Teacher Guide
Learning goals, teaching notes, and answer keys.
View Teacher NotesPaper & online answer keysInside Out Movie Guide
Choose the format that fits your classroom, then explore the film through focused questions and evidence.
About the Film
Riley’s move disrupts familiar relationships while personified emotions struggle to respond. Study how listening, expressing difficult feelings, and accepting mixed emotions change the story.
Movie at a Glance
- Release year
- 2015
- Genre
- Animated family comedy / drama
- U.S. rating
- PG
- Runtime
- Approx. 95 minutes
- Director
- Pete Docter; co-director Ronnie del Carmen
- Screenplay
- Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve & Josh Cooley
- Based on
- Original animated story
- Music
- Michael Giacchino
- Featured cast
- Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling & Kaitlyn Dias
- Story setting
- Contemporary Minnesota and San Francisco · An imagined world inside Riley’s mind
Check your edition when planning class periods; cuts and playback speeds can change runtime.
Content to Preview
- Homesickness, family arguments, loneliness, and a child attempting to run away.
- Frightening imaginary scenes, peril, and the loss of a beloved imaginary character.
- Some rude humor and emotionally intense moments of sadness.
Preview your edition, follow school viewing and permission policies, and provide an appropriate alternative assignment. Suggested grades 5–12 are Teach Arcade’s classroom recommendation, separate from the film’s U.S. rating.
Classroom Connections
Use scene evidence to explore the topics above. Pair historical portrayals with reliable sources, literary adaptations with their texts, and animated metaphors with appropriate factual context.
Film details, advisories & classroom context: Disney rating and runtime · Pixar film background · Content advisory (spoilers) · Academy screenplay credits