This was one of the movies that I was quite eagerly waiting. It appeared the cinema chains knew there were a lot who wanted to see it first by having a special screening on Wednesday before its full release on Friday. My wife and I saw this on Saturday as the second of our movie marathon day. Without further ado, let's get on the movie.

Brief Story Line

Riley (Kensington Tallman) who had just turned 13 and her 2 best friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin) were invited to join a hockey summer camp. Joy (Amy Poehler - Movie, Duncanville TV series etc) and the rest of the emotions inside Riley's head, Disgust (Liza Lapira - The Equalizer TV series etc), Anger (Lewis Black - The Last Laugh etc), Fear (Tony Hale - Clifford the Big Red Dog, Toy Story 4 etc) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith - The Office TV series etc) were very excited with Riley's experience.

However things became complicated when Riley reached puberty and new emotions appeared that consisted of Anxiety (Maya Hawke - Do Revenge etc), Envy (Ayo Edebiri - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem etc), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos - Blue is the Warmest Colour etc) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser - Richard Jewell etc). Anxiety wanted Riley to make new friends and became part of the popular girls like Val (Lilimar - Cleopatra in Space TV series etc), although joy just wanted Riley to enjoy the camp with her friends. With distinct difference between Anxiety and Joy's view on how Riley's personality should be, it created a competition among the original and the newer emotions.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Just like its 2015 predecessor, the movie also rely heavily on the emotional journey of Riley. This time she had just reached puberty and with it came new emotions that were totally fitting with how teenagers react. And the competition between the two group of emotions were the highlight of this film which was truly well executed by the movie makers. I really admired how the writers Dave Holstein and Meg LeFauve who also co-wrote the original (based on the story from LeFauve himself together with the director Kelsey Mann) were able to come up with this premise. 

The story was awesome and the distinct characteristics of the emotions were pleasing to see and at times were hilarious. From Anger who was always getting mad, or how Sadness was so insecure to the new emotions that was fun to watch, particularly Embarassment who was the one that I rooted for. We had a lot of fun watching how the emotions interact and their sometimes ridiculous extreme behaviors, just like their names. But the greatest of it all would have to be the touching conclusion that affected me, my wife and the audience. 

I thought the voice acting was amazing in here with all the cast seemed to really brought the characters to life. There were so many voice actors involved who had made the movie such a terrific experience. In addition to those names above, there were also the support voice of Diane Lane (Unfaithful, Llonesome Dove miniseries etc) and Kyle MacLachlan (Fallout TV series, Blue Velvet etc) as Riley's parents, Yvette Nicole Brown (Big Shot TV series etc) as Coach Roberts and many others as characters who would be better if find out by yourself.

There was no need to doubt the animation from Pixar and I thought their work here should be appreciated. Even though both of us felt that the original movie was better, especially for my wife who felt it was more emotional (it was the first time she saw emotions could be characterized in such a way), this is still very entertaining. This sequel has a duration of 96 minutes including the closing credit. Oh btw, there was a quite funny post end credit scene that you could see if you wait till the very end. Critics were appreciative of this movie and audience really embraced it (as proven by its huge box office performance), even in Indonesia where the studios were mostly almost full. The timing of school holiday certainly helps.

Overall this was another fantastic movie in the vast library of Pixar. My wife and I were satisfied with the movie and we enjoyed it a lot as it brought out a lot of emotions and many funny moments (those construction workers were certainly one of those). It is a good movie to be seen with family and the young children could enjoy it too with the many colorful characters, nice background music and the fun adventure. So if you loved the first movie, then I am sure you would like this one as well (it's available on Disney+ in case you want to recollect the memories of it before seeing the sequel). You could easily find this one as it is currently playing in all cinema chains.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars