Phyllis Smith | Bouquets & Brickbats

16/06/24

Cineworld, Edinburgh

In 2015, Inside Out was a deserved hit for Pixar Animation, a clever and sophisticated story about the antics of the various emotions that dwell within a human being, helping them – and, for much of the time, hindering them. We awarded the film 5 stars and wondered if its creators would deem it worthy of a sequel. Nine years later, here it is and, while it might not be quite as perfect as its innovative predecessor, it’s nonetheless beautifully executed and full of glorious invention.

Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman) is now thirteen years old, a promising ice hockey player who makes up a formidable sporting trio with her best friends, Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green.) Meanwhile, the inner team that maintains Riley’s everyday existence is being ably supervised by Joy (Amy Poehler), who manages to keep Fear (Tony Hale), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Liza Lapira) in check as Riley approaches adolescence.

But when she and her friends are invited to a weekend hockey camp by an influential coach, a puberty alarm goes off, and some new recruits promptly turn up to join the party. They are Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser.) Suddenly, Riley isn’t the calm, capable creature she used to be; she’s a nervous wreck – and Joy and her team are going to have a heck of a job getting her through the weekend…

There’s enough progression here to make this worth the price of the ticket, and screenwriters Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein have a lot of fun unleashing a whole torrent of problems for Joy and co. to deal with as best they can. We’re introduced to a bunch of eye-popping new locations, many of them built around puns. Ever tried drifting along the Stream of Memory whilst braving a Brainstorm? Here’s your opportunity.

As ever, the animation is bright and brash and beautifully detailed. Check out Grace’s chipped nail varnish for starters! I worried first time out that there might not be enough here to appeal to younger kids and this sequel seems even more intent on aiming for the teen market. The wee ones at the screening I attend seem to spend an awful lot of their time going back and forth for toilet breaks. Their parents on the other hand are doubtless having a field day playing ‘spot the movie reference’ and there’s enough inventive twists here to keep them on board. I love the repeated joke about sweet Grandmother figure, Nostalgia, who keeps making hopeful appearances only to be told to ‘come back in a few years.’ Clever. The ultimate message – of course there’s a message, there always is – manages to avoid being chock full of schmaltz and the ending is nicely handled.

Pixar have been in a bit of a slump in recent years, but despite that unadventurous title, Inside Out 2 puts them back where they belong, ahead of most of the Hollywood competition. Not sure there’s enough left to risk making this a trilogy, but we’ll see how that pans out. Meanwhile, the message remains the same. For best results, see it on a cinema screen!

4.5 stars

Philip Caveney

28/07/15

Viewers of a certain vintage may retain fond memories of The Numskulls – a weekly story in The Beano which featured the inside of a young boy’s head and the cartoon creatures that operated his moods, emotions and functions. The similarities are probably coincidental, but with Inside Out, it’s as though the team at Pixar took that same basic premise and elevated it to levels of sophistication that The Beano could only dream of.

Most of the action takes place inside the emotional world of a young girl called Riley, who has recently been uprooted from her home in Minnesota to live in an unfamiliar new house in San Francisco. The dominant force in her world up to this point has been Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) but as Riley’s comfortable existence is rocked by unforeseen problems, the other resident emotions – Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear start to exert their influences too. Writer/directors Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen have created a complex internal world where everything depends on the different emotions working together as a team. Joy is convinced that in order for Riley to be truly happy, her influence must dominate proceedings. When Sadness (Phyllis Smith) attempts to be involved, the equilibrium is upset and Riley’s world appears to be in danger of coming apart at the scenes. Joy and Sadness now have to team up in order to put her back on an even keel.

Pixar have always been brilliant at creating films that are as appealing to adults as they are to children and after a recent run of disappointments (Cars 2 anyone?) it’s great to see them back at the top of their game. Indeed, Inside Out is so sophisticated you can’t help suspecting that the adults get by far the better deal here; where else would you find a kid’s animation that gleefully references Roman Polanski’s Chinatown? Don’t get me wrong, the film is surely big enough and shiny enough to keep the younger members of the audience happy, but they’ll be missing so many sly in-jokes and observations that can really only be fully appreciated once maturity has kicked in.

Suffice to say that this is delightfully inventive stuff that never loses pace or its unerring sense of direction, and there’s a conclusion here that will wring real tears from all but the stone-hearted. When Pixar was purchased by the Disney organisation, there was much dark speculation that it would find itself neutered by the House of Mouse, so it’s heartening to report that Inside Out steers well clear of the usual ‘quest for happiness’ ending and opts instead for something a tad more realistic. Don’t miss this one – and whatever you do, don’t feel that you need to have a child in tow in order to enjoy it. This film would give Sigmund Freud a run for his money.

Don’t be in too much of a hurry to vacate your seats either. In the usual Pixar tradition, there’s an end credit reel that provides some of the film’s funniest moments.

5 stars

Philip Caveney