At the end of March, I had the thrilling opportunity to travel to San Francisco, California, to visit Pixar Animation Studios for a Press Day preview of the upcoming animated sequel, Inside Out 2. Kelsey Mann directs Inside Out 2 for his feature directorial debut after helming episodes of the Megas XLR TV series, an episode of the Green Screen Show, and the Pixar short Party Central, featuring characters from Pete Docter’s Monsters Inc.
Riley (Kensington Tallman), the central character of 2015’s Inside Out, returns for the sequel. She’s entering her “terrible teens,” and the emotions inside her head – Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), Disgust (Liza Lapira) – are frantically trying to course-correct as new emotions – Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) – arrive in Riley’s Mind Space.
The story finds Riley attending a Hockey camp after an influential coach notices her skills on the ice. As she and her friends explore new surroundings, Riley begins to experience the onset of bodily maturity and mood swings. New emotions take control of her every move, compelling her to make questionable choices and cloud her judgment. While the emotions should work together, it’s not long before Joy and her friends are bottled up and cast into the far corner of Riley’s mind, forgotten and unable to influence the young woman’s actions.
It’s been a dream of mine to visit Pixar Animation Studios since 1995’s Toy Story changed the film industry forever. During my eleven-year tenure with JoBlo, I’ve established myself as the site’s “animation expert,” this was essentially my trip to Graceland. During the first press day, Pixar screened the film’s first half hour for myself and a rag-tag collective of journalists from other entertainment outlets.
Pixar CEO and filmmaker Pete Docter introduced the preview, speaking passionately about Pixar’s mission to bring impactful films to audiences and the thrill of watching Mann take the Inside Out ball and run with it. Regarding the importance of continuing Riley’s story, Docter emphasized that Pixar always aims to push the boundaries of emotions and animation through its generation-defining films. When the lights dimmed in Pixar’s plush, private theater, reality dawned that I was finally among the creators of some of my all-time favorite films. After many years, close calls, and expressing my love of animation through the JoBlo platform, I achieved one of my career (and lifetime) goals.
After the screening, Pixar turned us loose inside the hallowed halls of the Steve Jobs Building on the Pixar Animation Studios campus. Unlike other Press Day events, Pixar gave us free rein on the second floor, where the studio’s friendly staff served themed hors d’oeuvres and specialty cocktails to help everyone unwind after a long day of travel. While dining and rubbing elbows with other journalists, I toured several galleries showcasing Pixar’s films and shorts. While there was plenty of concept art for Inside Out 2 on display, the art included paintings, animation cels, concept art, statues, and video materials for films like Elemental, Turning Red, Coco, and others.
After touring several departments throughout the Pixar campus and learning about the creativity, dedication, and artistic harmony of Inside Out 2, my most treasured moment of the trip was yet to come. While waiting for the shuttle back to SFO, I bumped into Pete Docter in the main lobby of Pixar Headquarters. Seizing the moment, I made good on a promise to my wife by telling Pete he made her cry with Inside Out. Instead of regret, Pete’s mouth stretched into a Cheshire grin as he pumped his fist in the air and said, “Yesssssss!” We shared a good laugh at this, and I thanked him for welcoming us into the studio and bringing light and laughter into the world.
While we have more coverage coming as we get closer to the film’s June 14 release, here are some interesting facts we learned about the movie during the press day event:
Kelsey Mann and Pete Docter (director of Inside Out) grew up in Minnesota, one town over from each other.
Kelsey’s first pitch idea for Inside Out 2 was to reintroduce Riley as a teenager. Filmmakers typically pitch three ideas when developing a film, and Kelsey nailed it in one.
Many emotions didn’t make the cut in Inside Out and Inside Out 2. Mann watched every screening of the original film to see if there were any “gems” he could feature in the sequel. One emotion that did not make it into either film is Schadenfreude, the feeling of deriving pleasure from another person’s misfortune.
The first screening of Inside Out 2 included nine new emotions that overwhelmed Joy. As the film progressed, the team couldn’t keep track of all the new characters, so they scaled the number back.
Mann brought Dachner Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkley, who worked with Docter on the original film, to Pixar to help decide which new emotions to include in Inside Out 2. Keltner recommended using all the self-conscious emotions to depict a teenager’s mindset.
Mann relied heavily on Dr. Lisa Damour, an author and clinical psychologist who graduated from Yale, to explore the female teenage mind. The Inside Out 2 team also established a trust of nine adolescent girls, ages 13-19, to help evaluate the film’s authenticity and progress. Mann would screen every film version for the trust while the girls would take notes and submit input. Mann says there were times when the trust gave better notes about the film than anyone working at Pixar. Some notes would arrive at Pixar in a book report-style format, complete with a cover letter.
Mann used a blind casting method for some of the character voices in Inside Out 2, meaning he listened to recordings of actors reading lines without knowing who they were. The idea is to match the character with the voice purely on performance instead of Hollywood status or influence.
Mann auditioned Maya Hawke for the Anxiety character from EPCOT at Walt Disney World. Mann was on vacation with his family when he met with Hawke via Zoom in a random office in the Mexico Pavillion. Mann says Maya connected with the film immediately and got the part after that meeting.
Mann began work on Inside Out 2 in 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns. With his teenage daughters just outside his home office door, he had plenty of inspiration to draw from, as he had a front-row seat to their growing pains and drama.
Mann says Inside Out 2 is a “parental story” with Riley as a set piece for the emotions to “parent” her through adolescent curiosity and trauma. Pete Docter’s daughter helped inspire Inside Out, while Inside Out 2 takes cues from Mann’s children.
Mann jokes that Clive Barker’s Hellraiser inspired Inside Out 2. Still, because the sequel is a “takeover” movie, Mann says Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1950 drama All About Eve, starring Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Anne Baxter, and George Sanders, inspired the film.
The production entered Panic Mode when SAG-AFTRA announced an imminent actors’ strike. Pixar rushed to record everyone’s lines before the Hollywood shutdown to combat the circumstances. The sound designers recorded 30 sessions in 30 days to ensure that work on the film could continue through the strikes.
Three hundred seventy-five people worked on Inside Out 2 over four years.
One of the lands in Riley’s Mind Space that didn’t make the cut is Procrastination Land. The joke was that Procrastination Land was always under construction. The territory was cut from the film because it didn’t fit into the story naturally. Mann says that as much as he loves the gag, the film needs to prioritize forward momentum, and Procrastination Land is the opposite. He hopes to revisit the idea somewhere down the road.
At least ten versions of Inside Out 2 include different emotions and aspects of Riley’s interests. Versions exist where emotions like Guilt and Jealousy are a part of the story. The baggage that Anxiety presents to Joy in the trailer comes from Guilt.
There’s an Easter egg dedicated to Caroll Spinney, who plays Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird on Sesame Street, somewhere in the film.
One of the reasons Inside Out 2 takes place at a Hockey Camp is because some camps take away your phone, and Riley’s coach does this at the start of the program. Removing Riley’s phone from the story limits her options to call home and lean on her parents’ guidance. Therefore, Riley must face her new challenges and emotions mostly alone.
Inside Out 2 introduces two new characters outside of the emotional spectrum. The first character is Bloofy, voiced by Ron Funches, a Dora the Explorer-like dog who directly addresses the audience as if you’re watching a kid’s show, and Lance Slashblade, voiced by Yong Yea, Riley’s first anime character crush. Bloofy and Lance are an absolute riot. Lance is extremely dramatic and dedicated. If I had to describe Lance, I’d say he’s a mix of Marth from Fire Emblem and Dio Brando from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
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