Pixar just released another original movie, and it shows that the animation studio is continuing one of its biggest storytelling trends from Inside Out 2. The box office success of Inside Out 2 has made it one of Pixar’s most notable releases in recent years, and while Pixar’s original movies aren’t commercially performing as well, they are taking notes from the sequel.

After the commercial success and critical acclaim of 2015’s Inside Out, it quickly became a perfect candidate for franchise material. Thus, Pixar released Inside Out 2 in 2024, with it having a budget of $200 million. Shockingly, the film made $1.699 billion at the box office, with it briefly becoming the highest-grossing animated movie of all time.

In the wake of Inside Out 2‘s success and the underperformance of original films like Elemental, Pixar has reᴀssessed its sequel plans, attempting to find the right balance between franchise films and original movies. Interestingly, this may have had an impact on their 2025 release.

Pixar Has Gone All-In On Stories About Anxiety With Elio & Inside Out 2

It Is A Key Theme In Pixar’s Last Two Movies

Elio is Pixar’s most recent original film, and while it tells an all-new story, it may have lifted a key element from Inside Out 2. Elio tells the story of a young boy who becomes obsessed with getting abducted by aliens. Once he successfully does so, he is mistaken for the leader of Earth, embroiling him in an intergalactic conflict.

Elio uses its sprawling alien story to explore loneliness and the anxiety that comes along with that. Elio is so nervous that he will be rejected again by the aliens that he lies about who he is, creating a big mess. This anxiety is something that Elio has to get over, with him in the end realizing that some people love him for who he is.

This anxiety storyline obviously has a lot of parallels to the story of Inside Out 2. The Inside Out sequel sees the original five emotions meet a new batch of emotions, led by Anxiety. Anxiety attempts to take over Riley as she enters her teenage years, with Joy, Sadness, and the rest of the gang having to learn how to overcome the emotion.

Anxiety has been the core of the conflict of the last two Pixar releases, proving that this is a theme that the studio is interested in exploring. Anxiety is an issue that Pixar’s audience is dealing with more than ever, so it is good that the studio has gone all-in on telling these stories.

While Inside Out 2 and Elio both deal with anxiety, they tackle them in different ways. Elio is more about how to approach outside factors that cause anxiety, while Inside Out 2 is about how to deal with the emotion internally, meaning that there are distinct lessons to take from both Pixar films.