Meet Ennui: Inside Out 2 Highlights Boredom’s Importance

Inside Out 2 Introduces Ennui: The Importance of Boredom

Disney Pixar’s Inside Out (2015) taught children emotional regulation through characters representing Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. In Inside Out 2, Riley turns 13, introducing more complex emotions like Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui.

Ennui, voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos, embodies boredom. Anxiety (Maya Hawke) explains, “we all have a job to do,” and Ennui’s role is to highlight boredom’s impact on our lives.

Historically, boredom has been debated for its positive and negative impacts, especially in childhood and adolescence. Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips describes ennui as a state of “suspended animation,” while psychologists James Danckert and John Eastwood see it as “a call to action.”

Media corporations often exploit boredom by promoting digital devices as a solution. However, overuse of smartphones can increase boredom and correlate with mental health issues, particularly in teenagers.

Inside Out 2 focuses on boredom’s positive developmental role. Ennui, draped in dark blue sweats and dispassionately staring at her phone, contrasts with Anxiety’s frenetic energy. Ennui’s appearance, marked by a “blah” shade of blue, and her behaviors, including sighs and eye rolls, capture the essence of boredom.

Ennui often takes a back seat to Anxiety but becomes crucial at key moments. For example, when Riley feels embarrassed at summer camp, Ennui steps in, using sarcasm to protect Riley from social anxiety. This mirrors sociologist Georg Simmel’s concept of the “blasé attitude,” a protective indifference to manage the sensory overload of modern life.

Ennui helps temper Riley’s emotional extremes, providing a buffer against the intense stimuli of teenage life. By balancing her emotions, Ennui aids Riley’s transition from childhood to adolescence, demonstrating that boredom, while often seen negatively, plays a vital role in emotional development and resilience.

Re-reported from the article originally published in SheThePeople.