Breaking Down The Movie ‘Inside Out 2’
Written by Michael Lee
*All Media used in this article is courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures
Photo by Walt Disney Pictures
Cast & Crew Interviews: ‘Inside Out 2’
Plot Synopsis
‘Inside Out 2’ Official Trailer | Video via Disney/Pixar
Only one year after the events of Inside Out, Riley’s just turned thirteen and on her way to high school. Her Primary Emotions, the one’s seen in the first film, are still Joy, Fear, Sadness, Anger, and Disgust. But Riley’s brain has made way for new emotions to guide a brand new panel, so aptly titled Sense of Self, which actually contains both feelings and memories that consume Riley’s core personality. The summer before Riley begins high school, she joins a hockey camp, with an intent to join her team prior to the school season beginning. These are The Fire Hawks, her high school team and emblem that Riley very much covets. Her Primary Emotions, wanting Riley to make a good first impression, use a mechanism inside her brain that Joy created to catalog any bad memories to the back of her mind, to be forgotten about.
‘Inside Out 2’ Film Clip: ‘Where Can I Put My Stuff’ | Video via Walt Disney Pictures
The night before she leaves, the Emotions experience a whirling alert that informs that Riley has hit puberty, aka, the “Puberty Alarm”. The Emotions manage to turn off the alarm, but a group of Emotion workers make way for a new upgrade to the Emotion console, warning the primary Emotions that the “others” will soon appear. This terrifies the group of primary Emotions, wondering what could be in store for them.
‘Inside Out 2’ Film Clip: ‘What Do You Mean We’ | Video via Walt Disney Pictures
The “others” turn out to be new emotions; Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment have moved in to join her other Primary Emotions. But one of the new emotions, called Anxiety, reverses Joy’s decision to negate her bad memories to the back of her mind and brings them directly to the forefront. Anxiety then makes the decision to get rid of the Primary Emotions, considering them ‘redundant’. She orders the new emotion, Embarrassment, to put the Primary Emotions in a glass jar, which is then taken to a vault faraway in Riley’s mind.
‘Inside Out 2’ Film Clip: ‘Sarchasm’ | Video via Walt Disney Pictures
Here, the group meets a collection of imaginary friends that Riley had developed over the years. Bloody, a cartoon dog mascot from one of Riley’s favorite kids shows, helps the Primary Emotions escape. While they make an escape, Anxiety and the other newfound emotions have created a host of negative memories to disrupt Riley's Sense of Self, which Anxiety believes will help Riley ensure a better future. The Primary Emotions hatch a plan to use an old memory recall tube to send Sadness to the Emotions Headquarters, while all the others go to the Back of the Mind to fetch the old Riley’s Sense of Self.
‘Inside Out 2’ Film Clip: ‘Riley Protection System’ | Video via Walt Disney Pictures
Sadness does make it back to headquarters, but the new emotions manage to capture her. Joy and the others are still on the journey to the back of the mind and here they find out that Anxiety is totally corrupting Riley with negative feelings, which happens to include a malicious plan to make friends with a girl named Val by directly copying her, which in turn, strains her already established relationship with Grace and Bree, which accordingly to Riley, is already on thin ice. The Primary Emotions have finally made it to the back of Riley’s mind and manage to get her old Sense of Self from the very top of a mountain of bad memories. Because the Primary Emotions are so urgent in their quest, this causes an avalanche which in turn takes them back to the Emotion Headquarters.
‘Inside Out 2’ Film Clip: ‘I’m Envy’ | Video via Walt Disney Pictures
Back at Headquarters, Anxiety’s actions have created a wave of chaos with her ne3 Sense of Self, all while trying to control Riley during her final and very important hockey game. The Primary Emotions manage to take back control of the panel before any real damage is done and Joy attempts to convince Anxiety that she doesn’t need to make Riley change herself in order to have a better future, that negative emotions are formative one’s that shape an adult. Joy’s speech affects Anxiety and Anxiety agrees.
‘Inside Out 2’ Film Clip: ‘More Sophisticated Emotions’ | Video via Walt Disney Pictures
Riley goes on to make peace with her friends Bree and Grace and actually befriends Val and the rest of the Fire Hawk team. Finally, the emotions agree to coincide and create Riley’s emotions in peace and harmony, instead of direct odds, which creates a new and balanced Sense of Self.
