Does “Inside Out 2” live up to its expectations?

With the release of the highly anticipated movie “Inside Out 2,” many of us were hoping for a movie as good as the original. However, even with its record-breaking box office, there seems to be a Bing-Bong shaped hole in the movie. 

The movie introduces four new emotions -  Ennui/Boredom (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and Anxiety (Maya Hawke) - to the original group from the first movie. With the new characters, audience members get to see a new side of Riley (Kensington Tallman) as she becomes older - one that almost everyone can relate to. Even though “Inside Out 2” was relatable, the movie lacked some key elements in the conflict between characters that was present in the original “Inside Out,” making the ending less satisfactory. 

"Inside Out 2" Movie Poster

Photo: "Inside Out 2" Movie Poster.

"Inside Out 2" Movie Poster. Photo courtesy of Pixar.

The movie begins in the high-paced environment of Riley’s championship hockey match where we see her weaving between hockey players in order to score. The strong performance of her team is commended by a high school coach who invites Riley and her friends to a hockey camp for a chance of joining the high school team. 

In addition to the new emotions, “Inside Out 2” also introduces a new feature of Riley’s mind: beliefs. The strongest of Riley’s memories can be moved to a special area to form the roots of her belief tree, which makes up Riley’s identity and influences her decisions. 

The conflict quickly picks up when the “puberty alarm” sets off, and the four new emotions walk into headquarters with one purpose: to create a new belief tree that would allow Riley to change her identity into one that prioritized popularity and hockey in the hopes of being selected for the Firehawks team. While Riley battles for a spot on the team at camp, a battle for control of Riley’s mind between the original five emotions and the new four emotions begins. During the camp, Riley is conflicted between sticking with her old friends, who are going to a different high school, or making new friends already on the Firehawks hockey team and changing her entire identity to fit in.

The movie does a beautiful job in making relatable scenes that will make the audience reminisce about their high school experience, such as Riley’s effort to change her hair and her friend group to fit in with the Firehawks. Riley’s effort to change her identity and suppress her basic emotions within seconds in order to fit in are experiences we can all relate to having gone through middle and high school. The audience can also relate to Riley’s decision to sneak into the coach’s office to look at her journal, and waking up early in the morning to practice more, as they are all acts of desperation that the audience have all done in the hopes of achieving a goal. 

Beyond being relatable, the movie focuses on comedy and humor. For example, a fifth new emotion, Nostalgia (June Squibb) frequently pops in - introducing us to an elderly lady with pink tinted glasses and a cup of tea. Nostalgia successfully makes the audience laugh through her entrances into Riley’s mind that are a little ahead of schedule. 

It’s also worth noting that the animation has only improved since the first movie. The colorful scenes in Riley’s mind accentuate the battle between the emotions, adding tension through drastic color changes. 

However, the movie also fails in some aspects when compared to the original, particularly with characters that the audience is invested in. In “Inside Out,” Bing Bong, a fan-favorite imaginary friend of Riley, played an essential role in making the audience laugh, but also cry in the end. “Inside Out 2” seems to try to recreate this, but it falls flat. Pouchy (James Austin Johnson) and Bloofy (Ron Funches), characters from a show that Riley used to watch, are used to replace Bing Bong due to its childhood nostalgia, but only hold comedic value. While Bing Bong touched the hearts of audience members, Pouchy and Bloofy both seem out of place and largely irrelevant in the context of the movie. 

Another factor to point out is the triviality of some characters in “Inside Out 2,” especially when compared to the iconic emotions featured in the first movie. In particular, the characters of Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui lack depth. Anxiety is the obvious leader of the four emotions, and controls the screen for the majority of the movie. Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui could have been developed more as characters, instead of being one-dimensional and forgettable. This goes for a lot of “Inside Out 2” - the movie had a lot of potential, but it missed a lot of key elements that were present in the first movie. 

To a certain degree, both “Inside Out 2” and “Inside Out” hold the same message: the importance of accepting all emotions. However, “Inside Out” had a much more climatic ending through the desperation of Joy and the loss of Bing Bong. In comparison, “Inside Out 2” simply has a lackluster ending that can be predicted from the start. It was extremely disappointing to have such a dull ending, especially when the first movie set the bar so high. 

The relatable moments, running jokes, and captivating art are sure to keep audiences engaged. So if someone is looking for a simple comedy, check out “Inside Out 2.” But, it may be best to skip out on this movie for another with a bit more depth in characters and plot. In the end, the question still remains: do sequels ever live up to the expectations set by the original movies?

“Inside Out 2” is PG for some thematic elements and is now playing in theaters across the United States. “Inside Out 2,” an animated family movie directed by Kelsey Mann, has just been released in theaters across the country on June 14, and can be seen in local theaters such as Regal Majestic, AMC Wheaton Mall, Landmark's Bethesda Row Cinema, and Regal Hyattsville Royale.