1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

In a year where movie studios seemed to only release sequels – not entirely true, but it definitely felt like it – Inside Out 2 turned out to be the big winner, both in terms of profits and reviews, from critics and audiences alike.

Pixar might have originally been known for creating inventive, unique films, but since the 2010s, Pixar has contributed to the “sequel fatigue” that many of us are feeling at the moment. It is annoying when studios don’t want to take a risk on something new and choose to take the safer, most profitable route, but I guess that’s business for you.  

That’s not to say Pixar haven’t tried to make something new, because they have. In the 2020s, they released Onward (2020), Luca (2021), and Turning Red (2022), but they struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic, which hampered Onward’s chances of doing well, and led the other two to be exclusively released to Disney+. When theatrical releases did become a possibility again, Pixar chose to release Lightyear (2022), a horribly disappointing attempt at a Toy Story-related spin-off. It was bad. So, who can blame them for wanting a box-office success by going for a sequel to an already popular Pixar film?

However, that doesn’t mean I was excited for Inside Out 2. I enjoyed the concept of the original film, so I was initially hopeful, but when I saw Anxiety in the teaser trailer, it immediately put me off watching it. My problem was that I have my own anxiety issues, and saying that doesn’t mean much to anyone anymore because a lot of people like to talk about their anxiety issues now, some wearing it like a badge of honour or treating it like a jokey label. I’m not about to try and “one up” anyone about this topic because some people will have better ways of handling anxiety than me, and others will have it worse. All I’m saying is that I was concerned about how Pixar was going to handle this particular emotion.

Sadly, after watching Inside Out 2, all it did was make me feel bad about myself and I found myself unable to relate to Riley’s own anxiety. That’s not a big surprise because I’m not a teenager, and Riley’s anxiety was quite specific to her age. I actually don’t remember struggling all that much with my sense of self as a teenager, and I’ve become less self-confident as I’ve aged, especially around my mid-20s, that age when everyone starts competing to see who can hit those all-important “life milestones” the quickest.

Looking back at the film as solely a source of entertainment though, I did like it, perhaps even a bit more than the first movie, because I liked seeing more of Riley’s life, which was left by the wayside in Inside Out as Fear, Anger, and Disgust struggled to deal with her without Joy.

PLOT

The original Inside Out ended with Joy telling the audience that Riley was twelve-years-old. Inside Out 2 begins with Joy telling us that Riley is now thirteen-years-old.

It also starts with Riley getting ready for an important hockey match with her team, the Foghorns. Even Riley’s five core emotions, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, are getting themselves hyped for the game, with Joy acting as the commentator. Each emotion plays a role in Riley’s game, with Anger leading Riley to score a goal; Fear wanting to ensure Riley puts her retainer in; and Disgust showing up to say that retainer she just put in wasn’t her! Sadness appears as Riley gets sent to the penalty box for a bad challenge.

Joy tells us that Riley is a kind, smart thirteen-year-old, top of her class, and she has grown so much since we last saw her and even got braces. Riley’s Personality Islands have changed too, with Boyband Island now completely gone, Goofball Island staying, and Friendship Island increasing in size. Family Island is still there, but it’s a bit smaller. Riley’s memories, now that she’s older, have started to create beliefs which develop into Riley’s Sense of Self. When Riley is uncertain about what to do, like when a girl at school drops all her stuff in class, the Sense of Self pops up and leads her to do the right thing.

In the hockey game, this Sense of Self appears in Riley’s mind. The team need a goal, but instead of trying to score herself, Riley passes the puck to friend Grace so she can score, leading the Foghorns to win the Championships. After the game, the high school hockey coach, Coack Roberts, invites Riley, Grace, and fellow friend and teammate Bree to a hockey skills camp. Riley talks to her parents about the camp, initially feeling excited for it, but then suddenly remembering the moment that led to her penalty and feeling worried…

Back in HQ, Joy has a method to deal with difficult memories like this. She simply sends it to the back of the mind. Joy then picks up a positive memory for the day to take down to the belief system so it can be added to Riley’s super positive Sense of Self that says Riley is a good person. Sadness goes down with Joy to see the process in action for the first time. Joy simply places the memory in a pool of water and a line shoots up from it to create strings of beliefs.

The next day, the emotions are woken by a very loud alarm sounding. They go into HQ to figure out what is going on, and they see the “Puberty” button on the console going off. Joy manages to remove the button and sends it to the back of the mind again, but there’s no stopping puberty! Mind Workers barrel into HQ and start to demolish everything. When Joy tries to stop them, she is told that other emotions are coming. The console is re-wired and the workers leave. The emotions attempt to use the console as Riley has now woken up, however, no matter how gently they touch it, Riley acts erratically, screaming at her mother, who just wanted to check she was ready for hockey camp, and then crying, worrying about what is happening to her. We see inside Riley’s mother’s mind who realises this is “the day” and she talks to Riley about how her body is “changing”.

Riley, Bree, and Grace are driven to hockey camp, where they talk about how exciting it’s going to be. Riley especially wants to meet high school hockey legend, Valentina, and get on the team to be just like her. Riley – thanks to Disgust – notices her friends giving a look to each other. Bree and Grace’s minds notice that Riley has noticed their look. Grace lets slip to Riley that her and Bree won’t be going to the same high school as Riley, so they won’t be on the same hockey team either. Riley is thrown by this and cries a little bit, wondering what this means for her now.

At camp, Riley goes to catch up with Bree and Grace, who have gone on ahead, when she is knocked over by none other than Valentina. She helps Riley up, and Riley proceeds to act like a total fangirl in front of her. The emotions aren’t sure what to do about this situation, and then they see the console has turned orange. Orange? But none of them are orange. This is Anxiety, who has just arrived in HQ. She is a big fan of Joy’s apparently and takes control of the situation. Envy then appears, as she becomes jealous of Valentina’s great hair and goes to touch it. Embarrassment comes in at just the right moment to stop Riley from doing that and making everything even more awkward. Ennui – basically like boredom – calms the situation and makes Riley less excitable. Valentina then invites Riley to follow her. Joy and the other “old” emotions think Riley should spend time with Bree and Grace, but Anxiety says this camp needs to be all about preparing for high school and since Bree and Grace won’t be there with her, Riley needs to be spending time with Valentina instead. There is then a brief cameo by Nostalgia, who is told she is too early to be in HQ and is shoved back through the door she appeared from!

Riley goes to the locker room where Riley is introduced to Valentina’s friends, all part of the high school hockey team, the Firehawks. Joy takes over and leads Riley to meet up with Bree and Grace, however, they start messing about, taking photos on their phone and talking, to the point that Coach Roberts punishes the whole group at practice, annoying the others. At the end of practice, Riley hears the Firehawks talking about her, which makes her both sad and embarrassed. Anxiety takes control of the situation, putting the idea in Riley’s head that if she can get Valentina on side, everything will be ok. Riley goes over to the girls and apologises profusely. Valentina tells her not to worry because at least she is on Coach’s radar now. At this point, Riley’s Sense of Self pops up, not wanting Riley to forget about her friends. Anxiety doesn’t believe this will help Riley so she sends it to the back of the mind, telling Joy she plans to build a new Sense of Self for Riley, since she has more sophisticated emotions now so Riley needs to be more sophisticated. Joy and the “old” emotions tell Anxiety this isn’t right and try to take control of the situation, but Anxiety has a plan and she doesn’t want them messing up. She literally bottles up all the emotions – well, it’s more of a jar, but the turn of phrase is nice – and removes them from HQ, sending them to The Vault with the rest of Riley’s deep, dark secrets.

