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2015’s “Inside Out” felt like such a genuine and sincere attempt to figure out not just emotions but the importance that both negative and positive emotions can have. It simplified itself through normal subconscious cues like colors and characters, but through it all “Inside Out” was touching and a complex look at dealing with our feelings and learning to accept them. “Inside Out 2” is a perfectly okay follow up that has a lot to live up to. Its predecessor set the bar high and the sequel never quite hits that bar. “Inside Out 2” is stuck in the middle of trying to figure out what it’s trying to say and hitting that bottom line of introducing new characters for the sake of merchandise sales.
Riley (Kensington Tallman) is now 13, and her mind is changing as she establishes a solid sense of self that makes her want to be a good person. However, when puberty arrives, Riley’s way of thinking changes overnight with the destruction and reconstruction of her Headquarters. The renovation makes way for new emotions including Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui to take up residency in her brain, which confuses Joy and Riley’s other core emotions.
Disney can still trot out emotional stories, but “Inside Out” as a brand is all about hitting those merchandise goals, and they do that with the introduction of four new characters (or feelings). These feelings are vague in that they’re allowed to do whatever they want with them without feeling hitting a wall. Joy has to find her joy. Sadness is sadness but that’s not a bad thing. Now we have Embarrassment, Envy (Edebiri is always great), Ennui, and of course, Anxiety. For what it’s worth Anxiety is a fascinating character played marvelously by Maya Hawke.
Hawke is one of the few nepo babies I’ve grown fond of over the years (“Stranger Things” eased me over to her favor) and she’s very good in “Inside Out 2.” The problem is that the writers never quite know what to do with anxiety, because even in the end the messaging is just fuzzy. Riley is older and trying to find a way to fit in to a new life and the introduction of puberty allows for more emotions to come work on her mentally. Anxiety’s presence and overall role in the movie feels problematic in that we can never stop and figure out if she has a purpose. Anxiety is a nasty emotion that can hinder us at our biggest highs, and the writers have a hard time deciding if she’s a villain or a heroine.
Anxiety is always that emotion that we don’t want but accept as an inevitable during times of sadness and joy, so why do we need anxiety? Joy, Anger, Sadness and whatnot can be all accepted as root emotions, but the middle ground that folds over in to another emotion arouses a lot of questions and unusual brick walls both imaginatively and logically. Isn’t Nostalgia more an extension of Sadness and grief and not so much an emotion? Is Anxiety “Inside Out 2” a villain or a villain redeemed? Is anxiety a necessity? Is she just someone that can be used sparingly? And after all that they endure with Anxiety, is it kosher to keep her around Riley’s central emotions?
So do we have to accept anxiety or is it a choice? If Riley is rarely worry free, should anxiety even be brought in as a second to Joy? A lot of “Inside Out 2” makes strides in giving us something new (Floofy, Pouchy, and Lance are hysterical), but everything feels so secondary to the internal conflict. Riley’s sub-plot, her coming of age, and the lessons she learns sadly feel like a means of getting from point A to point B. “Inside Out 2” is a perfectly okay movie, but it just never quite hits the mark as the first film.