Inside Out 2 – Review

Cert – U, Run-time – 1 hour 36 minutes, Director – Kelsey Mann

As Riley (Kensington Tallman) turns 13, new emotions led by Anxiety (Maya Hawke) enter her mind and clash as they try to change her future course, with the original emotion team cast out and needing to get back with her former sense of being.

“I don’t know how to stop Anxiety. Maybe we can’t. Maybe that’s what happens when you grow up” has an extra layer of poignancy when said with an air of unfamiliar hopelessness by Joy (Amy Poehler). As the human she acts as one of the emotions for, Riley (Kensington Tallman), turns 13 the demolition team come in to expand the console in central control so there’s room for new emotions. It’s not long until Anxiety (Maya Hawke) takes the lead in planning for Riley’s future, giving her what will hopefully be the best opportunities over a three day hockey camp before high school, proving she can be good enough to make the team.

Joy has been cast out of Riley’s central control alongside returning emotions Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Disgust (Liza Lapira). Travelling through the various sections of her mind to retrieve her broken-off sense of self. As with the first film plenty of puns are brought in and expanded beyond a simple joke to make for a number of colourful settings which wonderfully visualise concepts and workings of the mind in simple yet thoughtfully detailed and developed ways. Progressing the narrative and adding to the humour that can found in them at the same time.

Meanwhile, back in central control Anxiety has taken over, alongside other new emotions Embarrassment (an almost silent Paul Walter Hauser), Envy (Ayo Edebiri) and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Chaos begins to erupt, and Riley begins to change into a different person to the frustration of her two best friends, and her original line-up of emotions. As Riley has matured, and indeed the audience who may have seen the first film when released back in 2015, so have the themes of the film.

Inside Out 2 successfully captures the chaotic fluctuations of emotions at 13-years-old. There are a number of moments which bring about a knowing cringe as much as they do a laugh, and there are plenty of laugh out loud funny moments here – especially during one scene which feels inspired by the Lord-and-Miller/ Sony Animation playbook where the central emotions are locked away. Yet, these bigger themes are just as accessible, and beautifully animated, as before. Much of it comes down to the way in which everything is visualised and just how the Pixar team seems to have made some sense of the mind, particularly in a film about how active it can sometimes be.

As Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness attempt to track down the integral sense of self we see ideas of self-acceptance and understanding play out through how much we let anxiety take control of us and consume us in a blur or worry. Like the first film helped many understand emotions, particularly with stories about the film being used in contexts for those with special educational needs, I can’t wait to see the effect that this sequel has in both creating understanding and potentially calm. Certainly in the closing stages, which may not hit the emotional heights of Bing Bong or the family hug from the first film but still get across a handful of personal emotion, I found myself experiencing a rare moment of full calmness, almost in a reassuring way courtesy of the film.

All told amongst a breezy 96-minute run-time which packs plenty in without feeling the need to go bigger and bolder, instead tackle a more mature set of ideas and mould the film and what we see on screen around that. A more-than-worthy continuation of the ideas from the first film without feeling like a repeat, as some might have feared from the suggestions of the trailers, this is a concise and well told story that packs plenty into its narrative and visuals for personal effect and engagement. This is another hit emotion picture.

Tackling more mature ideas Inside Out 2 features plenty more brilliantly realised and animated laughs and creativity, wrapped around the central themes and narrative which act as a strong, concise core for this excellent follow-up.