User Reviews

Inside Out 2 (2024) is a powerful sequel to the acclaimed Pixar film, delving deeper into the emotional tragedies and joys of adolescence. This new chapter follows Riley Andersen (voiced by Kensington Tallman) as she transitions from middle school to high school, encountering the turbulence of puberty and stumbling through new social situations.

Riley, fresh from middle school graduation, is invited to join a summer hockey trial by her local coach who she is completely in adoration of and amazed that her and her friends got invited. She faces anxiety about high school separation from her close friends, who will be attending different schools. Her sense of self is just staring to solidify despite the bad news about her besties. She really hopes they can stay connected through their shared passion for hockey.

As Riley confronts these changes, new emotions like Anxiety, Envy, and Embarrassment emerge. These emotions create a challenging internal dynamic, especially when Riley meets Valentina "Val" Ortiz, the admired captain of the high school hockey team. Anxiety begins to dominate, banishing all older emotions we got to know in the first Inside Out out from the headquarters and literally into the Vault where recessed memories are kept. This causes Riley to lose confidence and strain her friendships as she attempts to fit in with her new high school peers.

Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust go on a mission to help Riley retain her sense of self. In addition, the visual elements were all quite amazing. It's like a mental model of what the brain actually looks like. With all the storage units, and the workers trying to put things in the right place, and then the deep-sated secret memories were inside the vault. All of these aspects made the movie seem even more realistic, and made it feel like I actually have that inside my own brain. Through their journey, they realize that every emotion, including the new ones, plays a crucial role in shaping Riley's identity and helping her navigate adolescence's complexities. The film emphasizes the importance of embracing all emotions to truly understand oneself.

Watching Inside Out 2 was an emotional rollercoaster for me. The film masterfully conveyed the emotions of growing up, making me feel sadness, fear, and excitement along with Riley. There were moments where I was on the edge of my seat, anxious about Riley's choices and hoping she would find her true self again. By the end of the movie, Riley gains more than just her original self; she understands what it truly means to be herself, embracing all parts of her emotional spectrum.

Inside Out 2 beautifully captures the essence of growing up, making us laugh, cry, and reflect on the importance of understanding and accepting all parts of ourselves.

I have great sympathy for Inside Out, I watched it when I was only ten and i remember it very fondly, I was fascinated by the concept and the execution was flawless.

Now, sequels are always tricky business, because they can be great but can also can feel out of place and disappointing, so of course I had my worries heading to the cinema, but I'm overjoyed that I can recommend it so warmly.

First of all, it lines up with the previous film well, with Riley entering her teenage years, which their execution was wonderful, the overreacting and overdramatizing really fit with the narrative and it was a joy to watch.

Then came the overtake of anxiety, and the saying that now "there can only be more complex emotions" is really what defines the mess which is to grow up. And the whole message of balancing your emotions felt so correct as it was what helped me most during my own teenage years, and their display of an anxiety attack was also well executed and felt relatable to my own experience.

Overall, it was wrtitten beautifully, and executed perfectly, the new emotions added a lot of depth and the whole experience left me happy crying out of the cinema, could you really ask for more? :)

So yeah, go watch it, we were all teenagers once, you won't be disappointed.

I'm sorry to say that this film was, on almost every level, *less* than the original: less funny, less charming, less inspired, less whimsical... less interesting.

Anxiety, understandably, takes center stage, but all the other new emotions are left unexplored and underutilized. Ennui was as good as non-existent and Embarrassment's deus ex machina role in resolving the crisis in Riley's head really made no sense at all.

Nothing really new in terms of visualizing the brain and its ability to make memories and create emotions is explored -- in all fairness, I highly doubt the creators could come even close to the ingenuous way those inner workings were used in the first film (the train of thought, the abstract ideas, the lost memories, Bing Bong...). In that sense, everything seemed like a repetition, which means the film not only lacked the freshness of the original movie, but actually felt truly void of ideas at times.

At the end of the first movie, I had tears in my eyes -- and I wasn't even a parent yet. Unfortunately, this sequel left no mark.

This movie centres around Riley as she navigates puberty and tries to impress "the cool girls." While it's well-made and one of Pixar's better releases in recent years, it was slightly irritating to see the film rely on predictable tropes. Going into it, I was hoping they'd put Riley and her emotions in a more nuanced and emotive situation, but that wasn't the case.

The animation was good, and there were some standout scenes and moments of comedy-the best being the emotions' early encounter with one of Riley's video game crushes. However, I felt there was a lot left to be desired. The movie would have been more powerful if it had focused on Joy's journey of stepping back and accepting that it's healthy for the other emotions to take control at more balanced frequencies, rather than leaning on the somewhat overplayed "I am not perfect and that is okay" message.

The ending was slightly unsatisfying and felt underserved. Why did Riley make the team when the coach thought she was unready before the scrimmage, only for Riley to prove her point by acting brashly, aggressively, and selfishly? This felt like a missed opportunity to show Riley dealing with rejection and demonstrate her arc over the movie.

Overall, a decent movie that I probably wasn't the target audience of.

Having anxiety, I thank the producers for reminding me what's in our control and when do I have to sit that b*tch in a chair with tea. Well portrayed. There were tears. We can be a lot of things at once. And that's the beauty of life. We are not always happy. The movie showed how complex human beings can be. We make mistakes. Our anxiety wants to protect us too much. It's like a helicopter mother. Let's give strength to other emotions: feel them, be in the present moment. That allows space for happiness to take a turn in our heads. It's hard to sometimes feel things when anxiety is out of control. The others are indeed incapsulated. I wish we can all let them exist.