Remember at the end of 2015’s acclaimed “Inside Out” when the emotions operating within a 12-year-old girl were introduced to a mysterious button on their big, new control console marked “Puberty” ? Early on in “Inside Out 2,” as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust sleep within newly minted teenager Riley — Anger is, of course, fighting someone in his dream — a beeping sound begins to emanate from the button. Then a full-blown siren. This is not a drill, people, er, emotions! Yes, Riley, now voiced by Kensington Tallman, enters into that confusing — and highly emotional — time in a young person’s life in this excellent sequel from Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios.
Riley’s still a good kid when “Inside Out 2” begins, which is a source of pride for Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear, voiced, respectively, by returnees Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith and Lewis Black and newcomers Liza Lapira and Tony Hale. She loves her mom and dad (fellow “Inside Out” alums Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) and playing hockey with besties Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green), with whom she collaborates on the winning goal in a championship game. That triumph is followed by the trio being invited to a three-day hockey camp that will be populated by players from the high school level.
If they impress the coach (Yvette Nicole Brown), she may offer them spots on the team! The morning the camp starts, that siren is blaring within Riley. As her emotion.