Review | Darker than the original, Inside Out 2 almost reaches the level of the masterful first part

The Inside Out sequel is even more brisk than the original, feel-good entertainment that grabs you from deep inside.

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Premiere: 17.07.2024
Original title: Inside Out 2
Directed by Kelsey Mann
Screenplay: Meg LeFauve & Dave Holstein
Pääosissa: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan
Length: 97 minutes
Age limit: K7

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Of the numerous excellent films of the Pixar studio, the best is still the one from 2015 Inside Out -animated.

Its melancholy good-natured story once gripped so deeply that watching the sequel was scary. No matter how bad the second part is, it of course does not diminish the excellence of the original in any way.

Fortunately Inside Out 2 is almost as good as the original. The sequel is also Pixar’s best movie since 2020 Soul– the movie.

The first film deservedly won the Academy Awards for Best Animation and Best Original Screenplay. The sequel broke records on its opening weekend in the United States in June. Inside Out 2 has grossed around $1.4 billion at the box office. It is already Pixar’s most successful film of all time.

In terms of plot and structure, Inside Out resembles the original too much. The first part, aimed mainly at adult viewers, relied largely on nostalgia in a good way. It forced the viewer’s own childhood memories, experiences, and related good and bad feelings to the surface. The second part relies a little too much on the fact that the mere reproduction of the original film causes a similar emotional uproar.

A hysterical good-humoured scene

The almost entirely new creative team still succeeds surprisingly well. Supervisor Kelsey Mannin the first full-length film’s description of the inner emotions and the workings of the human mind with its metaphors is even more high-flying stuff than before. For those who got a good emotional rush from the first part, they want to get goosebumps just from hearing music that recycles a familiar theme.

For me, the story of the first part about accepting grief as a part of life hit somewhere really deep. Instead of just tearing up, Inside Out caused an almost hysterical orgasm at the first viewing, which continued for a long time even outside the movie theater. An extraordinary, but by all means positive, public uncontrollable emotional upheaval was uppermost in mind before the second part.

As expected, the continuation did not cause a similar reaction. The high-concept Inside Out 2 is still positive melancholy entertainment that works in every way. The movie repeatedly makes you laugh out loud, makes you sensitive and is also surprisingly tough in places.

With the new emotions of adolescence, Riley’s long bouts of anxiety and panic feel brutally real.

Anxiety is not bad

Almost a couple of years have passed since the events of the first part. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, which live inside 13-year-old Riley’s head, turn the empathetic girl’s mind too much, positivity before everything else. Unpleasant things are hidden somewhere deep in the subconscious. Only pleasant memories are mostly stored in long-term memory.

The situation changes in an instant when the control panel of the mental command center starts to make a loud noise. Riley’s puberty has begun. With that, the new feelings Anxiety, Jealousy, Embarrassment and Ennui-apathy appear in the mind.

In his everyday life, Riley does well in school and plays hockey with his two friends. The hockey camp offered by the coach to the best players and the realization of the possible loss of friends at the start of a new school give Ahdistus the opportunity to take control of the reins.

Maya Hawken the voice-acted, orange-dust-looking Anxiety is the only one of the new emotions that is properly introduced. A negative feeling is not bad in principle, even if it pushes Ilo and other simpler feelings familiar from the first part into the depths of the mind among bad memories.

High concept entertainment

The structure of Inside Out 2 repeats too much of the first part. The movie stands on the basis of an adventure inside Riley’s head that is spectacularly animated. The plot of Arkimaailma’s ladle camp is straightforward and simple, but it still works perfectly when presenting the emotional upheavals of a girl who has reached puberty.

Anxiety genuinely changes a kind and kind-hearted teenager into a different person.

The premise of the first film, the simple balance of Joy and Sorrow, was presented in an imaginative way. The sequel is even more complex through new emotions and numerous metaphors. Teen Riley begins to structure and perceive the world in a completely new way. At the hockey camp, he tries to impress the older Val girl. Old friends are no longer interesting when the mood swings and negative emotions constantly come to the surface.

It is difficult for younger viewers to imagine getting anything out of the film. The animation, which uses strikingly different colors as a means of storytelling, is guaranteed to entertain. Also, the message about the coexistence of dark and brighter emotions and the whole range of emotions between the extremes gets across relatively well. The movie’s story only makes a deeper impression on the older viewer, who has already lived through the emotional ups and downs of adolescence.

It’s not yet time for Nostalgia

A viewer living through puberty or even younger can’t help but laugh wistfully at the fact that as a child every little adversity was like the end of the world.

Around the halfway point, the film focuses too much on the colorful, spectacularly animated emotional adventure story inside the head. In the first movie, the rescue mission led by Ilo worked better because it was something never seen before in every aspect.

The second part also forgets to introduce the new emotions Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui-apathy in enough depth. The characters, who mainly spout one-liners, still manage to laugh more than once.

A few of the best jokes in the movie are also aimed at adult viewers only. Before its time, other emotions also try to enter the stage. The crush still remains almost completely hidden deep in the mind. A few times, Nostalgia, who looks like an old man, is tucked back into hiding as quickly as possible. Its time to come out only when Riley grows up.

Deservedly a huge hit

In less than a decade, animation has leaped forward again. On a technical level, the colors and textures support the dramaturgy of the story perfectly.

Andrea Datzmanin the music doesn’t make as much of an impression as the first part Michael Giacchino composed score, not even while recycling familiar themes.

Inside Out 2 is, in a good way, a darker film than the first, which doesn’t quite live up to the level of the first. The novelty is still guaranteed Pixar entertainment aimed at adults, and deservedly the studio’s most successful film already. Due to the corona pandemic, too many of Pixar’s great films of the past few years ended up being streamed directly to Disney+.

INSIDE OUT 2

“Inside Out – the sequel emphasizes the presence of all negative emotions in a touching and entertaining way
its place in the incredibly complex whole of the human mind.”