"Inside Out" - The Emotional Pixar Comeback In Pixar´s Dark Age From The Director of "Up"

Hi folks! Welcome to my My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analysis blog. A blog where I'm analyzing several Disney films, Disney or Animation in general! These entries are just meant to be my analyses. Not reviews or statements. Just fun analyses! Though I'll make some personal remarks now and then, the content of these entries are meant to be depicted objectively. They're made for entertainment purpose only and the pictures/clips are copyright Disney or other companies. 

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At least it´s not the voice of John Farham ;)

Dinosaurs are our horses 
in our world :)

With the release of director Pete Docter´s (delayed) movie Soul in late 2020, it was a perfect synergy to talk about this movie. Between Pixar´s Dark Age and Sequel phase came a certain movie which turned out to be a brief Comeback Hit. And that is Inside Out. It turned to be both a creative and commercial success for Pixar, earning $ 356,461,711 Domestically and $ 857,611,174 Worldwide. It did well with reviewers too, as it was labeled for being a comeback for Pixar. The film grossed $90.4 million in its first weekend, making it the highest opening for an original title at the time. Accumulating over $857 million in Worldwide Box Office revenue in 2015. Making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2015. The film received several awards, including a BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, Critics' Choice Award, Annie Award, Satellite Award, and Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. 

I love to spit fire, so 
that´s why I´m
grinning :)

The pressure on Inside Out was tremendous. Accompanied by the short film Lava, it happened to be Pixar´s first original movie in three years. It was the follower to 2013`s Monsters University. It was originally going to be released in 2014, but it was postponed. So it meant that 2014 became the first year since 2005 to not receive any release. As The Good Dinosaur was going to fill that spot, but was delayed due to story problems. So 2015 became a remarkable year with two Pixar releases, but also suffered a similar Deja Vu fate as Disney did in 2002 with Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. As one movie turned out to be a huge hit and the other a huge flop. But it´s brief critical comeback makes Inside Out unique in that aspect. While none of the following features were outright flops, Pixar was still in a time where it was all about sequels and still hadn´t truly restored themselves from their dud-staple. Inside Out was first announced in August 2011 at the D23 Expo. Yet it was in the following December that Bleeding Cool reported the title of the film.

 

 

 

 

The Pixar Trademarks, Origins of The Premise, Research, Marketing of Inside Out and The First Non-Steve Jobs Picture

Pixar has usually been stuck with a staple of depicting worlds from an alternative points of views. Which is pretty evident on Inside Out. But no matter how you perceive it, a film about emotions, psychology and mind is truly something interesting. And certainly for a childrens movie. But since Pixar have been known to appeal to adults as well, with depth and layers to their films, it wasn´t truly such a huge stretch. But since the project originated from director Pete Docter from the heart-tugging Up, it was urged to be emotional (while originally it was going to be a comedy). Since we've been in a wave of serious cases of depression this last decade, Inside Out was definitively a right movie at the right time.

At least I´m standing up, 
instead of just travelling
up :)

The idea for Inside Out was taken from Docter´s observations of how his own daughter Elie (who voiced Ellie in Up and are friends with composer Michael Giacchino´s daughter, Gracie) became more quiet and introverted when she turned 11 (which frankly triggered a lot of Pete`s own insecurities and fears). So in true Pixar fashion, it was taken from the directors own personal experiences. Still Docter stated that he didn´t know where the story came from, the genesis started from the concept of emotions, not the story.  

We´re showing our true colors :)

This is how the inside
of an maniac´s brain
looks like :)

Docter began developing the project in 2010. And he wanted to explore the mind, not the brain, for the sake of simplicity. A ton of research was done on different emotions, with scientists and neurologists. The crew consulted Paul Ekman, a well-known psychologist and Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley (who was blown away by the film). Despite how reserachers have different ideas of how many emotions humans have overall, the process was overall fun for the crew to explore. Ekman had early in his career identified six core emotions; Anger, fear, sadness, disgust, joy, and surprise. Docter found surprise and fear to be too similar, which left him with five emotions to build characters around. Other emotions considered for inclusion during the development process were schadenfreude, ennui, pride and hope. Still the crew were thinking of modelling after Woody Allen´s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.

You hatched out of that egg :)

Executives at Disney and Pixar were positive at the proposal of making Inside Out. But they acknowledged that it would be difficult to market. They feared that it would be too cartoony for adults and too intellectual and boring for children (still a test screening for children proved that they could handle the picture). Yet Lasseter at the time stated that “it turned out to be one of the most difficult films the studio ever made". Inside Out was the first Pixar film without input from co-founder and former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. In addition, the film did not have as much input from chief creative officer John Lasseter, who was focused on restructuring Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank at the time of its production. 

