More Than Entertained

By: Brennan Garriques

The Inside Out universe works. It’s a creative, wholesome, substantive picture of the human experience, and I propose that the apparent message of Inside Out 2 can fit rather snugly within a Christian view of reality. In helpful and relatable ways, it gives a visible expression to the invisible interior landscape of the human person. In short, it brings the inside out.

However, those familiar with the Christian vision of the human person may object:  why are Riley’s emotions living in her head?  In Christian anthropology, it is the reason that is associated with the head, the will that is associated with the heart, and the emotions that are associated with the gut or lower parts of our bodies. This indicates the rightly ordered hierarchy of the human faculties in which the reason directs the will which governs the emotions. Again, one may ask the following question: why are her emotions “in charge”?

The answer is simple. These characters living in Riley’s head are emotions with intellect. And it seems to me that throughout the film, it is precisely when these personified emotions are most reasonable that Riley is most at peace. Even though her emotions live in her head, it is still her intellect that informs her of the truth, her will which she engages to pursue the truth, and her emotions that thrust her toward it. Now onto the main event.

The conflict and chaos of Inside Out 2 begins when Riley (played by Kensington Tallman) hits puberty. This ushers in four new emotions to join the cast of the familiar five core emotions of Joy, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, and Anger. The newbies are Boredom, Envy, Embarrassment, and Anxiety (Maya Hawke). As in most of our lives, Anxiety is the source of the above mentioned conflict and chaos. But she doesn't mean to cause trouble. Just like the rest of Riley’s emotions, she wants what is best for Riley. What Anxiety fails to realize, though, is that all emotions and every part of us must work together in harmony for human flourishing. She has some severely misguided words as she banishes the five core emotions from HQ:  “Riley’s life is more complex now. It requires more sophisticated emotions than all of you. You just aren’t what she needs anymore, Joy.”

Notice how she singles out Joy, illuminating a lie that so many of us believe about growing up. Joy herself wrestles with this lie throughout much of the rest of the movie and even believes it in a moment when all hope of dethroning Anxiety seems lost. With a heavy heart she says, “Maybe this is what happens when you grow up. You feel less joy.” 

Friends, if this has been your experience, then I am sorry. But it does not have to be that way. Jesus wants joy for your life. He very deliberately says so. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11) and “I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely” (17:13). It’s fitting, then, that out of the now nine emotions inside of Riley, Joy is meant to be at the helm. It’s true in both Inside Out 2 and real life. Whether you’re 7, 17, or 70, you can have joy.

Let’s look at one of the closing scenes. Keep in mind that it’s post-puberty. Riley has just had her first panic attack at the hands of a well-intentioned but misguided Anxiety. Once the core belief that she is not good enough is rebuked by the other emotions, one of the first experiences Riley has is a tangible invitation to joy. That is the invitation for all of us. God offers us Himself and with Him He brings joy. Joy is something both the natural world and supernatural grace want to offer us. I pray it may be something we never escape.

Pope Francis offers us a beautiful definition of joy in Evangelii Gaudium: “joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” Yes, joy ebbs and flows. Some of us are victims to far more tragic circumstances than others. But this kind of joy, the kind given to us as a fruit of our new nature in Christ, will always remain. It will remain because we will always be infinitely loved, every part of us.

Brennan Garriques serves as the Director of Campus Ministry at Christ the King Parish on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge, LA.