Sadness is an alarm bell that engages RileyРІР‚в„ўs social safety net. When Riley is sad, RileyРІР‚в„ўs parents step in to comfort and nourish her. Namely, Sadness triggers reactions from others that come into support RileyРІР‚в„ўs life. Ultimately, in order to bring things back into balance, Joy has to realize that Sadness does serve a function. JoyРІР‚в„ўs wish to prevent Sadness from influencing Riley leads to a catastrophic collapse of RileyРІР‚в„ўs personality as Riley is progressively cut off from her relationships and social activitiesРІР‚вЂњ parents, sports team, play, etc. The conflict between the two sets off the events that will drive the narrative. Indeed, for much of the movie, Joy believes that Sadness has no proper function, and tries to marginalize Sadness at every opportunity. Joy is, however, unsure of the function of Sadness. Fear inhibits dangerous activities so as to preserve RileyРІР‚в„ўs life. Anger is, following a classical account, РІР‚Сљthe moral emotion.РІР‚Сњ It/He takes control when Riley perceives that something is unfair (thus securing that she gets her share of goods). Disgust prevents Riley from coming into contact with things that are poisonous to her body. Joy explains the function of each of the emotions. Eventually, these two are joined by Disgust, Anger, and Fear. Sadness immediately makes Riley upset, and she and Joy spend most of RileyРІР‚в„ўs early years fighting for control. Of course, it is not long before Joy is joined in the control room of RileyРІР‚в„ўs mind by Sadness. For the rest of the movie Joy will be the primary narrator and the ideal leader of the group controlling RileyРІР‚в„ўs mental life. In general, this fits with the typical modern idea that human beings are directed first by their desire for pleasure. When Riley is born, we are told, her inner world was first directed by Joy РІР‚вЂњ being both a proper name and a descriptive account of the character. The movie is set in the interior world of the self, where figures representing different emotions govern the behavior of a little girl named Riley. Without raising explicitly the specter of evolutionary origins, DisneyРІР‚в„ўs Inside Out provides an introduction to the basics of an evolutionary/functional theory of the emotions.

Emotions are features of living things, thus they must have functions in securing the survival of the species in which they inhere.

Thus, the emergence of the evolutionary theory of emotions. Beyond the more physical and physiological features, the ultimate goal of evolutionary theory is to produce an account of all features, including psychological features of living beings. The assumption behind evolutionary theory, of course, is that the features of living things exist because they aid in securing survival. As far back as Darwin, evolutionary theorists have searched for the function of emotions in human life. It has to be rare that a psychological theory becomes the basis for a Disney movie.

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