Inside Out 2 lands in cinemas today, and early reviews suggest Pixar has another hit on its hands – but can the LEGO Group say the same about its tie-in sets?
Pixar’s latest sequel revisits 2015’s Inside Out, which anthropomorphises an 11-year-old girl’s emotions in the vein of classic Beano comic strip The Numskulls (if you know, you know). Currently the studio’s fourth-highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes, Inside Out is widely regarded as a modern classic – and with one eye on Pixar’s past sequels (hello, Cars 2), lightning was never guaranteed to strike twice.
But by almost all accounts, it absolutely has. Inside Out 2 debuts in cinemas around the world today, and is currently certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a critics’ rating of 92% (based on 156 reviews) and an audience score of 96% (from more than 100 verified ratings). The Critics Consensus reads: “Spicing things up with the wrinkle of teenage angst, Inside Out 2 clears the head and warms the heart by living up to its predecessor's emotional intelligence.”
That’s high praise for the animated sequel, which introduces Anxiety to the fold alongside Joy, Sadness, Anger and the rest of the gang, and should help drive audiences to check it out in cinemas before it inevitably winds up on Disney+ in a few weeks. The bigwigs at Pixar are probably feeling pretty good about the entire situation. It’s trickier to say whether the LEGO Group will be feeling the same way.
That’s not because its two tie-in LEGO sets for Inside Out 2 are bad by any stretch of the imagination: they’re just unorthodox.
In short, this is not a traditional playset: but then LEGO and Pixar rarely deliver anything of the sort. From DUPLO sets and BrickHeadz to buildable characters and Collectible Minifigures, the LEGO Group’s approach to Pixar movies has been pretty weird right from the start, when it debuted unique moulded heads and long limbs for its Toy Story range back in 2010.
That doesn’t mean it’s shied away from classic playsets altogether, though. Toy Story 4, The Incredibles 2, Lightyear and even Up have all spawned minifigure-scale vehicles and playsets over the past few years. But the LEGO Disney team has taken a different approach with Inside Out 2, not least because its only minifigure-scale characters are actually mini-dolls.
The only pattern that emerges here is one of inconsistency, and for younger Inside Out 2 fans hoping to play through the movie in a more traditional LEGO format, there’s not a lot to sink their teeth into. What we do have though is something that’s arguably more creative in its approach, embodying the themes and concepts of the movie if not the literal story beats.
It’s also tough to say without having seen the movie if any of its set pieces or scenes would translate that well into traditional LEGO sets. For what it’s worth, 43248 Inside Out 2 Mood Cubes currently has a five-star rating at LEGO.com – although all but two of those reviewers were gifted the set by the LEGO Group. Make of that what you will.
Second-guessing the LEGO Group and Disney’s strategy around Pixar sets feels like an impossible challenge, and the two companies will obviously have their own market research underpinning their understanding of the specific target audience for their LEGO Inside Out 2 sets. But we shouldn’t necessarily rule out a minifigure-driven Inside Out 2 set forever:
For now, you’ve only got two options if you’re heading to the LEGO Store straight from the cinema. 43248 Inside Out 2 Mood Cubes and
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