Inside Out 2 Introduces Two New Scene-Stealing Characters With Very Different Animation Styles

Not unlike how the first “Inside Out” introduced Bing Bong when he was lurking around long term memory, the back of Riley’s mind introduces us to two new characters who have been hanging around for awhile. When the core emotions are locked away with some of Riley’s other secrets, we meet a couple new scene-stealing characters who are both brought to life with drastically different animation styles that we’re not used to seeing from Pixar Animation. They’re a lot of fun, and you’re going to love them.

Helping Joy and the gang break out of their suppressed emotional prison first is Bloofy, a two-dimensional cartoon dog that is basically a combination of Blue from “Blue’s Clues” and the titular “Dora the Explorer.” He’s a character from Riley’s favorite childhood TV show, and he’s chilling in the back of Riley’s mind because she secretly still likes the show. Comedian Ron Funches provides the perfect voice for Bloofy, who asks questions to a non-existent child audience, just like Steve on “Blue’s Clues” and Dora would on their respective TV shows.

Alongside Bloofy, we’re also introduced to another character with drastically different animation: Lance Slashblade, a video game character animated to look like the polygonal graphics of an original Playstation game in the vein of “Final Fantasy.” In fact, the character is voiced by Yong Yea, a professional video game voiceover actor who has lent his talents to games like “God of War: Ragnarok,” “Spider-Man 2,” and yes, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.” Why is Lance in the back of Riley’s mind? She secretly had a crush on him when she was younger. Lance acts confident, but he’s still longing to be a hero, with the kind of melodramatic voice that video game fans will undoubtedly remember but non-gamers will still laugh at. Even though Lance is eager and brave in the face of danger, his ability to roll into a ball for his special attack isn’t nearly as intimidating or effective as he thinks.

Both of these characters offer up some refreshing variations on the animation we see in “Inside Out 2,” similar to the moment when Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong treacherously make their way through abstract thought (seen above) in the first movie. They bring entirely different visual styles to life as if these characters actually existed in the real world. Unfortunately, Pixar hasn’t revealed them in the marketing yet, so you’ll be left to imagine what they might look like for the time being.