There's enough ingenuity with its central metaphor to keep this entertaining and funny, but ultimately it just doesn't carry the same emotional punch as _Inside Out_. The story is fine if a little forgettable and predictable, for me it's lacking some of those profound, memorable moments that made me connect with the first one. I also think it has some trouble with sticking the landing. [spoiler] Making peace with your anxiety and not letting it define you as a person [/spoiler] isn't a particularly interesting note to end this on, nor do the writing or presentation make it feel very impactful. There's also something about the set-up that doesn't quite make sense to me. Why does this movie consider envy and shame to be among the more complex emotions? Most kids have experiences with that, right? Why are we not including love or lust? Is it because Pixar made a coming-of-age film about that topic just 2 years ago? Why didn't we see any of these new emotions with the parents during the first one? Is it because none of this was planned ahead and they're just making stuff up as they go along? Of course, but like a lot of Disney mandated Pixar sequels, it should be stressed that this is still a decent and fun watch. Visually it's an improvement, the score is once again great, ennui and anxiety are great new characters, loved the creativity shown during the 'brainstorm', secret vault and nostalgia bits. Much like _Finding Dory_ and _The Incredibles 2_, this is another adequate Pixar sequel, but also another one where it's abundantly clear they didn't have much story left to tell.

6/10