Inside Out 2 is almost exactly like a story in Netflix’s Big Mouth

The healthy Pixar family film Inside Out 2 and the raunchy Netflix comedy Big mouth take fundamentally different approaches when it comes to looking into the minds of middle school students, but their storylines surrounding anxiety are remarkably similar in the broad details, and both are on the same wavelength when it comes to dealing with the problem. Big mouth pairs mature discussions about mental health with huge portions of dick jokes, while Inside Out 2 looks at the changes that hormones bring from a completely genderless perspective. But both animated projects ultimately convey the same message: fear is a powerful, turbulent force that can never be banished, but can be managed with a little help from friends.

Which movie did the same plot better? Here’s a breakdown of how the two tonally different stories tackle the same themes — and how they make an unusual double bill for adults and teens trying to figure out how to deal with anxiety.

[Ed. note: Major spoilers ahead for Big Mouth season 4 and Inside Out 2.]

Inside Out 2 vs. Big Mouth: What does fear feel like?

The parallels between the two stories are striking. Inside Out 2‘s Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and Big mouthTito the Fear Mosquito (Maria Bamford) makes his first appearance, tormenting his respective victims at summer camp. This happens in part because both kids feel insecure in their relationships with their best friends. Riley (Kensington Tallman) has just learned that she and her best friends will be going to different high schools, and she defensively withdraws from their friendship. Likewise, Nick Birch (Nick Kroll) has become estranged from his best friend Andrew Glouberman (John Mulaney) after a major fight broke out because Nick kissed Andrew’s ex-girlfriend.

Tito, the fear mosquito, appears in the premiere of the fourth season of Big moutha new addition to the show’s gallery of villains with emotions such as Depression Kitty and the Shame Wizard. (Shame was introduced as a new emotion for Inside Out 2(but didn’t make it.) “I’m the worst, but so are you,” Tito says as an introduction after biting Nick.

Like so many modern Disney films, the Inside Out series has no real villains, but Fear acts as an antagonist, pitted against the emotional characters of the first film. Joy (Amy Poehler) usually sits at the center of the emotional console that controls Riley, and sees herself as the heroine of the story. While she learned to make space for Sorrow (Phyllis Smith) in the first film, she’s hesitant to do the same for Fear and Riley’s other new emotions, and she pushes Riley to fool around with her best friends from school, even when she should be paying more attention to what the hockey camp coach is saying.

Inside Out 2‘s approach is stronger here because it recognizes that fear can be beneficial when it helps you take useful actions—like when Anxiety suggests Riley study for her Spanish test at the end of the film. But it also recognizes that fear can easily degenerate into harmful catastrophic thinking. Tito is obviously malicious with her over-the-top warnings to Nick, such as “You’re going to die a virgin while the world explodes from global warming.” But Anxiety seems to genuinely believe she’s helping Riley by keeping her up all night imagining equally catastrophic scenarios. Her breakdown when she drives Riley into a panic attack is a beautiful visualization of feeling out of control, and the ominous swarm of buzzing fears Tito conjures up for Nick doesn’t quite have the same narrative power.

Inside Out 2 vs. Big Mouth: What do you do about your fear?

In both stories, the anxiety attacks the teen’s self-esteem and further damages his relationships with his closest friends. Nick is unsettled when Andrew tells him he’s not a good person. Instead of making amends, he decides to ignore Andrew and hang out with his best friend from camp, Seth Goldberg (Seth Rogen). These plans don’t work out, as Andrew and Seth form a bond and Nick is left out. Nick is so fixated on this relationship that he ignores his other good friend, Jessi Glaser (Jessi Klein), and even attacks her when she tries to help him through a panic attack.

Fear literally attacks Riley’s self-esteem and drains it and the most important emotions from the inside to the outside so she can take complete control. Riley pushes away her best friends Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu), feeling she might as well cut her losses and focus on making new friends.

She continues to deny her true self in social settings and quits her favorite band because the older girls she wants to impress find it childish. When she is haunted by anxiety in her nightmares, Riley is less afraid of hurting her friends’ feelings than that they will outperform her at the camp’s final hockey game and she will be ridiculed for not being selected for their team. Her core belief of being a good person quickly gives way to a new self built on the idea of ​​”I’m not good enough.”

Both arcs show the cruelty of fear, but Big mouth pushes the theme further, particularly with regard to the idea of ​​physical self-esteem at the onset of puberty. Riley is briefly concerned about changing in front of the other girls in the hockey camp locker room, but the subject never comes up again as she is fixated on her goal of impressing the coach enough to get on the high school hockey team. That’s understandable for a children’s film – but body image issues are at the heart of Big mouthwhere Nick’s insecurities about the size of his penis lead to him not showering for days and stewing in an increasing stench that eventually earns him the nickname “Soup.” This is the show where Maya Rudolph sing a whole song about the diversity of bodies on display during a trip to a Korean spa in Season 2.

Big mouth is much more concerned with how cruel children can be, and even the odd boy who previously served as a punching bag for most of the boys at camp is quick to take the opportunity to increase his status by making fun of Nick. In contrast, the girls Riley meets at camp are quick to accept her – perhaps even unrealistically quick. This lack of external conflict helps to emphasize Riley’s inner turmoil, and the film still shows the destructive power of fear. But Big mouth provides a better picture of the lasting consequences.

Inside Out 2 vs. Big Mouth: How to fight fears?

In both cases, these crises reach a breaking point where the characters suffer a panic attack and their best friends save them from the brink. Inside Out 2 provides a beautiful moment of catharsis as Bree, Grace and Riley step onto the ice together for the camp’s final big hockey game, with Joy manning Riley’s mind console. Joy’s fears that she’ll have less of an impact on Riley’s life as she gets older are disproved – this final game shows just how valuable Joy still is.

Not surprising, Big mouthThe climax is much more disgusting. Nick and Andrew reconcile while Andrew defecates, which he has been holding in all summer, and “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders plays. It lacks Inside Out 2The narrative is tight and relies on shock effects and the general feeling that the boys had to make something up because they are the only ones who really get along.

Both Nick and Riley end their summers in a better place than they started, and with the help of supportive friends, are able to accept some of their shortcomings. Still, their fears can never truly be banished. Nick is relieved to be rid of Tito, but the episode ends ominously with a swarm of mosquitoes following the bus home. Tito continues to be a recurring antagonist throughout the series, which is now heading into an eighth and final season on Netflix: he continues to plague Nick, Jessi, and other characters. He has been most successfully combated with the help of the Gratitoad (Zach Galifianakis), who urges people to appreciate their friends and the other good things in their lives.

The jagged tree of self-loathing and fear that has built up in Riley’s mind remains as part of her more complex sense of self. The fear must be constantly controlled by Riley’s remaining emotions, which encourage her to relax with tea and a massage chair. The film’s ending is a bit of a cop-out, as Riley appears to have received good news about joining the high school hockey team, while a far more compelling finale would show her to be grown up enough to accept failure and keep working towards her future. But since another film in the series is almost guaranteed based on Inside Out 2With the huge box office success of Fear, the series will have further opportunities to show how fear continues to affect Riley and her development as a person.

All seven seasons of Big mouth are streamed on Netflix. Inside Out 2 is now in theaters.