It’s the triumph of anxiety. And that’s probably also why Inside Out 2 It is not only the film of the moment, but the film of our time. In 19 days it has grossed the impressive figure of one billion dollars, the only title to reach this peak in 2024. In Italy, in particular, the Disney-Pixar film has reached 30 million euros in two weeks, becoming the highest-grossing animated title of all time. And the credit goes above all to her, to anxiety, or rather, to Anxiety, one of the new emotions that with Boredom, Envy and Embarrassment distort the personality of Riley, also the protagonist of the first chapter of Inside Out, only now she is no longer the child who had to deal only with Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust and Sadness. Emotions that remain even now that she is a teenager, for goodness’ sake, but that in this phase of their life they see themselves ousted by the new feelings that puberty brings.
You laugh, you get moved and, above all, you empathize, because we have all had to deal with that emotional chaos that seems to want to overturn our personality, even if in reality it only makes it more complex and complete. Director Kelsey Mann wanted to convey exactly that, that is, that Anxiety, in particular, is not a wrong or bad emotion. She just has to find her own way to express herself. “It was important to start at one extreme and then take it to the other, so that anyone who suffers from anxiety can see all the possibilities,” Mann told New York Timesadding that the most beloved scene of the sequel is a dialogue between Joy and Anxiety, which reveals the profound nature of the latter emotion: “I’m sorry Joy — she says when Riley seems to collapse, overwhelmed by her —. I was trying to protect her.”
