This movie, though highly enjoyable, falls into the same trap as just about any sequel: it continues a beloved story, but can at times seem redundant. On the one hand, Inside Out 2 does a great job expanding upon the suite of emotions experienced by a teenage girl (Anxiety is a little too relatable), and I appreciated the imaginative depictions of metaphorical phrases like “stream of consciousness” and “brain storm” (illustrated by a literal stream and storm, respectively). But at times, the film does too much, offering up too many of these concepts used to represent human emotion and memory (though perhaps that’s the point, given how confusing that can all feel IRL). It also leans too heavily on the structure and success of its predecessor, even introducing us to yet another character from Riley’s childhood, Bloofy, seemingly to duplicate our collective love for Bing Bong in the original. Despite all that, this was still a film that left me feeling introspective — and made me laugh throughout — and to me, that’s a win.
