REVIEW — “Inside Out 2”

Pixar is back with Inside Out 2, a heartwarming and immensely clever story on the perils of puberty that hits you in the feels in more ways than one.

Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 picks up two years after the events of the first film in which an 11-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman) is overcome by warring emotions that stem from her family’s move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Now an official teenager, well-adjusted Riley has emerged from her tween years as a kind person with a good head on her shoulders thanks to a helpful and healthy balance of Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). With the help of her supportive parents (Kyle MacLachlan and Diane Lane), Riley is developing a personality, building relationships and forming her own belief system. She also has two best friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green). Together, they form a power trio on their ice hockey team.

During this time, Joy, Sadness, Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira replacing Mindy Kaling) are busy purging Riley’s bad memories by burying them in the back of the now 13-year-old girl’s mind. However, just as Riley and her two friends are invited to an elite hockey camp, her puberty alarm suddenly sounds and a whole batch of new, pubescent emotions flood Riley’s headquarters, take control, and abandon her sense of self. To make matters worse, Riley learns her two BFFs and teammates will be going to a different high school. Therefore, in Riley’s mind, the pressure is on to perform and fit in. Everything is on the line: If she impresses Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown), she could join the varsity team of cool kids as a freshman. If she blows it, she’ll become a lonely, friendless outcast before she even enters her new high school.

Distraught, stressed, and alone, Riley is overwhelmed by feelings of Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Envy (Ayo Edebiri). As a result, Riley’s OG emotions are bottled up and ejected to her vault of dark secrets. On the run from the mind police, Joy and the others must journey through Riley’s mind: down the stream of consciousness, over the sar-chasm, and past Mount Crushmore to regain control of headquarters and save Riley from herself.

Poehler is back in the pocket as enthusiastically positive Joy, as are Smith and Black as Sadness and Anger, respectively. Replacing Bill Hader as the voice of Fear, the always reliable Hale (Toy Story 4’s Forky) gets to add another wacky Pixar character to his impressive cap. The delightful Hawke (Stranger Things) is perfectly cast as the overeager and frantic voice of Anxiety, who is the film’s primary adversary to Poehler’s Joy for control over Riley’s emotional state. Filling the teen with doubts and insecurities, Anxiety overwhelms Riley with panic-inducing “what-if” scenarios that force her to make uncharacteristic choices that conflict with her core beliefs. In these moments, the film paints a realistic picture of the delicate mental state of a young teenager and the internal and external pressures that can cause their mood to swing to extremes.

Unfortunately, the rest of the new voice cast is pretty expendable and underutilized, especially Hauser’s Embarrassment, who only delivers a single line in the film. Even Envy, voiced by It-Girl-of-the-moment Edebiri (The Bear), serves as no more than a one-dimensional sidekick to Anxiety. However, Exarchopoulos does deliver a few good laughs as the too-cool-for-school emotion, Ennui. Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen with a screenplay by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, Inside Out 2 features a brilliant score by Andrea Datzman.

I admittedly had mixed emotions about an Inside Out sequel that did not focus on the search for Bing Bong; however, Inside Out 2 strikes the perfect balance of humor and heart. Thanks to the film’s clever gags and vibrant animation, I can confidently say that Inside Out 2 is the best Pixar film in years (since 2021’s Luca) and a core memory for the whole family. 4/5

Rated PG with a running time of 1 hour and 36 minutes, Inside Out 2 opens in theaters on June 14, 2024.