Inside Out 2 Review - Anxiety fights Joy so you understand everything your therapist ever explained to you Ft. a blazing Maya Hawke

Inside Out 2 stands right on the nerve of the generation that deals with anxiety and acknowledges the storm they go through.

A poster for Inside Out 2 

Inside Out 2

Inside Out 2 Review 

Riley (Kensington Tallman) is now 13 and Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Fear (Tony Hale), Anger (Lewis Black), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) are not the only emotions she feels. She is now home to Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui/Lazy (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). She now has a concept called personality, which is at risk because Anxiety doesn't want her to have one that makes Riley a good human. How Joy and the OG Five manage to restore the system is what Inside Out 2 is about. 

Inside Out 2 Review: Analysis

It is interesting how once in every decade or maybe twice, an animated movie just enters our lives and looks at it in the most realistic way possible without being real. These are the thoughts that have now taken on shapes inspired by caricatures of animals, people, things, and even just pure imagination. These films, even when they are told in the most simplistic way (not simple animation though), strike the right chord. Inside Out is a franchise that has quite interestingly entered our lives at a very crucial stage where most of us were just getting used to the social media pool. We were now talking about mental health, therapy, psychiatrists, and the importance of it all.

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The film served as the most friendly and simple explanation of what goes on in the mind of a human being. Though Riley was still a child, we even had a glimpse into the minds of her parents, and that was the window through which this world looks at our heads and the gamut of things that go in there without anybody knowing it. It was a smart film because these emotions now had a face and we could kind of connect the dots. Times have changed, years have passed, Ridley is now a teenager who is about to hit puberty and new emotions are joining. Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui join the team, but not in a very welcoming way. When have they anyway?

Written by Meg LeFauve with Dave Holstein from a story by Kelsey Mann, Inside Out 2 is directed by Kelsey Mann. To define the movie in a line, it is exactly what your therapist has been trying to explain to you for many sessions and also the solution that they have prescribed. But in a much more visually appealing and beautiful way. Anxiety is cute and many of us have a problem with it, but the movie justifies it because Anxiety never chooses to be Anxiety. We never choose to be anxious, and our faces are not the devil. Even anxiety has a change of heart and that is where Inside Out 2 wins. It only bites as much as it can chew.

Also Read: Inside Out 2 teaser: Riley’s now 13 and has got a new emotion to deal with – anxiety!

For a viewer like me who enjoys a three-dimensional experience, my only complaint with the franchise has been that it never ventured much into the minds of the other people involved. The sequel does that a bit but never completely and that is still a recurring problem. But there is a whole lot to compensate for that. The writers and filmmakers visually imagine the fight Joy has with Anxiety while keeping all the emotions in balance to keep us sane. How Anxiety at first makes us bottle the basic emotions and how an outbreak opens floodgates. No live-action movie has explained or shown a panic anxiety attack like Inside Out 2 because, while it is animated, it manages to be so real.

Inside Out 2 also gets the part right where we all want validation at some point in our lives and we mess up the rest only in the search for it. There is a storm that Anxiety builds that makes Ridley go weak, while the rest of the emotions try hard to reverse the storm but fail. The study of human nature to make this piece of content is stellar, as is the art of the artists who have created, envisioned, and voiced these characters. Maya Hawke is a stunner and her performance is brilliant. Amy Poehler continues to be adorable and there is no way she is going wrong.

Inside Out 2 even acknowledges bottled-up emotions in the most hilarious way. However, the movie doesn't land as well as the first one in terms of emotions. The climax is indeed brilliant but the crescendo of the first film stands unmatched and unbeaten. The music is brilliant and so is the technical department.

Inside Out 2 Review: Final Verdict

Inside Out 2 gets it all right when it talks about emotions and that is what matters here. A movie that explains what goes into your brain better than anyone else and that is indeed a victory.

Inside Out 2 hits the big screen on June 14, 2024 and is now in thetares near you. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

Also read: Inside Out to Brave: 7 Best Animated Feature Oscar winners to stream if you loved Soul

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Paul Rachman

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