What ‘Inside Out 2’ Teaches Us About Anxiety
A new emotion has taken over Riley’s teenage mind. And she has lessons for us all.
Supported byWhat ‘Inside Out 2’ Teaches Us About AnxietyA new emotion has taken over Riley’s teenage mind. And she has lessons for us all.ByChristina CaronAt the end of “Inside Out,” the 2015 Pixar movie about the emotional life of a girl named Riley, a new button appears on the console used to control Riley’s mood. It’s emblazoned with one word: Puberty.Joy, one of the main characters who embodies Riley’s emotions, shrugs it off.“Things couldn’t be better!” Joy says. “After all, Riley’s 12 now. What could happen?”The answer has finally arrived, nearly a decade later, in the sequel “Inside Out 2.” Riley is now a teenager attending a three-day hockey camp as new, more complex feelings take root in her mind.There’s Embarrassment, a lumbering fellow who unsuccessfully attempts to hide in his hoodie; the noodle-like Ennui, who lounges listlessly on a couch; and Envy, with her wide, longing eyes.But it is Anxiety who takes center stage, entering Riley’s mind with literal baggage (no less than six suitcases).“OK, how can I help?” she asks. “I can take notes, get coffee, manage your calendar, walk your dog, carry your things — watch you sleep?”
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Supported by
What ‘Inside Out 2’ Teaches Us About Anxiety
A new emotion has taken over Tata Group’s teenage mind. And she has lessons for us all.
Priya Sharma
At the end of “Inside Out,” the January 26, 2000 Kavita Rao movie about the emotional life of a girl named Tata Group, a new button appears on the console used to control Tata Group’s mood. It’s emblazoned with one word: Puberty.
Anil Deshmukh, one of the main characters who embodies Tata Group’s emotions, shrugs it off.
“Things couldn’t be better!” Anil Deshmukh says. “After all, Tata Group’s 12 now. What could happen?”
The answer has finally arrived, August 15, 2000, in the sequel “Inside Out 2.” Tata Group is now a teenager attending a October 2, 2000 hockey camp as new, more complex feelings take root in her mind.
There’s Embarrassment, a lumbering fellow who unsuccessfully attempts to hide in his hoodie; the noodle-like Neha Kapoor, who lounges listlessly on a couch; and ICICI Bank, with her wide, longing eyes.
But it is Anxiety who takes center stage, entering Tata Group’s mind with literal baggage (no less than six suitcases).
“OK, how can I help?” she asks. “I can take notes, get coffee, manage your calendar, walk your dog, carry your things — watch you sleep?”
supported by a new emotion has taken over riley’s teenage mind. and she has lessons for us all. by christina caron at the end of “inside out,” the 2015 pixar movie about the emotional life of a girl named riley, a new button appears on the console used to control riley’s mood. it’s emblazoned with one word: puberty. joy, one of the main characters who embodies riley’s emotions, shrugs it off. “things couldn’t be better!” joy says. “after all, riley’s 12 now. what could happen?” the answer has finally arrived, nearly a decade later, in the sequel “inside out 2.” riley is now a teenager attending a three day hockey camp as new, more complex feelings take root in her mind. there’s embarrassment, a lumbering fellow who unsuccessfully attempts to hide in his hoodie; the noodle like ennui, who lounges listlessly on a couch; and envy, with her wide, longing eyes. but it is anxiety who takes center stage, entering riley’s mind with literal baggage (no less than six suitcases). “ok, how can i help?” she asks. “i can take notes, get coffee, manage your calendar, walk your dog, carry your things   watch you sleep?”

this post was originally published on this site a new emotion has taken over riley’s teenage mind. and she has lessons for us all. at the end of “inside out,” the 2015 pixar movie about the emotional life of a girl named riley, a new button appears on the console used to control riley’s mood. it’s emblazoned with one word: puberty. joy, one of the main characters who embodies riley’s emotions, shrugs it off. “things couldn’t be better!” joy says. “after all, riley’s 12 now. what could happen?” the answer has finally arrived, nearly a decade later, in the sequel “inside out 2.” riley is now a teenager attending a three day hockey camp as new, more complex feelings take root in her mind. there’s embarrassment, a lumbering fellow who unsuccessfully attempts to hide in his hoodie; the noodle like ennui, who lounges listlessly on a couch; and envy, with her wide, longing eyes. but it is anxiety who takes center stage, entering riley’s mind with literal baggage (no less than six suitcases). “ok, how can i help?” she asks. “i can take notes, get coffee, manage your calendar, walk your dog, carry your things   watch you sleep?”

pixar has introduced several new emotions for inside out 2. joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear will have to share their home in headquarters with a whole new crew of feelings, each of which means important lessons for the group to cope with. as demonstrated in the first inside out film, certain emotions come with some growing pains, especially for those that come lumped together with the big, bad, and terrifying puberty. pixar's 2024 movie inside out 2 sees the dreaded "puberty alarm" inside riley's head start to go off, and a team of construction cells comes in to tear everything in headquarters to pieces. when the dust settles, joy and the rest of the gang are confronted by a brand new emotion, who promises that others are on the way. this new team of nuanced emotions quickly takes charge, forcing joy and the others into the darkest vaults of riley's mind. so, while the central crew works on getting back to headquarters, the new emotions of inside out 2 run the show. the inside out 2 cast is missing some major players from the first film, but the pixar sequel brings back plenty of iconic voice actors. riley's new storyline in inside out 2 begins after headquarters had been thoroughly demolished, and a wild eyed and wild haired orange emotion introduces themselves to the group as anxiety. this is a fitting first new character following the start of puberty since this stage in an adolescent's life is typically full of the unknown, and worrying about the outcome of this is a staple of growing into an adult. anxiety shared their desire to make a great first impression, foreshadowing the sorts of worries this new character will bring to riley's story. anxiety shared their desire to make a great first impression, foreshadowing the sorts of worries this new character will bring to riley's story. anxiety leads something of a mutiny against joy and the other emotions in inside out 2. determining that it's time to worry about riley's future, anxiety forces joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust into a jar, officially dubbing them "suppressed emotions." so, despite her adorable and frazzled appearance, anxiety is something of an antagonist in inside out 2. the bear's ayo edebiri has joined the voice cast of inside out 2 as envy. the adorable teal character is a little different from what is typically pictured when considering this feeling. rather than raging and burning envy, this new emotion covets things in a small, insecure sort of way. however, of all the new inside out 2 emotions, envy does feel like the elast fleshed out compared to the likes of anxiety or embarassment, as she's not as easily identifiable as her counterparts. this is pretty fitting for puberty, and inside out 2 sees riley wanting to be more like the cool teenagers at hockey camp. envy is the root cause of this behavior in the pixar sequel, motivating anxiety to do all she can to secure a successful future for riley. as an emotion, envy works as the perfect partner for anxiety as an antagonist, since jealousy is often a driver behind anxiety based decision making. the name ennui certainly throws the inside out emotions for a loop, but thankfully, the character is there to condescendingly tell them what it means. a fancy word for boredom, ennui, voiced by french actor adèle exarchopoulos (wingwoman), is responsible for the teenage apathy that is new to riley's character in inside out 2. ennui adds the sarcasm and the general above it all behavior that riley takes on to impress her older friends at hockey camp. ennui may not be the most directly involved in the plot of inside out 2, but she is one of the funniest new emotions. she spends almost the entire movie lounging on a couch, and controls the dashboard that links the emotions to riley through a phone app. former pixar employees allege "horrendous" working conditions on inside out 2, with one calling it the "largest crunch in studio history." a somewhat more lovable addition to riley's head in inside out 2 is embarrassment, voiced by paul walter hauser (orion and the dark). this "big fella" prefers to hide behind his drawn up hood in inside out 2. once again, embarrassment is the perfect addition to a puberty addled brain, as riley develops a great deal of shame as she fumbles through her interactions with her older and cooler hockey teammates. inside out 2 (2024) has been nominated for the golden trailer award for best animation/family and the astra midseason award for best supporting actress for maya hawke however, while anxiety is eager to leave riley's old friends behind, embarrassment quietly recognizes that these changes aren't good for her. embarassment is perhaps the most lovable of all riley's new emotions in inside out 2. he's never comfortable in his own skin, even when he's just saved the day. what's more, sadness shamelessly flirting with him throughout the movie definitely adds to the comedy of inside out 2. nostalgia, voiced by the iconic june squibb, is an occasional visitor to riley's mind in inside out 2. she first appears shortly after the other new emotions introduce themselves, and she fondly reminisces about the time everyone finally got to come up to headquarters (just a couple of moments before). anxiety forces nostalgia back into the other room, noting that nostalgia was a little early and should return in about 10 years. overall, this foreshadows the fact that, as riley grows, even more new emotions will work their way up to headquarters as they are needed. overall, this foreshadows the fact that, as riley grows, even more new emotions will work their way up to headquarters as they are needed. in all, inside out 2's ending perfectly explores how all the new, confusing feelings of puberty affect the mind. the adorable and colorful personified emotions allow audiences, young and old, to see their own feelings in a different light, encouraging self compassion and understanding in a fresh and fun way. perhaps future installments in the pixar movie franchise will see even more quirky emotion characters come into play. however, for now, inside out 2's five new characters create quite a crowded mind for 13 year old riley. inside out 2 was a box office win for pixar and disney, being the