Director: Kelsey Mann

Featured voices: Amy Poehler, Kensington Tallman, Lewis Black, Tony Hale, Phyllis Smith, Maya Hawke, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Ayo Edibiri, Liza Lapira, Paul Walter Hauser. Lilimar, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan

The last ‘Inside Out’ movie ended with the occupants of teenage girl Riley’s mind – embodied emotions, Joy (Poehler), Fear (Hale), Sadness (Smith) Rage (Black), Disgust (Lapira) and Sadness (Smith) discovering, via a red alarm bell, that they will have to navigate the choppy waters of Riley’s puberty.

This very passable sequel charts the team’s attempts to manage Riley’s changes while dealing with a newly arrived gang of teenage emotions: a manic Anxiety (Hawke) who literally carries emotional baggage; a hulking, painfully shy Embarrassment (Hauser) and, most amusingly, Ennui (voiced with Gallic resignation by Exarchopoulos). The picture’s best gag includes one more emotion turning up prematurely and having to be shooed away.

The new expanded team’s ability to work together is tested when Riley (Tallman) and her two friends win a place at a prestigious ice hockey tournament. There she gets a chance to hang out with the painfully cool girl team captain Valentina (Lilimar) testing her loyalty to her old friends.

As the viewer is just thrown in this time around, a rewatch of the original is advised, and a complex script, dealing with a more complex time of life, will require attention, although very young viewers will probably just be happy enough taking in the attractively colourful and imaginatively realised landscapes of Riley’s mind.

The emotional punch of the original (Bing Bong, sob) is absent here, but the story along at jaunty pace, and the climactic depiction of teen anxiety is commendably raw and riveting.

Inside Out 2 is released 13th June

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm