting this, but I saw both Inside Out and When Marnie Was There with the kids, and boy was THAT an emotional wringer.  But in the best way. Seeing them both that close together makes for an interesting comparison – both movies focus on a girl dealing with the emotions of adolescence.

Riley in Inside Out starts out with a great life – attentive parents, friends, her hockey team, but it all gets turned upside down when her Dad’s new job takes her away. Anna, in When Marnie Was There, starts out in that same dark place. She’s in foster care, sent to the country for the summer to help with her breathing. She feels cut off from everyone, with the final straw being when she find out Yoriko, her foster mother, gets a stipend for taking care of her and Anna believes that means no one would care for her without external benefits.

In both cases, we experience their journeys to maturity though in vastly different ways. For Riley, we see how she’s leaned on “Joy” her whole life, and how “Sadness” helps her by letting those around her know she needs support. Anna, by contrast, makes a surprising family connection from her early childhood, and makes some friends in the process. Both movies can bring the tears though Inside Out counters it with humor (hey, it’s Pixar!) whereas When Marnie Was There will leave you with a melancholy smile, if that make sense.

I highly recommend both movies, as both are gorgeous in their own ways, and emotionally affecting. We watched Marnie in Japanese with subtitles, but the English cast is superb (Hailee Steinfeld, Geena Davis, John C. Reilly, Grey DeLisle) and I can’t wait to hear their dub. Pre-order Inside Out and When Marnie Was There.

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