It’s high stakes and high pressure all round for the long-anticipated, much-speculated-on Inside Out 2. Off-screen, Pixar’s smart, big-hearted sequel must square up to its Oscar-winning, $859m-grossing 2015 predecessor and rescue 2024’s so-far dismal summer box office. On-screen, puberty-rocked Riley (Kensington Tallman) needs to ace her ice hockey training camp or face relegation to high-school social Siberia…
First-time feature director Kelsey Mann sets off a fierce battle in 13-year-old Riley’s mind when the Puberty Alarm upends Joy (a bouncy Amy Poehler) and her regular cohorts’ best efforts. The gang must make way for new Emotions in Mind HQ: fast-talking Anxiety (a gloriously rattling Maya Hawke), sneaky Envy (Ayo Edibiri), scornful Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and near-silent Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser).
