Valentina "Val" Ortiz is a supporting character in Disney•Pixar's 2024 animated feature film Inside Out 2. She is a high school hockey player and the popular girl at camp who everyone, including Riley and her friends looks up to.
Background
Official Description
Valentina "Val" Ortiz is that girl – the one everyone, including Riley and her friends, look up to. Captain of the varsity hockey team, confident while kind to all, and effortlessly rocking a signature red streak in her hair, everyone is impressed or obsessed with Valentina. Best of all, she sees varsity potential in Riley – and Riley is…freaking out about it.
Personality
Valentina Ortiz has a calm and adaptable personality, capable of easily adjusting to various situations. Her discipline is notable, reflected in her excellence in hockey, a sport in which she stands out as an exceptional player. As captain of the Firehawks, she demonstrates her leadership abilities, leading her team with determination and motivation. Val is kind and empathetic, qualities that clearly come through in her interactions for the other girls at camp, especially with Riley. Her patience and relaxed nature make her easy to get along with and a constant support figure for those around her. Whenever someone says something negative about anybody, like her friends about Riley, Val is one to immediately stand up for Riley by recalling of embarrassing memories for her friends, that they were not so different from Riley when they started puberty and high school. She especially tells the other Firehawks to cool off on giving Riley peer pressure as to try to not make her feel worse or more anxious of what's to come. Val even shows concern for those who do not care of themselves such as when she noticed Riley did not get enough sleep and came to check on Grace Hsieh after Riley accidentally skated into her.
Physical appearance
Val is a slim Latina teenager with olive skin, brown eyes, and long brunette wavy hair with a single red streak. She also wears red eyeshadow.
Her attire is that of royal-blue, one-shouldered sweater over a gray-trimmed black bra, black sweatpants, and gray-and-white tennis shoes with light red details. She also accessorizes with a golden necklace with her name as the pendant, and gold piercings in her upper right ear and both her lower ears.
When she is out on the ice, she wears the hockey camp jersey uniform with her hair tied in a low ponytail, and with her makeup wiped off.
Role in the film
Valentina "Val" Ortiz is the captain of the Firehawks hockey team at high school and hockey camp. She first appears on the first day of hockey camp, accidentally bumping into Riley Andersen. She helps Riley up where the girl becomes excited to meet her in person as Riley is a huge fan of Val's. Val then recognizes Riley from stories Coach Roberts told her and the rest of her team, but assumed she was from Michigan instead of Minnesota.
Because of her presence as a popular high-school girl, Riley's new emotions (minus Nostalgia) have done a takeover in their host's headquarters, which involves exiling the five primary emotions out of the headquarters. This has abruptly caused Riley herself to behave rather improperly, going through stuff under the influence of Val, such as being distant to her best friends Bree and Grace, pretending to like stuff she's not personally into (such as protein bars), being socially awkward, and even dyeing part of her hair red to emulate Val's.
During the climactic hockey game, Val is shocked to see Riley playing the game competently, but has also done it rather selfishly (thanks to Anxiety's continuous control on her). However, Val later felt devastated after seeing Riley hitting one of her best friends Grace, leading to Riley's anxious state.
After Riley calms herself down and reconciles with Bree and Grace, Val's later seen hanging out with the other Firehawks, where Riley herself shares to them her best friends. Val then gives Riley some advice about having second chances of making it on the team, saying "there's always next year" to her fellow teammate.
Trivia
- Val is one of the few characters whose Emotions weren't shown in the film.
- She is 17 years old in the film.[1]
- The end credits of Inside Out 2 has her being listed by her full first name, Valentina, despite the fact that she's much more referred to as "Val".
- Even though it's technically incorrect, it also makes sense that she refers to Riley, who originated from Minnesota, as "Michigan", since both U.S. states are part of the country's Midwestern region.
Gallery
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Miscellaneous
References