INSIDE OUT 2 Cast Explores Why Movie’s Message Is So Relatable

Published: June 18, 2024

INSIDE OUT 2 Cast Explores Why Movie’s Message Is So Relatable

By Movieguide® Contributor

As Riley and her teenage emotions begin to develop in Disney Pixar’s INSIDE OUT 2, the movie’s cast is sharing why the main character’s feelings are relatable for today’s teens.

“This generation of kids has been through the pandemic and everything else we’ve had to go through,” said Maya Hawke, who plays Anxiety. “They are dealing with a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, and a lot of social discomfort from learning how to reincorporate their lives with other young people.”

“I think that this movie takes that seriously and actualizes these feelings,” she told GOOD MORNING AMERICA.

Disney called on a team of 13-year-old girls to make sure that their portrayal of Riley was realistic.

“I guess the best part was getting their notes on what what resonated with them — what felt true, what felt like they could they could relate to. To have their direct connection to it was immensely helpful,” Director Kelsey Mann said.

The movie isn’t just for teens or older kids. It lets adults and young kids peek into the mind of a teen, too.

“Your emotions are going to brim up and feel like they’re overflowing, but you don’t have to change who you are at your core — or stretch your ethical moral value in moments of choppy waters,” said Paul Walter Hauser, who plays Embarrassment. “You just have to cling to the people, like your friends and your family, and also be able to talk about it. And I think these movies really start conversations for people to talk about emotions — young or old.”

Movieguide®’s review of INSIDE OUT 2 reads:

INSIDE OUT 2 is a sequel to the popular, acclaimed 2015 animated comedy from Pixar and Disney. Riley, the young girl of the first movie, turns 13 and starts having teenage angst. She longs to join the champion varsity girls hockey team in high school. However, a bunch of new, unruly teenage emotions, led by Anxiety, has taken over the Control Room in Riley’s brain. In fact, Anxiety has forcibly banished Joy and her friends from the Control Room. Can Joy and her friends find their way back and fix the psychological damage Anxiety is inflicting on Riley?

INSIDE OUT 2 is a marvelous, family-friendly animated movie. The movie is delightful, funny, inventive, and heartwarming. It has many positive messages. For example, it promotes doing the right thing, controlling your emotions and not letting anxieties overcome your decision making. INSIDE OUT 2 also promotes kindness, friendship, repentance, and forgiveness. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children for scenes of peril and a large scary-looking but nonthreatening character. Unlike other recent animated movies, INSIDE OUT 2 doesn’t have any woke or politically correct content.

Mann wanted viewers to see the inner turmoil that teens experience.

“I had an idea very early on, and I wanted a wrecking ball to come smashing through Headquarters,” Mann told GMA.” “That came from the research of what goes on in our brains at this age — we go through a lot of changes, which I think is fantastic for a sequel.”

The original INSIDE OUT came out in 2015. It won a Movieguide® Teddy Bear Award® and made it into our Ten Best Movies for Families list.

Producer Mark Nielsen added, “The technology totally changed in those nine years. We had to reconfigure the underlying technology for how to create the emotions and what they were going to look like.”

“It was a lot of work by our technical teams, huge groups of people working for over a year, just to bring the characters up so they looked like the ones you know and love from the first film,” Nielsen said.

The movie points out that all emotions are part of the human experience and have a purpose.

“There is no such thing as a bad emotion,” said Amy Poehler, who voices Joy. “Emotions come to help us. Even Anxiety, which might seem like the villain, can be helpful and beautiful if integrated with the others.”

Liza Lapira, who plays Disgust, echoed this.

“I want people to know that these emotions aren’t good or bad and that they exist to protect us…they’re supposed to be accepted and listened to,” said Lapira.

“Riley’s sense of self really starts to change — her personality starts to change with her new emotions coming in,” said Kensington Tallman, who plays Riley. “She really wants to try to fit in, which is totally normal. I understand that completely.”

She continued, “But what Riley taught me is that it’s OK. Just being ourselves is enough.”

Tony Hale, who voices Fear, hopes that people come away from the movie with the realization that “you’re not defined by just one emotion.”

The Guardian reported Monday that the movie opened with $155m at the U.S. box office, which is the best for any movie so far this year. It brought in $140m internationally, which makes it the most successful global animation release ever.

“It marks a big win for cinemas, which have seen lacklustre box office takings for some new movies this year,” The BBC reported. “INSIDE OUT 2’s first weekend was much stronger than the original movie, which brought in $90m in its opening weekend before going on to gross $858m worldwide.”