Family-Friendly INSIDE OUT 2 Becomes 2024’s Top Movie
By Movieguide® Contributor
INSIDE OUT 2 surpassed DUNE: PART TWO to become 2024’s top movie.
The family-friendly flick garnered over $725 million in ticket sales worldwide and is expected to take in even more.
Per Forbes, “INSIDE OUT 2 has overperformed every day of its mere 10 days of release, including weekday totals that set records and led to expectations for at least a $600+ million global cume by end of business Sunday (minus additional revenue from China, as Monday morning screenings start there while it’s still Sunday evening in the Western Hemisphere).”
A part of Movieguide®’s review for the film reads:
INSIDE OUT 2 is a sequel to the acclaimed 2015 animated comedy. Riley, the young girl of the first movie, turns 13 and starts having teenage angst. She longs to join the champion varsity girls high school hockey team. However, new, unruly teenage emotions, led by Anxiety, has taken over the Control Room in Riley’s brain. In fact, Anxiety has forcibly banished Joy and her friends from the Control Room. Can Joy and her friends find their way back and fix the damage Anxiety is inflicting on Riley?
INSIDE OUT 2 is a marvelous, family-friendly animated movie. The movie is delightful, funny, inventive, and heartwarming. It has many positive messages. For example, it promotes “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10c) and doing the right thing, controlling your emotions and not letting anxieties overcome your decision making. INSIDE OUT 2 also promotes kindness, friendship, repentance, and forgiveness. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children for scenes of peril and a large scary-looking but nonthreatening character. Unlike other recent animated movies, INSIDE OUT 2 doesn’t have any woke or politically correct content.
INSIDE OUT 2 is Disney’s top-grossing film of 2024 and received some competition from Universal Studios with the release of DESPICABLE ME 4. It’s even earned more attention than its prequel, thanks, in part, to its “virtuosic panic attack sequence” when there is a battle “for control of Riley’s emotional well-being.”
Director Kelsey Mann told IndieWire of his intentions with the scene.
“We got really excited about going to new places in this world, specific to Riley’s age as a teenager, starting to develop her own sense of self, who you are as an individual,” Mann said. “You’re being raised by other people and taking on their beliefs about the world and about yourself. And, suddenly, you go: Wait. What do I believe?
“And all of those memories feed those beliefs and create, kind of collectively, how you see yourself,” he continued. “And coming up with that imagery of the sense of self was actually the hardest design in the entire film. Partly because it was the evolving element of the story, and also it took a long time to figure out what exactly its function was. A big part of it was Riley knowing who she is but then having that questioned when she wants to be accepted by new people. I certainly did this at that age. And so that meant Anxiety was going to come in and try to change Riley.”
Ultimately, as we navigate the world around us, we are defined by one thing, and that is our faith in the Lord.
Movieguide®’s Dr. Ted Baehr recently explained:
In INSIDE OUT 2, Joy is the leader of Riley’s emotions. However, Joy finds herself sidelined when Riley hits puberty, and other emotions like Anxiety and Fear take center stage. Amidst the chaos of adolescence, Anxiety takes over, filling Riley with fear about not making the high school hockey team. She abandons her two friends and focuses solely on making the team and befriending Valencia, the team’s star player.
Joy fights to restore harmony in Riley’s mind. With the support of loyal emotions and Riley’s core beliefs, Joy regains control of Riley’s panic-stricken brain and discovers that strength comes from faithfulness. By embracing Joy, Riley learns the importance of repentance and asks for forgiveness. INSIDE OUT 2 teaches children critical spiritual lessons by promoting the virtues of the Bible
The only way to achieve full and lasting joy is in the Lord. As Nehemiah 8:10c says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”