A listlessness or detachment familiar to any parent of a teenager, ennui makes its debut as a new emotion in the sequel out Friday.
Pixar’s newest film, Inside Out 2, hit theaters Friday, and with it came a release of new on-screen emotions that are sure to be familiar to any parent.
The animated sequel follows the original „Inside Out“, the 2015 hit that tells the story of Riley, an 11-year-old girl dealing with anthropomorphized version of her emotions. The new film finds Riley navigating the ups and downs of teenage life, and a host of new emotions, from „Anxiety“ to „Ennui.“
Ennui is a French word that translates to a kind of existential boredom or dissatisfaction with life. In the film, the character Ennui, which is aptly voiced by the French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos, is mostly disinterested in what is taking place around her and instead takes on a feeling of detachment or lethargy.
„Most people understand more commonly used terms like depression or boredom“, Theresa Nguyen, chief research officer with Mental Health America, told Newsweek. „Human beings are not great at identifying emotions. When you ask somebody how they feel it’s ‚bad‘, ‚good.“
„It’s really awesome that when Riley hits puberty, we are introducing the idea of complex emotions“, Nguyen said.
„Ennui can’t be bothered to raise her head, she’s so bored“, Jason Deamer, the fillm’s production designer, explained in press materials provided by Pixar. „We ultimately went with this dark, desaturated, blue-grayish shade—if I had to give it a name, it’d be ‚blah.'“
„We can feel ennui to varying degrees“, Nguyen added. „It’s a mixture of long-term boredom, listlessness, sadness.“ But it’s not the same as depression.
