INSIDE OUT 2 explains why the film’s message is relevant

Published: June 18, 2024

INSIDE OUT 2 Cast Explores Why the Film’s Message is So Relevant

By a Movieguide® contributor

As Riley and her teenage emotions begin to develop in Disney Pixar’s INSIDE OUT 2, the film’s cast explains why the main character’s feelings are relevant to today’s teens.

“This generation of kids has been through the pandemic and everything we’ve had to go through,” said Maya Hawke, who plays Anxiety. “They face a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress and a lot of social discomfort as they learn to reintegrate into their lives with other young people. »

“I think this movie takes that seriously and actualizes those feelings,” she told GOOD MORNING AMERICA.

Disney brought in a team of 13-year-old girls to ensure their portrayal of Riley was realistic.

“I guess the best part was getting their notes on what resonated with them – what felt true to them, what they seemed like they could relate to. Having their direct connection to this has been extremely helpful,” said Director Kelsey Mann.

The film is not just for teenagers or older children. It also allows adults and young children to experience the mind of a teenager.

“Your emotions will boil over and feel like they’re overflowing, but you don’t have to change who you are deep down – or expand your ethical moral worth in times of turbulence,” said Paul Walter Hauser, who plays Embarrassment. “You just have to hold on to people, like your friends and family, and also be able to talk about it. And I think these films really start conversations for people to talk about emotions, young or old.

Movieguide®’s review of INSIDE OUT 2 reads:

INSIDE OUT 2 is the sequel to the popular and acclaimed 2015 animated comedy from Pixar and Disney. Riley, the young girl from the first film, turns 13 and begins to experience teenage angst. She aspires to join the championship varsity girls’ hockey team in high school. However, a bunch of new, unruly adolescent emotions, led by anxiety, invaded the control room in Riley’s brain. In fact, Anxiety forcibly banned Joy and her friends from the control room. Will Joy and her friends be able to find their way home and repair the psychological damage that anxiety is inflicting on Riley?

INSIDE OUT 2 is a wonderful animated family film. The film is delicious, funny, inventive and heartwarming. It contains many positive messages. For example, it encourages us to do the right thing, to control our emotions and not let anxieties take over our decision-making. INSIDE OUT 2 also promotes kindness, friendship, repentance and forgiveness. MOVIEGUIDE® advises young children to exercise caution around scenes of peril and large, frightening but non-threatening characters. Unlike other recent animated films, INSIDE OUT 2 has no woke or politically correct content.

Mann wanted viewers to see the inner turmoil that teenagers experience.

“I had an idea early on and I wanted a wrecking ball to come down on the headquarters,” Mann told GMA. “It comes from research into what happens in our brains at that age – we go through a lot of changes, which I think is fantastic for a sequel.”

The original INSIDE OUT was released in 2015. It won a Movieguide® Teddy Bear Award® and made our list of top ten movies for families.

Producer Mark Nielsen added: “Technology has totally changed in those nine years. We had to reconfigure the underlying technology to figure out how to create the emotions and what they were going to look like.

“It took a lot of work on the part of our technical teams, huge groups of people working for over a year, just to elevate the characters to look like the ones you know and love from the first film” , Nielsen said.

The film emphasizes that all emotions are part of the human experience and have a purpose.

“There’s no bad emotion,” said Amy Poehler, who voices Joy. “Emotions come to help us. Even Anxiety, which can seem like the bad guy, can be useful and beautiful if integrated with others.

Liza Lapira, who plays Disgust, echoed this.

“I want people to know that these emotions are neither good nor bad and that they exist to protect us…they are meant to be accepted and listened to,” Lapira said.

“Riley’s self-esteem really starts to change – his personality starts to change with new emotions coming in,” said Kensington Tallman, who plays Riley. “She really wants to try to fit in, which is totally normal. I completely understand this.

She continued: “But what Riley taught me is that it’s okay. We just have to be ourselves.

Tony Hale, who plays Fear, hopes people come away from the film realizing that “you’re not defined by one emotion.”

The Guardian reported on Monday that the film opened with $155 million at the US box office, which is the best film record so far this year. It grossed $140 million internationally, making it the most successful global animated release ever.

“It’s a big win for cinemas, which have experienced poor revenues for some new films this year,” the BBC reported. “INSIDE OUT 2’s opening weekend was much stronger than the original film, which grossed $90 million in its opening weekend before going on to gross $858 million worldwide.”