The 'Inside Out' movies give kids an 'emotional vocabulary.' Therapists love that
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In Inside Out 2, Riley hits puberty and faces new intense emotions like Anxiety, Embarrassment and Ennui.Pixar / -
Clinical social worker Kristi Zybulewski has dressed up as Sadness for Halloween. She says most of the kids she works with have seen Inside Out.Disney/Pixar; Kristi Zybulewski -
Inside Out emotion figurines on Kristi Zybulewski's desk.Elizabeth Blair / NPR
Move over Joy and Sadness. Anxiety and Embarrassment are taking over. Riley has hit puberty.
Pixar's new animated movie, Inside Out 2, reaches theaters this weekend, nearly 10 years since the first movie became a sensation, winning an Academy Award, topping the box office and then earning millions more fans on streaming.
In the sequel, as in the original movie, emotions are portrayed as anthropomorphized characters who control the mind of a spirited young hockey player named Riley. She was 11 in Inside Out. Now she's 13 and facing an onslaught of intense new emotions.
Resonating with kids
Pixar is expecting Inside Out 2 to do well at the box office, partly because the characters continue to resonate with teens and adults who saw the original as younger kids.
José, a ninth-grader who lives in New Jersey, said he saw Inside Out for the first time when it came out in 2015.
"Six-year-old me, after I saw that movie, I thought people were inside my head," he said. (NPR is using only José's first name because he attends a school for teens with social-emotional challenges.)
As he got older, José says, the movie played differently. He understood, for example, what happens when Riley pretends she's joyful when she's really sad.
"It was all like a hot mess. Like, she needed to let out her feelings," he said.
Kristi Zybulewski, a clinical social worker at Sage Alliance, Paramus, where José goes to school, said that most of the teenagers she works with have seen Inside Out, often on the recommendation of a therapist.
She said she's grateful for the movie because it gives kids an "emotional vocabulary" so they can name their feelings and because it supports what she tells her students in therapy: "All emotions are welcome. ... They're all necessary. They're all meaningful. They're all rich."
Zybulewski herself is a huge fan. She has dressed up as Sadness on Halloween and has figurines of all the emotions on her desk.
One of her favorite scenes in the first movie is when Sadness sits with tearful Bing Bong, Riley's imaginary friend from early childhood.
"The scene ... reminded me very much of being a therapist," said Zybulewski. "Sitting with sadness, sitting with difficult emotions, is something that so many people feel uncomfortable with. Understandably so. But it's such a gift we can give to each other."
Introducing … Anxiety
The idea of social-emotional learning, where students acquire the skills they need to regulate, understand and talk about their emotions, is now fairly common, but that wasn't always the case.
"When I grew up, emotions were not talked about a lot. It was something that my generation didn't really do a lot of," said Pete Docter, Pixar’s chief creative officer. He co-wrote and co-directed Inside Out and is an executive producer on Inside Out 2.
Still, young people today seem more comfortable talking about their feelings, he said, "which is great, because they are these powerful but largely hidden rivers that run beneath and power everything in ways that we're not even aware of."
But having emotional intelligence won't spare a child the tumult of puberty. And kids, teenagers and young adults have reported rising levels of anxiety.
In the new movie, Anxiety not only takes almost complete control of Riley's mind but also "bottles up" the characters of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, relegating them to "suppressed emotions."
Lisa Damour, one of the psychologists who consulted on both Inside Out movies, said it makes perfect sense that Anxiety would be a key character as Riley hits puberty.
"It's because they can anticipate more things that could go wrong," said Damour. "Fear tends to be the emotion that we have that reacts to immediate threats. Anxiety can imagine all of the things that can go wrong and worry about them."
Damour said she believes that the Inside Out movies help kids — and parents — validate emotions, including the painful ones, and show us that feeling those emotions can even make us better humans.
Fifteen-year-old José hopes the new movie helps adults too. "Not a lot of people understand teenagers," he said, "so this film will be a big help to parents [who] deal with kids becoming a teenager."
Transcript
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
The animated movie "Inside Out 2" hits theaters this weekend. It's the sequel in a franchise where emotions like joy and anger are characters in the mind of a girl named Riley. The first movie came out 10 years ago. It won an Academy Award - it also gave kids an emotional vocabulary. Riley is back, with more intense emotions like embarrassment and anxiety, because - as NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports - she is now a teenager.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Jose is a ninth-grader who lives in New Jersey. We're not using his last name, because he goes to a school for teens with social-emotional challenges. He remembers the first time he saw "Inside Out."
