‘Inside Out 2’ received a lot of praise for its profound and subtle message. The film emphasizes the importance of every emotion and every memory in the process of human growth.
In 2015, the animated film Inside Out Pixar’s was released and quickly became one of the most beloved fantasy worlds on screen.
It took 9 years to Emotional Pieces back to the silver screen. However, the audience’s wait seems to have been worth it. With outstanding quality, Inside Out 2 It took just 19 days to reach the billion-dollar milestone, making it the fastest animated film to achieve this feat.
If in part one, Inside Out While the first part of the film focuses on the message of accepting sadness, that it is also a valuable emotion, the second part focuses on the crises of puberty and promotes the message of accepting ourselves, even in the aspects where we are not perfect.
Understanding the difficulties of puberty
The time between part one and part two of the movie is 2 years. Little girl Riley is now 13 years old, preparing to enter puberty and about to move to a new school.
According to psychologist Erik Erikson, adolescence, the transition from childhood to adulthood, is the most important time. At this time, children will have many changes in physiology, psychology, emotions and social relationships.
And in Inside Out 2these changes have appeared subtly, with full sympathy and understanding. At the age of 13, Riley sometimes has rude actions, but they are all described in a humorous way, partly helping viewers sympathize with the awkwardness of puberty. On the other hand, through Riley, adults can also relive adolescence, a memorable but not very easy period.
Next, Riley also entered a completely new environment. Here, no one knew what she loved or hated, how kind she had been, and here, Riley believed, she needed to prove herself to be accepted.
So much change in such a short period of time requires Riley to have new and more subtle emotions. She needs Shame to stop overreacting, Self-Confidence to observe others, Boredom to figure out what’s right for her, and most importantly, Anxiety to protect herself from things that haven’t happened yet.
Riley’s old and new feelings clash.
However, getting those emotions to work together is not easy. The collision of old and new emotions gradually makes Riley sink into a mess that she cannot name. And Anxiety – the most active and seemingly effective emotion – has taken control of everything.
Like other emotions, Anxiety also wants to protect Riley. But the way it does it is somewhat extreme and excessive.
Believing that he alone can take care of her, Anxiety pushes Riley’s five initial emotions out of the emotional control center, thus reminding us of the process of children initially suppressing their emotions. It’s not necessarily something too tragic, but it’s still an unpleasant experience.
Obviously, Anxiety helped Riley integrate into her new environment, but it also pushed her into seemingly hopeless struggles. For Riley, anxiety is the fear of loneliness, the obsession with failure, giving up on dreams, disappointing her parents, and countless bad future prospects. And worse, anxiety makes her lose her self-image in her early years.
Inside Out 2 “touched” the audience because it deeply portrayed puberty – a difficult stage that everyone has experienced, and is also a mess that is difficult to express, difficult to see.
Message of self acceptance
One of the most unique concepts Inside Out 2 is sense of self. Unlike identity, or ego, sense of self is simply how we perceive ourselves to be, based on the memories we have gathered as we grow up.
Creating a sense of self in Inside Out 2.
Sense of self trong Inside Out 2 quite similar to the concept of Self-concept, proposed by Carl Rogers – one of the most influential psychologists in history. Self-concept is how we perceive ourselves based on the experiences that are brought to consciousness. However, this image can be different from reality.
In Inside Out 2Riley has always seen herself as a good person. This belief is based on positive experiences in her past, such as helping others, being praised by her family, or getting good grades.
However, in order for Riley to feel this way, Joy pushed negative memories about herself to the “back of her mind.” That is, Riley forgot or denied bad memories, like getting bad grades or accidentally forgetting a friend’s name. For Carl Rogers, this was called denial, when Riley pushed negative memories about herself out of consciousness.
Riley’s 9 emotions in Inside out 2.
According to Rogers, when people begin to realize that their self-image and reality don’t match, anxiety attacks occur. In the film, Riley begins to feel inadequate when she goes to hockey camp. And this seems to be the source of her uncontrollable anxiety.
Riley’s journey to accepting herself, in both her perfect and imperfect moments, is the ultimate message that Inside Out 2 towards.
Anxiety clearly has no right to shape who Riley is, and neither does Joy. Just as no emotion is useless or powerful, no memory is worth leaving behind.
Riley is certainly not perfect, and she doesn’t need to be. She has upset her friends, teased others, and sometimes worried her parents. But other times, Riley also loves animals, is at the top of her class, and wins hockey tournaments.
Along with emotions, all memories, good or bad, are necessary for growth. Humans need clear images of themselves, and memories are the material that creates that.
The moment when all the emotional pieces embrace all of Riley’s memories is a very touching scene. It conveys the whole message of the work, that all memories and emotions are worthy of respect and contribute to who we are.