REVIEW: Family follow-up ‘Inside Out 2’ mostly succeeds

“Inside Out 2,” AKA the third film in Pixar’s coming-of-age trilogy after “Luca” and “Turning Red.”

This animated sequel picks up about a year after the events of the first film, released in 2015. Riley is now 13, she’s enjoying hockey, about to enter high school and her emotions seem to be in a good place. The film picks up with her being recruited to a hockey camp after her JV squad wins a title.

That’s where things go haywire in Riley’s mind, as new emotions, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos) suddenly show up. Worried about Riley’s future, Anxiety takes the lead from Joy (Amy Poehler) and ends up making the hockey camp into an emotional roller coaster.

Though “Inside Out” certainly covers familiar territory, this sequel does enough to set itself apart from the original film by presenting its protagonists with all the difficulties that come with becoming a teenager. The main emotions are again set off on an adventure in Riley’s mind, but the stakes feel higher.

The movie also benefits from more time spent on the outside, where audiences get to see a greater amount of Riley’s life and how decisions by her emotions impact it. It’s a compelling character journey that works for the whole family, as it can entertain audiences young and old, and feel quite relatable to many viewers.

The emotion Joy coming to terms with what the new crew members mean for her role as Riley grows up is especially strong. It was also enjoyable seeing her interact with more of the other emotions, as they were separated for most of the first picture.

The new emotions, though, are a bit less memorable. Anxiety certainly makes things interesting, but Envy and Ennui just don’t add all that much. Envy, for example, is just a chatterbox and has a bit of, well, envy, but it never manifests into major jealousy. She mostly just repeats a lot of what Anxiety says.

There’s also the factor that the journey Joy and Co. go on feels like it takes a little too long to get to the destination. While the actual character moments are good, the traversing of the terrain can start to feel a bit repetitive.

The character work carries the movie through, though, and that’s partly because of the voice acting. Amy Poehler does really good voice work with Joy and Kensington Tallman captures Riley’s teen awkwardness well. The voice cast did have some changes since the first one, with Tony Hale and Liza Lapira taking over as Fear and Disgust, but the transition is pretty seamless.

The animation looks solid, too, and like the first movie, it was great to see a well-made real world in some scenes and a good-looking fantastical setting for the emotions in others. That extends to the character designs as well, with the emotions’ looks matching their personalities.

“Inside Out 2 is, for the most part, an effective sequel. Its returning characters grow and advance from the first film and they’re given a good new challenge to overcome. It ends up being a relatable, funny and amusing experience. 4 out of 5.

Author: Matthew Liedke

Journalist and film critic in Minnesota. Graduate of Rainy River College and Minnesota State University in Moorhead. Outside of movies I also enjoy sports, craft beers and the occasional video game. View all posts by Matthew Liedke