It’s no little secret that Hollywood — like most every facet of society — has been and continues to be a man’s world first and foremost. All the love to the gonzo Schwarzenegger outings of yore, but there’s something to be said about Hollywood’s longtime failure to consistently tell stories from outside the male perspective. 4wi5g

But change has dared to rear its head this past year. Per Deadline, 2024 marks the first time in recent (and almost certainly recorded) history that female-led films matched the percentage of male-led films among the top domestic grossing flicks of the year.

Indeed, of the top 100 highest-grossing domestic films of 2024, male- and female-led films both came in at 42% of the share, with ensemble casts making up the remaining 16%.

Moreover, three of the top five highest-grossing domestic films of 2024 were led by women. Inside Out 2 — Pixar’s beloved odyssey about feelings that have feelings — boasted the highest domestic gross of the year, and happened to have a voice cast led by Amy Schumer. Auliʻi Cravalho’s Moana 2, meanwhile, had the third highest domestic gross of the year. Finally, Wicked‘s double-threat of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande helped it nab fifth place on the domestic gross chart, and also become the highest grossing live-action film led by women.

Other prominent contributors to this achievement in cinematic gender parity were the Anya Taylor-Joy-led Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the Cailee Spaeny sci-fi vehicle Alien: Romulus, A24’s Kirsten Dunst-enabled Civil War, and Challengers, the latest in what will hopefully be a long line of Zendaya’s leading lady efforts.

Elsewhere, The Substance and Anora (starring Demi Moore and Mikey Madison, respectively) ed Wicked in representing the awards season royalty among this crowd of history-making female-led films. Speaking of The Substance — in which Moore’s protagonist finds herself in a debilitating personal war with her age — there exists another element to the status of women’s representation in film that proves work still needs to be done.

The study from Dr. Martha Lauzen’s annual report on the subject (titled It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World and sourced by Deadline) suggests that, of the female characters with speaking roles in the highest-grossing domestic films of 2024, the majority of them are in their 20s and 30s; 23% in their 20s and 35% in their 30s.

These numbers drop significantly for women 40 and over, going down to 16% from the 35% of speaking roles for women in their 30s. Speaking roles for male characters, meanwhile, increase with that age range, going up to 31% for male characters in their 40s from the 25% of men in their 30s.

Speaking roles decay slower with the age of male characters, too. Sixteen percent of male speaking roles consist of characters in their 50s, while just 6% of speaking roles comprise women in their 50s. Men in their 60s, meanwhile, have 9% of the speaking roles, while women have just 5%.

This, despite the likes of The Substance, The Last Showgirl (starring Pamela Anderson), and the June Squibb-led Thelma capturing more than their fair share of hearts this past year. Surprise, surprise; the depth of experience inherent to older women makes for some pretty fantastic storytelling material. We ought to honor that more diligently going forward.

when Lightyear came out, and we all more or less agreed as a collective that it was a mediocre-at-best film with an absolutely insane plot that was no fun to follow, and generally didn’t live up to even the most hopeful expectations that a Toy Story spinoff would promise?

Well, Disney—the same company that pointed to the fine print of a Disney Plus free trial to try and waive their responsibility of an allergy-related death at one of their park restaurants—believes that Lightyear‘s failure was actually because of the lesbian kiss that was present in the film. Per IGN, the studio recently doubled down on this unthinkably gross ignorance by using that logic to ensure that not a single frame of Inside Out 2 could even be interpreted as queer.

And now, Beau DeMayo, the creative champion who brought us X-Men ’97, was fired by Disney, and has since cemented himself as Disney’s loudest nemesis, has chimed in on the ordeal.

Responding to an article regarding Disney’s “less gay” policy that impacted the final cut of Inside Out 2, DeMayo revealed that X-Men ’97 was treated similarly by Disney’s suits, noting that both the show’s marketing and the relationship between Magneto and Professor X were all tweaked so as to prevent any interpretations of queer romantic chemistry.

One pointed out how one scene in particular indicated that the suits failed quite spectacularly in their efforts to make X-Men ’97 read as un-queer as possible.

The scene in question is when Magneto was being held captive by Bastion in the first season’s eighth episode, where Magneto can be seen strapped to a giant X wearing nothing but a pair of black briefs and a mutation-inhibiting collar, seen below.

