Inside Out 2 director Kelsey Mann details how Pixar narrowed down the new emotions joining Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger from nine to four.
During the long lead press day for Inside Out 2, which was hosted at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California, select media was given the opportunity to step behind the scenes. We designed our own emotions, stepped into the recording booth, watched a live scene pitch and a live editing session, as well as attended a press conference Director Kelsey Mann and Producer Mark Nielsen.
Getting to learn more about how these films are created is extremely eye opening. So many people give their blood, sweat, and tears as several departments come together to make the best movie that they can. Inside Out was a massive hit for Pixar and fans have been waiting on the edge of their seats since the announcement of Inside Out 2.
In the trailer, we see that Riley has hit puberty which means she is dealing with the introduction of new emotions — something that is hard for Joy and company to handle as well. But how did the team behind Inside Out 2 decide on these four new emotions — Anxiety, Embarrasment, Envy, and Ennui. It turns out there were initially nine emotions joining the core five, including Guilt, who was scrapped from the final cut.
Inside Out 2: Narrowing Down New Emotions
Kelsey Mann knew that the story needed to focus around Riley during her teenage years. After rewatching the first Inside Out, there is a cliffhanger with that puberty alarm showing up and he knew that, as a viewer himself, it had to be addressed very early on in the sequel. When his research started, Mann looked into what happens in our brains at that age, and discovered it a lot.
“It gave us everything that we kinda need for a Pixar movie. There’s a lot of drama that goes on. But also it’s really funny.” He knew then that he could come up with a lot of really good gags about Riley and inside the mind of a teenager.
Mann reveals there were lots of emotions that didn’t make the cut, both for this film and the original film. He admits to combing through every single screening of the first movie, just to see if there were any gems in there that he could bring back in. “One of them is the emotion of Schadenfreude,” he laughs before continuing, “it was this German character that, for those of you who don’t know, it’s the feeling that you get –” Mark Nielsen finishes his sentence, “Joy at someone else’s expense, really.”
Kelsey Mann says they tried using it again but ultimately Schadenfreude was cut again. “My first screening that we did, nine new emotions showed up. I really wanted Joy to feel overwhelmed by all of these new emotions that showed up. And I was like well, let’s have a lot show up. And then you couldn’t keep track. There were so many emotions and they all canceled each other out because you couldn’t keep up with everybody. And my first note from the first screening was simplify.”
But how do they simplify? Well, first and foremost, they knew Riley was gonna be dealing with becoming a teenager, so they needed to focus on the emotions that show up and drive at the console when we’re teenagers. Kelsey Mann then met with Dacher Keltner, a professor at Berkeley and Pixar’s emotional expert on the first film. Kelsey had a list of emotions on a white board in develpment and explained these are the emotions he was thinking about including in Inside Out 2.
Mann then asked Dacher which ones feel right for a teenager, to which he answered, it’s all the ones that are the self-conscious emotions. “We’re hard wired at this age to start to become really self-conscious. And in part we’re doing it because when you’re a kid, you’ve got your parents and your caregivers taking care of you. And eventually, you’re gonna have to take care of yourself. And that’s why we’re hard wired to like push our parents and our caregivers away, so that we can become independent people that can take care of ourselves.”
Teenagers start to worry about what others think of them. They wonder how they fit in and if other kids like them. “It’s all about fitting in at that age. And it’s part of our design of who we are because if you don’t like me, you’re gonna banish me and I’m gonna go out into the woods and die alone.” Once this side of you turns on, it never really goes away, you just have to manage it.
Kelsey Mann admits this is a big reason why he is making the movie. “We also knew that it should be a movie that’s about Riley and her peers and less about the parents, because they’re kind of pushing her away a little bit.”
See all the new emotions and how they vibe with Riley’s core emotions when Inside Out 2 hits theaters on June 14th.
NEXT: Inside Out 2: Meet The Emotions (New & Returning)
About Inside Out 2
The little voices inside Riley’s head know her inside and out—but next summer, everything changes when Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” introduces a new Emotion: Anxiety.
According to director Kelsey Mann, the new character promises to stir things up within headquarters. “Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke, might be new to the crew, but she’s not really the type to take a back seat,” said Mann. “That makes a lot of sense if you think about it in terms of what goes on inside all our minds.”
Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.
Maya Hawke lends her voice to Anxiety, alongside Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Tony Hale as Fear, and Liza Lapira as Disgust. Directed by Kelsey Mann and produced by Mark Nielsen
Inside Out 2 comes to theaters on June 14th.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. She is also a Freelance Writer. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for ten years and is a member of several Critics Associations including the Critics Choice Association and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association.