Inside Out 2 has a particularly important purpose for adult viewers

Inside Out 2 takes the Sluggish box office 2024 taken by storm, more than 1.2 billion dollars worldwide in just a few weeks after release. This kind of major financial success usually only happens with “four-quadrant films,” that is, films that appeal to the four main box office demos: men and women, both over and under 25. While Pixar Animation Studios’ latest film meets these requirements, I came out of the theater I firmly believe that while this film is relatable and entertaining for most children of all ages, it will have an even greater impact on adults.

I took my 7-year-old niece to Inside Out 2and she loved it. A media-savvy Gremlin who spends much of his free time creating fictional banks in Roblox’s Brookhavenwhen rewatching Pixar’s To reddenor fascinated by YouTubers unboxing their latest Pop Mart purchases, she knows how to dissect a fictional narrative, even if she isn’t fully aware of it yet. She chose Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) as her favorite character in Inside Out 2and she laughed at many of the film’s jokes. She could identify with many of the interpersonal dramas that trouble Riley, the now 13-year-old girl at the center of the film: My niece just started school last year, so she, like Riley, is going through a lot of social changes. And she has a teenage brother, so it was helpful to see a direct depiction of how becoming a teenager can affect a person’s emotional world.

Like many children I know, my niece is desperately searching for information that could help her understand the adult world. She plays Brookhaven as a way to dress up as an adult, decorate her house, and drive around town in a limousine, free from realities like financial stress or a full-time job. I think this quest for knowledge about adulthood is driven by a kind of anxiety that many children today feel, a subconscious belief that if she figures it all out before her 18th birthday, she might be able to avoid some of the problems she recognizes in the adults around her. For her Inside Out 2 was a hit, even if she doesn’t quite understand why.

For comparison, I am 36 years old, firmly in adulthood and getting closer to millennial middle age every day. I have lived with anxiety since childhood, so I was fascinated by Inside Out 2‘s exploration of belief systems and how fears can hijack them as we grow up. Pixar’s original film from 2015 from the inside to the outside introduces the character of Sadness (Phyllis Smith) as a possible villain, but gradually reveals why sadness is essential for a healthy inner world. Fear (Maya Hawke) receives a similar treatment in Inside Out 2. In a twist in Sadness’s story arc, fear is initially presented as the solution to all of Riley’s coming-of-age problems, but ultimately turns out to be a false panacea.

When held in balance with other emotions, fear can inspire ambition, motivate us to achieve our goals, keep us alert, and prepare us for potential threats. As Anxiety puts it in the film, she’s only trying to protect Riley by helping her anticipate and counteract threats to her self-esteem or social status. But in excess, fear can paralyze us and keep us from moving forward. It can undermine our self-esteem and personal agency. It can convince us that if we can just figure out how to control everything (an impossible task), we can be immune to suffering (an impossible goal).

As an adult who has EMDR therapyI understand exactly what Inside Out 2The makers of The 4000 are trying to communicate when they portray human value systems as both malleable and profound. I know what it means to falsely believe that I can no longer feel joy, and what it feels like to replace that negative belief with a more positive one. I’ve seen many adults on social media commenting on how hard the following line of dialogue hits them: “Maybe that’s what happens when you grow up: you feel less joy.”

That line is central to the film’s theme and catharsis. And it can certainly hit hard for kids – especially kids who are understandably concerned about the fear, confusion, and discontent they see in the adults around them. But I think the film is geared more toward adult viewers. For kids – and the character Joy (Amy Poehler), who has only ever lived in Riley – it’s really a question of, “Will I lose joy as I get older?” Adults probably already have an answer to that question, and react strongly emotionally when they see it reflected in their lives. Inside Out 2.

The film ultimately takes a clear stance on this question, offering an answer to children and adults alike. At the film’s climax, fear spirals out of control, causing Riley to have a panic attack. She must relinquish control of Riley’s inner landscape before Riley can once again feel emotions such as joy, sadness, and anger (Lewis Black). Only when fear lets go is Riley able to take responsibility for her actions and feel better. Only when fear takes a supporting role instead of a leading role does the film tell us that we don’t have to lose joy on the road to adulthood – even if that’s a lie we adults sometimes tell ourselves as we try to get through seemingly endless to-do lists and work weeks. And it’s a message that adults need to hear even more than children do.

In this age of misinformation and endless distraction, there is something to be said for films that convey issues simply and seriously and leave less room for misinterpretation – films like Inside Out 2 and the biggest global hit of 2023, Barbie. There is so much room in online and media conversations right now for people to misunderstand ideas, both intentionally and unintentionally. This is often even encouraged, thanks to the popularity of the ever-frothy Outrage culture machine. I think films like Inside Out 2 And Barbie hit adults especially harder because they try to communicate important ideas directly, leaving as little room for misinterpretation as possible.

Children are used to this in their media, but adults are not. This explains why so many adults are drawn to America Ferrera’s extremely straightforward Barbie Monologue about contradictory standards for women as a topic of discussion. I think the same applies to many of the ideas that are Inside Out 2Just because we’re adults doesn’t mean we don’t need things explained to us or that comforting words aren’t meant for us.

There is a notion in American culture that once we reach adulthood, we should be able to endure cruelty and hardship without complaint, without comfort or catharsis without feeling anything. But why should that be true? As we move beyond childhood, our emotions only become more complex and more able to deceive us if we don’t have the space or tools to understand them. Our emotions can be just as powerful as the emotions of childhood, but now they are coupled with the power that adulthood can give us to hurt ourselves and others.

If anything, it makes films like Inside Out 2 — Films that show how important it is to recognize the control that emotions can have over us — much more important for adults. Adults are so rarely encouraged to feel, express and process their emotions in the same way that children are. This particularly disadvantages those adults who did not have this opportunity as children. Inside Out 2 offers adults a small opportunity to better understand our own emotions, especially the role that fear can play in our lives, by communicating the messages to us in the form of a children’s film. What an important gift this is for our culture and for everyone at any age who is still working on coming to terms with their own fears.