“Riley’s life is more complex now. She needs more sophisticated emotions than all of you. You’re just not what she needs anymore.“

Anxiety

In 2015, Inside Out’s anthropomorphised emotions were a rare beacon of creativity in the midst of a Pixar slate populated by sequels. Now itself a sequel, Inside Out 2 loses some of that freshness — as well as director Pete Doctor, who went on to helm Soul — but it builds effectively on the original’s premise with a meaningful story to tell. With Riley now 13, puberty brings a flood of new teenage emotions — Anxiety, Envy, Embarassment, and Ennui — coinciding with a trip to ice hockey camp. The external coming of age story is familiar and rote; inside, Anxiety and Joy vie for control, with competing ideas about the person Riley should be. Despite a handful of cast changes, the voice acting is wonderfully engaging throughout. Visually, Inside Out 2 replicates the inner world of its predecessor without showing much new. The notable exceptions are two characters in Riley’s memory depicted in different art styles — a 2D children’s cartoon parody and a moody videogame protagonist. Their brief inclusion, whilst humourous, seems almost perfunctory and it stands in contrast to the cleverly blended animation styles found in titles like Across the Spider-verse or The Mitchells vs the Machines. This is an enjoyable but lesser sequel, then, but it contains a worthwhile message for adolescents that personality is multifaceted, a holistic reflection of our experiences and emotions.

7/10