Inside Out 2 (2024) - An intrepid sequel for the inner child
Credit: allocine.fr
It’s summer 2024, and Joy & co. are back for another whirlwind adventure inside of Riley’s head almost a decade after the first Inside Out, which took the world by storm in 2015, grossing $858.8 million worldwide and picking up numerous accolades (including two Academy Award nominations) along the way. Though perhaps less fledged out than its predecessor, Inside Out 2 is nevertheless an exciting rollercoaster of emotions, and a slightly more cramped one too – because as Riley becomes a teenager, four more arrive to headquarters, Anxiety (exquisitely voiced by Maya Hawke) at the head.
To say the film depicts it (her?) exceptionally is an understatement, and quite unlike anything I have ever seen before, left weeping in the cinema at a particularly emotional climax scene – is it perhaps that the only way to portray ‘anxiety’ truthfully is to personify it? Hawke brings an excitable, needy edge to her already gritty voice, and a certain erratic quality brilliantly mirrored by the character’s appearance, a mess of orange hair and frantic eyes. Closely following behind her are Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos), Envy (Ayo Edebiri) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), all somewhat shadowed by the orange menace, who packs in with her notebooks, plans, statistics and quickly takes over. Th original HQ, Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear and Sadness, are unsure as to how to deal with this new group, and are forced to reassess their role in Riley’s head as Anxiety spreads… well, anxiety, to disastrous consequences.
As a main plot line, it is sound, and relevant to thirteen year old Riley – this does mean, on the other hand, that the three new emotions – and Nostalgia (June Squibb), who amusingly keeps appearing too early – must suffer a slight lack of development. Ennui is discarded on the sofa with her phone and French-accented dreary voice; Envy is, strangely, not so much envious as awed and excitable; and Embarrassment, though helpful to the original gang, does little more than hide behind his hoodie. Envy of course will never be more important than Joy or Sadness (or Anxiety) in Riley’s mind, but it would have been nice to see a little more coverage (or maybe even different emotions, such as Guilt) of the trio. Riley’s side of the story also lacks in incidents, with the entire film focused on two days at hockey camp, and her desperation to befriend the older girls and impress the coach, at the cost of her two best friends. Despite the high stakes to the adolescent’s eye, the plot is not quite developed enough to mirror the emotions’ escapades ‘on the other side’, nor is there in reality a crisis point, such as Riley’s decision to run away in the first instalment.
Though Inside Out 2 addresses slightly more adult themes than the original, featuring a – potentially premature? – realisation from Joy that as we get older, we may experience less happiness, the questions remains how far Pixar can go with this idea: would Inside Out 7: The Mid-Life Crisis, for instance, featuring Depression and Regret, still be a children’s film? Nothing, regardless, takes away from the fact that Inside Out fundamentally works as a concept: whatever Riley goes through, her emotions will always have just as wild – and enjoyable – a ride as her, even if that means the audience demographic has to change a little.