By: Felix Xie
Pixar’s new movie, “Inside Out 2,” describes the adventures of an adolescent girl who deals with her new emotions, one of which has taken over her entire life. The movie is a reminder of how we live our lives while coping with emotions.
By Felix Xie
In the trailer for the movie “Inside Out 2,” the original emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear, voiced by Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Liza Lapira, and Tony Hale, respectively—return. And new emotions are added, including Anxiety, Ennui, Envy, and Embarrassment, voiced by Maya Hawke, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Ayo Edebiri, and Paul Walter Hauser.
Over the course of the movie, we see Anxiety take over Riley’s emotions and life, voiced by Kensington Tallman. Riley is now a young adolescent who has joined a hockey camp. There, she has to battle with her emotions once again when Anxiety takes over her life.
The film’s director, Kelsey Mann, reflects, “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.” By building a character in the movie that reflects his own life, Mann is able to create a sense of connection between the audience and the characters in the movie.
In one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, a day before a big hockey game, Anxiety has created a room full of mind workers who draw up “predictions,” where the predictions are negative thoughts about what things will happen the next day. When the original emotions arrive in the room, Joy, Anger, Disgust, and Fear try to put a stop to Anxiety’s plans.
The movie director hints and references other films, such as “Network,” “Norma Rae,” and “Jerry Maguire,” throughout the movie. One of the most prominent examples of this is Anger’s speech to the mind workers. The director states that his speech was inspired by the Network. In perfect Pixar style, the directors are able to put a modern spin on some old and classical movies to relate with adults and remind them that they were also once children.