It’s time to start crying about Bing Bong again. Inside Out hit theaters in 2015 and was yet another entry into the Pixar tissue bank (meaning if you left this one with a dry eye, I have some questions). With an all-star cast of actors playing the voices in your head, the film let us meet a young girl struggling with moving to a new city and trying to find a place for herself amidst the emotions she was working through. But our journey isn’t over yet.
Oh Joy! We’re heading back into the mind of Riley with a newly announced Inside Out 2 from Pixar! The news came from D23 when Joy herself, Amy Poehler, made the announcement. The film is set to be directed by Kelsey Mann, produced by Mark Nielsen, and is being written by Meg LeFauve and it currently has a summer release date for 2024.
So far, we know that the movie is going to include Riley and that she’s a teenager in this movie and we can probably assume (from the announcement) that Amy Poehler is at least back as Joy in the film!
The importance of Riley
Seeing Inside Out when it came out felt like being gifted something that eleven year-old me needed. Having been the kid who moved away from my home, leaving all my friends and the life I knew behind, I understood Riley’s pain and the emotions she was going through because Riley was me. And as an adult, I realized there was so much I was holding in because I never really watched something that told me the upset I was feeling was okay in the way that Inside Out now exists to tell young girls that everywhere.
There are so many stories about boys coming to age and figuring things out and getting to see Riley struggling with getting older and her new life in a new city was so refreshing and new that getting to go back to Riley when she’s a teenager feels like a special gift. Inside Out is a movie that helps so many kids understand that feeling emotions is okay. That if you’re sad, that’s fine. If you’re happy, that’s fine too.
I hope they understand that those emotions in their heads are all okay to go through because that’s what made seeing Inside Out as an adult so special for me. I knew that I would have really understood and grown from seeing Riley’s story when I was her age. Now, having her as a teenager and probably dealing with high school and crushes and growing up? How am I going to see Inside Out 2 and not sob uncontrollably? Inside Out 2 releases on June 14, 2024.
(image: Pixar)
