Arts

How ‘Inside Out 2’ Battles Anxiety

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It’s a battle inside the mind to prevent one young girl’s thoughts from being overrun by anxiety in this scene from “Inside Out 2.”

The sequel once again sets the bulk of its action inside the mind of Riley, who this time around is contending with the onset of puberty. Her emotions are still anthropomorphized by a colorful collection of characters, but with a new stage of adolescence comes an additional cast of emotions. Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) arrives in the form of a wild-looking orange creature with a busy plume and a tendency to overreact.

In this scene, Anxiety is directing a room full of mind workers to draw up projections of everything that could go wrong in Riley’s big hockey match the next day, keeping the girl tossing in her sleep at each negative thought.

Narrating the scene, the film’s director, Kelsey Mann, says, “I always envisioned this being a movie about anxiety taking over, and was reflecting on my own life and how my anxiety does that in me.”

As things become overwhelming, Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) infiltrates Anxiety’s plan and begins to draw up positive projections to send to Riley to make her feel better. As she tries to get the mind workers to rise up against Anxiety, a number of film references come into play, from “Norma Rae” to “Jerry Maguire,” with a little bit of “Network” thrown in.

Read the “Inside Out 2” review.

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