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Why Inside Out 2 is the Perfect SEL Movie

Annabelle Persaud

Why Inside Out 2 is the Perfect SEL Movie

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Annabelle Persaud

(WARNING: SPOILERS for Inside Out 2):

Inside Out 2 is the sequel to Pixar’s film, “Inside Out” (2015). Inside Out tells the story of a 12-year-old girl named Riley and how she adapts to moving to a new place. In this first movie, Riley learns that her five core emotions- Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust- are all necessary for her life. A year later, Inside Out 2 tells the story of Riley turning 13 and finally making friends in her school. However, because Riley is growing up, the puberty button starts alarming.

With this puberty button going off, the mind workers crash into Headquarters and replace the old console with a new one. This console is even bigger and has more buttons that confuse the core emotions. Along with this new console comes new emotions- Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui- as they all come together to navigate puberty and friendships in Riley’s life. Let’s jump into how social-emotional learning (SEL) connects to Riley’s life and how it matters to anyone navigating their emotions.

  1. Don’t suppress any emotions

When Anxiety and the new emotions enter Headquarters, they show how they affect Riley’s actions when she finds out her old friends are going to a different high school than her. Joy gets overwhelmed by these new emotions and disagrees with Anxiety’s plan of ditching Riley’s old friends to make friends with the new girls on Riley's high school hockey team. This disagreement causes Anxiety to place the core five emotions in a jar and move them to the Secret Vault.

At this moment, Disgust says, “We’re suppressed emotions.” Even though Anxiety thought this was the best solution, this plan became chaotic since Riley could only act on her new emotions. If Anxiety hadn’t suppressed some of Riley’s emotions so quickly, then all the emotions could have learned how to work with one another. By making the core emotions journey through the mind back to Headquarters, slowed the process of working with each emotion and recognizing their role in Riley’s life.

This catastrophe illustrates how suppressing any emotion is not good or healthy for your overall well-being and how you behave in social settings. SEL focuses on awareness of your emotions, even if they are negative. It also encourages you to feel all emotions and acknowledge when to control them and not let them affect your relationships.

  1. Don’t block out bad memories

At the end of the movie, Joy, Anger, Disgust, and Fear arrive back at Headquarters, by causing an avalanche of all the bad memories that were initially thrown out to the back of her consciousness by Joy. This shows a moment of growth for Joy since she is finally embracing the memories that she initially thought were not important for Riley and her belief system.

This movie conveys no one emotion should control the memories or emotions that are important for Riley's belief system and sense of self. There will be moments of doubt, joy, sadness, envy, and more, but SEL supports that all of these moments, good or bad, are important to talk about and reflect on to help people grow.

Remembering both the good and bad memories helps you grow as a person because it helps you decide who you want to be and do not want to be when you grow up. It’s essential to face life’s happiest moments, but also life’s hardest challenges, to illustrate how your complex memories celebrate you as a unique individual.

  1. Learning how to be in control during a panic attack

Another intense moment in this movie was during Riley’s panic attack when she got a penalty for playing too rough in hockey. Anxiety took over Riley’s mind and kept making Riley overthink what if she messed up so much that she wouldn't make the team, make new friends, or lose her old friends. All of these what-ifs and trying to plan for Riley’s future, cause Anxiety to go into a spiral around the console in Headquarters.

Fortunately, during Riley’s panic attack, her core emotions make it back to Headquarters and Joy attempts to help Anxiety escape from this spiral. Ultimately, Joy tells Anxiety, “You need to let her go.” Anxiety finally flips the switch off on the console, and Joy leaps for her to help her escape the spiral.

As Riley begins to calm down from her panic attack, she uses her five senses, such as grabbing the wall and breathing methods grounding herself back into the present moment. SEL encourages these methods of mindfulness and relaxation and shows how you can stay present by being self-aware of your emotions.

This relaxation technique is later seen as the emotions work together and learn to help Anxiety when she gets overwhelmed, by taking her to the massage chair and allowing her to relax.

  1. No one is perfect

Throughout this movie, one new concept in Inside Out 2 is the Belief System that uses emotions and memories to create one’s sense of self and identity. Initially, Joy blocks out negative memories and creates a joyous sense of self for Riley, which affirms she is a good person. However, when Anxiety takes control, she builds a new belief system built off of only anxious memories in Riley’s life. This causes Riley’s affirmation to tell her she’s not good enough.

As the emotions come together and help Riley calm down from her panic attack, they all learn that all memories are crucial when creating a sense of self. This new belief system has a variety of emotions and affirmations ranging from saying, “I’m selfish,” “I’m kind,” “I’m not good enough,” “I’m a good person,” and “I need to fit in.”

As Riley’s belief system tree forms into different shapes and colors, these various affirmations support how vital memories and emotions are to your self-identity. SEL supports self-awareness and self-regulation of people's emotions, ultimately celebrating their complex identity.

  1. You’re not alone

The last biggest takeaway from this movie is you are not alone. As we see Riley dealing with extreme emotions, we see the inside of her dad's and mom’s mind, where Anxiety comes back to the console. This highlights that no matter how young or old you are, all of your emotions are there for you as you journey through life.

SEL encourages the reflection and acknowledgment of all of these emotions and offers techniques for managing each emotion to grow into a more complex self and help you communicate with one another.  

Conclusion

All of these emotions and memories are important to Riley’s life. SEL encourages this complexity in everyone’s life, and I hope to continue seeing movies with messages like how and why SEL matters.

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading my article! You can stay connected with me through LinkedIn

Learn More

Why Inside Out 2 is the Perfect SEL Movie

Institute for Social and Emotional Learning

Annabelle Persaud

Preschool

K-3

3 - 6

Middle School

High School

Adult

Read more about how Pixar's latest release, "Inside Out 2" (2024), connects with social and emotional learning (SEL), and why it’s important to everyone and their lives.

More InfoDownload

Why Inside Out 2 is the Perfect SEL Movie

Annabelle Persaud

Institute for Social and Emotional Learning

Website

Article

Podcast

Book

Research

Video

Preschool

K-3

3 - 6

Middle School

High School

Adult

Read more about how Pixar's latest release, "Inside Out 2" (2024), connects with social and emotional learning (SEL), and why it’s important to everyone and their lives.

See More
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