The role of Anxiety in Inside Out 2
- Marina Rodrigues
- Feb 1, 2025
- 3 min read
"Inside Out" is a great movie, I absolutely loved the first one. Watching Joy's journey to understand that she needs Sadness is simply a masterclass in emotional maturity. In fact, I have a video analyzing the film on my channel, and I'll leave the link at the end.
However, "Inside Out 2" fell short of its psychology lesson. The movie is good and well-developed; the introduction of new characters during puberty made sense for the narrative, but not for the emotions themselves. Let me explain before you start throwing stones at me.
The five initial emotions — Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger — were already sufficient. If we look at the essence of emotions, which was something the first film brought excellently and therefore opens the door for this kind of deep analysis, we wouldn't need new emotions for the puberty phase.
Anxiety, the main antagonist character of the sequel, is nothing more than excessive fear of the future. When a person is anxious or has anxiety attacks, the root of these feelings comes from Fear. Riley becomes consumed by fear of what could go wrong, what others will think, the changes that caught her by surprise, fear of being alone and losing her friends, of not making the hockey team, and so many others. And this fear caused in her what we call anxiety, and, dominated by it, she begins to act atypically.
In this case, we wouldn't need the Anxiety character, because Fear, who had always existed, should have been in control. And unlike the first film, where Joy's journey with Sadness coincided with Riley's own emotional journey, there wasn't a connection between the character arcs in the second.
Isolated from the control room, all emotions need to find a way to remove Anxiety from control while Riley emotionally crumbles, losing the islands of her core values. The lesson Riley learns isn't related to the emotions' journey; they are two parallel stories that reach the same conclusion: anxiety cannot take control of decisions. But there isn't an emotional journey that connects the problems Riley is experiencing with Joy and friends' problems.
The same applies to Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui. Their essence could almost all be found in the five initial emotions. Boredom and envy could come from Disgust, leaving only Embarrassment as the only new emotion that would make more sense to exist independently. But since they didn't have a strong impact on the events driving the narrative, except for the moment when Embarrassment helps Sadness bring the emotions back and stop Anxiety, it's unnecessary to delve into the reason for their existence.
Finally, Joy needs to race against time to prevent Anxiety from destroying all of Riley's intrinsic personality values while she distances herself from her friends and makes wrong decisions. In the end, the emotions finally manage to return to headquarters, Riley breaks down crying, and her friends hug her, comforting her. There isn't a great learning experience for the emotions like the first film delivered, just an adventure and race against time to resolve all the chaos created by Anxiety.
The script of "Inside Out 2" isn't bad and doesn't present glaring flaws; it just fell short of the depth that its predecessor gifted us with. The entire universe of being inside the mind, its functionality, and its relation to real-life remains excellent and well-developed, showing a behind-the-scenes look at emotions with a new perspective and creativity.
It's not fair to compare it with the first film, as it truly deserved its Oscar for Best Screenplay. However, being a sequel, this comparison needs to exist. Understand my passion for Pixar films and watch a brief analysis of "Inside Out."
And what did you think of "Inside Out 2"? Leave it in the comments.
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