"Inside Out" is an amazing stand-alone movie and is definitely the film that hooked me back in Pixar movies. The whole premise of the story is to serve an explanation as to why everybody and everything has emotions as if all the Pixar Movies were to live in one huge homogenous world (subtle reference to the Pixar Theory). And as silly as this story sounds Pete Doctor, the director of the film, really made it work. The silly and quirky adventures of Sadness and Joy in Riley’s mind as they try to get back to the headquarters to put back the core memories to save her islands of personality provided a fun sequence of events for young audiences to watch; this was made especially funny with the addition of Bing Bong and their journey through the quote on quote “shortcut”. At the same time, the older audiences are pulled in with the scenes of the movie that takes place outside of Riley’s mind. In the real world, she is getting depressed because of her moving homes with a new environment she is not acclimated to. When she starts to do the unthinkable she, because of Sadness, decides to run back to her parents and open up to them of what has been troubling her for the longest time. This is a beautiful scene and the reason why I love Sadness’s character is because she shows the purpose of her existence: there is no happiness without sadness, there is no love without hate, and nothing can be conceptualized or understood unless there is an idea that stands opposite to it. The movie is a perfect balance of fun and seriousness (not to mention the death scene of Bing Bong was pure gold) and the movie lends itself to an amazing sequel.

Now, obviously an "Inside Out" sequel needs to include an older Riley: the question here is how old? Now Riley is eleven-years-old in 'Inside Out', and I think the best way to go is probably a seventeen or eighteen-year old Riley going through her senior year of high school. As a college freshman, I remember the turmoil that was senior year clearly and it is what "Inside Out 2" needs. While Joy and Sadness took the center stage of "Inside Out", which provided them with lots and lots of character development, the supporting characters that include Anger, Disgust, and Fear can now have their turn with the overall dominant character being Fear since this is what senior year for a lot of students is: the anxiety of college, stress of the college apps, interviews, etc. And the story inside Riley’s mind can be along the lines of Fear feeling like the subordinate member of the headquarters and needing to exert his confidence by being the primary controller of how Riley feels even if it makes her be an unhealthy, depressed, and fragile human being. The beginning of the movie can start on a normal day of the headquarters where Joy and Sadness overlook operations on the control panel, Anger and disgust exerting themselves in command of Riley, which leaves Fear with nothing to do. Without Fear, Riley Andersen goes on with her normal day in school feeling happy and confident.

This pattern can go on for a while. Riley goes about her high school life while everyone seems to take over Fear's responsibilities and inevitably leave his need in the headquarters futile. We can have the abuse of Fear start from Riley's Freshman year of high school and then bring us to her senior year where Fear starts to take control. On the outside, in order to match what's happening in the headquarters, she can be a confident student but when it comes time to apply for colleges she becomes fearful if any university will accept her. The movie can then spin Fear to be the villain attempting to put his friends in the memory dump and maybe leaving one of them stranded on a breaking personality island (which may be recycling a concept from the last movie). In the end Fear, through the powers of Sadness and Joy can help Fear see the error of his ways as he sees Riley walking on stage as she smiles and gets her diploma (or something like that).

How exactly Fear takes over the headquarters and exerts himself as a villain is really up for interpretation. In the end, I would want to see characters like Anger, Disgust, and Fear be the forefront of the movie this time around and not be treated like Jared Leto's Joker that gets all the hype and nearly none of the screen time. This movie can really encapsulate the same feeling as "Toy Story 3" when Andy leaves for college because similarly Pete Doctor would be giving us closure on Riley who we have seen at the lowest point for her life to do something every student aspires to do whether if it's getting accepted to a great school or graduating. The original "Inside Out" really lends itself to a journey through Riley's life and should be done for the sake of the franchise that saved Pixar.