In Inside Out 2, new emotions compete for control of a teen’s mind

SINGAPORE – Growing up is hard to do, especially for an animated character loved by millions.

The Pixar comedy Inside Out (2015) introduced the world to Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader) and other emotions that lived in the head of pre-teen Riley, controlling her thoughts through a console.

In the sequel, Riley is now a teen, with all the difficult feelings that come with the package. Disney and Pixar could have kept her the same age to keep fans happy, as well as keep the story relatable to a new generation of pre-teens, but chose to age her.

Inside Out 2 opens in cinemas on June 13.

Director Kelsey Mann, speaking to The Straits Times over Zoom, says the first movie’s conclusion made it clear that changes were imminent. Riley’s emotions console expanded “and they added a little puberty thing”.

Despite this, the team handling the new movie had the option to ignore the cues and keep her at age 12, but the questions raised about puberty were too compelling to ignore.

“They teed it up perfectly. The audience wants to see that question answered,” he says.

In the sequel, Riley (Kensington Tallman) is 13 and dealing with new emotions, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adele Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser). The new emotions compete with the older ones for time at the console, causing swings in Riley’s moods.

The first film was directed by Pete Docter (Up, 2009, and Soul, 2020).

Mann makes his feature debut with Inside Out 2. As is typical for Disney and Pixar, he is a studio veteran, having worked there as a story supervisor on films such as Monsters University (2013), The Good Dinosaur (2015) and Onward (2020).

This is not the first time that Pixar has tackled a story about a teen flooded with strange new emotions.

In 2022, the studio released Turning Red, director and co-writer Domee Shi’s story of a girl who, when frustrated or upset – usually in reaction to the behaviour of her overprotective mother – turns into a giant red panda. Mann was among the members of the Pixar senior creative team who gave notes to Shi during Turning Red’s development.

During Inside Out 2’s development, Mann spoke with Shi, expressing concern about covering the same ground as her story.

“She told me that there are lots of other experiences for 13-year-old girls that can be told. The heart of her film is the relationship between her and her mother, and I am not exploring those themes in Inside Out 2,” he says.

Instead, his film puts a focus on Riley and her friend group. Teens are obsessed with their friend groups, often at the expense of other relationships, he says.

In Inside Out lore, Riley’s mind is divided into Islands Of Personality, each tied to a core memory. In the first movie, there is an island for Hockey, Riley’s favourite sport, and another for Family.

“Very early on, I did a drawing of the new personality islands: Friendship was gigantic and Family was really tiny. It felt so true to that age and it made everybody laugh,” he says.

Hockey is still a big influence on Riley’s life, if not more so in the new movie. Through the sport, she meets new people, including Valentina (American actress Lilimar), a popular girl who is captain of the hockey team.

Her relationship with Valentina highlights another aspect of being a teen – one that will create emotional highs and lows for Riley.

Producer Mark Nielsen was an associate producer on the first film and is a producer on the sequel. Seated with Mann on the same Zoom call, he says that Valentina is everything Riley aspires to be.

“It’s idol worship. As a teenager, you look up to these people who seem to have it all. They look great, they have the right friends, they’re funny. You’re like, ‘Why can’t I have what they have?’

“They look like they have it all together, but of course, they don’t.”