INSIDE OUT 2- Review

Well, now we’re in “prime” Summer movie season mode as one of the big “crowd-pleasing” studios drops its 28th feature film into the multiplexes this weekend. Oh, and it is truly animated with eye-popping visuals and splendid imaginative designs. And after the animal stars dominating the cartoon landscape this year with Kung Fu Panda and Garfield, we’re focusing on a human being, Well, mostly what’s going on in this teenager’s head, so we’re revisiting a set of creatures based on emotions and meeting a bunch of new “feelings”. Of course, I’m speaking of Pixar, who have decided to produce a sequel to a much-admired Oscar-winning 2015 “dramedy/fantasy”, after several interesting original flicks like SOUL, TURNING RED, and ELEMENTAL (so don’t think they’re just exploiting their “IP”). Yes, it’s been nine years, but animation can “tweak” time, so it’s only been a couple of years since we’ve checked in with that young woman named Riley. And there’s a lot going on at her brain’s control center at the start of INSIDE OUT 2.

But there are lots of familiar faces and emotions pushing buttons at “the board”. Joy (voice of Amy Poehler) is still mainly in charge, aided by Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira). As for Riley( Kensington Tallman), she’s enjoying the last year of grade school playing alongside best pals Grace and Bree on the school’s championship-bound hockey team, the Foghorns. Joy believes a bit part of her success is Riley’s developing “Sense of Self”, a glowing sculpture that emits phrases like “I’m a good person”, which is proudly on display in the control room (Joy made room for it by creating a “launching device’ that hurls “bad” memories way to the back of the brain). The last Summer before high school looks to be even better when Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown) of the high school’s team the Firehawks, invites Riley and her pals to be part of a hockey camp. It’s quite a lot to dream about, but the emotions’ slumber is interrupted by a loud siren from a flashing red light on the board. Oh no, “puberty’ has “hit”! As Joy and her crew scramble, a construction team bursts through a wall. After the control board is”upgraded”, a new set of emotions arrive. There’s Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and their leader, Anxiety (Maya Hawke). During the chaos, Riley learns that Bree and Grace will be going to different high schools. That bad news is offset by the fact that the star Firehawks player, the ultra-cool Valentina (Lilimar) will also be at the hockey camp. This “ramps up” the rivalry between Joy and Anxiety leading to the SOS being flung to the bad memory “dump” just before the hulking Embarrassment stuffs Joy’s team into a jar to be taken far away to a dark vault, and eventually forgotten. Can they escape, retrieve the SOS, and “take back” the control board before Anxiety guides Riley into some terrible decisions? Oh oh, it all rests on the slumped shoulders of Sadness!

Quite an impressive roster of performers has been assembled to give these emotions distinct voices. As for the returning “team”, Poehler just super-charges Joy with an infectious energy and an engaging lilt, though she gets to delve deeper into the frustration of always being the positive “guiding light”. And Black explodes as Anger, pummeling each hilarious retort, a great counterpoint to the halting sweet delivery of Smith as Sadness Oh, I’ve got to also mention the return of the wonderful Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan as Riley’s parents, who become more a part of the “framing plot” of the main “sports” story. Now, on to the “newbies”, which include a couple of replacements on Joy’s “squad”. Lapira is an excellent snarky Disgust, while Hale brings a Don Knotts-like jittery panic to Fear. Oh, and as the now teenage Riley, Tallman hits “all the right notes” from sweet to awkwardly desperate and even conniving. And now we get to the new crew, led by the wonderfully zany Ms. Hawke who literally bounces across the backgrounds with a frantic confidence, becoming, at times, the accidental villain of the tale. Her manic delivery is almost matched by the exuberant Edebiri as her “right hand” Envy. The big “scene stealer” might just be Exarchopoulos as the bored, detached Ennui who only awakensr from her sleepy state when her phone-like control device goes missing. And though he has only a couple of lines, aside from some sighs and groans, Hauser is quite effective as the conflicted Embarrassment. In smaller, but pivotal roles, Ron Fuches is achingly funny as the goofy 90s kids TV show icon Bloofy and June Squibb is endearing as the “we’re not really ready for you” emotion Nostalgia.

This is the feature directing debut of Kelsey Mann who truly “hits it out of the park” (maybe a hockey analogy would be more appropriate) with perhaps the best Pixar sequel since TOY STORY 2 (though 3 and 4 are also great). It’s a delicate “tightrope walk” as the familiar elements of the beloved first flick are melded with the new story and the older main character. While Riley had to deal with the big family move last time, now she must decide how to deal with her friends, both old and new. All comlicated by the “P” word in the sophisticated and very funny script by Mann, original scribe Meg LaFauve, and Dave Holstein. Unlike the recent IF, they didn’t hold back on the jokes in favor of the big “heart moments” (and there are plenty). Happily, the talented artisans at Pixar have given this story a dazzling life with vibrant colors and outstanding designs. like Anxiety’s frazzled vertical “water fountain” hair, Embarassment’s bulbous nose sticking out of his tight hoodie, and Ennui’s rubbery body (as though her spine was replaced by the classic toy “Slinky”) who’s always draped over the furniture. I still love that the emotions have no hard “outline” (color or black), but have a grainy edge with specks always moving (much like the leads in ELEMENTAL), unlike Riley and her pals in the “real world”. They’re nice subtle caricatures not too removed from us, unlike the often child-like cartoony looks of the emotions (Anxiety is almost a child’s enhanced “scribble”). And for the first time, the CGI figures are acting alongside 2D “drawn” characters (usually left for the end credits) such as Bloofy and his pal Pouchy who are joined by an “8-bit” video game icon named Lance Slashblade. This leads to some delicious satirical gags about cable kids TV and gaming (love the efforts of Lance to walk out a door). Speaking of gags, one sequence pokes fun at 90s animation “sweatshops”. Plus there are perfect puns a’ plenty, though a few are “groaners”. Yes, there are a couple of moments in the third act, when the pace begins to soften, but the “big game” (excellent action movement) finale brings all the plot threads together into a beautiful bow making us eager to see how Riley and her “brain buddies” handle the new challenges of high school after the touching, clever, witty, and inspiring INSIDE OUT 2.

3.5 Out of 4

INSIDE OUT 2 is now playing in theatres everywhere