Riley and her emotions return, along with four new emotions, to show audiences how cramped a teenage girl’s mind can be.
By Laari Ruby
July 8, 2024
In an era of unrelenting sequels and remakes, Pixar Studios reminds us why a franchise should be continued. “Inside Out 2” doesn’t lean on the first film to get audiences in the theater, but rather creates a compelling sequel that naturally progresses after the first.
“Inside Out 2” continues the story of Riley (Kensington Tallman) and her inner emotions as she grows up. Riley becomes a teenager and encounters complicated social situations causing her to acquire a whole new range and intensity of emotions. Pixar explores the inner workings of a teenage girl’s mind, showing how puberty affects these emotions and how difficult it can be to learn to regulate those emotions and intensity.
Riley and her two best friends / teammates are at a weekend hockey camp which acts as tryouts for the high school team. The looming alarm labeled “Puberty” on the console of Riley’s mind finally goes off and the headquarters that Rileys five emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Anger (Lewis Black) and Fear (Tony Hale) live in is completely and chaotically rebuilt. The soon after entrance of four new emotions Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) throws off the balance created by the five original emotions. On the way to the camp, her friends reveal that they will not be going to the same high school as Riley. This sets the scene for Riley’s sense of the future to become extremely unknown. With a host of new emotions in the mix, the group must figure out how to work together once again. When Anxiety becomes overbearing, the original five find themselves lost in the back of the mind and must find their way back to headquarters. This film is a whimsical and dreamy representation of what happens when a person’s mind is taken over by one emotion. Anxiety tears off Riley’s sense of self and tries to rebuild it, making Riley doubt everything she is.
The construction of Riley’s sense of self is new to this sequel, something that comes slowly as children grow older. Core memories are stored below headquarters and send strings up to a sort of flower that grows in the center of the room above, that chimes “I’m a good person”. When anxiety takes over the memories sent down become riddled with self-doubt and conditionals, causing her new sense of self to be built on a foundation of worry. This conflict over Riley’s sense of self reflects on her struggle understanding what her future will look like and figuring out who she is among peers she looks up to. How will Riley handle not knowing if she fits in?
At the climax of the film Anxiety loses all control creating a storm in Riley’s mind. The other emotions are pushed away from the console and Anxiety becomes frozen at the helm. What Pixar does so well in this film is explore and represent mature topics in a way that is digestible for children. Feelings of anxiety are new to teens and can seem unbearable but a film like this can help them understand how to handle those feelings. The representation of this emotion is so well catered to show how Anxiety can take vicious hold of the mind if not balanced and controlled, but also shows that it doesn’t need to be in control.
The final scene of the film is a perfect conclusion to what the Inside Out franchise is all about: learning to balance all of our emotions, positive and negative, rather than trying to get rid of certain ones. At the beginning Anger and Sadness are used at key moments to allow Riley to express herself, in a hockey game and then after receiving upsetting news. After those emotions gave Riley what she needed, Joy was back at the controls. By the end, Riley has learned how to use Anxiety as a tool to plan for the future without letting it control her mind. Instead of disregarding Anxiety, she once again shows audiences that each emotion serves a purpose.