Inside Out 2

“Inside Out 2,” released by Pixar Animation Studios in 2024, continues the story of Riley Andersen, the Minnesota girl whose emotions were personified in the 2015 film “Inside Out.” Directed by Kelsey Mann in his feature-directing debut and produced by Mark Nielsen, the sequel begins as Riley enters puberty and prepares to attend a competitive hockey camp. Her original emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust—still operate the headquarters inside her mind, guiding her responses to everyday experiences. The arrival of adolescence causes the headquarters to undergo major changes. New emotions appear, including Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment. Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, quickly becomes the dominant force, believing that constant planning and preparation can protect Riley from rejection and failure. She pushes the original emotions aside and constructs a new sense of self based on Riley’s desire to fit in with the older hockey players, particularly the admired captain Val Ortiz, voiced by Lilimar. Riley’s attempt to impress Val leads her to change her behavior, abandon her longtime friends Grace and Bree, and prioritize the Firehawks hockey team. The film shows these choices through Pixar’s internal-world setting, where memories, beliefs, imagination, and personality are represented as physical places and systems. Riley’s sense of self is connected to memories that support beliefs such as “I’m a good person,” but Anxiety replaces these memories with experiences that reinforce insecurity and social fear. While Joy and the other original emotions struggle to return to headquarters, they encounter elements from Riley’s mind, including the sarcastic imaginary boyfriend and a group of suppressed memories. The story’s central conflict is not simply between positive and negative feelings. Instead, it explores how Riley’s identity becomes distorted when Anxiety tries to control every possible outcome. The voice cast includes Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Tony Hale as Fear, and Liza Lapira as Disgust, with Lapira replacing Mindy Kaling from the first film. Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan return as Riley’s parents, while Ayo Edebiri voices Envy and Adèle Exarchopoulos voices Ennui. “Inside Out 2” became a major commercial success, surpassing one billion dollars worldwide during its theatrical run and eventually becoming Pixar’s highest-grossing film at that time. Its story focuses on a specific transition—Riley’s first major experience of adolescent self-consciousness—while extending Pixar’s earlier metaphor into a more complicated portrait of emotional development.