In The Vault, the five old emotions are soon surrounded by other characters from Riley’s childhood, like Bloofy, a pre-school TV show character, who is in The Vault because Riley still likes the show, and Lance Slashblade, a video game character that Riley has a crush on. Riley’s deepest, darkest secret also resides here, represented as a big, hooded figure who doesn’t say much. Disgust tries to convince Lance to break them out of the jar, but his big move is to curl up into a ball and roll into things, which doesn’t do much to break the jar. Deep Dark Secret instead smashes it. Now they need a way out. Bloofy calls on his friend Pouchy, to see if he might have anything that can open the vault door to let them escape. Luckily, Pouchy has some dynamite – why? – that explodes on to the door and opens it. Guards try to detain the escapees, so Lance curls up into a ball and rolls toward them. He goes right past them, but somehow all the guards trip over each other and get locked in a vault. That was easy. The emotions plan to get to the Stream of Consciousness, to ride it to the back of the mind so they can retrieve Riley’s original Sense of Self.

Back with Riley, she is practising her skating early in the morning, being driven by Anxiety to be the best. She is soon joined by Valentina, who tells her that Freshman Year can be tough but that she made some really good friends. Anxiety continues to add memories into the belief system, which begin to create a new Sense of Self slowly but surely. Riley spends more time with Valentina and her friends, trying to make them like her. She also learns that Coach Roberts has a notebook where she writes about everyone. Riley wonders what Coach might have written about her…

At the Stream of Consciousness, Joy realises they need someone back in HQ so they can be recalled at just the right time with the original Sense of Self. With no volunteers, she sends Sadness crawling up the tube back to HQ. The others then jump on a piece of broccoli that is floating down the Stream of Consciousness. Everything seems to be going well, until the Stream breaks thanks to the creation of a Sar-Chasm. Riley was sarcastic when Bree and Grace showed up to her hang out with Valentina’s group, as they started to say they liked a band that Valentina’s friends think is uncool. This not only upsets Bree and Grace, who feel like Riley has changed all of a sudden, but also halts the emotions’ plan. The emotions try to talk to some workers over the other side of the Sar-Chasm, but everything they say comes out sarcastic, which offends the workers who walk away.

The emotions are back to walking through Long-Term Memory to get to the back of the mind, but they all start to argue, getting annoyed at their situation. Joy then gets irritated at all of them and screams at them. This surprises the others, who make an effort to help Joy who wants to get up on top of the memory shelves to see the route to the back of the mind. Using a vacuum-like tube, they manage to get up there and walk in the right direction.

In HQ, Sadness has arrived through the recall tube in amongst a ton of memories that Anxiety recalled. She quickly runs to a quiet corner of HQ but she is spotted by Embarrassment. Sadness thinks Embarrassment is going to tell Anxiety. He actually stacks up lots of manuals in front of Sadness to hide her, clearly not liking what Anxiety is doing.

Soon, the old emotions reach Imagination Land, which has changed a lot since Joy was last there, with new additions like Mount Crushmore and Rumor Mill. They then see that there is a lot of activity in Pillowtown. Going inside, they see a video of Anxiety, getting workers to draw bad future scenarios to show Riley what could happen if she doesn’t make friends with the Firehawks and doesn’t get on their team. The old emotions don’t like this and start to submit their own positive drawings, which alerts Anxiety to their whereabouts, calling security on them. The workers then revolt against Anxiety and stop drawing bad scenarios. The old emotions are chased out of Pillowtown and arrive at the Parade of Careers, balloons that resemble different professions. They jump on one to continue to the back of the mind.

Anxiety decides Riley has to see what is in Coach Roberts’ notebook so she breaks into her office late at night to read it. Here, she sees it is written that Riley is “not ready yet”, which devastates Riley. Sadness, meanwhile, has managed to take control of the console, thanks to an app on Ennui’s phone, but Anxiety says Riley has to keep going with her plan and holds Sadness in a bucket to keep her from doing anything. Anxiety needs ideas to change Coach’s mind, which causes a brainstorm – a literal one – in Riley’s mind. This affects the old emotions who battle against these ideas flying at them. Joy wants to break them all, but the others convince her to grab onto the largest one so they can get out of the tornado they are stuck in. They then let go and float to the ground thanks to Fear’s parachute. You can never be too prepared! The emotions get to the back of the mind and find themselves in front of a large mound of memories that Joy tossed there. Joy finds the original Sense of Self but sees it has faded. Joy then tells Sadness to recall them, via the walkie-talkies they picked up early in the journey, but Anxiety breaks the tube.

Anxiety has successfully built Riley’s new Sense of Self, but is shocked to find that it states “I’m not good enough”. That throws Anxiety, who then decides what they must do is score three goals in the final game of camp, beating Valentina’s record and showing Coach Roberts, that Riley has to be on the team. As the game starts, Riley aggressively scores her first goal early on. Riley then scores soon after, having stolen the puck from her own teammate. Anxiety starts to push Riley more and more, concerning the other emotions in HQ, to the point that Riley hurts Grace as she continues to play aggressively. Riley is sent to the penalty box. Here, Riley starts to experience her first anxiety attack.

As the old emotions find they are stuck at the back of the mind, Joy realises that she shouldn’t have hidden all these memories away, because it never built Riley a true Sense of Self. She also states that maybe people feel less joy as they age. Joy starts to feel there isn’t a way of beating Anxiety, when Anger calls for Pouchy. They find he still has plenty of dynamite available and they plan to blow up the mound of memories they are in and ride the avalanche back to HQ, accepting that these “bad” memories will enter the Belief System, but knowing it’s probably for the best.

The plan works and they arrive back at HQ, to see Envy, Embarrassment, Ennui, and Sadness all trying to remove Riley’s new Sense of Self, and seeing Anxiety rushing around the console so quickly, she isn’t visible. Joy goes into the Anxiety vortex and sees Anxiety frozen. Joy manages to convince Anxiety to let Riley go and pulls her from the console. Riley is still panicking though, so they replace the new Sense of Self with the old one. It still doesn’t stop anything. Anxiety says she was trying to control who Riley is, which causes Joy to realise she did the same thing by choosing the best memories to put in the belief system. She realises the original Sense of Self is stopping a new one, complete with “bad” memories, from being created, so they remove it. The emotions see the new Sense of Self being created and huddle around it, which calms Riley down.

Bree and Grace come to the penalty box, concerned about Riley. Riley apologies to them for acting the way she did during this camp, saying she was freaked out when Bree and Grace told her they wouldn’t be at high school together. Her friends forgive her, and they get back to the game, with Joy at the console, letting Riley play simply because she loves hockey, not to prove a point to anyone.

