'Inside Out 2' Reaches Emotional Highs But Not as High as the Original
Pixar is in need of a win. After a few commercial duds, Pixar goes back to the well to pull out a classic IP. So that bears the question, is Inside Out 2 better than Insider Out? No, but it does a good job standing on its own. It's not overly familiar, repeating the same plot line as The Incredibles 2 did, or is painfully boring like Monsters University. Pixar has a unique talent for speaking to kids but not speaking down to them. Inside Out 2 deals with the everyday emotions children feel without ever feeling like it's beating its theme over the audience's heads. It's a lovely, charming journey into the human mind that hits the feels in the right places.
The story of Inside Out 2 is similar to the original film. Riley Anderson (Kensington Tallman) is going through another period of change in her life. In a clever bit of storytelling that the kids will understand when they grow older, Riley is entering puberty. Suddenly, her parents, who used to be the coolest people in the world, are now lame. Riley grows temperamental towards them and is only an angel around her friends. The movie kicks off with a hockey game Riley is playing to get us all caught up on the characters for those who haven't seen the first film. There's Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Fear (Tony Hale), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and leading the gang of emotions is Joy (Amy Poehler). Joy is the central emotion that operates the control panel in Riley's brain. If not for Joy, Riley would be a mess handling her new emotions.
Enter Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and the ringleader Anxiety (Maya Hawke). The new emotions conflict with the old ones, kicking them out of the control center and into the land of lost memories. It's the same place Joy got stranded with Sadness in the first film. With the old emotions out and the new ones in, Riley must navigate through life operating on a different mindset than when she was a kid. With Joy gone, Riley becomes neglectful towards her best friends when trying to win the attention of someone she's envious of. Valentina 'Val' Ortiz (Lilimar) is a young local all-star hockey player who happens to be in the three-day hockey camp that Riley has joined. Riley will do just about anything to win Val over. She wants to be one of the cool kids so she can fit in with everyone. With that need to fit in comes a bit of meanness. The sweet Riley we all know begins to become a bit temperamental, as that's something that comes with age. It's the dreaded teen years all parents don't look forward to.
For all the emotions Inside Out 2 expresses, it can't match the affections the first movie makes us feel. With so much of the drama centrally reliant on Riley's passion for hockey, the relationship with the family takes a back seat to Riley's social world. One thing that made Inside Out work so well was how it tackled serious subjects with a bit of heft and levity that made the central themes soar. Inside Out was about adjustmant to change. What happens when things in life don't go the way we planned or wished them to? Moving from one state to another, Riley's parents have to relocate to a smaller house in a new neighborhood with a new school. The change causes Riley to be devastated. Trying to control her anger with her joy, Riley learns to embrace her sadness so she can move on further in her journey toward life without letting disapointment permanently destroy her happiness. When Riley's Mom (Diane Lane) and Dad (Kyle MacLachlan) embrace her in the film's moving climax, it's deeply resonant.
When Inside Out 2 reaches its big emotional finale, it's not a tear-jerker like the first one. Instead, it's more of a full-blown anxiety attack that made my heart race, even if it was only for a second. It's effective but doesn't have the same weight the first one had. I would have liked to have seen how the family relationship progressed after Riley's bit of summer camp was over. The entire summer camp angle has almost the same sort of feeling as a Pixar short. You know, like one of those five-minute segments on Toy Story that focuses on a fun little plot. Hockey camp minimizes the scale, peeling back some of the tension that was felt in the original.
That's not to say Inside Out 2 is a bad movie. It has some wonderful bits of humor that's funny when you're a kid but even funnier when you're an adult. Although it doesn't hit the same emotional highs as the original, there are a couple of great scenes that resonate. One particular line that comes to mind is from Joy when she says, "Maybe that's how you feel when you grow up. Maybe there's less joy." Boy, ain't that the truth. There's also another great bit from Joy where she expresses her frustration about having to always be optimistic when everyone around her complains. Inside Out 2 is a kid's film that has tons of meaning to it. It's a movie about how we need negative emotions in our lives so we can grow. There are reasons we feel embarrassed or nervous. They help shape us into who we are. Inside Out 2 may not entirely have an identity of its own, but it's still existential and sentimental enough to stand on its own two feet.