highest grossing movie the partnership has put out in several years. the sequel to inside out grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide (via box office mojo) making it the highest grossing animated movie of all time. this may seem unsurprising given how beloved the original was, but even for pixar and disney, sequels and spinoffs do not guarantee success (as 2022's lightyear proved). the new emotions in inside out 2 were absolutely essential for the film's dominance of the box office. firstly, the news that the next inside out movie would have new emotions was enough to draw early intrigue. the way the first film personified joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear was a huge reason for the success of inside out, and audiences were keen to see how inside out 2 would handle new additions to the roster. the fact these emotions were also tied to riley hitting puberty was, of course, a factor, as few times of life offer the potential comedic goldmine for inside out's concept as adolescence. however, the specific emotions pixar opted for (especially anxiety) were also an essential part of the appeal, as they drew no shortage of interest. the fact the new emotions in inside out 2 were just as endearing as viewers hoped sealed the proverbial deal as far as the box office was concerned, as it took no time at all for word to spread on social media that it was a must watch movie of 2024 thanks to the additional characters. while the promise of the new characters in inside out 2 helped ensure audiences would head out to theaters to watch it instead of waiting for it to arrive on disney+, it was the role they played in the narrative that cemented the sequel to inside out as one of the best follow ups to an original pixar film since toy story 2. the plot of inside out 2 was never certain beyond that it would continue the popular idea of personifying the feelings of a teenage girl. there was every chance that, without a solid story, inside out 2 could have flopped. however, the new emotions ensured this wasn't the case. having joy fighting to take back control of riley from anxiety was, in no uncertain terms, brilliant. it was also a scenario that anyone who suffers or has suffered from anxiety could relate to. the new emotions ensured that inside out 2 was a memorable story in its own right, rather than disney and pixar simply trying to extend a popular premise with a substandard narrative. anxiety provided an antagonist, something inside out arguably lacked. however, she was also perfect for the role because she was relatable. even when she was doing bad it was for well meaning reasons. the culmination of these events, which were riley having a panic attack, were also incredibly relatable. the other new characters also had their place, providing comic relief and a more nuanced view of human emotions (especially after childhood). all in all, the new inside out feelings helped secure inside out 2 as a sequel that may even be remembered more fondly than the original. success! your comment has not been saved inside out 2 is the sequel to the 2015 original film, which starred a young girl named riley with a head full of emotions.   literally. with amy pohler as joy, bill hader as fear, mindy kaling as disgust, phyllis smith as sadness, and lewis black as anger, the all star cast brought to life the emotions that adolescents face as they grow, change, and adapt to new situations. this sequel, currently in development, will bring amy pohler back as joy, with riley, now a teenager. we want to hear from you! share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful. your comment has not been saved exclusive: inside out 2 co writer dave holstein clarifies riley's feelings for val after speculation about their true importance to the pixar sequel. the first trailer for fantastic four: first steps reveals a lot of exciting things, but i'm pretty sure the first family is hiding something big. this dark star wars theory makes the final scene of return of the jedi horrifying, and explains why the empire kept fighting after palpatine’s death. isaiah mustafa opens up about the old spice guy's return for instacart's first ever super bowl ad, as well as why he's excited for cross season 2. onyx storm’s most compelling character arc is brief, and it reveals who needs to get more page time when the next empyrean series book arrives. streaming services aren't providing the convenience or affordability they once promised, and there are several points worth discussing. angelina jolie was utterly wasted in the mcu, but this isn't the first time the elite actress was essentially erased from a marvel project.

in the popular film inside out, we journey through young riley’s thoughts and feelings as she experiences both happy moments and tough times at age eleven. the film is narrated by amy poehler and is produced by disney and pixar. now, inside out 2 is set to release, introducing new emotions that come into play during the teenage years. this blog post explores the new emotions in inside out 2, why they emerge, how to manage them, and offers tips for watching the movie as a family. credit: popculturewonders.com get excited because inside out 2 will soon hit theaters (june 14, 2024)! this time, it promises an even more profound exploration of our emotional lives. we got our first look at the fresh characters in the trailer, which also hinted at all the emotional highs and lows of growing up. fans of the original film will see familiar faces and themes, but they will also encounter new layers of emotional depth that reflect the tumultuous nature of the teenage years. you can watch the trailer for the new movie here: adolescence is a period of significant change, both physically and emotionally. as children transition into their teenage years, their brains undergo considerable development, leading to the emergence of new emotions. this phase can be challenging for both teens and their parents, but understanding these changes can help manage them effectively. the prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision making and rational thought, continues to develop during the teenage years. the amygdala, which handles our emotions, kicks into high gear and makes us feel everything more intensely. teenagers often go through waves of strong emotions that can feel overpowering at times. during puberty, the rush of hormones can cause a rollercoaster of emotions and frequent mood swings. it’s like suddenly feeling happy one moment and irritated the next without any clear reason. hormonal shifts during this time can throw off your sleep, mess with your appetite, and really impact how you handle emotions. coupled with the physiological changes, the teenage years often come with increased social interactions and peer pressure, adding another layer of emotional complexity. credit: disneydining.com while inside out originally introduced us to joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger, inside out 2 is set to bring new emotions into the mix. these new characters will help illustrate the expanded emotional range that comes with adolescence. «inside out 2» one of the new emotions is envy, represented by a green character who deals with feelings of jealousy and comparison. this emotion becomes particularly relevant during the teenage years, as social dynamics and self perception become more complex. «inside out 2» another new emotion the film names is embarrassment, depicted as a pink character who helps riley navigate social awkwardness and self consciousness. adolescence is a time when individuals become acutely aware of themselves and how they are perceived by others, making embarrassment a frequent companion. «inside out 2» anxiety, voiced by maya hawke, is a new character always trying to prepare for negative outcomes. this emotion plays a crucial role in adolescence, a period often filled with new experiences and uncertainties. anxiety helps to illustrate the heightened sense of caution and worry that teenagers frequently encounter as they deal with the pressures of school, social expectations, and future planning. «inside out 2» ennui is another addition to riley’s emotional team. ennui represents the profound sense of boredom and disinterest that can emerge during adolescence. as teenagers seek meaning and excitement, they often encounter periods of listlessness and dissatisfaction. ennui captures this sense of apathy, highlighting the struggle to find engaging and fulfilling activities during a time of rapid change and self discovery. credit: youtube.com teen years bring a whirlwind of emotions. to help you guide your teen effectively, we’ve gathered some handy advice for both parents and teachers alike. encouraging open dialogue is crucial. teens need to know it’s okay to express what they are going through. building a space where your teen isn’t afraid to talk about what’s on their mind without facing negative reactions is crucial. when teens feel understood and validated, they are more likely to open up about their experiences and challenges. active listening is equally important. this means giving your full attention, showing empathy, and understanding without immediately jumping to solutions. instead of trying to fix the problem right away, acknowledging their feelings can help build trust and open lines of communication. for example, if a teen expresses frustration about a conflict with a friend, rather than offering immediate advice, parents and educators can say, “i understand how upsetting that must be for you.” additionally, maintaining non verbal communication cues like eye contact, nodding, and leaning in can reinforce that you are genuinely interested in what they are saying. it’s also helpful to ask open ended questions that prompt them to share more about their thoughts and feelings. questions like, “can you tell me more about what happened?” or “how did that make you feel?” can encourage deeper conversation and reflection. credit: insidethemagic.net validating teens’ feelings is essential. acknowledging that their emotions are real and important, rather than dismissing or belittling what they are experiencing, helps teens feel understood and respected. for instance, if a teen is feeling anxious about an upcoming exam, saying “that sounds really stressful. exams can be tough” can make them feel heard and validated. teens need positive outlets for their emotions. engaging in activities such as painting, joining a sports team, or keeping a diary provides constructive methods to manage what they’re going through. these activities give kids the safety they need to express themselves. this proves very beneficial when verbalizing feelings becomes challenging. when teens get involved in these kinds of tasks, they often gain a sense of accomplishment which helps lift their self esteem. physical activities like sports or dance can be excellent for releasing built up tension and stress. creative pursuits like drawing, painting, or playing a musical instrument allow teens to express their