Now, if someone told you that this image was the suits’ best attempt to prevent X-Men ’97 from being read as queer, you would of course have the laugh of a lifetime. But, according to DeMayo, it was, and his vision for the scene read very differently than the final cut.

The original scene had Magneto completely nude (which DeMayo clarified in a further reply would be counteracted by keeping Magneto’s bits hidden by shadows and foreground items), and the scene was intended to read as an example of dehumanization; queer stylings were not part of the equation. Along came Disney with the idea to put Magneto in the briefs, completely oblivious to how that was going to change the scene, the way viewers responded to it, and ultimately conflict with their sanitization doctrine.

DeMayo had little time for the “I have no issues with gay stories but…” folk as well.

But let’s unpack this even further, because this is a ripe teaching moment. The first season of X-Men ’97 demonstrated a full-body commitment to fantastic, emotionally-resonant storytelling, and the behind-the-scenes revelations that DeMayo is bringing us via X only compounds the fact of that statement.

Enter Disney, who are so afraid of queerness that they’ll rejigger moments in a story that could even potentially be interpreted as queer so as to prevent such a thing, all in spite of the scenes existing for explicitly different reasons, like brotherly solidarity or portraying dehumanization.

So when this Twitter bot says something like “pushing social things,” what are they really saying? Is Disney not the one pushing their “less gay” agenda onto things that aren’t even intended to be gay in the first place? DeMayo came to them with a great story, and then Disney pushed their “social thing” onto it.

This comment, coming when DeMayo wasn’t even talking about gay stories, but of story beats that could maybe, possibly be interpreted as gay. Why specify that you don’t have an issue with gay stories when the conversation isn’t about gay stories? Can you imagine how obnoxious the world would be if everyone was desperate to let each other know that they “don’t have an issue with straight stories">worse without DeMayo’s involvement, homophobia exists, and I am exhausted. Carry on.

The critical and commercial success that Inside Out 2 experienced is the kind of success animated features have been striving for in recent years, but it came at a cost.

Similar to Spider-Man: Beyond the Universe’s production issues, IGN reported that the creative team behind Inside Out 2 had conflicts behind the scenes. Layoffs became so bad in an attempt to finish the film that one anonymous source said: “I would venture that at least 95% of the people that got laid off are financially f**ked right now.”

Bad enough as that is, these layoffs were only a portion of the issues that corrupted the film. Sure, representation has experienced a boom in Hollywood, but that boom hasn’t been distributed evenly throughout the industry. In many ways, but especially in of LGBTQ+ representation, Disney is still living in the dark ages. That was made apparent yet again upon the discovery of a particular “concern” Disney had about the final cut of Inside Out 2.

Inside Out 2 was asked to tone down LGBTQ+ themes 5t2f11

An exclusive profile from IGN revealed many disturbing revelations about Inside Out 2. The primary one is the fear revolving around Riley’s (voiced by Kensington Tallman) coming of age. Anyone who watches the trailer can assume that her relationship with the new character, Val (Lilimar), is coded to be a crush. But the film only portrays them platonically, to the disappointment of many who felt misled. Evidently, this decision came about due to the failure of another film, one which tanked horribly at the box office a couple of years back.

Creatives were asked not to lean into the romantic tension between Riley and Val, specifically because of the 2022 film, Lightyear, as one source noted.

“It is, as far as I know, still a thing, where leadership, they’ll bring up Lightyear specifically and say, ‘Oh, Lightyear was a financial failure because it had a queer kiss in it.’”

Another source itted there was a lot of backpedaling implemented during the production process. Any signs of even potentially referring to the fact that Riley may be queer had to be erased.

“In the film, what you saw, nothing about Riley says that she is gay, but it is kind of inferred based on certain contexts. And so that is something that they tried to play down at multiple points.”

Inside Out 2 was a success, but many who worked on the film agree that has nothing to do with the sexual orientation of the main character. With every subsequent decision, executives continue to prove that they have no idea what fans actually yearn for. Social media responses to this news are quite telling about where fans are standing on this issue.

One on X regrettably hit the nail right on the head with their analysis of the situation.

As with many examples in entertainment, it’s possible that the studio will see the final results of Lightyear and Inside Out 2 and come up with the wrong conclusion. For instance, Barbie wasn’t a massive success because it was an IP. Greta Gerwig’s tender film about personhood and gender roles was appealing because of its universal themes. Inside Out 2 follows its predecessor’s steps in demonstrating the sharp realities of growing up. Instead, it’s possible Disney may gather to stop trying to implement LBGTQ+ stories because one film failed while the other did not. It is just another example of why creatives should be given the space to create instead of adhering to strict metrics.

