The emotions of the ego are once again in suspense Inside Out 2, sequel to one of the iconic productions of Pixar’s most recent stage. The personified Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear confront the suddenly adolescent Riley from their cerebral control cabin, who is going through a crucial moment when attending a school camp in which she must test her hockey skills.
The young woman’s experiences continue to develop in the background compared to the neurological misadventures of her primary emotions, which, given Riley’s new biological age, see a troop of unsuspected pubescent feelings arriving at the cabin: Anxiety, Envy, Shame and Boredom.
The hormonal chaos unleashed in the protagonist puts the brand new creatures led by the exalted Anxiety in charge, while the classic emotions led by Joy embark on a journey to the back of Riley’s mind in order to safeguard her essential identity.
The mission serves as a pretext to put on screen an eloquent allegory of the inner mental landscape, which includes rivers, mountains and construction sites as well as spheres and luminous threads that house emotional memories, as well as funny characters left over from video games and cartoons that Riley absorbed as a child.
That collage abstraction of registers and forms that achieves in some scenes a colorful quantum beauty is the best of Inside Out 2which aligns with late Pixar films like Soul and Items in its undeniably meta dimension, a rise and at the same time a limit for animation.
satirical neuroscience
That industrial avant-garde to which the American company has always aspired continues to be nourished by a well-established narrative tradition, which here recalls, for example, Woody Allen in his ingenious staging of passions.
At its most pedestrian, the satirical neuroscience of Inside Out 2 leads squarely into Hollywood’s moralistic unconscious, which summarizes Riley’s conscience in two opposing thoughts: “I’m a good person” and “I’m not good enough.”
There is indeed a certain indoctrinating optimism in Kelsey Mann’s film, since it is Joy and Anxiety that drive an unbridled series of gags that leave little room for silent contemplation, reigning in the best moments.
It is also when Joy cries and when Sadness and Shame assume their bravery that Inside Out 2 manages to stabilize the complex simplicity of his emotions.
To see
Inside Out 2
Animation, USA, Japan, 2024.
Screenplay: Dave Holstein and Meg LeFauve.
Director: Kelsey Mann.
With: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith and Lewis Black.
Direction: 95 minutes.
Classification: Suitable for all audiences. In theaters.
