This is just unfair. The original Inside Out, from 2015, is widely regarded as peak Pixar. It was the moment, following three Toy Stories, a couple of misfires and the majestic Up, when Hollywood’s pre-eminent animation studio reached a creative and metaphysical apogee.
The film boldly premiered at that year’s Cannes Film Festival and told the story of an 11-year-old girl from within and without, culminating in the tear-jerking revelation that, even for children, there is truth in suffering. And now there’s this, the belated sequel. And it’s just, well, fine.
And so our San Francisco-based protagonist Riley (Kensington Tallman) is back, but now she’s 13 and the alarm bell marked “puberty” is suddenly, and literally, ringing inside her mind. The movie is too
