The original Inside Out took viewers on a delightful trip inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley. It showed how her different emotions—joy, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear—helped guide Riley through everyday life from their control room headquarters. Their world was a vivid manifestation of Riley’s thoughts and feelings, complete with memory orbs and personality islands.
The sequel catches up with Riley a few years later, as she’s navigating that tricky time of adolescence. Riley is now 13, and her brain headquarters is getting an overhaul to deal with puberty and the hormonal rollercoaster of the teen years. This means a new batch of emotions have arrived to represent the fresh challenges Riley faces. Stepping up is the hyper and jittery anxiety, which makes everything feel like a crisis. Also on the scene are the emotionally draining Ennui, the mortifying Embarrassment, and the petty Envy, always comparing herself to others.
With this newer, more complicated emotional mix fueling Riley’s decision-making, she ends up butting heads with her loyal childhood friends and wanting to fit in with the popular crowd. Can Joy and her original emotions rise to the challenge of guiding Riley through this transitional period in her life amid all the insecurity and peer pressure?
Inside Out 2: Navigating Teenhood’s Tumultuous Terrain
Riley Anderson is preparing to start high school and hoping to make the prestigious Firehawks ice hockey team. First, though, she must prove herself at a three-day selection camp where the coach will scout new recruits. Riley has always found comfort and camaraderie on the rink.
This summer, however, marks major changes. Puberty is in full swing, unleashing an emotional maelstrom within her mind. In Headquarters, Joy and the original emotions struggle to keep up as new arrivals jostle for control. Foremost is the hyperactive anxiety, zealously steering Riley towards worst-case scenarios. Embarrassment lurks nearby, cringing at every social misstep. Ennui exudes ennui.
Riley also faces turmoil outside her own head. Her lifelong friends Grace and Bree will be attending different high schools, shaking the foundation of their tight-knit group. Seeing an opportunity, Riley sets her sights on impressing the Firehawks’ star player, Valentina, and her entourage.
Drawn by anxiety’s siren song of acceptance and status, Riley slowly pushes away Grace and Bree. She piles her self-worth onto uncertain hopes of making the team, obsessively mimicking what she thinks the “cool” kids want. Inside Headquarters, Joy and the others are outnumbered and overwhelmed, trying to keep Riley’s core beliefs from fracturing under the new emotions’ influence.
As friendship ties fray and her sense of self hangs in the balance, Riley must navigate high-stakes social terrain without her tried-and-true support system. With anxiety at the forefront of her decision-making, will she rediscover her true self before the camp’s end? Or will fitting in become her sole focus, leading to potentially disastrous results?
Riley’s Emotions Evolve
Inside Headquarters, things have changed for Joy and her faithful crew. As Riley enters her teen years, four new emotions storm the control room with their own ideas about how things should run. Leading the charge is her excitable anxiety, constantly zooming around with her worries and what-ifs.
Never far behind is the languid Ennui, always quick with an overly dramatic sigh or dismissive shrug of her shoulders. Then there’s the hulking and easily embarrassed Embarrassment, trying his best to disappear inside his oversized hoodie. And of course, the pint-sized Envy, primed to kick in whenever she spots something shinier.
The established emotions try to keep up. Joy remains as ebullient as ever, aiming to emphasize Riley’s happiness despite the new distractions. It falls to Lewis Black to bring just the right amount of bluster and bluster to Anger as he shouts at the situation. Tony Hale perfectly captures Fear’s high-pitched fretting. As for Liza Lapira’s disgust, her distaste for all things teenage ensures plenty of amusing eyerolls. Returning standout Phyllis Smith is a welcome constant as Sadness, adding heart and perspective through her gloom.
Newcomer Maya Hawke nails anxiety through and through. She zooms around Headquarters with manic energy, her eyebrows and hair always in nervous motion. Adèle Exarchopoulos imbues the languid Ennui with an air of effortlessly cool detachment. Paul Walter Hauser is a hoot as the ever-blushing and easily embarrassed Embarrassment, while Ayo Edebiri pitches Envy with the perfect mix of petulance and spite. Amid all the chaos, Amy Poehler continues to shine as the chirpy and determined Joy on her mission to keep Riley happily balanced.
With this seasoned cast bringing the emotions to vivid life, the changes underway inside Riley’s head feel refreshingly real as she navigates bumpy teenage terrain.
Themes
Inside Out 2 thoughtfully portrays the turbulence of adolescence. Riley now faces growing pains, both emotionally and physically, as puberty arrives. This brings dramatic change to her inner world as new emotions come aboard.
Anxiety takes the helm, prioritizing fitting in with the future and what others think. Riley’s childhood joys and friendships get sidelined. Joy and the others get relegated away from control.
A civil war begins between old and new, as each side wants to steer Riley. Her sense of self is at stake, as is who she truly is versus who anxiety tries to shape her to be. Puberty brings an identity crisis as childhood slips away, yet womanhood remains mysterious.
Riley just wants to be noticed by the cool high schoolers. But doing so tests her closest bonds and values. Is it worth abandoning what she knows for unknown approval? Her friends and beliefs get replaced if anxiety wins.
These coming-of-age struggles will ring true for anyone recalling their own awkward teenage days. The movie wisely avoids putting Riley through exaggerated teenage tropes, keeping her kindly spirit. Yet it captures the emotional rollercoaster as hormones surge and peers assume new importance.
