>CAST OF FEELINGS

The Pixar film Inside Out imagines emotions as characters inside the brain of Riley, the movie’s 11-year-old protagonist. Here’s how:

Joy

Riley’s command central. Voiced by Amy Poehler in the movie, she’s peppy and domineering. The concept of joy is defined more gently by Descartes as “a pleasing emotion of the soul, wherein consists her enjoyment of good. . . . And when there is no joy in her, a man may say she enjoys it no more than if she had not any.” Key movie message: does not work well in isolation.

Sadness

Despite Joy’s efforts to contain Sadness (played by Phyllis Smith) within her own tight circle of misery, the little dough girl with the emotive eyes emerges as the film’s essential heroine. She has her gag lines — “I’m too sad to walk. Just give me a few hours” — but her core message is to dispel the fallacy of the cult of happiness.

Disgust

Voiced by Mindy Kaling, she’s cute and emerald green in the movie. Less so in the definition of theorist Silvan Tomkins: “an impulse to expel a noxious item that has been ingested.” (The noxious item in Inside Out? In Disneyesque fashion, broccoli, of course.) Tomkins defined a sister emotion, the awkwardly labelled “dissmell.” (Think: soiled diaper.)

Fear

“Worst scenario is either quicksand, spontaneous combustion or getting called on by the teacher,” says Bill Hader’s anxious character, anticipating Riley’s first day in a new school. Funny. But what does fear look like? Off-the-charts eyebrows and eyes wide open? Or are those the facial components of surprise? Even basic emotion theorists can’t agree: is that one emotion or two?

Anger

Observe hot-tempered comedian Lewis Black shaped like a flame-sprouting fire hydrant. Strangely cognizant of his fellow emotions, Anger asks: “Can I say the curse word now?” Psychologists at the University of Glasgow recently theorized that there are just four “basic” emotions. In this theory, anger does not stand alone, but is partnered with disgust. Which makes what, a superemotion? Jennifer Wells