We skip ahead to see Riley at high school where she is friends with Valentina and the other Firehawks. Anxiety starts to worry that Riley hasn’t made the hockey team, so Joy sends her to a calming massage chair, and reminds her that they did as much as they could and now cannot control the outcome so don’t need to worry about it. We also see that Anger has started to wear Pouchy, seemingly bonding over their shared love of dynamite! Riley sees a photo of Bree and Grace that they sent to her wishing her luck. Joy then says that Riley is still smart, she still likes hockey, but she can get things wrong, be a bit sarcastic, and be too hard on herself, but it’s all good because they love Riley for who she is. The final shot shows Riley looking happy as she checks her phone to see if she got on the team. I guess that means Riley did make the team, but I also suppose it doesn’t really matter, because that wasn’t the point of the story!

In a mid-credits scene, we see another dinner scene, like in Inside Out, where Riley’s mother’s Anxiety is concerned that Riley just said that hockey camp was “good”. Riley’s father’s Anxiety on the other hand is simply overruled by his other emotions and decides not to worry about it. In an end credits scene, Joy finds herself back at the Vault to discover what Riley’s deep, dark secret is. Deep Dark Secret tells Joy it is that Riley burnt a hole in the rug. Joy is surprised, thinking it was going to be the time Riley peed in the pool. Deep Dark Secret runs back inside the Vault, feeling ashamed.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Inside Out 2 returns with the same five emotions we saw in Inside Out, as well as Riley and her parents, but there are some new additions to the movie as well. These include Riley’s four new emotions, plus Riley’s two friends, Bree and Grace, and the Firehawks girls.

Starting with the emotions we already know, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust are all back, and we see that they have learnt to work together in harmony now. However, Riley’s new emotions threaten that balance and they struggle to work together, with this being a battle of old versus new. The old emotions think Anxiety is a nasty emotion in Riley’s mind especially as they are tossed out of HQ by Anxiety. Like Joy and Sadness did in the first movie, they must find a way back to HQ, going through different parts of Riley’s mind first to find her old Sense of Self before heading back to HQ. Although they think Anxiety is the villain here, by the end of the film, they learn that Anxiety was only trying to help Riley in the same way that the others were: by manipulating Riley’s memories and beliefs to make her into the perfect version of herself, which was wrong for all of them to do. They all come together to help Riley, and a new dynamic is formed between the nine emotions.

Amy Poehler returned to reprise her role as Joy, having been previously best known for her roles in Saturday Night Live (1975-present) from 2001 until 2008, and Parks and Recreation (2009-15), playing Leslie Knope. Poehler has most recently directed the movie MOXiE! (2021). Phyllis Smith returned to voice Sadness. She is perhaps best known for her role as Phyllis Vance in sitcom The Office (2005-13). Smith was later cast as Betty Broderick-Allen in the Netflix mystery drama series The OA (2016-19). Anger was once again voiced by Lewis Black. Black began his career in stand-up comedy, later appearing on The Daily Show (1996-present) to host a segment called Back in Black with Lewis Black, humorously commenting on news stories, which he still does today.

Sadly, the voices of Fear and Disgust, Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling, did not return to reprise their roles. This is reportedly due to a pay dispute. It is alleged that Amy Poehler was offered $5 million to reprise her role, whilst the other four actors were only offered $100,000 each. Despite some negotiations, Hader and Kaling could not come to an agreement with Pixar and they did not return to Inside Out 2, which is a real shame because it was only too obvious the voice actors had changed and it was quite jarring for me. I don’t know if this story is actually true, and I hope in a way it’s not, with scheduling conflicts being the reasoning for Hader and Kaling not returning, because this shows some disrespect on Pixar’s part for not recognising the calibre of actor they signed on[1].

Bill Hader, as Fear, was replaced with Tony Hale, who voiced Forky in Pixar’s Toy Story 4 (2019). Also in film, Hale was most recently cast as Soledad Yusuf in the thriller Opus (2025), and has also appeared as Ben Franklin in Quiz Lady (2022); as Ed in Netflix’s Woman of the Hour (2023); and as Mayor of Salem, Jefry Traske, in Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2 (2022). In television, Hale is known for his roles as Buster Bluth in Arrested Development (2003-19) and Gary Walsh in Veep (2012-19). Mindy Kaling, as Disgust, was replaced with Liza Lapira, who may be best known for her role as Mel Bayani in the crime drama series The Equalizer (2021-present). She was also cast as Liz in Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011); and as Robin in Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 (2012-14).

Also returning to the voice cast here were Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan as Riley’s parents, although they only feature at the start and end of the film, since there are no parents at hockey camp. Riley’s mother seems more worried about Riley in Inside Out 2, knowing she is a teenager now and wanting to help her navigate this tricky time. Riley’s father is just going about his business like normal really! Diane Lane has had roles in a variety of movies including as Cleo Trumbo in the 2015 biopic Trumbo (2015); and as Martha Kent in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), reprising the role for Justice League (2017). Kyle MacLachlan appeared in many television series, including Trey MacDougal in Sex and the City (1998-2004); and as Orson Hodge in Desperate Housewives (2004-12).

Riley, however, was recast, simply due to the fact a lot of time had passed between the first movie and the sequel, so Pixar wanted to cast a teenage actress, whereas Riley’s original voice actor, Kaitlyn Dias, was 25 by the time Inside Out 2 came out. Kensington Tallman replaced Dias in the role. I didn’t notice much difference in the voices between the two films so that was good. Tallman had previously had roles, such as Bianca in the Nickelodeon series Drama Club (2021) and as Tiffany in That Girl Lay Lay (2021-24), another Nickelodeon series, prior to Inside Out 2 being released.

Now to the new emotions. The primary one is Anxiety, who is controlling Riley’s newly sophisticated self, wanting her to fit in with the Firehawks during camp, so she can instantly have friends at high school and get a place on the hockey team. Since Riley is going to be without her best friends, Bree and Grace, Anxiety thinks this is a good time to drop those friends and find some new ones that she’ll actually see. It sounds harsh, but Anxiety genuinely thinks she is protecting Riley – until she realises all she’s done is make Riley think she’s not good enough and sent her into a massive panic attack as she tries to push herself to be better. Anxiety learns that she can’t control Riley in this way and with the help of the other emotions, she takes a backseat every now and again when things get too much. One issue I have with Pixar’s take on Anxiety is that she says near the start of the film that Fear is there to protect Riley from physical danger, whereas Anxiety projects potential future dangers. That sounds like a fair description, only Fear did Anxiety’s job during Riley’s first day of school in Inside Out, as he planned out all the worst-case scenarios for the day.

Anxiety was designed to be twitchy, fast-moving, and hyper aware, constantly thinking about what’s next. Her mind is focused on uncertainty and different potential scenarios, wanting to plan ahead to decide what to do if this happens or that happens. Anxiety is similar to Joy in some ways, by being a hard worker and wanting the best for Riley, with Anxiety almost looking like the “uncool” version of Joy with her wide eyes, big head, and crazy hair. Anxiety was voiced by Maya Hawke, perhaps best known for her role as Robin Buckley in Stranger Things (2016-present), appearing from Season 3. Hawke was also cast as Jo March in the 2017 BBC television adaptation of Little Women. More recently, Hawke played Jamie Bernstein in Maestro (2023) and June Douglas in Asteroid City (2023). Apparently, Inside Out 2 director Kelsey Mann met with Maya Hawke for her audition over Zoom as he was on a family vacation in Walt Disney World. He took the call from a backstage office building in Epcot’s Mexico pavilion[2].

