While Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation,” subtitled “How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” soars on best seller lists, Pixar Animation captures the angst with “Inside Out 2.”

Pixar’s follow-up to the 2015 family flick about talking emotions centers on 13-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman), teetering on the cusp of puberty. Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, and Ennui (the French word that combines the feeling of tiredness & boredom) join the core emotions from the previous film: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, and Sadness.

While Joy (Amy Poehler) still operates the complicated emotional control console, the emphasis here is on Anxiety (Maya Hawke) with its characteristic volatility and confusion.

Impressionable Riley is essentially a well-adjusted youngster who loves her supportive parents (Diana Lane & Kyle MacLachlan) and is devoted to her best friends Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green). She’s conscientious in school and on the ice-hockey rink.

Until that fateful summer morning when Riley wakes up with a zit on her chin and a fierce temper. She is about to embark on a trip to an all-important girls’ hockey camp; her skill there will determine whether she qualifies for the prestigious school team: the Fire Hawks. 

That’s when Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos) join Anxiety to take hormonal command of the emotional control console, adversely affecting Riley’s belief system and self-esteem. One of my favorite moments is an all-too-brief glimpse of elderly Nostalgia (June Squibb from “Thelma”), murmuring “Too early!”

What’s extraordinary about this animated coming-of-age feature is how it turns ideas into images, visually demonstrating to children – and their parents – how the subconscious mind works – peppered with suspense and humor. And be sure to stay for the post-credits scene epitomizing teenagers’ tendency to blow things out of proportion.

Kudos to veteran Pixar storyboard artist Kelsey Mann, helming his first feature, working from the adroitly observational screenplay by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein and the spirited score by Andrea Datzman.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Inside Out 2” is an effective, enlightening 8, playing in theaters.

After innumerable accolades for portraying Montana rancher John Dutton in “Yellowstone,” Kevin Costner left that successful TV series to pursue his passion project: “Horizon: An American Saga” – four epic films about the settling of the West before and after the Civil War.

At three hours, one minute – the same running time as Costner’s Oscar-winning “Dances With Wolves ” – “Horizon: Chapter 1” was just released. Costner is – literally – betting the ranch on its success, having mortgaged his 10-acre spread in Santa Barbara to help finance this budding franchise.

Co-written by Costner and Jon Baird (“Tetris,” “Filth”), it’s directed by Costner, who makes the most of J. Michael Muro’s spectacular cinematography, beginning in an 1859 township called Horizon in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley, where White Mountain Apaches attack the homesteaders who are claiming ownership of their ancestral lands.

Escaping from the massacre that took the lives of her husband (Tim Guinee) and teenage son (Hayes Costner, Kevin’s real-life son), Frances Kittredge (Sienna Miller) and her daughter  Lizzie (Georgia MacPhail) take refuge in a nearby fort, manned by Union Cavalry Colonel Houghton (Danny Huston), First Lieutenant Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington), and Sgt. Major Riordan (Michael Rooker).

Meanwhile, in Montana Territory, abused Lucy (Jena Malone) wreaks revenge on lecherous James Sykes (Charles Halford), fleeing with their infant son, infuriating the mean Sykes matriarch (Dale Rickey) who dispatches her other two sons, Caleb (James Campbell Bower) and Junior (Job Beavers), to bring back her grandchild.

Then there’s laconic “saddle tramp” Hayes Ellison (Kevin Costner) hooking up with opportunistic prostitute Marigold (Abbey Lee), who babysits for Lucy, now married to kindly Walter Childs (Michael Angarano).

Plodding behind, Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson) shepherds a wagon train filled with even more settlers, including a pair of bumbling Brits (Ella Hunt, Tom Payne).

Bottom line: Too many characters pursuing different storylines. Eventually, they’re bound to intersect but – in this incoherent Chapter 1 – they’re unstructured, clichéd and confusing. As a result, Warner Bros. has canceled the theatrical release of Chapter 2

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” is a surprisingly scattered, stilted, sprawling 6. Pulled from theaters, it’s now on VOD and will soon be available on Max.