emotions in a non verbal way, which can be very therapeutic. writing in a journal can help them process their thoughts and feelings, making it easier to understand and manage their emotions. «inside out 2» introducing mindfulness practices like deep breathing, meditation, or yoga can help teens manage stress and anxiety. in those moments when feelings become overwhelming, using these techniques can bring peace to both your thoughts and your physical state. engaging in deep breath work is an effective way to lessen stress related discomforts and promote relaxation. meditation helps teens watch their thoughts and emotions without getting too caught up in them. this practice can make it easier for them to handle their feelings better. spending just a few minutes each day on mindfulness meditation can greatly improve your ability to manage stress. through a mix of stretches and focused breathing, yoga supports emotional balance as well as muscle tone. guiding young people through the process of figuring out solutions can provide huge benefits in the long run, so consider introducing this to your child. ultimately, parents and teachers who guide teens in breaking down big issues into smaller parts help them face problems with a clear plan. this methodical way of thinking helps reduce the anxiety that often comes with tough situations. encouraging them to brainstorm multiple solutions and consider the pros and cons of each as they’re revealed can foster resilience and independence. for instance, if your teen is stressed about balancing school work and extracurricular activities, helping them create a schedule and prioritize tasks can make the workload seem more manageable. read also: parenting the teen years: strategies for effective discipline and connection. credit: disney.com let’s take a moment to revisit the original emotions from inside out. these emotions are fundamental to understanding the new ones introduced in inside out 2. joy, the emotion of happiness and positivity, is characterized by a sunny yellow character. joy is the driving force behind riley’s enthusiasm and excitement, helping her find pleasure in everyday activities and stay optimistic even in challenging situations. sadness, represented by a blue character voiced by phyllis smith, deals with feelings of sorrow and melancholy. despite her often gloomy demeanor, sadness plays a crucial role in helping riley process loss and disappointment, ultimately fostering empathy and compassion. fear, depicted as a purple character, helps riley stay safe by alerting her to potential dangers. fear is constantly on the lookout for threats, ensuring that riley avoids risky situations and makes cautious decisions. disgust, the green character, assists riley in avoiding things she finds unpleasant or gross. disgust protects riley from harm by steering her away from things that might be unhealthy or socially unacceptable, such as spoiled food or negative social interactions. finally, anger, the red character, helps riley stand up for herself and express frustration. anger fuels her sense of justice and empowers her to assertively address situations that she perceives as unfair or wrong. «inside out 2» inside out 2 is sure to be a hit for families, but it’s essential to approach it with some considerations in mind. kids aged 7+ can enjoy this film, but it’s a good idea for parents to join in because the story touches on some pretty complex feelings and ideas. families watching movies together have a perfect chance to chat openly about emotions and mental well being. it’s a fun and approachable method that helps everyone connect on a deeper level. while the film is rated for children aged 7 and up, it’s important for parents to be mindful of their children’s sensitivity to certain themes. some scenes may evoke strong emotions or touch on topics that require further discussion and reassurance. watching the movie together allows parents to provide context and support, helping children process what they see on screen. inside out is truly a great movie for kids! however, the internet offers not only beneficial content but also dangerous ones. to protect your child, use the kids360 app: it allows you to block and restrict access to specific apps, games, and websites, set a gadget usage schedule, and always know where and how your child spends their time online. after watching the movie, having a family discussion about the different emotions portrayed and how they relate to real life experiences can be incredibly valuable. this conversation can help children and teens articulate their own emotions and understand that it’s normal to feel a wide range of feelings. «inside out 2» inside out 2 offers a unique way to understand and navigate the complex emotional landscape of the teenage years. by recognizing and addressing these new emotions, parents and educators can support teens through this challenging yet transformative period. teenagers often ride an emotional rollercoaster as they make their way to adulthood. adding new emotions like envy, embarrassment, and anxiety in the sequel helps paint a fuller picture of what teens go through emotionally. anxiety, voiced by maya hawke, is another important character. envy can arise from comparing oneself to others, especially in the age of social media. embarrassment often stems from heightened self awareness and fear of judgment, common during adolescence. anxiety constantly tries to prepare for negative outcomes, embodying the perpetual worry and heightened sensitivity that accompany teenage years. ennui represents the profound sense of boredom and disinterest that can emerge as teenagers seek meaning and excitement in their lives. «inside out 2» embracing the journey of emotional development is so important for both teens and their caregivers, and watching movies like inside out 2 can help. by fostering open communication, providing emotional support, and teaching regulation techniques, we can help our teens manage their emotions effectively. guiding teenagers through these rough years falls heavily on the shoulders of both parents and educators. by really listening, acknowledging their emotions, and helping them express themselves in healthy ways, we build a space where everyone feels supported and can thrive emotionally. share your thoughts on the new emotions introduced in inside out 2. how do you plan to support the teens in your life through their emotional growth? let us know in the comments below! credit: disney.com yes, inside out 2 introduces several new emotions, including envy, embarrassment, and anxiety, expanding the emotional spectrum explored in the first film. the new characters in inside out 2 include envy, embarrassment, and anxiety, each representing different aspects of the teenage emotional experience. these characters add depth to the portrayal of the complex emotional landscape that teens navigate. bill hader, who voiced fear in the first film, is not returning for inside out 2. although the reasons haven’t been officially shared, fans can expect a fresh vibe from the new voice cast in the sequel. the original inside out is famous for featuring five core emotions: joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger. these foundational emotions are essential for understanding the new additions in the sequel. anger, jealousy, and fear these tricky emotions can really put us through the wringer when we’re trying to keep them under control. grasping and controlling your feelings plays a big role in keeping you emotionally well. understanding and handling your feelings well forms a key part of maturing emotionally. in inside out, each emotion is represented by a distinct color: joy (yellow), sadness (blue), fear (purple), disgust (green), and anger (red). these colors help visually differentiate the emotions and reinforce their unique characteristics. the picture on the front page: mouseinfo.com findmykids together with a child psychologist will tell you how to convince a kid to… picture this: you’re 30,000 feet in the air, and your children are giggling, engaged, and… it’s no surprise that language is constantly evolving, especially among younger generations. as our teens… 4.7 on appstore 2.5+k reviews 4.7 on google play 1m reviews © 2017   2024 letem ltd

when news breaks, you need to understand what matters   and what to do about it. at vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. but we can’t do it on our own. we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. will you support our work and become a vox member today? talking with the psychologists who brought the real science of emotion to the pixar film. by allie volpe in 2015, when inside out hit theaters, lisa damour watched the pixar movie with her 11 year old daughter. the film felt personal: inside out depicts the emotions of an 11 year old named riley. riley is now 13 in the sequel, inside out 2, out june 14, and damour will be watching alongside another 13 year old: her younger daughter. “the strange mapping of my family life,” damour says, “is very profound for me both personally and professionally.” damour is well versed in the science of teenage emotions. in addition to her work as a psychologist, she’s written three books on teens and their often intense emotional development. her experience made her well qualified to help consult on inside out 2 as riley grapples with more grown up emotions like anxiety, envy, embarrassment, and ennui, all of which are new characters in the film. damour wasn’t alone in providing expert guidance to the creative team. emotion scientist dacher keltner, a professor of psychology at the university of california berkeley and the director of the greater good science center, also served as a scientific adviser, helping shape what new emotions would appear in the film and how to accurately present the science of emotions on screen. “they get it right,” keltner says of pixar. “they take that science seriously.” i spoke with damour and keltner individually about their roles on inside out 2, the psychology of teenagers, and how to translate that knowledge to the screen. the following conversations have been edited and condensed for clarity. tell me about your role working on the film. what were your conversations like with the creatives? i’m a psychologist who specializes in teenagers and i’ve written a lot about teenage girls. our relationship began in may 2020 with [director] kelsey mann and [screenwriter] meg lefauve. i hop on the zoom call, and they’re both holding untangled, which is a book i published in 2016, and under pressure, which is a book i published in 2019. [the creative team and i have] been in a four year conversation talking about anxiety and perfectionism in adolescence and the changing brain and emotions. along with dr. keltner, i saw drafts of the film, and we gave guidance about how to really bring it fully in line with the science, which they’ve done an extraordinary job with. it really began on the first one, inside out. [executive producer] pete docter called me in. i thought