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INSIDE OUT 2 movie review

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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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“Inside Out” movie review

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InsideOutThis is what we get from the creators of the beloved Disney-Pixar masterpiece Up? Prepare for a journey that not even Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus could take you on. Finally get up close and personal with those little voices in your head. Only, despite the prolific amount of “joy” in the movie, you will likely exhibit a moderate ‘meh’ following the close at the denouement when all is better for Riley. Unlike the emotional rollercoaster in Up, this is a pretty well a straight forward ticking-time-bomb structured movie. Fairly predictable and lacks the magic of past Disney-Pixar films. Think Cars 2. The only redeeming quality of the movie is Amy Poehler’s character of Joy. If you loved Parks and Recreation, then you will love the character of Joy because she is pretty much the effervescent Leslie Knope. There are no extreme highs nor extreme lows…the movie fails to arouse a great deal of emotion from the audience. You will definitely not find yourself crying like you did in Up, and the characters of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust won’t find a place in your heart like the cast from Toy Story. 

Inside Out is the latest movie from Disney-Pixar and is about Riley, an 11 year-old, girl from Minnesota who moves with her family to San Francisco in order for her dad to pursue a career with a startup company. Deep inside the conscious of Riley, the personified and anthropomorphic voices in her head are busy managing her emotions during this dynamic transition in Riley’s life. Joy (Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black) all work together to see that Riley is feeling the way she needs to at any given moment while she is awake–or at least try to. Joy is the leader and attempts to see to it that Riley is joyous all the time. During a rough transitional period, emotions run haywire and Joy is unable to manage Riley’s feelings. Not meaning any harm, Sadness touches an otherwise happy core memory and the domino effect that leads to the destruction of feelings, memories, and emotions begins. After getting sucked from Headquarters into Riley’s longterm memory, Joy and Sadness must retrieve all the core memories and get them back to Headquarters before Riley retreats into a dark place and never returns.

This is Pixar’s big summer movie, but it feels more like a movie that should’ve been released during the spring or fall. It lacks that uniquely Pixar quality that we have come to love and expect from such masters of animated storytelling. The narrative struck me as something much closer to a DreamWorks film than a Pixar. Not that DreamWorks hasn’t had some hits–quite the contrary–they produced the Golden Globe winning film How to Train Your Dragon 2 last year and certainly had a major hit with Shrek and the first How to Train Your Dragon. But, typically Pixar movies stand as the epitome of the best in compelling animated storytelling. Visually, the film is quite colorful and personifies the voices in our head quite well. Unfortunately, the movie suffers from an inability to inspire the audience to fall in love with any of the respective characters; but the opposite is also true because there is not a deep dislike for the antagonist (which is essentially ‘time’) or opposition either. As most screenwriters will tell you, movies–even if time is truly the opposition or enemy–need the antagonist to have some type of physical representation. Simply stated, a movie needs a clearly defined external goal, and this film concentrates mostly on the internal goals.

Although not exemplary, we do have sufficient character development in Joy. She truly shows a great character arc that goes from someone who thinks she knows everything and how to keep Riley’s mind under control to knowing that all the various emotions need to work together in order to provide Riley with a healthy state of mind. The movie is definitely cute, and it has some great humor here and there. There are also many Easter Eggs from other Pixar movies as well. One of the funniest parts that most children will miss is the cliche imaginary boyfriend from Canada. In many ways, this movie feels like a filler movie to bridge the gap between movies until the highly anticipated Finding Dory and Toy Story 4. For those of you who really enjoy the Disney and Pixar shorts prior to the feature presentations, you will get a cute short film about two volcanos who fall in ‘lava.’ Although moderately entertaining, it was a cute way to begin Inside Out. The moderate cuteness and entertainment value in the short film is definitely indicative of the storytelling quality in the feature. It was a foreshadow of what was to be expected in Inside Out.

If you’re the parents of kids or you just love Disney-Pixar films, no matter the storytelling or entertainment value, then you will likely enjoy watching this movie. If you are looking for another Disney-Pixar movie to generate strong emotions and maybe even “joyous” tears, then this is may not be it. However, it has received high praise from other critics so far, so maybe there is something in this movie that I may have missed.

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