VERDICT: This Pixar sequel brings its protagonist into puberty and examines, with humor and poignancy, the complicated process of building an identity.
Like a tidal wave that upends an ocean liner, the arrival of puberty plunges the protagonist of Inside Out 2 into emotional chaos and social catastrophe.
But while this shift causes a shake-up inside the psyche of young Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman), it also provides an opportunity for Pixar to delve once again into human feelings, the good and bad messages we send ourselves, and the potential to love ourselves even as we embrace our flaws and contradictions.
That’s a lot for a movie aimed at family audiences to tackle. Still, director Kelsey Mann (a Pixar vet) and screenwriters Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) and Dave Holstein (Kidding) build upon the foundation of the previous film, showing us the inner workings of Riley’s brain and how the changes in her life can discombobulate her thought processes.
As we are reintroduced to Riley’s ruling emotions — Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Liza Lapira, taking the reins from Mindy Kaling), Fear (Tony Hale steps in for Bill Hader), and Anger (Lewis Black) — all seems to be going well for the tween, particularly her success as a hockey player alongside her best pals Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nurddin-Green). Sure, Riley has the occasional moment of embarrassment or regret or self-doubt, but Joy jettisons those feelings to the way, way back of Riley’s mind, building Riley’s sense of self out of her best moments and finest attributes.
When that Puberty alarm goes off, however, everything goes haywire. Anxiety (Maya Hawke) shows up, accompanied by Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and suddenly Riley is a volatile mix of emotions and panic, desperately trying to craft a new version of herself to impress high-school hockey star Valentina (Lilimar). After Anxiety bottles up Riley’s original five emotions, can they break free and take over the controls before Anxiety’s machinations lead our hero into a panic-attack–fueled meltdown?
The wonder of the original Inside Out was its mix of bright colors and clever anthropomorphism to tackle complicated subject matter: the emotions that make us who we are but which must exist in balance with each other. In this sequel, Joy has, even more, to learn about her place in Riley’s brain, and the film tempers its tougher moments (those thoughtless mistakes from adolescence that are never completely forgotten) with visual and verbal wit and an overall sense of compassion.
We rarely get a movie about a young woman coming of age that isn’t entirely or at least partially anchored to her pursuit of a love interest, but Inside Out 2 gives Riley enough to worry about without having to delve into her romantic life. (Perhaps Desire will join the control room in the next sequel.)
Between Riley’s concerns over her friendships — her ongoing relationship with Grace and Bree, and her worry about not making new friends when she attends a different high school than her old pals — and her desire to make the varsity hockey team, this character has more than enough on her plate without teen crushes further complicating matters.
There are moments where the metaphorical representation of Riley’s thought processes threatens to overwhelm the story, particularly the “sar-chasm,” a pun the writers loved so much that they turn it into more of a plot point than it deserves to be.
Nothing in Inside Out 2 matches the gut punch of Bing-Bong’s sacrifice in the first movie, although her climactic self-image, a mixture of both Joy and Anxiety’s handiwork, brought my inner Verklempt emotion to the foreground. Among the many delightful new characters, Riley’s ongoing love for kiddie cartoon character Bloofy (Ron Funches) and his magical fanny pack provides laughs and some surprising plot twists.
By necessity, Inside Out 2 goes to even more complicated places than its predecessor. Still, it does so with real understanding, illustrating how leaving childhood behind and forming the earliest stages of what will become an adult identity can be both liberating and terrifying, exhilarating and mortifying.
Since we know from comic asides that Riley’s mom (Diane Lane) and dad (Kyle MacLachlan) have their own inner emotions and anxieties, it’s entirely possible that the Inside Out franchise could carry on over decades, taking Riley into her college years and well beyond, perpetually reaching new levels of understanding herself and her relationship to the world. The story of our inner selves is a drama that doesn’t stop evolving until we do.
