Puberty Attacks! A Review of Pixar’s Inside Out 2
When Inside Out first came out in 2015, it was obviously a masterpiece. The concept of a person’s inner life being portrayed as a second universe where comedic characters stand for basic emotions turned out to be a stroke of genius that allowed for an emotional exploration of growing up. The movie focuses on a young girl, Riley, who struggles with a move from a rural city in Minnesota to San Francisco. Uprooted from everything she had known, she experiences homesickness, fear of the unknown, and loneliness.
The movie follows Riley as she becomes increasingly fed up with her new life until she decides to run away back to Minnesota before changing her mind and tearfully reuniting with her parents, who do their best to assure her and make her feel safe and understood. Simultaneously, in her inner life, her personified emotions attempt to manage her memories as they become tainted with sadness and her personality islands collapse, causing a crisis of identity.
In particular, Joy, the emotion who seems to be in control of Riley’s inner life, tries her hardest to guarantee that Riley experiences happiness more than sadness. She struggles with incorporating Sadness into Riley’s life. In the end, the movie suggests that when we grow up, Joy and Sadness in addition to a whole range of emotions are necessary, which make for a more rich and meaningful life. The movie captures the innocence, complexity, and wonder of a young mind in a bright spectacular way that is relatable to anyone who has struggled with moving out of a childhood home.
In the highly anticipated sequel, Inside Out 2, Riley returns as an older girl on the verge of puberty two years after the end of the events of the first film. This time, the emotions are working hard to build Riley’s sense of self as she experiences puberty while at hockey camp. Directed by Kelsey Mann, the sequel introduces new emotions—Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui—adding layers to Riley’s mental landscape as she deals with the challenges of puberty. Instead of Joy at the center of Riley’s inner life, the film follows the adventures as Joy and Anxiety struggle over what is best for Riley. Joy wants Riley to have fun at camp while Anxiety wants Riley to be accepted onto the team and make new friends.
The way the film showcases the struggle between Joy and Anxiety, between stasis and change, is very nuanced and cute at the same time. Joy’s simplistic approach to life may not have all the answers to the speed with which life changes and the complex situations that Riley does and will face in the future and the film neatly demonstrates this through Joy’s outgoing, bubbly voice and foolish plans for Riley’s success at camp.
On the other hand, anxiety, an emotion that is often seen as a bad emotion that teenagers struggle with, is portrayed in a sympathetic light. Anxiety wants the same thing that Joy wants: the best thing for Riley. They just disagree on how to make Riley happy. Anxiety wants Riley to stand out and become friends with the popular athletes while Joy insists on having childish fun.
An undeniable finesse–weaving creative storytelling, a serious exploration of growing up and its emotions, and real life insights–is seen throughout the entire film until the end. Much like the original Inside Out, the second film places Joy in the center of Riley’s inner life, suggesting that its central importance is normal. In both films, Joy’s authority is challenged, in the first film by Sadness and in the second by Anxiety.
Sadness was treated by the filmmakers as an unwanted younger brother who ruins the fun by being gloomy and incompetent. Joy and the other emotions never try to attack or antagonize Sadness, but Joy asks her to stand inside a little circle and not step out. At the end of the film, however, Joy realizes that Riley’s memories that were touched by Sadness emphasize togetherness and human connection, suggesting that the emotion sadness allows us to connect with others by empathizing with their sadness.
Anxiety, on the other hand, is full of energy. Anxiety keeps Riley awake and imagines the very worst. Anxiety made Riley sneak into the coach’s office to look in the notebook that the coach wrote about the players. Also, Anxiety made Riley to play more aggressively in the hockey game by stealing all the goals that her teammates would have gotten. I think this part was accurate from real life anxiety. It makes me only think about my personal achievement, not for the whole team.
Despite the excellent execution of the film, the sequel lacks the original childlike wonder of the first film and the new characters in the sequel sometimes fail to measure up to the original emotions. In addition, the second rarely reached the levels of emotional depth that the first Inside Out was able to reach, encapsulated by the portrayal of Bing Bong, the imaginary friend forgotten in the mind who sacrifices himself so that Riley can grow up. If the film had truly been able to capture the emotional depth of puberty instead of the emotional chaos, we may have ended up with new insights and narratives for what it might mean to go through puberty.
These small–possibly negligible–shortcomings culminate in an ending that felt rushed. The ending perhaps even wraps things up too neatly. Anxiety and Joy strike a kind of truce and Riley finds balance in her social life as well. She smooths out the difficulties she had in her social life and the movie ends with the results of the hockey camp unknown.
We can only assume that Riley has found peace with her surroundings. In my humble and narrow experience, this rarely if ever happens to any teenager. A more complex ending that preserves the tension between Anxiety and Joy rather than deliver their reconciliation might have rang more true and forced the writers to really give us an insight on puberty that might really help the teenage viewers who need it.
By: Gahyun Rho
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