Tag Archives: pixar

Inside Out 2: A Character Review of “Anxiety”

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Inside Out 2, depicts the inner workings of a young girl Riley’s brain using emotions as characters. As a teen, the portrayal of one particular emotion “anxiety,” a cornerstone of teen emotion, intrigued me. A well thought-out depiction can help those who struggle with anxiety feel more understood.

Anxiety is shown as small and thin. She has a wide, unsure smile, has huge eyes, and has hair arranged like a troll doll. When Anxiety and the other new characters join the headquarters of Riley’s brain, there is immediate tension between her and Joy.

Riley goes away on a three-day hockey camp and wants to be liked by the girls. She wants to impress the coach to make the high school hockey team. Joy wants her to focus on spending time with friends and being her usual kind and goofy self. Anxiety takes Riley’s goals, makes them seem very hard, works tirelessly to make sure that they happen, while simultaneously changing the beliefs Riley has about herself. Before Anxiety, Riley believed that she was good enough. But after Anxiety appeared, Riley believed that she wasn’t. I felt that the conflict between Anxiety and Joy was pretty accurate. When we experience joy, it comes with a feeling of contentment. Anxiety doesn’t let us feel content. It keeps us out of present moment and launches us into a situation that doesn’t yet exist.

To prepare Riley, Anxiety asks a group of workers in Riley’s brain to draw potential scenarios and outcomes. They draw her missing a goal, falling on her face etc. To counteract, Joy drew positive images for Riley, like her scoring, making friends, being chosen for the team. However, in the end, Anxiety’s efforts were stronger than Joy’s. I found this to be relatable. One anxious thought truly holds more power than 99 positive thoughts.

The height of Riley’s anxiety appeared in the form of an intense panic attack. Riley was fidgeting, sweating, having trouble breathing. Inside her brain, Anxiety was creating a tornado of panic. I felt that this depiction of panic attack was perfect because of the connection between the body and the brain and how what originally starts as being negative thoughts, translates to a full physical experience. Riley was able to get through the panic attack by deep breathing, which in reality is one of the perfect things to do when you are going through panic attack. When her panic attack ended, Anxiety finally stopped moving, was worn down, and started crying. That is what happens when anxiety takes over, it is exhausting and leads to feeling lethargic and unmotivated.

I appreciate that, in the movie, anxiety was not depicted as a bad emotion, but as a feeling that has a purpose and intends to help keep us safe. Accepting that anxiety in moderation can be powerful in self-acceptance. I feel the audience will leave with better understanding of anxiety, with more compassion for themselves.

Inside Out 2 Movie Review

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Remember that one super funny movie with emotions as characters that you watched as a kid! Well, that movie now has a sequel: Inside Out 2. I recently watched this movie, and I had a blast. In this movie review, I will be giving a summary of the movie as well as my opinion on it. There may be some light spoilers!

The movie starts out by reintroducing the main character, Riley, as a teen. She loves hanging out with her friends, going to school, and playing hockey. We are also reintroduced to the characters of Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness. However, trouble is stirred when all of a sudden, new emotions enter the hub. Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment and Envy come in as the new emotions of adolescence. Each of these emotions have their own vibe and personality, which I thought was super funny.

The movie goes on, and eventually, Anxiety takes on a more power-hungry role. She starts wanting to control of all of Riley’s actions, and actually throws out the original emotions. This is the start of a series of unfortunate events. Without going into too much detail, the original emotions are forced to find a way back, even facing the fact that maybe they just aren’t emotions of a teenager anymore. Maybe they are no longer meant to be part of Riley’s life. This part of the movie was really sad for me, but it also opened my eyes and made me realized that this movie is extremely relatable to teens.

The original emotions find their way back to headquarters, but Anxiety is going nuts. She ends up going so crazy that she is unable to control herself, which is pretty accurate to panic attacks that teenagers are exposed to. Joy helps heal Anxiety, and at the end of the movie, the emotions are all living harmoniously.

Overall, I thought this movie was amazing and would rate it a 5/5. It is interesting seeing how I watched this movie as a kid, now I am a teenager, and I still feel that I connected to it. It also kind of brings out and heals my inner child. If you haven’t already, I would recommend watching this movie.

Movie Review: Elemental

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* This review may contain spoilers

It was a Saturday night and I was roaming Disney+ and came across a fairly “new” Disney movie, Elemental. I had seen SO many ads about this movie but didn’t understand the concept and thought it would be boring. I was wrong.

