Pixar is considered one of the best animation studios in the business. Ever since they came on the scene with Toy Story back in 1996 they have been making films that have touched the minds of kids and adults alike. They have created memorable characters and stories that have become indelible to audiences from all walks of life. Inside Out was one of the best movies they’ve put out in the last decade or so, so it’s a no-brainer that they would make a sequel to this Academy Award-winning film. The question is can the sequel live up to the phenomenal first film in this series?

Riley Anderson (Kensington Tallman) is a young girl who goes to middle school in the Bay Area of California.  She’s happy playing hockey with her two best friends on the team at their school. When a local high school coach sees how good they are together she invites them to an off-season camp to determine if they have what it takes to make the high school team in the fall. This causes Riley to create a whole new set of emotions, Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Disgust (Liza Lupira), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos), and Envy (Ayo Edibiri), besides the ones she already has.

These new emotions cause a rift in Riley’s brain between the existing emotions she relies on most, Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) Anger (Lewis Black), and Fear (Tony Hale), replacing Bill Hader who previously played the character in the first film. They have different ideas on how she should represent herself moving into her teen year and trying to make an impact at the hockey camp with the other senior girls and the coach who invited her to the camp. As well as how she should deal with her current friends. 

The Inside Out films deal with coming of age in a way like no other way I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. Pixar has always dealt with young characters in particular with great storytelling, but these two movies in particular are about and beyond from my perspective.  I know a lot of people will point to the Toy Story franchise as great coming-of-age storytelling, and I don’t disagree with them. I just feel like the Inside Out films have done it a touch better than those movies. The idea of the emotions as characters is genius to me. The writers of these films deserve a lot of credit. Inside Out 2 is once again amazingly written by Dave Holston and Meg LaFauve. They capture what teenage girls at this age would be going through perfectly with their script.

One of the things Pixar is also known for is their groundbreaking animation in the majority of their films. The first Inside Out didn’t do a great job of differentiating itself from other animated movies. It was more of the script and voice acting from the amazing cast that set it apart from the pack of animated films that came out in 2015. This one is different in that regard. The animation is distinctly its own from the real world where Riley exists and the world that exists in her head. The emotions are designed impeccably well with a grainy feel to them. The vibrant colors are still everywhere in this world, but the characters in her brain are gorgeously rendered by Pixar animators. This was one of the best parts of the movie for me among many others.

Sometimes a voice-over cast can be miscast and they can ruin an animated film. Other times they are simply incredible. As an example Richard Kind as Bing Bong was a stellar casting. He brought out emotion in me that I didn’t know I had in the first movie. That’s a good thing. This movie had a similar casting with Maya Hawke as Anxiety. She was brilliant as this character! She embodied what it meant to be Anxiety in every way possible.  From the argumentative side to the mad and jealous side of the character. One moment where she completely lost it was a perfect depiction of this emotion coming to life. If Oscar nominations were given out for voice-over performances she would deserve one this year for this incredible performance. 

The Inside Out movies have a way of describing things perfectly. The last one did it with the different islands of interest and this one did it as well with three things that were great. The stream of consciousness,  the sarcasm, the brainstorm, and Riley’s true self were all impeccably written into the script and brought vividly to life in the movie. These were great examples of how to create ideas using the subconscious mind. I couldn’t have imagined a better use of these ideas if I tried for a hundred years. These were perfectly realized in the film. This script definitely deserves some consideration for Best Adapted Screenplay come awards season. 

Kelsey Mann had her hands full directing a sequel to the phenomenon that was Inside Out. Inside Out 2 equals that success from my perspective in almost every possible way. The voice-over cast is amazing once again with Maya Hawke as the standout by a mile. The separation of the animation styles set the emotions apart from the real world. The grainy yet colorful style still looked as incredible as ever though. The strength once again with this Pixar film like so many others that came before it, including the first movie in this series, is the phenomenal script by Holstein and LaFauve. The way they brought the world of Riley’s brain to life was perfect for lack of another word. I couldn’t have imagined this world brought to life once again more than it was in this animated masterpiece. Pixar and Disney have another winner on their hands.

4 ½

Dan Skip Allen