Inside Out 2

Last weekend, Inside Out 2, the newest Pixar animated film, was released in theaters. Inside Out 2 follows Riley into her teenage years as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust must learn to work with the addition of Riley's new emotions Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui. The trailers really sold me on this film. I felt that adding these new emotions was a great direction to take things and I was very interested to see if Pixar would be able to pull it off.

Thankfully, this movie did not disappoint. Sarah and I both enjoyed this film. Pixar managed to deliver another solid story in the world of Inside Out. As I said before, I thought that adding these new emotions was the natural next step in telling this story. Anxiety is a natural part of everyone growing up and was a great choice to bring into the story and try to explain to kids. I also thought the other new emotions were great additions. Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui are all natural emotions that teenagers experience as they begin to grow up and I thought the movie did a great job of showcasing them. In addition to the new characters, we also get to spend a lot more time with the original emotions that were introduced in the first film. All five characters get their own moments to shine with Anger, Fear, and Disgust getting a lot more screen time as they actually get to journey outside of headquarters. The movie does a great job of exploring all of these complicated emotions through a very well-written story. I felt that all of the emotions were perfect embodiments of how they actually make you feel. In addition to more time with the emotions, we also get to spend a lot more time with Riley and really get invested in the choices she makes when it comes to her friends and getting on the varsity hockey team. The movie gets you to feel sadness and dread while Riley makes bad choices and throughout the whole movie, you really want her to just make the right choice. The movie also has a great villain in Anxiety. The best villains are the ones who think they are the heroes of the story and that is what happens here. Anxiety thinks that what she is doing is helping Riley instead of hurting her and can't see beyond her way of doing things. Finally, I thought the movie managed to deliver quite a few funny and emotional moments. However, they were both very balanced in that the funny moments don't undercut the emotion.

The only issue I had was that the movie kind of has an unclear target audience. Pixar has always been geared towards kids and adults but I felt that this movie's ideas were a bit too complex for kids. I can see many adults being able to relate to this movie but I also think a lot of kids will struggle to get some of the ideas. It reminded me a lot of Soul where a lot of the ideas were just too complex for the average kid.

In the end, this is probably the best movie Pixar has made in the last few years as it delivers a compelling story about complex emotions and manages to portray those emotions in an easy to understand way. While it may not be the most accessible film for children, I think those who are a bit older are really going to enjoy the film.

Score: 8.5/10 Grade: A- Recommendation: Check it out

Sarah's Score: 4/5 Emotions