Movie Review: Inside Out 2 (2024) seen in theatres

Suitable for all ages

This movie is a sequel to the 2015 movie Inside Out which focuses on Riley as she is now a teenager who must conquer new emotions that have moved into her brain….anxiety along with boredom and embarrassment. These negative emotions threaten to take over her brain and it is up to joy, sadness, anger, and the rest of the gang to try and save Riley from never being able to experience joy again and having a life full of anxiety.

For reasons that will be discussed later, this movie was really hard for me to focus on. I have seen the first inside out movie but I can’t remember what happens. I know in that one, Riley is a child and has yet to experience the typical teenage emotions such as anxiety, ETC. I saw that one well before I had this website and before I would write short descriptions of movies I have seen. As I said before, this movie was hard for me to follow so I will do this blog a little bit differently than other ones. Rather than giving a description of the movie, I will say that I had a lot of experience was many of the negative emotions in this movie throughout my life. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I have experienced general anger and a whole bunch of anxiety, most of which occurred in my teenage years just like Riley experienced in this film. The one thing I can say about this film is that the plot revolves around anxiety locking all of the other emotions, (joy, sadness, ETC,) in a bottle, which in turn causes the pun, “bottling up your emotions” to be used, away in the back of Riley’s mind where she can no longer experience them while anxiety takes over her brain meaning she may never be happy again. The other emotions must try to get to the front of Riley’s brain before it’s too late and anxiety takes over.

While I cannot say much about this film, it’s general plot is something I experienced in my teenage years as well which also carried over into my life as a young adult, (in my early to mid 20’s.) There was a time in my life where I thought I would never be happy again and every day during this period in my life, all I felt was anxiety and anger and very seldom experienced any kind of happiness. As this movie shows though, this problem can be remedied if you never give up on yourself and not allow negativity to take over. If you are able to remember those who love you, those who respect you, in time all of your anxiety will go away.

As this emotion reminds me of myself during the aforementioned time, my favourite characters are anger and anxiety. During the parts of this movie that I was able to understand, (more specifically the part where anxiety was taking over and that was all Riley was feeling,) I was saying to myself, “I remember when that used to be me…..back in the day when I felt I couldn’t be happy,” while hoping that by the end of the film that Riley retains all of the positive emotions.

As for why this movie was so hard to understand, it’s because this is the first movie I’ve seen in 4DX format……something I will never do again and not just because of the price. 4DX causes the seat to move anytime there is a chase scene in a movie or loud noises as well as a flashing light that goes on and off every time a scene where light is shown in the movie. At most points during this film, my seat rocked back and forth in sync with the scene in the movie. Each time this occurred, I became distracted with trying to ensure I did not fall out of my seat or lose my popcorn or drink if I was holding it, (I’m sure mom would find this funny if she read this part of the review as she feels I only go to movie theatres for the popcorn and drink and not for the enjoyment of the movie itself.) Anyway, while others may have a difference of opinion, it is my opinion that 4DX serves as a distraction and takes away from the enjoyment of the movie. It is also regarded as a safety hazard, especially for those who cannot hold themselves up or who fall down easily. Even though I was lucky enough to avoid an accident, maybe someone else may not be so lucky and hurt themselves. Also, I came out of the theatre dizzy and disoriented as well from the seat rocking back and forth. Therefore, I have to say that this wasn’t the greatest trip to the movie for me.

Movie rating: 5 out of 10. This rating has been given as a result of me only being able to follow half of the movie due to the circumstances.