Howdy Folks! It’s The Kendog here and Pixar Studios has taken it on the chin lately since the pandemic (along with parent company Walt Disney, of course). “Onward” the last film released in cinemas before Covid shut everything down, did middling box office at best and “Lightyear” got blasted for trying to make a space epic out of a beloved series of movies about toys. In between, Disney had the bright idea to release three Pixar films to Disney Plus. We had “Luca” “Soul” and “Turning Red,” on the small screen and it conditioned fans to stay away from the cinema. The movies were uniformly excellent, but the perception that Pixar was losing steam was very real. Last year Pixar released “Elemental” and it looked like another crash and burn for the studio with the lowest opening weekend for a Pixar film in ages. Yet the film seemed to find its legs and became a modest hit, showing signs Pixar wasn’t quite down for the count yet. Now we have “Inside Out 2” the highly anticipated sequel to 2015’s original film that was hailed as an instant masterpiece and a perfect pyschological primer on children’s emotions. It was a pretty big hit as well. That’s a lot to live up to, but “Inside Out 2” not only meets the quality of the original but exceeds it, seemlessly weaving in complex new emotions to interact with our favorites as pre-teen Riley is now a teenager. (Look out for falling glass!)