Inside Out 2

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With the exception of Toy Story, Pixar have not had a particularly good track record when it comes to making sequels. While follow-up stories that feature many of our favourite characters are enticing enough to ensure bums in seats, the last string of Pixar sequels have been considered narratively lackluster and predictable.

While Pixar has by no means broken this pattern of easily predictable plot twists with their latest sequel, Inside Out 2, they have nonetheless managed to produce a follow-up movie that is intelligent, sweet, and relatable.

Riley’s emotions have been living together in perfect harmony for a while now, but when the ‘puberty’ alarm goes off one day, Joy, Disgust, Fear, Anger, and Sadness suddenly find themselves having to make room for a whole new host of emotions – and not everyone is seeing eye-to-eye. As Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui move into Headquarters, Joy and her friends find themselves being suppressed and finally kicked out of Headquarters altogether. With Riley on the cusp of starting high school and the new emotions reshaping her entire personality, Joy and the others are racing against time to get back to Headquarters and save the Riley they know.

While the ultimate message of the film is the same as the first - the fact that we need to experience bad days and hurtful emotions in order to become a well-rounded and functional human being – Inside Out 2 cleverly and funnily explores the intricacies of those more complicated emotions that tend to shape us during a most impressionable and (often) emotionally traumatic time: adolescence. Seriously, how many adults spend their time talking to their therapists about what happened to them in high school? My hand is raised.

The cleverness of the Inside Out movies is that there are really no villains, rather it’s the ignorance and tunnel-vision of the characters that causes the drama. This idea is very sweetly depicted through the new character of Anxiety, voiced beautifully by Maya Hawke. Anxiety enters as the ‘leader’ of the new emotional recruits, essentially being a counterpart of Joy. And while the film depicts her as something of a dictator and villain, it’s also made clear that she is acting in (what she perceives to be) Riley’s best interests. Thus, this captivating drama unfolds with Anxiety trying to prepare Riely for the coming years, but ultimately causing distress and drama.

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The seriousness of the film’s themes is then delightfully lifted with many cleverly written jokes and puns like Riley’s ‘stream of consciousness’ – a literal river that features whatever Riley is thinking about- and the dreaded sar-chasm. The heart-warming humour mixed with the colourful characters makes Inside out 2 a great film for both children and adults – transcending generational boundaries, hell yeah!

Filled with important messages about mental and emotional health, as well as comedy, drama, and action, Inside Out 2 is a delightful little film that really is fun for the whole family.

Director: Kelsey Mann, 2024

Cast: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Liza Lapira, Ayo Edibiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adele Exarchopoulos, Yvette Ncole Brown, Diane Lane & Kyle McLachlan