Inside Out 2: Educating a new generation or healing the last?

‘Maybe this is what happens when you grow up: you feel less joy’

What is that feeling you get when your heart is pounding out of your chest and your body switches to fight of flight quicker than you can comprehend? When your palms start to become sweaty and your words fumble and somersault as they tumble out of your mouth? This is anxiety. Anxiety can make you impulsive, controlling, and self-conscious but like every other emotion we embody, it too just wants what is best for us. Disney’s Inside Out 2 has managed to very accurately depict Anxiety (Maya Hawke) as a colourful and playful figure: a figure who, in her own words, ‘plan[s] for the future and prepares [Riley] for all the stuff she can’t see’. This marks a bold and pivotal moment in history, as Disney has not only acknowledged mental health issues like anxiety, but has created a film based largely on them—a film that, like every other Disney outing, is aimed at children. Or is it?

Inside Out 2 introduces a younger demographic to the emotion of anxiety and by doing so increases their awareness of not only what the adults in their life may go through, but what they as children might be feeling. Anxiety has been found to be innate—it is ultimately the survival instinct we are all born with—except now it may manifest because of more modern-day problems, such as social media or certain societal expectations.

Therefore, anxiety is something we all experience—it is universal and so the coping mechanisms should also be universally accessible, not just from therapy or diagnosis. So, through awareness and education, this movie is equipping everyone with the tools on how better to handle their emotions, and by doing so is slowly removing the stigma that has been created around mental health for generations.

Your sense of self is not dependant on your output or level of performance; it is like Riley’s at the end of the movie, forever evolving

The movie touches on the idea of an internal belief system: ‘a sense of self’. And while at the beginning it is rooted in Riley’s (Kensington Tallman) belief that she ‘is a good person’—what every child is taught to grow up and become—it eventually changes when Anxiety takes over. ‘Anxiety has got [her] all chained’ and hangs her beliefs on words like ‘if’ and ‘as long as’, introducing ideas of conditional love to the viewer, like ‘if I do I well I will be loved’. But ultimately this outlook on life is what leads to Riley’s panic attack, appropriately the climax of the movie—where we learn her core belief now is ‘I am not good enough’.

If as an adult you aren’t taught how to cope with anxiety, your sense of self begins to mirror Riley’s in the movie—you may be always giving into your anxiety because you believe it is ‘all for [you] to be happier’ when it’s really what is consuming you. But if as a child you are taught to better cope with this, you will recognise that your sense of self is not dependant on your output or level of performance; it is like Riley’s at the end of the movie, forever evolving.

Another thing hard to accept as an adult is that as you get older—because of your own everchanging ‘sense of self’—you will go through many different versions of yourself, which Inside Out 2 highlights through its subtle spotlight on the five stages of grief. At the very beginning, Joy says ‘keep the best and toss the rest’ of Riley’s bad memories, but this is really a kind of denial—stage one—of Riley’s changing self. Stage two, anger, is obvious with how infuriated Joy and the gang are when the new emotions arise and threaten all that they’ve known, and eventually banish them from headquarters.

When the gang are stuck in the vault they begin to bargain—stage three—with Riley’s secrets as a way of finding an escape, before finally feeling true depression—stage four—when they feel lost and hopeless at the back of the mind, thinking Riley may no longer need them. However, at the very end when appealing to Anxiety, Joy realises that they ‘need to let her go’ because they ‘don’t get to choose who Riley is’, which is the final stage: acceptance. Whilst they mourn the old Riley, they quickly come to love the new one for all she is right now.

This warm hug of a movie teaches all audience members that it is okay to change and grow, that despite all your mistakes, you are you and are worthy of love. This, while aimed at younger children, has comforted older generations by teaching them the right techniques to heal. At the end of the movie, ‘Riley wants [Joy]’, she chooses her emotions and, in that sense, finally controls them. Disney shows us how best to navigate the emotions as well, like reminders that we’re doing great the way Joy reminds Envy (Ayo Edebiri) or focusing on ‘what can we control?’ instead of the latter or even when Anger (Lewis Black) says ‘confetti if we make the team, confetti if we don’t’, reinforcing how love is unconditional.

This warm hug of a movie teaches all audience members that it is okay to change and grow

Finally, the way Joy explains how ‘every bit of Riley makes her who she is, and [they] love all of [their] girl. Every messy, beautiful piece’ enhances the healing qualities of the film, showing acknowlegdement and understanding. We are taught that as annoying as our anxiety can be, it is ‘trying to protect’ us just as our inner child may behave, and as such it should be nurtured and loved.

So, while the movie may have been marketed for children, I suggest every elder sibling, parent, aunt, and uncle watch this film. Better yet, it’s now even streaming on Disney+ so you can cry and watch it multiple times from the comfort of your own bed, and by the end of it I hope you too will feel healed.