Inside Out 2, the film seen by a mother with her teenage daughters

Inside Out 2 he accomplished a little miracle: after a long time, I went to the cinema with both my daughters (17 and 14 years old) and moreover by their choice, on a Saturday evening. Three years of difference in the adolescent period is almost equivalent to a generation (everything changes: clothes, hits listened to, specific slang). Yet Riley, the protagonist of the Pixar animated film, managed to get her sisters at home to agree (and also her mother): Almost nine years have passed since the release of the film that told the story of his childhood and now all three of us want to see the sequel immediately. Joy will he continue with his exhausting optimism? AND Anger, Has she calmed down a bit? Above all, the sequel will be up to the task? Once the surprise was over endless queue at the cinema (we still didn’t know it would hit the jackpot) and the hyper-crowded theater, we wander around. No childreneveryone teens with several parents in tow, like myself. In a Milanese cinema like many others, on a Saturday evening in June, we are all here to understand if it really is an adolescent’s brain may have a control center (are we perhaps hoping to capture on the big screen nuances that the overflowing sector manuals or some good sessions with the psychologist have not yet highlighted?).

Between a few cell phones being turned on, popcorn munched everywhere and lots of laughter, we unravel the threads of the blonde’s personal story Rileywhich has since become pretty 13 year old ready to join in high school. We follow her in the summer when she, initially accompanied by her parents, takes part in a summer hockey camp: the film plays out over a few weeks in which a bit of everything happens, including old friendships betrayed And new encounters, between bittersweet memories and promises of the future. Excellent directorial work Kelsey Mannthe Pixar as usual he doesn’t miss a beat. Nevertheless, 96 minutes later (spoilers: don’t get up when the film seems finished, the last frames are important), my daughters and I look at each other: there are things to say.

The most enthusiastic is my youngest daughter. For her, the identification is total: she is the same age as Riley, she anxiously awaits September for the new high school adventure, she is changing friends, she knows closely Anxiety (and the annexes and related ones). In short, for her it’s a yes, loud and clear. The film tells well what happens in the mind of a pre-adolescent who lives with hormonal (and mood) swings and who still has to take measures with the world and with herself. Anxiety, in particular, is a very fitting character for her. With her machine gun talk, her hyperactivity, the confusion she generates, her orange quiff, “she’s just perfect” she tells me with a grin, looking at me closely (and I I try not to think too much about my carrot-colored mane).

My eldest daughter makes some notes: it would have given more space to the character of Ennuithe indolence that anyone has children teen knows well (“the lying down” a good one called them). The most appropriate feeling, for her, is Embarrassment (and here I think of all the times he judges cringe any act of mine). Above all, it doesn’t seem true that so many years have passed since the first beloved Inside Out. I agree with this: nine years, really?

Now it’s my turn. I’m not very convinced by the choice of the five emotions chosen to outline the character of the pre-adolescent Riley: I would have gone too far with Ennui (which always remains in the background) and replaced Invidia with something else (Egocentrismfor example!). Embarrassment seems to me to be the best-defined character, while Anxiety treated in this way becomes almost caricatural (and instead it is a serious thing that needs to be monitored). However, the visual representation of thepanic attack: It wasn’t easy. The narrative that sees the “primary emotions” (such as Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust) play in Riley’s brain to recover his true self also works: the years of childhood, specialists say, are fundamental for the future personality. As a mother, however, I raise a note to the screenwriters: why reduce Riley’s relationship with her parents to so few lines? Doesn’t Pixar know that we all trusted in some special effects, to be mentioned when necessary?