It takes a lot to get me to go to the movie theater these days. Maybe it’s because we have a bigger apartment now with a smart TV, or maybe it’s because not much interests me in theaters anymore. We certainly have no lack of great options for things to watch at home. 

But Pixar films should be seen in theaters. Watching “Soul,” “Turning Red” and “Luca” on Disney Plus first just felt wrong; those films were so well-crafted, I needed to see them on the silver screen. 

Unsurprisingly, I’m glad I got to have a proper theatrical experience with “Inside Out 2.” 

The film follows Riley (Kensington Tallman) and her emotions as she goes through puberty. Now 13 years old, Riley’s current roster of Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale) and Disgust (Liza Lapira) are joined by the new teenage emotions that include Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos), with Anxiety being the primary antagonist. 

As such, Anxiety quickly kicks out all of the original emotions out of the central control room in Riley’s mind so she can enact her master plan (her character flaw is overthinking and overplanning, which she sees as justified because they help keep Riley safe). The other emotions aren’t really utilized anywhere near as much as Anxiety, which is understandable given that Riley is growing up in the smartphone era. 

At stake this time around is Riley’s sense of self. Joy’s vision, which sees her repress any negative memories, directly clashes with Anxiety’s, which sees Riley betray everything she knows about herself in order to conform with an ice hockey team she’s trying to join. Exacerbating this is the fact that Riley’s middle school friends will not follow her to high school, which gives her extra motivation to reject her old self. 

The metaphors in this film work pretty well, though I admit, the new emotions overall fail to impress. Anxiety is a great sympathetic antagonist, though Hawke is horribly miscast as her. Seriously, it’s time to move away from celebrity voice actors and employ people who do this for a career. There is nothing remarkable about Hawke’s voice — she sounds like a normal person, with little to no traits of her character shining through. 

That becomes a problem, as Anxiety hogs the spotlight. Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui feel like they’re barely in the movie and when they are on screen, they often have nothing to do. 

The original emotions overshadow the newcomers mostly because they have better chemistry, and they’re more defined. They all work well as foils of one another, while the new emotions fall in line behind Anxiety and constantly have to remind us that they’re there. If all of the new emotions except for Anxiety were written out of the movie, it would be virtually the same.

As a whole, this is a great film about growing up. It has perhaps the best on-screen depiction of a panic attack, and I loved how it gave Riley time to stumble through all the changes she’s going through, as well as her own developing morality. 

Pixar remains to be the gold standard for animated children’s movies. “Inside Out 2” has just the right amount of heart and chaos for its universal subject matter, though it has apparent flaws that prevent it from reaching the upper echelons of the storied company’s filmography.

“Inside Out 2” gets an 8/10