Inside Out 2 and the Necessity of Joy

My family has never looked forward to a Disney movie this much before. Inside Out 2My 8-year-old daughter is the first Inside Out(A conservative estimate here) 10,000 times. Perhaps a similar figure is possible if she Inside Out 2 Trailer. In the midst of summer vacation, visiting family, volleyball camp, vacation bible school, and other activities, we finally watched this movie a month and a half after its release. Normally, we would have worried about whether a movie would still be playing in theaters after such a long time, but with this movie, we didn’t have to worry. Inside Out 2.

To the surprise of almost everyone except my daughter and her friends,Inside Out 2 Not only have they been successful every week this summer; Highest grossing movies of 2024 Similarly The second highest-grossing anime film Box office recordThese are some pretty big accomplishments for a movie about a 13-year-old girl named Riley and her adventures at hockey camp.

But here’s the thing about Riley: She’s doing the same things that most kids, especially most school-age girls, did this summer: going to camp, hanging out with friends, messing around, getting into the “just right” amount of trouble, and planning her social life for the upcoming school year. That last bit represents the biggest obstacle this summer will bring. Inside Out 2 Hinge: Riley learns early on that her two best friends, Bree and Grace, will be attending different high schools. Last year, my daughter’s best friend dropped out of elementary school. It was a huge loss for her, and one that our family is still trying to overcome.

But unlike Riley, my daughter is not yet 13 or in adolescence. Inside Out 2 It’s all a part of adolescence, and Riley is suddenly hit with a new emotion: anxiety. The anxiety overwhelms her, stifling other emotions like joy and sadness. Her anxiety leads her to make unusual decisions, like ignoring old friends in order to impress Val, the high school hockey star she idolizes.

Anxiety, personified as a reddish-orange spirit with flaming hair and piercing green eyes, convinces Riley that if she can prove she’s the best at hockey and be friends with Val, her freshman year of high school will be perfect, regardless of whether she can stay friends with Bree and Grace. Riley should do whatever it takes to be the best at camp and fit in, even going so far as to ignore or make fun of them in front of the older, and therefore, Bree and Grace. Infinitely cool-high school student.

I thought a lot about what was being made. Inside Out 2 Coming-of-age stories are especially popular for Disney and Pixar because they’re not new material. Turns redFor example, the film focuses on a 13-year-old boy who is going through puberty and struggling with complex emotions such as anxiety. Inside Out 2The success of Turns red We couldn’t even recover half of our budget. It was widely considered a commercial failure.

What’s different? Inside Out 2 What makes it different from other coming-of-age movies? Psychological aspects or Focused on anxietyRather, the consistent focus is Joy as Salvation. both Inside Out In the film, Joy is depicted as a cheerful, bright yellow fairy with blue hair. Star-shaped appearance. Inside Out Though the film is about inner emotions, Joy is there to remind the audience to look up, to look outwards, to heaven. She leads the other emotions that follow her on her journey to help Riley. Joy is at the helm, guiding them to their right place and situation in Riley’s emotional landscape.

It is worth mentioning here that the character is not named “Happiness” in the film. When we have a character named Sadness, and we think of the opposite of sadness, we often think of happiness. But the screenwriter chose the name “Joy,” which already has a spiritual connotation. Galatians 5:22The Apostle Paul calls joy “the fruit of the Holy Spirit.” Joy is a distinctively Christian virtue, one that comes from God, not from within. While some people visit psychologists to talk about anxiety, many visit priests or pastors to talk about joy. Viewed through this lens, Inside Out 2 It opens up in new ways to audiences and critics.

Throughout most of Inside Out 2Anxiety suppresses joy. Yet when Anxiety first appeared, she honored Joy, said she was glad to see her, and seemed to mean it when she said it. If you have ever experienced emotional anxiety, you may recognize the feeling of acknowledging the presence of joy, knowing that the fruit of the Spirit is within our reach, yet you suppress that feeling and give in to anxiety. You may even know that anxiety is a natural biological response, but that doesn’t mean your capacity to feel joy isn’t still suppressed. The devil uses fear to his advantage, even through the defense mechanisms that anxiety provides.

Anxiety is Riley conscienceand not just emotions. How many of us, young women like my daughter, wrestle with our consciences but have no clear strategy or concrete know-how for working through those emotions? How many of us, adults and children alike, yearn for the simple reassurance that joy will triumph?

