Inside Out 2 Director Kelsey Mann & Producer Mark Nielsen On The Long Journey To Pixar’s Sequel (2024)

Inside Out 2 is set to take viewers on an emotional rollercoaster. Once again telling the story of the inner workings of a girl named Riley, the Pixar animated sequel introduces new characters as Riley hits her teenage years and begins to feel the effects of puberty. Original characters Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust return, but are joined by the powerful new emotions of Anxiety, Ennui, Envy, and Embarrassment.

Two filmmakers responsible for creating a worthy successor to one of Pixar’s most beloved properties are director Kelsey Mann and producer Mark Nielsen. In shaping the movie, Mann and Nielsen cut new Inside Out 2 emotions and story beats to clear the way for a focused and impactful story. Nielsen and Mann have each spent years bringing Pixar projects to life, although Inside Out 2 is Mann’s first feature film as a director.

With these new emotions comes an ensemble roster of fresh actors for the Inside Out 2 cast. Joining returning stars Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan are Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Ayo Edebiri (The Bear, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem), Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color), Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai, Orion and the Dark) and June Squibb (Toy Story 4, Soul).

Screen Rant interviewed Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen about their work on Inside Out 2. They discussed the movie's cut emotions, their darkest moments during filmmaking, and what they hope audiences will take away from the sequel.

Watching "Terrible" First Screenings Of Past Pixar Films Helped Mann Keep Faith

Screen Rant: Kelsey, this is a wonderful movie. It does the thing that all the great Pixar things do, which is navigate these amazingly high highs and low lows. In that spirit, what was the end of the second act, “all is lost” moment in the production of the movie?

Kelsey Mann: There are a lot. A lot has happened. A lot has happened in our world in the nine years since the last one came out. Four of those years have been us making this movie, and we've gone through quite a lot. What’s my act two low moment on this movie? There's always that sense of doubt. “Is it good enough? Could it be better?” Every single movie goes through that journey.

At the studio — we do this every once in a while — we will watch the first screening of our old films just to remind ourselves… because you get caught up in like, “Oh, Monsters, Inc. is an awesome, perfect film.” We have to go, “Wait a minute, do you remember the first screening? It was terrible.”

Mark Nielsen: It was rough.

Kelsey Mann: It reminds us it's okay, and that's part of the process. You can be so hard on yourself at Pixar because you have all these wonderful films and there's an expectation you have to be perfect out of the gate. We just have to remind ourselves [that’s not the case.] So, it was definitely around one of those times. Probably a screening that was like, “That could have gone better.” But there's always something positive we get out of screenings, even when they don't do well, because we learn from them.

Inside Out 2 Went Through Tons Of Changes Along The Way

Mark, to that directly, I listened to a podcast with the writers of the film and one said that there was nothing from the first screening that made it into the final.

Mark Nielsen: Oh, yeah.

Kelsey Mann: Maybe Nostalgia. I think she was from the beginning.

Mark Nielsen: I think Nostalgia was probably there. Joy was definitely in the first version. The spirit of it is probably true though, that there is a lot of change that happens over the nine or 10 screenings that you build over this four-year period.

Is there something that you missed the most that didn’t make it to the final, and why didn’t it make it in?

Mark Nielsen: No. I think we finished with all the best stuff, and I think we weeded out the things that didn't quite fit. There were some great things we had to weed out, but they were things that didn't quite fit, that made the movie too long or a little too complicated, or didn't fit perfectly into the story of Riley and Joy and Anxiety that we were telling. But I do think we saved the best for the last screening, which is the one that's coming out in June.

Riley's Belief System Is One Of The Filmmakers' Favorite Parts Of Inside Out 2

In watching this, it was hard for me to imagine a world without the first Inside Out. It was so influential, it popularized the idea of core memories.

Kelsey Mann: We made that up! But now it’s out there.

It’s just part of the language. Is there something like that from this second movie that you both would like to hit the masses in that way?

Kelsey Mann: I really love what we've done with the belief system and Riley’s sense of self. I feel like that's something that I can definitely relate to, and one thing we got really excited about. The first film did that — they took the concept of memories, and now we've got a visual of the way we see memories, with the sphere that plays it. We got really excited about Riley becoming a teenager, and you're starting to develop your own identity at that age, and your own beliefs. We were like, “Beliefs. Beliefs! The belief system. I want to go down to the belief system. What does that look like?” We got really excited about that. I hope people really latch onto [that], because it's one of my favorite locations we've expanded the world into.

Schadenfreude Was One Of Many Dropped Inside Out 2 Emotions

Are there any emotions you two would like to introduce or spend more time with for a third film, if you got the chance?

Kelsey Mann: There are a ton. A lot were left on the table, both for the first film and for this one. My favorite is schadenfreude. Do you know the feeling of schadenfreude? It's the feeling you get of taking pleasure in someone else's pain, which I think is hilarious. We had him show up — he had a German accent — and I think Fear got hit in the head or something, and he went, “Your cries of pain amuse me!” He was a really funny character that I believe is down in the waiting room with Nostalgia.

Mark Nielsen: Waiting for the right moment to come back.

About Inside Out 2

Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 invites moviegoers inside the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as Headquarters undergoes a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions.

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Source: Screen Rant Plus

Inside Out 2

Adventure

Comedy

Animation

Inside Out 2 is the sequel to the 2015 original film, which starred a young girl named Riley with a head full of emotions. - literally. With Amy Pohler as Joy, Bill Hader as fear, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, and Lewis Black as Anger, the all-star cast brought to life the emotions that adolescents face as they grow, change, and adapt to new situations. This sequel, currently in development, will bring Amy Pohler back as Joy, with Riley, now a teenager.

Director

Kelsey Mann

Release Date

June 14, 2024

Studio(s)

Disney

Distributor(s)

Disney

Writers

Meg LeFauve

Cast

Amy Poehler , Tony Hale , Maya Hawke , Liza Lapira , Lewis Black , Phyllis Smith , Diane Lane

Franchise(s)

Disney

prequel(s)

Inside Out