Out (Re)Done

Though Pixar has made a number of classic, excellent movies, the original Inside Out is my favorite. My thoughts on us getting a sequel were thus a bit complicated, perhaps much like fans of Toy Story felt when a sequel to that was first announced. Ah... but Toy Story 2 was better than the original, and Toy Story 3 better still. (Even those who dispute that widely acknowledge the trilogy to be great. And the fourth movie: fine.) All that is to say: I looked forward to Inside Out 2 with cautious optimism.

Inside Out 2 is not Toy Story 2; it does not surpass its first movie. But neither is it a Toy Story 4; it's notably better.

Everything you loved about Inside Out is lovingly brought back for the sequel. (Well, except Bing Bong, of course.) You get all the hyper-colored visuals, incredibly clever metaphors for the world of emotions inside your mind, and razor-sharp vocal performances from a top-notch cast. But the sequel is here to add more, of course. Young Riley has become a teenager, and so all-new emotions are moving in to assert themselves. New conflict ensues.

The same cleverness of the first movie continues here. The new emotions added to the mix are the perfect choices for a teenager, and the way they're presented on screen is pitch perfect. Maya Hawke runs away with the movie with her vocal performance for Anxiety, and the animation heightens that performance brilliantly. But there are plenty of other great ideas throughout, from simple puns brought to life to elaborate visualizations of where ideas themselves come from.

In the manner of Pixar's "best of the best," there's weighty emotional material at the climax of the narrative, moving storytelling about dealing with anxiety, and a lovely message about core identity. The movie is thoughtful and uplifting, just as the first one was.

However, Inside Out 2 is a bit of a retread -- and I don't mean just in the way that all sequels are retreads. While the story of both movies is nominally about the girl Riley, the actual protagonist of both movies is the emotion Joy. And in Inside Out 2, she's kind of learning the same lesson all over again that she learned in Inside Out. You can quibble over the nuance, I'm sure, but it feels to me like she's backslid from the character growth she had in the first movie. Which is a thing that happens to real people all the time, of course, so why not a fictional character? Sure... but that's not using the first story as the most effective jumping off point to tell a second.

Still, if you set aside the ways in which much of this story was told before, if you could imagine this as the first time you were getting it? It would be pretty great! Inside Out 2 made me laugh, moved me, had me marveling at its wit, and plenty more. I'd say it made it all the way to an A- in my book, one that only maybe starts to feel more like a B+ when you do fully bring the first Inside Out into consideration. So for now, maybe I'll "pinball launch" the original into the back of my mind for a while, to more fully enjoy this new one.