With the end of the year comes all the “Best of” lists from everyone from Entertainment Weekly to a random girl on the internet who has loved making lists since she was in elementary school. This leads me to say, welcome to my absolute favorite things that came out this year, as well as the famous faces who kept my pop culture-centric mind going when really, all I wanted to do was crawl into a ball and wither away because honey, the past 300-something days have been – a lot. Still, I won’t get into all the favorites right now. Oh no, right now is about shining a light on one movie in particular that happened to be my favorite theater-going experience in 2024, ‘Inside Out 2.’
Am I a Disney Adult? I’d say I’m a Disney Adult who knows where the line is and I don’t cross it. My home does not have an abundance of Mickey ears, nor would I choose to vacation at the so-called happiest place over anywhere else on earth…but I do love and appreciate animated movies and Disney rarely fails in that department, so here I am loving my ass some Disney/Pixar magic as ‘Inside Out 2’ was really the movie I think not only adults like myself needed but a movie that will truly help the current younger generation as they are sadly our most anxious yet. So it’s nice to know they already have a face for the one emotion that is likely running rampant in their own minds at the moment, or will in the near future.
‘Inside Out 2’ was not a better movie than the previous one, but I liked it better. Does that make sense? Like the first one was just so freaking beautiful and touching, and the sequel doesn’t lack in those departments it’s just the second time around was meant to do more by highlighting one of the stages of life that puts humans on a pretty even playing field; puberty.
This is my favorite chapter in human development because as I said before, it’s pretty even across the board. We’re all given these new emotions, hormones are running wild, and there is a cascade of new things to worry about from body odor to social ranking – and no one ever has any idea what to do. ‘Inside Out 2’ captured the wild wild west of this change in a way that felt not only accurate but also kid-friendly. Netflix does the same with ‘Big Mouth’ but depending on what you’d want and not want your kids to see, ‘Big Mouth’ can be a bit much for younger viewers.
So while Netflix does a great job of painting this elaborate picture of puberty, ‘Inside Out 2’ broke it down by introducing four new emotions; Anxiety being the sort of new HBIC of Riley’s mind though. Many who watched could not stand her because they were well aware of what their own anxiety does to them, but not me. I liked seeing the creature inside of me who was responsible for the sleepless nights and constant doom-filled thoughts. It was somehow comforting to know her as an orange critter in corduroys and a striped tee than as this random feeling I have more often than not.
Also, the way Anxiety explained what she was all about was simple and may have gone over the heads of itty-bitter viewers, I think anyone about nine or older could realize what she was about and start to grasp the concept of what they were feeling when Anxiety started to handle the console inside their own minds.
There is only one other movie I think should win Best Animated Picture at the Oscars, so if it’s not that one or ‘Inside Out 2,’ you’ll hear me screaming from Columbus that night because really, as far as story and animation – ‘Inside Out 2’ is Pixar Perfection.
Crushgasm 