After some rough sledding, with Turning Red and Lightyear, this sequel is Pixar’s effort to get its Mojo back. The 2015 Oscar winning original Inside Out took us into the mind of a little girl, Riley Anderson, and Inside Out 2 drops us in the head of now 13 year old Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman). While the animation and characters are beautiful and fun to watch, this story is aimed for older kids rather than the little ones previously targeted.
The control center housing Riley’s simple emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Tony Hale), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Liza Lapira) erupts with alarms and a construction crew installing major changes out of nowhere. It’s Puberty! And with that come a whole new set of emotions competing for space and attention.
There’s Envy (Ayo Edebiri), plus the very French and equally funny Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and most importantly, Anxiety (Maya Hawke). The major inner-conflict present in Writer/Director Kelsey Mann’s script is between Joy (Amy Poehler) and Hawke’s Anxiety. Mann, along with co-writers Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein navigate the tightrope between Riley’s core beliefs rooted in her past emotions, and the complex personality emerging through the newcomers.
Riley is faced with being accepted by the cool kids or dumping her life-long besties while attending ice hockey camp. Just as with real relationships, the landscape becomes cluttered, messy and, at times, confusing, which makes the movie itself sometimes feel disjointed and hard to follow.
But through the gorgeous animation and deft use of insights into how the mind bends perception, the story reveals the inner process of how we think about ourselves using sarcasm, imagined as a wide, imposing gorge “Sar-Chasm.” Or there’s the swirling maelstrom that is “Brain-Storming” and, of course the river ride that is “ Steam of Consciousness,” among others.
There are even more revelations in Riley’s vault of secret memories and the climactic moment of Anxiety-induced terror that may not appeal to the youngest audience.
The script relies too heavily on Poehler’s Joy character consistently having to explain and advance the plot, getting in the way of the other characters. It’s particularly distracting when Riley is consumed with manic Anxiety. The dazzling animation of the hockey action on the ice and especially the close-ups and sound of the skates slashing across the rink are thrilling. But the scenes of Riley interacting with the other girls are the slowest portions of the film. There is one crafty pubescent blemish in the movie…on Riley’s chin!
Director Mann crafts the scenes with intelligence reminiscent of the first film, but this doesn’t quite capture the wide-eyed wonder of 2015. While Inside Out 2 may not quite reach the heights of its predecessor, this is a Pixar delight that is artful in both its concept and execution. So see it, but remember to keep your emotions in check.
Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar 1 Hour 26 Minutes PG
