INSIDE OUT 2 - Mark Reviews Movies

Inside Out 2, Walt Disney Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 13, 2024

Puberty strikes early in Inside Out 2, a notion that was suggested at the end of the impressively and thoroughly imaginative 2015 original. Movies rarely demand sequels, but that film, which saw life through the eyes of the emotions looking through the eyes of a pre-teen girl, certainly did. First things come first: They didn't mess up the potential.

Indeed, screenwriters Meg LeFauve (returning from the first film) and Dave Holstein have expanded and adjusted the world of and the characters within this now-teenaged girl's mind in ways that, while not as creative and inventive as the preceding film, are funny, insightful, and, appropriately, emotionally stacked. To say the sequel isn't as great as the original is probably to be expected, because the predecessor was such a uniquely compelling experience. It's also not quite fair to make a big deal of that, since the novelty and sense of discovery of the first film could never be replicated.

It seems as if the filmmakers, led by newcomer Kelsey Mann (making his feature debut), understand that supposed limitation on the continuing tale of the girl and the five basic emotions who drive/influence/react to the kid's experience of life. They don't set out to re-invent anything in terms of the design of the mental world and the characters within it, the narrative being split between the adventures of the emotions and the day-to-day challenges of the girl, or the way those two stories interact to form a potent tale/fable about the continual struggle of, well, just being human. The film is wise enough to keep going with what the original film did so well.

We're first re-introduced to Joy (voice of Amy Poehler), who has been with 13-year-old Riley (now voiced by Kensington Tallman) since the girl first opened her eyes and gave birth to some form of consciousness. Still proud of her girl, Joy explains that life has been pretty good for Riley. She has made new friends after her parents (voiced by Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) moved with her to San Francisco from small-town Minnesota. Riley still plays and excels at hockey, does quite well at school, is friendly and kind, and gets along with everyone, including her parents.

Some changes have developed in her mind, too, such as the friendship island of her personality greatly overshadowing the diminished family island there (The boy band one broke up, apparently). The biggest mental development—before adolescence makes a mess of everything, obviously—is the formation of a belief system. That's visualized here as tight threads, growing out of those spheres of core memories planted by Joy and her emotional co-workers—Sadness (voice of Phyllis Smith), Anger (voice of Lewis Black), Fear (now voiced by Tony Hale), and Disgust (now voiced by Liza Lapria).

Pluck one of those like the string of an instrument, and it reverberates with some concept Riley holds dear—that her parents are proud of her, being a loyal friend, her inherent goodness as a person. All of those beliefs wind and tangle together to form the abstract shape of Riley's personality, and in moments and conceits in the film such as that one, the filmmakers aren't too far removed from the lovely wonder of the mysterious workings of the mind that populated the original.

Everything seems fine for Riley, until the five emotions are awakened in the night by a strange beeping. The puberty alert is flashing, and once the red light starts spinning and the alarm blares, a literal wrecking ball crashes through headquarters. It's time for some changes to those systems, including an expanded emotional console to accommodate four new emotions that arrive with adolescence.

Those are Anxiety (voice of Maya Hawke), Envy (voice of Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (voice of Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui (voice of Adèle Exarchopoulos). They're all personified in simple but clever ways, such as how Ennui always has her head cocked to the side, Envy has big eyes, Embarrassment wears a hooded sweatshirt to cover his face, and, in a climactic moment, Anxiety moves so quickly that she becomes a swirling mass of chaotic energy surrounding a ghost of a visage frozen in terror.

As for the plot, the new emotions start to take over, much to the confusion and shock of the older emotions, and eventually, Anxiety leads a sort of rebellion against the old-timers, literally bottling them up and suppressing them in a vault of Riley's deepest secrets. By the way, one's a cartoon dog (voiced by Ron Funches) that Riley won't publicly admit she still likes and acts as if it's talking to an invisible audience, and another is a useless video game character on whom the girl has a hidden crush.

The humor here is at least as funny as in the first film, which helps the original emotions' mostly routine quest to return to headquarters, stopping at some familiar locales along the way. The new emotions, especially Anxiety, are in charge of the split narrative, making headquarters their own and guiding Riley through an unexpectedly eventful stay at a hockey camp.

Torn between a pair of old pals and the possibility of becoming friends with some high school girls, Riley finds herself desperate to fit in, determined to prove she's worthy of making the school's team next year, and unsure of who she really is anymore. If the first film's story about the girl becoming emotionally numb after moving sometimes felt like an allegory for depression, the sequel's tale becomes a logical and emotional continuation, as Anxiety keeps Riley on edge, awake at night, and imagining the worst possible scenarios for everything that might happen. Joy just wants to stop Anxiety but doesn't know how (Join the club).

As with the original, a major key to the film's success is its sense of balance narratively—in treating Riley's slice-of-life story as being as important as the emotions' adventure—and tonally—effortlessly shifting from funny to achingly sincere—and thematically—appropriately, since it's once again about balancing the complexity of emotions. Inside Out 2 may not possess the mystery and innovation that made the original so bold and inspired in its vision, but it's a more-than-worthy continuation of that story.

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