Inside Out 2 Review

Growing Up

The original Inside Out film from 2015 is one of my top Pixar films of all time. It was beautifully creative in the way it portrayed emotions and told a deep and compelling story with a powerful heartfelt message. Room for a sequel was definitely there as the ending of the film teased the next adolescent years for our protagonist Riley, and that is exactly what Pixar capitalizes on. Inside Out 2 may not possess the same awe-struck creativity that made the original so novel, but it still manages to expand upon its concepts in interesting ways, introduce new themes and ideas regarding the pressures of growing up, and maintain a powerful message all together. Furthermore, it is exciting once again to see a Pixar film that lives up to the standard it set almost 30 years ago.

Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.

The film’s story isn’t something that you’ll be necessarily surprised by, but the journey and the way the film navigates it through its creative display of emotions is at the heart of the film. Seeing how the different emotions confront new ones such as Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui (boredom), does lead to an interesting display about the art of growing up. As Riley grows up she “requires more sophisticated emotions”, as one character puts it, and the clash between more established emotions such as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust with more nuanced ones lends to both moments of comedy but also moments of powerful thought provoking dialogue.

No two characters are at odds more with one another than Joy and Anxiety, and from this lies the central conflict for Riley as she begins to enter high school. Joy wants Riley to be happy and enjoy her time, while Anxiety fervently wants to plan for Riley’s future. Neither character is necessarily in the wrong from a motivation standpoint, but the manner of control they want to have provides thought provoking questions. How does happiness and planning for the future coincide? Does one’s sense of Joy dwindle as they get older? Is having anxiety a good thing or a bad thing? The film poses these questions and does come to some satisfying conclusions by the time the film reaches its conclusion, and firmly cements Pixar in its position to tell enriching stories for both kids and adults.

There’s also a new concept introduced with Riley’s “Sense of Self”. As she grows older, new beliefs start to form that influences her actions. The films examination of how emotional experiences define beliefs and sense of self was entirely novel, thought-provoking, emotional, ingenious, and wonderful to see from a children’s animated film. The film reaches a fantastic conclusion as Riley’s emotions and her beliefs clash with one another to do what they believe is best of Riley. It portrays Pixar’s sense of creativity and imagination to tell something cool and novel.

Inside Out 2 remains a humorous film as well, and it has several new gags that bring laughs for children and adults alike. The element to blend jokes that kids find funny in one way, and adults find funny in another is entirely an art that Pixar manages to still capture well. The same can be said for the dialogue in the film. An early instance sees Joy and Sadness going to the same place together where Joy says to Sadness, “wherever I go, you go”. For kids, its a sweet reminder of friendship and for adults its an interesting commentary on how where there is sadness there is also joy and vice versa. Incredibly smart.

In terms of flaws, the film definitely does introduce new concepts and ideas to Riley’s headquarters of emotions that are interesting and fun at the same time. However, the entire creativity of the idea isn’t as novel as it once was in 2015, which can make revisiting some lands such as imagination island a little redundant although still fun to see under the lens of puberty. Also, out of all the new emotions it is really only Anxiety that stands out as a character and the rest are really their for support. No really development or arc is given other than to give Anxiety someone to speak with.

At the end of the day, it is amazing to see Pixar come back swinging and delivering on a great foundation and premise with Inside Out 2. The laughs are all there, the thought provoking dialogue and illustrations are mesmerizing, and the conclusion it reaches on the pains and joys of growing up are all satisfactorily evident by the film’s conclusion. While some may be disappointed that Pixar decided to revisit a sequel, it should be noted that they handled this story with care and actually expanded upon an excellent foundation to give a memorable movie experience! Definitely check this one out soon!

(A -) Endearing