Inside Out 2
Review by Mark Woodring
Disney continues its trend of focusing its cinematic output on sequels and remakes with this sequel to 2015’s successful Pixar original, Inside Out.
Inside Out was a surprisingly successful film, granting the audience an inside look at what goes on inside the head of our protagonist, Riley.
Can this sequel possibly live up to the standards established by the original, especially in light of what seems to be the rise of sequel fatigue?
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review of the film, then use the links below to listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the film in more depth. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
96 Minutes, Rated PG
Written by: Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein, and Kelsey Mann
Directed by: Kelsey Man
Synopsis:
This follow up Follows Riley, in her teenage years, encountering new emotions.
Inside Out 2 brings us Riley, now age 13, as she begins to embark on one of the most traumatic times in a young person’s life: the transition from Middle to High School. Add to that Riley’s burgeoning hockey career, and there’s a lot going on.
Oh, and of course all this is predicated on the “Puberty Alarm” going off in Riley’s emotional Command Center.
[Let’s hope that one fact doesn’t rile up the same folks who got incensed by Turning Red.]
As Riley begins to mature, she is faced with the duel between her “classic” emotions and a bunch of new ones, led by Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), who seems intent on sidelining Joy (Amy Peohler) as Riley’s primary “driver.”
Faced with the loss of her two best friends to school changes, hockey tryouts, and the Anxiety-driven need to be liked, to belong, to not find herself “alone,” Riley begins to change in ways that Joy can’t accept.
This film delves into some great areas of discussion, including the development of Identity and human sociological drives, and wraps them up in the same bright colors of the original.
Most of the classic emotions are sidelined in this film, though. Inside Out 2 feels like simply a duel between Joy and Anxiety as they try to mold the creation of Riley’s Identity. Joy has watched over the years as Riley’s memories have become beliefs, which, when they came together, have formed her Identity.
Anxiety, feeling that Riley’s Identity can no longer serve her in her new circumstances, forges a new set of beliefs based on memories created and then elevated by Anxiety.
Look, this is heady stuff, and I’m sure that there will be hundreds of think-pieces written, delving into the Jungian and Kantian implications of this film, and that’s fine.
Hell, I’d be surprised if less than a dozen philosophy Doctorates are awarded to people based on this film.
[That speaks volumes about our higher education system, doesn’t it?]
Here’s my issue with the movie: behind all the silly banter between Joy and her compatriots as they fight to recover Riley’s Identity and the wacky Anxiety (“Mom! I want ANXIETY for Christmas!”) causing all kinds of problems while making arguments that might seem reasonable in the moment (even to Joy), the film puts Riley on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
I’m not kidding: an actual, full blown, nervous breakdown.
Or a Psychotic Break, I’m not sure which, really.
Kind of dark isn’t it?
I mean, do we need to pile on more anxiety to our kids today? I don’t think so.
So instead of an uplifting bit of entertainment, we get a terrified 13-year-old girl on the verge of losing it.
And absolutely NOT in an entertaining way.
I get that I’m not the target demographic for this one, but even I can generally enjoy smart “children’s” programming.
This one really pushes the line, though.
If you don’t think too hard and just try to enjoy the surface level stuff, I’m sure you’ll be fine, though.
Maybe.
Or maybe you could have a nervous breakdown.
Inside Out 2 hits theaters June 14 and stars Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Maya Hawke, Adele Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, and Ayo Edibiri.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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