By Aliza Billet, Staff Writer
Many children’s films are released in the summertime, so I have a tradition with my younger siblings to take them to see a few movies every summer. Over the past few years, we’ve seen many movies, such as Pixar’s Lightyear and Elemental, Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid, and John Krasinski’s IF. I love watching these movies with my younger siblings because their reactions to the films always add a layer to the entertainment that comes from the movies themselves: This past summer, I asked my three-year-old brother what his favorite part of IF was. After he started spewing what I initially thought was three-year-old nonsense, I realized he was telling me about an oddly specific moment from one of the previews – the trailers that play before the movie actually begins – which he thought was part of the movie itself. That response alone was worth the price of his movie ticket.
This summer, one of the movies I watched as part of this sibling tradition was Pixar’s Inside Out 2. Overall, I found the movie engaging and entertaining, with a nice message about overcoming anxiety as well as the importance of friendship and forming a strong sense of self. However, a bigger takeaway from the film came from the person with whom I saw it: my 12-year-old sister. Watching the film with her made me realize the importance of engaging with art as a social experience, both in order to better appreciate art through different lenses, and ultimately to use art as a conduit to connect more strongly with the people who matter in our lives.
Inside Out 2 picks up where its predecessor, Inside Out, left off. Protagonist Riley is now 13 years old and about to enter high school. Having learned to carefully balance her emotions in the first film, Inside Out 2 introduces a slew of new emotions, the most threatening of which is Anxiety. Throughout the film, Riley’s emotions struggle with these new changes as they work to ensure the healthy construction and maintenance of her sense of self.
While all of that definitely results in a meaningful story, the most significant takeaway from the film for me came not from the narrative unfolding onscreen, but from my younger sister’s reaction in the theater during the emotional climax of the film: Anxiety has completely taken over Riley’s mind and destroyed her sense of self. Her friends are upset that she’s been ignoring them, she has failed to form a peer group at her new school, and in a frantic attempt to repair it all, Anxiety plunges her into a panic attack. Suddenly, Joy confronts Anxiety and the two come to a realization: part of letting Riley grow up means taking a step back and allowing her to develop on her own. After that, Riley’s newer and truer sense of self blossoms, she apologizes to her old friends, reconnects with the new ones, and the film ends optimistically, with her finally ready to succeed in high school.
At some point during all this, I turned to my little sister beside me and caught her wiping away tears. This surprised me because anyone in my family will tell you that I am generally the crier when it comes to movies like this. I specifically remember sobbing during the emotional climax of the original Inside Out when I was 12 years old! But now my eyes were dry while my younger sister was crying in the seat next to me. What was going on?
Now, I am and always will be a strong defender of Pixar movies. People assume that all animated movies are cartoonish and therefore exclusively intended for children or adults seeking childhood nostalgia. However, many of these movies are actually family films which carry strong messages for adults as well as – if not more than – the children in the audience. Take Soul, for example, a 2020 film about learning to live regardless of if you feel you have a “purpose” in your life. What 10-year-old child is downtrodden enough by life that such a simple message is relevant to them? However, so many adults need to hear it because, let’s face it, being an adult is hard. At the same time, there is no denying that certain films appeal to more specific audiences; everyone can relate to films centered around family life, but age-specific movies like Turning Red and Inside Out 2, which feature young female protagonists, are going to speak to viewers in that demographic more than they would to people of other ages.
Hearing my little sister sniffle at the climax of Inside Out 2 caused me to view the movie through a different lens. All of a sudden, I wasn’t just empathizing with the characters on the screen. Now, I found myself actively remembering what it was like to be 12 years old and all the drama and angst we conveniently forget about once we grow out of that stage. But just because we have left the awkward middle school years behind, that doesn’t mean everyone else has. Taking a moment that day in the movie theater to view Inside Out 2 through the eyes of my younger sister made me think about her experiences on a deeper level. On a larger scale, it opened my eyes to the ways different people relate to art, and how I can use that to both better appreciate art and understand and connect to the people I care about.
The point of telling stories is to show readers and viewers worlds that are not their own and to make them feel seen in worlds that are. For stories we relate to, we know how to sit in the moments that move us before we eventually move on, hopefully better off for having experienced them. But we also need to remember that the stories which don’t resonate with us often do resonate with the people we care about, and that maybe those stories can be a tool through which we can understand our loved ones better. True, Inside Out 2 is a film about childhood friendship and forming a strong sense of self. However, I walked out of the movie theater with a deeper takeaway about the importance of engaging with art not alone, but with the people who matter most, in order to better appreciate both them and the art we encounter. I would have left a solo viewing of Inside Out 2 with basic thoughts such as, “That was a decent film with touching moments.” Instead, I left the experience feeling a deeper connection to my little sister and with a refreshed memory of what it was like to be a child. Through continued interaction with art alongside loved ones who are different from us, we can open the door to new conversations and deeper connections with the people who matter most.
Photo Caption: The Disney Castle
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