Inside Out 2 review

Brain rot

Overstuffed and annoying. Just like the movie.

 

Reviewing something aimed at kids is a risky and tricky business. Along with those annoying and condescending people that will dismiss it as saying, “It’s for kids”, I find myself asking if I’m being too harsh, and inconsiderate?  I don’t know.  But I do know what kids’ media I like and don’t.  And as a lapsed Pixar acolyte who found the first Inside Out to be a fluke at best, I can safely say this inevitable cash grab sequel is kind of a bad movie.  It’s bigger, and more complex, which makes sense, it’s a sequel and Riley is a teenager, but it’s also more sloppy, more confusing and feels like no one made it because they wanted to or, perhaps worse, enthusiasm was lost along the way -things the first, to its credit, was not. 

                I thought the first inside out was ok.  It was a nice movie, but the formula was standard, the adult centered jokes were fun the first few times but not umpteenth time, and it felt like a react video but animated.  What stopped me from disliking it and fully disagreeing with its praise was the simplicity of it all.  It made sense since it was in the mind of a 10-year-old child(also to its credit it stuck the landing with mixing emotions together) But now that Riley is a teenager now there are supposed “teenage” emotions, which makes sense, but raises the question of why embarrassment, anxiety, ennui(whose more sarcastic than bored), and envy(who acts more like her name should be inspired instead), all things a child would feel, were absent in the first film.  Again, fine in the first one because you feel those less as a child, and so the first didn’t feel overstuffed (I didn’t feel the need for the emotions introduced in this film to be in the first)  but it’s still a problem.  Children still feel them and it’s a problem that exists now because this sequel exists.  They want to show someone more complex, which is admirable, but rather than a plot where the emotions are doing a tug of war and learning to co-exist, we get a more asinine plot instead where the original emotions are bottled up and shipped off by anxiety and are sent to and become suppressed emotions(ha ha) and go on a journey like the first movie, so they can receive Riley’s sense of self before anxiety makes a new one.  It unintentionally makes Riley a shallow self-centered girl, not one becoming more complex.  It once again makes making riley feel again like less the making of a fully fleshed out character and just a cipher so the emotions (and the writers) can plant whatever they want her to do and the plot to go. 

The plot feels artificially long, like a sar-chasm(UGH!) breaking the stream of consciences or anxiety breaking the tube that leads to the back of the mind or anger not melting the glass (Like he did in the first movie) when they’re bottled up so they can escape that would make the plot even shorter.  Also, sadness separates itself from the group and then does nothing, until she does, but does so off screen.  Its sloppy and feels like a 40 minute tale being stretched to 86 minutes.  This all being done so Riley can impress a bland high school girl and her friends is insult to injury.  Also a California hockey team that’s prestigious?  Don’t think so.  It results in a film that is a total slog.

The original cast react to the introducting of one of the worst characters in film history

The real problem with Inside Out 2, however, is Anxiety, both the character and its attempts to explore the emotion, making the experience frustrating.  Her actions felt less understandable and more pitiable (and kind of psychopathic).  How the hell she doesn’t realize saying riley “needs to be someone” rather than who she is feels forced and not thought out.  Maybe this is just me, but that’s not exactly how anxiety works.  Anxiety, at least mine, gives doubt and self-awareness.  It’s a very complicated topic and Inside out 2 simplifying it to the point where its one dimensional is a big mistake.  She sucks, she’s unlikeable, and only feels she is the way she is so there can be a plot.  I get the idea of a teen conforming at that age(guilty!) but I think its woefully misguided when you think anxiety works by thinking it works like “This is who I think need to be” not “this is what I am and need to be it”.  Very important distinction.

This Anxiety is Agony

                A lot of these problems would not exist if one emotion was present: remorse.  Without it, Riley and the emotions story feels like it is missing a key piece.  There is not any teen emotion(especially anxiety) without it.  And I know that to be the case because an emotion called Shame was supposed to be in the story, but they cut it.  It explained a lot to be honest and the removal of shame makes the film collapse under itself and feel unfinished.

                All that being said, I should make it clear that both Inside Out films are not without merit.  Joy is still likeable an interesting character for one.  I particularly liked her speech where talks about how exhausting it is to be optimistic.  I also have a friend who is bipolar schizoid-effective, and she says these films do a great job of physically displaying what it’s like for her.  For that I am grateful, and never want to take that away from anyone, I just wish it was intentional (unless Inside Out 3 wants to prove me wrong)

 

Verdict

Inside out 2 fails to justify its existence with a broken, incomplete story, and an unlikeable antagonist in anxiety.  I doubt many will say this is a return to form for Pixar like they did for the first one in 2015.

 

4/10

There is little joy to be had in Inside out 2.  Nor sadness. Just ennui.  And a whole lot of frustration.