- “Ennui. It's what you would call... the boredom.”
- ―Ennui describing what her name means
Ennui ("Boredom" in French) is a major character in Disney•Pixar's 2024 animated feature film Inside Out 2. She is one of the new emotions and the ninth inside Riley Andersen's mind.
Background
Official Description
- Bored and lethargic with a well-practiced eyeroll, Ennui adds the perfect amount of teenage apathy of Riley's personality, when she feels like it. The best part? She doesn't even have to get up off the couch - Ennui can work the console remotely using her mobile app. She's rarely interested enough to lift her own head. Ennui also serves an important function by building a little distance between Riley and her parents, which that's not fun if you're the parent.
Personality
Ennui, like her namesake, is the literal embodiment of any and all feelings of listlessness, lethargy and indifference. She is perpetually bored, apathetic, introverted, lazy, and deadpan. She speaks in a very unamused and uninterested monotone manner when conversing with the other emotions. She is commonly seen being on her phone and laying on the couch, but is shown to be capable of movement when she feels like it. The way she inserts her commands on the console is also a reflection of her lack of motivation, with her having an app on her phone to do so. Ennui also finds annoyance in the quirks of other emotions, like Joy's funny nicknames, Nostalgia reminiscing on recent events or Envy's enthusiasm on wanting something. She even shows indifference to Anxiety's plan to change Riley despite the fact she supports it, and gets annoyed by some of her decisions and squabbles, like waking Riley early to practice hockey and her freaking out about how to walk and what to say. She also is more level headed and more observant, such as telling Anxiety and Envy that the cool kids are leaving Riley behind due to their overthinking, and offering an obvious solution to keep Riley from walking awkwardly, like putting her hands in her pockets. This displays that she's more intelligent than she lets on and tends to display an "above it all" attitude towards the other Emotions with how she can be condescending at times.
Despite her apathetic and introverted demeanor, she still cares very deeply about Riley, with her main job being to provide a protective mechanism to keep Riley away from or not focus on things that are not worth her time and energy, such as drama and to an extent, her parents. She also helps Riley in showing an apathetic look and, in this way, "keeping it cool" when conversing with Val and the cool kids, while also using sarcasm to hide what she really feels.
There are exceptions to Ennui's perpetual disinterest and lethargy that prove them not to be her sole personality; when the other emotions are unsure of what to do, Ennui can show initiative. This can be seen when Anxiety, Envy, and Embarrassment panicked since they weren't sure of how to avoid Riley from feeling humiliated by the older popular girls, and Ennui moved all the way to the console to make Riley use sarcasm as a defense mechanism. Another example can be seen when Riley's parents asked her about camp and the other emotions started arguing whether or not they should or not tell them what transpired, with Ennui ending this debate by advancing and prompting Riley "keep it cool" through giving a vague answer that was both true and hid the events. Her dependency on her phone can cause her to get quite alarmed and upset whenever she loses it, as shown when Sadness steals it to prevent Riley from peeking into the coach's journal to see what she thought about her. Additionally, Ennui does have her moments where she does smile or show concern and/or compassion for not only Riley, but to the other emotions.
Physical appearance
Ennui bears a strong resemblance to Fear, with the main difference being a longer, triangle-shaped nose and multiple strands of hair. She has muted periwinkle skin, dull lavender eyes, and very long straight indigo hair with straight bangs hiding her eyebrows. Her wardrobe consists of an indigo sweatshirt and sweatpants and gray socks with blueish-gray heels and toes.
In the book, Go to Sleep, Anxiety!, she's seen wearing her sleepwear which consists of a dark gray sweatshirt and sweatpants, along with a white sleep mask.
Appearances
Inside Out 2
Ennui appears once Anxiety enters Headquarters after Riley Andersen turns 13 years. She operates the console with her phone so that Riley responds indifferently to Val Ortiz's invitation. Anger asks what emotion she is operating on now, and Anxiety proceeds to introduce Ennui, who appears lying on the couch. Joy welcomes Ennui, despite not pronouncing her name correctly, so she decides to nickname her "Wee-Wee", something that Ennui did not like. Anger tried to stop Ennui from using her phone, but Joy reminded him that she remembered that she had learned the lesson that all emotions are valid, something Anger reluctantly accepts. Her job is to help Riley preserve her energy from things that aren't worth her time.
Ennui is next seen showing very little enthusiasm in where she usually stares at phone not paying any attention. She tells the emotions that Joy is so old school after hearing the latter's plan of making the next three days of Riley's life about Bree and Grace, and just stares at her phone not showing full attention to Anxiety discussing bad scenarios from her team and her telling Nostalgia that they came to headquarters about thirty seconds ago after the latter reminisces this. She is also displeased of how Joy made Riley "fit in" by having her goof around with Bree and Grace, which causes all of the hockey players to have to give Coach Roberts their phones in a bucket for their focus and have practice skating lines.
Gallery
Trivia
- According to the character herself in the first trailer, her name is the French word for "boredom", which is pronounced "on-wee". This could possibly be on the emphasis that her voice actress is French.
- Originally, Ennui was one of the 27 emotions considered to appear in the first film and intended to be a male emotion, as shown by storyboards in early versions of the film, but she was discarded to make the story less complex.[citation needed] However, when they brought Ennui, Envy, and Embarrassment back in the sequel, she was reinvented as a female emotion.
- As concept art shows, Ennui was originally going to be pink in the sequel. However, it was changed to indigo, a dull and inconspicuous color, which fits the emotion she embodies.
- Ennui using her phone to control the console without touching it is a reference to the emotion she embodies, where she doesn't even have the motivation to go to the console.
- Ennui's voice actress, Adèle Exarchopoulos, also voiced Ember Lumen in the European French dub of Pixar's previous film, Elemental and reprised her role in the Canadian and European French dubs of Inside Out 2.
- Ennui and Disgust are the only emotions whose shape designs are inspired by a food of some sorts; Disgust being based on broccoli, and Ennui being a limp noodle.
- Ennui is responsible for the creation of the Sar-chasm after she used sarcasm as a defense mechanism to protect Riley from feeling humiliated. According to her, she has been waiting her whole life to do it.
- Ennui freaking out when her phone got stolen is quite common for people who are comfortable using electronic devices and will panic if those devices are lost or stolen.
- In dubs from Western Europe and Hispanic America, Ennui's name is kept in French to retain her foreignness. However, the Brazilian Portuguese dub, as well as most Eastern European and Asian dubs, translate her name, likely to make it easier for locals to pronounce.
- In the Malay dub of Inside Out 2, Ennui speaks Kedah Malay, and her localized name, 'Cemuih', is Kedahan for 'Jemu', meaning 'bored', 'uninterested' or 'had enough of (noun)'.[1]
References
- ↑ Aziz, Izzat (September 24, 2024). "‘Inside Out 2’ Di Disney+ Hotstar Menyertakan Alih Suara Bahasa Melayu". Aksiz. Retrieved on September 27, 2024.
