It’s been nearly 10 years since “Inside Out” (2015) first graced the big screen and I’m just as invested in those cartoon embodiments of human emotions.
Naturally, when “Inside Out 2” was announced, I put a reminder on my phone so that I could catch it as soon as possible.
Sure, it’s a film marketed towards families, but I think adults can benefit from watching it, too.
This sequel definitely builds on the groundwork of the first movie and I think they chose some of the best voice actors for the new emotions!
Inside Out 2 is a 2024 American animated coming-of-age film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures.
It was directed by Kelsey Mann (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Mark Nielsen, from a screenplay written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, and a story conceived by Mann and LeFauve.
Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan reprise their roles from the first film, with Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Tony Hale, Liza Lapira, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Yvette Brown, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Walter Hauser joining the cast.
The movie clocks in at 96 minutes long and is rated PG for some thematic elements.
Two years after her move to San Francisco, 13-year-old Riley (Tallman) is about to enter high school.
Her personified emotions - Joy (Poehler), Sadness (Smith), Fear (Hale), Anger (Black), and Disgust (Lapira) - have since created a new section of Riley’s mind called a “Sense of Self,” which houses memories and feelings that form Riley’s beliefs.
Joy, intending to fill the Sense of Self with only positive memories, has also invented a mechanism that launches any negative memories to the back of Riley’s mind.
Riley and her best friends Bree (Green) and Grace (Lu) are invited to a weekend ice hockey camp where Riley hopes to qualify for her soon-to-be high school team - the Firehawks.
On the night before the camp, a “Puberty Alarm” sounds off, and a group of mind workers barge into Headquarters to upgrade the emotion console.
The emotions discover that Riley wildly overreacts to any inputs they make to the console.
Four new emotions also arrive at Headquarters and introduce themselves: Anxiety (Hawke), Envy (Edebiri), Embarrassment (Hauser), and Ennui (Exarchopoulos).
Though initially friendly, the new and old emotions clash over their approaches; in particular, Joy thinks Riley should focus on having fun at the camp while Anxiety wants Riley to win a spot on the team and make new friends since Riley has learned that Bree and Grace will be going to a different high school.
While being led by Joy, Riley inadvertently causes the other campers to be collectively punished twice by the camp’s strict director - Coach Roberts (Brown).
Feeling that Riley needs to change her personality to fit in with the older players, Anxiety dumps the Sense of Self into the back of Riley’s mind and has the old emotions captured and thrown into a memory vault.
From there, things just get more complicated for Riley and the personified emotions.
Overall, I think the movie does a great job of providing relatable content for children of all ages and I’ve heard from plenty of my adult friends how the film impacted them, too.
Plus, I’m all for advocating seeing the creativity of the animators on display on the silver screen versus waiting for it to come out on VDV or streaming online.
