By Voldemort
There’s a reason we watch Disney movies.Two hours of great animation, a simple, heart-warming story of good defeating evil (or convincing evil to change its ways)with rather simplistic solutions to problems,great songs, and a little too on-the-nose messaging about family and love,that nevertheless make you smile. Inside Out 2 is similar,we follow Riley Andersonas she enters her much exalted (ahem) teenage years, only as new emotions – Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy and Ennui enter her brain’s emotion headquarters which already houses Joy – the leading emotion, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.
When Riley and her two best friends Bree and Grace are on their way to the weekend ice hockey camp that could open doors for them joining their school ice hockey team “the Firehawks”, her friends tell her they plan to shift schools. Riley is heartbroken hearing this, but of course, she reacts mildly. Because what isRule 1 of growing up if not “Accept hard things with a smile and try to act like it’s not a big deal even if it is eating you up inside”?
Like any self-respecting teenager, Riley makes the bad decision of abandoning her friends for the seemingly cooler,Firehawks team captain Val Ortiz and her friends. This bad decision is not her fault, though. It’s Anxiety’s doing. Anxiety locks up the old guard emotions in a vault and takes control of her Brain HQ. What follows and whether she reconciles with them forms the rest of the story. It’s a Pixar movie, so you know the answer, but I shall not indulge in spoilers.
Riley idolizes Val and does everything to be included in her group of friends. In a hilarious scene, she pretends to hate her favorite band ‘Get up and Glow’ because Val & Co don’t think much of it, only for her friend to tell them she in fact loves Get up and Glow.Talk about second-hand embarrassment. Oh, and speaking of which, the manifestation of Embarrassment is just perfect. Embarrassment lunges along awkwardly, disappearing in its hoodie, whenever it is invoked. This is how I have always thought of about embarrassment, as a separate entity that squirms and cringes every time one of those ‘Aargh how I wish the earth opened up and swallowed me whole now’ instances happen in life.
There is a lot to like about Inside Out 2, like the inventive bit about sar-chasm, Mount Crushmore, the invocation of Pouchy, and well, Riley herself. What’s not to like about a girl whose lead emotion is Joy? How hard is it to have Joy (as opposed to Dopamine) as the lead emotion in today’s modern, hyper consumerist lives with wars raging across the world and 24-hour news cycles and political instabilities and inflation?
On their way from the Vault to the Emotions HQ, the emotions face quite a lot of hardships, including going through the Stream of Consciousness on a broccoli, which almost makes them give up, and leads the ever-joyful Joy to remark, “Maybe this is how it is, maybe there is lesser Joy as you grow up”.Sigh.
Joy goes through the full Disney character transformation – from pushing away bad memories to the back of the brain in the beginning, to realizing that the true Sense of Self Worth is made of all memories – good and bad, and all of them together make you who you are. (Was I the only one who was reminded of Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson’s short – Meet Cute which talks about something similar?)And so, the Sense of Self Worth updates and blooms based on ALL of Riley’s memories and gently quivers. Joy apprehensively walks towards it, first unsure of what to do, and then hugs it tightly. It is a small moment that is not hammered on your face, but I had a lump in my throat.
Riley’s anxiety attack, both within and outside the Brain are also beautifully depicted, and there is apoignant moment when Anxiety apologies – “I am sorry, I only wanted to help Riley”.Ah, if only.
When the older emotions finally get control of the HQ, Sadness asks for Joy to take over, “Come on Joy, Riley really needs you”. Isn’t Joy what we all need, and when a film, as flawed as it is, offers you two hours of it, how can you end up not liking it?
Baradwaj Rangan 
Apu
June 28, 2024
Lovely review – caught this with my 11-year old in theatres last week. The first one was one of our favorites, and this one was breezier as it did not need to do too much heavy lifting of world building. We loved it!
I like most Disney and Pixar movies, but the last Pixar one that held my attention was Soul.
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Aravindan R
June 28, 2024
Yes. We loved both the parts for the inventiveness. I think there is certainly a potential for engaging part 3 – with the lovely Nostalgia character being the center of Riley’s adult life. May be with inspiration from 96 movie! 🙂
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Voldemort
June 28, 2024
Thanks Apu and Aravindan R! Yes, Nostalgia will definitely play a big role in the next part xD!
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