Film Review - Inside Out 2 (2024)

Inside Out 2 is the new Pixar film and the sequel to 2015’s Inside Out and this time Riley (Kensington Tailman) is turning 13 and her emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale) and Disgust (Liza Lapira) run their headquarters like a well oiled machine but when the Puberty alarm goes off on their console a wrecking crew comes in and a new console is installed and new emotions come in Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos) and they cast off the old emotions feeling they aren’t needed anymore but the old emotions still want to feel valid as well.

Inside Out 2 is a film that I have mixed feelings about, I don’t think it’s a bad movie per se but it’s also one that the more I think about it the more I find myself wishing it was a better movie.

But first what I do like first and foremost is Hawke as Anxiety from her fast talking, the way her hair looks like an explosion and how when she’s up and running it looks like a storm that consumes everything in it’s path and that character was a lot of fun to watch.

As for the other new emotions their okay but only really do one thing which is their core emotions, Embarrassment gets Embarrassed, Envy becomes envious and Ennui is bored by everything outside of their phone and I wish they had a little more to do in the film.

As for the old emotions again, Joy takes the lion share of the screen time and she has some good scenes but feels like the same over protective “my way or the highway” character she was in the first film and the other old emotions again don’t get a huge amount to do which is a bit of a shame as in the first film they felt like real characters who got their standout emotion moment and here you don’t really get either.

And this leads into why I feel mixed on this movie as watching it and thinking about it I wanted it to be better than it was, perhaps more emotional, more emotion character moments and a sense of growth and continuation now granted this movie deals with adolescence but not every kid goes through that time in their life the same way and I wish this sequel did that.

Instead this feels much more like Incredibles 2 than Toy Story 2 which I still feel is the gold standard of Pixar sequels and that film like this one was one that delivered a straight bat movie wise, it was out to give you exactly what you want and expect without rocking the boat too much and I wish the boat had been rocked more this time around as Toy Story 2 gave you something new, gave you a sense of growth and continuation and memorable moments for characters old and new.

But that also felt familiar in terms of its characters and storytelling to a certain extent and this movie doesn’t do that and I can see why as Disney has had a really bad time coming out of COVID (in both of my State of the Studios roundups from 2022 and 2023 they were in the bottom 2 places) and this is an easy sequel to make easy money and it delivers that but a part of me wanted something more to go along with the familiar like Toy Story 2 did.

And so that was Inside Out 2 and its okay if nothing you’ll go back to like you do with the first film or Toy Story 2 but given how good Pixar can be you want something better instead of middle of the road, 2 and a half out of 5.