Inside Out 2′s themes can best be encapsulated by its use of The Linda Lindas’ hit song, “Growing Up.” The song is a perfect anthem for teenagers trying to make sense of a world that’s messy and full of uncertainty, and how friendships and outlets help get through those struggles of finding your identity, fitting in, and the pressures of meeting self-imposed expectations.

Echoing the heartfelt and humorous insights of its predecessor, the sequel’s resonating story reminds us that emotions, when processed in a healthy way, are there to motivate and protect, even the ones that are stigmatized as unhelpful.

It’s strange to think that something like Anxiety or Envy can be anything but beneficial given how the former can be paralyzing and the latter can be toxic. And yet, the Kelsey Mann-directed film, taking over duties from Pete Docter who helmed the first Inside Out, spotlights how they can help prepare for an uncertain future and help motivate us to obtain the unobtainable.

Riley (Kensington Tallman) is a newly minted teenager on the verge of attending high school. She’s living a happy life after going through the emotional roller coaster of moving from her home in Minnesota to San Francisco. Not only is she still playing hockey, but she’s at the top of her class, and is kind to stray cats. All of these acts shape her personality, and while they are based on memories, the memories are also creating beliefs. These beliefs deep down beneath headquarters (think mission control but a bit more playful) and float in what looks like a calming underground pool of water. When these beliefs — glowing musical strings when strum play a memory — are put together they form Riley’s sense of self. This sense of self takes the shape of a beautiful crystal art piece that shimmers whenever its called to headquarters. It basically is what helps Riley make good choices.

The creation of the beautiful sense of self masterpiece is credit to the five emotions in her head. Led by the ever-so-sunny Joy (Amy Poehler) who keeps Riley happy, the horrors of adolescence are finally behind Riley, so the teens should be an exciting new chapter of her life Or at least that’s what Joy, Sadness (Phyllis Smith) a turtleneck sweater wearing blue emotion who can be a downer but also helps come to terms with the situation, Disgust (Liza Lapira) a green colored posh emotion, Anger (Lewis Black) a red brick emotion who keeps things fair, and Fear (Tony Hale) a purple emotion who protects Riley from danger, think. While Riley does have a few bad days, Joy has developed a protection system, which is a clunky pneumatic tub, to put all the bad memories like getting a penalty that could have cost her a team the game, in the back of her mind.

Still, Riley’s performance on the ice was enough to get the attention of a high school coach who invites her and her friends to participate in a three-day hockey camp. Excited, On the night before Riley is supposed to head to hockey camp, the puberty light that was installed on the console at headquarters suddenly turns on. And, just like puberty, the changes come at an alarmingly loud and fast-pace. Without any prior notice mind workers demolish the headquarters to make room for four new emotions: Anxiety (Maya Hawke) a jittery orange colored who comes up with doomsday plans for Riley’s future, Envy (Ayo Edebiri) a tiny cyan colored emotion who longs for things that Riley doesn’t have but also serves as a motivator, Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) an indigo emotion who isn’t interested in drama — whether its doing chores or meeting idols, and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), a giant pink emotion meant to shield Riley from the cringiest moments.

Though new emotions come with growing up, Riley’s life has become more complicated. On her way to hockey camp, Riley finds out that best friends, Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu) got assigned to a different high school than her. The emotions don’t know what to do, and Riley is at a loss. While the two assure her that they will still get to hang out, they should use the time they have to play on the same team. What’s more, Val (Lilimar), a popular varsity high school hockey player, will be attending hockey camp.

Joy wants Riley to spend the three days with Bree and Grace, while Anxiety believes that Riley will be better off with Val. The differences creates a conflict between the new and old emotions who are fighting over what’s best for their girl. Anxiety sees the next three days as something that could define the rest of Riley’s life and comes up with an endless number of end of the world scenarios for her which includes not making the team, eating alone at the lunch table, and only the teachers know Riley’s name. Joy thinks Anxiety is overreacting, but she loves how Anxiety has Riley’s best interest and wants to protect. But Anxiety’s decisions causes the creation of a new memory, which the orange colored emotion wants to use to shape a new sense of belief fo Riley.

Joy believes that Anxiety is overstepping her boundaries, and refuses to let her down the elevator where the memory could ruin Riley’s sense of self. Not only that, Anxiety summons Riley’s sense of self and uses the protection system to launch it to the back of Riley’s mind.

A frustrated Joy is finding it hard to work with the new Anxiety. As such, the orange emotion responds by bottling Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear up, then sending them to the vault of secrets. This vault resembles something like you’d see in the bank, with a giant metal door with a crank to open it. Inside are secrets like Riley still being a fan of Bloofy (Ron Funches), a Dora the Explorer inspired-character from Riley’s favorite childhood TV show, and Lance Slashblade (Yong Yea), a heroic Final Fantasy-inspired video game character, with a weak super attack, whom Riley had a crush on when she was younger.

