After seeing Inside Out 2 at the Regal Ithaca Mall in June, I posted about something that intrigued me about it and its predecessor. One of the five emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear) in the “command center” of every human and animal that appears in either film seems to be positioned as hierarchically senior to the others, but it isn’t the same one each time. Referencing this New York Times article by Maya Phillips, I wrote:
I can’t help but wonder what determines which emotion is ascendent. Is it just whichever one appears first? If so, this would justify Phillips’ support for the fact that in the Inside Out universe controlling your anxiety looks like “sitting her down in a cozy recliner with a cup of tea.” But could a person who isn’t anxious all the time have a mind where Anxiety is in the driver’s seat but takes advice from other emotions in much the same way that Sadness and Anger do in the case of her parents? Suddenly I find myself eager to spend some time with Inside Out 2 after it comes out on DVD (hence the “Part One” in the title of this post) to see if it offers any hints!
Unfortunately, a second viewing of the sequel didn’t shed much light on the matter. We get just brief glimpses into the command centers of only four characters other than Riley. “Well, we all knew this day would come,” says Riley’s mom’s Anger (Paula Pell) the morning after Riley enters puberty, in reply to which her Sadness (Lori Allen), who is in the driver’s seat, reminds everyone to remain calm and “stick to the prepared script.” She then pushes a button that causes Riley’s mom (Diane Lane) to launch into a speech about a “beautiful butterfly”:
Next, we see the emotions of Riley’s friends Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu) during a conversation that ends with Riley discovering they won’t all be going to the same high school like she thought:
Their positioning suggests that Joy is in charge of Bree’s emotions (left) and Fear is in charge of Grace’s (right), which seems to match what little we know about each girl, but this is obviously inconclusive. Finally, we meet someone else’s new (since the last film) emotion for the first time when Riley’s mom and dad (Kyle MacLachlan) react to her terse (“it was good”) response to a question about how the sleep-away hockey camp she just got back from was during the end credits. “What about the red in her hair? Did she join a gang?” worries her mom’s Anxiety (Mona Marshall), to which her Sadness replies, “welcome back” and hands her a cup of tea:
Then Riley’s dad’s Anxiety (Roger Craig Smith) bursts into his command center and cries, “she goes away for three days and all we get is ‘good’?”
“Yeah, sounds right, back to the game,” says his Anger (Pete Docter):
Interestingly, a popping can sound effect indicates that at least one of his emotions (Joy?) may be drinking a beer, which connects his response to Anxiety to that of his wife and daughter. As mentioned by Phillips, a calming beverage is also how Riley’s emotions control their Anxiety:
That’s it for new evidence, though, so I guess we’ll have to wait for a third installment in the franchise to learn whether a peaceful coup is possible in the Inside Out universe or if the only minds dominated by Anxiety are unhealthy ones.
The Prodigal Cinephile 