If the Barbenheimer phenomenon has shown us anything — outside of how suddenly interested people become in seeing good movies when there’s a meme/FOMO factor involved — it’s that the box office race never truly heats up until summertime.

For instance, it may be true that films like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Kung Fu Panda 4 made some respectable monetary gains in the time that they were in theaters, but there was a pretty solid stretch of time where Dune: Part Two — and by extension, Timothée Chalamet’s hold on the box office — looked entirely unassailable. Indeed, Denis Villeneuve’s high-profile adaptation of Frank Herbert’s legendary sci-fi novel — or parts of it, more specifically — immediately cemented itself as one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, with a $711 million box office haul pairing nicely with those Lord of the Rings comparisons.

But now, it’s going to have to settle for second place, as Disney has quite triumphantly set a new 2024 box office record with the ever-delightful and charmingly intelligent Inside Out 2, which has crossed $724 million in box office earnings at the time of writing. The Mouse House will no doubt maintain this record once Deadpool & Wolverine hits its peak later this summer, spelling further agony for the Arrakis faithful.

The Amy Poehler/Maya Hawke Pixar feature is following quite confidently in the footsteps of its predecessor, with 2015’s Inside Out having scored $858.8 million at the box office against a $175 million budget; an entirely appropriate victory for a studio that dared to ask a question like “what if feelings had feelings.”

Inside Out 2 is now playing in cinemas, much to the continued dismay of Paul Atreides.

If Disney thought 2023 was bad, then the studio better sit down for the cards 2024 has put down on the table out of the blue.

As I was saying, 2023 was a disastrous disaster for the Mouse House from flops in the animated front to Marvel’s surefire winners crashing and burning to even its once-bankable Indiana Jones not surviving the forced revival. But 2024 was supposed to change it all and after Pixar’s Inside Out 2 hit theaters, for a while, it felt like Disney has finally revered its bad luck and is on the path of victory again. But not for long.

Until Inside Out 2, Warner Bros. was continuing its streak of hogging the box office that it started with Barbie and was continuing with Dune: Part Two, which was the highest-grossing domestic earner until Joy, Anger, and Happiness blasted past its $280 million in just eight days. Disney was also enjoying success on the streaming front as the first installment in the Inside Out saga raced to the top of the most watched Disney Plus films, garnering points that sured Dune: Part Two’s progress over at HBO (via Flix Patrol)

But now, Disney is facing a giant controversy and no matter whether it spills over into legal troubles or ends up being a hoax, it has successfully ensured that the studio’s desperately needed moment of fame is negatively overshadowed.

Disney allegedly discriminates against “white males” and turns down black candidates for being “half black” u2s24

Disney has been the target of immense criticism for its motto to be inclusive and diverse, something that it had been diligently employing in of writers, directors, actors, and the style of stories being told via their shows and films. The endless jabs aimed at its “wokeness” and how it was the reason behind the studio’s latest string of losses did little to deter the House of Mouse.

But now, infamous right-wing activist James O’Keefe has released a damaging video of Senior VP of Business Affairs, Michael Giordano, who confesses to one of his “reporters” that Disney discriminates against white males when it comes to hiring writers, actors, or any other available roles at the company and how this is less of an unspoken agreement since it has been verbally stressed many times.

“Nobody else is going to tell you this, but they’re not considering any white males for the job…there’s no way we’re hiring a white male.”

His ission then proceeds to expose how Disney even turned down a black candidate since they were not black enough – “half black” – to qualify for the studio’s drive to win the inclusivity drive, which it seems to have twisted into an agenda to ace.

Of course, the whole situation is suspicious, with many voicing the possibility of all of it being fake – Giordano as Disney’s VP and his alarming words. A link to his LinkedIn page now shows an error message with a few sharing screenshots of the before and after of his now-deleted profile, but his stark absence from anywhere else on social media and the last (and perhaps only) mention of the man being a nine-year-old Deadline piece detailing how he was 20th Century Fox TV’s SVP is hard to digest. There is also the matter of Disney’s stony silence on the whole fiasco which has been spreading fast since it was posted two days ago and O’Keefe’s notorious history of selectively editing videos and recording to twist the context of conversations.

