Mikaela Garber
Managing Editor
Hype has started to build around the June 2024 release of “Inside Out 2”. This Pixar movie is the sequel to the 2015 film, “Inside Out”. The movie centers around Riley, an 11-year-old girl, and the five emotions in her brain: Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger, and Fear. Riley has just moved from Minnesota to San Francisco and is having difficulty adjusting to her new life. This, coupled with all of the issues that tweens face, causes her to experience mixed emotions that she doesn’t fully understand. Viewers follow Riley and the emotions in her head as they fight to help Riley get settled in her new home and understand her feelings. Ultimately, Joy and Sadness work together to create a core memory for Riley. The film concludes with Riley turning 12, surrounded by new-found friends and a loving family. The film sweeped the movie theaters, enchanting young and old audiences alike, even going so far as to cause viewers to cry. It received a 2016 Academy Award for best animated feature.
Pixar released the first trailer for the new movie, which has notably set viewing records, and people are weighing in their opinions. Similarly to the first movie, this one will once again take viewers into Riley’s mind, this time through her puberty years. The introduction of a new emotion, Anxiety, has people excited over the prospects of what this movie could bring. Pixar has likely chosen this due to the fact that many people, especially teenagers, experience high levels of anxiety. Many are thankful for the increase in representation regarding mental health. Others, however, feel that the addition of a new emotion is unnecessary. They use media to escape from the real world and don’t want to have to face their problems when watching a movie.
A big change in this movie compared to the previous one is the change in a few voice actors. Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling are not returning as Fear and Disgust in the sequel, citing the reason to be a lower salary than the actor playing Joy. They have been replaced by Tony Hale and Liza Lapira, respectively. The rest of the voice actors will be returning.
The release of this movie comes after a lull in revenue for Pixar. During COVID-19, Pixar was forced to directly release their movies to Disney+, instead of to theaters due to safety concerns. Additionally, many fans of Pixar have cited a decline in the quality of movies recently, as shown by movies such as “Elemental,” which had the worst Pixar opening to date. Hopefully, with “Inside Out 2”, viewers will once again be drawn into the magical stories that Pixar produces.