By: Adalyn Xiao

The film Inside Out 2 came out on June 20, 2024. It’s about preventing a girl named Riley from being overrun with anxiety. Inside Out 2 is a sequel to Inside Out. Still as in Inside Out, Riley’s thoughts are controlled by a collection of colorful characters. But now, there is a new character: a wild looking orange creature, named Anxiety. Anxiety has a bad habit of overreacting. Also, unlike before, Riley is now 13-years-old and contending with the onset of puberty.

In one scene, Riley is trying to sleep because the following day she has a big hockey match. While Riley was trying to sleep, Anxiety was directing an entire room of mind workers to draw things that could go wrong during the hockey match including Riley falling and getting hurt. As a result, Riley cannot fall asleep.

Kelsey Mann, narrating the scene said, “I always envisioned this being a movie about anxiety taking over, and was reflecting on my own life and how my anxiety does that in me.”

As things begin to overwhelm Riley, Joy steps in and infiltrates Anxiety’s plan. They started to draw positive things that could happen, like all of her teammates bonding and having a good time. Joy also tries to get the mind workers to rise up against Anxiety. Riley begins to feel better.