{"id":44220,"date":"2024-06-14T06:25:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T10:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=44220"},"modified":"2024-06-14T07:17:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T11:17:27","slug":"inside-out-2-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/14\/inside-out-2-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Out 2 (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Now Exclusively in Theaters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2015\u2019s \u201cInside Out\u201d 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 \u201cInside Out\u201d was touching and a complex look at dealing with our feelings and learning to accept them. \u201cInside Out 2\u201d 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. \u201cInside Out 2\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s other core emotions.<\/p>\n

Disney can still trot out emotional stories, but \u201cInside Out\u201d 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\u2019re allowed to do whatever they want with them without feeling hitting a wall. Joy has to find her joy. Sadness is sadness but that\u2019s not a bad thing. Now we have Embarrassment, Envy (Edebiri is always great), Ennui, and of course, Anxiety. For what it\u2019s worth Anxiety is a fascinating character played marvelously by Maya Hawke.<\/p>\n

Hawke is one of the few nepo babies I\u2019ve grown fond of over the years (\u201cStranger Things\u201d eased me over to her favor) and she\u2019s very good in \u201cInside Out 2.\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a villain or a heroine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anxiety is always that emotion that we don\u2019t 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\u2019t Nostalgia more an extension of Sadness and grief and not so much an emotion? Is Anxiety \u201cInside Out 2\u201d 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\u2019s central emotions?<\/p>\n

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 \u201cInside Out 2\u201d makes strides in giving us something new (Floofy, Pouchy, and Lance are hysterical), but everything feels so secondary to the internal conflict. Riley\u2019s sub-plot, her coming of age, and the lessons she learns sadly feel like a means of getting from point A to point B. \u201cInside Out 2\u201d is a perfectly okay movie, but it just never quite hits the mark as the first film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now Exclusively in Theaters. 2015\u2019s \u201cInside Out\u201d 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 \u201cInside Out\u201d was touching and a complex look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[71,99,219,225,340,349,580,922],"class_list":["post-44220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-adventure","tag-animation","tag-comedy","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-fantasy","tag-kids","tag-sequel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44220"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44226,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44220\/revisions\/44226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}