| Inside Out 2 | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Kelsey Mann |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by |
|
| Produced by | Mark Nielsen |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography |
|
| Edited by | Maurissa Horwitz |
| Music by | Andrea Datzman |
|
Production
company |
Pixar Animation Studios
|
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures[a] |
|
Release dates
|
|
|
Running time
|
96 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $200 million[2] |
| Box office | $28.7 million[3][4] |
Inside Out 2 is a 2024 American animated coming-of-age film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The sequel to Inside Out (2015), it was directed by Kelsey Mann (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Mark Nielsen, from a screenplay written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, and a story conceived by Mann and LeFauve.[5][6] The film stars Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan reprising their roles from the first film with Tony Hale (replacing Bill Hader as Fear), Liza Lapira (replacing Mindy Kaling as Disgust), Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kensington Tallman (replacing Kaitlyn Dias as Riley) joining the cast. It tells the story of Riley’s emotions as they find themselves joined by new emotions that want to take over Riley’s head.
Inside Out 2 was first announced in September 2022 during the D23 Expo announcement, with Mann, Nielsen, and LeFauve attached as director, producer, and writer, respectively, while Poehler was revealed to reprise her role in the film, along with Smith, Black, Lane, and MacLachlan. Hale, Lapira, and Hawke joined the cast in November 2023, while Edebiri, Exarchopoulos, Hauser, and Tallman’s roles were confirmed in March 2024. That same month, Holstein was confirmed to have co-written the screenplay with LeFauve. The film features Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter’s “five to 27 emotions” idea from the first film that Mann pitched during its production to utilize “truthful” worldbuilding.
Inside Out 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 10, 2024, and was released in theaters in the United States on June 14, 2024. The film received positive reviews from critics, and has grossed $28 million worldwide.
Plot
Set one year after the first film, Riley has just turned 13 and is about to enter high school. Her emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust, have since created a new section of Riley’s mind called her Sense of Self, which houses memories and feelings that take up Riley’s core personality. Riley goes to hockey camp so that she can apply for a team at her designated high school, the Fire Hawks. Wanting to make a good impression, the emotions use a mechanism Joy has created to launch any negative memories to the back of Riley’s mind. On the night before she leaves, the emotion console sounds off a “Puberty” alarm. After the emotions get rid of the alarm, a group of mind workers barge into headquarters and upgrade the console, making a mess of the place in the process. Before leaving, they warn the emotions that “the others” are coming.
Immediately after, morning arrives and the emotions discover that whenever they interact with the console, it causes Riley to overreact. When Riley is taken to Hockey Camp, she finds out that her friends, Breeanna “Bree” Young and Grace Hsieh, are going to a different high school. Things for Riley become more stressful when she gains four new emotions that come to Headquarters: Envy, Ennui, Embarrassment, and their leader, Anxiety. Despite welcoming the new emotions, Joy and her friends feel that they might disrupt Riley’s life, with Anxiety being the stand-out example due to her need to make Riley think up any negative scenario. Joy and Anxiety clash on how to have Riley act during Hockey Camp, with Joy wanting Riley to have fun while Anxiety thinks Riley should focus on practice to get on the Fire Hawks.
Feeling that a change is in order, Anxiety dumps the Sense of Self into the back of Riley’s mind. She also considers the old emotions redundant and has Embarrassment put them in a giant glass jar, which is then taken to a vault below Riley’s mind where a group of fictitious characters, as well as a deep, dark secret, are being held. They help the old emotions escape. Meanwhile, Anxiety and the other new emotions create a group of negative memories to create a more corrupted Sense of Self for Riley for her to have what Anxiety sees as a better future. The old emotions use a recall tube to send Sadness to Headquarters while the others go to the Back of the Mind to retrieve Riley’s Sense of Self.
Sadness makes it back, but the new emotions capture her just as she steals Ennui’s phone to stop Riley from peeking into her coach’s journal. While trying to get to the back of the mind, Joy and the other emotions see that Anxiety is corrupting Riley with negative feelings, which includes trying to make friends with Val by copying her, which strains her friendship with Bree and Grace even more. Soon, the emotions make it to the back of Riley’s mind and get her Sense of Self from the top of a mountain of bad memories that were stored there. In their haste to get the Sense of Self, the emotions cause an avalanche that takes them back to Headquarters, where chaos is running on account of Anxiety’s new corrupted Sense of Self while she was frantically controlling Riley during her final hockey game. The old emotions manage to make it back before any more damage can be done, and Joy convinces Anxiety that she doesn’t need to make Riley change herself to have a better future. Joy’s encouragement causes Anxiety to relent and Riley to ease up.
