I think it’s fair to say that Hollywood, in recent years, seems to have been more about pushing agendas than simply telling stories. That includes Disney and Pixar as well, to name a few. So when news and trailers for a sequel to one of the latter company’s most ambitious and creative films (about the emotions inside a young girl’s head) was announced, I was anxious that the CGI studio might present us with another “woke” narrative (Lightyear from 2022, anybody?). The good news is that Inside Out 2 doesn’t fall into that same category. Instead, it gets back to the basics of the storytelling, as well as genuine heartstrings and emotions, that Pixar has long been known for.
Picking up two years after the 2015 original, the aforementioned Riley is now officially 13 years old and heading to a hockey camp for the summer. She hopes to make the team the following school year, with her main emotions still in tact—and providing amusing and relatable commentary. (Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and Lewis Black reprise their roles as Joy, Sadness, and Anger, respectively. Tony Hale and Liza Lapira replace Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling as Fear and Disgust, respectively). And then new emotions unexpectedly join the team, not to mention conflicting motivations and objectives. These include the fast-going Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), the wide-eyed Envy (Ayo Edebiri), the lazy Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and the shy Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser).
The story takes viewers to new, interesting places in Riley’s mind, like the Sar-Chasm (get it?), bedrooms where all her emotions “sleep,” office cubicles that resemble animation desks, and unique interpretations of a “stream of consciousness” and a surreal “brain storm” that gives Mad Max: Fury Road and Twister a run for their money. There are even hilarious uses of different animation styles for some of Riley’s other interests (two of which cracked me up).
At the heart is a story about growing up and dealing with sudden changes, what we can (and cannot) control, and letting go (a relatable theme for overprotective parents or adult figures as well). The same goes for the power of belief systems, particularly one’s sense of self (both the positive *and* the negative aspects), as well as a misguided sense of “happiness” and fitting in (which narratively don’t go where you might think they will). To their credit, the filmmakers consulted with teenagers from the Bay Area in California to make sure their portrayal of teenage adolescence was accurate and not “cringy”. And the film is all the better for it.
But the ultimate theme of Inside Out 2 may be that emotions don’t get to choose who a person is. And they shouldn’t. And yet, it’s okay to not be okay. Andrea Datzman’s brilliant score pushes all the right buttons here. This is a follow up that is just as (if not more) daring, subversive, and tear-jerking as its predecessor. Inside Out 2 is easily one of Pixar’s best films in recent memory. It’s an emotional roller-coaster.
