Inside Out Has Helped Us Heal Everything Outside and Inside.

Inside Out Has Helped Us Heal Everything Outside and Inside….

Film Review / 14/08/2024

As far as everybody knew from Inside Out 1, cleverly constructed by Disney 9 years ago, the film centered around the 5 main emotions that live inside our minds, helping us react to certain situations and feel emotions as we navigate and grow up the years of life. Young children, including myself, loved to sit in the worn and tattered chairs of the cinema with a box of overpriced, buttery popcorn and watch 5 little, vibrant emotions control Riley’s mind. It was innovative, no child had seen that before and no child had watched their emotions on screen. It helped me to understand that these were the 5 little characters causing me to feel the way I do most days and this was normal for every human sat around me. And don't get me started on Bing Bong…

Now since then, I’ve faced challenges in life, had to climb very steep mountains and fell down so many times that my knees are grazed but when Disney released the trailer for the new Inside Out 2, I forgot all about the scrapes and scars that life has given me over me over my body and was taken back to my 8 year old self bounching with excitement to see Inside Out after seeing it advertised at no other place than Disney land Paris, the epitome of magic. And I’m sure that this is the same reaction many people had, complete excitement to reminisce on one of your favourite childhood films and feel that warm, vibrant buzz again in your heart.

As we all clambered into the cinemas as teenagers and twenty year olds, dragging our friends, boyfriends, girlfriends or parents with us, we had no idea what the film was about to unveil, what it was about to teach us, what it was about to make us feel….

Disney is always one step ahead and something disney isn’t blind to is real life situations…

As a 2nd year A level student, I understand the feelings of stress, tiredness, failure and fear but I aren’t a sufferer of anxiety. And that I want to make clear. Because even though I do not struggle with that, I related to this film in so many ways that it brought tears to my eyes on several occasions and still made me feel validated in my emotions. Over the course of the movie we are introduced to 4 new emotions, Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrasment and Envi; emotions that we start to experience as we grow up and fit into our new lives as a teenager. New age: New emotion.

And these emotions we saw shut out all our old ones and completely take over the brain of Riley, cause her confusion, stress, panic attacks, jealousy, friendship problems and so much more. And as we all sat in our seats, now 9 years older than the last time, it was if we were watching our own minds, as if somebody had recorded our brains on a day to day basis and made it into a Disney film.

Nothing could’ve prepared me before sitting in that tattered seat with my bag of chocolatey revels and sour Haribos, to watch how it feels to get confused and panicked by your own mind. It hit a part of my heart that only I thought I could understand, but as I gazed around the cinema, barely missing a second of the film, every other person was consumed by the film, watching what I was watching, feeling what I was feeling. And from that moment, I understood that what I feel on certain days is what everyone else does too and potentially on more severe levels.

When Anxiety opened her little mouth to Joy and stated “Joy, Riley Needs You” that was the moment that my heart broke into smitherines and the tears would not stop flowing. Because thats how it feels to get so caught up in stress and anxiety and confusion, you just cant find joy. She’s been pushed out and all you desperately want is for her to come and save you from the turmoil inside your head and make everything better again, show you that life isnt so scary and take you back to when you were 9, wrapped in the excitement and vibrancy of life. Anxiety

understood what Riley needed but she also thought she knew what Riley needed. Showing us all that those who deal with anxiety arent over reacting, or strange, or “too much”, they simply want to be prepared for WHATEVER may happen and when they aren’t prepared too many buttons get pushed in the mind, whipping up all the thoughts and feelings and causing the heart to feel as if its carrying the weight of life.

And as we saw, the way to fix it is to find joy. Let joy come through, let her take control.

And coming away from the emotional side of things, Disney’s taught me many valuable lessons about growing up. Its okay to try and fit in, its okay to feel sad about change and its completely normal to not have the same life that you lived when you were younger. It’s funny really because the whole movie wrapped all of us teenagers and 20 year olds up in blankets and made us feel content with our emotions but it also warmed the hearts of those younger than us and helped them to feel confident and stress free about the changes that happen as they progress from single digits to double. Disney’s seriously double trouble but in the most magical and most loving way possible.

So what was my favourite part?

Its hard to not just say the whole film because it made me really feel. It made me connect with myself and my own mind. But i would say a moment that stood out for me was when all the original emotions were trapped outside of the HQ by anxiety as that was highly symbolic for me. I understand the feeling of never knowing where my happiness has gone or my “normal” day to day emotions when im going through a period of turmoil or stress but that helped me visualise my mind. So for me that really helped me understand why when I feel stressed and out of control I can’t return back to my normal self.

But, also a moment at the end of the movie where Anxiety has her own chair and her own drink to calm her down, I believe that was a really special moment in the film for Anxiety sufferers as it showed them that once they learn how to control their mind and overcome their anxiety they can calm it and help ease off all the pressure it sends through the mind. Disney’s not only a film maker but its becoming a therapist too. Oh Disney what can’t you do?

What was my favourite new emotion?

Well, Nostalgia holds a very warm place in my heart. Her whole characteristic is just so cute and beautiful and majestic. Her charecteristic of being an old lady because nostalgia has us reminiscing on old times is just so adorable to me. And I really hope to see her more in the future. But if I had to pick from the new main 4 I would have to say Anxiety because of the baggage she brings in. I know that feeling all too well that you come with so many different layers and baggage that you need several arms to carry it all. She really just made me feel okay. And I think that’s all that needs to be said.

So overall, what do I think of the film?

Personally I think its majestic. It had layers, it has emotions, it has comedy, it has relatability, it had absolutely everything that we needed. Disney delivered us all therapy in an 1hr 30 film.

Every piece of it told a story, told us a story about ourselves. And that makes it so much more captivating as you feel like you are watching yourself, understanding yourself, validating yourself. Disney hit the mark with the new emotions, they are exactly what we develop as we age from a child to a teenager and the way they worked was so spot on. I believe that this film is more educational than entertaining and for me that is exactly what we all needed. And in years to come, this film will be watched by the children growing up now who only relate to Inside Out 1 right now and they will be able to undertsand the new emotions going on inside their heads.

Disney…. Thank You

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 /5

Entertainment: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Storyline:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Would You Watch Again? ✅

Writen By: WatchWithBee