Oh, so many emotions! Those colorful, crazy emotions are back showing audiences what Riley’s going through as she hits puberty in Pixar’s animated sequel Inside Out 2.
Riley (Kensingston Tallman) has grown up since we last saw her in 2015 is now 13 and headed to hockey camp with her two best friends, Grace (Grace Lu ) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green). The glowing blue thread in Riley’s mind (her core belief) is that she’s a good person. Of course, all of her emotions are growing up with her. Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and Disgust (Liza Lapira) are on watch 24/7, helping her accomplish that goal.
However, the night before taking off for hockey camp, alarms go off in Riley’s mind. A construction crew arrives and replaces the old control console with a much improved – and larger – one. As Joy and the other emotions figure out how to work the new console, an orange, feather-duster-looking creature interrupts out of nowhere. She introduces herself as one of Riley’s new emotions, Anxiety (Maya Hawke). And she’s not alone. Anxiety’s with a trio of new emotions: Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), needy Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and the very bored, and very French, Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos).
Anxiety assumes control in order to create a new version of Riley, one who will impress Val, the star hockey player at the camp, and consequently raise Riley’s social status among the popular/cool crowd. Joy tries to intercede, informing newcomer Anxiety that it takes all of them to help Riley be the person she is. Anxiety’s having none of it, saying, “Riley’s life requires more sophisticated emotions than all of you.”
And with that, Anxiety has Joy, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, and Fear bottled up and exiles them to the back of Riley’s mind, along with a big mountain of her bad memories.
Now in complete control, Anxiety changes Riley’s personality and core belief to make her a brown-nosing, loyal follower of Val – all to impress and secure her place on next year’s hockey team. This switch in the girl they all love’s personality sends Joy and her comrades into action.
They must find a way to get back to the headquarters of Riley’s mind, but it won’t be easy. They’ll have to face new areas such as “Sar-Chasm” a rocky, seemingly never-ending gorge of tonal miscommunication, and Mount Crushmore, made up of Riley’s crushes, if they are to stop Anxiety and put back Riley’s core belief that she’s a good person, which is fading away and has almost gone silent.
Dazzling, colorful, and benefiting from a superb voice cast, Inside Out 2 is a worthy sequel to the 2015 animated blockbuster. The adventure’s a little bigger in this outing and more complicated, which is fitting since Riley is now a teenager.
Amy Poehler returns as the voice of Joy and once again brings her to life with vibrant, positive energy and confidence. Poehler is the soul of Joy and makes her one of the most memorable characters in the Pixar/Disney films.
Maya Hawke is perfect as the voice of Anxiety, making the new emotion a formidable adversary to the original emotions. Anxiety truly believes she knows best how to reshape Riley and won’t let any other emotion get in her way. The only downside to Anxiety is that, unlike the other emotions, she is never likable or funny. In fact, she’s mostly just annoying. Which is a shame as she gets the most screen time, even more than Joy and Sadness who were the heart and soul of the first film.
Another issue the sequel has is that it trades emotional depth and real heartache, which the original had, for witty one-liners and slapstick. It lacks the emotional depth of its predecessor. But it does feature worthwhile lessons for kids about loyalty, being true to yourself, and not giving in to fear and anxiety. It’s not heavy-handed and delivers life lessons in a fun and chaotic fashion.
Still, with beautiful animation, a wonderful voice cast, and plenty of laughs, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 is an enjoyable, entertaining sequel that will appeal to the entire family.
GRADE: B
MPAA Rating: PG for some thematic elements
Release Date: June 14, 2024
Running Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
Director: Kelsey Mann
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