THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
We all know Pixar has always been about sharing moving stories for families to experience and I think Inside Out is behind Toy Story in terms of such a narrative because now, it’s a franchise of its own that tells more that hasn’t been told before .
PLOT
2024’s Inside Out 2 takes place only 2 years after Riley Andersen and her parents moved from Minnesota to San Francisco. Her most personified emotions (Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy & Sadness) have overseen Riley’s elements of mind with the ‘Sense of Self’ that houses the memories that shape all her beliefs & feelings. Because Joy still wants to focus on making good memories, she sends bad memories to the back of her mind. As she goes to a three day hockey camp with her friends, Bree & Grace (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green & Grace Liu), to hopefully join her new school team, her puberty alarm goes off for the first time and the mind workers set up a new console before new emotions arrive. Riley gets a batch of four new ones as followed: Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy and Ennui aka Boredom. Anxiety leads the new emotions and quickly becomes at odds with the personified predecessors, particularly with Joy. The latter wants to make sure Riley has fun, but the former is focused on helping the child make new friends by joining the team, especially since Bree & Grace are going to a different high school. Wanting to start over, especially after Joy accidentally gets in trouble with Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown) for goofing around with her friends, Anxiety sends the Sense of Self to the back of her mind and the older emotions bottled in a memory vault. They do break out of the vault with the assist of Riley’s first fictional crush Lance Switchblade (Yong Yea) and favorite cartoon character duo Bloofy & Pouchy (Ron Funches & James Austin Johnson), in which the latter had dynamite to help them escape. Joy sends Sadness back to headquarters via recall tube in order to bring the others back with the Sense of Self in time before it can get worse for Riley. As Embarrasment keeps Sadness hidden due to having second thoughts, Anxiety focuses on befriending teammate Valentina Ortiz (Lilimar), which would strain things with Bree & Grace. She also makes a bold decision to sneak into the coach’s office, reading notes that she’s not ready to be a Fire Hawk. This only inspires her to overwork herself in training to prove herself and everyone of her worth. The older emotions pass through Imagination Land and see Anxiety convert a pillow fort into a studio where other mind workers create projections for Riley. The protagonists retreat after they encourage ideas more positive than what Anxiety prefers. They then pass through a parade of future jobs and continue transport with one of the balloons but they encounter a literal brainstorm due to Anxiety summoning lightbulb ideas. They are still able to reach the back of the mind and find the Sense of Self, but Joy feels like she’s not needed anymore once Anxiety destroys the recall tube. Despite this, she still expresses determination to bring back her Sense when causing an avalanche with the use of more explosives by Pouchy. As the originals get there, Anxiety has created a new Sense that is all of self doubt, which in turn causes Riley to have her first panic attack during the final tryout. It officially occurs when she gets put in the penalty box after accidentally hurting Grace. Anxiety only puts herself in distress until the originals finally return. Joy is able to confront her that not a singular emotion can determine who is Riley is, thus helping her be free of the console. Instead of using the original Sense of Self, she embraces a third version of it mixed with good & bad memories that both sets of emotion groups embrace. As that happens, Riley is able to make amends with Bree & Grace and Joy is able to lead the console for her to finish the tryouts. Some time after, Riley has maintained this friendship while also befriending Val and all emotions are on the same page. The film ends with Riley looking at her cellphone awaiting the results of the tryouts, but doesn’t tell her parents about the whole weekend ordeal, which leaves mixed feelings on both ends as her mother (Diane Lane) is suspicious but her father (Kyle MacLachlan) chooses to ignore it.
