‘Inside Out 2’ review: Pixar recontextualizes puberty

This review contains minor spoilers.

I was 14 years old when the first Inside Out was released. Back then, I probably had a cursory understanding of what anxiety and envy meant. I chalked up boredom and embarrassment as flaws, not as parts of my identity. Watching this film now, as a soon-to-be 23-year-old, I wish I had known better.

Pixar excels at recontextualizing concepts that we now understand much better. The first film is surprising because, as our younger selves, we...