Another major win for Pixar, Inside Out 2 cleverly and thoughtfully explores issues like teen angst and self-acceptance.
Overall Score: 10/10
Image: Pixar / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
A sequel to 2015’s Inside Out, Pixar’s latest film, Inside Out 2, follows a now slightly older Riley as she begins entering her teenage years. Once again, Riley's emotions (Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust) are the story’s main focus. This time, however, they’re forced to deal with the sudden emergence of several new emotions (Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment) who have their own ideas on what’s best for Riley.
Being a Pixar movie, it’s a given that Inside Out 2 would feature things like stunning animation and a terrific score. But as with all of the studio’s best offerings, what truly stands out is its writing. Like its predecessor, the film skillfully tackles various important issues related to growing up. Specifically, though, it tackles those concerning adolescent growth.
First on the list is puberty. Rather than fully depicting this long, awkward process of bodily change, Inside Out 2 wisely capitalizes on its viewers’ presumed knowledge of the topic by presenting laugh-inducing interactions and lines that the audience will find all too familiar like “I’m too gross to go to camp or anywhere ever again!”
But not every theme is dealt with in this same humorous way. Others like anxiety and peer pressure, for instance, are explored in a much more thoughtful manner. And quite impressively, Inside Out 2 understands and shows us that these two specific topics are deeply interrelated. Throughout the film, Riley does several questionable things like abandoning her friends, dyeing her hair, and lying about her home state. And yet, no matter how illogical it may seem, it should be noted that she isn’t exactly doing any of this without reason.
You see, Riley’s acting under the influence of one of her most prominent new emotions: anxiety. Anxiety is what causes us to worry about things that haven’t happened yet and fret over how best to go about dealing with uncomfortable and potentially unfavorable circumstances. And, in this case, it makes Riley do things she otherwise wouldn’t do out of fear of not being accepted by her peers. But, just as Inside Out 2 reminds us, we all have to realize that anxiety, regardless of how problematic it may prove to be, is ultimately something we can’t live without.
It might sound surprising, but Inside Out 2 actually makes a case for the importance of anxiety. The film points out that we need it to keep us on our toes regarding crucial things like upcoming tests or exams. But in the end, it stresses that we shouldn’t allow anxiety to take full control of our actions and shape who we are. It even shows us the detrimental bodily and mental effects that will follow if we let that happen. In other words, while it’s normal for us to panic and worry every now and then, just as Anxiety the character (quite literally) does by the end of the film, what we should do is let our worries take a back seat.
Change is also another issue that Inside Out 2 explores well. Obviously, as previously mentioned, Riley goes through physical changes in the form of puberty. But we also see several other forms of change, such as the changes in the dynamics of her personal life and those in her inner circle. Initially, the disruption of Riley’s norms causes her to panic, leading to various instances of uncharacteristic and irrational behavior. She reacts just as any other teenager would: by blowing things out of proportion. And though the film gives us a good idea of how dreadful and uncomfortable these kinds of experiences can be, in the end, it teaches us that change is good, that it’s a normal part of life, and that it only leads to greater personal growth.
The last major theme I’d like to discuss is self-acceptance. Now, the way that Inside Out 2 goes about handling this issue is quite ingenious as it looks at it through the lens of accepting one’s own emotional complexity and embracing one’s memories. It shows us that we, as human beings, are not limited to a small range of emotions. Nor should we try to forget every negative experience we go through.
It’s the opposite, as the film reminds us, that’s true. What makes us whole is the wide array of feelings we can express and our ability to recall past events that are both good and bad. Sure, it makes sense that we’d want to protect ourselves by prioritizing feeling joy or remembering only the happy parts of our lives. But at the same time, we also have to realize that by doing so we’d essentially be denying half of our existence. Life is full of ups and downs and it’s perfectly fine for us to feel poorly about ourselves and retain a couple of bad memories every now and then. After all, being human isn’t about living a perfect life, and that’s okay.
And that brings me to the end of my review. Inside Out 2 is a great movie and another major win for Pixar. It’s highly accessible and endlessly entertaining, and its approach to its subject matter is clever, entirely inventive, and incredibly insightful. Do go and see it if you haven’t done so already! It’s an absolute must!
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