THOUGHTS
As a Pixar fan that enjoyed the predecessor, this sequel was inevitable as we all know there are more emotions than just five. Being aware of this had me aware there are so many ideas to explore and I think director Kelsey Mann and writers Meg LeFauve & Dave Holstein came through in such an expansion. Since children are always the targeted audience, you’re gonna get your fair share of chuckles with moments such as: Lance Switchblade being a jab at Final Fantasy and Disney poking fun of itself since Bloofy & Puchy are a parody to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so annoying that Fear loses his patience that he digs through his mouth/pocket for the dynamite. And the Sarchasm is so simple yet effective. A lot of the comedy goes to the new characters as well. Like Ayo Edibiri made Envy a delight for season embracing wishful ambitions whether she wishes to match someone’s hairstyle or trying to match someone else’s walk form. Then again, Adèle Exarchopoulus had her own shakeup as Ennui in being downright apathetic due to having her own phone, yet still interested enough to help Tiley out. As for the returning characters, Tony Hale was a solid choice for playing Fear, due to bringing his own flare in sharing reasonable paranoia that he’s prepared enough to the point of having an umbrella on him. Liza Laura was also enjoyable as Disgust because while she’s still cynical, she still comes from the heart on what she believes to best for Riley to avoid. I was relieved to see Lewis Black return as Anger because despite him still lacking patience, he’s still got his own compassion to bring to the table. The animation excels here in showing off the various parts of Riley’s mind. Seeing the parade of future careers was a nice touch because even though we hope she becomes an astronaut and goes to the moon the way Bing Bong would’ve wanted, the various careers behind that are a poignant way to say there’s no shame to follow new paths that’ll be exciting. The animation truly peaked however when it came to panic attack, giving what felt like the most accurate depiction of one itself, besides what Dreamworks pulled off with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Seeing that moment occur in this climax was what clicked the message to me once again that every part of yourself including the ones that are difficult to shares because ignoring the latter would not help you maintain the happiness you hold dearly. As long as you find your balance, you’ll remain resilient. Whenever you heard Kensington Tallman speak as Riley, you just felt all her confusion and at the same time, you see the chaos you expect to cope with when changes go south originally. Amy Poehler succeeds in giving Joy the most growth because she’s aware that she has to balance importance of everyone around her in order to help Riley the way she wants. She even sends Sadness back to base first, knowing they’ll succeed when on the same page, which proves she’s smarter than the others take her granted for. And the fact she’s willing to accept stepping aside was so bold, especially before she sees she’s still needed. Again, it was nice to see Phyllis Smith express much more confidence for Sadness than the signature insecurity she’s known for. Had she not trusted Joy compared to before, Riley would’ve been doomed. And it almost felt that way when Anxiety took over. Now to be clear, Anxiety is not a villain because in fact, Maya Hawke portrays her to be far more overprotective compared to Joy because the good intentions blow up in her face and doesn’t know what else to do when that happens. Once Joy came back, the second batch of nightmares concluded. I also adored Paul Walter Hauser as Embarassment because even for one with a few choice of words, he is able to express his big heart when not being so shy. That defends his decision to help Sadness as much as he did since he’s on the same motive in wanting to help Riley as cautious as possible. As long as everyone can keep this up with the next follow-up, they’ll be able to overcome a whole other set of odds. This movie is one I’ll always have a soft spot for, but there were still moments I couldn’t understand as I watched along. Like personally, I don’t think Riley should’ve been in the penalty box in the cold open since she was focusing on the puck before her opponent tripped. And then why does Sadness miss the fact Family Island got smaller than the new ones? Considering that Joy and the others look over their progress by the end of the day, Sadness shouldn’t be missing this. Even Fear should remember where Riley’s mouth piece since it’s easy to be afraid of germs. Also, how come the mind workers never explained the puberty alarm to the main emotions before it ever went off. Suspense is one thing for the plot, but conflict could’ve been avoided if they put more time being aware of new rules and new emotions. And does it count of a continuity error for Envy to touch a few buttons before touching one actually works on her end as she gets introduced? I gotta ask since Embarassment presses a bunch at once with his whole hand. I was laughing with June Squibb’s Nostalgia coming in early, but how is this weekend the only time she does so? Considering that the other emotions can easily access memories, it’s a surprise she didn’t appear in the predecessor. Riley also shouldn’t be looked at as the party pooper when the Coach was bound to take their phones for the weekend. I’m even confused with the fact Bloofy never broke out with dynamite until the main emotions got suppressed. Waiting for them is more lazy than calling this a plot convenience. I then ask why would there be a future career parade while she’s sleeping? I mean that part of motivation should be active while awake instead. Ignore this, then you’ll still love this movie as much as the first if not more. In short, Inside Out 2 earns its billion dollar success at the box office and its Animated Feature Oscar nomination for being so truthful in how we all feel when change comes in unexpected portions. If you hold the first film dearly, see this now so you can it as well.
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