An entertaining and thoughtful exploration of the complexities of the human condition. And one of the best hockey movies ever! Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out 2, the highly anticipated followup to 2015’s Inside Out, builds upon the original to deliver a far better movie! At best, I find the original mediocre, so I was not anticipating to like the sequel. I was wrong. I had such a great time with this movie because it’s full of many laugh out loud moments. And not just that. But this movie delivers much stronger plotting and character development compared to the first movie and that which has been released by Disney/Pixar in the last several years. I find myself sending most of what Disney releases to the penalty box anymore these days, but not so with Inside Out 2. Perhaps this movie demonstrates a return to simple plots with complex characters that strike the right balance between humor and insight. Much better than its predecessor, this movie truly personifies the emotional complexities we develop as we get older. While our central character of Riley may be a 13 year-old girl, the lessons we learn from the movie are relevant for teens and adults alike. Between the thoughtfulness of storytelling the moments of hilarity, and the commentary on human emotion, this is a fantastic movie.
Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust have been running a successful operation by all accounts. However, when Anxiety shows up, they aren’t sure how to feel. Meanwhile, Riley is faed with the challenges of transitioning to high school and the desire to secure a place on the hockey team.
Inside Out 2 excels where Inside Out failed to deliver. Everything that transpires in this movie feels authentic, feels like an organic cause and effect sequence of events. Whereas in the first movie, clearly there was an overt attempt to elicit emotionally manipulative responses from the audience. The challenges Riles faces when learning her closest friends are going to a different high school and the desire to (1) land a spot on the high school hockey team and (2) build relationships that she can lean on when entering the world of high school, all feel close enough to reality to be believable yet there is still a whimsy about them. Where many movies fail these days is in proper plotting and pacing. Inside Out 2 satisfies both, and does so very well. We have a clearly defined central character with a clearly defined external goal motived by a clearly defined internal need, both of which are met with a character(s) of opposition. Yes, there is an emotional journey, which we have in the first one, but this one defines a measurable, external goal that Riley will either achieve or fail to achieve, thus raising the stakes.
One of the biggest changes between the first movie and this one is the degree to which humor is integrated into the story to balance out the more emotionally challenging moments. In fact, there are truly some laugh out loud comedic bits that I think adults will find even funnier than kids and teens. I won’t reveal any of those to you because I want you to experience them for yourselves, but there is a recurring gag that delivers every time. And the honesty about the emotions we all have and when they develop is also responsible for some of the humor. There is a refreshing candor about the expression and personification of emotions in the movie that makes the movie accessible for anyone, no matter where they are on their emotional journey.
This film also reminds us of the complexities of the human condition. There are so many areas of life that are not clear cut, black and white, right and wrong, and as such, these grey areas make life challenging. While the movie may not formalize this concept, as it is designed to be most accessible by kids and teens, one of the theses in the film posits that as we grow up, our ability to discern and reason are increasingly important as there are times we are faced with decisions that demonstrate no clear right or wrong direction, but both will have their own respective sets of consequences, both good and bad. The journey on which Riley and her emotions find themselves teaches them that both positive and negative experiences, successes and failures, and that which we regret are all needed to form our personality and value system.
Inside Out 2 is entertaining and thoughtful! Should you choose to watch it, I’m confident that you will find it as enjoyable as did I.
Ryan teaches Film Studies and Screenwriting at the University of Tampa and is a member of the Critics Association of Central Florida and Indie Film Critics of America. If you like this article, check out the others and FOLLOW this blog! Interested in Ryan making a guest appearance on your podcast or contributing to your website? Send him a DM on Twitter. If you’re ever in Tampa or Orlando, feel free to catch a movie with him.
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