Inside Out 2 Options

[SpiderBraids]

(Dusting off the movies section) My first cinema film in 5 years, and this section's first new post in 5 years

Wow, this sequel sure went big at the box office huh? Anyways, I caught the sequel (albeit in regular old 2D instead of 3D since that's how my local was showing it), and on the one hand, it's certainly an enjoyable watch, even if there is a bit of a sense of "been there, done that" that sequels usually give... Thoughts in the box:

Spoiler!

- At my screening (well, one of them, I saw it twice), I got an Inside Out-themed washing machine ad... Also heard a few minor laughs from my row during the new emotions' introductions
- One of CinemaSins' criticisms of the first movie is "Movie just keeps inventing ways out of the scenarios it puts its characters into" (here), and there are certainly parts of the second that won't exactly dispel that notion, and also they'll probably dock points for downplaying the islands from the previous movie down to just a single mention in the prologue and replacing them with a "belief system" and "sense of self" (which at least gives us scenes that must have looked great in 3D) There's also an incredibly slapstick scene that feels like it might fit better with the Despicable Me franchise
- Having the main thrust of the "inside" plot be Joy being removed from HQ (this time on purpose, and with the rest of the originals) feels like an obvious retread from the previous movie, but leading into the last act by having Joy sit on a pile of memories looking at them, especially one particular bad memory she discarded earlier, with a bit of a sad tinge after an incident involving a broken recall pipe... A bit deja vu don't you think?
- The "outside" hockey camp plot has a bit of a tween-com vibe to it... and I'm not a tween-com person, so, not my place to judge the plot there... That said, pretty sure no other tween-com will feature such a warts-and-all depiction of a panic attack And if I had a nickel for every time a pandemic-era Disney animation had a dramatic climax about dealing with a force field created via anxiety, I'd have (at least) two nickels (link)
- The recasts for Riley, Disgust and Fear, eh, I can take them or leave them, but that said, the film manages to bring in most of the minor brain workers from the previous movie (even referencing a minor hat-related gag from the first film ) Hardly anyone ever talks about the sequel getting a new composer (Andrea Datzman instead of Michael Giacchino) whose style lends to the different vibe, though... Good music anyway, especially when Datzman's take on Giacchino's original theme kicks in
- Obviously the sequel could never hope to match the heights of the Bing Bong stuff from the first film, but did they really have to briefly skew the film towards preschoolers? At least it doesn't last long... And I would hope that one certain aspect of that part was merely Riley imagining that her preschool show would be more interesting if it had explosives... (Also, scene in question shows off Pixar seamlessly mixing diverse animation styles, even 2D)
- Joy's throwaway comment about making the Olympic team hit slightly differently, when I watched it just days before the start of Paris 2024
- Interestingly though, seems like writer Meg LeFauve decided to tip her hat to a different Pete Docter film for the very last moments (not counting the scenes that top and tail the credits) Also seems like she's inviting us to ship Sadness (my fave char from the original) with Embarrassment, who does decently with his limited screentime and even more limited dialog
- As for the other new characters, Anxiety gets most of the attention in the plot (even if not much comes of Fear's initial appreciation for her), whereas Ennui and Envy just get a few minor gags here and there... and if you're thinking the film's pushing your nostalgia buttons, the film has something to say about that
- Of course there's those little touches that put Pixar a cut above the rest
-- Finally showing how the emotions go to sleep (at least the original ones) (Joy even has a figurine of Bing Bong and his wagon )
-- Their take on "spilling the tea" (accompanied by a look at the besties' emotions; and perhaps Liza Lapira was channeling her crime procedural past for Disgust's detailed analysis?)
-- A sight gag of Embarrassment sleeping on the console
-- The "Michigan" running gag, or as I like to call it, Riley's "Brownie Charles" moment
-- Joy's visualization of the first draft of her plan
-- The Sar-Chasm, and the brainstorm
-- Mount Crushmore (which I'm pretty sure features the kid from Riley's First Date)
-- Shoutout to the old-fashioned animated process
-- A possible reference to a certain iconic Apple ad (a former CEO of Pixar is probably smirking from the afterlife)
-- A few brief glimpses of incidents from the previous film, such as a memory of Riley stealing mom's credit card from the first film (hey, beats having that gum jingle again... though we get that too )