Thoughts on My Time Seeing All the Work That Pixar is Putting Into ‘Inside Out 2’

A few months ago, I was invited back to Pixar and their headquarters for a preview of their upcoming sequel Inside Out 2. I wrote a bit about that preview here, giving you all a little taste of what the movie is potentially shaping up to be. I also interviewed director Kelsey Mann and producer Mark Neilsen here. Today, however, I’m going to continue whetting your appetite for their big film by talking more about the experience of being back on campus at Pixar HQ. This time, there was even more to do!

This is some of what I said about the footage we were shown on day one:

What we saw picks up right after Inside Out, with Riley playing hockey with her best friends. The emotions inside of her, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness, are in a real groove. Then, right as Riley is starting a weekend hockey camp before starting high school, they’re woken up by a demolition crew in the control room. They’re doing a teardown to make room for puberty to begin, which includes the introduction new emotions. Led by Anxiety, Embarrassment, Ennui, and Envy are here for Riley’s more complicated new existence. The close of Act One finds our heroes removed from control by Anxiety and needing to get back to the console.

The themes present in the movie will undoubtedly resonate with teen girls, but everyone should be able to get in on the feels. I found myself not quite choked up early on, but with a definite sense of emotion, no pun intended, watching Riley as a young woman. She’s conflicted by the changes, but watching her navigate is going to be, I think, fairly powerful. We get a little hint of how the new emotions impact her, but the film does seem to be saving the meat and potatoes of it for the rest of the story. That being said, what I saw was an excellent taste.

Visually, Inside Out 2 looks great, with all of the added polish that comes with this being almost a decade after the first film. Riley, especially, looks like a teenager, with all that comes with that. It’s Pixar, so the animation is at the cutting edge, but it completely feels like Inside Out, which is crucial. It needs to look better and evolve with the technological times, but not abandon what worked the first time. From what I say, they’ve succeeded quite well.

As for the new emotions, the highlight is obviously Maya Hawke‘s Anxiety, who is going to be a central piece of the story. She’s a bundle of energy and I was really taken by her. The other new emotions are voiced by Ayo Edebiri (Envy), Adèle Exarchopoulos (Ennui), and Paul Walter Hauser (Embarrassment). They fit right in, as do Tony Hale (taking over as Fear) and Liza Lapira (taking over as Disgust). Amy Poehler remains the star, obviously, and she hasn’t missed a beat playing Joy.

I have to again mention how welcoming Pixar feels, even just as a campus. As I said last time, arriving at headquarters is a bit of a fun experience all its own. Getting inside, you see a wide open campus with multiple buildings and outdoor spaces. It’s really pretty, very elegant, and looks like a place where you both can get a lot of work done and also manage not to burn out. A pretty solid deal, if you ask me.

The campus also features plenty of Pixar touches, both inside and out. Whether it’s the iconic objects from their logo outside a building, or various characters from their films inside, you’re always clear where you are. It’s very warm, just like you’d hope for a place that has made such iconically emotional moments in cinema, let alone in animation.

As for the Inside Out 2 of it all, myself and the other journalists on hand went through several different experiences to get a sense of what making the film is actually like. This is what we all did, followed by my thoughts:

INSIDE OUT 2 Experiential Group Rotations 

• Mock Voice Recording: Directed by a Senior Recording Engineer, we got the opportunity to experience the recording studio in person and put our own voice to one of the characters in the film! More on that below, but it was an absolute blast and some of the most fun I’ve had at Pixar to date.
• Live Edit Session: Then we went into the office of Maurissa Horwitz, the lead editor of Inside Out 2, for a live Edit demo. We got to see how Maurissa works with almost every department (Story, Layout, Recording Booth, and so on) to piece together a scene, as well as to witness the many different considerations given to every single moment.
• Virtual Camera Set Scout: Another really cool experience has Adam Habib (DP Camera), Ryan Heuett (Layout Lead), and Sunguk Chun (Layout Lead) give us a hands-on site visit, demonstrating how digital camera usage in Pixar films parallels that of a live action set-up. I was able to literally pick up the digital cameras on their working Gamma Stage to scout Headquarters from the Inside Out 2 set. 
• Character Design Exploration: We got creative next as Jason Deamer (Production Designer) and Keiko Murayama (Character Designer) explained the task of designing and adding new emotions – conceiving the designs, colors, etc, and how these new emotions fit into the world of Inside Out. We were then challenged to design a new emotion (randomly drawn from a bag in the room), with the exercise giving us some insight into part of the process that Pixar goes through to create a new character in one of the films we are developing. I’m a terrible artist, so I did a very poor job, though it was certainly fun.
• Animation Polish Review: Next, we were taken into the heart of Animation to experience an Animation Polish Review, which consists of weeks of working on a single shot addressing many notes along the way, ending up in the Animators receiving their (hopefully) final notes on a given shot. 
• Story Pitch: Finally, John Hoffman (Story Supervisor) and Becca McVeigh (Story Artist) walked us through the process of being assigned a scene all the way through pitching it to the director. Becca actually pitched her scene in front of us and then received addressed/ notes with director Kelsey Mann.

Without question, my favorite part of the morning/afternoon at Pixar was the voice work. I had an absolute blast and will be sharing that experience on social media later today, so look out for that. I really loved how this day showcased all of the different elements at play in making sure Inside Out 2, or really any Pixar project, is ready to soar before it gets released.

All in all, it was another quick yet very illuminating visit to Pixar HQ. Next month, you’ll get to see the film in its completed form, but I can vouch for the work in progress looking very promising, indeed. Pixar may well have another hit on their hands. Sit tight for more…

Stay tuned for more on Inside Out 2 as it heads towards its June 14th release date!