Entry 14 || Inside Out 2: A Nonprofessional But Spoiler-Free Review

I'll leave a section of this review spoiler-free, but I'll mark the last bit of my review with a spoiler warning so you guys know when to stop reading if you don't want any spoilers :-)

Main Takeaway

Now, I won't say that this movie is like, top tier pixar masterpiece-- but it stands higher than the rest. It's fantastic for what it's about and how it portrays what it is. And yeah, I'd say that this movie is worth the cinema tickets. Trust me on that.

=== Story ===

The story right off the bat is obviously a little more targeted to young teenagers, but you'd be surprised with just how much they explored on the topic of "Anxiety," as Anxiety itself is actually its own character, presented as Riley's new emotion along with three others: Envy, Embarrassment, and Boredom (named as Ennui).

It's difficult to discuss the story itself since it's pretty heavy spoilers, but if you're somebody who suffers or have at least suffered from anxiety before, then this movie's gonna have you bawling your eyes out because tears were shed-- at least on my end.

Personally, yes I do admit that there were just small touches of admittedly cringe moments that make you sink on your chair, but they're honestly passable due to the heavy subject matter being portrayed in a "kids" movie, and due to the sheer amount of other stupid gags and jokes that were actually hilarious. Some of that stuff even caught me really offguard and it's funny.

As for the pacing, it could use a little bit of work since it felt like things were going pretty fast, but it wasn't the kind of "fast" that ruined the story. Let's just say that it was a bit of a high current river that smoothly flowed along its set path.

Overall, the story's great and is fantastically portrayed. I'll be getting into detail of what exactly they did so well in the spoiler blog.

=== Characters ===

It was really interesting to see Anger, Fear and Disgust get more screentime than what they had in the previous movie because if anything, pixar made it clear that they were handing them the spotlight. It wasn't the kind of individual spotlight where each one gets some crazy character development, but they expanded a lot more on their character traits and how all five emotions work together as a group. In fact, these characters were actually surprising at times.

The new emotions-- Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui, to reiterate-- were also well introduced and amazingly portrayed. It really felt like all emotions were getting their spotlight and no one felt left out, which is DIFFICULT to achieve considering how many emotions there were. So I'll have to give props to pixar for pulling that off.

A bunch of other human characters were introduced, and Riley felt really different from who she was in the previous movie-- in a good way. Riley felt more like her own person rather than being a manifestation of the emotions themselves, and the emotions instead felt like they were simply interacting with her and regulating how she feels things.

I would talk more about the human characters but I feel like that would enter a form of spoiler territory so I'll leave that for the spoiler blog.

=== Animation & Music ===

Of course, with every pixar movie, the animation is stellar. It's really pleasing to look at, but there were a couple times where I felt like some scenes felt a little too bright or had too much color in it-- specifically in moments when they switch to the environment of Riley's mind, but I'll give that a pass since it somehow helped differentiate just how different the realities are of Riley and her emotions.

As for the animation conveying emotions, which they obviously had to focus on, they achieved. Big time. I'm a sucker for animation, so seeing those seemingly unnoticeable details such as the fidgeting hands of a character or the slightest change in a character's facial expression had me in pure awe. I'll be getting into the specifics with these in the spoiler blog. :-)

The music (which I might be a little biased for), already had me tearing up in the first few minutes of the movie-- or maybe I'm just an easy crier. There's the cliche piano music, but it was absolutely phenomenal and successfully tugged my sensitive heart strings. While the first movie had its iconic motif, the second movie actually established a whole new motif that I really loved. But I'm not gonna get too much into detail on that because I don't know music theory.

=== Spoiler-Free Conclusion ===

It was definitely a huge leap for pixar, but it was a fantastic leap. The first movie's more emotionally impactful (since I still cry when I rewatch it), but the second movie is a lot more heavy to take; but in a good way wherein it gets you contemplating once you walk out the theater. 

If you're taking a kid with you, I recommend that you give them a rough idea on what "Anxiety" is and what happens when you reach puberty. Because while this movie still tried to be for kids, it still handles a heavy topic.

It is currently almost 1am as of writing this, so any typo error will be corrected once I wake up. Apologies !!!