'Inside Out 2' Review: Pixar's Animated Sequel Lets Anxiety Run Wild
Raise your hand if you feel personally victimized by this movie?
It’s been nearly a decade since audiences last saw Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, the emotions living in the head of the pre-teen Riley in Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out. And even though the sequel is set just two years after the first one, the world Disney and Pixar inhabits now certainly feels like a decade has passed.
The same feelings one might have had towards Disney’s Wish last year will be keenly felt with Inside Out 2: that it’s fine, a decent way to spend 90 minutes, but that’s a far cry from what audiences know Pixar is capable of. It’s not that this movie is bad, but the depth of feelings feels more manipulative than it’s ever felt. The story feels roughly edited, as if it was dictated by studio notes and test screening. After recent stories about them moving away from personal stories, like the remarkable Turning Red, it just leaves the audience to wonder if Inside Out 2 is what we should expect from now on?
Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman) is officially a teenager. She’s made friends since moving from Minnesota to San Francisco, and her emotions are all in sync. But problems arise when Riley simultaneously hits puberty and is invited to a hockey camp wherein the possibilities of her making a prestigious high school team consume her thoughts. Joy (Amy Poehler) in Riley’s mind is prepared for everything until a new emotion, Anxiety (Maya Hawke) arrives and is ready to make Riley happier…by changing everything about her.
Inside Out claims to be 96 minutes but if so it’s so breezy as to move with hurricane force winds. The audience is briefly re-introduced to Riley and her emotions, but that’s all wrapped up in about 15 minutes. From there the story kicks in, quite literally, with the Demo Team moving in to Riley’s brain to redo everything as the girl enters puberty. But because puberty is messy, the film doesn’t take any time to discuss the transition — much like the first film did when Riley was transitioning from childhood to adolescence. Instead, we’re told puberty is little more than smelling bad, having mood swings, and becoming incredibly anxious.
And there’s absolutely nothing subtle about the film’s presentation of anxiety, even if it felt at times like it was speaking directly to me. As soon as Anxiety is introduced she has one scene with Joy before she and the other new emotions kick out Riley’s original team and take over.
The script, written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, comes off like large chunks of connective tissue are missing in favor of a Cliff’s Notes version of the story. Joy and Anxiety have the same aims, but the movie separates them with neither one truly seeming to realize they’re working towards the same goals, albeit with vastly different outcomes for Riley. Even factoring in the first film, wherein Joy had to realize Sadness had a part to play in Riley’s happiness, that’s never presented here. It’s as if Joy completely erased everything she learned in the original feature.
That being said, the voice cast is still top notch. Poehler and Phyllis Smith are great, although Smith feels like she’s taken a backseat here in comparison to newcomers Liza Lapira (as Disgust) and Tony Hale (as Fear). That’s probably because Sadness is sent back to Headquarters where her character is routinely hiding in a corner or stuck in a bucket. It’s a shame since Smith’s character was really the heart of the first film. Lapira has a great scene with one of Riley’s childhood crushes, an anime character, and Lewis Black as Anger has some great lines.
Newcomers Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri (as Envy), Adele Exarchopoulos (as Ennui) and Paul Walter Hauser (as Embarassment) are fantastic and it’s no surprise they take up the majority of the runtime. They have a true cohesion between them, with Hawke’s Anxiety trying desperately to plan for every possibility, while Envy tries to think of all the things she wishes she had. Hawke is especially wonderful, crafting a character that is so desperate to please yet terrified of failing. It would have been nice to see her and Joy butt heads more.
The biggest change between Inside Outs 1 and 2 is the tone, and that will be the biggest hurdle here, and another reason why the script needed to be far stronger. Focusing on how one lives with anxiety is fascinating, particularly with how the Pixar team presents it. The film deals frankly with intrusive thoughts and catastrophizing that made me say a few times “Yes! This is what I live with.” But there’s little humor to balance that out. The moments of fun that were found in the first movie, and the trips to other people’s heads to see how they deal with things, are absent. So the runtime — which feels more like an hour 20 of actual content — can be very downbeat as Joy rushes to get back to Headquarters before Anxiety leads Riley to a mental breakdown.
And while Riley is the literal conduit for the emotions, we didn’t see much of her in the first movie, outside of her reactions to her emotions. Here, she’s given added backstory that also takes more time away from the emotions. It’s a “too many cooks in the kitchen” mentality that leaves the movie feeling both cluttered with stuff, and not enough substance to make the experience meaningful.
Like Wish before it, Inside Out 2 plays just fine in the moment. The question is whether it will have any longevity beyond this month, and it’s doubtful it will connect as deeply with those who loved the first film. Maya Hawke’s Anxiety is perfect, and the film does a great job of illustrating what anxiety looks like. Just anticipate having to explain a lot to your kids afterwards.
Inside Out 2 hits theaters June 14.