Are you ready to have your emotional buttons pushed again? Pixar sequel Inside Out 2 promises to do just that. It's the follow-up to the studio's Oscar-winning classic Inside Out and picks up with young girl Riley as she hits the tumultuous puberty years.
Within Riley's mind, dominant emotions Joy (Amy Poehler) Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), Disgust (Liza Lapira) and Anger (Lewis Black) must learn to co-exist with a host of chaotic new characters including Anxiety (Maya Hawke) whose role is to protect Riley from all incoming harm.
That means plenty of trenchant, hilarious and heartfelt observations relating to the transition between childhood and adulthood. The animation is colourful, the storytelling truthful and the vocal performances vibrant. Don't forget about our limited edition Inside Out 2 cups and toppers. There are two different cup designs with a total of five characters from the film to collect.
You may need a recap of some key scenes from Inside Out before you watch the sequel, so here are five scenes coordinated with key emotions Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.
1. Joy – Riley's birth
One of the loveliest messages of Inside Out posits that Joy emerges first at the point of Riley's (Kaitlyn Dias) birth and therefore underpins all of her subsequent experiences. Is this the same for all human beings? That it gets us thinking is a sign of how beautifully written and directed Inside Out is.
It reinforces the fundamentally life-affirming nature of both the movie and the Pixar brand: there's nothing to be ashamed of when looking at life as a fundamentally happy and wondrous thing, even if one's path corkscrews through a host of other, more complicated emotions along the way.
2. Fear – Moving to San Francisco
We can all relate to those moments in life when fear took over and we became inherently suspicious of unfamiliar circumstances. Riley feels this when she's uprooted from Michigan to Chicago and must start over in a new school that she doesn't know.
The role of Fear (voiced in the first film by Bill Hader) is more of an instinctive, fight-or-flight one, which yields several of the film's funniest and most accurate moments.
3. Disgust – Broccoli on pizza
Inside Out is a Pixar movie so it's no surprise to learn that the emotional beats are interlaced with numerous laugh-out-loud moments. Disgust (voiced in the first film by Mindy Kaling) plays a comic relief role, lashing out by default on an almost atavistic level (in that regard, she shares a lot of similarities with Fear).
The broccoli on pizza moment is a classic one and instantly relatable, speaking to those inherent human foibles around cuisine, taste and palette.
4. Sadness – Bing Bong passes on
For a family film, Inside Out is breathtakingly profound and quite brilliant at distilling complex subject matter in a way that people of all ages will understand. It takes intangible emotional concepts and makes them material, giving them rounded physical personalities in a manner that doesn't feel patronising or sanctimonious.
The ill-fated Bing Bong (Richard Kind) was once Riley's imaginary friend and the moment where he vanishes forever, passing out of her consciousness, marks the moment when Joy stops perceiving Sadness as a hindrance but a necessary presence in Riley's emotional growth. Yes, it is devastating, but it's not unhealthy. The scene is a breathless visual metaphor for the bumpy transition to adolescence and even now, it makes us weep buckets.
5. Anger – Riley tries to run away
Much as we might try to conquer anger, it will always be with us. Inside Out recognises this, and it also recognises how anger can drive us to rash decisions, even if it is cathartic and healthy to blow off steam every once in a while.
In the film, short-tempered Anger coerces Fear and Disgust, ultimately compelling Riley to run away on a bus. Fortunately, Joy and Sadness, now simpatico, return to emotional headquarters to right the ship and prompt Riley to return to her parents. Anger then has a better understanding of his place in Riley's mind, as do all of her emotions.
Click the link below to book your tickets for Inside Out 2. It's released on June 14th.
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