FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Inside Out 2 (Andrea Datzman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you admire Michael Giacchino's first score in this franchise, for longtime collaborator Andrea Datzman competently pushes that sound into its natural maturation for the sequel.

Avoid it... if the retro jazz and associated instruments in the prior work are your interest, much of that personality replaced by more defiant rock tones as necessary for the main character's growth.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Inside Out 2: (Andrea Datzman) Despite an immediate desire to create a sequel after the success of their highly original animated movie of 2015, Inside Out, it took nine years for the teams at Pixar and Disney to make it happen. The girl at the heart of that story is now only one year older, however, and she's still dealing with the tumultuous realm of colorful emotions within her. After creating a happy place in her mind called her "Sense of Self," Riley's life is thrown upside down again when the "Puberty Alarm" goes off. Now 13 years old and attempting to adapt to a forthcoming existence in high school, the girl is confronted by a whole new slate of emotions, especially when she places a high value on making the school's hockey team. Among other new emotions comes anxiety, and the war that rages in Riley's personality nearly ruins her relationships in real life before she can once again find balance and embrace the lead emotion of joy. Undoubtedly, 2024's Inside Out 2 makes the most of the unique concept, and both critics and audiences embraced it once again. For the first film, composer Michael Giacchino created a wild combination of retro jazz and heartfelt piano melodies for Riley's journey, a respected score but not always one that is easy to digest outside of the picture. For the sequel, Giacchino recommended that his longtime partner, Andrea Datzman, take the helm for her first solo credit on a feature film. Datzman is more qualified to adapt Giacchino's music than any other person alive, starting as an assistant to him in the mid-2000's and working her way up to being an orchestrator, coordinator, and ghostwriter on countless Giacchino scores throughout the 2010's and 2020's. That involvement including writing and performing the Triple Dent Gum jingle from Inside Out, and she had most recently branched off to write music for short films related to 2009's Up. Her approach to Inside Out 2 is understandably familiar, but she does take the music in new directions. Because the jazz influence from that prior work is largely abandoned, many of the unique instruments from before are gone, but the piano remains the heart and soul for Riley. If there's an absolute prerequisite for aping the Giacchino sound, starting with sensitive piano solos is a non-negotiable requirement.

Generally speaking, the level of pure zaniness is reduced in the score for Inside Out 2, Giacchino's frequent, wild swings in the genre and style of music toned back a bit. The combination of vibraphone, Hammond organ, electric bass, harmonica, ukulele, and ocarina for Giacchino's retro approach is somewhat replaced by a more streamlined orchestral stance alongside rock elements to suggest the girl's passage into teenage years. Some of the retro elements survive at times, but they no longer define the score's zesty flavor. Listeners wishing to hear more of that frenzied, nearly Danny Elfman-like insanity will be pleased by its adaptation in challenging shades in "Demo Day," a suspense mode in "Sending Out an S.o.S.," and a silly venture towards analog sound in "Bloofy & Co." before an eruption of jazz at the end of that cue. The Mickey Mousing tendencies burst forth at times, as in the children's action in "Flight for Fighting" with hints of the rock element, but Datzman is careful to provide a few faithful reprises of Giacchino's carnivalesque mode in "Return to Imagination Land" and during the full orchestral ruckus in "What's the Big Idea?" Countering these cues is the aforementioned new rock element, which largely dominates "Go Team," "Thread the Needle," "Red Hairing," "The Puck Drops Here," and "Inside Outro" while only opening "Done Track Mind." Thematically, not all of Giacchino's multitudes of themes are afforded additional treatment in Inside Out 2, and most short-changed is the composer's idea for the zaniness of all of Riley's assembly of emotions that featured far more prominently before. For most casual listeners, though, the pretty and unassuming main theme for Riley herself will represent the most important carryover. This soothing identity occupies all of "Outside Intro" on quiet keyboarding as the bridge between scores. It becomes more chipper with clapping effects in "The Life of Riley" and attempts to reassert in "To Project and Disserve," succeeding in full ensemble tones at the cue's end. Riley's theme returns to bring optimistic cheer to the middle of "Glide and Joy," shifts into the rock realm in "Inside Outro" as expected for the maturing character, and follows a survey of the score's comedy meanderings in the middle of "Done Track Mind," this score's equivalent of Giacchino's comprehensive credits suite from the previous score.

