Pixar's new Inside Out 2 is about dealing with puberty and growing up, writes Emma Camp on Reason.
Inside Out, released in 2015, featured 11-year-old Riley and "the five emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust) that attempted to pilot her subconscious through a disruptive cross-country move," she writes.
In the new movie, Riley is two years older and heading for high school. "Puberty hits like a wrecking ball," writes Camp. Joy, who's been mostly running the show in middle school, is supplanted by four new emotions: Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment and Envy.
"Joy learns that she needs to let Riley develop a multifaceted self-concept — one that includes acknowledgment of both her strengths and her flaws," writes Camp. "Riley's emotions — especially Joy and Anxiety — ultimately serve a parental role, attempting to protect her and lead her to make good choices, while also having limited ability to control her actions."
Anxiety started out as the villain, but the writers decided the character was trying to protect Riley from mistakes, writes Christina Caron in the New York Times.
Perfectionism "drives much of Riley’s anxiety," she writes.
Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor who worked on the first movie, sees Inside Out 2 "as a call to be easier on ourselves, savor the good things and accept our complexity," writes Caron. "He hopes young people will listen to the good intentions" of their emotions.
The movie is doing very well at the box office.