Inside Out 2 shows family movies can still be very successful

[Vambram]

INSIDE OUT 2 Proves Family-Friendly Movies Always Succeed

INSIDE OUT 2 dominated the box office over the weekend, earning a record-breaking start and once again proving that family-friendly movies...

www.movieguide.org

I have not seen this movie yet. I am glad that this movie is very successful and I plan on watching it soon with my wife.

 

[AlexB23]

INSIDE OUT 2 Proves Family-Friendly Movies Always Succeed

INSIDE OUT 2 dominated the box office over the weekend, earning a record-breaking start and once again proving that family-friendly movies...

www.movieguide.org

I have not seen this movie yet. I am glad that this movie is very successful and I plan on watching it soon with my wife.

I hope Inside Out 2 goes well. The movie is not woke, and is clean for everyone. Goes to show that modern movies can still be good in 2024.

Source: Inside Out 2 - Worth It or Woke - BASED Movie Reviews

 

[iluvatar5150]

INSIDE OUT 2 Proves Family-Friendly Movies Always Succeed

INSIDE OUT 2 dominated the box office over the weekend, earning a record-breaking start and once again proving that family-friendly movies...

www.movieguide.org

I have not seen this movie yet. I am glad that this movie is very successful and I plan on watching it soon with my wife.

What a weird review. What "immoral agendas" have been pushed by Pixar movies?

 

[PloverWing]

I have no clue what these reviewers mean by "woke". (Maybe "something I don't like"?) But the movie itself was very good. Not as outstanding as the first movie, because the idea of personifying emotions is no longer novel -- a standard problem with sequels. But the portrayal of Anxiety was excellent, and had me crying by the end.

I wondered how they were going to do a sequel about the emotions of puberty, because the obvious one isn't appropriate for a children's movie. And they don't go with the obvious one; Riley doesn't get a boyfriend (or girlfriend). Other complicated emotions also emerge in the tween/teen years, and those are the ones they explore. I recommend the movie.

 

[Tuur]

Want an example of woke? Strange World and The Acolyte. The latter went so far as to alter decades-old Star Wars lore. Maybe Inside Out 2 escaped it by being a Pixar film. Strange World wasn't.

With the children grown, I'll give it a pass. Note that the original showed the basic emotions persisted into adulthood (with the bus driver's emotions hinting at something interesting). From the trailer, Riley now has emotions her parents don't.

 

[RileyG]

I enjoyed the first one, it was fun.

 

[PloverWing]

Want an example of woke? Strange World and The Acolyte.

I haven't seen either one. Without spoilers, can you specify what features you're describing as "woke"?

 

[Tuur]

Would it matter? Suffice to say that The Acolyte has a viewer level in the same neighborhood as the infamous Star Wars Christmas Special.

 

[PloverWing]

Would it matter? Suffice to say that The Acolyte has a viewer level in the same neighborhood as the infamous Star Wars Christmas Special.

It matters if we're trying to pin down what the word "woke" means to the reviewers and to the participants in this thread. Given the explanation here, I'll stick with the definition that "woke" = "something I don't like".

 

[Tuur]

It matters if we're trying to pin down what the word "woke" means to the reviewers and to the participants in this thread. Given the explanation here, I'll stick with the definition that "woke" = "something I don't like".

Shrug. I could write an essay, maybe violate TOS, and you'd probably still have that conclusion, so what's the point? You've already stated:

I have no clue what these reviewers mean by "woke". (Maybe "something I don't like"?)

That being the case, what's the point?

 

[PloverWing]

Shrug. I could write an essay, maybe violate TOS, and you'd probably still have that conclusion, so what's the point?

I'll try one more time, and then I'll drop it.

Sometimes, people say "woke" when they mean "LGBT-affirming".
Sometimes, people say "woke" when they mean "feminist".
Originally, "woke" meant something like "alert to the dangers of racism".
Sometimes people seem to mean a combination of these things.

My best guess for Inside Out 2 is that it's considered "not woke" because there are no obvious gay or gender-ambiguous characters.

