I watched "Inside Out 2" as a parent with young children in tow. This helped me to appreciate the parts of the movie geared toward kids - the jokes about video game characters, the slapstick humor, and the dad-joke punnery. However, I strongly suspect that the "Inside Out" movies are really made for parents and other grown ups who want to help navigate their charges through the minefield of growing up. They introduce a way to talk about thorny emotional concepts through this lovely metaphor about our anthropomorphized feelings being in charge of our well-being.
It's been a year since the events of "Inside Out," and Riley Anderson (Kensington Tallman) is about to enter high school. A promising hockey player, she's attending a summer hockey camp with members of the team she wants to join, including her idol Val (Lilimar). However, this is also Riley's last chance to spend time with her junior high friends, who are going to a different school. In Riley's head, her five primary emotions, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira), and Fear (Tony Hale), are getting some new co-workers. These include Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos), and the emotion who quickly takes over everything, Anxiety (Maya Hawke).
PIXAR sequels have had a mixed track record when it comes to finding new places for their stories to go. "Inside Out 2" has the great idea of introducing Anxiety and seeing her wreak havoc during a stressful event in Riley's life. I also like the new concept of the "Sense of Self," which gives Riley more of a voice and presence in her own mind. However, most of the new emotions feel like they're just padding out the cast, and only useful for comic relief. You couldn't easily cut Envy, who doesn't feel fully developed, and doesn't actually seem to correspond to any envious behavior. Ennui and Embarrassment are funnier caricatures of teenage behavior, but still pretty one-note. The structure of the film also is very close to the one in the first film, with Joy and the original emotions being ejected from the control room, and sent on a quest through the hinterlands of Riley's mind. Joy has to learn essentially the same lesson about not repressing negative experiences, and not denying the more uncomfortable parts of yourself.
There are some sequences in "Inside Out 2" that are among the best things that PIXAR has ever done. There's a depiction of a panic attack that is viscerally upsetting to watch, but handled with great care and framed in such a way that suggests that the filmmakers expected it to be used as a teaching or therapeutic tool in the future. This isn't the kind of thing I see any of PIXAR's competitors doing, and it's a reminder that despite their recent box office troubles, the studio's standards remain very high. If I were watching "Inside Out 2" without having seen the original, and I didn't know about the cast substitutions, the repetitive story beats, and the little continuity mismatches with the first film, it would have worked better for me. However, this film worked better for my kids than the original, which gives me a lot to think about.
Despite Riley being a teenager, "Inside Out 2" is family viewing, and safe for much younger kids. The filmmakers largely steer clear of anything to do with hormones or romance, in stark contrast to more challenging movies about girls the same age like "Eighth Grade." Even "Turning Red" was a much more well-rounded look at girls in the throes of puberty. I think actual thirteen year-olds would still enjoy "Inside Out 2," and relate to Riley's experiences, but the references to "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and the "1984" Apple Superbowl ad aren't really for them.
However, if "Inside Out" turns into a longer series the way that "Toy Story" has," the filmmakers won't be able to ignore the more R-rated parts of growing up forever. Since "Inside Out" is by far the biggest PIXAR hit of the 2020s, an "Inside Out 3" at this point is inevitable.
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