Inside Out 2

Amy Poehler, and hardly anybody else from the original cast, return for Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2, another Pixar adventure set amongst the personified emotions that rule the interior landscape of an adolescent girl named Riley. Whereas before the action focused on a depressive episode for the child, one made possible thanks to disruption caused by the absence of Poehler's Joy and Phyllis Smith's Sadness to oversee a cross-country move from somewhere in Minnesota to San Francisco, Inside Out 2 revolves around a coup d'état engineered by new, invading emotions led by Maya Hawke's Anxiety. Explosively energetic and teeming with schemes, Anxiety initially seems better placed to traverse the creep of puberty, and the interpersonal complications that come with it, than the comparatively one-note Joy. This sequel, something of a star vehicle for Poehler and the fusspot persona she cultivated on television's Parks and Recreation, organises the little yellow sprite as the foundational tenant of Riley. 

Joy is the aspect that rules all the other emotions and holds sway in times of crisis, vanquishing negative thoughts and feelings to the darkened rear of Riley's mind. Whereas the central clash between Joy and Anxiety would seem to suggest that a more unified, complementary approach might result in the most complete being, Inside Out 2 still ends with Joy ruling the roost. This despite Anxiety being equally able to conjure up an incandescent flower that pulses with Riley's (wavering) inner monologue. Really the only real challenge to Joy's continued governance is the inner turbulence suggested by a brief meltdown in which the emotion reveals a self-awareness that seems to indicate that she herself is being piloted by competing senses of self. Unfortunately, Inside Out 2 isn't particularly interested in pursuing these kind of farcical, metatextual concepts, preferring instead to treat a prolonged hockey try out with the paralysing solemnity being experienced by a youngster taking their first steps into a wider world.