This review contains spoilers.
A movie that caught the attention of children, parents, and young adults alike was the new Pixar film, “Inside Out 2.” Released nearly a decade after the first in the series, the movie follows the main character Riley Andersen as she begins high school. In “Inside Out,” we saw her mature and manage her five core emotions — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. It was also established that something that made Riley herself was her love of hockey.
The second movie starts with Riley and her friends going to a hockey summer camp. She desires to join the greatest high school hockey team and wants her friends to join her. Her slump begins when her friends reveal that they will not be going to the same high school and she is afraid to embarrass herself in front of her idol, Valentina Ortiz — one of the best hockey players in Riley’s high school. Simultaneously, the ‘puberty alarm’ goes off in Riley’s control center, and five new characters are introduced: Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui (which refers to boredom).
While Joy is normally at the helm of the console, her actions cause Riley to act out, and the coach assigns laps to the entire camp group as a result. Anxiety comes in to remedy the situation and ejects the original five emotions out into the memory vault claiming that to “plan for Riley’s future,” she needs a new sense of self to fit in. Joy and the others scramble to find Riley’s old sense of self to set things straight.
In the meantime, all of Anxiety’s actions intend to make sure Riley is not lonely in high school, causing her to lash out against her friends. With her sense of self gone, Riley breaks into the coach’s office to find the notes made about her. The notes say that she is not ready to make the team in her first year. Wanting to make the team at any cost, she forgets she is supposed to be a team player and gets carded.
While she is benched, Anxiety kicks into overdrive, causing her to go into a panic attack. With nothing but anxiety-riddled memories in Riley’s new sense of self, the words “I am not good enough” resonate through Riley’s mind. The original five make their way back to her mind’s headquarters and reassure Anxiety that every emotion, whether it be good or harmful, is required for Riley to develop into the best person she can be. In the end, her original friends hold their hands out to Riley, showing their support and emphasizing that they will be by her side no matter what.
How many times have we told ourselves that we’re not good enough? How many times have we actually believed that about ourselves? Countless times. This isn’t just a mentality that occurs at the start of high school; it happens when you’re doing something new or are afraid of the outcome. That feeling might wander through one’s head more often than people realize. The fact that the movie was actually able to portray this phenomenon was astonishing. In fact, it was quite shocking to see something that I was able to connect with so deeply on the big screen.
Cinematographically, the portrayal of the emotions seemed to be spot-on as well. The movie made me tear up at the most random places, but it wasn’t just the storyline that contributed to it. While seeing Joy lose faith struck a chord, the ending of the movie was the real kicker. When Riley has a panic attack, Anxiety is shown at the control console, trapped in a whirlwind of her own making, blocking anyone and anything that tried to reach it.
When Joy finally breaks through, we see the damage that Anxiety caused herself; the colors and the music of that particular scene were powerful enough to send a message on its own. Overall, the designs and dialogue were thoughtfully crafted.
The movie also emphasizes the importance of having a good support system, which is lacking in the dynamic between Riley and her friends. In the movie, Riley adds a streak of red to her hair, showing how desperate she is to join the team. To fit in with the team, she pushes away her oldest friends. Yet, in the end, during her panic attack, those same friends were the ones who reached out to her to help her get back on her feet.
“Inside Out 2” can be a little cringe-worthy, but who wasn’t cringey at Riley’s age? In the end, I would say that it deserves at least a one-time watch.
Rating: 4/5 crabs.
