Follows Riley, in her teenage years, encountering new emotions.

Pixar have made some of the finest animated movies of all time and 2015’s ‘Inside Out’ is one of their best for my money, a smart, funny and moving movie that encapsulates everything they do at their best in making movies that appeal to both children and adults. A sequel seemed inevitable, with the only surprise perhaps being that it’s taken nearly 10 years for it to arrive. The first movie took place inside the head of an 11-year-old girl called Riley, exploring the complex emotions as she comes to terms with her family moving to a new city, taking her away from her friends. In ‘Inside Out 2’, we rejoin Riley two years later as she is about to go through puberty, a point in time ripe for new possibilities for the filmmakers.

The format of this sequel is much the same as the first, in that we follow a period in Riley’s life through the viewpoint of the characters within her head who control her emotions and ultimately, her reactions and responses to every aspect of her life. The primary change on this occasion comes from the introduction of new emotions to join the core 5 from the first movie (Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger), with Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui joining the party to reflect Riley starting to become an angsty teenager. In terms of plot, the focus is on how the old emotions try to cling on to Riley as a child, while the new emotions led by Anxiety are looking to the future – a point in time that I’m sure will resonate strongly with anyone and particularly those who have been parents of a child going through this transition. Despite the endless possibilities presented by this refreshed premise, I thought the story was a little limited and I didn’t connect with it as much as the first movie (which to be fair, is not a strong criticism given it’s one of my favourite movies of the 2010s).

I felt one of the factors that was less strong in ‘Inside Out 2’ was the amount of time spent in the mechanics of the mind, which was cool to a degree but took away from exploring how the emotions interact with Riley. I also wanted more of the parents and how their ‘emotions’ responded to Riley’s changing state, but the nature of the premise at a hockey camp prevented that from being possible. The anxiety character dominated proceedings, perhaps to be expected, but I did feel it was at the expense of a more complex exploration of how these emotions interact and clash with each other. As expected from Pixar, the voicework is good (you may note that a lot of the voices have changed from the first movie, largely due to a financial dispute), and there are some neat and inventive flourishes in expanding the ‘world’ of ‘Inside Out’.

That is to say that there is a lot to love about ‘Inside Out 2’ and it does bring a tear to the eye, just that it is not as good as the masterpiece that was ‘Inside Out’.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Kelsey Mann

Starring: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt22022452/