‘Inside Out 2’ REVIEW: Forgetting a Second to Breathe
‘Inside Out 2’ REVIEW: Forgetting a Second to Breathe
From left to right: Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Fear (Tony Hale) and Anger (Lewis Black) are shocked by the sudden appearance of the Puberty button. / Taken from IMDB
Inside Out 2 is what happens when Pixar prioritizes squarely choreographed puns and mechanical relatability over telling a heartfelt story steeped in their signature hyperspecificity that tickles the imagination of any mind because it's dynamic not serviceable.
And it's quite troubling when the jokes are more memorable than the moments they're in, especially in a convenient sequel that proudly transcribes its message to you, blandly automatic yet grand in form.
If this is what Pete Docter, the studio's CEO and the brilliant director behind generational classics such as Up and Monsters Inc., meant by a 'commonality of experience,' it might as well be that the streaks of bullet hell laughter and generalized, blank-slate stories, which forcefully dictate how we should feel rather than guide us, have now taken precedence over touching our core, which saddens me even more as I think about it.
As Kelsey Mann's directorial debut is a follow-up, it begins with a long-winded, mandatory recap of the previous film. Joy (Amy Poehler) enters with unmatched confidence, believing that she now has an improved grasp on the know-how, greatly owing to the lessons of her past.
Our familiar cast of emotions—Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira)—helps her as she shoots away any “unnecessary” memories to the back of her mind and carefully tends to the best ones, keeping them in sacred care deep within an underground chamber, chock-full of glistening strings of colors that serve as fibers to strengthen Riley's belief that she's a good person.
Joy matches Anxiety (Maya Hawke)’s full energy as she welcomes her || Taken from IMDB
As these early scenes develop, I can't help but be swept by the stream of amazingly crafted animation that smears the screen with pristine quality. This isn't new information, but it feels as though it has been building up to this moment.
The background details feel alive, and the movements themselves are a performance. And most of all, the colors are so pleasing to look at — they’re so addictive. I'm happy to give credit where it's due, but the applause fades too quickly to tire me.
Inside Out 2 truly starts with Riley getting a pimple on the left side of her chin, while she and her two friends excitedly celebrate their recent hockey win. Coach Roberts fuels the girls' enthusiasm by inviting them to a camp geared towards promising hockey players, where Val Ortiz, the apple of Riley's eye, is also present.
While watching this sequence, I thought that the fleet-footed pacing and endless comedic one-liners would lay low after the recap, but I was quickly proven wrong.
Not only does the film indulge in its profuse predictability and staggering amount of misfired intent for universality, it overwhelms with a flood of jokes that operate as a distraction from the plot. It awfully feels like a replica of the first installment, albeit with a new but underwhelming gang of emotions.
These include Anxiety (Maya Hawke), whose snorts are breathtakingly silly; Envy (Ayo Edebiri), boasting immaculately curly hair; Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), the movie's MVP who even inspired me to buy a gray hoodie; and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), who habitually slouches with her phone in hand.
Sadness and Joy enters a chamber which develops Riley’s beliefs. / Taken from IMDB
They're certainly fun to watch, and we get to see each of their quirks and trademarks, which are enjoyable. However, they are thin, quick, and caricatured portrayals compared to friends you'd really want to hang out with and get to know better. This is the stark opposite of Pete Docter's original Inside Out, where the characters, or emotions per se, are the crux of the film.
This is to differentiate if something is made with intent rather than compliance. If the film feels like a weaker retracing of steps, stumbling through more than half its short runtime, then what's its purpose? Is it merely a way for Pixar to easily mediate its recent failures? Is it an overly simple, stereotypical representation of a jaded theme of puberty that mistakes itself for universality? I very much think so.
Coincidentally, I watched the movie in a fully packed theater with a jolly kid seated to my left. I'm not implying he was also a pimple, but his presence felt like a reminder of the immense excitement I experienced while watching the resonant inventiveness of Pixar's films when I was at the same age as him.
After all, any movie can be a first for someone and the thousandth time for someone else. He indirectly made me ground myself in the present, encouraging me to enjoy the movie on its own terms. Sometimes I forget this thought and I get too strict with my expectations, thereby enabling a self-catering pretense. So we watched the movie together and shared a few laughs. But when it all subsided, I was left with a fixed expectation for the next referential joke, struggling for a breather.
I badly wanted to love this film, but it ended up rubbing me in an irritating way. For someone young, like the one I had in company, this would be a first threshold experience, and they may get caught up with the trenches of non-stop jokes instead of the depth of emotional catharsis.
There are only two scenes in Inside Out 2 where the tone gets consistently intimate, devoid of any pun jumpscare. If my memory serves me well, each of these scenes had less than eight minutes to speak to the audience without conforming too much to their dopamine-drugged nature.
One could argue that if Anxiety told Joy in one part of the film that a good plan has many parts, then it stands to reason that a good film should have more than just an aggressive blitz of punchlines and mic drop jokes. Puberty is an important theme to tell, even more so today. While Inside Out 2 surely has a creative way to tell it as a story, you're better off with something that just uses it as a thematic tool but gives you more to chew on.
If Pixar keeps steering in this direction, I might as well second the thought that we'll truly feel less joy and more anxiety about its future.
Inside Out 2 is now available to watch in cinemas nationwide.
