“Inside-Out 2”: Pixar’s Epic Comeback

A sequel to Pixar’s 2015 animated success has arrived in theaters, bringing life to the box office.

Summary

Two years after the events of the first film, Riley is now a 13-year-old. Everything seems to be going fine: she has two best friends, good grades, and she is one of the stars of her hockey team. Joy and the rest of the emotions are making sure to keep their girl balanced, taking care of her developing Sense of Self.

You may remember the “Puberty Alarm” that came with the emotion console installed at the end of the last film. Well, the night before the hockey camp, a defining event for Riley’s future in high school, the alarm sounds off. A group of workers barges into headquarters for a new upgrade and to announce the arrival of Riley’s new set of emotions: Envy, Embarrassment, Ennui, and Anxiety.

Though initially friendly, both groups soon clash over their approaches on the subject of hockey camp. This ends up with Anxiety trowing Riley’s Sense of Self to the back of her mind and exiling Joy and the rest of the gang to a Memory Vault.

Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear must go on a trip to retrieve Riley’s Sense of Self before Anxiety can take over her mind.

Making Difficult Concepts Easy

The development of the Sense of Self, and its depiction as a tree-like figure, were the most interesting parts of this new story. Joy carefully picks some of Riley’s memories to take to the Belief System, where they become part of her Sense of Self, and so guide her actions.

The film successfully portrays the changes in our Belief Systems as we grow up, and how everything we think we know tumbles with the arrival of puberty. How the Anxiety that comes with it can challenge or even corrupt our self-perception and core values.

At the end of the day, as Joy learns, the Sense of Self is an ever-changing work in progress, sometimes loaded with very contradictory ideas, but that makes us who we are.

Introducing Anxiety

If there is an emotion that steals the show this time around, it is Anxiety.

Portrayed as a small, messy orange creature, Anxiety soon rules over every other emotion at headquarters. She wants to come up with a master plan to ensure Riley’s success in high school, and for that, she needs to analyze every possible awful scenario and prevent it. It is shown that Anxiety has the crew of Riley’s imagination working around the clock to come up with all those, which is very clever.

Anxiety is not really a villain. As the other emotion, she wants the best for Riley, and her presence is necessary. But in large doses, her intervention can turn into a disaster. A simple and fun way to explain the consequences of letting your Anxiety take control of your mind.

Better Than The Original?

For starters, Inside-Out 2 achieves something difficult: being a good sequel. It is known that most sequels these days are just a cash grab for the studios—something that doesn’t need to exist but is pushed by Hollywood’s greed. You can see that this film was not made just for the money; it has a story to tell, and the people behind it wanted to create something memorable.

Now, whether it surpasses the original or not, it will depend on every person’s perspective.

The story pretty much follows the same line as the first: Joy realizes that Riley can’t be happy all the time and needs other emotions as well. But I feel this sequel may speak to a wider audience, as I’m sure teens will connect with the story. Puberty is a delicate time in a person’s life, and this film explains all the changes you experience in an easy and relatable way.

And definitely, if you are a person who experiences high levels of anxiety in your daily life, Inside-Out 2 will touch you deeply. This is why, personally, I enjoyed the sequel more.

In case you were wondering, the film does not have any social or political messaging intertwined in the story. I could certainly make a sarcastic comment about how each and every one of Riley’s friends and members of the hockey team are extremely “diverse”. You can be sure that this is no coincidence. But given they did such a good job with the story, I’m going to good-naturedly roll my eyes and give them a pass. As long as they put quality first, they can be as diverse as they want.

In short, it has all the elements necessary to become the family film audiences are craving.

Box Office Numbers

According to early predictions, an opening weekend of $100.000.000 was on the cards for the sequel, so successful box office results were expected.

However, Inside-Out 2 has proved to be even stronger than analysts had initially thought: the domestic results amount to $150.000.000 for the opening weekend. When combined with the international markets, the worldwide box office has reached $295.000.000, an astounding number, especially for current-day Pixar. With a production budget of $200.000.000, the film will certainly break even, and if it continues this way, it may turn a huge profit.

Next weekend, it will find some serious competition in Despicable Me 4, the new installment of another beloved franchise. Most Illumination movies have been at the top of the charts for the past two or three years, replacing Disney as the favorite company for family entertainment. It will be interesting to see both projects go head-to-head.

I haven’t been a fan of Disney/Pixar for a while, but… credit where credit is due. They have created a great film that, without a shadow of a doubt, is worth paying a ticket for. Which proves they can still do things right when they want. I hope they want to do it more often from now on, and Inside-Out 2 can be the beginning of a new era for the House of Mouse.