Inside Out 2

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Inside Out 2
• a review of Inside Out 2 completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 18 June 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Thirteen-year-old Riley (voice of Kensington Tallman) is smart, kind and an excellent hockey player. Her parents and her main emotions – Joy (voice of Amy Poehler), Disgust (voice of Liza Lapira), Anger (voice of Lewis Black), Fear (voice of Tony Hale) and Sadness (voice of Phyllis Smith) – have done a great job looking out for her and helping shape the person she is becoming. When the high school hockey coach watches Riley and her two best friends Grace (voice of Grace Lu) and Bree (voice of Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) do some fancy goal scoring that helps them win a championship game, she personally invites them to attend a hockey camp with the high school team she coaches. Riley is thrilled because she will finally meet her hero, Valentina (voice of Lilimar), a hockey player she has admired for ages. As luck would have it, puberty hits Riley the night before the hockey camp. She awakens feeling emotional and distressed. Meanwhile, Joy and the others are trying to figure out the exact roles the new emotions – Anxiety (voice of Maya Hawke), Ennui (voice of Adele Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (voice Paul Walter Hauser) and Envy (voice of Ayo Edebiri) – will play in the command centre. Anxiety is sure that she can best direct Riley through the weekend camp, and she is equally sure that if Joy is in charge then Riley will have no friends left in high school. As the two try to help Riley navigate through introductions, it becomes clear that Anxiety knows what she is doing. She and the new emotions take control of the console, locking Joy and the others in a bottle and sending them off to a vault. While Anxiety mans the controls with a bit of help from Ennui and Envy, Joy and the others must escape from the vault, travel to the farthest reaches of Riley’s brain to retrieve her original sense of self and re-establish it before Anxiety can change her into someone she is not. With Anxiety out of control and Riley making some serious mistakes, the emotions must find a way to work together before it is too late.

Peer pressure; Anxiety; Puberty; Emotional instability; Fears of failure, of being inadequate, loneliness, and not fitting in.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

• Anger punches Fear.
• Envy smashes Anger on the head with a baseball bat.
• A wrecking ball blasts through a window and nearly hits Joy.
• The emotional headquarters is torn apart by explosions and a demolition crew.
• A sofa is destroyed by a chainsaw and a tea is knocked out of a character’s hand.
• Joy and Anxiety fight over Riley’s previous beliefs.
• Anger begs others: “Please kill me.”
• A character breaks open a jar that Joy and the others are trapped in by smashing through the top.
• Anger uses dynamite to blast their way out of a vault they are trapped in.
• A mop handle hits several police officer characters.
• A police officer is hit by a door, one officer’s legs are accidentally handcuffed together, another slips in coffee, some are dragged, and then all the officers are locked in another vault.
• Anger visualises punching Anxiety so hard that she flies through a window and then down into a chasm.
• Sadness gets pummelled with memory balls as she is trying to make her way up a tube. The balls continue to bang into her until there is too much pressure and they all burst through the tunnel (along with Sadness) into the control room.
• A stream suddenly drops off and a huge chasm opens, transforming the stream into a raging waterfall. Joy and the other emotions struggle to get off the vegetable they are floating on before they plummet over the edge.
• Disgust slaps Fear in the face.
• Sadness is kept prisoner in a jar.
• Characters shatter a large screen by throwing a chair at it.
• Lightbulb ideas fall from the sky during a brainstorm. Joy uses a bat to smash as many ideas as she can, while other characters try to hold onto the balloon they are riding.
• Anger is hit in the face by ideas.
• Joy and the others are caught up in an intense swirling storm. They fall but Fear saves them all with his emergency parachute.
• Anxiety destroys the tunnel Joy and the others are hoping to use to get back to headquarters. Large tubes, crash down around them.
• Anger grabs a character and aggressively pulls random items out of its mouth.
• Joy and the other emotions blow up a mountain of bad memories and travel through Riley’s brain back to headquarters on this tsunami of ostensibly unfortunate moments.

Material that may scare or disturb children

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• When the emotions are locked in a vault, they discover that they are not alone. A character looms in the shadows representing a dark secret. He is a massive, black hooded figure, with a deep, growling voice and glowing eyes. His appearance may be frightening for younger children.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• Riley suffers a panic attack after she accidentally injures her friend on the ice. Inside Riley’s head, Anxiety has frozen in terror amidst a swirling vortex of looping thoughts, all designed to make Riley believe that she is inferior and will fail. Riley struggles to breathe and is clearly very distressed. Riley’s friends can see something is visibly wrong with her. The scene is not exactly scary, but it may be confusing or upsetting to some viewers due to the physical effects on Riley and the intensity of the emotions.

• Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• No official products are noted but there are veiled references, which seem to bear some striking similarities to preschooler shows, such as Bluey and Dora the Explorer. Though neither one is specifically mentioned.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• Riley’s puberty is announced with a glowing red alarm that Joy catapults to the farthest reaches of Riley’s brain in the hopes of turning it off. Spoiler alert: that doesn’t work.
• Riley’s mom attempts to mention how Riley’s body is changing but she is quickly shut down by Riley’s uncharacteristically emotional response.
• On ‘Mount Crushmore’, presidential carvings have been replaced by the faces of four boys, presumably those upon whom Riley has crushes.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• A video game character that Riley secretly thinks is gorgeous has a very well-toned physique and his costume reveals the lower part of his torso. Disgust appears to be infatuated with him.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Anxiety consumes a bunch of energy drinks.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Jerks
• Morons
• Joy gives Ennui the nickname, “Wee Wee”
• A character is called ‘delusional’.
• Joy uses the expression, “Jiminy-mother-loving-toaster-strudel”, as an expletive.

In a nutshell

Inside Out 2 is the sequel to Pixar’s hugely popular Inside Out (2015). Filled with humour and excellent visual effects, the film boasts the original cast of characters in addition to some fabulous new ones, and really shines a light on the teenage struggles of finding your place, fitting in, and the emotions that govern your choices. This is a great family film suitable for all but the youngest of viewers.

The main messages from this movie are that we cannot let emotions control us or determine who we are, and that we are not defined by single memories, but rather by a deep sense of who we believe ourselves to be. Sometimes fears and anxieties cause us to lose sight of what we know to be true but if our foundations and friendships are strong, then our mistakes become lessons that we learn from and, instead of turning into defining moments that lead to dark places, they become part of the complex tapestry of our lives, helping us to become even better human beings.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Empathy
• Compassion
• Forgiveness
• Courage
• Friendship
• Teamwork.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• Denying who you really are in order to become what you think other people want.
• Peer pressure and turning your back on your old friends in the hopes of winning new ones.
• Trying to do everything yourself instead of remembering that you are part of a team.
• Supressing emotions and forgetting that every experience, even unpleasant ones, is important in its own way.