Inside Out 2: A Heartfelt Sequel
It’s hard not to be blown away by Pixar, when even some of their worst films seem to visually dazzle and wonder. Inside Out 2 is no exception to this phenomenon.
The film picks up several years after the first ended, Riley is now getting ready for high school and is about to attend a hockey camp with her two best friends. The very fact they were invited surely means that the coach sees something promising in them, and that with enough hard work and dedication Riley will be able to make the high school team when school begins in the fall. The one problem? Puberty is beginning, and with that, a whole new rush of emotions are inside her mind causing chaos. Now joining the team is Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui. Through some movie plot shenanigans, the original team of Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear are kicked out of headquarters, leaving the new emotions to run havoc on Riley’s life.
There is something to be said about the care that these films take in showing how each emotion both works for and against somebody, and that for someone to live in harmony so do their emotions. The thesis of the first film was something along the line that one cannot feel so contrived to live a life full of joy they neglect to recognize the sadness and hurt they may feel over events happening to them. In some way or another, these emotions that we try to reject have a way of bubbling to the surface. By the end of Inside Out 2, a similar thesis is made about learning how to handle more multifaceted emotions that appear later in one’s personal growth. It visually represents the encroaching anxiety people begin to take on as they get older as something that is not necessarily a negative, but when let run rampant damages the value of someone’s life.
While I don’t want to compare the second film to the first one and base my opinion off of that, it’s hard not to draw comparison’s when watching a sequel. In the original film the personification of emotions inside Riley’s head is in direct relation to what is happening to her. The entire plot of sadness and joy being vacant from headquarters directly relates to how she is processing her emotions, about the family’s move. Unable to feel joy, but incapable of expressing sadness, her other emotions take the center stage. Inside Out 2 oversimplifies some of the more complex emotions people experience, and has Riley experience them and then come to terms with puberty within a weekend.
While the details of the plotting are not as compelling, when the original emotions are sent out of headquarters we are treated to a plethora of jokes where we come across a new statue of crushes for Riley, a vault of secrets that she has kept guarded within herself, and my personal favorite, a giant chasm called a “Sar-chasm” where anything said across it is manipulated into sounding like something with an attitude to someone listening on the other side. These fun little puns and jokes are entertaining, but as the other emotions are controlling Riley’s mind in headquarters, watching her life spin out of control doesn’t hurt the same way it did in the original, because it feels more like plotting than an actual story.
Despite the mildly meddling middle of the film, it does wrap itself up in a way that feels like being personally hugged by the emotions on the screen. There is something to be said that Pixar attempts to tackle these very mature ideas and concepts in a way that children can digest and understand themselves better, and it doesn’t just work on kids, it works on adults too. The gut punch of an ending and ultimate resolution Riley finds in herself did in fact bring me to tears. Is Inside Out 2 as good as the original? No. Is it an honest and endearing attempt to display healthy reactions to our emotions and how to process and handle them in a mature way? Yes. It might have lost some of the nuances of the original, but the heart of the film remains tried and true.