But it has already attracted trouble, legal trouble to be precise, for Disney. If any of the statements made in the video end up being true, then the studio would be guilty of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which “protects employees and job applicants from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.”

Disney has already been warned of the violation by many conservatives, including staunch Donald Trump er, Mike Lee, Utah’s Senator.

For now, we have O’Keefe’s video and the running rumor that Disney has instructed Giordano to take a “leave of absence” until this particular storm ends. But again, as stated above, no matter what this controversy’s final face is, it has already replaced Disney’s success with a dangerous scandal 

Just when it seemed like Disney had finally caught a break with the soaring success of Inside Out 2,  leave it to some higher-up to put his foot in his mouth and rain on their parade. 

The sequel to the beloved 2015 hit has been earning rave reviews and raking in the dough at the box office, a much-needed win for the Mouse House.  To say Disney has had a rough go of it lately at the box office would be an understatement. Films like Lightyear, Strange World, and the live-action Little Mermaid remake have drastically underperformed, resulting in hundreds of millions in losses. Even the Marvel machine has been sputtering, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels failing to live up to expectations.

Amidst all the doom and gloom, Inside Out 2 has been a rare glimmer of hope. The film opened to a stellar $155 million and is on track to add another $100 million in its second weekend, becoming 2024’s highest-grossing film so far. Pixar’s still got it! releases like Deadpool & Wolverine also have a shot at putting up some impressive numbers and helping stop the bleeding for ol’ Mickey and friends.

But now a controversial video has surfaced that threatens to steal the spotlight from Joy, Sadness, and the gang. Disney now finds itself doing damage control thanks to some extremely ill-advised comments from Senior VP of Business Affairs, Michael Giordano. In an undercover video released by notorious right-wing activist James O’Keefe, Giordano can be heard saying that Disney discriminates against white male job candidates.

 “Certainly there have been times where… there’s no way we’re hiring a white male for this,” he apparently told one of O’Keefe’s “reporters”. Hoo boy. I’m sure the Disney PR department just loves cleaning up these kinds of messes. Look, this goes without saying that, to be fair, we don’t know the full context of what Giordano said. I get that companies are trying to diversify their workforces and that’s great, but if this is true and the background context doesn’t really give Giordano’s words a different meaning, this surely isn’t the way to be “inclusive” — it’s just morphing a human right into a fad you are desperate to lead.

Rumor has it that Disney has told Giordano to take a “leave of absence” while they sort out this whole mess. Giordano has now deleted his LinkedIn page in the wake of this brouhaha. According to his now-defunct LinkedIn profile, he had been working at 20th Television for a whopping 10 years before this scandal erupted. Maybe he can land a gig at Project Veritas – I hear they’re always looking for disgruntled execs with loose lips and a penchant for self-sabotage.

There are also speculations that “Giordano,” the video, and the said LinkedIn profile could be fake since this particular Disney executive is strangely absent from social media, with his LinkedIn profile only existing in snapshots some people allegedly took to create these before and after posts.

As for the Mouse House, the studio is yet to address the disastrous video that is going viral on X (formerly Twitter) and has already been boasted to near global exposure after Elon Musk shared the post.

To celebrate the release of Pixar’s Inside Out 2 on June 14th, the Golden Arches has unveiled an adorable set of 10 collectible toys based on Riley’s emotions. The new Happy Meal lineup features figures of classic characters like Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. But it also introduces fresh faces like Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui for kids to get their hands on. There’s even a special two-in-one toy with Riley’s subconscious guards, Frank and Dave, bundled together.

A new set of Inside Out collectables has arrived at McDonald’s 3gn66

Each plastic figurine comes with a sticker sheet to decorate its base and “memory orb discs” for interactive play. Using a QR code on the Happy Meal box, kids can launch an “arcade style” game on their phones or tablets and virtually fling the memory spheres. Or they can go the old-school route by inserting the discs into the bottom of the toys and pulling a tab to send them flying.

McDonald’s kicked off the promotion earlier this month with a cute commercial showing the emotions freaking out over some tasty McNuggets. “Hands off the McNuggets! They’re mine!” shouts the red-faced Anger to his pals. The fast food chain called the toys “Emotions in motion” that let fans revisit beloved characters and meet newcomers on “a new emotional adventure.”

