“Do you ever look at someone and wonder, “What is going on inside their head?””. The series of Inside Out movies shows the childhood of a girl named Riley as she begins as a baby and is eventually shown as a pre-teen. Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and fear are all displayed through her emotions in different circumstances as people inside of her head. The film centers on Riley’s move from a simple life in Minnesota to the center of busy San Francisco California. The move is of course a struggle for Rylie, as we see her coming accustomed to her new home, making friends, and having a good time.
The creators produced Inside Out 2 in mid June and was a huge success being known as the highest-grossing animated movie ever, causing it to become the 13th-biggest movie of all time, selling even more tickets than the well known Barbie movie which came out in July of 2023. Maijesa Ostrander, a sophomore at Lodi High School states, “It was a very well written movie and I enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed the first one.” Explaining why the sequel was a massive success.
Not only did this family film bring many people to watch it because of the creativeness, it also shows many life lessons. This ensures parents that the movie is not only entertaining, but teaching their kids good values. The movie teaches that it’s ok not to be ok, having a balance of emotions is normal, everyone has flaws, and that everyone makes mistakes. Many people tend to forget or not believe in these values. It’s a lot easier to remember where you came from than starting from scratch, so it’s important to put these lessons into a children’s mind as soon as possible so they can grow up knowing that. Ryder Redell, a senior at Lodi High School even claims, “When I went to go watch this movie, I noticed a sequence of events that performs a whole lot of different life lessons, which I thought was awesome to see. Not only is it an incredibly entertaining movie, but also one that can show the importance of learning life lessons.”
Inside Out 2 showed how puberty can affect a teens emotions by adding Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment, and Envy. One morning Riley wakes up and is very emotional as she has just begun puberty and is faced with all sorts of new emotions. The new emotions literally bottle up the original emotions and put them into a vault holding all of Rylie’s biggest secrets to keep them away, while anxiety takes over Rylie’s life with the intention of making things better than ever.
The movie focuses on how Riley deals with the new emotions in her head as Joy is leading the other old emotions home. Riley makes mistakes, pretends to be someone she’s not, and even becomes greedy. Through all of this, anxiety is running circles in Riley’s head, making her imagine all the possible scenarios that could go wrong. Anxiety believes this is the right thing to do because to her, you must be prepared for anything, no matter how ridiculous and unrealistic. Eventually the old emotions find their way home and are able to calm down anxiety. In the end, all of the emotions are able to step back, and only play a role in Riley’s emotions when need be.
Inside Out 2 is an amazing demonstration of how life becomes when you become a teenager, showing kids how to handle their strong emotions and to let them know that it’s completely normal and ok. The movie will continue to be shown to many families in order to prepare their kids for what will happen in the future. So if you have littles or even pre-teens, butter up the popcorn and create an unforgettable movie night with the family!