Sequels have been when it comes to Pixar, but it鈥檚 hard to deny the natural premise of It鈥檚 been nine years since 鈥淚nside Out,鈥� yet in the span between that film and its new sequel, Riley, the young girl with a head full of emotions, has gone from 11 years old to 13. She鈥檚 just grown up a little.
Or maybe a lot. In the middle of the night, the old gang of Joy ( ), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), Disgust (Liza Lapira) and Anger (Lewis Black) are roused from their beds by a soft beep, like a fire alarm in need of a new battery, but soon it鈥檚 sounding an all-out emergency. On their console a red light blinks. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 that?鈥� one says. 鈥淧uberty,鈥� the button reads. Soon, construction workers are swarming the control room for 鈥渄emo day,鈥� with wrecking balls making room for 鈥渢he others.鈥�
In come a new gaggle of emotions said to be more sophisticated: Anxiety ( ), Envy ( ), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Ennui (Ad猫le Exarchopoulos). The next morning, Riley wakes up to find herself unusually stinky. Life, as they say, comes at you pretty fast. 鈥淚nside Out 2鈥� turns out to be not just a modest, inch-things-along sequel but a follow-up of cataclysmic proportions.
Tempting as it is to take any revisiting of 鈥淚nside Out鈥� 鈥� a high water mark for not just Pixar but 鈥�10s American movies 鈥� as sacrilegious, its sequel is deftly sensitive to one of the most awkward chapters of life. The giddy sense of imagination is a little less boundless this time. One could certainly look at 鈥淚nside Out 2鈥� like a parent eyeing a teenager and thinking the younger version was cuter and less whiny. But the filmmakers of 鈥淚nside Out 2鈥� have managed again to filter complex psychological developments into a bright, entertaining head trip that in its finest moments packs an emotional wallop.
I would peg Joy as the real protagonist of That movie, really, hinged on the blue-haired sprite鈥檚 desperate race to preserve all the happiness of childhood. Aided especially by Poehler鈥檚 brilliant voice work, Joy 鈥� a kind of stand-in for parents wanting only the best for their kids 鈥� was less just another emotion than an unflagging guardian learning that sometimes letting go is best.
This time, Riley feels more the main character, though Anxiety, an excitable, orange, bug-eyed Muppet-like thing, is increasingly calling the shots. Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman) is now taller, has a few good friends and is still playing hockey. Her internal landscape is shifting, too. Boy Band Island is done, for one. And out of her pools of memories, new strands are growing a tree-shaped Belief System. Just who Riley is, at her core, gets tested and reshaped in 鈥淚nside Out 2.鈥�
Some of the brain trust on the film are also new. Kelsey Mann, a longtime Pixar veteran, takes over directing from Pete Docter (now the Pixar chief) to make his debut feature. The script is by Meg LeFauve, who co-wrote the original, and Dave Holstein.
My recollections of 鈥淚nside Out鈥� 鈥� if my memory orbs have been correctly filed 鈥� are mostly of all those glowing balls of the past and Joy and Sadness鈥� mad dashes through the back of Riley鈥檚 mind, a pun-filled inner space both literal and metaphorical. Plus, we can鈥檛 forget, Richard Kind鈥檚 voice as Bing Bong.
Much is the same in 鈥淚nside Out 2鈥� (though, alas, Bing Bong sleeps with the fishes). But the film is a little more tilted outside Riley鈥檚 mind. As the school year is coming to a close, Riley heads to a weekend hockey camp that鈥檚 a preview of her high-school life to come.
New stresses are developing. Her pals (voiced by Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green and Grace Lu) are headed to a different school, Riley learns. On the ice, what was once carefree play is becoming a more complicated experience plagued by self-doubt. At camp, Riley really wants to impress an older star player named Val (Lilimar Hernandez). To do so, Anxiety, usurping Joy, increasingly sacrifices core beliefs to manically build Riley a new identity. Joy and others, booted from the control room, again have to work frantically to mount a resistance, while at the same time learning a lesson about the need to reconcile 鈥� not just try to forget 鈥� less happy memories.
鈥淚nside Out 2,鈥� which arrives after a period of soul-searching for Pixar, both recaptures some of the animation studio鈥檚 magic and reminds us that rekindling the ambitious spirit of Pixar鈥檚 heyday isn鈥檛 so easy. The sequel stays close to familiar neural pathways. There are new cerebral puns 鈥� the echoing depths of a Sar-"chasm," a brainstorm that rains light bulbs 鈥� and a new cartoon relic of childhood to replace Bing Bong: a character named Bloofy, voiced by Ron Funches. It鈥檚 easier to see where this 鈥淚nside Out鈥� is headed and a little harder to be dazzled by what unfolds.
But it鈥檚 aim is remarkably true. Confronting the struggles and realities of anxiety, particularly for teenage girls, could hardly be a more laudable undertaking. And the care is taken here to illustrate how new impulses can run roughshod over a young person and throw their internal compass out of whack.
Pixar, like other studios wrestling with a new media landscape, has dabbled in recent years with more short-form and digital-friendly content. But Docter has steered Pixar back to focusing on feature films with robust theatrical releases. (鈥淚nside Out 2鈥� is to exclusively play for 100 days in theaters.) So in more ways than one, Mann鈥檚 movie feels like a much-needed feature-length refuge from today鈥檚 anxiety-producing devices. Unlike many of Pixar鈥檚 moving metaphors of parenthood, this one is, affectingly, for the kids.
鈥淚nside Out 2,鈥� a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for some thematic elements. Running time: 96 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
