Weekend Read: 'Inside Out 2' is rocketing towards a BILLION. Does it deserve it? (Review)
The new Pixar sequel is going nuclear at the box office. How, though, is the actual film?
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It was always going to be hard, if not impossible, to replicate the Swiss watch perfection that is 2015’s Inside Out, but there was reason to believe it was possible with Inside Out 2. It’s been 9 years since Inside Out, and I quote this gap to remind readers, whatever their current muddled feelings on Pixar may be, that this sequel was germinated and cared over with the utmost detail and patience.
Time doesn’t exactly correlate with quality, but it does help. And Inside Out 2, while a step down from Inside Out, is still a well-made, iterative, exciting film, and audiences are responding in kind.
When we last left our protagonist Riley, headquarters had begun to create mixed emotions—multi-colored memory balls wherein Sadness and Joy, for example, could co-exist. Not only was this scientifically sound (leading psychologists consulted on both Inside Out and Inside Out 2), but it was presented, like much of Inside Out, in a visually exciting and accessible way.
Riley is now 13, and a new host of emotions and issues are about to crop up. A new, abstract idea is presented, that of the “sense of self,” which manifests as a glowing, crystalline structure with roots that go deep into the psyche, making up something that looks like Avatar’s Tree of Souls. When you “strum” a root, Riley’s inner voice announces semi-banal platitudes that sound like Cafe Gratitude menu items (“I am brave!”).
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