Pixar has been much more hit or miss as of late. There used to be a time where people would eagerly await the new Pixar animated movie, but going straight to Disney + seems to have made them less relevant in the animation-space. However, Inside Out 2 comes in and shows the world that Pixar is still very capable of creating hits. Not only was this critically acclaimed, but now it is the highest grossing animated movie of all time.

I’m a good person

To set the stage, I very much enjoyed the first Inside Out movie. It was a clever concept that, like most of Pixar’s movies, packed an emotional punch. Truthfully, I never thought a sequel would work. They had a little bit of fun when the first movie ended by showing the emotions inside the mom and dad, but this did not feel like a concept that would readily lend itself to another movie. But here we are, and all I can say is that I was both right and wrong. Structurally, Inside Out 2 follows it’s predecessor very closely. Everything is fine in the beginning, Joy doesn’t particularly play well with some of the emotions (Anxiety in this case), and she gets thrown deep in Riley’s mind giving her the time to grow as a character and learn something new. Because of these similarities, I did find myself being a bit bored, I knew exactly where the story was headed. But along the way it had some clever concepts that really won me over. This is where all the emotions, particularly Anxiety, come into play.

I’m not good enough

The main conflict in this movie is that Riley starts going through puberty and some new emotions arrive. You have Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment. Anxiety quickly takes over and starts planning for Riley’s future. Her main goal is setting up Riley for success in high school, which means turning her back on her old friends and her old emotions. This is where the movie shines and becomes incredibly relevant for anyone watching. It is something that we have all gone through, big change which leads to big uncertainty. Riley doesn’t know what to expect from high school, and that’s why Anxiety decides to take over. She becomes singularly focused and thinks that if she helps Riley join the high school hockey team, Riley will find a place and feel more at ease. Anxiety just keeps pushing and pushing, until the two reach their breaking points. This is something that I’ve dealt with time and time again, and no doubt most people have dealt with this too. I’ve always had a fear of the unknown, whether that be starting a new job, going to a new place, meeting a new person. It’s easy to get caught up in a storm of questions, “what if they don’t like me?”, “what if I mess up?”, “what if I’m not good enough?”. The moral here, as it is in life, is that you can’t let anxiety control what you do. Anxiety is there to alert you to things that could lead to a problem. It is not something that needs to be indulged all the time. As Joy and the rest of the emotions learn here, everyone has their purpose, and no emotion should take full control.

Closing Remarks

While I focused a lot on the story here, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the talented voice cast does a great job as well. I was particularly impressed with Maya Hawke who I believe is new to the voice acting field. There are some great laughs to be had, some touching moments, and a lot of relatability for people of all ages. It’s not perfect, and not as fresh as the first one was, but I still think there’s a lot to like here.

Starring – Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Walter Hauser.

Director – Kelsey Mann

Runtime – 1h 36m

Rating – PG