Inside Out 2

Story byProduced byMark NielsenStarringCinematographyEdited byMaurissa HorwitzMusic byAndrea DatzmanDistributed byWalt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures96 minutes^[1]CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$200 million^[2]

Inside Out 2 is a 2024 American animated coming-of-age film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The sequel to Inside Out (2015), it was directed by Kelsey Mann (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Mark Nielsen, from a screenplay written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, and a story conceived by Mann and LeFauve.^[3][4] The film stars Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan reprising their roles from the first film with Tony Hale (replacing Bill Hader as Fear), Liza Lapira (replacing Mindy Kaling as Disgust), Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kensington Tallman (replacing Kaitlyn Dias as Riley) joining the cast. It tells the story of Riley's emotions as they find themselves joined by new emotions that want to take over Riley's head.

Inside Out 2 was first announced in September 2022 during the D23 Expo announcement, with Mann, Nielsen, and LeFauve attached as director, producer, and writer, respectively, while Poehler was revealed to reprise her role in the film, along with Smith, Black, Lane, and MacLachlan. Hale, Lapira, and Hawke joined the cast in November 2023, while Edebiri, Exarchopoulos, Hauser, and Tallman's roles were confirmed in March 2024. That same month, Holstein was confirmed to have co-written the screenplay with LeFauve. The film features Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter's "five to 27 emotions" idea from the first film that Mann pitched during its production to utilize "truthful" worldbuilding.

Inside Out 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 10, 2024, and is scheduled for release in theaters in the United States on June 14, 2024.

Plot

Set one year after the last film, Riley has just turned 13 and is about to attend high school. Her emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, have since created a new section of Riley's mind called her Sense of Self, which houses memories and feelings that take up Riley's core personality. Riley goes to hockey camp so that she can apply for a hockey team at her designated high school, the Fire Hawks. Wanting to make a good impression, the emotions use a mechanism Joy has created to launch any negative memories to the back of Riley's mind. On the night before she leaves, the emotion console sounds off a "Puberty" alarm. After the emotions get rid of the alarm, a group of mind workers barge into headquarters and cause a mess of the place while upgrading the console and warn the emotions that "the others" are coming.

Immediately after, morning arrives and the emotions discover that whenever they interact with the console, it causes Riley to overreact. When Riley is taken to Hockey Camp, she finds out that her friends, Breeanna "Bree" Young and Grace Hsieh, are going to a different high school. Things for Riley become more stressful when she gains 4 new emotions that come to Headquarters; Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment and their leader Anxiety. Despite welcoming the new emotions, Joy and her friends feel that they might disrupt Riley's life, with Anxiety being the stand-out example due to her need to make Riley think up of any negative scenario. Joy and Anxiety butt-heads on how to have Riley act during Hockey Camp, with Joy wanting Riley to have fun while Anxiety thinks Riley should focus on her hockey match to get on the Fire Hawks. Soon, Anxiety has had enough of Joy dismissing her and decides that Riley's Sense of Self was holding her back.

Feeling that a change is in order, Anxiety disposes of the Sense of Self into the back of Riley's mind. She also considers the old emotions redundant and has Embarrassment put them in a giant glass jar, which is then taken to a vault below Riley's mind where a group of imaginary characters that Riley has developed in her head over the years are being held. One of the characters, Bloofy, a cartoon dog from a pre-school show that Riley loved, helps the emotions escape. Meanwhile, Anxiety and the other new emotions create a group of negative memories to create a more, corrupted Sense of Self for Riley in order for her to have what Anxiety sees as a better future. The old emotions use a recall tube to send Sadness to Headquarters while the others go to the Back of the Mind to retrieve Riley's Sense of Self.

Sadness makes it back, but the new emotions capture her before she can help her friends. While trying to get to the back of the mind, Joy and the other emotions see that Anxiety is corrupting Riley with negative feelings, which includes trying to make friends with Val by copying her, which strains her friendship with Bree and Grace even more. Soon, the emotions make it to the back of Riley's mind and get her Sense of Self from the top of a mountain of bad memories that were stored there. In their haste to get the Sense of Self, the emotions caused an avalanche that take them back to Headquarters, where chaos is running on account of Anxiety's new corrupted Sense of Self while she was frantically controlling Riley during her final hockey game. The old emotions manage to make it back before anymore damage can be done and Joy convinces Anxiety that she doesn't need to make Riley change herself in order to have a better future. Joy's encouragement causes both Anxiety and Riley to ease up.

