Inside Out 2

Last night, my sister, cousin, and I went to the theaters to check out “Inside Out 2,” which came out a little over two weeks ago. Will this be the Disney that will get people back into loving them again?

Who would imagine that the thoughts keeping people up at night come from a feeling that means well? However, after watching “Inside Out 2,” it’s hard to think of Anxiety any other way.

Valerie Kalfrin said in her review, “It’s been nine years since Disney/Pixar’s Oscar-winning animated feature Inside Out introduced viewers to the cutely complex emotional landscape inside the mind of a tween girl named Riley. Her emotions—Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness—floundered as her family relocated from suburban Minnesota to San Francisco.” However, they all fount out they each have a purpose, even Sadness, whom Joy had tried to limit to keep Riley feeling happy and positive.

“Inside Out 2” does some similar ideas as now 13-year-old Riley, voiced by Kensington Tallman, experiences more emotional turmoil. Kalfrin said, “But anyone who appreciates the shorthand emotional intelligence of the original will love the clever way the film depicts and handles what happens to Riley once Anxiety takes over.”

The beginning shows Riley, an energetic ice hocky player, playing a game as feelings Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira), and Fear (Tony Hale) take turns at the emotional controls inside her. Kalfrin said, “Like a fluid unit, Anger steers when Riley charges ahead with the puck while Disgust steps in when she grabs the wrong mouthguard.”

The feelings celebrate as Riley and her best friends, Brie (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu), catch the attention of the high school coach famous for leading the undefeated Firehawks. When the coach invites the girls to a weekend hocky camp with other potential and current teammates, Riley is ecstatic – until puberty arrives.

Puberty announces itself with an alarm and a wrecking crew that makes more room in HQ for more feelings – and makes the emotional console way more sensitive. Now the slightest touch from Anger and Disgust show Riley getting frustrated, to her mother’s alarm. (Kalfrin admitted, “I was mildly curious who pilots the console during Riley’s period—a huge hallmark of puberty for girls—but the filmmakers dodge that altogether.”)

Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, shows up, literally with so much luggage. With her are the tall Embarrassment (Paul Walter Houser), a mostly silent feeling who slouches inside a hoodie, Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and Ennui (Adéle Exarchopoulos), who lays across a chaise lounge and can control the console from an app on her cell phone.

Kalfrin described, “Bright orange, Anxiety is the least-humanoid of the feelings, with scraggly hair, pinhead green irises, and a wide mouth of gapped teeth.” She chugs energy drinks in a case, a fast-talker with projected scenarios for every possible future outcome. Determined for Riley to make a good impression at camp, she soon discards Riley’s old sense of self, along with Joy and the other original main feelings. She throws them toward the back of the mind, where Joy took it upon herself to throw other unpleasant memories.

As Joy and the others find their way around the Stream of Consciousness and other areas, Riley feels the effects of Anxiety controlling her actions. Writer-director Kelsey Mann, a longtime storyboard artist and writer making her film debut, and writers Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein nicely create the visual humor and puns around Riley’s insane emotional changes.

The animation – always bright and colorful – shows more tone, with orange appearing more in real life as Anxiety grows stronger. Kalfrin said, “The music by Andrea Datzman (Zootopia, Inside Out) also becomes more complex, incorporating more pop and rock with touches of Michael Giacchino’s original twinkly score.”

Though made as an antagonist, Anxiety is impossible to hate, with Hawke’s serious tones showing her good intentions. She wants what’s best for Riley. Kalfrin said, “She forces Riley’s imagination to work overtime, keeping the poor girl up at night, and starts to craft a new sense of self that’s all sharp edges and mantras like, “I’m not good enough”—nothing like the person Riley used to be.”

Kalfrin continued, “The rest of the voice talent is stellar, showing degrees of personality. As Joy, Poehler’s chipper bossiness gives way to uncertainty and realization; Smith’s Sadness melts into empathy, and even Black finds—dare I say?—the upside of Anger. Among the newcomers, Exarchopoulos stands out as Ennui, shambling around to deliver infuriatingly vague responses that any teen’s parents will recognize.”

Like the previous film, “Inside Out 2” gives some emotional ideas inside an entertaining and relatable part of life. We all have varieties, and balancing them is how we grow.

I highly believe this is better than the first film. You can relate to Riley in every way possible with how she grows up. Especially with the new emotions that come in and try to dominate Riley’s thoughts, especially Anxiety. Everyone has anxiety, some suffer with it worse than others. Check this out in the theaters, you will love it, I promise you. This film is a contender for being the best film of the year.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned Thursday for the yearly “Independence Day Movie Reviews.”