Emotion Overload: Inside Out 2 (watch out for spoilers)

I watched Inside Out 2 today, and it was an experience.

Summary of the story

This movie follows Riley, an ice hockey player who has hit puberty. The console that emotions manage is now elevated, because puberty is when humans experience emotions as elevated as it can get.

And we have new emotions inside headquarters: Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment. Anxiety claims she's fixing Riley, Envy wants Riley to be with the popular girls, Ennui and Embarassment are more passive characters.

Anxiety banishes the core emotions, and bottles them into a jar. When the core emotions were sent away, that's when the story took off and progressed into the downfall of Riley Anderson.

Analyzing the story

Riley is a teenager, which is a different approach than Riley's birth. I think it's perfect, because as of time writing this article, I'm 17, basically the middle checkpoint of puberty. And I have resonated a lot with fitting in a group and excluding myself from the past.

As I have neared the end, I noticed that the core emotions, especially Joy and Sadness are better controlling Riley than the newer emotions. And in the end, I noticed that once you have good beliefs in your own Belief System, you'll always cycle back to them.

Anxiety IRL vs. on-screen

Now, I think that anxiety in real life and Anxiety in the movie have a lot in common: planning for the future, but it turns into nightmare scenarios in order to protect its host from danger. It's the same thing as Fear but for the future rather than present time.

Joy calming Anxiety down when Anxiety was raving on and on about getting into Firehawks, is definitely a tactic that should be taught to every teenager alive. Sure, anxiety attacks are a thing, but once you learn how to control it, it's no longer an obstacle in your life.

Belief System

The Belief System is basically your inner voice, but your experiences are what shapes it, not you talking to yourself.

Changing your beliefs aren't easy, like how Anxiety tried to change Riley, and it took effort. But changing your beliefs to positive rather than negative is really not that difficult. After all, both positive and negative experiences shape who you are, also known as your Belief System.

Characters

Alongside the core emotions, we have Anxiety, which is like a small child. We have Ennui, bored as she can get. Envy, self-explanatory and Embarrassment, the socially awkward bystander. I say bystander, because Embarrassment helps Sadness to fight against Anxiety.

The core emotions try to get back to headquarters, and the newcomer emotions (except Anxiety) are just standing there as Anxiety tries to help Riley's corrupted Belief System.

Conclusion

Inside Out is a franchise that is only going to get more popular. As the audience sees Riley grow, we are going to find common points, which will then be the central theme.