By John Corrado

Making a sequel to Inside Out was always going to be a difficult task. The 2015 film is widely considered to be one of Pixar’s finest achievements, and is a late-stage masterpiece from the California animation studio.

This leads us to Inside Out 2, a sequel that somehow manages to build upon the complexity of the first one (which, full disclosure, is one of my favourite movies). It’s a work of genius, taking us even deeper inside the mind of protagonist Riley Andersen (Kensington Tallman) and her personified emotions.

Riley is officially a teenager now, still guided by her emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale) and Disgust (Liza Lapira), who have found a way to all work together controlling the console in headquarters.

When the film opens, Riley is in the middle of a hockey game, with her new best friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green). The bulk of the story revolves around Riley getting accepted at a three day hockey camp, which gives her a chance to impress “cool girl” Valentina Ortiz (Lilimar), the star of the high school hockey team.

But things are completely upended when the “puberty alarm” goes off on the console, which signals the arrival of four new emotions; Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopolous) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). Because Riley is a teenager now, she requires more complex emotions. The tiny but fiercely jealous Envy, endlessly bored couch potato Ennui (who controls Riley’s emotions through the console app on her smartphone), and shy, oversized Embarrassment all represent aspects of teenage angst.

There is a kinetic intensity to the story, both from the pressure that Riley is facing at hockey camp, and what the emotions are going through inside her mind. The main conflict is between Joy (who Ennui dubs “old school”) and the over-caffeinated Anxiety, who constantly worries about Riley’s future and social standing, when given an opportunity to hang out with the cool girls. Anxiety naturally clashes with Joy’s penchant for positive thinking, and believes she should be the one in charge.

If Inside Out 2 can’t top its predecessor, it does a brilliant job of building upon it. Director Kelsey Mann (taking over for Pete Docter, now an executive producer) delivers a worthy sequel, one that once again blends the accurate with the abstract to offer a visual representation of how the mind works. The genius of these films is how they take psychological ideas and present them in an easy to understand, visually imaginative way (when the emotions become suppressed, they are literally bottled up in a jar).

Through this, Inside Out 2 is able to run wild with its imagination, exploring profound ideas like how belief systems are formed, and how our beliefs help shape who we are. Secrets are kept in a bank-like vault (mostly pretty innocent kid ones, but still), and brainstorms are like thunderstorms in the mind. It’s grounded in a story about how anxiety can warp your sense of self, which leads to a push-and-pull between the different emotions. The film is really about how emotions change and evolve as we grow up, while allowing the emotions themselves to be vulnerable.

Joy’s journey to accept Sadness in the first film already made her a multifaceted protagonist, and Inside Out 2 further cements her as one of Pixar’s most complex characters since Woody, who also had to grapple with watching his kid grow up over the course of the Toy Story films. Poehler understands this character on a deep level through her pitch-perfect voice work, once again finding that balance between Joy having a similar level of understanding to Riley’s age while also being a protective maternal figure to her.

Hawke’s scene-stealing Anxiety is similarly complex, a not-quite-villain who also believes that what she is doing is best for Riley, leading to a scarily accurate representation of how anxiety itself can gain control over your mind. She is like a more extreme manifestation of Fear, who in many ways controlled Riley’s anxiety growing up. It’s a fascinating, clever dichotomy of how the new emotions serve almost as counterparts of the existing ones, showing how Riley’s emotional understanding matures as she grows up.

The film is fast-paced, and the screenplay by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein is often very funny. But Inside Out 2 also delivers those emotional gut-punches as well, with deeply heartfelt moments about the realities of growing up that are handled with incredible grace and maturity. The film is very insightful in terms of helping audiences understand themselves a little better, giving viewers the tools to reflect on these emotions and the catharsis of feeling them as well.

Composer Andrea Datzman brings a somewhat harder sound to the film’s score that matches the more intense story beats, with the distinctive notes of original composer Michael Giacchino’s theme “Bundle of Joy” being poignantly worked in throughout. The visually stunning animation similarly pushes the boundaries of the first film in terms of exploring new depths within Riley’s mind.

In short, Inside Out 2 does what all great sequels should do; it expands this world and builds upon its predecessor without merely trying to copy it, while also offering its own complexities and emotional depth. It’s an experience that makes every emotion leaving the theatre feel a little more intense. This one will stick with me. A Pixar knockout.

Film Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)

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Inside Out 2 opens exclusively in theatres on June 14th.