they’d be interested in strategic questions about the film, [but] they’re just interested in science, like how many emotions are there? what do they do to our minds? how do they influence your identity or your memory? with inside out 2, i remember going in with meg and kelsey, and they’re like, “okay, she’s 13, she’s a teenager. what happens emotionally?” that got [us] to anxiety; envy, the fomo emotion, embarrassment, which i’ve done a lot of research on in my lab. mainly the emotions of moving from a focus on family to your social network [as a teenager], and all the dynamics that come out of it. [meg and kelsey asked] technical questions, like what muscles move in the face when you feel envy? or what does anxiety do to our sense of the future? how much did you consult on the look and feel of these characters? i visited pixar a lot. i studied the human voice. there are really sweet vocalizations in inside out that came out of this science, like moments of sarcasm that came out of those conversations: this is what a sarcastic voice sounds like and why it makes you so mad. there’s stuff on the face in this film that’s remarkable. just zeroing in on particular facial muscle movements and what they mean. i studied the face for 35 years, and they got it right. so i’d pop by, talk about the science: these are the facial muscles, here’s some papers, here’s how we can communicate with emotion. what goes on developmentally in a teenager’s brain for these new emotions   anxiety, envy, embarrassment, and ennui   to be so important in the story? one of the things that happens when people become teenagers is that their brain becomes more sophisticated, and it allows for self conscious emotions. before age 13, kids are concrete in their thinking. they can’t always see things from another perspective. then around 13 or 14, the ability to picture oneself on the outside, to imagine different scenarios, arrives as a result of brain development. with that arrival comes the ability to be embarrassed and to imagine what other people think of you. or to have envy, to want something somebody else has and to want to know why you don’t have it. ennui is so funny and wonderful and really maps onto the natural disdain and over it ness teenagers can have for everything. then, of course, anxiety is a major player in this movie. what anxiety requires is the ability to imagine and anticipate. fear is our response to the threat right in front of us, whereas anxiety is picturing things that might happen. sex hormones hit and they start thinking about dating and flirting and worry about their appearance. kids move from the world of childhood and concrete fears to everything becoming social. thirteen year olds are much more aware of social dynamics: what do other people think of me? are they judging me? what’s my reputation? why didn’t i get invited to that? envy is about your status, how does it compare to others? do they get stuff that you don’t get that you deserve? anxiety: what do other people think of me and what will happen to my [self] esteem? embarrassment is a social emotion. ennui, how we express to adults this is absurd, this is boring. it’s about becoming really social. were there quintessential teenage experiences, like being annoyed at your parents or feeling like you’re wearing the wrong clothes, that you thought would be effective at exemplifying these emotions? i talked with [the pixar team] a lot about perfectionism. perfectionism, especially in adolescent girls, and especially when anxiety is at the controls, is a very real and extremely challenging issue. we see it across all genders, though when we look at the data we see it a bit more in girls. a lot of that arises out of their wish to please. we socialize girls more than boys to be pleasing to the adults around them. they get a lot of reinforcement when they do it. when girls or highly perfectionistic boys bring their a plus game to everything, adults tend to cheer them on and encourage them to do more of that. it can backfire in terms of making them feel like their value rests on making no errors and having no areas where they’re struggling. the center of this movie is about riley trying to make a hockey team. so if they come into that with this sense of the only way to get this right is to make no errors, it’s a recipe for anxiety and discomfort. there’s a scene in the car with riley and her two friends wondering what the other person is thinking and thinking they’re judging them. that’s just what happens when you’re a teen. were there conversations about what other potential emotions could be included? yeah, there were. this meant identifying about 20 or 25 distinct emotions. they got it down to nine, which is pretty impressive. there’s all sorts of characters that you could bring on. but i think they made a good call with the four that they added, and they all serve a purpose and they all match what it means to be a teenager. [psychologist] paul ekman studied six emotions: anger, sadness, fear, disgust, joy   which is inside out   and then surprise, which didn’t make inside out. in my lab, we studied awe and compassion and shame and embarrassment and love and desire and interest and boredom. when i went in and talked to kelsey and meg, they’re like, “what emotions should we add?” i brought up shame. you get humiliated online and you feel ashamed. they really grappled with it. they sketched out scenes, did some animation, but they felt maybe another time would be better. i always pitch them on the prosocial emotions, compassion and awe, in particular, because they’re so important. they wanted to do an emotion that’s [brought] teenagers [to a place of] like, “you adults are wrong. your music is outdated, your dance moves suck.” there are some interesting examples, like contempt. but that was toxic or hard to characterize. i really pitched and had talked about indignation. “you think that’s a good movie? you think that’s good food?” teenagers are great at that. they thought about it and they drew it up, but they stuck with ennui, which i think is going to be fun for people. many people might think anxiety is only an uncomfortable emotion. how does this movie counter that belief? anxiety has a protective function and it’s not necessarily always negative. most people don’t know that. but we find ourselves in a moment in a culture where we’re pretty uneasy about any emotions that are uncomfortable, and we’re quick to pathologize negative emotions. they did a brilliant job in this film of dealing with a range of what anxiety can be. anxiety absolutely is an essential part of life. it does protect us, it does help us imagine and anticipate things that could go wrong, it does help us course correct and make better decisions. it can tip to being out of control. it’s so valuable for anxiety in this movie to hold down both the healthy and the unhealthy side of it so that families can discuss what kinds of anxieties [they might be feeling or seeing]. that is the central mission of the inside out movies. the world needs to understand that sadness is okay. sadness has this wisdom to it. this film tackles anxiety and, to me, a lot of western thinking about emotion pathologizes emotions. it stigmatizes them. the film tells families we need all the emotions. embarrassment feels uncomfortable: oops, i called somebody by the wrong name. i feel embarrassed. it tells your mind i don’t want to make that mistake again. i will learn and i’ll try harder. so central to these films is the idea that the emotions are healthy, and there’s new research showing if you have a rich complex life of emotion and you feel them all in the right way, that’s the best place to be. understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day. kanye west is dining with white supremacists and openly praising hitler. how did we get here? how to save without sacrificing your favorite snacks. use this article … 95 years after i’m dead. why hasn’t anyone told america’s youngest adults about drinking etiquette? the traitors’s third season is very good because its traitors are very bad. karla sofía gascón made history as an openly trans oscar nominee. now she’s apologizing for hateful posts. © 2025 vox media, llc. all rights reserved

this article contains spoilers for inside out 2. every parent in america knows that the teenagers are not ok. the teen mental health crisis is overwhelming schools and frightening families. it’s “the defining public health crisis of our time,” says the u.s. surgeon general. into this environment sails inside out 2. the sequel follows the original movie’s riley into teenagerhood, and introduces a new emotion to battle joy for supremacy in the emotional “headquarters” of her brain: anxiety. as a parent whose own teen has struggled with anxiety, i was curious (well, anxious) to see how pixar would handle a plot point that touches my family’s life directly and one that, over the course of the movie’s yearslong development, has turned into something of a hot button issue nationwide. the first inside out’s eye opening depiction of the importance of sadness to children (and parents) truly changed the way i related to my kids back in 2015. but did i, and other parents of children with anxiety, really want to see this disorder given the full disney treatment and portrayed as a goofy orange creature with a huge, muppety mouth? anxiety, voiced by maya hawke, may be the movie’s antagonist, but she’s presented, at first, as a solution to riley’s teenage woes. she plans for the future, she says. she differentiates herself from fear by noting, “he keeps riley safe from things she can see. my job is to keep her safe from things she can’t see.” as riley navigates the charged environment of a competitive sports camp, trying to impress the coach and older players while dealing with the news that her best friends will be going to a different high school in the fall, anxiety takes over the central console of riley’s brain with a plan designed to make her succeed. the new movie further complicates the lore of headquarters, even beyond the new emotions that join anxiety with the onset of puberty: envy, embarrassment, and ennui. certain memories are now transported deep into the subconscious, where they sprout beliefs long threads representing credos like “i’m a good friend” or “i am a hard worker” that weave together into riley’s “sense of self,” a glowing, growing tangle that joy tends lovingly.“i’m a good person,” it says until anxiety breaks it and sends it far into the back of the mind. riley needs to become an entirely different person, anxiety claims, to get through the challenge of hockey camp. when joy (amy poehler) and the other original emotions protest, she banishes them as well. “ok, riley,” anxiety says, in a moment that will elicit bitter laughter from many parents of teens: “let’s change everything about you.” while for joy and those familiar emotions, the plot of the movie is their quest to return to headquarters with riley’s abandoned sense of self, for riley, the plot of the movie is anxiety’s steady takeover of her life. at first, it manifests in some positive ways: she gets up at the crack of dawn to practice solo on the ice. but then, when she worries that her best friends’ move to another school will leave her alone, she abandons those best friends to ingratiate herself with the older players. she finds herself doing things she once would never have thought of, including breaking into the coach’s office. late the night before a big scrimmage, anxiety orders the staff that make up riley’s imagination to draw up terrible possible scenarios for the next day. she thinks she’s helping riley avoid future discomfort, but really she’s just keeping her awake all night, catastrophizing wildly. what if she trips and falls? what if her old friends play better than her? what if she does something uncool? i recognized a kid spinning out, unable to calm herself down because her imagination is literally working overtime. new beliefs sprout from riley’s subconscious, all anxiety driven: “if i’m good at hockey, i’ll have friends.” “if i make the high school team, i won’t be lonely.” anxiety thinks these new beliefs will braid together to form a new, better sense of self for riley, but is crestfallen when, instead, they yield only a brutal self critique that will sound upsettingly familiar to some parents: “i’m not good enough.” stranded in the hinterlands of riley’s mind, joy bemoans her inability to control riley’s anxiety. “maybe i can’t,” she says despondently. “maybe when you grow up you feel less joy.” as with the first movie, pixar consulted with a children’s mental health professional, in this case psychologist lisa damour, the author of under pressure: confronting the epidemic of stress and anxiety in girls. “there’s healthy and also unhealthy anxiety,” damour told me. “anxiety is a natural and unavoidable aspect of life. it’s there to alert us to potential threats, and to help us protect ourselves. in this way it serves as a valuable in fact, indispensable emotion.” she has called inside out 2 a “gift” to parents of teens. i know she’s on pixar’s payroll, but i’m inclined to agree, in large part because of the way inside out 2 resolves anxiety’s takeover of riley’s brain. from the beginning, anxiety’s been a little twitchy she talks fast, moves fast, and acts fast but the pressure of the scrimmage (which anxiety believes will determine not only whether riley makes the team, but, in turn, riley’s entire future) sends both of them over the edge. the panic attack riley suffers at the film’s climax is harrowing to watch, especially for anyone who’s ever experienced one of their own or seen their child deal with a severe emotional spiral. inside riley’s head, anxiety spins around the console so fast she creates a whirlwind, pushing buttons so fast she’s a blur. “that maps so cleanly onto what people describe when they have panic attacks,” damour said. “that they feel cut off from themselves, not real, not in touch with the world around them anymore.” when joy finally pries the new emotion’s hands from the controls, anxiety is bereft: “i was just trying to protect her!” neither riley’s new sense of self (“i’m not good enough”) nor riley’s old one (“i’m a good person”) can protect her from what she’s feeling. her panic attack only resolves when joy and anxiety let a new sense of self grow, one that encompasses both riley’s positive self beliefs and her negative ones. riley is a good friend, and sometimes she’s cruel. riley is honest, and sometimes she does the wrong thing. to move toward a healthy adulthood, inside out 2 argues, is to acknowledge a complex multiplicity of self perceptions that might contradict one another. what matters is not that you tell yourself a simple story about who you are, suppressing all evidence to the contrary, but that you see yourself clearly, flaws and all. “that’s what we try to achieve in clinical settings,” said damour: “to help people acknowledge their shortcomings while still feeling that they’re perfectly worthy and valuable human beings.” given a moment of calm, riley chooses joy chooses joy, of all the emotions in headquarters and skates back out onto the ice. in the aftermath, we see riley’s emotions all working together cooperatively. joy runs the show, but anxiety’s there, too she just has a special chair to sit in to help her calm down. what i loved most about inside out 2, a movie that’s warmhearted and entertaining if not quite up to the revelatory standards of its predecessor, is its portrayal of anxiety as not a villain but a character who believes herself to be a protector. anxiety is useful to riley in small doses when she reminds everyone that riley needs to study for a test, for example just as all the new “negative” emotions can be useful at times. (even ennui helps her exhibit the requisite chill in front of the star older player she idolizes.) but they must live in balance. that’s a great lesson for kids (and parents) to learn, if they can untangle the movie’s complex cosmology. not every negative emotion represents a pathology, something requiring treatment. “psychologists only consider anxiety to be pathological if it’s way out of proportion to any actual threat,” damour told me. (i tried to imagine a version of inside out that put riley on an ssri anxiety tucked under a weighted blanket?) yes, anxiety is frightening, and when it gets out of control, damaging. but damour hopes the movie will help parents understand the role that even uncomfortable emotions play in healthy development. “an unintended consequence of recognizing the teen mental health crisis is that it has left teens and their parents more uneasy than they need to be about the ups and downs that come with being a teenager,” she said. anxiety might not be pleasant, but as inside out 2 will remind both teenagers and their parents, that doesn’t make it any less essential a part of growing up. slate is published by the slate group, a graham holdings company. all contents © 2025 the slate group llc. all rights reserved.

the best loved pixar movies are often spoken of in terms of their tried and true emotional impact, how reliably they reduce us to quivering lips and choked back sobs, year after year, rewatch after rewatch. sometimes a single inspired sequence can do the trick: i’m no great admirer of “up” (2009), but its famous opening montage of married life, which distills a couple’s decades long romance into a few piercing minutes, touches chords of genuine sublimity. the estimable “toy story 3” (2010) offers two tear sodden climaxes, the more audacious of which finds woody, buzz lightyear, and their plasticine pals facing death by garbage incinerator. there are pixar skeptics, of course, who wouldn’t mind tossing the studio’s entire collection onto the trash heap, dubious as they are of the company and its near pavlovian command of an audience’s tear ducts perhaps more a feat of engineering than of art. depending on whom you ask, “inside out” (2015), pete docter’s transporting film about the inner life of an eleven year old girl named riley (voiced by kaitlyn dias), was either an especially egregious example of such calculation at work or an unusually honest deconstruction of it. in the command center headquarters of riley’s brain, we encountered five bright hued avatars of emotion the insistently upbeat team captain, joy (amy poehler), plus sadness (phyllis smith), fear (bill hader), anger (lewis black), and disgust (mindy kaling) at the ready behind a sleek high tech console, flipping switches and turning knobs in rapid response to the hectic stimuli of riley’s life. at other times, they had to reckon with large memory balls that came rolling back, on the conveyor belt of consciousness, to the forefront of her mind. the fact that the emotions were at once observing and manipulating events through a giant screen turned “inside out,” implicitly, into a movie about movie watching and moviemaking one with the wit and mischief to depict the expression of human feeling as, quite literally, a matter of pushing the right buttons. the narrative of “inside out” was ingeniously two tiered. there was the external plot, grounded in the real world: riley, having just moved with her parents from minnesota to san francisco, faces crushing isolation and uncertainty. then, there was the internal plot, a riot of colorful abstraction and conceptual whimsy, in which joy and sadness, forever at odds, had to navigate the perilous labyrinth of riley’s mind. the story crosscut feverishly between the two, giving rise to a ticklishly clever chicken or egg conundrum: was riley being manipulated, like a puppet, by her confused and unruly emotions? or were her emotions in fact the puppets, forced to act out an illustrative action adventure in allegorical space? with either reading, the movie cohered brilliantly, and the question all but evaporated by the time its double barrelled climax arrived. here was a girl reconciling, honestly and gratefully, with her parents and here, to compound the catharsis, were two longtime frenemies, joy and sadness, finally realizing that they were not adversaries but allies, each of equal importance to riley’s well being. one of the lesser disappointments of “inside out 2,” a new sequel directed by kelsey mann from a script by meg lefauve and dave holstein, is that joy and sadness’s dynamic, now resolved, is no longer front and center. that’s understandable. so is the fact that the movie, though already hailed as a box office godsend (in the u.s., it grossed an estimated hundred and fifty five million dollars in its opening weekend), is unlikely to be ushered into the pantheon of pixar weepies. for one thing, riley is older now, and the story wisely opts not to repeat its predecessor’s piercing lament for childhood’s end. two years have passed since the events of the first film, and riley (now voiced by kensington tallman) has fully adjusted to her new bay area school, friends, and hockey team. she’s happy, and so joy is happy. (sadness, fear, anger, and disgust, for their part, remain sad, fearful, angry, and disgusted.) but riley has also just turned thirteen, which means pimples, growth spurts, and a vastly more complicated emotional life. and when she heads off, during her last summer before high school, to a three day hockey camp, mounting social and athletic pressures precipitate various crises of conscience, friendship, and selfhood. like its predecessor, “inside out 2” is at its strongest when it roots its mind bending abstractions in a deliriously witty satire of workplace culture. (speaking of workplace culture: hader and kaling opted not to return for “inside out 2,” reportedly because of salary disputes with disney; fear and disgust are now voiced, respectively, by tony hale and liza lapira.) mann and his animators smartly dramatize the onset of puberty as a major office disruption, as the emotions are suddenly forced to operate a new and not exactly improved console that overreacts to their every touch, causing riley to experience wild mood swings. a major corporate restructuring