I thought you were going to say that Strange World and The Acolyte were "woke" because they have gay and/or gender-ambiguous characters in them. (Or, possibly, that they're too racially diverse, or that you don't like the way the men were portrayed -- again, I haven't seen the shows, so I'm truly asking for information.) But then you said that The Acolyte was "woke" because it broke with Star Wars canon and because it's as bad as the Christmas Special, and I haven't heard the word "woke" used to mean either of those two things.

Can you use another word in place of "woke" that has a more precise meaning? If you're trying to say "LGBT-affirming", you can say that without violating CF's rules.

 

[Tuur]

Can you use another word in place of "woke" that has a more precise meaning? If you're trying to say "LGBT-affirming", you can say that without violating CF's rules.

Woke is a word with a precise meaning. If I must play Charlie Brown making a run at the football, woke was originally a liberal term, indicating they had "awakened" to one or more issues. It became associated with virtue signaling of causes embraced by self-described progressives. That virtue signaling is an important aspect because it's front and center, often of greater importance than the product or plot. With fiction, you end up with message fiction, where the message takes precedent over the plot. Message fiction is hard to do well, regardless of what that message may be, and for that reason usually only finds fans among those totally committed to the message.

Woke, then, is virtue signaling of values espoused by self-described progressives to the point that it take precedent over product and plot. The same thing can happen at the other end of the spectrum. Here we find terms like bigoted or racist or "facist fantasy."

Since message fiction is essentially preaching to the choir, only the choir comes to see it, and that's what usually happens, because most people buy a product to do a particular job or enjoy fiction for escapism, not come to hear a lecture. With woke, this is usually dismissed as those who wouldn't spend their money on a lecture being what self-described progressives despise.

 

[PloverWing]

Woke, then, is virtue signaling of values espoused by self-described progressives to the point that it take precedent over product and plot.

Thank you for giving your definition. That helps me as I try to understand you.

I agree that:

1) Virtue signaling, without actually doing the hard work of fixing things that are wrong in our society, is of limited value.

2) Creating fiction that is so intent on communicating a message that it fails to create believable characters with authentic dialogue and meaningful choices is a waste of the artist's time and the audience's time.

 

[Tuur]

Thank you for giving your definition. That helps me as I try to understand you.

I agree that:

1) Virtue signaling, without actually doing the hard work of fixing things that are wrong in our society, is of limited value.

2) Creating fiction that is so intent on communicating a message that it fails to create believable characters with authentic dialogue and meaningful choices is a waste of the artist's time and the audience's time.

I was on the way to work when I realized I left out something crucial. If you ever saw the show In Living Color, Jim Carrey had a character who literally went around saying "I'm gay." The joke was Carrey's character was over-the-top obnoxious and people were offended by that and not that the character was gay. That's a strong component in woke, but it's not restricted to woke. No one would call Atlas Shrugged woke, but it has to be a conservative equivalent. I've tried three times to read it, and each time so put off by the message fiction aspect that I put it down.

Since we're in a Christian forum, yes, there's an equivalent in Christianity, too, so much that when I hear someone start to mention the Lord in a strictly secular setting, I brace myself for what may be an onslaught of Christian virtue signaling. Not because they mention the Lord, far from it. Jesus warns that if we are ashamed of Him, he will be ashamed of us. It's because of those who do so only to signal "See? I'm good"" and there's nothing more to it than that.

The problem is that while there's a word for when self-described progressives do this, there's not for when other ideologies do the same thing.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

My best guess for Inside Out 2 is that it's considered "not woke" because there are no obvious gay or gender-ambiguous characters.

I saw it yesterday. The main character is white Female but all other characters are also female and of other races or ethnic groups. That sounds woke to me. The only characters that seemed male were Anger and Embarrassment. That sounds sexist since Joy was female. But none of that was important to me.

One thing that stuck with me was that Memories created Beliefs and Beliefs constructed the Sense of Self. Puberty was like a demolition team making room for more complex emotions. I liked Ennui. I also liked the visualization for how the psyche works, Stream of consciousness, repressed memories, Anxiety in conflict with Joy, etc. And it tuned out that Sadness and Embarrassment were kind of the heroes. I am not sure why they were chosen.