It’s been a good while since I’ve seen a Pixar flick. To me, they used to be one of the crown jewels of Disney‘s animation division and I used to get giddy with excitement whenever they had a new movie come out in the cinema. Their most recent works, however, didn’t tickle my fancy. There was just something, well, un-Pixar-y about them for me. Sure, movies like Luca, Turning Red and Elemental were getting good reviews from both critics and audiences alike. But I just wasn’t enamored by them enough to really go and see them.

That all changed with the announcement of Inside Out 2. I thought the first film was amazing and the trailers did seem to show that Pixar still had some magic in them. So I actually ventured out to the movie theater to go see the movie and, let’s cut to the chase, Inside Out 2 was a good movie. In fact, the only question for me is if it’s better than the first one.

Now, while I do realize Inside Out 2 has probably been seen by a ton of people already. After all, it just crossed the $1 billion mark a couple of days ago. That’s a whole lot of people buying tickets to see this movie! Still, it hasn’t been out for a while so I’m still going to be making this a SPOILER FREE review. Besides, you just know there are some holdouts waiting for it to be available on Disney+ in a month or so. Anyway, on with the review!

Inside Out 2 takes place a few years after the events of the first movie. Things in Riley’s mind has been coming along smoothy with all of her emotions, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, having found a dynamic that’s worked for them. However, that all changes when Riley hits puberty, as this then has new emotions, namely Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment to join the crew. When Riley learns that her best friends will not be attending her high school, Anxiety starts to take over her mind and kicks the older emotions out of Riley’s mind. This leads the old emotions on a quest to get back to headquarters and save Riley from the new emotions from wrecking her life.

Well, that’s the best summary I can give for this SPOILER FREE review, anyway. That’s because, if the trailers don’t reveal something, then I won’t reveal it in the summary. Suffice to say, there’s a little more to the story than just that. I will say the idea of the overarching story is good but the execution is a little bit of a hit and miss sort of deal.