Inside Out 2

More complex emotions are introduced as Riley hits puberty in Inside Out 2. Inside the mind of Riley (Kensington Tallman), the emotions of Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale) and Disgust (Liza Lapira) have perfected their balance, with Joy using Riley’s best memories to create her sense of self. However, as Riley is about to leave for hockey camp with her best friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green), things go haywire in her mind as puberty kicks in. This includes the introduction of the new emotions Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). With Riley hoping to make a good impression on her coach and high school star player Valentina Ortiz (Lilimar), Anxiety ejects the old emotions and Riley’s sense of self, to create an all-new person, ready for high school.

Inside Out 2 Synopsis

Inside Out 2 is the sequel to the Oscar-winning 2015 original with first-time director Kelsey Mann taking over from original filmmaker Pete Doctor. Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and Lewis Black return as the emotions of Joy, Sadness, and Anger, while Tony Hale (Toy Story 4) and Liza Lapira take over the roles of Fear and Disgust from Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling respectively. They are joined by newcomers Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Ayo Edebiri (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem), Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai) as the new complex emotions of Anxiety, Envy, Ennui (Boredom), and Embarrassment.

Anxiety visualizes every scenario where things can go wrong for Riley at Hockey Camp and comes up with an elaborate plan for the weekend. However, these plans don’t involve Riley’s old emotions and Anxiety ends up ejecting them from headquarters, as she begins to build a new sense of self for the teenager. Joy and the other emotions try to reach the back of the mind to retrieve Riley’s old sense of self before Anxiety completely takes over.

My Thoughts on Inside Out 2

Inside Out 2 is a decade-long sequel, which is a suitable follow-up, even if it doesn’t have the same charm as the original. The plot of the film is more or less a carbon copy of the original, except instead of only Joy and Sadness going on a quest through the mind, ALL of Riley’s original emotions have to find themselves trying to restore her sense of sense before Anxiety takes over completely.

While it would be too much to call Anxiety the villain of Inside Out 2, she is very much the film’s antagonist, forcing Joy and the other original emotions out of headquarters, as she takes over building Riley’s new sense of self. Anxiety is a character that is so concerned with achieving the best outcome for Riley, that she doesn’t stop to consider if it is the right outcome. Anxiety’s actions result in Riley giving the cold shoulder to her best friends Grace and Bree, while she tries to make a good impression with star hockey player Valentina Ortiz. There’s also a fun cameo by June Squibb, voicing the elderly emotion of Nostalgia.

As someone who suffers from bad anxiety well into adulthood, I am not sure how I feel about the way Inside Out 2 treats Anxiety as a character. The emotions may be complex, but being a kid’s movie, Inside Out 2 simplifies them down to their most basic elements. This includes wasting someone like Paul Walter Hauser, who delivers mostly grunts and groans as the oversized shy emotion of Embarrassment. Some of the more enjoyable characters of Inside Out 2 are more cameos, such as the 2D animated dog Bloofy (Ron Funches) and his sidekick Pouchy (James Austin Johnson) and the emo anime videogame character Lance Slashblade (Yong Yea).

I’m not going to criticize Inside Out 2 as an example of Pixar focusing more on existing IPs than original ideas, since the studio seems to be alternating these sequels with films such as last year’s Elemental. The original Inside Out itself was one of those original ideas when it came out in 2015. While Inside Out 2 doesn’t reach the same highs, the film is still ultimately worth seeing.

Pixar brings us inside the head of a pre-pubescent girl in Inside Out. The emotions of Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) control the personality of 11 year old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) from the master control inside of her head.  When Riley and her parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) move from Minnesota to San Francisco, Riley begins to experience mood swings, which gets worse when her core memories, along with Joy and Sadness, find themselves lost in the outer reaches of Riley’s long term memory.  Joy and Sadness begin the journey to make it back to master control before all the core elements of Riley’s personality are destroyed.

There was a time when Pixar was considered the undisputed champion of animation, having practically revolutionized the current standard of CGI animated films.  However, Pixar has been having a rough time over the last five years or so, as they began to focus more on sequels of past films, with the only original story in that time being 2012’s Brave.  While the films released were still somewhat decent, many began to criticize Pixar for their increased lack of originality.  While there are still multiple sequels in production, this year sees the release of not one, but two original Pixar stories.  The first of these is Inside Out, which is directed by Pete Doctor (Up).

Up is probably best remembered for its opening montage, which gave the touching and sad backstory for the film’s protagonist Carl Fredricksen.  Inside Out sort of builds upon Up‘s dramatic opening, as the film frequently contrasts the bright and colourful comedy in master control with the much more grim reality of Riley’s life.  At the centre of all this is the lead emotion Joy, who has grown used to the fact that all the memories from Riley’s early life were generally happy ones.  This is why Joy begins to panic after Riley begins to experience mood swings after her move, which results in her being anything but happy.  Joy is particularly fearful of the interference of Sadness, who turns happy memories sad when she touches them.  However, when Joy and Sadness find themselves in the outer reaches of Riley’s head, they slowly learn that they are both important aspects of Riley’s personality.

Like its central characters, those watching Inside Out will experience a wide range of emotions.  Some scenes of the film are very funny, while others are quite sad and dramatic.  It can be very tricky for a film to balance sudden shifts in tone, however I would have to say that Inside Out accomplishes this quite nicely.  It also helps that the mood swings that Riley experiences are something that kids of her age will likely greatly relate with.  The ultimate message of Inside Out is that no one emotion is better than the other and they will have to all work together to create the best personality.

Altogether, Inside Out shows that Pixar still has the abilities to create funny and touching original stories.

 ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 |  REALLY LIKED IT