Inside Out 2’s New Storyline Can Succeed Where Pixar’s $20 Million Flop Failed

Inside Out 2 tackles a topic that proved challenging and even controversial for Pixar in the past, but the studio could pull it off this time with a fresh storyline. The original Inside Out examines the complicated interior world of a young girl named Riley through a set of five anthropomorphized emotions inside her head: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. As Riley goes through some tough life changes, her emotions try to adjust along with her. The movie focuses on how Joy’s resistance to allowing Riley to experience any bad emotions is unhealthy, emphasizing the importance of feeling all of one’s emotions and allowing them to co-exist.

Inside Out stands out among animated children’s movies for its unique premise and thoughtful approach to the collective human experience. It was a huge hit for Pixar, and nearly a decade later, the long-awaited Inside Out 2 will be released on June 14, 2024. Picking up where the first movie left off, the Inside Out sequel will expand the story into Riley’s teenage years. These come with a bunch of new life experiences and emotions — the sort that Pixar should be able to tackle easily yet stumped them with a previous release.

Pixar Is Tackling Puberty In Inside Out 2

Puberty introduces new emotions

It’s been confirmed that Inside Out 2 will explore puberty and the effects that this inevitable phase of life has on Riley. Specifically, Inside Out 2 will depict exactly what happens in Riley’s adolescent brain when puberty happens. Inside Out 2 director Kelsey Mann stated that the sequel will open with all the existing emotions working together in harmony “until puberty hits.“

In the Inside Out 2 trailer, the onset of puberty is depicted as a major disruption to the existing emotions. A construction team shows up and wreaks havoc on the emotional management system in Riley’s head, leaving destruction in its wake. Puberty’s arrival prompts the introduction of new emotions in Inside Out 2, including Anxiety. Other incoming emotions hinted at in the trailer include Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment, to name a few.

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Inside Out 2 Just Showed What Happens In Someone’s Mind When They Become A Teenager

Riley is older now, and Inside Out 2’s teaser trailer shows audiences what changes develop in her mind as a newly-turned teenager in Pixar’s sequel.

Pixar’s Turning Red Featured Similar Themes & Flopped At The Box Office

Turning Red also tackled puberty

Inside Out 2 is not the first Pixar movie to feature puberty as a core theme. The studio’s 20223 feature Turning Red also explores the effects of puberty on its main character, 13-year-old Meilin. As a result of an ancestral curse, Mei starts turning into a giant red panda anytime she finds herself in a state of high emotion. Throughout the film, Mei goes on a journey of self-discovery, which causes her to butt heads with her mother, Ming. The red panda transformation serves as an allegory for puberty, specifically the wide range of emotions it brings, as well as first periods and other bodily changes.

Unfortunately, Turning Red did not have much commercial success. On a budget of $175 million, Turning Red only grossed around $20 million at the global box office. A big reason it flopped is that Turning Red didn’t get a theatrical release in the U.S. Instead, Disney opted to release the film on their Disney+ streaming service. This decision impacted Turning Red‘s audience turnout, but the controversy surrounding the film’s subject matter also played a part in its poor performance at the box office.

The Response To Turning Red Suggests Inside Out 2 Could Struggle With This Storyline

Puberty can be a touchy subject

Turning Red received critical backlash for exploring some of the messier and more taboo parts of puberty like menstruation, particularly from parents who hadn’t yet addressed these topics with their children. While it’s not unusual for children’s movies to center on characters slightly older than the intended audience, a common argument was that these “mature” concepts shouldn’t be explored in children’s movies because some kids haven’t been exposed to them yet, and were too young to relate. Many of these criticisms felt a little dramatic, but regardless of whether they were valid or warranted, they impacted Turning Red‘s outcome at the box office.

The negative responses to Turning Red could also mean trouble for Inside Out 2. The pivot to Riley’s teenage years and pubescence Inside Out 2 could have the same problem as Turning Red, as much of its backlash was rooted in the film’s depiction of the effects of puberty. Not only is Inside Out 2‘s main storyline also centered around puberty, but its main character is also a girl. Unfortunately, the effects of puberty on girls tend to be more of a taboo topic. Pixar’s choice to dive back into puberty in Inside Out 2 is risky, considering what happened with Turning Red.

Why Inside Out 2 May Succeed Where Turning Red Failed

Inside Out 2 has a lot more going for it

Inside Out 2 has a better chance of succeeding than Turning Red because it is getting a theatrical release. Turning Red was exclusively released on Disney+ in the U.S., which hindered its chances of finding a wider audience and bringing in more money. Inside Out 2 is also a sequel to a well-loved Pixar movie, meaning it already has an established audience invested in Riley’s story. While Turning Red faced the challenge of appealing to a brand-new audience with an original story, Inside Out 2 can bank on fans of the original film tuning in to spend more time with Riley and her emotions, old and new.

Inside Out 2 also has the potential to be better received by audiences than Turning Red because of its central premise. The Inside Out movies take a holistic approach to the human experience by identifying emotions that everybody has and depicting them as separate entities. While these emotions belong to a particular host, so to speak, they are not human individuals themselves. Inside Out used these emotion characters to make sense of Riley’s personal experiences and feelings by contextualizing them through a universal lens. Viewers of all ages and circumstances could identify with the film because emotions are intrinsic to human nature.

Riley may be going through puberty in Inside Out 2, but it’s the physical changes of puberty that tend to make people uncomfortable when portrayed onscreen. Based on Inside Out‘s approach, viewers will spend most of the film watching the emotions react and adjust to the unfamiliarity of puberty in Inside Out 2. The focus is likely to be more on the internal and emotional sensations of puberty, rather than the external and physical. Inside Out 2 will depict puberty through the more abstract, universal medium of emotions rather than bodily changes in an extended metaphor, giving it a better chance at avoiding controversy than Turning Red.