Riley reconciles with Bree and Grace and continues the game. The new school season begins, and Val becomes her new friend alongside the rest of the Fire Hawks, as they wait to see if Riley got in or not. She still keeps in touch with Bree and Grace. The first and second generation of emotions make peace and live together protecting Riley’s forever-changing Sense of Self.
Voice cast
- Amy Poehler as Joy, a yellow happy emotion.[7]
- Maya Hawke as Anxiety, a new orange anxious emotion.[7]
- Kensington Tallman as Riley Andersen, a 13-year-old girl in whose mind the emotions live. Tallman replaces Kaitlyn Dias from the first film.[8]
- Lewis Black as Anger, a red angry emotion.[7]
- Tony Hale as Fear, a purple scared emotion.[7]
- Liza Lapira as Disgust, a green disgusted emotion.[7]
- Phyllis Smith as Sadness, a blue sad emotion.[7]
- Ayo Edebiri as Envy, a new cyan envious emotion.[8]
- Adèle Exarchopoulos as Ennui, a new indigo bored emotion.[8]
- Paul Walter Hauser as Embarrassment, a new pink embarrassed emotion.[8]
- Diane Lane as Mrs. Andersen, Riley’s mother.[7]
- Kyle MacLachlan as Mr. Andersen, Riley’s father.[7]
- Lilimar as Valentina “Val” Ortiz, a popular hockey player at Riley’s high school.[8]
- Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green as Bree, Riley’s friend.[9]
- Grace Lu as Grace, Riley’s friend.[9]
- Yong Yea as Lance Slashblade, a heroic video game character whom Riley had a crush on when she was younger. He is similar to characters from Final Fantasy.[10]
- Yvette Nicole Brown as Coach Roberts, a hockey coach and head of the summer hockey camp.[8]
- Ron Funches as Bloofy, a character from Riley’s favorite childhood TV show. He is similar to the hosts of interactive children’s shows such as Barney & Friends or Dora the Explorer.[10]
- James Austin Johnson as Pouchy.[11]
- Steve Purcell as Deep Dark Secret.[12]
- Dave Goelz as Mind Cop Frank.[12]
- Kirk Thatcher as Foreman.[12]
- Frank Oz as Mind Cop Dave.[12]
- Paula Pell as Mom’s Anger.[8][13]
- June Squibb as Nostalgia, a new beige nostalgic emotion.[14][15]
- Pete Docter as Dad’s Anger.[12]
- Paula Poundstone as Forgetter Paula.[12]
- John Ratzenberger[8] as Fritz
- Sarayu Blue as Margie.[12]
- Flea as Jake.[12]
- Bobby Moynihan as Forgetter Bobby.[12]
- Kendall Coyne Schofield as Hockey Announcer.[12]
Additionally, television personality Sam Thompson cameos in the UK version of the film as Security Man Sam, a character who finds himself on a chase with the emotions.[16]
Production
Development and writing
After the success of Inside Out (2015), the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2015, Entertainment Tonight and The Guardian considered a sequel to be “inevitable”.[17][18][19] Inside Out director Pete Docter was germinating ideas for a sequel while the original film’s nominations were unveiled at the 88th Academy Awards in January 2016.[20] Pixar officially confirmed the sequel’s development during the D23 Expo announcement in September 2022, with Amy Poehler coming on stage to discuss the film alongside Docter.[21] Kelsey Mann was announced as the director of the sequel (making it his feature directorial debut as he previously directed the short film Party Central in 2013), with Mark Nielsen producing, while Meg LeFauve was announced to write the film’s screenplay, returning from its predecessor.[22]
To utilize “truthful” worldbuilding, Mann used Docter’s “five to 27 emotions” idea from the first film that he pitched during its production.[23] Mann’s first pass included nine new emotions to make Joy feel overwhelmed with all the new emotions showing up, but felt that the story couldn’t keep track with so many emotions taking the spotlight or not adding to the story, so after the first screening he decided to simplify the number. Among those emotions was Schadenfreude (having joy at someone’s expense), Jealousy and Guilt, but the latter two influenced the film despite being removed, with Mann feeling that Envy could relate to Jealousy and how remnants of Guilt could be found within Anxiety’s introduction, even giving Anxiety some of Guilt’s baggage, which was inspired by that of Disneyland hotels.[24]
To assist with the development of the film, Pixar enlisted a group of nine teenagers, dubbed “Riley’s Crew”, to provide feedback on the film to ensure it accurately portrayed modern teenage life. Their input led to the inclusion of the emotion Nostalgia and influenced various scenes, including everyday elements of the emotions’ lives and the transition from middle school to high school.[25][26]