JOSE: The 6-year-old me, like, after I saw that movie - I thought, like, people were inside my head.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "INSIDE OUT")
LEWIS BLACK: (As Anger) Wait - did he just say we couldn't have dessert?
AMY POEHLER: (As Joy) That's Anger. He cares very deeply about things being fair.
BLACK: (As Anger) So that's how you want to play it, old man? No dessert?
BLAIR: Jose has watched "Inside Out" many times since then. As he's gotten older, he says he sees what happens when the main character, Riley, acts joyful when she's really sad.
JOSE: It was all, like, a hot mess - like, she needed to let out her feelings.
BLAIR: Kristi Zybulewski is a clinical social worker at Sage Alliance Paramus, where Jose goes to school. She is such a fan of the first "Inside Out," she dresses up as Sadness on Halloween, with a blue wig and blue makeup. She says the movie shows kids it's OK to be sad.
KRISTI ZYBULEWSKI: The scene in which Sadness sits with Bing Bong reminded me very much of being a therapist.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "INSIDE OUT")
PHYLLIS SMITH: (As Sadness) It sounds amazing. I bet Riley liked it.
RICHARD KIND: (As Bing Bong) Oh, she did. We were best friends (crying).
SMITH: (As Sadness) Yeah. It's sad.
ZYBULEWSKI: Sitting with sadness, sitting with difficult emotions, is something that so many people feel uncomfortable with - understandably so, but it's such a gift we can give to each other.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "INSIDE OUT")
POEHLER: (As Joy) How did you do that?
SMITH: (As Sadness) I don't know. He was sad, so I listened to what...
KIND: (As Bing Bong) Hey - there's the train.
BLAIR: Zybulewski says most of her students have seen "Inside Out," either at school or because it was recommended by a therapist. She says the movie gives them an emotional vocabulary, so they can name their feelings.
PETE DOCTER: When I grew up, emotions were not talked about a lot. It was something that my generation didn't really do a lot of.
BLAIR: Pete Docter is an executive producer on "Inside Out 2". He co-wrote and co-directed the first one. Since its release in 2015, he says young people seem more comfortable talking about their emotions.
DOCTER: Which is great, because they are these powerful, but largely hidden rivers that run beneath and power everything in ways that we're not even aware of.
BLAIR: But having emotional intelligence won't spare you the tumult of puberty. In the new movie, anxiety takes over Riley's mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "INSIDE OUT 2")
POEHLER: (As Joy) What do you think you're doing?
KIND: (As Anger) Get off me.
MAYA HAWKE: (As Anxiety) Riley's life is more complex now. It requires more sophisticated emotions than all of you. You just aren't what she needs anymore, Joy.
POEHLER: (As Joy) (Gasps.)
KIND: (As Anger) How dare you, madam?
POEHLER: (As Joy) You can't just bottle us up.
HAWKE: (As Anxiety) Oh, that's a great idea.
DOCTER: We knew childhood joy is going to be really challenged by teenage years (laughter).
BLAIR: Pete Docter says it was director Kelsey Mann who came up with the idea that anxiety would be the central character in "Inside Out 2."
DOCTER: And I thought, oh, that's super interesting, because that was a huge part of my childhood (laughter) - and I don't know about you, but I think, in a lot of people, even into adulthood. Anxiety is on the rise around the world, so it felt very relatable, which is, of course, what we're looking for - something that really speaks to everybody.
BLAIR: Then the Pixar team did the research. Dr. Lisa Damour is one of the psychologists who consulted on "Inside Out 1" and "2".
LISA DAMOUR: This is something we see in teenagers - that they become more anxious, and it's because they can anticipate more things that could go wrong. Fear tends to be the emotion that we have that reacts to immediate threats. Anxiety can imagine all of the things that can go wrong and worry about them.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "INSIDE OUT 2")
HAWKE: (As Anxiety) So my team has run all the data, and we're looking at the following likely scenarios - first, we don't take this camp seriously, and we goof off with Bree and Grace. Riley looks really uncool in front of Val. She fails to impress the coach, does not become a Fire Hawk, and finally arrives at high school. She has no one, she eats alone, and only the teachers know her name.
LIZA LAPIRA: (As Disgust) Ew.
BLAIR: Damour believes the "Inside Out" movies are essential, because they help kids understand that all emotions are valid - and can even make us better humans. 15-year-old Jose hopes the new movie helps adults, too.
JOSE: Not a lot of people understand teenagers, so this film will be a big help for a lot of parents to deal with kids that are becoming a teenager.
BLAIR: Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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