The older you get, the more important Inside Out 2 becomes

Inside Out 2 is taking the 2024 box office by storm, having grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide in just a few weeks of release. This kind of major financial success typically comes only to “four-quadrant films,” movies that appeal to the box office’s four main demographics: men and women, and those over and under 25. While Pixar Animation Studios’ latest film fits that profile, I walked out of the theater I firmly believe that while this movie is relevant and enjoyable for most children of most ages, it hits even harder if you’re an adult.

I took my 7 year old niece to Inside Out 2and she loved it. A media-literate gremlin who spends much of his free time robbing fictional banks in Roblox Brookhavenrewatching Pixar Turning redor fascinated by YouTubers unpacking their latest purchases at Pop Mart, she knows how to dissect a fictional story, even if she doesn’t fully realize it yet. She chose Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) as her favorite character in Inside Out 2and she laughed at many of the jokes in the film. She identified with much of the interpersonal drama that befalls Riley, the 13-year-old girl at the center of the film: My niece just started school last year, so, like Riley, she’s going through a lot of social changes. And she has a teenage brother, so it was helpful to see a straightforward depiction of how becoming a teenager can affect someone’s emotional landscape.

Image: Pixar Animation Studios/Everett Collection

Like many children I know, my niece is desperate for information that might help her understand the world adults live in. She plays Brookhaven as a way of dressing up as an adult, decorating her house and driving around town in a limousine, without being tied down by 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 contemporary children feel, an unconscious belief that if she figures it all out before she turns 18, she might be able to avoid some of the difficulties she recognizes in the adults around her. For her, Inside Out 2 was a success, even if she doesn’t yet fully understand why.

By comparison, I’m 36, firmly in adulthood, and getting closer to the average age of the millennial generation every day. I’ve lived with anxiety since I was a child, so I was fascinated by Inside Out 2Exploring belief systems and how anxiety can hijack them as we grow. The 2015 Pixar original film Upside down introduces the character of Sadness (Phyllis Smith) as a possible villain, but gradually reveals why sadness is essential to a healthy inner world. Anxiety (Maya Hawke) receives similar treatment in Inside Out 2In a reversal of the Sadness arc, Anxiety is initially presented as the solution to all of Riley’s coming-of-age problems, but is ultimately revealed as a false cure-all.

In balance with other emotions, anxiety can fuel ambition, motivate us to achieve our goals, keep us alert, and help us prepare for potential threats. As Anxiety says in the film, it’s simply trying to protect Riley by helping her anticipate and counter threats to her self-esteem or social status. But in excess, anxiety can paralyze us and prevent us from moving forward. It can undermine our self-esteem and our ability to take action. It can convince us that if we can figure out how to control everything (an impossible task), we can be immune to suffering (an impossible goal).

Image: Pixar Animation Studios/Everett Collection

As an adult who has found some perspective through EMDR therapy, I understand exactly what Inside Out 2The creators of are trying to communicate when they describe human value systems as both malleable and profound. I know what it’s like to falsely believe that I can no longer access joy, and what it feels like to replace that negative belief with a more positive one. I’ve seen many adults on social media comment on how hard it is to hear the following statement: “Maybe that’s what happens when you grow up: you feel less joy.”

This line is central to the film’s theme and its catharsis. And it can certainly hit hard for children, especially children who naturally worry about the fear, confusion, and unhappiness they see in the adults around them. But I think it’s more relevant to adult viewers. For children, and the character of Joy (Amy Poehler), who has only ever lived inside Riley, it’s really a question: “Will I lose my joy as I get older?” Adults are more likely to already have an answer to that question and to have a strong emotional reaction to seeing it reflected in their minds. Inside Out 2.

The film ultimately takes a definitive stand on this question, and offers an answer for both children and adults. In the film’s climax, anxiety runs wild, sending Riley into a panic attack. She must relinquish control of her inner landscape before it can feel emotions like joy, sadness, and anger (Lewis Black) again. It’s only once anxiety lets go that Riley is able to take responsibility for her actions and start feeling better about herself. It’s only after Anxiety is given a supporting role rather than a starring role that the film tells us that we don’t have to lose joy on the path to adulthood—even if that’s a lie we adults sometimes tell ourselves in order to get through to-do lists and seemingly endless work weeks. And it’s a message adults need to hear even more than children.

Image: Disney/Pixar

In an age of misinformation and endless distractions, there’s something to be said for films that communicate themes simply and sincerely, with less room for misinterpretation—films like Inside Out 2 and the biggest global hit of 2023, Barbie. There is so much room in online conversations and in the media right now for people to misinterpret ideas, intentionally or not. It is often even encouraged, thanks to the popularity of the ever-simmering cultural machine of outrage. I think films like Inside Out 2 And Barbie They hit harder, especially in adults, because they attempt to communicate essential ideas directly, leaving as little room as possible for misinterpretation.

Children are used to this in their media, but adults are not. This explains why so many adults latched onto America Ferrera’s extremely simple book. Barbie monologue about conflicting standards for women as a topic of discussion. I think the same is true for many of the ideas explored in Inside Out 2Just because we’re adults doesn’t mean we don’t need to have things explained to us, or that words of comfort aren’t meant for us.

There’s this idea in American culture that once we reach adulthood, we should be able to endure cruelty and hardship without complaint, comfort, or catharsis. But why would that be true? Leaving childhood behind only makes our emotions more complex and more likely to deceive us if we don’t have the space or tools to understand them. Our emotions can be just as powerful as those of childhood, but they’re now coupled with the power that adulthood can give us to harm ourselves and others.

If anything, it makes movies like Inside Out 2 — films that demonstrate the need to recognize the control that emotions can have over us — much more important for adults. Adults are so rarely encouraged to feel, express, and manage their emotions in the way that children do. This especially leaves out adults who didn’t have that opportunity as children. Inside Out 2 offers adults a small opportunity to better understand our own emotions, particularly the role that anxiety can play in our lives. And it does so by delivering its messages to us in the form of a film made for children. What a vital gift to our culture and to all those still struggling to cope with their own anxieties, at any age.