A Review of Inside Out 2

Courtesy of Pixar

A few nights ago my wife and I had an impromptu date-night in which we checked out a local Detroit-style pizza shop and viewed Inside Out 2. My review of the pizza is simple—it’s delicious; but my review of Inside Out 2 is more complex than that.

For those unfamiliar, Inside Out and Inside Out 2 are animated movies created by Pixar in which the viewer gets an inside view of the inner mind of the main character, Riley. Riley is a child who is navigating complicated emotional changes in her life as the world around her changes—from moving, finishing junior high school, and losing her two closest friends as they get assigned to a different high school. While witnessing Riley handle these changes, the viewer also sees anthropomorphic representations of her emotions—joy, anger, disgust, fear, anxiety, and so on. Of course, the movies have a cutesy vibe to them that can very clearly appeal to children, but they also appeal greatly to adults because of the relatability of the anthropomorphized characters.

Now, onto my key thoughts about Inside Out 2:

1. Inside Out 2 does a phenomenal job at showing what it feels like to deal with certain emotions (though, I question how much embarrassment, anxiety, envy, and ennui are actually emotions—aren’t they rather the results of a combination of emotions?). In particular, the way anxiety is shown is spot-on in my opinion—from imagining unseen potential events to the push to be better because you doubt yourself and even the full-blown panic attack shown near the end, Pixar portrayed anxiety beautifully.

2. Pixar also portrays the need to not allow emotions to dictate your life. The writers do an excellent job expressing the truth that while emotions are important (and even good), your emotions shouldn’t control you nor should they dictate who you are. In fact, showing how memories become beliefs, which then form your sense of self is fairly accurate and worth further exploration at a deeper level, but at the very least show the importance of allowing all of your memories to form you rather than letting your emotions form you.

3. If nothing else, an individual watching Inside Out 2 will get a firm understanding of the complexity of life. Life has many moving parts, which all affect us in complex ways to the extent that it can be difficult to behave, think, or feel in the way that we would desire to behave, think, or feel. The acknowledgment of the complexity of life in Inside Out and Inside Out 2 is an element most animated movies gloss over, but Pixar exemplifies what it means to acknowledge complexity while still being entertaining for children.

Some positives:

1. Pixar’s ability to make complex ideas easy to understand is worth emulating. There are so many theological ideas that most pastors struggle to make accessible to the average person in the pew—Inside Out 2 helps visualize how it could be possible to simplify those ideas.

2. The visual of Anxiety leading into a full-blown panic attack will be useful for counseling, preaching, and teaching occasions.

3. The movie (really both of them) provides an excellent tool to teach children about emotions, feelings, and thoughts in a fun and simple way.

Some negatives:

The end of Inside Out 2 shows Riley getting through the turmoil of the events by the emotions learning to work together and Riley learning to be more herself rather than allowing Anxiety to dictate her life. Really, what ends up happening is that Riley learns to cope with her emotions and thoughts through very secular means, which ultimately ought to be expected since Pixar isn’t a religious company trying to teach religious ideas.

However, by teaching the audience that the way to handle these issues is by looking into yourself and being honest with who you are, Pixar is preaching a gospel of self-help rooted in a humanistic worldview. Or, in other words, Pixar is teaching a worldview contrary to Christianity, which would say to look towards Jesus rather than to look within to fix yourself. Of course, there’s always an element in which self-reflection is good, but to assume that all your problems could be fixed in this way negates the truth of the Gospel itself.

Conclusion

Put simply, Inside Out 2 is a family friendly, entertaining movie that provides good insight, but ultimately leads to a worldview contrary to Scripture itself.