Getting Deeper Emotions

I am not a Pixar super fan. I will say that I think their earlier films are pretty great. Toy Story is legendary, a funny and smart movie that pushed the animation medium forward, and Monsters, Inc. is an equally awesome film that I could watch again and again. Hell, I think The Incredibles is one of the greatest superhero films of all time, and the fact that it came out years before the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. and managed to be Box Office gold at a time when people weren’t really sure if they wanted superhero movies or not shows the power Pixar can have when they’re firing on all cylinders. The studio can be epic.

And yet, at the same time, many of their films just don’t thrill me. A Bug’s Life is a tedious version of Seven Samurai. Finding Nemo is beloved by so many but I just can’t get into it at all. It wants to pull at my heartstrings but, if I’m being honest, I’m a heartless bastard and I won’t give in to Pixar’s wily ways. And then many of their other films, from Ratatouille to Brave to Coco are all fine, but they aren’t movies I ever feel the need to watch again. (And don’t even get me started on the Cars movies.)

Suffice it to say I dig Pixar when they’re running on comedy action storytelling mode, but I am decidedly less interested in their work when it’s about emotions. And, well, nothing is more about emotions than Inside Out. It’s literally the story of the emotions of a little girl, personified inside her head. It’s like the 1990s sitcom, Herman’s Head, but done by Pixar and not legitimately awful. I’ve seen Inside Out. It’s fine. Not a movie I feel I need to see again. But people loved it, so I went (with my wife, who does have feelings and emotions) to see Inside Out 2 and, well, it was fine, too. Short answer: if you liked the first one you’ll like the second one.

But I have column inches to fill so let’s actually get into the meat of the movie. Inside Out 2 follows, once again, Riley Andersen (Kensington Tallman), a 13-year-old girl who is just leaving elementary school and is getting ready for middle school. She, along with her two friends, Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green), are all on the elementary school’s hockey team together, and they’ve had the best time. Now, with summer upon them and a new school year approaching, they all head to a weekend hockey camp so they can train and learn and have fun.

Only, two major developments throw the whole weekend into chaos. First, Grace and Bree drop the bomb that they won’t be going to the same school as Riley, so their little team is breaking up (not that they want to, it’s just how the school system works). And second, Riley suddenly lands in puberty and, just as quickly, starts developing all kinds of new emotions. Quite literally as her original emotions of Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Fear (Tony Hale), Anger (Lewis Black), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) are joined by Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and new ring leader Anxiety (Maya Hawke). The new emotions quickly take over, even going so far as to banish the old set of emotions to the outlands. This throws Riley for a loop and now Joy and the gang have to find a way to restore her balance and help the girl find her true self once more.

So let’s start with the thing that bothers me most of all about this film: the addition of new emotions is bad continuity. I understand why the creative team behind this film, director Kelsey Mann and writers Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, decided to add in new emotions to the sequel. The emotions are the main characters of the film, and new characters means new character dynamics, new drama, and new things to do inside Riley’s brain. The temptation to do all that for more storytelling ideas was, I’m sure, the driving force for their treatment and development of this movie. And yet, it breaks the continuity of the previous film.

In the original Inside Out, we’re shown that everyone has the same five emotions controlling them: Joy, Disgust, Anger, Fear, and Sadness. That’s not just Riley but also her mom (Diane Lane), her dad (Kyle MacLachlan), and every other human as well. We get glimpses inside their heads, seeing similar control booths for each brain, with those five emotions each time. If, as this sequel states, puberty brings in new emotions to the game, then those other emotions should have already been seen inside the heads of the adult characters, and they weren’t. Yes, this film puts in a tag ending that shows Anxiety in her mom’s and dad’s heads after the fact, but that’s a jokey retcon. It still violates the basic rules of the universe as set in the first film.

It also changes one of the key emotional tenants of that film as well. Joy, in that movie, learns that every feeling is necessary (even sadness) and, even more importantly, when the emotions blend together they can create new emotions and new memories for Riley. Two emotions (or more) could blend together to create all kinds of moods. By that logic, then, Anxiety isn’t needed because you could get that from, say, Fear and Anger. Embarrassment could be Disgust and Fear. Ennui could be mild Disgust. Nuance from the first film is lost so the second film can have new characters, and that violates a lot of what made the first film interesting.

Beyond that, we also see that Joy hasn’t really learned anything from the first film. In this movie she takes every memory she considered “bad” and ejects them out into the far reaches of Riley’s long term memory, never to be seen again (she thinks). This is so she can control what Riley remembers and create a core self that Riley can be proud of. However, this isn’t much different from how Joy acted in the first film, getting rid of anything sad (and ignoring Sadness entirely) because those were “bad” in Joy’s mind and Riley needed to be happy. Joy gets the same plotline again, in essence, and goes along the same journey, once more learning, “wait, what I’ve been doing was actually bad.”

In essence, nothing in the emotional side of the film (which is seventy-five percent of the movie) really feels necessary because all of these stories were basically resolved before. Joy needs to learn the value of all the memories, not just the happy ones. Joy needs to learn the value of all the emotions, even the ones that go against her goals. Joy needs to let go of the controls and allow Riley to mature into her own person. We saw this in Inside Out, and now we’re seeing it again in Inside Out 2. I’m not really sure we needed a sequel for this.

With that said, I do like the parts where the emotions influence and move Riley around. Her interactions with those around her, and the way the emotions interact and cause her reactions, leads to a lot of funny moments. Riley is a relatable character and the emotional mixing to create her reactions can be fun. I don’t know that we needed new emotions to get a reaction like Riley sarcastically scoffing at her parents (controlled by Ennui here when Disgust could have done it just fine) or having a panic attack during a hockey game (that feels like something Fear was meant for, not just Anxiety), but the playful dynamic of these moments works well on their own.

Still, this feels like an unnecessarily complicated sequel. Could we see more of Riley and see her mature and grow as her emotions try to guide her? Sure. That was a good story in the first film and I could see continuing stories working as well. I just don’t think the way this film approached it served the story well. Riley going through puberty, losing her friends, and stressing about her future is relatable. Needing a whole new cast of emotions to carry it off is not.