‘Inside Out 2’ Review: Anxiety, attack!

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DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — In Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” change is scary.

Riley (Kensington Tallman) is going through puberty and with its onset comes a whole new range of emotions. Between Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Nostalgia (June Squibb), Anxiety (Maya Hawke) is the one who steals the screen with every appearance.

Anxiety is shown to be a more frantic form of Joy (Amy Poehler). From frazzled, streaming hair, wide eyes and an even wider smile, Anxiety is visually depicted as a character trying to desperately keep things together.

Together-ish, the new emotions are there to help Riley impress new friends, cope with losing others, and ultimately navigate growing up.

As a result, Riley’s base emotions from the first film are all thrust into an adventure that is refreshing to see. I love “Inside Out”, but one thing that I wanted more of was time with the other emotions besides Joy and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). Here we get to see Fear (Tony Hale), Disgust (Liza Lapira) and Anger (Lewis Black) all shine, while still giving Joy and Sadness their due.

We also get a tease of new supporting characters that toe the line between 2D and 3D. A personal highlight is a Final Fantasy 7 parody character, who serves as a repressed memory in Riley’s mind. The character has the funniest moment I’ve seen all year at the theater.

With expanded worldbuilding present throughout, “Inside Out 2” retains a breezy nature akin to the first.

With a runtime under an hour and 45 minutes, “Inside Out 2” is one minute longer than the original and yet it feels like the shorter movie (the difference in runtime is minimal, but still). You might walk out of the screening wishing for more time with all of the new characters, emotions and repressed memories.

Well, until the Disney+ series launches next year.

Rating: PG

Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes

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