To amp up the Inside Out 2 excitement, McDonald’s has activity sheets on their site for coloring. And at Disney World, the Happy Meal drink cups and apple slices even get thematic makeovers. They’re really going all out for one, which is understandable considering how long fans have waited for this sequel. This heartwarming toy collection should now be available across restaurants nationwide!

Inside Out 2 is the brilliant 2024 sequel to 2016’s Inside Out. Typical of a Pixar movie, it’s receiving widespread critical praise for its animation, intelligence, humor, and heart.

Like the first film, it tells the story of the personified emotions inside the head of a young girl — Riley Anderson. This time, however, they find themselves ed by new and more complex emotions wanting to take over as Riley enters her teenage years.

The movie’s star, however, is still joy, the yellow happy emotion we all want to experience the most. But who voices the blue-haired bundle of… well… joy?

Who is the voice of Joy in Inside Out 2? 731b22

Reprising her role from Inside Out 2’s fantastic predecessor, famous actress and comedian Amy Poehler voices Joy. Known for television shows like Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation, as well as movies like 2004’s Mean Girls and 2009’s Monsters vs. Aliens, Poehler is a massive talent.

Poehler’s performance is tremendously effervescent and affecting. Joy’s perennial jubilation is challenged by Riley’s complicated teenage emotions. The star’s portrayal of the embattlement that engulfs Riley’s mind — previously filled almost constantly with childhood playfulness — is brilliant.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar about Inside Out 2 (amongst other things), Poehler told the magazine, “I couldn’t wait for a second one. It’s truly been one of the most fulfilling creative experiences, to be involved in their machine.” Suffice it to say, with that in mind, if there’s ever an Inside Out 3, she’d be happy to return once more.

It’s worth noting that Joy is voiced by the brilliant Kate Higgins in other media, such as video games like 2015’s Disney Infinity 3.0.

In 1986, Halley’s Comet — the only known short-period comet that the naked eye can detect from Earth — made its most recent appearance in our inner Solar System, and will not be seen again until 2061. Bad Pixar movies are of a similar frequency.

The studio that brought us four consecutive Woody and Buzz homeruns knows a thing or two about putting together a smart, colorful, sweet little movie that appeals as much to older viewers as it does its younger target audience; that’s proven by Inside Out 2.

Its largest infraction is that the much more tightly-wound original version came out in 2015. But still, unique messaging and tried-and-true Pixar polish ensures that this is one sequel with a very solid case for being here.

The film follows the daunting plight of Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger from the first film, who receive a rude awakening one evening when their human, Riley, begins puberty, which inadvertently awakens a quartet of new emotions in the control room. These are Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke, the standout of a voice cast without a miss amongst them), Ennui (aka boredom, just to save you a Google), Envy, and Embarrassment. As Riley heads off to a pre-high school hockey camp (a weekend event that, for all she knows, will define the rest of her life), Anxiety takes the lead after showing the five OG emotions the door; cue the sweet, bitter, salty, sour taste of becoming a teenager.

Those who fell in love with the magical inner workings of Riley’s mind in the first film are likely to find something similar here, but Inside Out 2 in no way, shape, form, or fashion sures its predecessor. Both have charmingly cartoonish stand-ins for the human psyche throughout, but they feel far less lived-in here in the sequel. There’s a sense, digestible but disappointing, that in its determination to advance from set-piece to set-piece — so as to display as much imagination as possible — Inside Out 2 diminishes the value in each one; shortly after Joy and company are bottled up, for example, they’re freed by an enormous, growling, shadowy figure that represents Riley’s deepest, darkest secret. Its presence makes you ask what that secret could be, but we never find this out.

Maybe Riley’s deepest secret isn’t an important plot point, but by introducing and dismissing this detail, Inside Out 2 feels less cohesive than it could have; attention to detail may be key to Pixar films, but it becomes counterproductive when the ideas don’t cleanly fit into the whole. Take Ennui and Envy, who don’t meaningfully contribute to the emotions’ dynamic; Ennui is nothing more than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it plot point, while Envy effectively exists as a sounding board for Anxiety. Envy’s weakness is twofold; she deprives Inside Out 2 of the opportunity to characterize Anxiety better (seriously, how do you create a character like Anxiety, but then give her someone tangible to interact with?), while forestalling any opportunity for Inside Out 3 to put Envy front and center — because whatever Envy’s problems as a character in this movie might be, they could be fantastic strengths in a whole other movie. For instance, Envy’s lack of personality in Inside Out 2 is almost certainly by design — this needed to be the central idea of the film if it was ever going to have any value, but it isn’t, so it doesn’t.

This brings us to Inside Out 2‘s most rousing success; its emotionally intelligent messaging about anxiety, nailed as perfectly as joy and sadness were in the first film. Hopefully, Pixar gives other emotions the same treatment in future stories.

Anxiety is introduced as a faux villain, the driving force behind the predicament of Joy and company. But the film expertly paces its revelations, and it soon becomes clear that Anxiety is just trying to protect Riley. Read that again; this delightful children’s film is making clear, in the most in-your-face-way possible, that anxiety — that nasty emotion that gets such a bad rap — is just trying to protect you. It’s only when it’s not heeded in moderation with your other emotions does it cause as many problems for you as it does. The gang’s collective solution to Riley’s racing mind is about as subtle — and is itself a mighty fine solution to dry eyes.

For all that Inside Out 2 doesn’t get right, know this; the conversations it’s capable of starting — in children, adults, and those in that pesky age range in-between — are unbelievably important. This was true of Inside Out, it’s true again here, and it’s very easy to imagine how it could keep being true, were Pixar to play its cards right; if any studio could make an entertaining movie about boredom, it’s Pixar, and it would no doubt teach just as valuable a lesson about ennui as it does with anxiety here in this film.

Everyone jokes that Pixar begins every premise with “What if X had feelings,” with Inside Out being “What if feelings had feelings?” It is funny, to be sure, if only because Pixar productions quite consistently stick their landing, but it is seriously worth thinking about just what the studio has tapped into with the Inside Out films here. Stories are rooted in human emotion, the lifeblood of what makes us all so fascinating and beautiful as individuals. To become intimate with those literal, personified emotions, in their own story, will do wonders for our personal health. And with Pixar presenting emotions in a way that even young children can grasp them, that value is quite literally evergreen.

Like every human being, Inside Out 2 is many things; anxious about getting through its plot, fearful about toying with its formula, and perhaps envious of its 9-year-old sibling for making far fewer mistakes. All this, and it’s still so beautiful; you might even say it’s capable of great joy.

It’s been almost a decade since the first Inside Out film was released to theaters. It feels like a few years, at most, have ed since the mega-popular film first dazzled audiences, but its sequel comes about a full nine years after the original.

Demands for Inside Out 2 began while the first movie was still in theaters and continued for years following the film’s release. For a while there, it seemed like rampant demands for a follow-up were falling on deaf ears, but then, in 2022, confirmation finally came down. It only took a half decade and some change, but we knew for sure that more of the delightful story was incoming.

The sequel is officially upon us, and people are already gushing about the deft delivery of a new period in the titular character Riley’s life. We’ve already stood by her through the turmoil of a new city, new school, and new friends, and now we’re set to follow the growing girl through puberty.

What grade might Riley be in during Inside Out 2? 73t3p

Inside Out 2 takes place a few years after the original, shifting Riley from her pre-pubescent days to the very beginning of her teenage years. Riley is headed into the extremely undesirable holds of puberty in Inside Out 2, a period in every human’s life that not one single person would ever choose to return to.

It’s a period of transformation, and it’s a vital part of growing up, but it comes along with plenty of roadblocks. Inside Out 2 handles those roadblocks with a deft hand and does a wonderful job portraying both the positives and negatives of this vital period in an adolescent’s life.

The first film does a similarly wonderful job of capturing the 11-year-old experience in an emotional and heartfelt way, but things just get harder the older we get. By the time Inside Out 2 rolls around, Riley is officially 13, and as such is headed into 8th grade. I the year as one of my hardest, as I lost old friends, made new ones, and underwent the start of my transformation from child to teen.

Riley’s undergoing the same transformation in Inside Out 2, and it’s beautiful to watch. Now we’ve just got to cross our fingers for Inside Out 3, which could see us follow Riley into her high school years. Now that’s a can of worms we’d love to open.

We’ve been waiting a long time (nine years!) for Inside Out 2, and in true form the movie’s ending is exceedingly emotional, but not in a bad way. The beauty of the story is that there’s not necessarily a “villain,” but there’s a lot of growth that needs to happen.

