What Pixar’s Inside Out Teaches Us About Plato’s Theory of the Soul

I had not expected a Pixar film to illuminate the nature of the human soul more vividly than a standard philosophy text. That is, admittedly, an overstatement — but Inside Out (2015) nonetheless surprised me. Like many viewers, I initially assumed it was a conventional children’s movie about emotions and coming-of-age. I anticipated something light, charming, and easily digestible on a first viewing.

On a second viewing, however, I recognized that the film operates on a broader register, inviting anyone still trying to make sense of the mind’s inner choreography to look more closely. It renders something invisible—our affective life—by giving it voice, shape, and character. 

If one were to encounter the film for the first time on streaming deals, its philosophical resonance might not immediately register. Yet for anyone attentive to classical thought, a deeper structure emerges. For my part, the film began to feel as though Pixar had wandered, whether by accident or design, into Plato’s Theory of the Soul.

What Is Plato’s Theory of the Soul?

Plato conceives of the soul as tripartite: reason, spirit, and appetite.

• Reason is the deliberative faculty — the part that plans, seeks truth, and discerns order.
• Spirit is the source of courage, resolve, and righteous indignation; it animates our defense of values.
• Appetite concerns desire in its many forms — food, pleasure, comfort, affection, achievement.

For Plato, a well-lived life requires these parts to be harmonized. When appetite dominates, desire disorients us; when spirit overreaches, anger or pride misguides action; when reason is too feeble, it cannot govern the other two. The healthiest soul, he argues, is one in which reason leads, spirit supports, and appetite follows, each aligned in proper measure.

Admittedly, Inside Out does not obviously advertise Plato’s framework. Practically speaking, you’ll need to have fast internet to appreciate the film’s aesthetic and cerebral elements (more on that later). Nevertheless, the film’s narrative becomes a remarkably accessible dramatization of psychic balance and imbalance.

Inside Out as a Lesson in Balance

Plato’s model suggests that harmony is the precondition of flourishing. Inside Out renders that insight in narrative form: Riley’s emotions cannot function well when one seeks dominance. Joy’s attempt to marginalize Sadness precipitates disintegration; only when each emotion is acknowledged does Riley regain coherence. This mirrors Plato’s warning that when any one part of the soul rules unilaterally, confusion and suffering follow.

A small personal anecdote underscores the point, somewhat comically. My internet connection was once so unreliable that I could not complete the film on an initial attempt; the constant buffering provoked alternating waves of impatience and resignation. In retrospect, the experience felt oddly apt: my own emotions — frustration, annoyance, and curiosity — competed for primacy. 

Eventually, I upgraded to one of the Boost plans, and uninterrupted viewing allowed the film’s argument to crystallize. The improved connection did more than enable smooth streaming; it made possible a more contemplative engagement with the film’s exploration of affective life.

Notably, Inside Out advances the conversation beyond strict partition. Where Plato emphasizes hierarchical order, Pixar portrays the psyche as dynamic and interdependent. Emotions bleed into one another, co-author memories, and reshape meanings over time. The film thereby reframes balance less as a static arrangement than as an ongoing negotiation among complementary forces.

A further contribution of the film is its treatment of memory. The glowing “core memories” visualize how affect saturates recollection. Plato’s metaphysics treats the soul as immortal, migrating across lives; Inside Out, by contrast, situates the soul within temporality, showing identity as a narrative sedimented by emotion-laden episodes. In this view, the soul’s “harmony” is not a fixed endpoint but a continual practice of integration, revision, and renewal.

To Live Well Is to Let Every Emotion Have a Voice

Inside Out ultimately persuades me that balance is alive, not inert. Plato’s Theory of the Soul rightly insists on order within the soul; the film complements that insight by dramatizing how order emerges through conversation among our emotions rather than through the silencing of any one of them. 

Joy, Sadness, and their companions co-create a self that is sometimes untidy, sometimes serene, but always reaching toward wholeness. The task, then, is not to enthrone a single voice, but to cultivate a sustained dialogue among them—reason guiding, spirit heartening, appetite grounding—so that the soul can move toward a more integrated life.

If you’d like to read more film essays like this one, check out the Philosophy in Film Homepage!