Inside Out 2

Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust have been doing great since the last film, as they have perfected the guidance of Riley through her childhood years, and balanced each emotion well, ensuring the youngster grew a circle of close friends, and a passion for activities such as Ice Hockey.  However, Riley is hitting her teenage year, and with that comes some upheaval in the control center as the puberty alarm sounds off, and chaos descends when workers come in to overhaul the controls.  Then enter a handful of new emotions – Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui (Boredom).  Initially the new group appear to work well with the base emotions, but swiftly Anxiety starts to cause some friction with Joy, which results in the initial group being banished, becoming repressed emotions as teen angst dominates.  In the real world, Riley struggles when she discovers that her close friends will be going to different schools, and she starts to focus on being accepted by a new group, in fear of being alone.

Inside Out 2 very swiftly sets about reminding us why we fell in love with the original film, before throwing the upheaval into the mix.   The new emotions clashing with the old could have led to us, as an audience, taking sides, but smartly the film shows that these new emotions still have the best intentions for Riley in mind, meaning that even as Anxiety starts to appear to be up to something nefarious, we never really see them as a bad guy, just an emotion that is going out of control due to external circumstances.  Much like the first film, Joy and the old gang set off on a journey through the mind, imaginatively depicted with concepts such as a Sar-Chasm, or a Could of Ideas, to retrieve what they see as Riley’s true self and restore the status quo.  It plays out familiarly to the first film, but with enough freshness and fun to make it work in its own way.   Much like the first film, seeing how the complexity of the emotional conflicts impacts on Riley in the real world is smartly handled, and anyone who has ever seen a child become a teen will see so many moments all too familiar to their own experiences.

Vibrant, creative and fun, Inside Out 2 is Pixar once more (literally) playing with emotions, and offering a wonderfully creative insight into our own internal battles with self identity, as emotions jostle for prominence.  With a great voice cast, and enough to appease all ages, the younger audience members will no doubt find it fun and engaging, whilst the older audience will latch onto the deeper aspects, this is Pixar demonstrating what they do best once more.