inside out 2: teenagehood in three days
double the emotions, half as emotional
Did your personality go from idyllic and carefree to exceedingly angsty overnight? Personally, I couldn’t quite relate but maybe that’s just me!
The other day, I watched Inside Out 2 in the cinema. I had relatively high expectations from online reviewers and a high Rotten Tomatoes score, and was quite excited to see a good Pixar sequel. The premise actually seems to warrant a second movie, as emotions will naturally adapt and change as you grow up. Here, protagonist Riley is presented as a thirteen-year-old, with good grades, a group of friends, a strong sense of self, and a talent in ice hockey.
But wait! Overnight, emotions Joy, Disgust, Sadness, Anger, and Fear are disrupted by a blaring alarm, labeled PUBERTY! A construction crew comes in for the immediate demolition of headquarters. When Riley wakes up, not only does she have a pimple on her chin and a hankering need for deodorant, but she has had a complete personality change, snapping at her mother. Don’t worry, she’s completely fine three days later, which is about the average amount of time people need to process their brand-new emotions, right? I wish the movie had spanned over several months, making Riley’s journey through puberty and teenagehood seem more natural.
Out of all the new emotions, Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment, the only important one is Anxiety. All the others are just there for her to converse with while the original emotions are off on their little adventure. They are not effective side characters plot-wise, but their existence doesn’t necessarily make the movie worse. But I actually enjoy Anxiety as a character a lot. As a villain, she is well-thought-through, and as an emotion, she is utilized in a deliberate manner. She is driven by a genuine desire to help Riley, but ultimately hurts her. Anxiety is the antagonist, but not unlikable.
The main things I came away from Inside Out 2 were a few high-stakes emotional moments and some of the most cheesy and stereotypical teenage dialogue possible. Often Riley would say something, which would warrant a slow head turn and an eye twitch towards my friend. The movie and its predecessor have the unnatural issue of switching emotions at a very quick pace, usually when the emotions struggle for the use of the console. But in this movie, the rapid changes make it feel frustrating on watch. As someone who was thirteen recently, I would like to note I wasn’t free from somewhat angsty and embarrassing dialogue, but I don’t remember myself or my peers being that bad. This is another example of where this movie hits a concept just a bit too hard on the head. Riley’s emotions were sometimes so exaggerated that she no longer seemed like a person, but a void operated by these headquarters in her mind.
The high-stakes emotional moments were very hit-or-miss for me.
Spoilers begin now!
I enjoyed the first Inside Out movie quite a bit. As someone who cries at essentially every movie, I was beyond moved by some scenes (especially Bing Bong!). But I didn’t get that in this movie. However, I was genuinely impressed, like many others, by the anxiety attack scene. Anxiety is trapped in a whirlwind of herself, which gradually worsens as Riley’s panic escalates. She is caught glitching in the center, unable to remove herself from the situation.
The anxiety attack works more than well as the climax, and as a beautiful emotional moment. The issue with Inside Out 2 is they try to have more than one of these emotional moments. Particularly, there’s a scene where Joy has a breakdown and she comes to the realization that “we must feel less joy as we grow up”. She’s forced to grapple with the fact Anxiety has taken control of Riley, and attempts to compensate by taking charge of the original emotions. I’ve seen the movie receive a lot of praise for a creative plot. But the third act is much too similar to the original, except worse. Joy is hurt and lost outside of headquarters. With a boost of motivation, she makes it back to the headquarters with the help of some other character, now Pouchy.
In one very odd scene, the original emotions are bottled up and thrown into a vault with the rest of Riley’s deepest darkest secrets. Here, they meet Bloofy and Pouchy, a 2-D animated dog and his talking fanny pack. Apparently, Riley still enjoys this show in secret. A pixelated purple-haired video game character called Lance appears next, who Riley thinks is cute. The three animated styles are working on getting out of the vault together, but the mixture of them and the way they act make me feel like I watching some weird spoof of the Inside Out franchise. The only one that comes back to advance the plot is Pouchy. The whole scene felt very forced, like they were trying to bring back the different animation styles that worked so well in the original’s Abstract Thought scene.
But anyways, Joy realizes the value of the antagonist emotion and they all work together to help Riley, who has an emotional moment with her loved ones. Besides the addition of the anxiety attack, this whole act doesn’t feel inventive. Joy’s breakdown makes me feel like I should cry and be upset, but the moment feels too forced. But the “too forced” complaint could apply to the majority of the film.
For a final gripe, is there truly such a competitive ice hockey scene in the public high schools in the Bay Area?