On June 14, 2024, “Inside Out 2” was released in theaters as a sequel to the well-received original film in the series.
“Inside Out 2” follows the story of Riley Andersen, who officially becomes a teenager. Turning 13 comes with numerous responsibilities, including juggling new emotions. These new emotions (Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui) flooded inside Riley’s head and into the headquarters, where all the emotions work together to figure out what is best for Riley and her new year ahead.
During the film, these new emotions take over headquarters by putting all of Riley’s old original emotions (Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger) into a jar to “bottle them up” so that they become suppressed emotions as a way to try to help Riley prepare for what the future may bring.
As the film progresses, Anxiety and the other new emotions increasingly influence Riley, pushing her to fit in with the other kids to avoid being alone when her friends, Grace Hsieh and Bree Young, move to a different school.
The new emotions make Riley more insecure about herself, making her feel as though she’s “not good enough” and needs to become better if she wants to make it in life.
In the end, Anxiety and the others realize that they can’t choose who Riley is.
Near the film’s final stretch, Anxiety’s determination to have Riley be better causes her to hurt Grace accidentally during a hockey scrimmage and get sent to the penalty box. When this happens, Anxiety goes into panic mode and gives Riley an anxiety attack.
The way the directors went about Riley’s panic attack was pretty clever. Having Anxiety rush around the control panel, not letting any of the other emotions come near her, was such a clever way of showing the huge wave of anxiety that she was putting onto Riley.
Additionally, the slight mention of Nostalgia was clever. While she’s not a huge or prominent character in the film, she adds a sense of light humor to the film because of her unexpected appearances.
When taking a second look at this film as a whole, “Inside Out 2” feels like a retelling of the original film but with different emotions rather than a fresh story with a different plot. Once again, there are emotions that try to make Riley happy and dismiss another emotion’s potential to help. By the end of the film, every emotion recognizes their mistakes and everything returns to normal. This consistent plot lacks originality.
In addition, some people have pointed out how the new emotions can seem to be fairly similar to the originals, such as Anxiety being similar to Fear by them both trying to protect Riley from things that can hurt her.
Overall, “Inside Out 2” is a very interesting and fun film to watch, but it feels as though it missed the mark with originality.
