Inside Out 2 is an animation film that illustrates the emotions of a teenage girl, Riley. Ever since the “Puberty” alarm went off in the headquarters, 4 new emotions took over the 5 original ones (Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust)—Anxiety, Ennui (boredom, in French), Embarrassment, and Envy. Ever since Anxiety joined the group, she said that Riley needs to become a “better” self and starts to dictate her emotions and actions through plans that she makes. Anxiety has a different set of values, and these values oppose the Belief System made originally by the 5 emotions, and the new Belief System was formed by the memories and emotions made by Anxiety. As the original belief system starts to deteriorate, and Riley seems to get controlled completely by anxiety, the original 5 emotions arrive on time at the headquarters and allows Riley to get back to her original self as well as enjoying every moment she encounters.
This movie taught me, that whatever happens, it is not the thing that happens that matters, it is how you react that matters. Even if something negative happens, but it you look at it through the lens of positivity and opportunity and reduce the amount of anxiety and negativity that is being used when perceiving that memory, it will aid your belief system. This is also why Joy is always the leader of the group, it is because she always gives positive solutions to problems, even though sometimes they might not be feasible. However, as a leader, being positive and leading the team to the right place is important.
After watching Inside Out 2, I now know how to positively perceive “puberty” under the goal of creating a better self!
The new element to this film is the little flower that represents one’s belief system. The belief system is made up of the glass balls of the memories that were attained. The balls will have colors on them that represent the emotion the memory is being perceived in. Continuing from the first movie, the balls can now have more than one color on them, because a memory’s emotion can be mixed. The glass balls will be sent to this underground system (“underground” being below the memories that were put in the landfill of wasted memories) where they will be put onto this surface of water. Once they start gliding across the water, a column made up of strings will start pining upwards to the flower that forms in the headquarters. At the start of the film, Joy said that “we can’t decide who Riley is”. The “we” is referring to the emotions. And yes, emotions felt at a certain point can’t decide who we are, but they make up the belief system, and the belief system decides what actions, speech and other outputs we make throughout our lives, which then again creates emotions, which creates memories, which will then again, be part of the belief system.
During the second half of the film, Anxiety takes over, and starts dictating Riley’s actions and speech to help her become a “better Riley”, but through a belief system that is completely in opposition of the original one created by Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. Anxiety starts dictating Riley’s emotions through making her fit in, forcing her to become friends with the new group of girls she met at the hockey team to better become the player that gets chosen for the Falcon team. She starts to become the “leader” of the group of emotions, and often forces Riley to do something that is out of her boundaries and often harms her. Thus, anxiety’s breakouts and takeovers often leads to Riley making decisions that oppose her original belief system, which dissatisfies Joy and her team. Riley started to have negative self-talks, but by miracle performs well in the hockey game, even under the extreme pressure. However, after Joy went back to the headquarters, she learned to embrace anxiety and finally, the belief system was a mixture of all of the emotions and Joy ends the movie with allowing Riley to enjoy the hockey game happily.
This movie taught me, that whatever happens, it is not the thing that happens that matters, it is how you react that matters. Even if something negative happens, but it you look at it through the lens of positivity and opportunity and reduce the amount of anxiety and negativity that is being used when perceiving that memory, it will aid your belief system. This is also why Joy is always the leader of the group, it is because she always gives positive solutions to problems, even though sometimes they might not be feasible. However, as a leader, being positive and leading the team to the right place is important.
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Writing by: Margaret Y
Posted by: Margaret Y
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