Fr. Brian and Fr. Matt dive into the Pixar universe to break down themes of anxiety and sense of self in this year’s Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing animated film of all time and sequel to the 2015 hit Inside Out. Our hosts draw parallels between the other emotions’ efforts to rein in Anxiety (the character) and the Christian understanding that anxiety (the emotion) is not from God. They also discuss the movie’s assertion that a person’s sense of self is rooted in core memories and beliefs, similar to the Christian perspective of our identity being rooted in our relationship with God.

(0:28) Our hosts greet each other and talk about some of the films they’ve seen recently. Fr. Brian playfully teases Fr. Matt for being “on the jumpy side” when watching scary movies. Then, they introduce today’s topic: Inside Out 2, the highest-grossing animated film of all time and sequel to the 2015 hit Inside Out.

(3:53) Fr. Matt provides a synopsis of Inside Out, the story of a young girl named Riley who is guided through life by five anthropomorphized emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Both Fr. Matt and Fr. Brian liked Inside Out better than its sequel, which adds a few more emotions to the mix: Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, Ennui, and–for just a moment–Nostalgia. They discuss how the existence of these new emotions, and the ways they interact with each other, impact the world building set by the original film.

(10:46) After a brief interlude to revisit Fr. Matt’s tendency toward jumpiness in the theater, our hosts discuss one of the new world building elements introduced in the film: Riley’s memories grow into her beliefs, which together form her sense of self. At the beginning of the movie, her sense of self is, “I am a good person.” With the arrival of Anxiety, this sense of self is lost and replaced with, “I am not good enough.”

(16:55) Fr. Matt shares his 7-year-old cousin’s take on the film’s message: “We can’t let anxiety have control.” This opens the door to a discussion about the Christian understanding that anxiety is not from God, a teaching that is reflected in the film as the other characters work to control Anxiety and prevent her from controlling Riley.

(25:10) Fr. Brian talks about the movie’s assertion that a person’s sense of self is rooted in core memories and beliefs, comparing it to the Christian perspective of our identity being rooted in our relationship with God. He and Fr. Matt highlight some of the more clever world building elements from the film, including the “Sarchasm,” a chasm inside Riley’s mind that transforms genuine speech into sarcastic taunts.

(29:36) Fr. Matt says the film is missing the idea of virtue driving our actions. Both hosts agree that they’d love to see a film similar to the Inside Out franchise featuring characters modeled after faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Fr. Brian suggests the Prudence character would lead the way, like Joy does in the existing films.

(31:58) Our hosts rank Inside Out 2 using their “seeds of the word” rating, based on how clearly they saw goodness, truth, and beauty reflected in the story. They conclude the episode by sharing their all-time favorite Pixar movies.

Anxiety and Sense of Self in Inside Out 2

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