Few directorial debuts have the high stakes surrounding Pixar’s latest outing, Inside Out 2. After a string of less than stellar box office outings, Pixar is returning to the groundbreaking world that it launched with 2015’s hit animated feature, Inside Out.
The original film followed Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) as a preteen Midwestern girl thrust into living in the city San Francisco and adjusting to this life changing event. Inside Riley’s body, multiple emotions try to manage Riley’s outward expression and mood so that her family can get along without strife. However, things are nearly derailed when Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) are inadvertently swept into the far reaches of Riley’s mind. Luckily, Joy and Sadness are able to return and teach the audience valuable lessons that each emotion is valuable.
With Inside Out 2, director Kelsey Mann proves more than up to the task of managing all our emotions as we’re taken on a roller coaster ride of laughs, heartfelt moments, inventive characters, and innovative set pieces within the body of Riley.
The film opens with Joy and the crew of Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust placing Riley’s worst memories (in glass ball form) into the “back of the mind.” Consequently, Riley’s best moments are taken to an underground lake where glowing tendrils collect them and form Riley’s core beliefs. The phrase, “I am a good person,” is often repeated by Riley in the first act.
At age thirteen, Riley is excelling at school and life, now belonging to a tight-knit friend group with Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green). Showcasing some mean hockey skills, the girls are invited by Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown) to a three-day camp where Riley’s sports idol, Val Ortiz will be in attendance.
The inciting incident that shakes up the first act is the emergence of puberty within Riley’s body. This moment, announced with a literal alarm internally, leads to some new emotions taking up space and shaking up Joy’s status quo. These include a pitch perfect take on Embarrassment by Paul Walter Hauser, Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Anxiety (Maya Hawke) which has the biggest role to play.
Upon learning that her friends are attending a new school district the following school year, Anxiety goes on the warpath and transforms Riley’s external presenting self into a new version in the hopes of impressing sports idol impress Val. Anxiety wipes out Riley’s present sense by exiling Joy and the other “O.G.” emotions. From the back of Riley’s mind, Joy and her cohorts must return and restore Riley’s former self before Anxiety’s dangerous manipulations destroy Riley’s relationships.
Anxiety drives Riley to relentlessly seek Val’s approval at the cost of her last days with her best friends who are flummoxed by Riley’s behavior. It’s a well-crafted narrative, split between Anxiety manipulating Riley’s character to fit her vision while Joy and the other emotions travel through the recesses of Riley’s mind.
The journey of our “O.G.” characters in Riley’s mind is meaningful as well as visually dazzling in its ever-engrossing style. Hawke delivers a fine performance as Anxiety, but the film soars the highest when dealing with the journey of the first film’s returning characters and their quest through her mind. Also, every scene with Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong is electric and delectable, leading to a strong suspicious a spinoff withing the franchise wouldn’t be out of the question.
Landing the jokes and awe-inspiring visuals at time when audiences are less enamored with CGI is an impressive feat by Pixar’s writers and animators. It’s also a good reminder why A.I. shouldn’t be handed the reigns in a cost cutting measure which would erase the meticulous and genius work of human artists. Even as an adult male, you can connect to the pressure of being a teenager and trying to conform the version of you that would please others in your social circle.
The hallmark of great animated film is usually the accompanying score, and this film excels under Andrea Datzman. A longtime collaborator of composer Michael Giacchino (Up, Star Trek) Datzman delivers a very dynamic score which fully utilizes the orchestra to evoke emotion, the film’s dazzling visuals, and upping the stakes when Riley’s well-being is on the line. Having dispelled any lingering concern of a “Pixar drought,” director Kelsey Mann has a bright future in the animation as Mann is guaranteed an Oscar nomination for animated feature as well as multiple Annie Award nominations.
Letter Grade: A