Envy is meant to be the emotion that represents jealousy, but apart from a brief moment of Envy talking about wanting Valentina’s hair, I didn’t really see Envy do much envying. She was mostly treated like Anxiety’s little sidekick, helping with her plans. To be honest, outside of Anxiety, the other three new emotions felt like side pieces and weren’t fully developed as I feel the five core emotions were in the first movie. The filmmakers did struggle with the design of this character since envy isn’t a very likeable feature in people, and is often referred to as “the green-eyed monster”. Envy doesn’t look like that, and is actually quite small, with a big voice and huge eyes, supposedly meant to resemble the look of a sad puppy. Envy is meant to be an inspiration for Riley; she wants to be like Valentina and is envious of her skills, so it makes her work that bit harder, although it feels like that is more represented as Anxiety’s plan rather than Envy’s in this film.

Envy was voiced by Ayo Edebiri. Edebiri stars as Sydney Adamu, alongside Jeremy Allen White, in the comedy-drama series The Bear (2022-present), winning a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2024 for her role. She has also had some history with voice acting, voicing April O’Neil in the animated series Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2024-present) for Paramount+, and replaced Jenny Slate as the voice of Missy Foreman-Greenwald in the series Big Mouth (2017-present). Edebiri also stars as Ariel Ecton in the movie Opus (2025).

Because of Riley’s now-teenage mind making her say weird, awkward things in Inside Out 2, we had to welcome Embarrassment as another of Riley’s new emotions. The point of making Embarrassment a huge character was because embarrassment makes people want to hide and take the focus away from them. The Pixar filmmakers wanted Embarrassment to be so big that he physically couldn’t hide away. Instead, Embarrassment wears a hoodie which allows him to vaguely cover his red, blushing face. In Inside Out 2, Embarrassment doesn’t have a whole lot to do in HQ to be honest. His biggest contribution to the story is to allow Sadness to hide in HQ, to wait for the right moment to go against Anxiety. Clearly Embarrassment was not a big fan of Anxiety’s grand plan for Riley either.

Embarrassment, although he doesn’t say all that much in Inside Out 2 because he’s so shy, was voiced by Paul Walter Hauser, who has had roles in movies such as I, Tonya (2017), where he played Shawn Eckardt, Tonya’s bodyguard; in Late Night (2018), being cast as Eugene Mancuso; and in Cruella (2021), playing Horace. In television, he appears in the recurring role of Raymond “Stingray” Porter in Netflix’s Cobra Kai (2021-25) and as Travis in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s The Afterparty (2022-23).

Ennui is a bit of a strange emotion to describe, because it encompasses a few feelings such as weariness, dissatisfaction, and boredom, this being the general translation of the word from French to English. Ennui in Inside Out 2 was designed to look like a typical teenager who is “too cool to care”, slouching on the couch, looking at their phone. Pixar actually referred to her design as looking like a “wet noodle”! Ennui’s purpose in Inside Out 2 is to lessen the overexcitement in Riley’s mind, with her bored attitude balancing that out. With “ennui” being a French word, naturally, the Pixar team decided Ennui the character should have an authentic French accent[3]. Adèle Exarchopoulos voiced Ennui here. She received numerous awards for her role as Adèle in La Vie d’Adèle (2013), and was later cast as Clara Saint in the Ralph Fiennes directed movie The White Crow (2018). In 2024, Exarchopoulos starred in the movie Planète B as Julia.

Riley’s friends, Grace and Bree, who are very loyal to Riley despite Riley casting them aside in favour of “cool girls” for much of the movie, were voiced by Grace Lu and Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green respectively. Prior to Inside Out 2, Lu had appeared as Megan in the Disney Channel series Bunk’d (2015-24). Valentina, or Val, Riley’s idol and later friend and hockey teammate, was voiced by Lilimar Hernandez, who already had experience in voice acting prior to Inside Out 2, having voiced the character of Sage in the animated Nickelodeon series Knight Squad (2018-19); Cleopatra in the series Cleopatra in Space (2020-21); and currently voices The Batwing in the Cartoon Network series Batwheels (2022-present). Hernandez was also cast as Sophie in the live-action Nickelodeon series Bella and the Bulldogs (2015-16).

Outside of this, there are some other interesting voice cameos. Yvette Nicole Brown was cast as the strict Coach Roberts. Some of her earlier screen roles include being cast as Shirley Bennett in the sitcom Community (2009-15) and as Helen Dubois in Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh (2004-07). More recently, for Disney, she was cast as Aunt Sarah in their Lady and the Tramp 2019 live-action remake, as well as receiving the role of Rosaleen in Disenchanted, the 2022 sequel to Enchanted (2007).

Other voice actors to mention are Dave Goelz and Frank Oz, known for their work with Jim Henson and his puppetry series, as well as Oz’s directorial work, returned to Inside Out 2 to voice their role as Mind Guards Dave and Frank, and John Ratzenberger returned to voice Fritz, this being his first role in a Pixar movie since 2020’s Onward. And for all UK viewers of Inside Out 2, Sam Thompson, from Made in Chelsea (2011-present) and various reality shows, including winner of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! (2002-present) in 2023, has a cameo role as Security Man Sam – the bigger guard with the aviators in the Vault escape scene – in the UK release of the film.

PRODUCTION

Inside Out 2 couldn’t have existed without the first movie, which was inspired by Pete Docter’s personal experience of seeing emotional changes in his daughter, Elie as she grew up. Docter was interested in creating a movie that explored the weird place between childhood and adulthood.

In September 2022, at the D23 Expo it was confirmed that Inside Out 2 would be released in Summer 2024 and would continue exploring the journey from childhood to adulthood, this time focusing on the teenage years as main character Riley reaches the age of 13. Meg LeFauve was back as co-screenwriter, now working with Dave Holstein, who has written for series such as Weeds (2005-12) and Kidding (2018-20). Kelsey Mann replaced Docter as the director of the sequel[4].

Mann began his research into the new story for Inside Out 2 by looking at childhood photos of himself. He noticed that as he aged and became a teenager, he started to smile less and less. This gradual apparent lessening of joy in his life around this time was an interesting concept and definitely something that he wanted to explore in Inside Out 2, since Riley becoming a teenager is a big emotional milestone in life so it was a natural progression from the girl we saw in Inside Out[5].

Because of this choice of age for Riley in the sequel, this meant a lot of discussions were needed with the filmmakers exploring their own experiences at that age. Inside Out 2 also benefitted from a majority female story team. Them and other female employees at Pixar were able to sit together and talk through their horror stories of being 13, to use their experiences to make Riley’s journey authentic. At this age, the similarities that cropped up in regards to emotions were feelings about being self-conscious and worrying about judgement from others. It was a difficult time, and it was decided at quite an early stage that they wanted HQ to be destroyed by a wrecking ball to represent the turmoil in the mind that happens as you become a teenager. Big questions also start to arise at this age, like who am I? Where do I belong? And am I enough? These are more emotionally complex emotions than the original five that featured in Inside Out.

