'Inside Out 2' Review

One of the better Pixar sequels in recent memory, Inside Out 2 builds on the first film in satisfying and mature ways

Inside Out 2 is the latest Pixar sequel released by Disney. Much like Incredibles 2, which released fourteen years after the release of the initial Incredibles, and Cars 3, which was released eleven years after original and six years after Cars 2, it was a long wait for a sequel to Inside Out, but after nine years, Inside Out 2 has arrived in theaters. Not only are Joy, Sadness and your original emotions back to give the connection to the original movie, but new emotions are introduced (most notably Anxiety) as well as the concept of Riley’s “sense of self,” giving this movie a new twist. Since four new emotions are introduced on top of the five returning emotions from the previous movie, one can imagine things getting chaotic inside Riley’s mind, but it’s up to Joy and Sadness to see if they can help Riley once again.

At the beginning of the movie, we see Riley’s “sense of self” that has been built up by Joy and the rest of the original emotions. They have built up her “sense of self” through memories of things that Riley has done in the past, such as a time when she helped a friend in school, or the time that Riley passed the puck to one of her teammates in her hockey game to help them score. These memories are building up her current sense of self which says, “I am a good person.” Then, things get chaotic as Anxiety and the new emotions arrive in the command center in Riley’s mind. As Riley gets dropped off at hockey camp, Anxiety takes over command and manages to bottle up all of the original emotions and send them out of the command center. New memories are taken to build the sense of self by Anxiety and as things go wrong at hockey camp Riley’s sense of self turns from “I’m a good person” to “I’m not good enough.” It’s up to Joy, Sadness, and the rest of the emotions to return to the command center and restore Riley’s sense of self to “I’m a good person” before she destroys her connection with her friends, loses her chance at making the hockey team, and drowns her true identity in these new negative emotions.

Joy remains a compelling character and the heart of these movies. Although she is the obvious choice to be in the lead, she now realizes that there are times and places for other emotions to have their place. Probably the biggest example of this is in the original movie, when Riley is missing her home and her friends, and all the emotions just want Riley to be happy. But really Sadness is the one to take over because sorrow, which is the absence of something good, is the right emotion to feel. At the end of the day, all of the emotions are really there to lead to Joy. Making the hockey team and fitting in with her friends on the team could all lead Riley to joy, but compromising values or character and going against what the movie terms the “sense of self” to get to that joy is not worth it and will instead lead away from true joy in the long run.

Although Inside Out 2 is perhaps not quite on the same level as the original, this movie has different emotions for Riley to deal with and the sense of self element which helps delve into her character more than the original. It truly feels like Riley has grown in this film from the first one and is maturing from childhood into her teenage years and towards adulthood, going through the character changes and having to choose what kind of person she’s going to be. Our emotion characters also continue their character arcs, with Joy more appreciative of the other emotions and less controlling. Thankfully this is one of the better Pixar sequels of recent years and truly feels like a realistic outgrowth of the first Inside Out.