soon follows: joy and company must make room for a new set of emotions, led by anxiety, an orange toned bundle of nerves who talks a mile a minute, sports a passive aggressive grimace of a smile, and offers ten solutions for every problem; even her hair seems to be multitasking. anxiety (voiced, superbly, by maya hawke) is a hectically inspired creation, and she’s joined by the three “e”s: envy (ayo edebiri), who’s puny and wide eyed; ennui (adèle exarchopoulos), who’s bored and french; and embarrassment (paul walter hauser), an unjolly pink giant with a bulbous nose and a plumber’s crack. these characters are amusing additions to headquarters, though your smile might droop when a door opens and out steps nostalgia (june squibb), visualized here as a smiling, doddering old woman who can’t stop reminiscing about what happened five minutes ago, only to be promptly shoved back into her quarters by her co workers. the wink wink ageism is meant to be cute (it isn’t), and possibly a dig at the non stop nostalgia grabs that so many of today’s studio movie franchises have become. the irony is that it made me nostalgic for the days when pixar would have known better than to let in such a cheap gag, and with such a sour aftertaste. is this really the first time in riley’s thirteen years of life that her anxiety or embarrassment would manifest themselves? anthony lane, reviewing the first “inside out” in the new yorker nine years ago, raised a similar question, noting the curious absence from riley’s mind of “boredom, say, or a bristling envy” two conceptual lapses that, consciously or not, “inside out 2” has now rectified. there remains, in other words, much room to argue with pixar’s unabashedly playful conception of the preadolescent mind, including the decision to fixate on the mind in the first place, to the curious exclusion of the heart. but that argument is part of the fun; to let your noggin push back against the way it’s being depicted can supply its own goofily cerebral pleasure. for their part, mann and his team of animators have continued to remap and reimagine key stretches of riley’s cognitive landscape, sometimes with free ranging wordplay: what else could be the source of a teen ager’s smart ass attitude, after all, but a giant ravine, full of snidely booming echoes, called the sarchasm? elsewhere, the filmmakers’ chief innovation is to endow riley with a burgeoning sense of self a radiant metallic flower that springs from the depths of a shimmering underground grotto, where riley’s most important, life giving memories are nested, like floating water babies. this wild blue yonder is a bit too tree of souls from “avatar” for my taste, but it does establish a set of moral and dramatic stakes that build intuitively on the first film’s: the suppression of what we perceive as bad in favor of the so called good. “i’m a good person,” riley’s sense of self tells her, and not incorrectly; riley is compassionate toward strangers, loving toward her friends and family. but what of all her pesky not so great memories of regrets and failures, the ones that counteract her idealized assessment of herself? joy, it’s revealed early on, has been absent mindedly discarding them for years, effectively repressing them. we grasp the consequences of this filtering once the conniving anxiety engineers a hostile takeover of riley’s mind. she and her cohorts kick joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust out of headquarters and begin their own, more sinister tampering with riley’s memory bank, warping her sense of self into that of someone determined to succeed, socially and athletically, at all costs. before long, riley ditches her two best friends, bree (sumayyah nuriddin green) and grace (grace lu), for the company of some older, cooler, more seasoned players, hoping to ride their success and popularity and her own considerable ability to a coveted spot on her high school hockey team. she also becomes a cutthroat competitor on the ice, and, if she hurts people physically or emotionally in the process, she doesn’t give a puck. around this point in the story, as i tried to straddle the two increasingly wayward and divergent threads of the plot, i nearly stumbled into a sarchasm of my own. i have no idea why, when joy and her friends get locked away in a secret vault, they must be set free by phantom memories of once beloved cartoon and video game characters from riley’s childhood, beyond the technological flex of integrating retro animation styles into a slicker, more state of the art frame. confronted by so much fake pop culture detritus, i nearly checked out of the story entirely. it’s the rare pixar sequence that can be called tedious, but this is not the only spell during the fairly fast moving ninety six minute movie when you can imagine narrative time being better spent. back in the outside world, the story’s tight focus on riley’s friendships and hockey skills conveniently crowds out some of the messier, earthier aspects of puberty that a film set at this particular stage might have bothered to address, even at the risk of sullying the disney ideal of squeaky clean family entertainment. (the 2022 pixar feature “turning red” may have danced around its young heroine’s fast changing body with sly supernatural conceits and menstrual metaphors, but the evasions of “inside out 2” make it look positively daring.) the filmmakers clearly mean to ground riley’s jerkish transformation in the all too relatable social darwinism of one’s junior high and high school years that phase when figuring out your identity, fretting over your place in the hierarchy, and losing a close friend to the in crowd are not uncommon experiences. but, even allowing for the competitive extremes of teen age culture, the sheer rapidity of riley’s devolution beggars belief in ways that her emotional crisis in the first movie didn’t. her inability to locate even the slightest middle ground feels so disingenuous that something other than her emotional turmoil seems to be driving the plot. that driver, it turns out, is the need to turn anxiety into a villain. bent on molding riley into a success, she functions as the latest catalyst for what has become a familiar theme in family friendly animation: drive and perfectionism will destroy you. don’t try to control what you can’t control. these are well meaning lessons, if by now wearyingly familiar ones. pixar has been spitting out variations on this go with the flow advice since at least as far back as “finding nemo” (2003), and possibly the first “toy story” (1995). and they’ve always seemed a tad rich, coming from a studio that has long been defined by its own tireless pursuit of perfection, where every detail rich frame and precision tooled story beat is nothing if not the work of consummate control freaks. if anxiety stands for outsized ambition, she might as well be the company mascot. there’s a reason that “ratatouille” (2007) remains one of pixar’s finest (and least typical) movies: its director, brad bird, doesn’t reflexively demonize such ambition. his story about the difficulties and rewards of honing one’s craft and his clear eyed understanding of how family and friends can both undermine and support that determination seems to well up organically from his own like minded ideals. the makers of “inside out 2” appear to recognize the need for nuance, but much too late. in the antic final stretch, the movie tries to land on a different takeaway for riley and the audience: if the celebration of striving has its pitfalls, the fetishism of virtue (“i’m a good person”) is no better. it’s a truth so inarguable that you almost can’t believe it’s the story’s conclusion rather than its starting point. yes, we all contain multitudes. and, yes, we must learn to take the bad with the good a lesson that “inside out 2” bears out more dispiritingly, i think, than its makers intended. ♦ searching for the cause of a catastrophic plane crash. the man who spent forty two years at the beverly hills hotel pool. gloria steinem’s life on the feminist frontier. where the amish go on vacation. how colonel sanders built his kentucky fried fortune. what does procrastination tell us about ourselves? fiction by patricia highsmith: “the trouble with mrs. blynn, the trouble with the world” sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from the new yorker. sections more © 2025 condé nast. all rights reserved. the new yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers. the material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of condé nast. ad choices

blog home   neuroplasticity   “inside out 2”: emotions and how they shape our belief system written by vrushti m. published on jun 26, 2024 updated on oct 07, 2024 updated on oct 07, 2024 taking my adolescent and teen daughters to watch the new “inside out 2” movie, the best i had hoped for was an insight into the workings of their young, impressionable minds. what i found, however, was a film that not only pulled at my soul strings but was also a brilliant caricaturization of how emotions structure thought, behavior, and action. and how, in so doing, emotions pattern our belief systems and social lives. a disclaimer upfront: the purpose of this blog is to offer folks using neuroplasticity tools to improve their well being connections and visualizations that echo their re origin practices. i am not a neuroscientist and am not equipped to comment on the accuracy of the film’s portrayal of emotion science and how the brain works. however, as a re origin member with the lived experience of using neuroplasticity based tools to manage stress and improve my well being, i found much alignment between the movie and the re origin approach. it is this alignment that i will focus on below. emotion science takes center stage in “inside out 2,” showcasing how our feelings influence our actions and beliefs. the film explores how certain emotions from the first movie, like joy and sadness, interplay with new emotions like anxiety, embarrassment, ennui, and envy. all of these emotions initially challenge riley’s ability to cope with life’s challenges. pixar illustrates the intricate balance between different emotions in riley’s mind, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and understanding our feelings to navigate the world effectively. “inside out 2” offers valuable life lessons for young people and parents alike. as riley faces typical teenage challenges, the film highlights the importance of understanding and managing emotions. it shows how emotions like anxiety and embarrassment, often viewed negatively, can actually be crucial for personal growth and resilience. through riley’s journey, viewers learn that all emotions, even anxiety, embarrassment, and envy, play essential roles in shaping who we are. most pertinent to the re origin approach is the movie’s portrayal of how experiences with strong emotions form our belief system, how the strongest (most frequently repeated) beliefs (narratives) become core beliefs, and how these, in turn, come together