After the hockey match, Riley makes peace with Bree and Grace, and Val becomes her new friend alongside the rest of the Fire Hawks. Soon, the first and second generation of emotions make peace and live together protecting Riley's forever-changing Sense of Self.

Voice cast

• Amy Poehler as Joy, a yellow happy emotion.^[5]
• Phyllis Smith as Sadness, a blue sad emotion.^[5]
• Lewis Black as Anger, a red angry emotion.^[5]
• Tony Hale as Fear, a purple scared emotion. Hale replaces Bill Hader from the first film.^[5]
• Liza Lapira as Disgust, a green disgusted emotion. Lapira replaces Mindy Kaling from the first film.^[5]
• Maya Hawke as Anxiety, a new orange anxious emotion.^[5]
• Ayo Edebiri as Envy, a new cyan envious emotion.^[6]
• Adèle Exarchopoulos as Ennui, a new indigo bored emotion.^[6]
• Paul Walter Hauser as Embarrassment, a new pink embarrassed emotion.^[6]
• Kensington Tallman as Riley Andersen, a 13-year-old girl in whose mind the emotions live. Tallman replaces Kaitlyn Dias from the first film.^[6]
• Diane Lane as Mrs. Andersen, Riley's mother.^[5]
• Kyle MacLachlan as Mr. Andersen, Riley's father.^[5]
• Lilimar as Valentina "Val" Ortiz, a popular hockey player at Riley's high school.^[6]
• Paula Pell as Mom's Anger.^[6][7]
• Pete Docter as Dad's Anger.
• Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green as Bree, Riley's friend.^[8]
• Grace Lu as Grace, Riley's friend.^[8]
• Yvette Nicole Brown as Coach Roberts, a hockey coach and head of the summer hockey camp.^[6]
• John Ratzenberger^[6] as Fritz.
• June Squibb as Nostalgia, a new beige nostalgic emotion.^[9]
• Ron Funches as Bloofy, a character from Riley's favorite childhood TV show. He is similar to the hosts of interactive children's shows such as Barney & Friends or Dora the Explorer.^[10]
• Yong Yea as Lance Slashblade, a heroic video game character whom Riley had a crush on when she was younger. He is similar to characters from Final Fantasy.^[10]

Additionally, television personality Sam Thompson cameos in the UK version of the film as Security Man Sam, a character who finds himself on a chase with the emotions.^[11]

In addition, Sarayu Blue, Flea, Dave Goelz, James Austin Johnson, Bobby Moynihan, Frank Oz, Paula Poundstone, Kendall Coyne Schofield, and Kirk Thatcher have been cast in undisclosed roles.^[12][6]

Production

Development and writing

After the success of Inside Out (2015), the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2015, Entertainment Tonight and The Guardian considered a sequel to be "inevitable".^[13][14][15] Inside Out director Pete Docter was germinating ideas for a sequel while the original film's nominations were unveiled at the 88th Academy Awards in January 2016.^[16] Pixar officially confirmed the sequel's development during the D23 Expo announcement in September 2022, with Amy Poehler coming on stage to discuss the film alongside Docter.^[17] Kelsey Mann was announced as the director of the sequel (making it his feature directorial debut as he previously directed the short film Party Central in 2013), with Mark Nielsen producing, while Meg LeFauve was announced to write the film's screenplay, returning from its predecessor.^[18]

To utilize "truthful" worldbuilding, Mann used Docter's "five to 27 emotions" idea from the first film that he pitched during its production.^[19] Mann's first pass included nine new emotions to make Joy feel overwhelmed with all the new emotions showing up, but felt that the story couldn't keep track with so many emotions taking the spotlight or not adding to the story, so after the first screening he decided to simplify the number. Among those emotions was Schadenfreude (having joy at someone's expense), Jealousy and Guilt, but the latter two influenced the film despite being removed, with Mann feeling that Envy could relate to Jealousy and how remnants of Guilt could be found within Anxiety's introduction, even giving Anxiety some of Guilt's baggage, which was inspired by that of Disneyland hotels.^[20]

