Inside Out 2

Inside Out 2 is a 2024 American animated coming-of-age film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The sequel to Inside Out (2015), it was directed by Kelsey Mann and written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein. Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan reprise their roles from the first film, with Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman (replacing Kaitlyn Dias from the first film), Liza Lapira (replacing Mindy Kaling from the first film), Tony Hale (replacing Bill Hader from the first film), Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu, Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Paul Walter Hauser joining the cast. The film follows Riley's emotions unexpectedly joined by new emotions, eager to take control of her mind.

Development on Inside Out 2 began in early 2020, with Mann drawing inspiration from personal childhood experiences. The creative team initially explored a wider range of new emotions before narrowing the focus for narrative clarity, with Anxiety emerging as a central addition. Clinical psychologists, including Lisa Damour and Dacher Keltner, were consulted to ensure an accurate portrayal of adolescent emotional development, while a group of teenagers provided feedback on character and story authenticity. The film's premise shifted during development from a talent show to Riley's involvement in hockey. The production also marked the first Pixar feature scored by a woman, Andrea Datzman. Animation development emphasized spatial consistency through isometric mapping, and casting changes were driven in part by compensation disputes, resulting in the recasting of the characters Fear and Disgust.

Inside Out 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 10, 2024, and was released in the United States on June 14. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a massive box office success, grossing $1.699 billion worldwide, breaking multiple box-office records, becoming the highest-grossing film by Pixar and the highest-grossing animated film of all time, though was later overtaken by Ne Zha 2 (2025) in just nine months after its initial release. It also became the highest-grossing film of 2024 and the eighth-highest-grossing film at the time of its release. The film received nominations for Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, BAFTAs and Academy Awards. It additionally received a nomination for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the Golden Globes.

Plot

Two years after her move to San Francisco, 13-year-old Riley Andersen is entering high school. Her personified emotions—Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger—now oversee a newly formed element of Riley's mind called her "Sense of Self", which houses memories and feelings that shape Riley's beliefs. Joy, aiming to fill the Sense of Self with only good memories, has created a spring-loaded mechanism that launches bad memories to the back of Riley's mind.

Riley and her best friends, Bree and Grace, are invited to a three-day ice hockey camp, where Riley hopes to qualify for her new school's team, the Fire Hawks. In Headquarters, the puberty alarm goes off the night before camp, and several mind workers abruptly upgrade the emotion console, whilst leaving Headquarters in disarray. The emotions find that Riley now overreacts to any inputs they make to the console. Four new emotions—Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui—arrive and clash with the original emotions over their approaches. In particular, Joy wants Riley to have fun at camp, while Anxiety focuses on winning a spot on the team and making new friends, especially that Bree and Grace will be attending a different high school. Under Joy's control, Riley inadvertently gets the campers in trouble by the strict camp director, Coach Roberts. Anxiety, deciding that Riley needs to change to fit in with the older players, launches the Sense of Self to the back of the mind and has the old emotions bottled up and thrown into a vault. The new emotions then plan to create a new anxiety-dominated Sense of Self and encourage Riley to befriend popular hockey player Valentina "Val" Ortiz, straining her friendship with Bree and Grace. After the original emotions escape the vault, Joy sends Sadness back to Headquarters with a two-way radio while she and the others retrieve the Sense of Self. Sadness is discovered by Embarrassment, who decides to help her remain hidden.

Under Anxiety's control, Riley sneaks into Coach Roberts' office and learns from her notebook that Riley is not considered ready yet to become a Fire Hawk. The four original emotions find the old Sense of Self on a mountain of bad memories deposited by Joy's mechanism. Anxiety, overhearing Joy's plan through the two-way radio, destroys the recall tube, stranding Joy and the other emotions in the back of Riley's mind. Joy breaks down as she cannot find out how to save Riley. The emotions use dynamite to blow up the cliff supporting the bad memories, sending them careening into the belief pool and riding the flood to return to Headquarters. Anxiety realizes her plan to create a new Sense of Self has backfired, having generated one of self-doubt and inferiority, which causes Riley to perform poorly during her final tryout match, accidentally crash into Grace, and get sent to the penalty box. Horrified, Anxiety tries to help Riley but frantically swarms the console in a blinding whirlwind, causing Riley to have a panic attack.

Returning to Headquarters, Joy finds Anxiety still in control but paralyzed and heavily distressed; Joy convinces her that Riley doesn't need to change to have a better future. Anxiety relents and Joy reinstates Riley's original Sense of Self, but the panic attack persists. Anxiety apologizes to Joy, admitting that neither she, nor any of the emotions, gets to choose who Riley is. Joy, realizing that Anxiety is telling the truth, removes the first Sense of Self, allowing a new one to form from both Riley's good and bad memories. The emotions embrace this third self, calming Riley and helping her reconcile with Bree and Grace. The console calls for Joy, who reassumes command and helps Riley happily finish the hockey tryouts.

Riley befriends Val and the other Fire Hawks at high school, while maintaining her friendship with Bree and Grace. Living in peace, the nine emotions work together to protect Riley, as she happily checks her phone for the Fire Hawks' recruitment results.

Voice cast

Additionally, television personality Sam Thompson cameos in the UK version of the film as Security Man Sam, a character who finds himself on a chase with the emotions.

Production

Development

After the critical and commercial success of Inside Out (2015), Entertainment Tonight and The Guardian considered a sequel to be "inevitable". Inside Out director Pete Docter was germinating ideas for a sequel while the original film's nominations were unveiled at the 88th Academy Awards in January 2016. Development on Inside Out 2 began in January 2020, after director Kelsey Mann revisited photos of one of his childhood birthday parties. Pixar officially confirmed the sequel's development during the D23 Expo announcement in September 2022, with Amy Poehler coming on stage to discuss the film alongside Pete Docter. Mann was announced as the director of the sequel, with Mark Nielsen producing, while Meg LeFauve was announced to write the film's screenplay, returning from its predecessor.

To utilize "truthful" worldbuilding, Mann used Docter's "five to 27 emotions" idea from the first film that he pitched during its production. Mann's first pass included nine new emotions to make Joy feel overwhelmed with all the new emotions showing up, but felt that the story could not keep track with so many emotions taking the spotlight or not adding to the story, so after the first screening, he decided to simplify the number. Among those emotions was Schadenfreude (having joy at someone's expense), Jealousy and Guilt, but the latter two influenced the film despite being removed, with Mann feeling that Envy could relate to Jealousy and how remnants of Guilt could be found within Anxiety's introduction, even giving Anxiety some of Guilt's baggage, which was inspired by that of Disneyland hotels. The 2019 film Uncut Gems was cited as an inspiration for all of Anxiety's scenes, especially the visually intensive ones.

Research and writing

The production team frequently consulted author and clinical psychologist Lisa Damour and used her books as guidance on accurately portraying how teenagers' emotions change during puberty. Professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, Dacher Keltner, who helped on the first Inside Out, returned as a consultant as well. Keltner played a key role in selecting which emotions should be introduced in the story. A character based on the emotion of shame was intended to be a part of the film but was axed, in part due to Keltner contesting that shame was not an emotion. Following these researches, Riley's image is modified to signify her pubescent transition for the sequel, including growth.