Inside Out 2 continues the story of Riley Anderson, the kid from the first movie with anthropomorphic emotions, except now she’s growing into adolescence. Riley (Kensington Tallman), has been making her way through her young life with the help of Joy (Amy Poehler), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (formerly Mindy Kaling, currently Liza Lapira), Fear (formerly Bill Hader, currently Tony Hale) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith).

The emotions all work in a “control center” that works to help regulate Riley’s well-being, along with other inner workings of Riley’s mind and personality. The inciting incident of the new film is that Riley’s going through puberty, so a construction crew comes in to add some upgrades to the work center.

These upgrades come with a brand new set of emotions: Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Ha). Much like Sadness did in the first film, Anxiety acts as a pseudo-foil, not necessarily evil but just determined to show that her way is the right way.

In the dispatches of her duties, Anxiety decides that she can do a much better job with Riley than the old gang, so she kicks them out of the control center. This puts the old emotions on a path of self-discovery while Riley tries to navigate hockey camp and the knowledge that her best friends are tranferring to another school.

For most of the movie, Anxiety works to replace Riley’s belief system to help her, but she ends up fashioning Riley a new unsteady identity. This new identity is unhealthy: Riley now worries that she’s not good enough instead of feeling like she can handle things. This means her whole future could be at stake.

The Sense of Self, introduced in this film, is a pretty big addition to the Inside Out lore and one of the biggest plot devices of the movie. Basically, when memories become entrenched enough within Riley’s personality, they become “beliefs.” The movie visualizes these beliefs as musical strands that make up the Sense of Self. Joy has carefully curated this over the years, but once Anxiety took the reins she dismantled it.

Things get climactic and just as Joy finally makes it back to the control room, Anxiety is panicking and Riley is being way too aggressive in the hockey game. She steals a puck from her own teammate and then hurts her friend Grace. She’s sent to the box and subsequently has a panic attack.

Meanwhile, Joy breaks through Anxiety’s tornadoes of despair and tries to pull her from the console by telling her to let go and let Riley put her belief system back together by herself. Right as Riley’s panic attack is cresting, her belief system changes into something more complicated and nuanced (and colorful).

From here, Riley breaks through her emotional slump and the emotions all learn valuable lessons about letting go. We learn that managing a person is more complicated as they age, and that all emotions need to work together for a balanced individual. We also learn that the new Sense of Self is able to change and adapt to different situations, as opposed to being a rigid set of beliefs. Regardless, the musical strands of Self are some of the most beautiful visuals of the whole movie.

With such an open ending, it’s tempting to think that Pixar is simply setting up for another sequel. While nothing explicit has been said about a potential Inside Out 3, director Kelsey Mann has said she’s got some ideas for a follow up.

“I love this world. It’s such a great world to play in, and ideas just kind of come from playing in this world, both for locations and characters,” Mann said. She said there were a lot of ideas in the franchise that made her say, “That’s a really fun, clever idea. I don’t know how it fits into this particular story, but it should be used at some point.”

Inside Out 2 is in theaters now.

Inside Out 2 is out! Does this mean Pixar can climb out of the crypt of bombs like Elemental, The Good Dinosaur, and Soul? Maybe! That’s not what we’re here for, though. We’re here to answer that question burning through every fan’s mind (well, some of them): Is there a post-credits scene in Inside Out 2?

Inside Out 2 continues the story of Riley, now no longer just a little kid, and the inner emotions that help guide her life. Since she’s approaching puberty, she now has to deal with new emotions like Envy, Ennui, Embarrassment, and Anxiety.

After Inside Out, we were treated to a fun post-credits scene involving animals. This movie is no different and has a post-credits scene. In addition to that, we also get some extra stuff during the credits themselves.

First, we learn that Riley’s Dad also has anxiety after a flashback to an earlier scene involving Riley talking to her parents about camp. In true Riley’s dad fashion, the rest of the emotions are watching a game from memory.

The actual post-credits scene involves Joy going back to the Secret Vault, where Deep Dark Secret lives. We learn something we didn’t during the movie: that Deep Dark Secret is the manifestation of when Riley burned a hole in a rug.

Joy thinks this is weird since she assumed Riley’s darkest secret would be something a bit more embarrassing, like when Riley peed in the pool. Of course, Deep Dark Secret decides he’s staying in the vault after the cringe from this embarrassment proves to be too much for him.

These two revelations leave Pixar a lot of runway to work with should the studio decide to make another sequel.

Inside Out 2 is in theaters now.