Why can’t Hollywood come up with anything new? We find ourselves asking this question whenever we see an ad for the latest spinoff of an overdone story, the fourth or fifth movie in a popular series, or a remake of an old classic. This rehashing of old material is definitely a cash grab, but it isn’t driven exclusively by a want of originality. This is especially true of films from Walt Disney Pictures and its vast holdings.
The Latest
“Inside Out 2” premiered at Disney’s El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles on June 10, 2024, and was released throughout the United States on June 14. It was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Studios. It was directed by Kelsey Mann, who took over for “Inside Out” director Pete Docter in his feature directorial debut. Docter instead served as executive producer, alongside Mark Nielsen as the credited producer. Meg LeFauve, one of the original film’s screenwriters, wrote the screenplay with Dave Holstein. Some of the returning characters were voiced by the original actors, while others were replaced with impressively similar voice actors.This movie follows 13-year-old Riley Andersen (Kensington Tallman) in the summer before she enters high school. She’s excited to go to summer camp, where she hopes to impress the high school hockey coach. As in the last movie, we see that Riley’s actions and feelings are guided by five emotions in Headquarters, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira). However, the night before camp, the Puberty Alarm goes off in Riley’s mind, sending the emotion consul into a frenzy as four new emotions arrive, Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). Riley becomes completely overwhelmed by this influx of emotions and the ensuing changes, both mental and physical. As she struggles to cope with puberty, she receives the devastating news that her two best friends, Grace and Bree, will be going to a different high school.
Meanwhile, the emotions notice that the consul is now so sensitive that Riley drastically overreacts to every command. At camp, Anxiety begins dominating Riley’s other emotions, eventually banishing the original five to the memory vault as Riley becomes obsessed with impressing Coach Roberts and hockey hotshot Val Ortiz (Lilimar). Can Joy and the other emotions restore Riley’s original sense of self before Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment make Riley forget who she is?
Receiving positive reviews, this sequel has already broken many box office records, including becoming Pixar’s highest-earning film to date. Not accounting for inflation, it’s the fourth-earning animated film of all time. Like most “family films” from the last two decades, it is rated PG, with the reasons listed being “some thematic elements.” That’s a very apt description of what keeps this and other new Disney releases from being wholesome, uplifting entertainment. They have less bathroom humor, suggestive dialogue, and immodest costumes than Disney Renaissance movies from the 1990s, but they feature inherently disturbing core themes. Movies like “Inside Out 2” are a far cry from inspiring coming-of-age stories from the Golden Era of Hollywood, like “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante.”
The Greatest
“Andy Hardy Meets Debutante” (1940) is the ninth movie in the Hardy Family film series. Like all the Andy Hardy movies, it was an MGM film. It was directed by George B. Seitz and produced by J. J. Cohn. As usual, it starred Mickey Rooney as the title character, Lewis Stone as his father, Fay Holden as his mother, Cecilia Parker as his sister, and Sara Haden as his aunt. This was the second of three films in the series to feature Judy Garland as Betsy Booth, a younger girl from New York who has unrequited feelings for Andy.In this film, girl-crazy high school boy Andy Hardy has developed a crush on the season’s Debutante No. 1, Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis). When two schoolmates discover that his botany scrapbook is full of the glamour girl’s photos and newspaper clippings, they tease him mercilessly. Andy lies that he personally knows Daphne, feeling confident that he won’t be testing his story by going to New York any time soon. Meanwhile, Andy’s steady sweetheart, Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford), decides that he’s too immature for her. Andy’s world caves in when his father decides to bring the whole family to New York City while he solves a legal problem involving the local orphanage. If Andy doesn’t bring back a picture of himself with Daphne Fowler, he’ll have to face public ridicule in the Carvel High newspaper. As he tries to break into New York City’s high society, Andy grows disgusted with his family’s unimportance. He accepts some help from Betsy, a younger girl who tries to help him as a New York native, but he refuses to tell her exactly what he’s trying to do, because he thinks a “child” like her wouldn’t understand.
If you look past the obvious differences between “Inside Out 2” and “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante,” you’ll notice similar story elements. Both are stories about adolescents that are later entries in a series featuring recurring characters. Although Riley is a teenage girl instead of a boy, her tomboyish appearance and athletic interests make her comparable to Andy. Both characters have a falling out with two friends at their school somewhat earlier in the film, Grace and Bree for Riley and Polly and Beezy for Andy. Both these incidents are connected to the central character’s idolization of another young person. Failure to fit into the idol’s set creates intense dissatisfaction in both characters with their social positions. These feelings of inadequacy, humiliation, and fear of becoming social outcasts at school spur both characters to lash out at their parents. While Riley gets a pass because her feelings are being controlled by colorful yet volatile cartoon characters, Andy Hardy must take responsibility for his behavior.
Hormones Versus Humanity
I think that “Inside Out 2” is very popular because it strikes a chord with viewers. As Riley becomes a teenager, she faces the mood swings, awkwardness, and other struggles that are so closely associated with the teenage years these days. If someone doesn’t agree that this is a modern fad, try watching old movies about the coming of age, like the Andy Hardy series, and classic sitcoms featuring adolescent children, like “My Three Sons” and “Father Knows Best.”I would wager that the words “hormone” and “puberty” are never mentioned in these older forms of entertainment. Instead of fixating on the chemicals that produce the physical changes in young people’s bodies, these movies and shows teach that people of all ages must take responsibility for their own actions. Rather than excusing bad behavior because of puberty, parents acknowledge that changing from a child into an adult is a challenging but joyous experience that is part of growing up. Learning important life lessons from experiences both good and bad is what shapes immature children into mature, adult human beings.
Perhaps emphasizing hormones over humanity is one reason why millennials and Gen Z youth are often frighteningly immature well into their 20s and 30s. Like Riley’s parents, their parents grudgingly chalked up bad behavior to uncontrollable hormonal challenges. How different this is from the wise parenting of Judge Hardy! In the first film, when 15-year-old Andy is discovering girls for the first time, his father helps him solve serious problems through “man-to-man” talks.
Judge Hardy doesn’t treat Andy like a hormonal freak who is too immature to control his emotions. He treats him like a man and expects him to behave as such. In their conversations, he carefully guides his son toward the correct way of behaving. “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante” features one of the strongest parental moments by Judge Hardy. When Andy’s aforementioned frustration with their lowly socioeconomic status makes him denounce the American principles of liberty and equality, his father leaves him with the blunt conclusion, “When a boy’s stupid, he’s just stupid.” This calm assertion of fatherly shame makes Andy realize that he is being immature and ungrateful. Maybe young people would do better if entertainment showed that children can be guided by their parents’ wisdom, not a group of neurotic caricatures with pastel hair.