To properly ensure Inside Out 2 felt representative of young people today, Inside Out 2 creators built a focus group of girls – dubbed “Riley’s crew” – ranging from the age of 13 to 19 who met every four months so they could be shown clips and moments from the movie and give their notes on them. This helped Pixar immensely and they were very impressed at how seriously the girls took their new role.

Initially, nine new emotions were going to show up, with Shame, Guilt, and Suspicion being just some of the rejected, scrapped new emotions. In the end, the filmmakers spoke to Dacher Keltner, psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who discussed the subject of happiness with the creators of Inside Out. This time, Keltner told them they should focus on emotions that revolve around feeling self-conscious, so this helped them decide on their final choice of Ennui, Embarrassment, Envy, and Anxiety[6].

Some of this decision-making and eventual cuts and edits to the story of Inside Out 2 are evident from the deleted scenes that have since been released. For example, Shame would’ve been featured in a scene, which instead was altered and “given” to Anxiety. This is the anxiety attack scene, which began its life as a “shame spiral”. Here, Riley, Bree, Grace, Val, and the other Firehawks girls would’ve been playing a game of “Never Have I Ever”. Riley becomes jealous that Grace has been more daring than Riley has in her life, which impresses Val and her friends. To get back at Grace for this, the two begin using secrets from each others lives to embarrass them in the game, such as Grace saying she’s never stolen her mother’s credit card, knowing Riley has – we saw that in Inside Out. However, the game takes a disastrous turn when Riley reveals that Grace still wets the bed occasionally, which makes Grace, Bree, and the other girls turn on Riley for being so horrible to her friend. Riley then ran to the bathroom, where she became overwhelmed by Shame with Shame starting a storm in HQ, breaking everything apart, in a similar way to the anxiety attack that we see in Inside Out 2.

Another take on Anxiety had the emotion morph into some kind of supervillain. Riley was invited to a high school pool party, so naturally, she was feeling self-conscious, which wasn’t helped by Joy picking a childish swimsuit with a huge sun on it for her to wear. This was shown in a different deleted scene, which also saw Joy’s light fading and her unable to control the HQ console for unknown reasons. This scene also saw the emotions’ bedroom being shown for the first time, an idea that was kept in the final film. Anyway, at this pool party, Grace goes off with a guy called Joel, leaving Riley on her own. Joy manages to take over the console from Anxiety, causing Riley to act embarrassingly in front of all these high school kids, despite Grace telling her to stop. Riley continues with this and ends up accidentally pushing Grace into the pool. Grace cannot swim so has to be rescued from drowning. This is how Riley “hurt Grace” in this version of the film. The same line was used during the final hockey game in the final cut of Inside Out 2. Riley hurting Grace caused her to hate herself so much that Anxiety morphed into a scary character with blank, white eyes called Self Loathing, who tells the other emotions to point out all the reasons Riley is a loser in an effort to “protect her”. Joy wants to take control of Riley but continues to fade. The old emotions are pushed aside and fall out of the HQ window. It was decided Self Loathing was too much of one-dimensional villain so Anxiety stayed as Anxiety[7].

On the lighter side, there were some fun gags that were also cut from the film. One of these was a scene in Puberty Park, a new land in Riley’s imagination that had popped up once she became a teenager, which would’ve been just like an amusement park, complete with the ride “The Mood Swings”, a “House of Parental Embarrassment”, and a “Wall of Self Reflection”, with the star attraction being the “Emotional Rollercoaster”. There was also the idea of having a Procrastination Land, with its motto being “Always Under Construction”.

There are only four key new emotions in Inside Out 2, but there is one that only appears occasionally and does not contribute to the overall plot. This is Nostalgia, an emotion designed to look like an old granny. She appears from a door in HQ that could actually could be seen in Inside Out, as this door was meant to lead to Anger’s steam room in the original movie. Nostalgia appears through this door a couple of times in Inside Out 2, before being pushed back in by the other emotions since Riley isn’t really old enough to have experienced nostalgia yet! Nostalgia was voiced by June Squibb, who had voiced characters for Pixar and Disney prior to Inside Out 2, such as Gerel in Soul (2020) and the character Jimmy’s Grandma in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018). Outside of this, Squibb most recently starred as Thelma in the 2024 movie of the same name, and is known for other comedic roles, like playing Estelle Dubois, Hubie’s mother, in the Adam Sandler movie for Netflix Hubie Halloween (2020)[8].

To match the new sophistication of Riley’s mind, Inside Out 2 also pushed boundaries to make their animation more sophisticated. I always like seeing when different animation styles are mixed. There is one scene in Inside Out 2 where this was most evident: in The Vault, the place where Riley’s secrets are held. The Vault looks like an actual bank vault, showing that Riley really doesn’t want her secrets getting out and embarrassing her. In The Vault scene, there are the five computer-animated emotions meeting three characters who are not like them. Firstly, we have the 2D animated characters of Bloofy and Pouchy. Bloofy is meant to resemble a character like Dora from Dora the Explorer (2000-19), being a simple two-dimensional character in a pre-school-type show, who talks to the audience and asks them direct questions, hoping the children watching are shouting out the answers at the screen. Sadly, Bloofy is not being watched by anyone so he spends a lot of time talking to the wall of The Vault, which makes the emotions question his sanity… Bloofy’s sidekick is Pouchy, clearly meant to represent the item bags that some of these children’s show characters have, where the correct item has to be selected. Bloofy was voiced by Ron Funches, a stand-up comedian and actor, known for his voice as Cooper in the Trolls franchise and currently appears as Howard in Apple TV+’s Loot (2022-present). Current SNL cast member since 2021, James Austin Johnson, was cast as the voice of Pouchy.

Alongside these 2D and 3D animated character is a video game character, Lance Slashblade, complete with that level of pixelation that these types of character have. Lance has long, flowing, purple hair, an angular face, and a sword that is shaped to look like a hockey stick. Despite looking like a video game character that would go and fight in hand-to-hand combat, Lance is part of a fictional game where characters battle by rolling themselves up into balls… Lance Slashblade is seemingly meant to resemble a character from the Final Fantasy series, which is quite appropriate since Yong Yea, the voice of Lance, has had voice roles in numerous video games including Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

There is also the Deep Dark Secret, who is a tall figure, dressed entirely in black with just white eyes and a small flash of teeth. This character is in complete contrast to the colourful world of Riley’s emotions who are scared of Deep Dark Secret initially. Steve Purcell voiced the character. Purcell was a co-director and writer on Pixar’s movie Brave (2012) and voiced The Crow. He also wrote and directed the special Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014) and directed and wrote the Cars on the Road series for Disney+ in 2022.

Outside of these challenges, development on Inside Out 2 began during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which led to filmmakers having to work from home and engage in remote working procedures. Since Inside Out 2 was not released until 2024, I wouldn’t say it was one of the movies most hit by the pandemic. But there was the additional challenge of the 2023 Actors Strike. Pixar completed 30 recording sessions with their actors in the 30 days prior to the strike, and another 30 in the 30 days after the strike to keep on schedule.