How Inside Out Simplifies It`s Premise, The Emotions, The Pixar Layers, Gender of Characters, The Visual Look, The Settings

Find four wrongs :)

Inside Out certainly tackles a complex premise. But of course it has been simplified and sanitized in order to make the content simple and accessible for a wide audience. As it´s evident on the five emotions, who are simplified in order to serve their purpose. But overall they’re just basic emotions who are lent to their one-dimensional traits. But in true Pixar fashion, there are many layers to the storytelling. While the eleven year old Riley is receptive for the events, the main lead character still happens to be Joy. Yet regardless of Inside Out being the second Pixar feature starring a female, it’s not just a sheer coincidence that the events takes place inside of a girl. Due to how females are usually perceived as being more complex than males, after all. And research has claimed that females from age 11 to 17 are more attuned to emotions than others.
Half of the story crew were women, in an attempt of diversity. Finding the look for each emotions was challenging, but the creators wanted to be invigorating. Originally there were going to be a tons of emotions. All of the main emotions were designed to their simple shapes and colors. Which is why Joy is somewhat yellow, while Anger is red and Fear is basically a stick with eyes (producer Jonas Rivera´s kids liked Anger the most). Disgust was the most difficult character to design. Yet there was a struggle about how she was going to simply look disgusting or simply just be disgusted. Her scarf was a deliberate choice, as a symbol for her not wanting to throw up.

Just wait a few years and we
won´t hang like this anymore :)

The stylistic difference between the emotions and the humans was a conscious choice. The animators were inspired by hand drawn animation, so there were a lot of hand drawn animators from Disney who came in. As Tony Fucile (supervising animator on Mufasa from The Lion King and Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame) was brought in to make the look more fluid. The designs were the most cartoony that Pixar had ever done, yet hard to do in three dimensions. Yet the crew managed to have the characters move in a different way that animated characters had done before. The characters were bending a lot more than CGI characters usually do.

Don´t be fooled,
it´s actually hot :)

We know how Genie 
feels in his itty bitty 
living space :)

It´s been claimed that the set for Inside Out was the biggest set Pixar had done uptil then. Docter wanted the mind to be a vast place, but still being able to see the bare essential of it. Originally Headquarters was just going to be a room and it was going to be set in a building. There were going to be minds called Music Land, Math Land, Idea Fields and Cognitive World. Still, Docter didn´t want to be explicit about showing the actual parts of a brain. Still the biology of the mind was still used for design ideas. The sorting of core memories was inspired by sorting of eggs. Due to the shifting of emotions, their world had constantly to be changed to make sense. 

Behind the Scenes Information

I´m posing for a "do your
homework with glee"-
commercial :)

Inside Out was storyboarded over a period of two to three years. Kevin Nolting, editor of the film, estimated there were seven versions created before it even went to production. Originally it was going to start off as Riley as a 7-year old, yet it was decided to start her movie off with her birth (which Docter was against at first, in order of being derivative). One of the storylines was just centered around Riley buying potato chips (yes, you´ve read right). And she was going to be unconscious througout the film and wanted to be part of a turkey pageant on Thanksgiving.

We´re waiting for Santa :)

Originally Riley was going to show up through headquarters through mirrors and through memories as an avatar. One deleted scene was how there was two headquarters who didn´t like each other and another one was how the mind was able to recognize faces, but not names. The emotions were also originallly going to communicate directly to Riley through microphones. The main cast originally recorded the voices as the emotions of Riley´s mom and dad, but the idea got too confusing. In another draft, the characters fell into "Idea Fields". Where they would "cultivate new ideas", much like a farmer would cultivate crop.

No more hot food for me :)

The very first scene that was approved was the dinner scene, three years before the film was done (and was the test for the studio to make sure how the changing between headquarters and the real world would work. And it was such a good scene that the rest of the movie had to live up to that).

We wanted to take a 
Topsy Turvy picture :)

On set without the luxury ;)

The film's art design was intended to reflect 1950s Broadway
musicals. To this end, the crew emulated animators Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. In envisaging how the mind's interior would be depicted, the filmmakers concentrated that things should be as energy or energy-based, excitable. Each emotion has a glowing, effervescent quality to them (particularly Joy). Which was difficult to animate as it could be viewed as distracting. 