To assist with the development of the film, Pixar enlisted a group of nine teenagers, dubbed "Riley's Crew," to provide feedback on the film to ensure it accurately portrayed modern teenage life. Their input led to the inclusion of the emotion Nostalgia and influenced various scenes, including everyday elements of the emotions' lives and the transition from middle school to high school.^[21]

Casting

Poehler accepted an offer of $5 million with lucrative bonuses to reprise her role as Joy from the first film. Phyllis Smith and Lewis Black also reprise their roles from the first film, voicing Sadness and Anger, respectively.^[6] Following a dispute over pay, both Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling declined to reprise their respective roles as Fear and Disgust; they and the rest of the returning cast were reportedly offered $100,000 each, equivalent to two percent of Poehler's salary.^[22] On November 9, 2023, with the release of the teaser trailer, it was revealed that Tony Hale and Liza Lapira would replace Hader and Kaling as Fear and Disgust, respectively, while Maya Hawke joined the cast as Anxiety, a new emotion.^[5] Mann auditioned Hawke via Zoom at the office of a back room in Epcot during a family vacation with his kids after Nielsen told him that Hawke was available to audition just then, with her anxious performance driving him to tears.^[23] On January 16, 2024, it was revealed that June Squibb had joined the cast in an undisclosed role,^[12] later revealed to be Nostalgia.^[9]

On March 7, 2024, Disney revealed that Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, Kensington Tallman, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan joined the cast, with Edebiri, Exarchopoulos, and Hauser playing the other new emotions, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment, respectively.^[6] In addition, Tallman replaces Kaitlyn Dias as Riley Andersen, while Lane reprises her role as Mrs. Andersen, and MacLachlan also reprises his role as Mr. Andersen.^[6] Also joining the cast in supporting roles are Lilimar, who plays a hockey player named Valentina, and Yvette Nicole Brown, who plays the leader of the hockey team, while Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green and Grace Lu play Bree and Grace, Riley's friends.^[6][8]

Music

On March 7, 2024, with the release of the second trailer and poster, it was revealed that Andrea Datzman had composed the film's score, taking over for Michael Giacchino.^[24]

Release

Inside Out 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 10, 2024,^[25] and is scheduled to be released in theaters in the United States on June 14, 2024, with screenings in RealD 3D, IMAX and Dolby Cinema.^[17] It will also screen at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival that same day.^[26]

The film is scheduled for theatrical release in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea,^[27] the Philippines, and Thailand on June 12, 2024; in Australia and Mexico on June 13, 2024; in South Africa, Turkey and the United Kingdom on June 14, 2024. An advance screening was held at the Theater at Ayala Malls Manila Bay on June 11, 2024.^[28]

Marketing

The teaser trailer for the film, along with the poster, was released on November 9, 2023. James Withbrook of Gizmodo and Inverse's Rotem Rusak highlighted the introduction of three other emotions in the poster: Embarrassment, Ennui, and Envy.^[29][30] The teaser was viewed over 157 million times in the first 24 hours across all social media platforms—including over 78 million from TikTok—becoming the most-watched animated film trailer launch in the Walt Disney Company's history, surpassing the previous record holder, Frozen II (2019).^[31] A clip from the film was also aired during the Super Bowl LVIII, named "Team".^[32] The second trailer, along with a new poster, was released on March 7, 2024.^[24] This trailer also marked the debut of the "standard" variant of the 2023 Walt Disney Pictures logo, which was introduced the year before for the studio's centennial anniversary.^[33] The first 35 minutes of the film were screened during The Walt Disney Studios' presentation of first looks at their 2024 theatrical release slate at CinemaCon on April 11, 2024.^[34]

Reception

Box office projections

On June 5, 2024, it was announced that the budget for Inside Out 2 was $200 million.^[2] Five days later, Variety projected the film to gross $85 million in its opening weekend.^[35]

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 75 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10.^[36] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[37]

Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times awarded the film 3+1⁄2 stars out of four, commending the voice cast and the film as "a happy head trip, for any age."^[38] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave the film four stars out of five, praising the animation, metaphors, and wit while saying "the cast-iron ontological brilliance of Docter's original premise bears expansion well."^[39] Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised Hawke's performance as Anxiety and the film's emotional impact, calling it "the most poignantly perceptive tale of the conundrums of early adolescence since Eighth Grade."^[40]

References

External links

• Official website
• Inside Out 2 at IMDb