What happens to emotions when we hit puberty? This animated film has the answers.
The movie Inside Out is a family comedy animation film released in 2015 and made us feel a roller coaster of emotions. It depicts the story of Riley, an 11-year-old girl who just moved to San Francisco from Minnesota, and the way she copes with this massive change.
Throughout the course of the film, we get to see what goes on in Riley’s brain. Her emotions are personified characters that try to guide her and help her navigate this period of her life. Things get a little messy when Sadness touches a joyful core memory.This causes mayhem in Headquarters, the control centre of Riley’s brain, which controls how she feels during different situations. Each part of her personality falls apart, which is represented by islands in the movie. This causes Riley to become very depressed, anxious, and upset.
The movie reminded me of my childhood and it was very wholesome. It shows the development of a child, from imaginary friends, to emotional changes and big life changes. Another great aspect of this movie that is not found in many children’s movies, is mental health issues. Riley’s evolution of sentiments depicts the emotional baggage of big chances in a young child’s life. This movie is relatable to any age, since it demonstrates everyday human struggles and experiences.
The movie ends on a cliffhanger. A new button appears on the emotions console. A button saying “Puberty”.
After 7 years, the new trailer for the sequel of the movie finally came out on November 9th, 2023. It shows Riley’s life as a teenager. Headquarters gets destroyed and we hear Sadness saying that Riley feels upset because of external pressure and expectations. New emotions make their place in Headquarters, such as Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment, and Envy.
I hope that Inside Out 2 will cover a love interest, which would make the movie interesting; we do see a glimpse of what seems to be a date in the trailer. The addition of this subject could add a lot of drama in Riley’s life which would make sense for the emotion of envy to show up. I also want the movie to touch back on Riley’s mental health and her struggles with making friends and adjusting to the new environment.
This is very plausible since emotions that aren’t so pleasant seem to be introduced into Headquarters. On one of the movie posters, there is a pink emotion, which a lot of theories suggest is Bing Bong, Riley’s childhood imaginary friend, coming back as the emotion of embarrassment. This makes sense since Bing Bong represents Riley’s childhood and going through puberty, she would want to seem more mature around her friends. Reintroducing a fan-favourite character would be an awesome twist to this new movie.
This film is going to be a very anticipated wait for the summer of 2024, reigniting our childhood memories!