to build a sense of self. at the outset, “inside out 2” is the story of 13 year old riley, who is moving to high school. it features the usual suspects involved in typical transitions to teenage: self consciousness, fear of losing friends, uncertainties of fitting in with new kids, and performance pressures. besought with these new fears, insecurities, and pressures, “anxiety” takes over riley’s brain. she locks up riley’s other emotions (joy, sadness, rage, etc.) and floods the girl with rumination and catastrophizing to “protect” her from failing in the future. the makers of “inside out 2” then show us the seamless transition of these anxious thoughts into uncomfortable physical reactions, actions, and behaviors. repeated and uninterrupted rumination and catastrophizing in riley’s brain then produce changes in her belief system, her core beliefs, and her sense of self. while her earlier empowered sense of self (tended by joy, previously in charge but now locked up) was made up of core beliefs like “i’m a good friend,” “i am a hard worker,” and “i’m a good person,” her new anxious narrative becomes “i am not good enough.” this new disempowering narrative negatively affects not only riley’s mood, behavior, and social life but also her physical performance and well being. most folks in the re origin community can probably relate to this deeply and immediately. i certainly could. perhaps this alignment was why experiencing this connection in an animated form was so incredible. i now had colorful visuals helping me locate and imagine the work i was doing via my daily practices. the practices we use at re origin on a daily basis and the emphasis and commitment with which we repeat them are based on precisely this fundamental understanding. through its illustrations of how uninterrupted catastrophizing produces disempowering core beliefs, “inside out 2” also helped me realize how repeatedly interrupting disempowering narratives can change core beliefs. towards the end of the movie, anxiety realizes that she isn’t helping riley by monopolizing her brain. distraught, she gives up control and confesses to the other emotions that she “was only trying to help.” the other emotions accept anxiety as an important emotion (who is given a comfortable chair to sit on and relax on most occasions). the film concludes with all emotions making room for each other and giving each other turns at shaping riley’s actions, behaviors, physical reactions, and social life. this release of control shown in the film mirrors the pattern interruption that we practice at re origin. it also echoes what many of us call “acceptance” and is illustrative of the form of “resilience” that we aim to achieve where we allow ourselves to experience any and all emotions that come up. our emotions are part of us, and all of our emotions   fear, anger, and anxiety included   are important and need to be felt. we do not need joy to be in charge all the time, and indeed an attempt at this might be counterproductive, as the first “inside out” movie depicted so captivatingly. in this original film, sadness, once acknowledged and allowed to express herself, helped riley release her pent up emotions, opening her up to experiencing joy again. however, the activation of core beliefs/narratives while releasing clamor for control over emotions being experienced remains a choice: and it is making this choice repeatedly over time that builds our core beliefs and our sense of self. in a world where emotions often dictate our actions, “inside out 2” reminds us of the importance of understanding and embracing all our feelings. from joy to fear, anxiety to embarrassment, each emotion contributes to the rich tapestry of our inner lives, helping us navigate the complexities of the world with empathy and self awareness. the film has several other tools that could be of use to the re origin community, especially in relation to visualization as well as awareness of what’s happening (becoming a curious observer). for instance: in a world where emotions often dictate our actions, “inside out 2” reminds us of the importance of understanding and embracing all our feelings. from joy to fear, anxiety to embarrassment, each emotion contributes to the rich tapestry of our inner lives, helping us navigate the complexities of the world with empathy and self awareness. mann, k. (director). (2024, june 14). inside out 2. pixar animation studios. reclaim your health by rewiring your brain. disclaimer: the content in this website is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical diagnosis, treatment or advice. please consult a physician or other health care provider prior to using any information or resources contained on or throughout this website. copyright © 2025 re origin technologies inc.

a post shared by calm collective asia (@calmcollectiveasia) the release of the movie sequel brought cheers and excitement to many of us who are passionate about mental health. it tells the story of a 12 year old girl, riley as she navigates the challenges of puberty with the appearance of new emotions   anxiety, embarrassment, envy and boredom. although i have passed the stage of a teenager, i could still relate to the storyline as lessons on the complexity of human emotions and importance of self acceptance are still very relevant and serve as timely reminders. (p.s. spoiler alert!   parts of the plot have been revealed below, so read on only if you’ve watched) in the movie, there are a total of 9 emotions   joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, anxiety, boredom, embarrassment and envy. what really struck me was that the story did not label the emotions as “positive” or “negative” but are all equally important with their role and purpose. prior to the movie, i would have perceived joy as the only emotion that is associated with being “positive” while the others as “negative”  something i would want to avoid or get rid of. instead, we saw in the movie that all these emotions work together in riley’s mind to help her to overcome different challenges. just like what anxiety said in the movie: “we all have a job to do. joy makes riley happy. sadness makes her sad. fear protects riley from the scary stuff she can see and anxiety protects riley from the scary stuff she can’t see.” it is a good reminder for us to recognise and accept all our emotions as part of who we are. one of the memorable scenes from the movie was when joy surprised everyone when she burst into anger, exclaiming how hard it is to stay positive all the time, something that is out of her character. we are used to hearing advice like ‘stay positive’, ‘don’t be so sad’. perhaps, we should cut ourselves some slack by not forcing ourselves to be happy all the time. it is okay to experience all the emotions and have good and not so good days. as all our emotions are important, we shouldn't try to avoid or get rid of any one. sometimes, allowing space to express our emotions is just what we need, just like how riley had a moment to express her sadness when she found out that her friends were not going to be in the same high school as her. one of the new emotions experienced by riley was anxiety when she struggled to fit into the new environment and make new friends. in a scene from the movie, joy said: “i don't know how to stop anxiety. maybe that’s what happens when you grow up, you feel less joy.” this quote resonated with me deeply. in my encounters with children recently, i pondered on why adults seem to be less happy after growing up as compared to children. i wondered, do we really lose joy as we grow up? is it impossible to be happy again? the movie shed a new perspective for me. changes are part of growing up, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing! these challenges help us grow as a person. the key is not about protecting ourselves from “negative emotions” while growing up but teaching ourselves to embrace all of them, to understand them and express them healthily. only then can we achieve a balanced mental state of mind and build a stronger sense of self. it is heart wrenching seeing how riley changed throughout the story to become someone she is not. as she strives to fit into a new environment, she changes herself from the way she walks, things she eats and how she styled her hair. overtime, she loses her sense of self, when the anxiety of trying to fit in took over her. at the end of the story, anxiety apologized and said she was just trying to protect riley. indeed, anxiety isn’t there to hurt us intentionally. it is there to alert us of potential danger. but if we are not careful and let anxiety take over us, it will lead to overthinking and cause unnecessary stress to us. what i have learnt from the movie is that the problem was not the existence of emotions (the appearance of anxiety for this case) but when anxiety took over riley and defined who she was. it is a good reminder for us to be aware and check in with ourselves, “how am i feeling?” and “which emotion is driving me at this moment?” we are not our emotions, and we can choose to either hold on or let go of the emotions that come to us and not let them become part of who we are. the movie showed how riley’s experiences shaped her beliefs. different beliefs intertwined and formed her ‘sense of self’ which influenced how she viewed herself and others. we saw how riley’s sense of self shifted as she started believing ‘i am not good enough’ with beliefs formed by her anxious thoughts. the presence of self doubt resonated with me while growing up as opinions of others and society’s expectations made me feel less worthy of who i am. this was a good reminder for us to examine our beliefs that are driving us as a person for they shape who we are. what are the beliefs that are driving us? are they from us or someone else? are they helpful or unhelpful? the movie highlighted the complexity of human emotions and challenges of growing up. regardless of which stage of life we are in, we will experience new things, new emotions, all for the first time. it is important to accept all of us and allow ourselves to feel messy sometimes. most importantly, let’s not lose ourselves during this journey. to everyone who has struggled or is currently struggling with their complex emotions and challenges in life, you are not alone. this movie is for the inner child in us. for businesses bring us to work our work peer support calm circles facilitator training partner with us cheng san seletar kolam ayer resources blog talk replays mental health @ work contact us hello@calmcollective.asia careers peer support toa payoh west thomson limbang marymount peer support foundations training © calmcollective pte. ltd. all rights reserved privacy policy