Elemental follows two characters, Ember and Wade. As you may know fire and water don’t mix will and with Ember growing up in a dominant fire household and Wade being a water…you can see where things are going. Ember is presented as this hot-headed and ignorant person with a huge temper she has a hard time controlling. Her father wants her to take over the shop but Ember’s temper gets in the way when she gets annoyed by customers’ demands for certain items. While Ember struggles with maintaining this temper and trying to please her dad. Wade comes in while inspecting Ember’s shop and sees a lot of faults and reports it. This feud between Ember and Wade emerges as Ember tries not to get her dad’s shop closed but Wade is consistent with making sure it happens.

The movie goes into an unexpected rom-com where the two have found a comfort in spending time with one another and learning about each other’s lives (being a fire and a water). They grow their love and open their perspectives of the elements and not to judge so harshly based on traditional beliefs.

This movie was unexpectedly better than I had anticipated and I found it so cute that it tied to showing the importance of family but also understanding. I think a lot can be learned from this movie for younger kids to pick up on, which was great on Disney’s part.

-Madison C.

Movies We Love: Cars

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Cars is an iconic movie that most people have seen but if you haven’t seen it Cars is a movie about Lightning McQueen who is a race car who is one of the best out there.

At the beginning of the movie, McQueen is very self-centered and he does not respect his team around him and he thinks that he is a one-man team and doesn’t go in for a pit stop which made the race ended in a three-way tie for first place. Over the rest of the movie, some events happen like him being stranded in this random town. This town ends up helping McQueen get back on his feet and help him become a better person. When it comes to the end of the movie he has the choice of winning the race or doing the right thing and he decides to help his friend end the race after a big crash. That is one example that shows how much McQueen has grown as a character over the movie and also an example of what makes this movie something special. Even though this movie is quite old I would still urge you to rewatch it sometime because it’s quite nostalgic rewatching an old movie.

-Howard M.

Cars is available for checkout from the Mission Viejo Library.

Film Review: Coco

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Coco was a wonderful film for everyone. It was about a young boy named Miguel who decided he wants to be a musician. The only problem was his family is against music.

I liked the movie really much. I thought it was visually stunning and told a very great story. It had basically any Pixar movie standard that you would see in other Pixar movies.

In the movie Miguel finds out that his hero is his great great grandfather. He then was inspired to go and compete in a music contest. He then takes his great great grandfather’s guitar and is sent to the Land of the Dead. In order to get back to the ordinary world Miguel has to get a family blessing. The only problem is that he wants to be a musician and all his relatives didn’t like music. He then realizes his great great grandfather could get him a blessing. In the story Miguel meets a man named Hector. Hector helps him go on his journey in finding his great great grandfather. In the process of finding his great great grandfather Miguel has many crazy encounters with many crazy characters.

The movie was very enjoyable. I thought it was both visually stunning and had a good story. The moral of the story was that in order to be a family you have to support one another and you shouldn’t force a life on your son or daughter that they don’t want.This movie reminded me a lot about The Book of Life. Which was another movie set in Mexico about the Day of the Dead. I liked The Book of Life which helped me like this movie.

There was one scene in the movie that needed so much detail to make it the scene it was. If I know one thing it is that Pixar tends to overdo a lot of their scenes which is always a good thing. There was also very bright colors that made the visuals even more better than they already where.

I really enjoyed Coco and would recommend seeing it.

-Max U.

Finding Dory Review

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findingdoryOver the last 20 years, Pixar Studios has cemented itself as one of, if not the best animation studios in the business. This is due to their consistency and devotion to their franchises. One of the most successful of these franchises was Finding Nemo, which was a critical and commercial success for Pixar. After 13 years, the sequel Finding Dory has finally been released.

Set after the events of the first movie, it is now Dory’s turn to go looking for someone, with Nemo and Marlin to help. What I really liked about the film was that the characters still have the same voices after nearly a decade. Especially Ellen DeGeneres who reprises her role as Dory. She had a fantastic performance, making you truly care about Dory and her struggles. Marlin is as uptight as ever, and provides a great contrast to Dory’s recklessness. The new characters in the film are all well done also.

I found the film to be paced very well also, with fantastic writing and humor to wrap it all up nicely. There are some genuinely hilarious moments in this movie, more than I was expecting. At the same time, there are very heartfelt and emotional moments that stick with you.

However, one thing I didn’t like about the film was the lack of innovation from the first. It explored similar themes of family, forgiveness, and hope, and while different events take place, they weren’t as unique as I would’ve liked. After Zootopia, I would’ve preferred a less clichéd story along with some social commentary. But these are just small nitpicks for an overall excellent experience.

Finding Dory is one of the best animated films in years, bringing back everything we loved from the original and reminding us how great Pixar can be. Anyone who enjoys animated movies, is a fan of Finding Nemo, or wants to have a fun time should go see this movie. In fact, the last word of the entire film describes this sequel perfectly: unforgettable.

-Ahmed H, grade 12