In May 2020, Pixar filmmakers invited me to collaborate with them as they began their work on “Inside Out 2.” They explained that in the sequel Riley would now be a teenager, and the action would begin with her “headquarters” being crashed by four new emotions, led by Anxiety.

As a clinician focused on population-level mental health, I was intrigued by the decision to center Anxiety in the sequel, given the tremendous power of movies to shift perception and shape conversation. Watching the story develop, I came to see that the Pixar team was crafting one of the most culturally significant films of this moment. Why? Because movies matter. Movies can change the way people look at things, see things. Movies impact how we see the world, and how we see ourselves. They build for us an imagined reality into which we try to situate ourselves, sometimes for the worse (we...