In Disney-Pixar’s latest sequel, viewers trip through the wires of a pubescent protagonist as metaphorical mental health minions in her brain try to highlight all the feels. Kelsey Mann’s CGI animated adventure Inside Out 2 (B-) is breakneck and brisk and should entertain the kids but isn’t particularly distinguished in terms of plot, characterization or animation. The plot is Upper Case Obvious: a banished Joy (wasted voice of Amy Poehler) works to overcome Anxiety (undistinguished voice work by Maya Hawke) in an effort to keep teenager Riley (ho-hum voice of Kensington Tallman) centered in her self-worth. It’s not entirely clear if our heroine is actually Riley, trying to fit in with new hockey girl friends, or the Joy inside her head; both characters have fairly predictable journeys and don’t get much fun to do on screen. The newly personified Anxiety doesn’t especially work as a piece of animation (love child of Muppet Pepe the King Prawn and Morty’s grandpa Rick) nor as a clever antagonist, but fortunately there are other amusing newbies including Ennui, an eye-rolling French woman portrayed by Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Nostalgia, a recurring octogenarian voiced by June Squibb who has emerged on the scene prematurely. When the film succeeds, it’s in the margins, with funny flourishes and asides and gimmicks such as a valiant pixelated video game character who temporarily enters the fray. Another technique breaking the CGI doldrums is a traditional 2D hand-drawn animated fanny pack character named Pouchy who proves the film’s most surprising comic accessory. There are too many balls in the air cluttering the frame, literally hundreds of memory-filled spheres rolling about like refugees from last year’s Wish, filling what is largely an overstuffed aesthetic. On this trauma trek, we yearn for more of the fiery Anger and less of the winsome Sadness and certainly crave more and better jokes with more engaging wisps of sentiment. There’s enough reason to plumb the pop psychology some more in this sequel, but it’s got its ups and downs.
As both writer and director of Incredibles 2 (A), Brad Bird’s mastery of the animated form is on display in delirious grandeur. Far surpassing his original film in wit, creativity and subtext, the auteur has delivered one of the most engaging films of the year. The retro comic book style provides a delightful backdrop for adventure and comedy, with an onslaught of fun flourishes appearing like cinematic confections from whiz!bam!pow! frame to frame. It’s a message movie in superhero disguise, of course, with much to say about gender and workplace, societal obsession with technological screens and protecting equal rights of individuals with unconventional origins. And the sequences with the super-baby discovering his new powers are comic gold. The film is fun from start to finish and showcase’s the filmmaker’s maturity and evolution. Hollywood will be hard-pressed to showcase a more satisfying sequel blockbuster this year.
Lee Unkrich’s animated Disney Pixar adventure Coco (B) is alive with vibrant detail in painting a compelling Día de Muertos fantasia of light, color and music. The story of a Mexican boy torn between heeding a duty to family and following his clarion call to become a mariachi musician, the film toggles between Lands of the Dead and the Living in which the young man’s ancestors, sometimes skeletal relatives, help guide him to his destiny. Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal and Benjamin Bratt are among the voice actors breathing life into wholly original characters. The story starts and ends strong with fun surprises around every turn, even though there’s a long portion in the film’s center that drags with too much exposition. It’s such a breakthrough to secure inclusion of so many specific Latin traditions that the film sometimes seems overstuffed in its own bounty, with superfluous characters and a few too many bells and whistles. Also for a film about music, there could have been more of it, and it could have been better. Ultimately it’s a thoughtful and positive entry into the Disney Pixar kingdom, and it could have only been accomplished via animation.
Andrew Stanton’s animated aquatic sequel Finding Dory (B-) succeeds as a message movie about inclusion of characters with disabilities – showcasing a fish with short-term memory loss overcoming the odds – but stumbles in terms of its only mildly engaging protagonist, its flagging adherence to its own intrinsic logic and the lack of originality of its storyline. The film strives to deepen the Finding Nemo saga with Godfather II style flashbacks to back story while Dory searches for her parents but ends up closer to Evan Almighty territory with a minor character inexplicably nudged to the forefront. Despite noted objections, there are still imaginative touches involving the intricacies of a marine life refuge and an amputee octopus with clever camouflaging effects. We know we’re working in a talking animal universe, but there’s a jump-the-shark moment that might be termed invertebrate on the interstate or the mollusk motorcade and simply gets sloppy. Nemo and his dad are rendered rather ineffectual sidekicks while Ellen DeGeneres does what she can to squeeze out the waterworks of the film’s few poignant moments. The first film felt effortlessly entertaining, and this one more of a chore.
