Film review: ‘Inside Out 2’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Has it really been nine years since the first wonderful Inside Out film so expertly put us through the emotional wringer? That movie immediately joined the ranks of Pixar classics with its clever, exuberant and extremely moving tale of eleven-year-old girl Riley trying to cope with change and the way her emotions Joy, Anger, Aadness etc. – who were depicted as living animated characters – battled to control how she reacted. Even famed historian and Sapiens author Yuval Noah Harari noted its subversive, Un-Disneylike depiction of the human mind as the product of neurobiological mechanisms, albeit manifested as lovable quirky homunculi. The eagerly anticipated sequel, Inside Out 2 loses a little of the first film’s lustre, simply because we’re now familiar with the concept but it’s still an intelligent and superbly crafted piece of modern animation.
In this film, Riley (Kensington Tallman replacing Kaitlyn Dias from the first film) is now 13 and entering puberty which means more upheaval with high school, social judgement, concerns about the future and the arrival of a team of new emotions Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy and Ennui, the latter depicted as a contemptuous French beatnik. Along with her closest friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green), Riley is invited to a training camp to try out for a prestigious ice hockey team. There, however, the new teenage emotions, especially Anxiety (Maya Hawke) begin to usurp control of her mind, forcing her to desperately seek social approval, fret over failure and seemingly betray her true self. The so-called OG emotions led by Joy (Amy Poehler) try to restore what they think is Riley’s real identity but find that a more complex business than they imagined.
This is a remarkably inventive film where all the tumult of Riley’s rapidly shifting emotions plays into a vibrant adventure/comedy and personal drama. There is probably more physical action in this film than in the first one but its carefully calibrated so the film doesn’t become manic or cluttered. The landscape of Riley’s mind is once again beautifully rendered through vivid and striking computer animation. The interplay between Riley’s external behaviour and the antics of her emotions is as deftly handled as the first film and as clever as anything in the Pixar canon.
Appropriately, this film knows how to push the emotional buttons. While the teen traumas don’t have quite the desperate sadness as the first film’s depiction of the loss of childhood innocence, they still pack a considerable punch and the greater sophistication of Riley’s emotional range is captured wonderfully well.
A large part of the two films’ success is the superb performances from the voice cast. Amy Poehler’s irrepressible perkiness is perfect for the voice of Joy while Phyllis Smith, who many will remember as Phyllis from The Office, is touching but still funny and endearing as Sadness. Liza Lapira does a fine job replacing Mindy Kaling as the snooty Disgust in this film while Lewis Black scores most of the laughs as Anger.
While the visual phantasmagoria and characters’ zaniness will still delight them, younger kiddies might struggle with the storyline here. Nearly everyone but the most hardened cinema grinches, however, will be thrilled to revisit this inspired film series.
Nick’s rating: ****
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Adventure/ Animation.
Classification: PG.
Director(s): Kelsey Mann.
Release date: 13th June 2024.
Running time: 96 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.