Inside Out 2: Popular because it is poignant

I rarely acquiesce to feed the Mouse maw—though I would say that my approach has more of cultural curiosity in it than an incense-pinch to the Magic Kingdom. All this to say (or to confess), I took my younger kids to see the latest hit from Disney-Pixar, Inside Out 2, and I found it a surprisingly interesting experience. It wasn’t the warm-fuzzy spectacle I anticipated. This little movie is laced with a poignancy, whether consciously or unconsciously or both, that may give some perspective to its popularity.

Inside Out 2 just became the highest-grossing animated film of all time, surpassing the $1 billion mark. It follows the first film from nearly a decade ago, which was also well received for its bright creativity and humor. It features the adventures of personified emotions inside a girl named Riley—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger—as they form her personality by controlling her reactions and her moods, cataloguing her memories, and trying to make her happy.

In this second film, just as the emotions are beginning the delicate work of filing things in the back of Riley’s mind and setting up a belief system, puberty hits like a wrecking ball in the dead of night, throwing the emotions’ mainframe haywire—especially with the introduction of new and more complicated emotions: Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui.

Truth be told, it’s a fine time at the movies. But the mammoth commercial success of this film is curious, since it’s not exactly some long-awaited, fan-favorite blockbuster. The first Inside Out was enjoyed by viewers and critics alike, but it didn’t set any records on fire or even beg a sequel. It was smart, though. And this second installment, too, is charming and clever and humorous as well, but what was it that has made it so meteoric? What chord did it hit in the zeitgeist?

I think there are three.

First, Inside Out 2 is a clean family flick with no liberal messaging or wokish winking. It is a simple story told with imagination and pizzazz, free of the ideological trappings that often hang on the edges of films like this, especially out of the Disney Empire (See Lightyear or Elemental—actually, don’t). Inside Out 2 was free of that propaganda, and I bet people appreciated that. It was truly a family-friendly film with nothing to explain away afterwards or wonder what the impact was on your child’s imagination. You don’t get that often at the movie theater, and it was refreshing to see that it’s still possible and, what’s more, still valued.

Second, this film had some solid substance in its reflection of the modern adolescent mindset. The dominant emotion throughout the film is Anxiety, and she is portrayed as a well-meaning, neurotic villain whose desperate attempts to make Riley a different person keep digging her deeper into discomfort. Though Anxiety claims that all she wants is what’s best for Riley (and she does), the machinations and manipulations of this good-hearted but volatile emotion wreaks havoc and sows dysphoric misery.

Sadly, anxiety looms large for most kids these days. The unmitigated pressures of social media, a noisily divisive political landscape, overly busy parents, pornographic bombardment, a shabby secularized and relativist society, and the chokehold of career readiness and professional success have made our youngsters an unstable, jittery lot.

The representation of Anxiety in this film is both creative and accurate—and even instructive. It depicts, although playfully, a mind gripped and enslaved by self-doubt and self-service. There is so much worry in the world today, and this movie doesn’t hang back from that dominance and the danger it presents. Anxiety is a prevalent disease of our day, and this film deals with that plight honestly and positively.

According to the film (spoiler), anxiety is simply something to be managed and not expelled. This is a sad conclusion, and a poignant sign of the times—and though disconcerting, I can see audiences latching on to this with some sense of comfort. The film understands it is addressing a society whirled about by anxiety, especially the young as they seek acceptance, affirmation, and fulfillment, but it falls short of resolution beyond repression.

Real relief from our troubling emotions—such as anxiety, envy (a capital sin), apathy, and insecurity—is impossible without the psychological healing and efficacious symbols of the Sacraments and the spiritual life of the Catholic Church. And that is where the film fails, of course, to complete the picture. But it’s lack of remedy regarding the problem of Anxiety prompts the question for a better solution than it poses, which is a healthy challenge, especially for a secular audience.

Third, there is a profound point in the film which posits that, the older people get, the less joy they experience. Just as anxiety is somewhat inevitable in our day and age, also inevitable is the fundamental tragedy of human life. It is a sad observation, but it is true, and that is another resonance that this movie strikes in the heart, with something like nostalgic pain for older viewers. The greater the joy, the more you will lose over time.

It is a reality that foretells the breaking up of things and underscores a reality many people don’t recognize: the basis of all art, all philosophy, all science, all human effort of any kind is the desire to live forever. All men and women have within them the wish to have the goodness of life and existence for all eternity, and have, consequently, an instinctive sadness over temporal nature. The film gets this—even though, again, it doesn’t point to any spiritual water that will make us live forever.

These themes explored in Inside Out 2 are interesting, especially set as they are in a decidedly secular world and a relatively mechanistic one at that given the structure of the story. Anxiety attacks, creeping sadness, and stifled joy are all emotional events that, in the real world, only the grace of the Church can assuage and there is only one way, one truth, and one life to have that ultimate escape—and it isn’t in a movie theater. That said, there are far worse things you could escape to in a movie theater than Inside Out 2.