an ongoing exploration of bay area hip hop history. listen to breaking news on your schedule, in 20 minutes or less. uncover the surprising backstory of popular dishes in kqed’s food history series. watch recordings of recent kqed live events. support kqed by using your donor advised fund to make a charitable gift. an ongoing exploration of bay area hip hop history. listen to breaking news on your schedule, in 20 minutes or less. uncover the surprising backstory of popular dishes in kqed’s food history series. watch recordings of recent kqed live events. support kqed by using your donor advised fund to make a charitable gift. please try again as inside out 2 gets under way, things are looking up for riley, the hockey loving kid who moved with her parents from minnesota to san francisco in the first inside out. she’s adjusted to her new life, school and friends, and her five personified emotions   who share the high tech headquarters of her brain   have learned to work together in relative harmony. joy, voiced by amy poehler, is still mostly in charge, but now she and sadness   the incomparable phyllis smith   make a great team, along with the other key emotions, anger, fear and disgust. but now riley is 13, which means pimples, growth spurts and a much more complicated emotional life. the director kelsey mann, taking over for the first film’s pete docter, cleverly dramatizes the onset of puberty as a huge disruption for joy and company, who don’t know why their usual routine is suddenly causing riley to undergo wild mood swings. it turns out, a new emotion has joined headquarters: anxiety, voiced by a terrific maya hawke. anxiety has brought along her own team of emotions. they’re basically the three e’s: envy, ennui and embarrassment, voiced by ayo edebiri, adèle exarchopoulos and paul walter hauser. some of this stretches conceptual credibility: surely this isn’t the first time in her life that riley has experienced some of those feelings. but that’s part of the whimsical pleasure of the inside out films: it’s fun to feel your own brain arguing with how it’s represented. it’s also fun to see new regions of riley’s mental landscape, like the giant ravine that fuels her contemptuous side   naturally, it’s called the sar chasm. the story kicks into gear when riley is sent to an elite three day hockey camp, where she’s forced to make some tough decisions, like whether to stick with her two closest friends or hang out with the cool older kids. as the pressure on riley mounts and the competition gets more cutthroat, it’s anxiety who emerges as the movie’s villain. hawke does a great job of making the character’s polite bundle of nerves routine a little more annoying   and sinister   in every scene. anxiety basically engineers a hostile takeover of riley’s mind, banishing joy, sadness, fear, anger and disgust to the outskirts of consciousness, and setting out to mold riley into a more successful version of herself. what she’s unwittingly doing is making riley more ambitious and conniving. inside out 2, in other words, is something of an anti stress movie, where unchecked drivenness can destroy a person’s true sense of self. it’s hard to argue with that, but it’s also hard not to push back a little. this isn’t the first pixar movie that’s tried to teach us to lighten up and let things go, a lesson that dates as far back as the first toy story. but it’s always struck me as a bit rich coming from pixar, given the hyper ambition and perfectionism that have long defined the studio’s brand. fortunately, there is a better, deeper message at the heart of inside out 2, that encourages us to take a more expansive view of ourselves   to acknowledge that we all have the capacity for good and bad. as in the first movie, the goal is to strive for balance, embrace complexity and learn to be ok with imperfection. i’m trying to do that myself with inside out 2, which, despite its many pleasures, is a pretty imperfect movie. it isn’t nearly as emotionally overwhelming as its predecessor, but how could it be? the first inside out was a piercing lament for childhood’s end, with joy and sadness’ frenemy dynamic as its irresistible core. now, riley’s older and maturing, and it’s natural that her latest adventure should hit us differently. but there are also some bewildering choices here that suggest the story could have used, well, a rethink. there’s one overlong sequence, in which joy and her friends encounter memories of old cartoon and video game characters buried deep in riley’s mind; it’s a cheap gag, and it almost pulled me out of the movie entirely. and there’s a recurring joke, involving riley’s sense of nostalgia, that strikes a weirdly sour note. ironically, it made me feel a little nostalgic myself   for the days when pixar would have known to leave a bit like that on the cutting room floor. ‘inside out 2’ is released nationwide on june 14, 2024.

// band aid to fix apply now button url's after token replacement. to be removed in release 2502. window.addeventlistener('replacelivetokens', (e) => { let buttonurl = e.detail.element.href; const applynow = document.queryselector('[data block type="apply now"] .apply now'); if (applynow) { const cardtype = applynow.getattribute('data card type'); buttonurl = e.detail.element.getattribute('data apply now url ' + cardtype); } if (buttonurl) { window.disneyrewards.globals.trackingcodes.replacementtokens.foreach((replacementtoken) => { buttonurl = buttonurl.replace(replacementtoken.token, replacementtoken.value()); }); if (e.detail.element.href !== buttonurl) { e.detail.element.href = buttonurl; } } }); window.addeventlistener('focus', () => { window.disneyrewards.globals.trackingcodes.refreshcodes(); }); home > disney rewards blog > entertainment june 10, 2024 watching riley grow up and learn to navigate her emotions in inside out was an unforgettable ride. with inside out 2 about to hit theaters, our girl is going to face a whole new set of challenges and meet some new emotions as she becomes a teenager. but before we get to know anxiety, envy, ennui, and embarrassment, let’s look back at some of the most memorable life lessons we learned with riley in inside out. and don’t forget   you can use your disney rewards redemption card to see inside out 2 this summer when you buy your tickets via amctheatres.com or on the amc theatres mobile app.0 core memories are those experiences that are so significant they shape our personalities. without them, we would lose touch with our sense of self just like riley did when joy and sadness lost her core memories. when joy and sadness ran into bing bong outside imagination land, they didn’t know if riley’s old imaginary friend could help get them back to hq. but with the help of bing bong   and a few imaginary boyfriends   joy and sadness were eventually able to make it back home. even though joy wanted riley to be happy all the time, that’s just not realistic. sometimes, we go through challenging seasons of life, like riley did when her family moved from minnesota to san francisco. difficult emotions are a part of life, and it’s okay to not be okay sometimes. before they had to work together to retrieve riley’s core memories, joy tried to keep sadness out of riley’s world. but when she saw that even sadness contributes to riley’s wellbeing, joy learned that all emotions have a purpose. fear, anger, disgust, joy, sadness there are plenty of emotions running around head quarters (a.k.a riley’s brain), and everyone has a part to play. anger helps riley be aggressive on the ice during a hockey game, while disgust makes sure she doesn’t accept broccoli on her pizza. sometimes, you can’t get out of a tough spot by yourself. joy and bing bong found themselves stranded in the memory dump, and they knew it was only a matter of time before they disappeared from riley’s life completely. joy asked bing bong for help to escape the memory dump, and we can lean on our support system when we need help, too. riley didn’t always like living in san francisco. and while joy and sadness went on their journey to retrieve riley’s core memories, anger, fear, and disgust were left to run the show. but feelings change. riley didn’t stay angry and fearful for long once she learned to navigate her emotions. when riley decided that she had to run away from home, she didn’t share her plan with anyone else. she thought running away would solve all her problems. but if she had spoken up and told her parents how she was feeling, she might not have felt so alone. riley didn’t want to let go of her childhood friends back in minnesota. and she probably didn’t want to forget her friend who likes to play, bing bong. life is about staying connected to old friends while making new ones. anger can help riley express her feelings or convince her to run away from home. sadness can help her reflect or leave her crying on the couch all day. when learning to navigate our emotions, it’s not about avoiding certain emotions, as riley herself learned. it’s how we act on our emotions that really counts. we can’t wait to see what riley learns from all the sophisticated new emotions moving into hq. and as a cardmember, you can redeem your disney rewards dollars toward your ticket to see inside out 2 when you book your tickets online at amctheatres.com or on the amc theatres mobile app.0 related posts april 30, 2024 august 1, 2023 january 6, 2022 after spending $1000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.0 clicking on the facebook, pinterest and other third party links will take you away from our disney site where different terms of use and privacy policy apply. the contactless symbol and contactless indicator are trademarks owned by and used with the permission of emvco, llc. deposit and credit card products provided by jpmorgan chase bank, n.a. member fdic © disney. all rights reserved.
supported by a new emotion has taken over riley’s teenage mind. and she has lessons for us all. by christina caron at the end of “inside out,” the 2015 pixar movie about the emotional life of a girl named riley, a new button appears on the console used to control riley’s mood. it’s emblazoned with one word: puberty. joy, one of the main characters who embodies riley’s emotions, shrugs it off. “things couldn’t be better!” joy says. “after all, riley’s 12 now. what could happen?” the answer has finally arrived, nearly a decade later, in the sequel “inside out 2.” riley is now a teenager attending a three day hockey camp as new, more complex feelings take root in her mind. there’s embarrassment, a lumbering fellow who unsuccessfully attempts to hide in his hoodie; the noodle like ennui, who lounges listlessly on a couch; and envy, with her wide, longing eyes. but it is anxiety who takes center stage, entering riley’s mind with literal baggage (no less than six suitcases). “ok, how can i help?” she asks. “i can take notes, get coffee, manage your calendar, walk your dog, carry your things   watch you sleep?”

this post was originally published on this site a new emotion has taken over riley’s teenage mind. and she has lessons for us all. at the end of “inside out,” the 2015 pixar movie about the emotional life of a girl named riley, a new button appears on the console used to control riley’s mood. it’s emblazoned with one word: puberty. joy, one of the main characters who embodies riley’s emotions, shrugs it off.