Inside Out 2 Director Kelsey Mann discusses how he is literally following in Pete Doctor’s footsteps, and how he wants to do him proud with this film.
Pixar fans have been waiting a long time for Inside Out 2, and director Kelsey Mann knows what kind of pressure that puts on him. During the long lead press day, he revealed that he came into this film as a viewer first. He knew there were certain set-ups from Inside Out that had to be completed (the puberty button) and also some questions that needed to be addressed — he promise the question of adults not having the new emotions would be answered by the end of the film.
In the movie itself, Sadness mentions that she is afraid to go down to Riley’s belief system for fear of breaking it. She doesn’t want to mess anything up, which she feels she has a habit of doing. This line is something that Kelsey Mann admits to relating to when it comes to him taking the reins for Inside Out 2. “Every movie that we do here at Pixar has a high bar, so it’s nothing new. It’s been that way since I stepped through those gates on day one.”
Inside Out 2: Kelsey Mann On Following In Pete Doctor’s Footsteps
Many Pixar fans will tell you that Inside Out is a near perfect movie, and one of their favorites. So it must place pressure on the studio, and the creatives behind it, to get it right. From the first thirty minutes of Inside Out 2 that we saw, we can reveal that they are certainly on the right track.
Kelsey goes on to admit that it isn’t just this movie he is having to live up Pete Doctor’s abilities for, however, as he reveals he has followed in Pete Doctor’s footsteps for some time now — and not just at Pixar. “This feels familiar to me too because I worked on Monsters University and again, I’m following Pete Docter’s footsteps. There’s nobody’s feet I’d rather follow than that man.”
He goes on to explain, “I’m from Minnesota and Pete grew up just a town away from where I grew up. And the first studio I ever worked at was a commercial studio in Minneapolis. And when I started there, they were like hey, there is this dude here named Pete and he’s off in the Bay Area now making movies. So, I’ve really been following Pete’s footsteps for a long time.”
Kelsey Mann says he feels nothing but excitement coming in to this project. “Joy is at my console,” he admits. “Of course, you want to make sure you’re doing right by everyone that loves the original film. And I want to do Pete proud. I want to do everybody who loved the original proud. I’m just more excited than I am scared.”
Producer Mark Nielsen was the associate producer on the first film and says he is thrilled to be back working in this world again. “Kelsey came up with such a great story, and when you’ve got such a great story to get behind, some of that pressure starts to drop because you know you’ve got something that’s gonna be good for the world.”
Mann says that when Pete Doctor first asked him to brainstorm ideas for a sequel, he thought to himself that if there wasn’t a story there, they weren’t going to make it at all. But he found a story worthy of telling, which audiences everywhere will get to see when Inside Out 2 comes to theaters on June 14th.
NEXT: Inside Out 2: Narrowing Down Riley’s New Emotions
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.