Inside Out 2 (2024) -

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I think it’s fair to say that this is one of the better Pixar films in recent history. Inside Out 2 was shockingly good, and I loved every minute of it. The pacing, the animation, the plot, the morals, and everything in between was fantastic. Dare I say that this was better than the first? Seriously though, I came out feeling as if there was so much more to take away than anything the first one had begun to touch on.

I think Inside Out 2 had such a strong base to grow its story on with Riley becoming a teenager and going through a lot of changes. What we end up getting is a fun kids movie that also does a fantastic job telling a coming-of-age story. With the new emotions coming out, it’s all about finding balance within. I think Disney and Pixar did a great job of both encapsulating the new emotions and telling the story in an honest, but fun way for anyone to enjoy.

The overall message that Inside Out 2 ends up leaving the viewer with is strong but concise: we don’t get to choose who we are. This is heavy, and could be considered a lot for kids to handle, but the way the story is told makes it simple for anyone to digest and understand. Kids who are growing into their teenage years will benefit most from hearing this, but it’s a nice reminder to adults as well, or really anyone struggling socially, mentally, or emotionally.

There are only a couple of things I don’t really like, but they’re minor and don’t matter much enough to make a significant difference in how I feel regarding the movie. Firstly, I felt like the introduction of the new emotions was strange and felt a bit out of place. Maybe that was the point, as we don’t really get to decide what exactly we feel and when. But to me, it felt like it was hard to give each of the new emotions enough screen time to justify their introduction. Embarrassment ends up being more of a plot piece than an emotion, and Envy is entirely forgettable until she pops up on screen again. Ennui is fun enough to make him memorable, and obviously Anxiety runs the show. Obviously the entire point of the movie is that Anxiety takes over, but that makes scenes prioritizing the other emotions feel insignificant.

The only other thing that made me ask questions was the animation of the mouths. Now, I know this is a tiny detail, but I found that the mouths were animated questionably in relation to the dialogue. Like I said, I don’t think this was significant enough to matter to anyone, and it certainly doesn’t actually matter to me, but I did find myself looking at it sometimes thinking “have the mouths always looked like that?”

To be honest, these problems I have are so negligible and don’t matter to me in hardly any capacity. Inside Out 2 is funny, heartwarming, cute, accurate, and entertaining. I think this will certainly be a kids movie to remember, and I loved this movie for every part of it, inside and out.