Inside Out 2 debut: Inside Out 2 bigger than Barbie $155 million

Though anxiety is often considered an unpleasant emotion, the Pixar sequel illustrates its potential value, suggesting it’s not merely something to be “fixed.”

While popular psychology might not initially seem like a surefire hit, Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing animated film ever, surpassing the box office earnings of last year’s sensation, Barbie

**Spoiler Alert: This article reveals plot details from Inside Out 2.**

In the sequel, audiences continue to explore Riley’s internal world, where her emotions are depicted as vibrant personalities operating from her mind’s headquarters. Now at 13, Riley’s emotional team has expanded to include anxiety, embarrassment, and Ennui alongside joy, Fear, sadness, anger, and disgust.

Anxiety quickly takes control of the Headquarters, sending Joy (Amy Poehler) and her team to the “memory vault,” where Riley’s most personal secrets are kept. To restore Riley’s sense of self, they must fight back to the Headquarters, all while Riley contends with the social challenges of ice hockey camp.

Amy Poehler

Like its predecessor, the film benefited from guidance from scientific experts, who ensured that it authentically represents the complex nature of our emotions. This attention to detail likely contributes to its broad appeal among both adults and children.

The portrayal of Riley’s emotional turmoil resonates with many, helping viewers understand and value the different roles emotions play in our lives.

Immediate Physical

Anxiety is undeniably one of our most distressing emotions. Its physical manifestations—such as a racing heart, shortness of breath, and muscle tension—can make us feel as though we’ve lost control over our bodies, while our thoughts may spiral into a flood of worst-case scenarios.

However, as depicted in the film, anxiety has a valuable role: it directs our attention to what truly matters. Even in the absence of immediate physical threats, it can highlight situations crucial to our self-esteem and future well-being, driving us to take action.

The ideal anti-hero

In the realm of animated films, Riley’s Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) serves as a perfect anti-hero. She is depicted as a lively redhead with a gap-toothed grin, driven to expect and mitigate every potential threat to Riley’s self-esteem. As her plans increasingly fail, her behaviour becomes more controlling—pushing Riley to abandon her old friends and aggressively pursue a spot on the high school ice hockey team.

Anxiety’s insistence on this goal leads Riley to believe that any failure will cause everyone disliking her. This approach backfires, causing Riley to distance herself from her friends and experience a panic attack because of the immense pressure.

This scenario reflects a common experience of falling into cycles of worry and self-doubt, where even minor setbacks seem like major catastrophes.

Despite her harmful actions, it’s clear that Anxiety’s intentions are rooted in a desire to protect Riley. The chaos she creates, including the theft of Riley’s “sense of self,” stems from her misguided efforts to secure Riley’s future safety and affection. In a moment of vulnerability, anxiety tearfully explains, “I was just trying to protect her,” as the other emotions help her relinquish control.

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How anxiety helps you

In everyday life, we Inside often overlook the fact that anxiety serves a purpose, but acknowledging its benefits can positively impact our well-being. For example, a year-long study involving doctors and teachers in Germany found that those who viewed anxiety as a source of motivation—believing that feeling anxious about work situations enhances their problem-solving efforts—experienced less emotional exhaustion by year’s end compared to those who saw anxiety as a weakness or a threat to their performance.

U.S. Students Preparing

In another study, U.S. students preparing Inside for the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) were given a brief message before a practice test. This message highlighted that anxiety can sometimes enhance performance, stating: “Don’t worry if you feel anxious during today’s GRE test. If you’re feeling anxious, remind yourself that this arousal might help you perform better.

The students who received this reminder performed better on both the practice and the actual exam, especially improving in the math section, Inside which typically caused them the most anxiety. The researchers referred to this mental shift as “reappraisal,” describing it as a method for “turning the knots in your stomach into bows,” a concept that echoes the optimistic perspective Inside of Joy.

There are several reasons this might occur, but a straightforward explanation is that viewing anxiety negatively only increases our worries.

When we sense anxiety building, Inside we may interpret it as a sign of imminent failure. If we recognize anxiety as a normal and beneficial response, it can ease this extra burden.

As Inside Out 2 illustrates, it’s important not to let anxiety spiral into “catastrophic thinking,” where we imagine a series of negative outcomes. Catastrophic thinking often involves generalizing and feeling certain about these negative events.

For example, Riley believes that if she cannot make the team, it will inevitably lead to her losing all her friends, despite no evidence supporting this. One memorable scene in the film shows Joy attempting to break Riley out of this pattern by highlighting the positive outcomes that are just as possible (or improbable) as the worst-case scenarios.

Inside Out 2 debut: Inside Out 2 bigger than Barbie $155 million