REVIEW: ‘Inside Out 2’ Finds A Worthy Villain in Anxiety
Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear return for an all-new adventure in Inside Out 2. Their favorite girl, Riley (Kensington Tallman) is now 13 and about to go into high school. The core emotions believe their girl is ready for this exciting new step, but puberty has other ideas. Four new emotions, Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui, burst onto the scene forcing their way into the group of originals and into the headquarters of Riley’s mind. As Joy and the gang attempt to navigate these new emotions, they come to find that these emotions, namely Anxiety, have other, potentially not so good, ideas on how Riley’s brain should work. It’s up to Riley’s old emotions to stop the new emotions before it is too late.
Previous Pixar movies have suffered from the lack of a really good villain. Someone or something who is only in the movie to be the antagonist. These previous films haven’t had just one character that isn’t somehow redeemable at the end or one audiences end up sympathizing with; simply, the character is just bad. Inside Out 2 does not have a villain-less problem. Director Kelsey Mann, in his feature directorial debut, and screenwriters, Meg LeFauve and newcomer to the Inside Out world, Dave Holstein, craft a villain in Anxiety that audiences can all agree is indeed a villain.
Why is Anxiety such a good villain? Because it is an emotion everyone can relate to. Everyone suffers from anxiety and the team behind Inside Out 2 perfectly shows what happens to a person, in this case Riley, when this emotion takes over and runs unchecked. The team also doesn’t lose the other emotions as they are telling this story. Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear are still a prominent part of the story, but rather than Joy and Sadness being the focus as in the original film, the five emotions join forces. The core five emotions must learn to work together if they are going to stop Anxiety. The movie does a wonderful job highlighting the constant turmoil the human mind must battle when it comes to its emotions.
Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith return to voice everyone’s favorite characters, Joy, and Sadness, and don’t miss a beat. Lewis Black remains the only other original voice actor to return for the sequel and provides laugh upon laugh as Anger. Tony Hale and Liza Lapira take over as the voices of Fear and Disgust from Bill Hader and Mindy Kahling. Both Fear and Disgust play such big parts in the sequel that it would have been nice to hear Hader and Kahling as the characters, but Hale and Lapira do well to bring their own spin to the characters.
Maya Hawke tackles Anxiety and knocks it out of the park. Her performance will evoke a whole lot of emotion in the audience. Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Walter Hauser round out the cast as Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment. All three fit in nicely with their counterparts, but I wish the writers had given Edebiri a little bit more. Envy was the only character I didn’t think fully conveyed her emotion. The writers could have given the character a little bit more to play with.
Inside Out 2 is better than its predecessor. The story feels more mature but doesn’t ignore the children who plan to see the movie. The writing team has utilized the Disney way to incorporate adult humor into a children’s movie, which is the best kind of movie because everyone can relate. The animation, like its predecessor, is stunning. The new characters introduced, Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui, exemplify their emotions easily translating to audiences no matter the age. This is the perfect movie for the family, yourself, or a group of friends to see this summer. You won’t regret it.
Grade: A