Pixar movies wouldn’t be complete without their usual Easter eggs, and one of these referenced the argument between the two Subconscious Guards in the first film, where they debated who was wearing whose hat, because one had written not his name but “My Hat” into his hat. During The Vault scene, you can see a guard’s hat with “My Hat” written into it. The Vault that the old emotions get locked in is a vault with the code ACX111 which is A113 in Roman numerals, with A113 being the classroom that many of the original Pixar creators studied in at CalArts[9].

Another thing to point out is Riley’s hockey jersey number. In Inside Out 2, she is wearing a hockey jersey with the number 28 on it, referencing the fact Inside Out 2 is Pixar’s 28^th feature film. Also in the emotions’ bedroom, Joy has an origami figure of Bing Bong on the shelf by her bed, showing she has never forgotten him after his major sacrifice in Inside Out. She also has a figure of the iconic Pizza Planet truck. Pixar always like to include an Easter egg to their upcoming films, so in Inside Out 2, there is a memory ball of Elio in the sarcasm sequence. Elio is coming to theatres in Summer 2025[10].

Despite the usual positivity that is believed to be a key concept of working at Disney or Pixar, shortly after Inside Out 2 was released, former Pixar employees alleged that production on Inside Out 2 was messy, chaotic, and staff were overworked, with many people being laid off during production. There were further claims relating to themes in Inside Out 2 that were allegedly toned down or removed, specifically those relating to Riley’s sexuality. It has been said that after the backlash that came about from the kiss between two female characters in Lightyear (2022), Pixar employees were told to remove any element of this in Inside Out 2. It is possible they had initially planned for Riley’s infatuation with Val to be more like a crush, instead of Riley idolising this girl because she’s cool and plays hockey well. I have no idea how much, if any, of these complaints and comments are true, but it’s an interesting point to consider, whether Pixar did want to distance themselves from making any part of Inside Out 2 relevant to the LGBTQ+ community, as some viewers have been wanting Disney and Pixar to lean more into these themes for years now[11].

MUSIC

Even though the soundtrack for Inside Out was composed by frequent Pixar collaborator Michael Giacchino, the soundtrack for Inside Out 2 was composed by someone else. That person was Andrea Datzman; however, Datzman is not a stranger to Pixar having composed the music for the Dug Days (2021-23) series of shorts that premiered on Disney+ on 1^st September 2021 as a spin-off to the movie Up (2009).

Some of Giacchino’s themes from the first movie, such as the iconic one first heard in the piece “Bundle of Joy”, were used in Inside Out 2. “Outside Intro”, the opening track in Inside Out 2 features this piece of music, as does “The Life of Riley”, which is the music playing as Joy catches us up on what’s been happening to Riley since we last saw her.

Datzman still made the Inside Out 2 soundtrack her own, wanting to use some rock elements in the soundtrack to match the toughness and physicality of hockey, showing how strong Riley is. This is apparent in the track “Go Team!”, which is played during the hockey match at the start of the film. The rock elements return for the piece “The Puck Drops Here”, for Riley’s final game at hockey camp.

The best instrumental track for me was “Mind at Freeze”, used for Riley’s anxiety attack. It was a big moment in the movie, to see not only Riley confused about what was going in her body but also Anxiety who was sure she was doing the right thing for Riley by pushing her. It’s an emotional moment to see all the emotions struggle against the panic that has consumed HQ and Riley and try to get everything back on track. The only critique I have of this scene is that in real life, if Riley was having a panic attack for the first time, I don’t think she would’ve come out of it as easily as she did in the film. It only felt like a scary moment whilst it was happening, but panic attacks can make you feel scared and uncertain even after it’s all over.

I also liked the dreaminess of tracks like “Creating a Sense of Self”, which played when Joy took Sadness to the Belief System for the first time, and I enjoyed hearing the return of the Triple Dent Gum jingle, which was written by Andrea Datzman, Pete Docter, and Bob Peterson, being performed by Datzman and Nick Pitera.

There was some additional music in Inside Out 2 outside of the score, like a very small snippet of “Bloofy’s House Theme Song” when we first meet Bloofy in The Vault. It was performed by Ron Funches, and written by Jennifer Rowekamp. There are three other credited songs that are used as background music in other similar scenes. When Riley is hanging out with Val and her friends, they are listening to music. This is when Riley pretends not to like the band Get Up and Glow. Here, a pop song seems to be playing, followed by a rock song, however, I couldn’t hear enough of the lyrics to hear which song it was. The same thing happened with the two locker room scenes. Although I believe the first time when Riley goes to the locker room with Valentina to meet her friends at hockey camp, the song used is “Growing Up” by American rock band The Linda Lindas; I have no idea about the other one. These outstanding three songs are “Baller Dash”, written by John Parker; “It’s The Time of Our Lives” written and performed by Paris Carney, Dakota, and Lachlan West; and “Can’t Slow Us Down” was written and performed by Henry Beasley and Simon Oscoft.

Although the Inside Out 2 soundtrack itself was not nominated during awards season, Andrea Datzman did win the Society of Composers & Lyricists Award for her work.

RECEPTION

After a premiere at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on 10^th June 2024, Inside Out 2 was released to theatres in the US on 14^th June 2024, with the movie also being screened at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival on this date. Inside Out 2 hit theatres across the world in the days and weeks that followed. It was released in a wider aspect ratio in theatres to match the expanding console in Riley’s mind and the widening of Riley’s world now that she’s getting older. To compare, Inside Out was released in 1.78:1, with Inside Out 2 being released in 2.39:1, this seemingly being the Pixar standard now[12].

Inside Out 2 was heavily anticipated, even having the biggest animated trailer launch in Disney history thanks to its teaser trailer from November 2023 hitting 157 million views across social media in 2024 – a record that was later beaten by Moana 2[13]. This explains exactly how and why Inside Out 2 did so well at the box office.

From its opening weekend in North America, Inside Out 2 made almost $155 million in ticket sales, going on to make just under $653 million in this market. This combined with the $1.05 billion the movie made overseas gave Inside Out 2 a final gross figure of around $1.7 billion in total, against a reported $200 million budget. Inside Out 2 became not only the highest grossing animated movie of 2024 but became the highest grossing movie of 2024[14].

Inside Out 2 also became the only animated movie to make over $1 billion from overseas markets alone. The Lion King 2019 Disney remake earnt $1.1 billion internationally, but although it is technically CGI, it is classed as live-action by the company. Inside Out, on the other hand, ended up making just under $860 million at the box-office, putting it in the No. 7 spot of the highest worldwide grossing films of 2015 and second highest grossing animated movie of the year after Minions.

Thanks to the stellar financial takings of Inside Out 2, Deadpool v Wolverine, Moana 2, and Mufasa: The Lion King at the box-office in 2024, the Walt Disney Company had a good year in cinema when their Disney Parks were not doing so well, with global economic problems contributing to lower demand and the 2024 Paris Olympics being partially blamed for the lower footfall at Disneyland Paris[15].

It was also stated that Disney+ was finally profitable in 2024. Speaking of which, Inside Out 2 was released on Disney+ on Wednesday 25^th September 2024, where it drew in 30.5 million views worldwide during the first five days of its release, becoming the No. 1 film premiere of 2024 and the best film premiere on Disney+ since Encanto (2021). The original Inside Out has had 121 million views globally during its time on the platform so far[16].

It’s not always true that if a movie makes a lot of money at the box office, then it must’ve had positive reviews from both critics and audiences. That was certainly not the case for Moana 2, for example. However, Inside Out 2 was received well by the majority.

Many liked seeing Riley grow in this movie with the introduction of her new emotions, and the message of the movie, about accepting yourself for who you are, being seen as very good and relatable to the modern world. It was heartfelt and creative, expanding on the original story. Some adults even said Inside Out 2 helped them with their own difficulties with anxiety. Everyone experiences anxiety differently though, and Riley’s anxiety was quite specific to teenage life, so take that with a pinch of salt. It didn’t help me in that way, but I did like its creativity and the cleverness of the new mind additions, like the Sar-Chasm and The Vault. I also enjoyed seeing more of Riley’s life in Inside Out 2, something which was overshadowed by Joy and Sadness’ journey in Inside Out.

On the more negative side, some claimed Pixar should not be trying to teach kids about anxiety, feeling it may’ve been too much for certain ages to cope with. Others felt the humour was forced, for example, the mind metaphors being too much at times. The story was criticised for being rushed through to get to the final message, which I didn’t really agree with; Riley was only at hockey camp for three days. Some didn’t like the hockey camp setting either and felt Turning Red (2022) was a much better movie for teaching children about puberty. I actually really didn’t like Turning Red so I disagree on that point. There was also disappointment that some of the cast did not return to reprise their roles, showing that I wasn’t the only one who could tell the difference in the voice actors.

During awards season, Inside Out 2 only won the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Animation Motion Picture. It was nominated for numerous awards though including Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, with Flow (2024) taking home the award; at the Annie Awards, where The Wild Robot (2024) won; at the BAFTAs, with Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) claiming the prize; and at the Critics’ Choice and Golden Globes, where The Wild Robot and Flow won respectively. At the Golden Globes, Inside Out 2 was also up for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, but losing to Wicked (2024). Also at the Annie Awards, Inside Out 2 was nominated for other awards, including Voice Acting for Maya Hawke; Writing; Character Animation; and Production Design, where it lost to The Wild Robot in most categories, although the Writing award was given to Flow.

In comparison, Inside Out won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at this ceremony too. This was also the case at the BAFTAs and the Critics’ Choice Awards. At the Annie Awards, it once again won Best Animated Feature, along with a list of others awards, including Outstanding Achievement for Directing; for Production Design; and for Writing just to name a few. Inside Out also won Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globe Awards, the Satellite Awards, and the Saturn Awards, amongst many others. It was named as the Best Animated Feature by the National Board of Review too.

LEGACY

Continuing the Inside Out franchise, Disney+ premiered the new series Dream Productions on 11^th December 2024, having first being announced in 2023, with further details being released in 2024. It consists of four episodes, at roughly half an hour each, and is set between Inside Out and Inside Out 2. It sees the Dream Productions dream director trying to create amazing dreams for Riley in amongst studio politics.

Many of the voice cast from Inside Out 2 reprise their roles in Dream Productions, with the likes of Richard Ayoade and Maya Rudolph joining the cast as Kenny Dewberry, and Jean Dewberry respectively. Ayoade is known for his role as Maurice Moss in the British sitcom The IT Crowd (2006-13) and hosted The Crystal Maze (2017-20) and Travel Man (2015-present) in the UK as well. He has voiced roles in other animated movies, such as Early Man (2018) and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019), and Terry in Pixar’s movie Soul (2020). Rudolph is known for her roles in comedy movies such as Grown Ups (2010) and its 2013 sequel as Deanne; Bridesmaids (2011) as Lillian; and Disenchanted (2022) as Malvina. She rose to fame as a cast member on the sketch show Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007. Rudolph currently stars in the AppleTV+ comedy series Loot (2022-present) as Molly Wells. She also voiced the roles of Aunt Cass in Disney’s Big Hero 6 (2014) and Daniela Paguro in Pixar’s Luca (2021).

Dream Productions has since won the Annie Awards for Best Limited Series and for Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production for Paula Pell, who voiced Paula Persimmon, the dream director and head of Dream Productions both in this series and in Inside Out. She also voiced Riley’s mum’s Anger in Inside Out and Inside Out 2, and was a writer on SNL from 1995 to 2013.

During the summer of 2024, the Disney Parks set about promoting Inside Out 2 in the usual way: with meet-and-greets, speciality food and drink, and merchandise.

At Disneyland, specifically at Disney California Adventure Park, there was much promotion for Inside Out 2 during Pixar Fest 2024, which took place from 26^th April to 4^th August. This included the introduction of Anger as a meet-and-greet character, joining Sadness and Joy in meeting guests. There was also an Inside Out 2 collectible medallion available to purchase at this time, from the machine in Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff store. More generally, Joy and Sadness were two characters to get involved in the Pixar Pals Playtime Party stage show that ran a few times a day. These two, along with a statue of Bing Bong, were also featured on a float of Bing Bong’s rocket during the Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration Parade. Scenes and music from Inside Out were also included in the Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular fireworks show. Outside of that, at the Animation Academy also at Disney California Adventure Park, guests could learn to draw characters such as Joy, Sadness, Anger, and Anxiety. There was even a short film displayed on the water fountains ahead of the water-based nighttime show World of Color – One at this park, themed to Inside Out 2 and its characters. The short was named “Emotional Rollercoaster”.

Also at the Pixar Pier location in Disney California Adventure Park, you can find the spinner ride Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, where guests spin around in colourful mini-hot air balloons, designed after Inside Out characters. The area is themed to include the shelving in HQ complete with memory balls that are seen in the film, and statues of the five emotions.  This ride opened in 2019, and is a repurposing of a different ride that once appeared at Disney California Adventure: Flik’s Flyers from A Bug’s Land, which closed in 2018 to make way for Avengers Campus. Also at Pixar Pier, there is the Angry Dogs food stand, with Anger being featured on the stand’s signage. This stand obviously serves hot dogs. Then there is a sweet shop named Bing Bong’s Sweet Stuff, which has a statue of Bing Bong inside. The Pixar Pal-A-Round Ferris wheel, redesigned to match the new area of Pixar Pier, includes gondolas with different characters painted on them. Joy and Sadness are two of these.

Also at Disneyland, special PhotoPass Lenses featuring the Inside Out 2 characters were available to use on the Disneyland app, and at the Pixar Place Hotel, there was an exhibit all about Inside Out 2, featuring maquettes of the new emotions Anxiety, Ennui, and Embarrassment, as well as artwork from the film. The Pixar Place Hotel opened at the Disneyland Resort on 30^th January 2024 and contains other references to Inside Out. There are small references to the movie “hidden” in murals and paintings throughout the hotel and in rooms. You also might be lucky enough to meet Bing Bong at Pixar Place Hotel, as he has been meeting guests in the area since the hotel opened. 

At Walt Disney World, Joy was given a permanent meet-and-greet location at Pixar Plaza in Disney’s Hollywood Studios around Summer 2024, where she still is today. Joy and Sadness used to have a meet-and-greet location at the Epcot Character Spot, back in 2016, however, this area was closed when Epcot was redeveloping around 2019 and 2020. Joy could then be seen at the ImageWorks, the exit of the Journey into Imagination attraction in Epcot until around 2024 when Figment became a meet-and-greet character in that location. There was also a photo opportunity in front of an Inside Out 2 mural on the walls in the Pixar Plaza area. A sneak peek at Inside Out 2 was also playing at Walt Disney Presents in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

At Disneyland Paris, Joy met guests at the Worlds of Pixar area in Walt Disney Studios Park during June and July 2024, with Anger showing up as well. Joy was still there in December of that year. It is unclear if she is still there. There are also two small statues of Joy and Anxiety in this area. In shows, Joy appeared as part of the A Million Splashes of Colour parade which ran from February 2024 until the end of September that year. Music from Inside Out and scenes from the movie are currently part of the Disney Tales of Magic nighttime show at Disneyland Paris.

At Tokyo Disneyland, Joy and Sadness have been spotted by guests as recently as 2021. At Hong Kong Disneyland, in recent years, characters from the movie, like Joy, Sadness, and Anger, were included in the Pixar Water Play Street Party here for Summer 2024. It is possible they will return if this parade returns in 2025. The Inside Out theme and clips from the film were also used as part of the Momentous Nighttime Spectacular show at this park. Lastly, at Shanghai Disneyland, Joy and Sadness are a part of the Disney ColorFest Street Party here, as well as Mickey’s Storybook Express Parade. Moments from Inside Out can also be seen in the projections of ILLUMINATE! A Nighttime Celebration.

On the Disney Cruise Ships, specifically on the Disney Wish, is a sweet shop named Inside Out: Joyful Sweets. The characters may also be seen as part of Pixar stage shows and parties that take place on other Disney Cruise Ships. The five emotions of Inside Out were also a part of the Disney on Ice show from 2015. 

Plenty of merchandise has been released featuring the characters of Inside Out 2, including plush toys, books, clothing, mugs, and playsets. There was plenty of specially-themed food and beverage offerings at all the Disney Parks too, including an Inside Out 2 souvenir cup available at Shanghai Disneyland; themed popcorn buckets, along with a tutti-frutti flavoured popcorn, and themed doughnuts at Disneyland Paris; emotion-themed dessert lollipops at Hong Kong Disneyland, with flavours like Basil Lemon for Envy and Thyme Orange for Anxiety, as well as themed popcorn flavours, such as Wasabi for Disgust and Garlic for Embarrassment; emotion-matching coloured cheesecakes at Disneyland Resort; and an Inside Out 2 petit cake at Amorette’s Patisserie at Disney Springs in the Walt Disney World Resort[17].

Finally, in partnership with Airbnb, a house designed to look like the Inside Out 2 headquarters was built in Las Vegas, with the accommodation seemingly being at the top of a huge tower. This was only available to win as a prize from a competition, with 15 one-night stays available to win for stays in July 2024.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There wasn’t too much in Inside Out 2 that I found particularly relevant to my life, but there was one thing. Hearing Riley’s belief “I’m not good enough” a number of times was quite an uncomfortable experience. We’ve all had times when we’ve thought we aren’t good enough. That we’re losers, failures, and will never achieve anything. Well, maybe not everyone has felt like that. Some people are just lucky with their level of confidence, but I think the majority of us have felt like we just aren’t good enough sometimes.

I found Inside Out 2 to be enjoyable as a film, and quite funny in places, even if I didn’t relate all that much to Riley’s journey, however, I am aware that I grew up in a time without smart phones and social media apps, with these only becoming a major part of life by the time I was about 18, and I was not at school or in a key developmental time of life when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I don’t personally know any teenagers but I’ve read numerous articles about how stressed and anxious young people are growing up today.

I believe that Inside Out 2 may’ve gone some way in helping teens understand how their minds are working and even if they can’t talk to their parents, I hope it’s opened up discussions with their friends and given the adults in their lives something to think about.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Samantha Crowell, ‘Inside Out 2: Why Mindy Kaling & Bill Hader Were Recast In The Sequel (Despite Having A “Great Time Working On Inside Out”)’, ScreenRant.com, 28^th August 2024.

[2] Credit: Julie, ‘6 Emotional Details About The Making of ‘Inside Out 2’’, PixarPost.com, 16^th April 2024.

[3] Credit: Pixar, “New Emotions”, from Inside Out 2 (2024) Disney+ (2024).

[4] Credit: Matt Grobar, ‘Inside Out Sequel Plans Confirmed By Pixar At D23’, Deadline.com, 9^th September 2022.

[5] Credit: John Boone, ‘The Inside Story of ‘Inside Out 2’s New Emotions (Exclusive)’, Oscars.org, 13^th June 2024.

[6] Credit: Petrana Radulovic, ‘Uncut Gems helped inspire Inside Out 2’, Polygon.com, 16^th April 2024.

[7] Credit: Pixar, “Deleted Scenes”, from Inside Out 2 (2024) Disney+ (2024).

[8] Credit: Julie, ‘6 Emotional Details About The Making of ‘Inside Out 2’’, PixarPost.com, 16^th April 2024.

[9] Credit: Pixar, “Unlocking the Vault”, from Inside Out 2 (2024) Disney+ (2024).

[10] Credit: Jazz Tangcay, ‘‘Inside Out 2’: All the Easter Eggs and Hidden References You Might Have Missed Including a Nod to Pixar’s Next Feature, ‘Elio’’, Variety.com, 22^nd June 2024.

[11] Credit: Dani Di Placido, ‘Disney’s ‘Inside Out 2’ Controversy, Explained’, Forbes.com, 17^th September 2024.

[12] Credit: Disney, ‘‘Inside Out 2’ Director Kelsey Mann on Navigating the Emotions of Leading the New Pixar Film’, TheWaltDisneyCompany.com, 12^th June 2024.

[13] Credit: Disney, ‘‘Inside Out 2’ Garners Biggest Animated Trailer Launch in Disney History’, TheWaltDisneyCompany.com, 10^th November 2023.

[14] Credit: Tim Lammers, ‘‘Inside Out 2’ Ends Its Theater Run. How Much Did It Make At Box Office?’, Forbes.com, 11^th October 2024.

[15] Credit: Faarea Masud, ‘Inside Out 2 boost Disney as theme parks struggle’, BBCNews.co.uk, 7^th August 2024.

[16] Credit: Disney, ‘“Inside Out 2” Is The No. 1 Film Premiere On Disney+ In 2024, Driving 30.5 Million Views Globally In 5 Days’, Press.Disney.co.uk, date unknown.

[17] Credit: Cayla Ward, ‘New ‘Inside Out 2’ Experiences to Love at Disney Parks, Plus All-New Products’, DisneyParksBlog.com, 14^th June 2024.