Does this sound familiar? A new chapter to one of the best films of 2015 is occasionally brilliant but falls short of the greatness of its predecessor. Yes, we're only a few weeks past the arrival of Furiosa, but much of my reaction to that prequel could apply to this sequel. Like Mad Max: Fury Road, the first Inside Out took bold risks that paid off beautifully. It showed us a (mostly) new world and featured concepts movies rarely explore. Unsurprisingly, going back to that world feels a little repetitive. But there are still plenty of fresh ideas that make it a worthy, if inferior, sequel.
Riley, now officially a teenager, has finished middle school but faces uncertainty in the months ahead. Her best friends won't be going to the same high school as her, but they're all invited to try out for a high-profile girls' hockey team. As they arrive at the mini-camp, Riley's new emotions barge in, causing plenty of turmoil. These include Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edibiri), Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). But its Anxiety who asserts herself the most, eventually overtaking the other emotions, and banishing our original quintet to the Back of the Mind.
Their journey home is filled with clever sight gags, like a disruptive Brain Storm and a widening Sar Chasm. But it doesn't have the emotional impact Joy and Bing Bong (Richard Kind) took in the first film. Still, the film's climax - in which Anxiety has spun Riley out of control - has a lot of power. As someone who's struggled with anxiety myself, all of the justifications for overthinking and eventual spiraling felt deeply familiar.
But once again, Pixar has delivered a film with more than just some good lessons. The animation is even more eye-popping, the jokes are strong, and many scenes are both inventive and resonant. The strongest of these sees the gang discover that Anxiety has remotely commandeered Riley's imagination, forcing the brain cells inside to come up with as many worst-case scenarios as possible. It's brilliantly executed, and especially moving when Joy channels her inner activist and pushes the cells to disrupt the deluge of negative thoughts.
Not everything here works as well, but it finishes strong. Inside Out 2 shows Riley's growing pains, as well as Pixar's. Even with its flaws, it's still one of the year's most gorgeous and heartfelt films.