Anzaia says she can “help” Riley get ahead socially as long as she acts like someone else, pretends to think a band she really likes is lame, dyes her hair pink to fit in when it’s not her style, and commits the sin of sneaking into her coach’s office to read her private notes. But Anzaia tricks Riley. Instead of encouraging her to trust that the Holy Spirit, embodied in Joy, will continue to work in her life, even when she’s scared of the future, she gets her to overfocus on her fears. Though she means well, Anzaia subverts Riley’s budding sense of self and makes her question whether everything she’s ever learned about being a “good person” is true.

In contrast, Joy reminds Riley that she is, in fact, a good person. Audiences flocked to this movie because they, too, longed for this simple reminder. Importantly, Joy reminds Riley of her sense of self. do not have Instead of reminding her through frightening hypotheticals and catastrophes, as anxiety does, joy reminds her through the richness of truth. Importantly, this richness is not rosy and beige optimism. As in the Christian story, joy is always intermingled with suffering and sorrow. Inside Out In the film, joy and sadness are paired together as “best friend” emotions, and Riley must learn from the fragility of the world as much as she must learn from its beauty.

First Inside OutRiley learns how hard it is to move while still moving Inside Out 2 The films reveal the difficulties of changing schools, the emotional and physical changes, and the loss of friends. At the same time, both films show the wonder of making new friends, reconnecting with old ones, and having belly laughs with parents in both rural Minnesota and urban San Francisco. There can be no resurrection without a fall. We cannot experience the fullness of joy on this earth without experiencing the pervasiveness of suffering and loss. With joy comes sorrow. This is the Christian story, Inside Out The story is the same.

But remember, sadness always follows Joy’s lead. Sadness and Joy are connected, but Joy is at the helm, and Joy is separate and distinct from Sadness because Joy is an outward-looking spiritual being that guides Riley toward upward-oriented good in ways that others cannot. Emotions can work together, but Joy drives them all.

lastly Inside Out 2Joy saves Riley from her anxiety in a seemingly counterintuitive way: Joy rebuilds Riley’s destroyed sense of self by bringing to “headquarters” (i.e., Riley’s mind) a wave of negative memories she has been keeping from Riley, along with a wave of happy memories that her anxiety has been hiding from Riley. This inner “flood of emotions” occurs when Riley is punished for being too rowdy in the final hockey scrimmage of camp and is waiting to get back on the ice.

Watching Riley break down in tears and panic in the penalty box brought me to tears too, and I was reminded of how difficult it can be to make the morally correct choice as a middle school student trying to deal with all that comes with growing up, not to mention pursuing a hobby he loves, doing well in school, and being there for his family.

As Riley waits, crying, in the penalty box, the anxiety subsides and Joy is able to regain control. Riley needs something stronger and more permanent than these new, fleeting, chaotic emotions. Psalms 94:19 As I watched this scene, I thought of this scripture: “When anxiety was great within me, thy comfort gave me joy.” She needs the comfort of joy, the comfort of the gift of the Holy Ghost, that has watched over her from her childhood and continued to comfort her as she grew into adolescence and was molded into a “good” young woman.

And through Joy, Riley finds peace! Riley’s sense of self is restored. She remembers that she is a “good person.” Not a perfect person, but a “good” person. She asks her friends for forgiveness, and we witness a moment of reconciliation on screen. But what happens after all of this represents the film’s shining moment. Riley sees the hockey rink with new eyes. For the first time, she doesn’t see her friends, her teammates. She’s not even caught up in her head. Instead, she looks up, she looks outside. Again, she doesn’t look outside. internalbut Outside-and above.

Riley looks at the sunlight shining brightly through the windows of the gymnasium. And then…Swoosh—We are taken back inside Riley’s head, where Sadness looks over to Joy and tells her three words: “Riley needs you.”

Riley needs joy.

She may experience other emotions, but like Riley, they all function poorly without pleasure. We humans, with our complex emotions, need pleasure, no matter our age. C.S. Lewis once said:Joy is Heaven’s serious business.” that Inside Out 2 The continued success of shows that joy remains important at the box office. Adults and children alike continue to crave joy, both at the cinema and in life.