The teenage years are a rollercoaster of emotions – for both parents and children. Now they have been brought to life in Pixar’s new film Inside Out 2. GH Features Director Jackie Brown and her daughter Charlotte saw it together and here, Jackie shares what they learnt.
When my daughter, Charlotte, was a toddler I often found it incredibly challenging to persuade her to go to bed at night. She was far too excited, and it took hours of stories and soothing before she would settle down. Now she is 14 and I have the opposite problem of trying to get her out of bed in the morning– and out of her bedroom.
It's all part and parcel of being mum to a teen, along with frustration of using her floor as a wardrobe, forgetting everything I say immediately and being glued to her Smartphone (although fair to say I am guilty of that too). Like many other mums, I’ve found the teenage years challenging and we have certainly had our moments. I know at times my husband has felt like a referee during some of the loggerheads.
Now the emotional rollercoaster of being a teenager has been brought to the big screen with Pixar’s new animation Inside Out 2, which Charlotte and I saw together this week. After the last, sometimes bruising, few years, would this be helpful experience - even a bonding one?
The first Inside Out came out in 2015 and was a huge hit with its quirky way of creating a colourful parallel universe in the mind of a young girl called Riley. We saw the mind control panel, which was operated at different times by five very strong emotions – Joy, Rage, Fear, Disgust and Sadness. It sounds quite heavy going, but they are vibrant characters, brought to life by the voices of the actors including, notably, Amy Poehler, as blue-haired bubbly Joy.
In this new sequel, Riley has just turned 13 and you first meet her as an A student who loves playing hockey. One night she goes to sleep happy, looking forward to hockey camp the next day. Suddenly, there is an ear-piercing sound and a flashing red light on the dashboard of mind control panel. The puberty panic button has gone off! It wreaks havoc. When Riley wakes up, she is grumpy, sad and self-conscious about her developing body. On her chin you can see her first spot blooming.
These are just the changes in the outside. Her mind is even more turmoil with the arrival of four new emotions: Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui. They are all clever in their own way, especially the louche Ennui (or boredom) who is glued to her phone throughout the film. The one that will have the biggest impact is Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), a constantly moving orange bundle of energy.
Riley discovers at the start of hockey camp that her two best friends will be going to a different High School after the summer, leaving her alone. It is a golden opportunity for Anxiety to stoke the fires of what this will all mean. ‘We need new friends or we’re going to be totally alone in High School,’ she wails. ‘Out with the old and in with the new!’
Who doesn’t understand that fear of being an outsider, of having to eat lunch alone? It’s relatable for all ages, not just teenagers. There is also the struggle to overcome that doubting inner voice whispering ‘I’m not good enough’, which keeps Riley awake on the night before a big match. It takes all the hard work of Joy to try and replace it with positive images and overcome the doubt. It's an emotion that can be as hard to overcome in your 50s as it is in your teens - although in middle age it tends to be called Imposter Syndrome.
Inside Out 2 becomes very much a battle between joy and anxiety, both strong emotions trying to be in control. It leads joy to observe memorably at one point: ‘Maybe this is just what happens when you grow up…you feel less joy.’ Thankfully, this being Disney, they find a way through.
So, what were the takeaways? For both Charlotte and myself, the klaxon call of puberty was very relatable. The suddenness and the avalanche of conflicting emotions which seems overwhelming at first.
Disney are right to make Anxiety the driving emotion. It’s always been part of the teenage journey, and even more so since the pandemic. They have done it in a helpful way. Anxiety is depicted as quite a friendly looking orange mop, rather than the grey, brooding cloud that I tend to picture it as. Also, she is just trying to do her best: ‘I’m trying to protect the future Riley,’ she says at various points. I can’t help wishing that Inside Out 2 had come a few years ago. It could have avoided a few sleepless nights caused by, yes, anxiety.
For my daughter too, it would have been good to have seen it earlier as it brought a certain amount of reassurance. ‘I came away thinking that everything I went through at 11 or 12 was normal – that everyone went through the same thing. I didn’t think that until now,’ she told me afterwards.
So if there is a teenager in your life – or even better one on the cusp of it – then book some tickets, grab some popcorn and watch it together. Your anxious self will thank you.
Inside Out 2 is in cinemas now.
