Inside Out 2's Most Emotionally Devastating Moment Is A First For A Disney Movie

Spoilers for "Inside Out 2" follow.

Something remarkable happens near the end of "Inside Out 2": a character has an anxiety attack. Is this a first for an animated Disney film? It just might be. This isn't the first animated film to depict a panic attack — the surprisingly excellent 2022 film "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" did it, and did it well. But for the House of Mouse, this feels like a monumental moment. Not only does "Inside Out 2" showcase an anxiety attack, but it does so in a realistic, harrowing way. As someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, seeing such a moment depicted in a major movie aimed at kids felt almost seismic, as if I didn't know such an action was permitted. I imagine that seeing this scene will upset some younger viewers, but it might also open their eyes to thoughts and feelings they're grappling to understand. How many kids even know what a panic attack is? It's bold of Disney and Pixar to put forth such an unflinching, upsetting scene and not shy away from it all.

The world of "Inside Out" is colorful and playful, and it's frequently laugh-out-loud funny. But this is also a series that isn't afraid to push some heavy emotional buttons, and while the sequel isn't quite as good as the original film, the anxiety attack moment feels like a game-changer. We watch as poor 13-year-old Riley has a breakdown, her breath quickening, her pulse racing, her heart thumping. Anyone who has had an anxiety attack will immediately recognize the symptoms. Disney and Pixar aren't playing around here.

In "Inside Out 2," Riley (Kensington Tallman) has turned 13 and just hit puberty. Her core emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale, stepping in for Bill Hader), and Disgust (Liza Lapira, stepping in for Mindy Kaling) suddenly find themselves sharing space with new emotions: Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and Anxiety (Maya Hawke). 

In some ways, Anxiety almost operates as the film's villain. She banishes Joy and the original group from the control room and sets about changing Riley's entire personality. Riley has gone away to hockey camp, and through the influence of Anxiety, she shuns her best friends Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu) in order to get in good with cool high schooler Val (Lilimar). Anxiety literally throws away Riley's Sense of Self (represented as a kind of crystal bauble), and while Joy and the gang try to get it back, Riley begins behaving differently. She lies, she steals, and she struggles. 

In the film's big climactic sequence, Riley is determined to score three goals while playing a hockey scrimmage in order to make the team. Anxiety completely takes over the control console that steers Riley, and this backfires in a big way. Anxiety becomes like a whirlwind, swarming all over the console in a big orange blur. It becomes too much — sent to the penalty box for tripping Grace during the game, Riley becomes emotionally overwhelmed and proceeds to have an anxiety attack, and the animators and director Kelsey Mann depict the moment in a stylish but realistic fashion, never flinching away from the physical and emotional toll the moment is taking on Riley as she struggles to catch her breath. 

As Riley is having her anxiety attack, Joy talks Anxiety down from the console — but that doesn't end things. Riley is still afflicted, and Joy realizes the way to fix things is to allow Riley to embrace her memories, even those unpleasant ones Joy has been sending to the back of Riley's mind in an attempt to shield her from negativity. Riley's old Sense of Self is discarded, and a new Sense of Self is formed, at which point Joy, Anxiety, and the rest of the emotions embrace it — effectively embracing Riley in the process; holding her, hugging her, calming her down. 

It was at this point where I completely lost it in the theater, sobbing almost uncontrollably at the tenderness of the moment. It's a touching, emotionally devastating scene, and the film allows Riley to slowly come down from her panic, her hand feeling the wooden texture of her seat, her eyes taking in the sunlight streaming through a nearby window, the world coming back into focus. Riley apologizes to her friends for her behavior, and things are well again. They may not stay that way forever, but for now, the anxiety has subsided, or at least been managed. 

I've never seen anything quite like this in a Disney animated film, and whatever the flaws of "Inside Out 2," it deserves credit for taking such a bold, mature, realistic approach to this moment. "Inside Out 2" is now in theaters.