IR Film Review: INSIDE OUT 2 [Pixar/Disney]

The aspect of the original "Inside Out" was the uniqueness of approaching emotions inside the mind as a sense of self. However, there was a sense of the unknown in the first movie where it was making the mythology as it was building the world. There was something undeniable about it. "Inside Out 2" is, in some ways, more complex but in other ways less so. Joy (Amy Poehler) understands the necessities of childhood but puberty does not quite compute (although when we go into other people's minds, we see it does transform over time). Riley is growing up and she is awkward but is going through growing pains like everybody before her. The wild card here that really offers an interesting dyametric is Anxiety (Maya Hawke). The need to succeed but also the pain it takes to get there is an interesting throttle point which really comes to a culmination at one point which is something close to a nervous breakdown. This is the one point where the film really gets almost up to the sense of awe some elements in the first film had.

Of course, there is nothing quite like Richard Kind's imaginary elephant sacrifice which in the first film was utterly heartbreaking. That was the loss of childhood whereas here it is the loss of control, which is not quite the same thing. Like "Soul" in many ways, the original "Inside Out" had an ethereal quality. This one is based more in the metaphor of side gags, which are quite clever and interestingly rendered but not quite tranformative in terms of the deeper psychology. The vault is an interesting play because of how it plays with mediums but it isn't really organic. In fact one part makes you reminice about "Jurassic Park" in certain ways, which is ironic. The movie also takes place in a very compact time frame almost as if it is setting up for something else when the story at hand was more important. That said, "Inside Out 2" is not bad at all. It just isn't great. There are some introspective moments, such as when Joy gets down and how to be consoled by Anger which are really beautiful as well as when all the emotions have to merge in a way with Joy becoming a need (which is a really transcendent thought and moment in the film). But a sequel usually can never beat the original. It happens but rarely. Still "Inside Out 2" does its job admirably. B+

By Tim Wassberg