Yet another Oscar Watcher review from Mhatt, this man is a machine! He reviews another of the Best Animated Feature movies, Inside Out 2.
Inside Out 2
Starring Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Lilimar, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Adele Exarchopoulos, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlin, Paul Walter Hauser and Yvette Nicole Brown. Directed by Kelsey Mann and written by Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein, and Kelsey Mann.
The animated adventures of a teenage girl told mostly from the perspective of her emotions continue as she begins the wild ride into puberty.
We rejoin Riley (Tallman), from the original Inside Out, as she is about to enter high school. She has been invited by the varsity coach Roberts (Brown) to a three-day hockey camp where she meets her personal hero Valentina (Lilimar).
Loyalties to her two best friends and the desire to impress the new squad are fuelled and muddled by the new and complex emotions that come with puberty. As in the last movie, her controlling emotions are unique characters who live somewhere between her head and heart and must work together to help her cope.
Joy (Poehler), Anger (Black), Sadness (Smith), Fear (Hale), and Disgust (Lapira) are joined by Anxiety (Hawke), Envy (Edebiri), Ennui (Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Hauser) to help navigate Riley through the complexities of growing up. Lessons are learned, goals are realized, and in the end, everyone understands how working together as a team serves the greater good.
Inside Out Again
Overall, Inside Out 2 is a nice continuation of the first film, but as a viewing experience, it doesn’t really offer anything new. I am not sure if they sell toys for these characters, but that may have been a motivating factor for its existence, if only early on.
The voice work is fine; Hale and Lapira replace Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling. No celebrity overshadows their characters and a lot of smaller names play key roles. This helps, but the movie never really quite pops.
The animation in Inside Out 2 is serviceable and straddles the thin but distinct line that separates TV quality from the film. This makes it feel like a smaller film than the first one. As the parent of teenagers who was fairly warned that they turn into raging weirdos around this stage. I enjoyed the way emotions are visualized and how they interact.
None of us are without our own undignified outbursts. It is nice to see how we are motivated by forces outside of logic because we have feelings, dammit, and like it or not, they call all the shots.
Repress, deny, drown out, or channel them into some sort of tangible creation. We will never fully rise above the outcomes of these internal battlegrounds, so this helps bring us to terms with the fact we are all designed to be ridiculous.
What You Should or Shouldn’t Watch For
- Best Animated Feature. I guess Disney had to choose between this or Moana 2.
Only recommended viewing for big fans of the first Inside Out. You know, Disney weirdos, parents of teenagers who are wondering what the hell happened to their sweet little angels. Oh and anyone who has at any time wondered what anthropomorphized embarrassment looks like.
