Pixar’s sequel recaptures just some, but enough, of the magic of the original. As Pixar, which distinguished itself from the start as a purveyor of delightfully and movingly original animated features (and proved with last year’s that it still has that touch), now seems equally devoted to sequelizing all its past triumphs, was a cause for both anticipation and apprehension. With its note-perfect evocation through personalization of the core emotions operating within the psyche of 11-year-old Riley, and one classic tearjerker of a scene, 2015’s was an especially tough act to follow, even as it ended with hints of a potential second chapter: The new Puberty button on the emotions’ upgraded console and Joy’s closing line, “Riley’s 12 now.
What could happen?” The answer to that question in , which rejoins Riley (Kensington Tallman) as she turns 13, is: plenty. The squabbly yet smoothly running Headquarters of the girl’s mind is disrupted by that Puberty alarm going off, and a destructive/reconstructive incursion by those blobby little workers, making way for the arrival of new emotions. Joining Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust, and Fear (the latter two performed by Liza Lapira and Tony Hale, smoothly taking over for Mindy Kaling and Bill Hader) are the quartet that have so much sway over young teen experience.
Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and especially Anxiety (May.