How well does Inside Out 2 tackle the inner lives of teenagers?

With Inside Out 2, Pixar is inviting audiences back into our hero Riley's brain — just in time for her to hit puberty.

After a couple dismal performances at the box office with Lightyear and Elemental, there's a lot riding on this sequel to the fan-favourite 2015 pop-psychology film for the lauded animation company. But can Inside Out 2 replicate the emotional gut punch of the original?

Today on Commotion, film critic Rachel Ho, entertainment reporter Teri Hart and media personality Matt Hart join guest host Amil Niazi to discuss how well Inside Out 2 speaks to teenagers today, and to the adults in their lives.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, where the panel unpack Glen Powell's star turn in Richard Linklater's hit action-comedy Hit Man, and Seth Meyer's late night talk show layoffs, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Amil: Matt, the original Inside Out obviously holds a very special place in the hearts of its fans. What puts this at the top of the pile?

Matt: Well, the stakes are clearly higher than just talking about race cars. You're talking about big concepts that kids are dealing with, like emotions, and this is evolving with them so as the children age, the stakes go up. So it's pretty easy to see why kids get invested in these films, if it's the first thing that taught them about how to handle grief after their grandparents passed or something like that; that's probably something that sticks with you forever.

Amil: Rachel, did this sequel live up to your expectations?

Rachel: I don't think my expectations were very high to be honest, I didn't think that this movie needed a sequel … but I did enjoy how they moved it forward to puberty. Last time we saw Riley, she was a little kid, so natural progression is she's 13 now, going through a whole lot. Puberty is never fun, so I think it's really great. And they pushed the animation forward too, which I thought was a really cool thing.

The only thing I could take away from it is, the conclusion is the exact same as the first one — the idea that we have multiple emotions, and that's okay; that's kind of what makes a person. It's not a bad message to reiterate once again, and I don't really know what other conclusion you could draw from a film like this, but I did find they kind of did the same thing as last time.

Amil: Right. Teri, this is a 13-year-old girl and she did have a lot of very relatable emotions, but it felt a bit sanitized. What did you think of the movie?

Teri: I mean, there was no horny emotion, right? Which I think a lot of teenagers have, but this is Pixar, which is owned by Disney, and I think  they take that brand very seriously in terms of being as family-friendly as possible. It got me in the feels. I think this is, even more than the original, more of a movie for the parents, though — a reminder that your kids are going to change.

The movie culminates in Riley having a full-on panic attack, and that is depicted with a tornado with Anxiety at the center of it. I thought it was really effective. It does come up with the same conclusion, but one of the things that it reminds us of is that we can't put bad things away and only hold on to our good emotions — that everything in our life makes us who we are, the good and the bad and the ugly. I do think, as complicated as it is, and I think a little bit mature for some kids, that's what Pixar does, right? They challenge kids, and believe kids can handle complicated things at the movies, and Inside Out 2 is that. I liked it.

Amil: Rachel, with the first Inside Out, we got very attached to particularly Joy, and I think Sadness. Did you connect with any of these new characters?

Rachel: I think the emotions they chose to add are on point for that age range. That's the time of life where we do start feeling a bit anxious, and maybe recognizing it. The thing I found interesting too, with Anxiety in particular, was when I was 13, I don't even think I knew what the word "anxiety" was. We never talked about it. Nowadays, though, kids are really in tune with that idea that, "Oh, I'm feeling anxious," or "I'm an anxious person." We just thought, "Oh, that girl's weird over there," or "I feel weird," so I think that choosing those ones, to me, was a really great call because I think it's really in touch.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman.