As Riley starts puberty, Anxiety ‘moves in’ to her brain; starring in her life and in this Disney franchise’s marketing and merchandise.
2024 saw the second instalment of Disney’s Inside Out movie franchise, quickly becoming one of the highest-grossing animated feature films in history.
The first film personified the major emotions of a young girl called Riley: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear, all operating from a control room in Riley’s brain. They are responsible for managing Riley’s day-to-day experiences, behaviour, relationships, memories, and feelings.
For Inside Out 2, Riley is now a teenager and her entry into puberty is met with the arrival of several new emotions to the council, who all want to have a say over her brain and behaviour. These are Envy, Embarrassment, Ennui (boredom), and notably, Anxiety – portrayed by a cute orange figure with messy hair.
Throughout the film, Anxiety gains increasing influence over Riley’s brain, for instance employing a team of Mind Workers to exploit Riley’s imagination and make her ruminate and worry. Anxiety’s influence climaxes one day as Riley experiences a panic attack during a hockey game1. The director of the film, Kelsey Mann, says he used his own experiences of anxiety2 when designing these scenes.
The small orange character of Anxiety has been a prominent figure in Disney’s marketing campaigns and available merchandise for audiences of all ages, including toys, hairstyles, and costumes.
Anxiety has become a very popular3 character in one of the most successful animated children’s franchises in history. Reaction online appears to be generally positive – with most audience members sharing how moving they found this depiction to be and how closely it resonated/brought back experiences of their own anxiety symptoms.
Others, including parents, discuss the use and accessibility of this film for equipping children to understand and visualise their own mental health, similar to the well-established therapeutic technique of externalisation4 – where fictional characters are used to personify and challenge difficult thoughts and feelings.
Whilst many find this depiction relatable, impactful5, and beneficial, questions can be raised6 about whether the expanding range of products and cute-ifcation of this mental health problem will eventually detract from the accurate depictions of lived experiences the film intended?
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