Directed by: Kelsey Mann
Starring: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Phyllis Smith, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Ayo Edebiri
Animated/Adventure/Comedy | PG | 1 hr 36 min
4 stars
By Reed Ripley
As we ramp up into this year’s election cycle, it’s probably a good time for everyone to check in on their emotions. How better to do that than with Inside Out 2, the follow-up to 2015’s highly successful Inside Out and the latest Pixar film to successfully thread the needle of “entertaining children’s story” and “philosophical adult text.”
Where Inside Out focused on the first emotions we develop—joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust—Inside Out 2 introduces more complex emotions—anxiety, envy, embarrassment, and ennui—to capture the broader emotional palette we develop as puberty hits like a ton of bricks. That added complexity makes this film even more relatable to adults than its predecessor, and, truly, it has as much to show its older audience as its younger audience.
For kids, it’s a beautifully rendered film with a simple story. The old emotions, led by Joy (Amy Poehler), go on an adventure to reclaim Riley’s (the 13-year-old whose emotions we follow) “beliefs” after Riley’s new emotions, led by Anxiety (Maya Hawke), kick out the old emotions to install what they feel is best for Riley as she grows up. It’s linear storytelling that works as a fun, quick adventure (the brisk hour-and-a-half runtime is quite refreshing), and it allows younger audiences to engage with the weightier emotional themes at their own pace.
For adults, the film’s actual themes about the healthiness of understanding one’s own emotions and engaging with them, and in turn, the damage emotional suppression can do, hit home in a big way. That’s especially true for Anxiety, an emotion that literally takes control and dominates Riley’s other emotions to her detriment. It’s shown a bit too bluntly at times, but that doesn’t take away from the film’s high points of personifying our most complex and frightening emotion (for example, in the film’s best sequence, there’s an incredibly accurate portrayal of a panic attack).
Some of the simpler parts of the story do end up causing drag in the middle, especially where Joy and her crew must go from Point A to Point B to Point C. However, at its heart, Inside Out 2 succeeds just as Inside Out did—it delivers its message that everyone has emotions, that all those emotions serve a purpose, and that it’s okay to talk about them.
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Not as good as the first movie, but still great. Nice review.