My 5 year old daughter loves TV shows and movies (what child does not?). The plan was to rewatch Inside Out before watching the sequel so everyone refreshes their memory on what is going on. I was excited to watch both movies with my daughter since the first one is one of my favorite animated movies. I was expecting the second to be just as good (and from reviews, it seems like it was).

We watched the first one without any issues (although I had to skip the clown part and my daughter had some big feelings in the Bing Bong part). We were all set up well to watch Inside Out 2 the next day (which was a few weeks ago). On the day of, I asked my daughter whether she wanted to wait until later in the afternoon to watch the movie on the IMAX screen (and selfishly I was describing it in an awesome way so she would take the bait so I could splurge and enjoy the movie the way it was meant to be enjoyed!) and she agreed. Wooooo!

She was excited to watch the movie and as we walked in to find our seats, her mood immediately changed. The movie somehow started a few minutes early (no previews!) and she was feeling lost from the start. I was lost too and once I quickly figured out what was going on, I explained it to her. I could tell she was still frazzled though since she sometimes gets this way with exposure to new TV shows or movies (what can I say, she likes routine like I do!). I was whispering in her ear and giving her the play by play to hopefully settle her down and by the time the new emotions started to come out, it was game over.

Without spoiling the movie, there are a lot of additional emotions that are more complex that were introduced. These emotions had other plans and some parts were downright sinister. The more the other emotions started to hatch their plan, the more scared my daughter became. Even with explanations, she started to cry and wanted out. We left the theater about halfway through the movie and I wanted to see what was the real issue.

I was asking my daughter to explain her own feelings towards the movie and what made her scared. She said she knew there was going to be other emotions, but she thought that the main set of emotions were going to still be the dominant storyline in the movie. Kind of how in anything Mickey Mouse related, Mickey and the crew are always the focal point with a few new characters thrown in the plot. She wanted that feel for Inside Out 2.

I tried to convince her that the movie wasn’t scary. New things can sometimes be scary if you don’t understand them and my narration was a way for her to understand the new feelings and what they were trying to do. At the end of the day, each feeling was trying to do their best to take care of Riley (the main character) and sometimes they can take things a few steps too far. Even though my daughter understood this, she was afraid of two feelings in particular - Anxiety and Boredom. Their behavior in the movie freaked her out and no amount of convincing was going to help her go back into the movie. On the inside, I was frustrated and sad that I couldn’t finish the movie, but I knew that leaving the theater was the right thing to do - so we left.

That night, she had nightmares about Inside Out 2. She couldn’t settle down and my daughter tends to really fixate on certain things that happen in the day to process them (and their associated feelings). Instead of putting her back in bed only to repeat the cycle, I just had her sleep with me even though it means a restless night for me.

When my daughter woke up in the morning, she delivered a very surprise monologue. She said the reason why she was so scared was that she did not like what the other feelings were trying to do. She wanted all the feelings to work together as a team. The fact that the original feelings were not part of the plan freaked her out and scared her because she liked the original feelings. She was especially attached to Joy and Sadness. My daughter felt bad that we couldn’t finish the movie and apologized for that. I told her that it was ok - and that if she wanted to watch it again in the future, we could (thanks Disney+!). It was a very mature monologue and it kind of took me aback because I realized she was growing up so quickly. Although the whole experience was a roller coaster for her, I feel like she ended up with a new perspective on things and I hope that she looks back on the experience positively as she gets older.

It’s not often that we are challenged in this type of way when we are grown up - where movies can really affect our outlook on life. With my daughter, I see it with each new show or movie she consumes and it adds to her perspective on what is right and wrong + what should happen if things go wrong. In the way that Inside Out is trying to teach us about our own emotions, it is helping her realize what is happening inside of her as she grows up. What I kept repeating to my daughter after the movie is that we have to keep our feelings in check, but not bottled up. We need to feel them and understand that each one has a purpose and place, but we cannot let them take over. This goes for joy, anger, sadness, anxiety, etc. Especially with anxiety, it has a way to really help us out (super planning powers) or cripple us into analysis paralysis. Sometimes understanding this can help us take the leap we need to and let some of the other feelings take control as well so that they are all acting as a team!