Inside Out 2 takes a thoughtful look at this bumpy transition period. It celebrates growing up while acknowledging life’s complexity. And it does so with humor, heart, and imagination, just as the best Pixar films do.
Inside Out 2 Brings Riley’s World to Life
Kelsey Mann’s creative team crafts a dazzling vision of a teenage mind. They transform the unfamiliar intricacies of thought and feeling into vibrantly rendered locations and lovably quirky characters. Returning audiences will be delighted by the sophisticated upgrades made to Headquarters since our last adventure.
Riley’s evolving psyche remains as intricate and imaginative as ever. Her brain invites us into detailed neighborhoods where abstract notions form physical presences. Imaginationland shows creativity at work, populated by zany offices churning out daydreams. Memory banks store beloved recollections in gleaming orbs on towering shelves. Even subconscious zones like the vault exude mystery through gloomy vaulted halls.
Of course, the emotions themselves steal the show. Fan favorites like Joy and Sadness feel like old friends, while new arrivals charm in turn. Anxiety in particular grips with haunted movements and erratic energy that stir equal parts humor and empathy. Her climactic meltdown pulls us into the disorienting whirlwind within someone spinning out of control. Even minor players shine, from Ennui’s perfectly delivered apathy to Embarrassment’s big-hearted blushes.
Across stunning settings and hilarious characters, Mann ensures no detail escapes vivid life. Bold colors saturate each frame, while expressive performances bring palpable vitality. Together, they immerse us in Riley’s inner landscape. Audiences leave feeling they’ve traveled halls of the mind, better understanding how richly complex one person’s inner worlds can be. Inside Out 2 brings uncharted realms of thought and feeling to dazzling animated visibility.
Inside Out 2 Captures the Spirit of the Original
While Inside Out 2 does not reinvent the wheel like its iconic predecessor, it builds effectively on the foundations already laid. Mann’s film translates the original’s imaginative concepts—personifying emotions controlling a console inside a girl’s mind—seamlessly into Riley’s teenage years. Puberty rightly demands an upgraded control room and new emotions steering the ship, with anxiety emerging as a natural antagonist for this stage.
Where Inside Out stirred hearts with its moving depiction of pre-adolescent growing pains, Inside Out 2 taps effectively into the specific insecurities of its target age group. Riley’s desire to fit in and please her idols, while distancing herself from childhood friends, rings authentically as a teenager’s internal conflict. Similarly, her emotions’ scrambles against anxiety for control reflect how unstable this transition period can feel. While lighter in tone overall, Mann finds ways to elicit empathy for the emotional turmoil of these years.
The sequel won’t surprise with quite the same groundbreaking imagination as its forerunner. Yet in recapturing Riley’s fantastical mental landscape and beloved emotions through cleverly escalating dilemmas, Inside Out 2 proves a worthy companion piece. Most importantly, it preserves the essence of exploring mental health through a lens of humor, wonder, and universal human experiences. For both kids and parents who welcomed the original into their hearts, this film offers a fun, thoughtful continuation of the journey.
Inside Out 2 Captures Teen Complexity While Respecting Younger Viewers
Pixar’s sequel manages to dive deeper into emotional turmoil than many teen movies dare, but does so through inviting, colorful characters and not darkness for its own sake. It understands that capturing mood isn’t about recreating difficult experiences directly but conveying an empathetic sense of what’s underneath.
Anxiety is a brilliant personification of inner conflict, not a one-dimensional villain. Her desires stem from caring for and preparing Riley, not harming her. She shows how overwhelmingly strong new feelings can seem for adults and kids alike, while Joy’s optimism provides light to find the way through. Their dynamic evokes high school ups and downs recognizably without losing warmth.
The story celebrates Riley’s supportive family and interests like hockey, giving her stable ground to weather change. It highlights friendship’s importance at a time when fitting in can feel compulsory. Most of all, it reminds us that no emotion needs to dominate permanently; with patience and compassion from within and without, balance returns.
In prioritizing heart over shock value or lessons, Inside Out 2 proves as thoughtful about teen life’s meaning as its predecessor was about childhood’s. It deserves praise for bringing older kids and their loved ones together thoughtfully in cinemas once more.
The Review
Inside Out 2
Inside Out 2 proves a worthy continuation of the original's nuanced take on inner emotional complexity. While it can't recapture childhood's fresh discovery, the sequel honors its predecessor's spirit by deepening characterization and broadening representation in a thoughtful, emotionally intelligent way. Mann's direction ensures Riley's story resonates by challenging adolescents and parents alike to understand change from each other's perspective with empathy, humor, and heart.
PROS
- Captures the emotional rollercoaster of adjusting to puberty and new feelings in a relatable way.
- Features vivid, charming personifications of emotions like anxiety and ennui.
- prioritizes empathy, warmth, and optimism over heavy drama or shock value.
- Strengthens themes of self-acceptance, diversity, and supportive relationships.
CONS
- The narrative doesn't take as many conceptual risks without the novelty of the first film.
- Some emotional arcs or cultural references may go over younger viewers' heads.
- It fails to be as emotionally impactful or visually groundbreaking as its predecessor.
