If the hottest movie of the early summer reminds you of a brutal winter, you have wonderful taste in animated movies — and just might be great at overcoming negative emotions.
The breakout character of “Inside Out 2” is Anxiety, one of the new emotions inside our hero Riley, now a teenager. For Riley and lots of us, anxiety could probably fill a whole wing of our emotional baggage terminal.
“Anxiety for some people is really debilitating; they’re not activated by it, they’re paralyzed,” character designer Deanna Marsigliese told the New York Times. “Other people get really activated and kinetic. It was important that we start her at one extreme and then walk her to the other, so that everyone with anxiety could see themselves and their behavior in her.”
Still, I doubt “Inside Out 2” would have become a billion-dollar hit if everyone involved hadn’t taken a deep breath and made Anxiety a little softer.
“You don’t want the audience to root for the antagonist, but you do want them to enjoy when they’re onscreen,” director Kelsey Mann said. “Whenever the earlier version of the character showed up, I just didn’t like watching it.”
That billion-dollar success story is nothing compared with the gazillions created because of arguably the most famous song of this century (sorry, Swifties).
In early drafts of “Frozen,” Elsa was a villain. But when Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez were called upon to write her song, their empathy came through.
“Let it Go” was too good to pass up. The script was changed, Elsa got an attitude adjustment and a gobs-and-gobs-of-money franchise was born.
If you ignore the animation and Elsa’s tone, you could read the final lyrics and still see her being sinister. Consider this:
My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I'm never going back, the past is in the past
The animation makes it clear that she’s creating beauty, and her look is spunky and determined, not bitter. But the same words might work if she were crafting her villainous lair.
The original Elsa was going to have a snowy henchman named Olaf, but “Let it Go” turned him into a lovable snowman who craves warm hugs and a summer’s warmth. (Yo, Olaf: Let’s ease off on that “summer’s warmth” crap for the moment, OK?)
Anyway, the moral of both our fairytales is that someone you see as trouble might actually be troubled. Maybe they need a confidant or the benefit of the doubt or even a helping hand. And maybe your thinking needs to be a bit more animated.
Murphy Slaw
Something old: When Paris hosted the Olympics in 1900, it was the first time women competed, but they had barely 2% of the participants. This year marks the first time that female and male competitors will be there in equal numbers,
Something new: When it comes to politics, don’t forget to keep your eye on the big picture.
Something borrowed: One of the hot corporate blowhard phrases these days is “double-click,” which basically means to focus on something. If you hear it, feel free to double-stab two pencils into your ears.
Something blue: Some workers feel so overwhelmed that they’re hiring burnout coaches to help them cope. If that sounds like you and you don’t feel like spending the money on a coach, this might help (for what it’s worth, it also explains what a semicolon tattoo means):