With the old emotions out of the way, Anxiety, Envy, Loneliness, and embarrassment are free to enact Riley’s plan for the future — a future that could have dire consequences for Riley’s friendships and sense of self. And with the mind being as vast as it is, Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear will need to find a way to escape, retrieve Riley’s sense of self, and return to headquarters before the changes traumatizes Riley.

Part of what makes Inside Out 2 strike that balance between heartfelt and humorous is how it captures complexities of growing up, shaping your identity, fitting in, and the pressures of meeting expectations, while also telling two stories in two different worlds simultaneously and injecting comedy to bring levity. Like its predecessor, the film takes place on two different planes. One, on the physical plane where Riley’s choices are affected by the decisions that the anthropomorphized emotions make inside of Riley’s mind — the second setting.

The transitions are fluid as the actions and reactions are human and also in real time. In the film’s opening scene, we see how every emotion contributes to Riley’s reactions and actions. However, Mann, using a script written by written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, and a story conceived by Mann and LeFauve elevates that concept by inserting what happens when Anxiety becomes overwhelming. It’s a powerful moment that grips the audiences and refuses to let go. There’s an authenticity to how these emotions are portrayed throughout the film as it captures the joys of friendship and being accepted to go to camp beautifully while also detailing the fears of paralyzing anxiety with accuracy — what could go wrong when Riley makes so many bad decisions and puts too much pressure on herself.

Taking the lessons she learned from the past, Joy doesn’t want to remove any emotion as she now believes all emotions are good for Riley. But she doesn’t fully understand who Anxiety is or how the orange emotion’s overplanning could be of any benefit to Riley. However, the increased number of emotions leaves little room for everyone to operate which causes a lot of infighting amongst the crew. Such a choice to show the colorful emotions in a conflict with each other perfectly visualizes what goes into the decisions a person makes. Don’t overlook how the lighting is used either, as each choice spotlights the jobs or emotionally contrasts — Joy in an emotional breakdown believing that Riley doesn’t need her is a pivotal moment. There’s a darkness that surrounds the warm glow almost enveloping her defeat.

With Anxiety at the helm, Riley starts to put herself first, chooses popularity over loyalty, pushes herself to the brink of exhaustion, and is in a state of denial as she believes her selfish performance will get her on the team. Anxiety itself has been stigmatized as a negative emotion, so it would have been too easy to paint her as a villain. However, like its predecessor, Inside Out 2 wants audiences to rethink how discarded emotions can be beneficial. Anxiety likes to plan for the future, which is natural for anyone. All of our emotions are in place to protect, motivate, and plan.

With Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear lost, the five emotions embark on a grand adventure to find Riley’s original sense of self and return it to headquarters, while also charting Riley’s mind. The sequel revisits places like Imagination Land, that includes a Mount Rushmore of crushes and boyfriends, as well as a dark office full of cubicles where mind workers are sketching concept art of terrible scenarios that could go wrong for Riley.

There’s stream of consciousness is visualized as a literal stream of thoughts that come to Riley’s head like certain foods and what they taste like — a cardboard box for what a granola bar tastes like. A parade of future careers where balloons represent Riley’s career as a musician or supreme court judge. Then there’s the sarcasm — a large chasm that makes the most innocent affirmations or requests for help have an echoing mocking tone. These stops are creative, inventive, full of puns, and showcases Pixar’s masterful visual storytelling talents.

And yet, despite its balanced first act and emotionally nuanced third act, the second act is jumbled, with it having to balance three different stories at once. It doesn’t come off as cohesive on screen as it does on paper as it has to deal with Riley at camp, Anxiety at the console helm in headquarters, and Joy on a quest to find Riley’s sense of self and return home. There’s a lot going on, and though none of it gets lost in the process, it could have been more streamlined.

Pohler, Smith, and Black return to voice their respective roles of Joy, Sadness, and Anger, with Lapira and Hale replacing Mindy Kaling and Bill Hader as Envy and Fear, respectively. While the former three lose their voices to the roles they play just as they did in the first, the latter have fun with the material they are given. Watching Disgust flirt with Lance Slashblade is hilarious. She is supportive of him and doesn’t want him to think less of himself despite his less than threatening rolling attack.

Meanwhile Hawke’s speedy delivery captures the exhausting energy it takes to be overly anxious. Edebiri voicing Envy is the cutest and takes a child-like I want everything I see approach. Exarchopoulos comes off as rightly bored but it is never boring. And Hauser’s vocalizing the pink with embarrassment is hard to miss.

Inside Out 2 runs 96 minutes long, but given how it explores the deeper recesses of Riley’s mind while also fleshing out the various emotional and human dynamics, it feels a lot longer. Just as The Linda Lindas’ “Growing Up” lyrics say, the sequel reminds us to take the good with the bad and to make every moment last. The resonating story emphasizes that life is messy for everyone and we are more than our emotions. If anything, Pixar’s latest shows us that the future is full of uncertainty and we don’t know where we will end up, but the future generation should sing to people and show what it means to be young and growing up.

9 /10