When I first heard that Disney and Pixar were working on a movie sequel for its 2015 hit “Inside Out”, I was incredibly excited.
I remember watching the first movie for the first time and thinking that the concept of having tiny little emotions inside of my head controlling me and my life was extraordinary!
The only thing I did not like in the movie was how limiting the emotions portrayed were, since main character Riley only had Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Fear. Those might be the most popular emotions at the age for Riley who is still a child, but funnily enough, her parents have the same exact emotions in their 30s or 40s.
However, I do not think people have the same main emotions inside them forever since we all grow up physically, mentally, and emotionally. And that is where the new “Inside Out 2” movie comes in.
In the most recent and first trailer of “Inside Out 2”, Riley is still the main character. Suddenly, her emotions’ headquarters in her head gets invaded by “construction emotions” that wreck the whole place. Her original emotions do not know how to respond to the whole mess left behind. At the same time, Joy realizes their mood board has become orange even though none of the emotions are colored orange.
That is when the new character appears; her name is Anxiety. The artist behind the voice of Anxiety is actress Maya Hawke, who joins the amazing voice cast of Amy Poheler, Phillys Smith, Lewis Black, Tony Hale and Liza Lapira.
Anxiety has a humorous introduction to the group, as she arrives with a bunch of travel bags and says, “We wanted to make such a good first impression.” After saying that, Disgust does not understand why Anxiety said “we” instead of “I.”
That is where people like me, already in my 20s, relate to Anxiety. We know that Anxiety says “we” because the emotion comes along with many others. For example: if I leave an assignment to do at the last minute, my anxiety will kick in due to the time crunch, and if I am not able to complete it by the due date, I will probably feel frustration, self-doubt, worry, and many others because of what will happen to my grade.
People have already started to create theories about the new movie and what these new emotions will entail as they accompany Anxiety in this new journey in Riley’s teenage years. The last frame in the trailer reads, “the feel [emotion] movie of 2024”. In the [emotion] part, the trailer starts filling it in with the original emotions we all know already, as well as Anxiety that we just met earlier. Then, the sentence also changes for three more emotions: embarrassment, envy, and ennui (which means to feel tiredness mixed with boredness).
In my personal opinion and experience, those are valid emotions that fortunately and unfortunately come with growing up. What teens have to figure out (which sometimes takes them up to their young adult years) is how to control those feelings and their consequences outside of our mind and into the real world.
As someone with anxiety since my teen years, I can say that I am very surprised Disney and Pixar would bring such emotions to their audience, who are mainly children and teens. I think that if these emotions are showcased correctly, the movie has a great shot at being really helpful in kids understanding their emotions.
But I cannot ignore my worry of introducing all of that to younger minds who might not be prepared for that stage of life and could develop anxiety earlier than needed. The joys of being a child should never be cut too early, and I thank my mother so much for letting me grow up early, but still encourage me to play as a kid until the very last second I could.
Additionally, a minor detail I saw after watching the trailer for the thousandth time is that in Riley’s emotions headquarters, her early memories are not one full color anymore. In some of the crystal balls of memory, we can see two mixed colors, which I think is a super important detail in our lives.
As we grow up, we start to remember things a bit different from how they actually happened, especially because our early emotions were limited at that time (just as Riley’s emotions have shown us). Sometimes our early memories– for example, our mother looking at us as she tries to calm us down as babies –can be easily remembered with a simple smile. However, as we reflect later on, we now remember seeing tears and a flicker of sadness in her eyes, and we realize that moment may be more than just joy. This new discovery might cause our minds to change the way we view that moment in our lives, now mixing the joy of seeing your mother’s smile with the sadness and worry of what was going on with her, why she was trying to make you feel safe and happy.
Emotions are very fragile at any age, and I am very excited to see how Anxiety will impact Riley’s life as she keeps on growing up.
“Inside Out 2” will be in theaters June 2024.
