‘Inside Out 2’ And The Perplexing Potency of Pathos

Following nine years of Inside Out being a standalone title for Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has decided to release a sequel to the animated adventure-comedy coming-of-age film. From its pre-production stage to the final product, this feature flick makes significant changes. For one thing, Kelsey Mann (The Good Dinosaur) takes over the director’s chair from Pete Docter, who serves more as an executive producer and a minor voice actor. The original voices of emotions Fear (voiced by Bill Hader) and Disgust (voiced by Mindy Kaling) are replaced by Tony Hale and Liza Lapira, respectively.

Mann co-wrote the sequel’s story with original film screenwriter Meg LeFauve (Captain Marvel), and both co-wrote the screenplay with Dave Holstein. Original film story co-writer Ronnie del Carmen now serves as the key creative and offers additional screenplay material. Andrea Datzman takes over as the music composer from Michael Giacchino, who produces the soundtrack alongside Datzman and is involved in additional orchestration. These changes feel necessary given the new perspective viewers get as Riley Andersen (voiced by Kensington Tallman) develops into teenagehood.

The creative team behind Inside Out 2 aims to top the original film’s narrative. Like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, however, this sequel treats itself as a blockbuster-level movie with more intricacies than one can grasp, especially with its psychological elements. Moreover, as an animated motion picture, the sequel incorporates a higher level of gravity in its balance with comedy and levity. This results in a script that vies within itself to separate ethos (character) from pathos (emotion).

Inside Out 2 illustrates itself as an improvement thanks to its animators. While the first film played around with the aesthetic dimensions of its characters, notably in the “Abstract Thought” sequence, this second film challenges itself in its display of sequences, such as the mixed media when the central emotions interact with suppressed emotions. In fact, the storyboard team consists of twenty-one artists, led by Louise Smythe and supervised by Kenna Barris. The film often switches back and forth between one group of emotions, another group, and their human vessel Riley as the story extrapolates on her passion for playing hockey as a sport. Because of this, a ton of editing is done, including six assistant editors.

Character designers Dean Heezen, Crystal Kung, and Deanna Marsigliese do a neat job of bringing in new faces to the narrative. For example, Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke) appears as if she had come from Looney Tunes or the Jim Henson Company; Embarrassment (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser) looks like a typical “normal” character from Smiling Friends; and Ennui (voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos) is French. This Disney/Pixar film also takes time to highlight women’s roles, whether it is screenwriter LeFauve, the editing team led by Maurissa Horwitz, composer Datzman, or even the diverse representation of characters, including one or two Muslim teenagers.

From time to time, I watched this sequel feeling as if it borrowed elements from other family films: Across the Spider-Verse; Osmosis Jones and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl for its internal conflicts; Turning Red as it follows a girl being introduced to puberty; James and the Giant Peach in its fantastical journey “to get to the other side”; and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish for starting animated films’ trend of realistically depicting anxiety attacks.

Continuity of Screenwriting

The screenplay achieves new highs—and a few new lows—as it resumes navigating Riley in her everyday life. The emotions’ control over her reactions and responses is brilliant work. Although there are eye-rolling moments at times, a few scenes remarkably reflect clever screenwriting. I love the assessment of body language, specifically facial expressions, that she and her best friends engage in.

The shelves of the human character’s Long-Term memories become more of a maze. This has always been an obstacle since the first film. Yet, it’s great that the emotions now view this storage facility as a tangible location that provides dead ends and vantage points. Additionally, the concept of using memories as seeds to transform into beliefs is a merit-worthy element for the screenplay. A sort of cyclic chain reaction is set in place, with experiences prompting responses, creating memories that transform into beliefs, which form a sense of self. While Inside Out exhibits Riley at the inception of change, Inside Out 2 embraces imperfection as a prerequisite for contentment.

Run-Ins Within the Narrative

The display of the emotions in slumber shows a small change in Riley’s mind. In the first film, one emotion monitored her dreams in a sleep state as the others rested. Now, it seems that the human character doesn’t need monitoring during every living second. Maybe this proves beneficial, considering the metaphysics of dreaming does not require emotions to be present.

Inside Out 2‘s primary conflict is more or less similar to its predecessor’s, except the sequel features a concrete antagonist, in a manner of speaking. How it is resolved is fine. Still, it is a whole hassle asserting narrative beats throughout Riley’s psyche.

Mann, LeFauve, and Holstein’s screenplay is prone to awkward puns, which are seen a little too often. Details as small as “spilling the tea”, being “out of [one’s] mind”, “the rumor mill”, “anxi-tea” and as large as the “stream of consciousness”, a “sar-chasm”, and a “brainstorm” can be a lot to handle for a comedy. To think this kind of humor died with Sharkboy and Lavagirl was a mistake. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see how it can be delivered and received differently.

Psychology

The showcasing of Riley’s central nervous system and sympathetic nervous system and their effects on her mental state is further what makes the film subtextually genius. On the one hand, the first film establishes her CNS as a means for cognition (thought), movement, and feeling (emotions). On the other hand, her SNS is portrayed as a site for fight-or-flight responses. This is why her pursuits in hockey are pushed to the foreground. It tends to be stressful seeing Riley reach her breaking point, or at least the build-up to it also escalates into the plot’s climax.

Inside Out 2 introduces Riley’s id (pain), ego (reality), and superego (morality and perfection) via her “senses of self”. The intriguing part about this is how the screenwriters establish the character’s identity and individuality, driven by libido, i.e. cosmic or psychic energy. Conversely, her unconsciousness makes for a fascinating location setting. The back of her mind is a place where trivial matters and unnecessary bits of memory are discarded. It is also a place that is essentially not too synonymous with the Memory Dump of the first film.

Voice Performances and Character Developments

The development of emotions Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) and Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith) is lovely to see. Joy is still somewhat of a leader type, but she has learned that all emotions are vital for Riley’s growth. Poehler continues to have a great performance as the voice of Joy. This includes a line delivery at the end that almost hits as close to home as the previous film. Sadness has discovered confidence within herself, even if she still has an aura of pessimism. Joy and Sadness make for a nice pair but do not have much time on screen together.

By comparison, cyan emotion, Envy (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), does not have as many speaking lines as I would like. She is magnificent as an emotion who is belittled by those around her. In juxtaposition, Hawke takes the cake as Anxiety, an orange emotion with the ability to overthink with the speed of the Tasmanian Devil. I love seeing Joy on screen with Anxiety because they are both emotions that have vices about them. Too much glee can be odd, and too much worry can result in one losing their path.

Final Thoughts on Kelsey Mann’s Inside Out 2

“A good plan has many parts, Joy.” – Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), ‘Inside Out 2’

Inside Out 2 is full of emotional stakes and consequently plays into the character traits of its human figure. Despite being hefty in minutiae, the film can be quite overwhelming in the thesis argument it seeks to convey. The idea that all emotions can co-exist is a notion that is repeated from its predecessor. At first, we learned that ignorance is bliss, but now Riley learns that self-awareness is key. So far, the 2020s have had splendid films, and this is one of them.

Kelsey Mann’s Inside Out 2 is now playing in theaters!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars