Inside Out 2 RealD 3D Review

MOVIE REVIEW

Inside Out 2 is a 2024 Pixar animated film taking place just a couple of years after the first Inside Out. Since then, Riley has joined the hockey team, made new friends, and is looking forward to hockey camp where she can meet her idol, Valentina Ortiz, the girl in charge of the Fire Hawks team. All seems to be going well. But overnight, the five emotions from the last film, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust, get woken up as the puberty alarm goes off and without any sort of warning, mind workers come in and give headquarters a new upgrade the emotions are not at all prepared for. Not only is their console not working right, but they are joined now by four new emotions that seek to take over Riley's 13 year old mind: Boredom, Embarrassment, Envy, and their leader, Anxiety. While at first, Anxiety's ability to prepare for the future seems to work for Riley in the short term, especially while she needs to make a good impression at hockey camp, Anxiety eventually takes things too far and takes all the emotions from the first film claiming they aren't sophisticated enough for Riley anymore, "bottle them up," and drive them to the back of the mind. Now, it's up to Joy to help everyone get back before Anxiety does something drastic and pushes Riley over the edge.

In my review of the first Inside Out, I closed out with hopes that Inside Out 2 will serve as a worthy sequel to an already excellent film, considering the psychology of the human mind it delves into and the serious changes Riley is expected to endure leaves a lot of room for a sequel to work with. And I'm happy to say is absolutely does. This is that ever-so-rare sequel that not only remains just as inventive, funny, and thought-provoking as the first installment, but also takes its story in an intriguing new direction that anyone who loved the first ought not to miss.

As far as creativity goes, Inside Out 2 has it in spades. Sure, it doesn't really have to start from scratch as Riley's mind is still Riley's mind. But the intense changes made to headquarters are handled with almost about impeccable wit, once again building a world that feels like it could genuinely be how the human mind works while never contradicting something that came before. That's not a very easy thing to do when you're talking about puberty, and female puberty at that. But if any film could do it, it'd certainly be Inside Out 2. The way that the new concepts build off of the previously existing ones not only work, but make the film ever increasingly engaging. And part of that could also be chalked up to the fact that the emotions in Riley's head are not just defined by what feeling they represent. They all feel like genuine people who are always growing just as Riley herself is growing (that latter part becomes especially important to the plot). That was one of the strongest elements of the first movie and it remains the same even now.

Humor? We got that too in droves. Much like the first, a lot of it comes from the jokes' sheer cleverness and excellent timing. I am not a female and I was never really overtaken by emotions growing up, so I can't say I found the jokes that funny because they were all that "real," unlike the first film where the jokes had generally greater appeal. But as an emotionally secure adult, I did find it funny to see how the changes in Riley's mind led to much of the same immature decision-making I saw a lot from girls my own age when I went through middle school. Still, I did get a kick out of a few things I did relate to like the Bank of Secrets and the kicking things to the back of the mind. If anyone comes in concerned that Inside Out 2 loses any of its comedic momentum, I am happy to put those worries to rest.

Now for the big question: is Inside Out 2 a better movie than the first? Well personally, I might have to say no. But when your comparison is the original Inside Out, is that really such an insult? There aren't a lot of things to nitpick. But there are a few things I think are worth mentioning. One of which is probably that overall, as good of a movie as Inside Out 2 is on a technical level, there's a certain feel to the first film that I think got a little lost here. Sure, Joy, the main center of the both films, is still the cheerful protagonist we all know and love. But whether or not it's the change of directors, the change of screenwriters, the musical score being composed by someone other than Michael Giacchino (who was partially behind some of the most impactful moments of the first film), or the recasting of Fear and Disgust (though I could certainly do without Velma from Velma). I just felt that something was a little bit off here. Not very much, but there was a certain sense of atmosphere and passion that the original film's creative team had that just doesn't seem here. That's not to discredit the people working behind Inside Out 2; they certainly studied the original film down to a T and managed to build upon in some insightful, yet organic ways. And possibly, this gripe might grow smaller on repeated viewing. But for now, it's just not quite the same. Besides that, the emotional highs we get here are not quite as effective as they were in the first. And as creative and practical as some of the new concepts are, there are a couple like the "Stream of Consciousness" or the "Sar-chasm" that seem to have stepped some sort of logical bound.

Still, I don't want my few minor gripes to turn anyone away from seeing Inside Out 2. For every one thing that I could've been done a bit better, it gets 15 things right. A great sequel should serve to expand upon the original story in a new, innovative fashion while also holding true to its core themes. And Inside Out 2 does just that. The way it delves into Anxiety, puberty, and growing into your own person continue the first film's emphasis on growing up and becoming a more complex person, but it does so in a way that's much higher in stakes and inspires thought on the pubescent mind. And while Michael Giacchino may not be here to lift the film's best moments into the stratosphere, the moments where it needs to count as still far more introspective than the ones from the first movie. I won't delve into exactly what kind of messages this movie seeks to offer for those growing up in an emotionally unstable time. All I'll say is just go see Inside Out 2. Whether or not you're a young fellow, especially female, trying to make your way in the world, or someone who's been waiting on a good sequel to the Pixar classic for way longer than Disney should've made you wait, this is the movie you've been waiting for.

OVERALL FILM RATING: 4.5/5

3D REVIEW

If you've seen my 3D review of the first Inside Out, you know that I thought it was a more than worthwhile 3D experience. I've seen it criticized for its lack of planning and effort when it came to how they wanted to use the 3D. But while that may be true to some degree, I still think it has a Jurassic Park or Finding Nemo quality to it where the environment the film works in the way its shot simply works in 3D, if a little accidentally. Inside Out 2 kind of follows in that same similar fashion, but it also has a few nice surprises in store from the 3D side of things that may or not have been planned out, but still work to elevate an already 3D fit film into something truly great.

