Pixar’s biggest hit and Netflix’s raunchy Nick Kroll/John Mulaney comedy have a ton in common. But which one has better tips on dealing with anxiety?
The wholesome Pixar family film Inside Out 2 and the raunchy Netflix comedy Big Mouth take fundamentally different approaches to looking inside the minds of middle-schoolers, but their anxiety plotlines are remarkably similar in the broad details, and both on the same wavelength when it comes to dealing with the problem. Big Mouth pairs mature discussions about mental health with huge servings of dick jokes, while Inside Out 2 takes an entirely sexless view of the changes hormones bring. But both animated projects eventually get to the same message about how anxiety is a powerful, tumultuous force that can never be banished, but can be managed with a little help from friends.
Which one wore the same plot better? Here’s a breakdown of how the two tonally different stories handle the same beats — and how they form an unlikely double feature for adults and teens figuring out how to cope with anxiety.
[Ed. note: Major spoilers ahead for Big Mouth season 4 and Inside Out 2.]Inside Out 2 vs. Big Mouth: What does anxiety feel like?
The parallels between the two stories are striking. Inside Out 2’s Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and Big Mouth’s Tito the Anxiety Mosquito (Maria Bamford) both manifest for the first time to plague their respective kid victims at summer camp. That happens in part because both of those kids are feeling insecure in their relationships with their best friends. Riley (Kensington Tallman) has just learned she and her besties will be going to different high schools, and she’s defensively pulling back from their friendship. Similarly, Nick Birch (Nick Kroll) is estranged from his closest friend Andrew Glouberman (John Mulaney) after a huge fight over Nick kissing Andrew’s ex-girlfriend.
Tito the Anxiety Mosquito shows up in the season 4 premiere of Big Mouth, a new addition to the show’s rogues’ gallery of emotions like Depression Kitty and the Shame Wizard. (Shame was considered as a new emotion for Inside Out 2, but didn’t make the cut.) “I’m the worst, but so are you,” Tito says as an introduction, after biting Nick.
Like so many modern Disney movies, the Inside Out series doesn’t really have villains, but Anxiety acts as an antagonist, facing off against the first film’s emotion characters. Joy (Amy Poehler) typically sits at the center of the emotional console controlling Riley, and thinks of herself as the hero of the story. While she learned to give space to Sadness (Phyllis Smith) in the first film, she’s reluctant to do the same for Anxiety and Riley’s other new emotions, and she pushes Riley to goof off with her best friends from school, even when she would be better served by paying attention to what the hockey camp’s coach is saying.
Inside Out 2’s approach here is stronger, because it acknowledges that anxiety can be advantageous if it helps you take useful actions — like Anxiety suggesting Riley study for her Spanish test at the end of the film.
