When it comes to 2024 movies, it feels pretty unquestionable that Inside Out 2 is going to go down in history as one of the year’s best, along with, of course, being a huge box office hit. And as we know, when a movie does that rare thing of both pleasing fans and studio executives, chances are a sequel is likely to follow. But in terms of seeing a third Inside Out movie, I’m not only absolutely on board to take another trip inside Riley’s mind, I have an idea about which emotion should be highlighted next.
So far, Inside Out has found ways to talk about what it means to grow up in universal ways, first through Riley moving with her family at eleven before jumping to her going through puberty at 13. The first movie centrally discusses the emotion of sadness, and how that emotion is actually important to feel rather than suppress. Then the sequel gets into the arrival of anxiety and how when it takes hold, it can impact one’s sense of self. What should be next? As Riley moves further into being a teenager, I’d love to see how Pixar tackles the complex ways in which falling in love impacts the brain and our emotions.
Why I Think Inside Out 3 Should Explore First Love In Riley’s Teen Years
Not unlike Anxiety popping up out of the blue in Inside Out 2, I think Pixar could have so much fun imagining what would encapsulate “romantic love” or perhaps in the form of “passion” as an emotion that comes out to play, perhaps when Riley develops a crush on one of her peers. Because once you have a huge crush or first love, it can feel like your brain chemistry is never the same after that.
While that doesn’t always happen in one’s teenage years, I think everyone can relate to thinking someone at their high school was the love of their life, whether they only caught glances from across the classroom everyday or were in a full-blown relationship. Since the Inside Out movies often operate within a short time period, I'm imagining this being a summer camp crush that has Riley out of her depths of emotion because it's new to her.
When romantic passion happens the first time (and please, some of you get your heads out of the gutter, I'm totally thinking in PG terms), it can really disrupt all your emotions in some really life-changing ways. I can already imagine the kind of fun chaos it could create for the emotions we’ve already met in Riley’s mind. I just imagine this fuchsia pink character, perhaps voiced by an especially charismatic actor like Pedro Pascal or Margot Robbie, who just oozes romance and cool.
Once Riley develops this crazy crush in reality, Passion will appear and have her tripping up on her words and idolizing whomever the character gets heart eyes over (and wouldn’t it be funny if this emotion literally had heart eyes?!) Are you starting to understand my vision here?
It Could Also Make For Another Impactful Journey For Joy
Even though Riley is about all the emotions in her brain, Amy Poehler’s Joy has always been the centerpiece of it. I think it's because Joy is what we’re all ultimately chasing after. I’m especially interested in Inside Out 2 exploring Passion because of how the emotion is so aligned with the emotion of Joy. Anyone who’s been in love knows that when you are in the throes of love and romance, it can feel like the other person is the source of your Joy and actually fuels that emotion in a deeper way.
This is fascinating in the world of Inside Out, because thus far, Joy has been rather standoffish around embracing other emotions like Sadness and Anxiety before coming around to them by the end of the movies. However, when Passion comes to town, I feel like Joy has to form an instant attachment to Passion and have her own love story with the emotion itself. They go so hand and hand, I think it would be so interesting to see Joy kind of ditch all the other emotions for Passion as they pair kind of take the wheel.
Of course, Anxiety would get a chance to have a big role here, as first love and love in general is great at triggering that, along with Embarrassment and some others, but I would love to see how Passion and Joy becoming bestie emotions forwards the Inside Out character and deepens the world of these movies.
It’s A More Complex Topic, But As She Grow Up, So Should Riley’s Emotions
While the idea of Passion being part of Inside Out 3 is very interesting to me, it is a topic that would deserve love and attention because of how complex the topic itself is. Though, I think since if Riley was, let's say 15, Pixar could have fun with it since it'd be both lower stakes and relatable to people.
Passion can take many forms, from toxicity to wholesome levels that could certainly be explored, and Pixar would have to be careful with how it depicts Passion for a large audience. That being said, that’s another thing about the potential of Inside Out 3 that excites me. I like the idea of the animation studio building on its concept by tackling more complex emotions as Riley gets older, because that’s literally what’s going on in our brains as we age.
The only potential problem I see with this idea is how to make it universal. For example, fans in the LGBTQ+ community have had theories about Riley’s sexuality since her relationship with Val could be read as a crush to some, so the gender she falls for does make it more specific in a way. However, I personally think the gender wouldn’t matter because one could still relate to the experience of first love ultimately if Pixar maintains the broad storytelling that makes us love and sympathize with her so much.
Ah, young love! I want to see how the emotions of Inside Out would deal with it. While you ponder my idea, you can stream both Inside Out movies right now with a Disney+ subscription and look forward to the Inside Out Disney+ TV show this December.
