In 2015, “Inside Out” became the first movie I gave a rating of 10 out of 10. Every aspect of it worked perfectly, and the movie set a new standard for what Pixar was capable of. Unfortunately, the studio hasn’t produced anything nearly as good since. It’s had some good-but-not-great films, but quite a few stinkers, as well. Thus, I had some trepidation about this sequel.
I’m happy to tell you that while not as wickedly funny or clever as the original, “Inside Out 2” is pretty good.
The story picks up about where the first one ended, with Riley (Kensington Tallman) now thirteen years old, with braces on her teeth and acne on her chin. She has two close friends, loves playing hockey, and is thrilled when the high school coach (Yvette Nicole Brown) invites all three of them to spend the weekend at her hockey camp.
Everything seems fine until a flashing red beacon and siren go off in the control center in Riley’s brain, warning the emotions who run her thoughts and actions that she has just hit puberty and things are going to change a lot. That means old emotional stalwarts Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira replaces Mindy Kaling), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and Fear (Tony Hale replacing Bill Hader) have to make room for new feelings Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edibiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). There are also brief appearances by Nostalgia (June Squibb), who is always rushed out of the room because it’s too soon for her.
That’s too many personalities for one brain, so Anxiety — the leader of the newcomers — forces the old emotions out and takes control of Riley’s life, just as she’s trying to impress the coach and the team’s most popular player. Achieving the latter would mean admission into the cool kids clique, but to get there, Riley has to abandon her friends — a move entirely engineered by Anxiety over Joy’s objections. Just as Riley’s friendships are torn asunder, so are the relationships between the emotions.
You can’t make a sequel without falling back on some of the elements of the original. Fortunately, while “Inside Out 2” does go back to that well a few times, it’s not full of cheap repeats of sequences we’ve seen before. It actually tells three simultaneous stories: Riley struggling to figure out who she wants to be, Anxiety and her crew ascertaining how far to push their girl, and Joy and her colleagues fighting their way back from oblivion to headquarters so they can help Riley regain a sense of herself.
The voice actors, including Diane Lane as Mom and Kyle MacLachlan as Dad, play their parts perfectly, and Hawke is right on the money as Anxiety. There are also two zany new characters from Riley’s TV-viewing childhood, played by Ron Funches and James Austin Johnson (known for his perfect Trump impression on “SNL”), and one throwback video game character, Lance Slashblade (Yong Yea). All three made me laugh out loud.
The first “Inside Out” was beautifully directed by Pete Docter, the man behind such other Pixar winners as “Monsters Inc.” and “Up.” Docter has moved up the corporate ladder and now oversees production of all of the studio’s projects, so “IO2” was handed to Kelsey Mann, a first-time feature film director. That proves not to be a problem, as he’s been a Pixar insider for years, knows the playbook, and recreates the look of the different aspects of Riley quite well.
“Inside Out 2” isn’t as perfect as its predecessor because it doesn’t pack the same emotional wallop (I admit to tearing up at some of the father/daughter scenes in the original). Still it’s fun, and judging by the $295 million it made globally this weekend, it’s good to see Pixar back on the board with a big winner.
I was dubious when the studio went the sequel route with “Toy Story,” but doing so paid big dividends. The same seems to be true of the “Inside Out” franchise. I hope to see the story continue when Riley gets to high school.
I give this one an 8.5 out of 10. Now playing in theaters.