Many of the movie's main strengths overlap with that from the first film. So I'll give a brief overview on those areas first before moving to the new stuff: windows from headquarters looking out onto the Islands of Personality and Long-Term Memory that seem limitless in depth, mesmerizing shots of memories moving through tubes along the sky to the back of Riley's mind, the main screen in headquarters projecting everything in 3D, claustrophobic views of characters in tubes, and a sense of enormity with all the places the lost emotions have to navigate in order to get home.

Where Inside Out 2 differs from the first is in the new locations is visits and sometimes, the way those locations are shot. And fortunately, those differences only better help the 3D. Before moving into Riley's mind, I think it's worth delving into the world Riley is trying work through. Yeah, hockey camp doesn't seem like such a place ripe for 3D composition. But whereas in the first film when Riley's hockey games were kept very brief and infrequent, Inside Out 2 tends to revel in them. And here, the deep parallax makes the hockey ice seem genuinely large. At a couple of times, the film actually uses that as a contrast to the small confines of the time-out bench, one of which occurs in an important story moment. Besides that, there's also more shots involving crowds and multiple people where the 3D helps to bring everyone into their individual space.

Inside Riley's mind, just like with the first movie, the 3D ante is amped up. Along with 3D strengths mentioned above, Inside Out 2 adds some new locations and new 3D-worthy moments. The biggest 3D addition comes in the form of the part of Riley's mind where she forms her beliefs and they reach up to headquarters in long vertical lines in a fashion that almost seems inspired by the Tree of Souls from Avatar. And, not to spoiler anything, but the longer the movie goes on, the more colorful those lines get. Not to mention that those lines come up of out of water which the memories float and create some good reflection shots. Elsewhere, when places like Long-Term Memory and Imagination Land get upgrades, the results create nice 3D results. For the former, it's higher and higher aisles of memories which make this mental makeover feel all the huger. And for the latter, there's an office full of cubicles made of cards with a TV in the center that also shows its content in 3D, and it occurs in a scene that I take is oddly reminscent of the working environment of Across the Spider-Verse. As the sar-chasm opens up, the giant gap to the bottom is just as menacing as the memory dump in the first film, and they even use a top-down shot of a waterfall to really sell the height. Those claustrophobic shots of characters going through a tube are amped up in a couple of areas, including one scene in particular where Sadness accidentally gets recalled and a series of memories comes flooding in from behind her. In a couple of scenes, they even introduce a 2D cartoon character who interacts within the 3D environment. It's a surreal sight to see and something I see in very few 3D movies these days. And there's even a good scene involving several characters hanging onto a balloon in the middle of a hurricane-like brainstorm with small glowing ideas flying everywhere.

Happily, unlike the first Inside Out, there are actually several places with some good pop out fun. One of the biggest examples of this is in a couple of slow mo shots, one of which occurs early on, where the coach drops a hockey puck onto the ice (and into the audience). There's also some neat top-down and bottom-up shots that take advantage of the belief system room I mentioned earlier and allow for the lines to protrude the screen. Elsewhere, there's some memory balls, random pieces of the environment, and characters and their heads that leave the screen pretty often like in the first movie. But whereas in the original, the only example of the latter that stuck out was Joy's head in an emotional scene, here, the movie seems to do it for fun pretty often, especially with Anxiety and even the 2D cartoon character I mentioned earlier.

I highly recommend seeing Inside Out 2 in 3D just for the reason alone that the 3D really is that good. But I recommend it especially on the account that Disney and Pixar aren't any longer releasing their 3D films on 3D Blu-ray anymore. With the very niche demand for 3D Blu-rays in the current year, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea. But for 3D enthusiasts like me, not only does that mean we don't get to own great 3D presentations like Elemental and Sou, but those presentations will also become lost media once the film is no longer in theaters. True, Inside Out 2 might not be quite like Elemental where the sheer character designs alone warrant seeing it in 3D. But it warrants it in numerous other ways, like how it makes the hockey court feel huge, makes Riley's mind feel once again like a vast wonderland (even vaster in the face of Riley's puberty), and even offers some camera angles that feel they were tailor made for 3D. For anyone who like Inside Out, it's well worth the extra ticket price to get the most out of every small detail in this creative visual and psychological feast. So catch it in 3D while you can.

3D RATING: GREAT

OTHER SOURCES THAT REVIEW THIS MOVIE'S 3D

CInemablend's To 3D or Not Review: https://www.cinemablend.com/3d/to-3d-or-not-to-3d-buy-the-right-inside-out-2-ticket

FINAL THOUGHTS

Inside Out 2 might be just a notch or two below the original in terms of overall film quality. But in all honestly, that probably says more about the first film than it does this one. Inside Out 2 not only manages to work excellently as an entertaining, funny, highly creative film, but also as the sequel that Inside Out 1 deserves. It continues the story in all the ways you'd hope for, and some you probably didn't even know you you wanted. No matter what age you are, this is one summer blockbuster that will thoroughly delight you. And in a summer blockbuster season where it seems creativity is dying with releases such as Despicable Me 4 and Twisters (though I think the latter might actually be somewhat fun), it's glad to see a sequel that can actually justify its own existence. Do see it, and see it in 3D. Not only is the 3D version going to soon become rarer than you might think, but the presentation itself makes this fun and visually engaging film all the more so, and actually to a higher degree than the 3D in the first film. I agree with the Cinemablend reviewer, this does make me wish for the olden days when IMAX 3D movies were much more commonplace. Still, the standard RealD 3D showings work just fine. Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to this 3D-ready animated flick while you have the opportunity.

DID YOU LIKE "INSIDE OUT 2" IN 3D?

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