The highly anticipated Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” arrived in theaters June 13, returning to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! 

 

Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up with Envy and Embarrassment in tow. They’d managed to see Riley through an emotional move from the Midwest to San Francisco in the 2015 film but must now contend with the new arrivals and the turbulence of teenhood. 

 

Joy, with help from the others, regularly selected the bad memories and shot them into space. Gone was the memory of waving at the boy who was looking at someone else and the penalty in the hockey game that almost cost them the championship. 

 

When Anxiety takes Riley’s belief system, though, and sends it into space, Joy and the others fight back until Embarrassment bottles them up and “suppresses” them. Anxiety then creates a whole Riley. 

 

As the new emotions rule Teen Riley, her old emotions must recover her sense of self and put it up, returning her to the Riley they all know and love. 

 

I especially related to Joy when she reached her breaking point. Preferring to focus on mental health positivity and see the bright side, being surrounded by negativity can also cause me to snap. Like Joy, verbalizing my deepest tears and fears is often healing and I quickly bounce back to the sunny side of life, taking charge of all the other emotions.  

 

Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen, Inside Out 2 features the voices of Maya Hawke (Anxiety), Amy Poehler (Joy), Phyllis Smith (Sadness), Ayo Edebiri (Envy), Kensington Tallman (Riley), Diane Lane (Mom), Kyle MacLachlan (Dad), Lewis Black (Anger), Tony Hale (Fear), Liza Lapira (Disgust), and Adele Exarchopoulos (Ennui). 

 

Anyone who’s ever had or worked with teenagers is likely intimately familiar with the latter, that cell phone-wielding apathetic boredom that often serves as camouflage for other emotions! 

 

Check out Inside Out 2 in theaters now!