Countering the explicit references to Giacchino's existing themes is a pair of new identities, one clearly meant to define Inside Out 2 as a whole. Datzman writes an alternative Riley theme to represent her friendships in the sequel, a charming and effective theme for piano but not an immediately memorable one. It is introduced in the second half of "The Life of Riley" on that instrument, emerges from it once again in the middle of "Creating a Sense of Self," and is exuberant early in "Ride and Prejudice." This theme is set to the paces far more than any other in the work, adapted extensively for various emotional situations such as its struggles in the latter half of "Seeking Val-idation." It elegantly rolls through much of "Fawn of a New Day," teases at the outset of "Recovering a Sense of Self" on brass and woodwinds, and is sparse on piano in "Joyless," building to a defiant note at the end of the cue. The friendship theme becomes an action motif in the middle of "The Puck Drops Here," interrupts the turbulence on piano early in "Growing Up is Hard to Do," and serves as counterpoint to the main Giacchino theme for Riley in "Glide and Joy," a great touch to bring the two ideas together. Datzman shifts the friendship theme to acoustic guitar early in "Every Messy, Beautiful Part of Her" before the piano's return, and the theme receives significant positive treatment later in the cue. In the suite arrangement of "Done Track Mind," this idea builds immediately out of the main Riley theme in the latter half of the long recording, the two mingling thereafter in relative comfort. It's hard to say if any casual listeners will find Datzman's new friendship theme to be as distinctive as Giacchino's similarly devised representation of Riley as a whole, but the two serve their purpose together well in this work. The other new theme of interest in Inside Out 2 is more of a prickly and skittish motif in "Anxious to Meet You" and "Seeking Val-idation" that represents the emotion of anxiety. It is expanded to full-fledged panic in "A Mind at Freeze" and follows the rock material early in "Done Track Mind." Overall, Datzman's sequel score is an intelligent advancement of the first score's style and narrative, and your appreciation for the music for Inside Out 2 on album will largely depend upon your level of engagement with the first score's similar style. At the least, Datzman proves her solo chops in the mainstream spotlight, and for that alone, Giacchino enthusiasts should be both relieved and excited to hear what she can produce when branching off on her own.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 67:21

• 1. Outside Intro (0:55) • 2. Go Team! (2:27) • 3. The Life of Riley (2:32) • 4. Thread the Needle (1:06) • 5. Riley Protection System (2:46) • 6. Creating a Sense of Self (1:30) • 7. Demo Day (1:57) • 8. Ride and Prejudice (2:18) • 9. Anxious to Meet You (2:21) • 10. Seeking Val-idation (1:44) • 11. Sending Out an S.o.S. (2:45) • 12. Bloofy & Co. (2:59) • 13. Flight for Fighting (2:49) • 14. Fawn of a New Day (0:56)

• 15. Return to Imagination Land (1:08) • 16. To Project and Disserve (3:19) • 17. What's the Big Idea? (2:31) • 18. Red Hairing (1:18) • 19. Recovering a Sense of Self (2:55) • 20. Joyless (1:53) • 21. The Puck Drops Here (2:58) • 22. A Mind at Freeze (2:44) • 23. Growing Up is Hard to Do (4:19) • 24. Glide and Joy (2:01) • 25. Every Messy, Beautiful Part of Her (2:44) • 26. Inside Outro (2:21) • 27. Done Track Mind (8:15)

NOTES & QUOTES:

There exists no official packaging for this album.

Copyright © 2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Inside Out 2 are Copyright © 2024, Walt Disney Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/16/24 (and not updated significantly since).