Tag Archive for: family movie review

Inside Out 2 and Our Identity in Christ

Inside Out 2 Big Screen

Disney’s Masterful Exposé of Riley’s Brain on Puberty Reminds Me that Emotional Regulation Can Be Hard for Adults, Too

 

by Jenna Kruse

 

It would be easy to chalk up Disney’s newest Pixar hit, Inside Out 2, as cinema therapy for those whose hormone siren just went off—it certainly normalizes teeth that haven’t yet surrendered to the braces, skin that won’t cooperate, and the awkwardness of needing deodorant for the first time.

 

But as the movie masterfully gives a behind-the-scenes view of Riley’s emotional control center, I’m left wondering why, as a 40-year-old woman, I still relate so powerfully to her story—and not just as a mother of a teen and preteen.

 

Riley’s experience of puberty and the subsequent “emotional overhaul” it causes mirrors the intensity with which many teenagers—and adults—experience the flesh vs. spirit war that Romans 7-8 exposes within us all.

 

Granted, Riley and my Read more

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Top 20 Gospel-Paralleling Disney Movie Quotes

Mad Hatter Quote

20 Things Disney Characters Have Said that Parallel Biblical Principles

 

Who doesn’t love a good Disney movie? The animation is out of this world, the storytellers are the world’s greatest, and there is usually a moment toward the movie’s end that makes you work to choke back tears. Don’t worry—your secret’s safe with me. Simply put, Disney is pure cinematic genius.

 

Some call the emotive scene at the end of the movie a “moral,” but there’s more to it than that. Our hearts tug on stories with a redemptive component because we were made for redemption. God himself placed a deep longing in our hearts for the kind of redemption that only he provides.

 

We know that the world is broken and if we’re honest, we feel it inside us too. Even so, a story that reminds us that “all is redeemable” is power. And the good news, folks? The theme of redemption comes from a place of truth. So, share these clips with your kids and let the conversation follow. With no further ado, introducing the top 20 Disney movie quotes paralleling gospel truths:

 

20. “You used to be much more…muchier. You’ve lost your muchness.”

-The Mad Hatter to Alice, Alice in Wonderland (2010)

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Encanto and our Stairway to Heaven

Encanto window

Disney’s Encanto is a movie for all the performers. All the achievers. All the perfectionists. And in this weary-worn world full of anxiety to perform, achieve, and perfect, we all need a message. A message about rest and about where our identity lies. Because isn’t that why we’re all tired? We’re trying to perfect an image of ourselves that is unsustainable. We are attempting to create our own self-worth. The worth of ourselves only ever came from Read more

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Disney’s Coco: A Parable

Coco and Chesterton quote

 

Disney’s Coco offers us a parable for Jesus’s most challenging words in all the Bible. Set in the vibrant town of Santa Cecilia, Mexico during its annual Day of the Dead rituals, a young Miguel wrestles with his family heritage that stands in direct opposition to the ache burning in his soul to pursue becoming a musician.

 

Miguel’s story begins like the plot arcs of so many other Disney characters—Merida in Brave, Rapunzel in Tangled, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Moana in the movie with her namesake, and more recently, Luca in Luca. Essentially, the main character comes of age by acknowledging their own Read more

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