It’s been a few years since Pixar had a real hit on its hands. After a string of disappointments like Elemental, Lightyear, and Turning Red and a recent round of layoffs, Pixar needs a win and needs it fast. But will going back to the sequel well with one of its most beloved films, Inside Out, do the trick?
Inside Out 2 continues the story of a Riley (Kensington Tallman), a now 13-year-old, braces-wearing, talented hockey-obsessed teenager. After winning the championship game, she and her two best friends are invited to a hockey skills camp hosted by Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown), the coach of local high school girls’ hockey team. Seeing this as a huge opportunity to make her mark and impress the coach before her freshman year, Riley is both excited and a bit nervous. But her nervousness turns into full-blown anxiety when, on the car ride to camp, her friends inform her that they won’t be going to the same high school as her anymore due to a boundary change. Once she arrives, she’s befriended by the star of the high school hockey team Val (Lilimar), forcing a dichotomy in Riley’s mind of having to choose between her old friends or potential new ones all while going out of her way to show off her hockey skills.
With all these big changes happening on the outside, we see big changes on the inside in Riley’s mind. A slew of new emotions has joined headquarters: Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Anxiety soon takes over and kicks out the original five emotions–Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale)–forcing them to work together to find a way before Anxiety works Riley into a frenzy and destroys her chances of entering this new stage of life successfully forever.
With a cast of 9 main emotions, in addition Riley, her family, her friends and a whole bunch of new characters at hockey camp, the movie could feel crowded. However, the filmmakers do a good job of sidelining some of the newer emotions like Envy and Ennui and instead allow Anxiety to steal the show, which is appropriate for the plot. The choice to include the motion Ennui, a French word, instead of Boredom, doesn’t make a lot of sense for an American character and feels like the filmmakers just thought it would funny to have this apathetic character have a French accent.
As for our original gang of emotions, Sadness takes a side quest and stays out of the lime light, which allows Joy to go on an adventure with Disgust, Anger, and Fear, preventing the film from feeling too derivative of the original. We get some fun moments between these four as they explore new areas of the brain.
Due to the nature of the themes of film, Inside Out 2 isn’t as fun, whimsical or imaginative as its predecessor. There’s no imaginary friend Bing Bong, Dream Productions, or abstract thought; however, we do still get some hilarious moments with other psychological and mind concepts such the introduction of sense of self, stream of thought, and sarcasm, which manifests as an actual catty chasm inhibiting our protagonists from progressing.
There are some minor new characters we meet in Riley’s mind that are an absolute hoot. Bloofy, a character from Riley’s favorite childhood TV show, is a riff of 4th-wall breaking characters like Blue from Blue’s Clues and Dora from Dora the Explorer. His companion is a flying fanny pack called Pouchy, that is hilariously reminiscent of Toodles from Mickeys Mouse Clubhouse. And we can’t forget about secret Riley’s video game crush, Lance Slashblade, a pixelated early 2000s Final Fantasy-esque character.
With Anxiety being a main character, there’s a concern focusing too much on this negative emotion could introduce little kids to a concept they are not ready to handle. However, Anxiety is appropriately portrayed as an antagonist and pest who is out of control and irrationally takes over anything she touches, leading Riley to make some questionable moral choices along the way.
Another concern was the focus on puberty, which was a huge turn off for parents with Pixar’s 2022 film Turning Red. In Inside Out 2, the subject matter is expertly navigated on an extreme surface level without going into the messy details. Instead, the film focuses on emotional changes of puberty and the struggles, insecurities, and growth that comes with it.
With a few more years under her belt, Riley’s world becomes a little more complicated. Her inner conflict of choosing her original friends or making new friends in an attempt to secure her future social success in high school feels real and authentic. You feel bad for her because no matter what she ends up choosing, the decision is agonizing and, if done incorrectly due to her immaturity, may hurt people in the process.
Overall, Inside Out 2 is a worthy successor to the wildly successful Inside Out. While it’s not as unique and whimsical as the first, it’s fun next chapter in Riley’s coming of age story that families will love and no doubt will be a box office success. And on top of that, it’s a win that Pixar desperately needs.
★★★1/2