We´re taking baby steps :)
Literally :) Otherwise, she
would´ve been like Bambi :)

The Abstract Thought-sequence was a treat for the group, because they worked with 2D-animation. Yet it was the most expensive scene in the movie. Even the audio reflects the change in that scene, as it goes from Surround to the center speaker. Riley´s interest in hockey was taken from Docter´s own interactions with hockey. 
It was a challenge for the crew to actually contain all the choices they wanted to work with. Even the camera movements between the inside and outside world have differed, as the world inside Riley´s mind was meant to be depicted as perfect and hada steadier camera. Whereas the real world was meant to be depicted as more flawed and therefore had steadicam and hand held camera movements. Pete Docter even wrote the TripleDentGum-Song and actually had to sing it to people.

 

Joy

I´m not refusing to help, 
I´m just going to do situps :)

As for our main protagonist, Joy (who was the main lead from the get-go), her purpose and characterization pretty much embodies what, truth to be told, most people would want to be; Always happy and escaping dread and sadness completely (yet techincally, it´s about Joy always wanting Riley to be happy, for Riley´s own sake). But her arc is essentially that she learns the necessity of sadness. Joy’s realization and epiphany moment is conceived in a subdued and minimalistic, yet satisfying and compelling manner. While Joy´s moment in the Memory Dump was always there from the get-go, it was eventually re-written to emphasize her arc. There were even talks to have Riley herself in the Memory Dump. Which was the last shot to be completed, due to there being a lot of talk and scrutiny of how it was going to be. Joy´s voice actress, Amy Poehler performed the scene by reminiscing her own memories with her children (while the lights were dimmed at the studio). 

It´s a fun place to play tag :)

The crew found Joy (who was originally called Optimism) the most complex character to write for. As she illustrates a broad range of "happy feelings". The earliest idea present in the final film is that Joy holds onto youth too long, setting about a "social storm" for Riley. It was a challenge to tell a story about two characters, Joy and Riley who couldn´t be seen together (which is why the skating at ice scene came up. Which makes their dynamic somewhat comparable to Andy and Woody’s dynamic in Toy Story).

Joy was a challenge to characterize, because she became too annoying in early screenings. Because of that, the Inside Out design team decided to explore “a lot of different avenues” of her personality. As being a tomboy, being kind, mischievous, kind of a rascal-type. Yet Amy Poehler was intuitive regarding the problem with her and nailed the character. Originally Joy was going to be more hostile. It took nearly 18 months for Docter and his team of six designers to arrive at her final version, taking her from a giddy gamine sketched in black and white. And since Riley is depicted as happy, Joy is the first emotion who comes up.

Originally Joy was going to do her journey with Fear (who was then called Freddie). As it seemed to be the funniest choice. Finding an arc for Joy was a challenge, since when she got back to Headquarters, the crew didn´t know what she was trying to do (which was a reason for why the story was stopped and haulted at a screening in 2012). But Docter came to the conclusion of sadness by having a walk through the woods when he was stressed. Thinking of the people that he´s experienced sadness with and been pissed off with. After that epiphany, the movie was rewritten and a new screenwriter was hired. Amy Poehler was also crucial to the rewriting.

Sadness

As for Joy´s polar opposite, Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith, doing her first voice over gig. And was chosen by Rivera while he was watching Bad Teacher), she`s just meant to fill her trait as Joy does. Yet Sadness` (who was originally just called Bud) function is also piviotal because she´s able to show empathy. But what makes it less satisfying (in my opinion) is how Sadness never has a arc on her own. While Joy learns the necessity of her polar opposite, Sadness never learns the necessity of her counterpart. 

This is how you fly away, 
Lenny Kravitz :)

But I won´t be the star :) 
Unfortunately :)

Personally I wouldn’t mind if Sadness went through a similar arc as Joy. Despite how several people has claimed that she didn’t needed it. But truth to be told, Sadness wasn´t neglecting Joy the same way as Joy did with her. Yet the creators wanted to make the final closure between Joy and Sadness as challenging as possible. Joy and Sadness´archetypical traits could easily be perceived as reminiscent of the traits of a certain Royal Sisters in Frozen. Just more explicit and litteral here. With Sadness, the crew initially thought it might be funny to have the character just cry. And in that exaggeration they’d find the humor. Yet it didn’t really work, as it just got one-note and annoying. But Phyllis was chosen for her great way of playing insecurity.

Inside Out`s Theme, Appeal To Adults and Bing Bong

I´m from the Pink
Elephant Parade from
Dumbo :)

We´re posing like starstrucks :)

In true Pixar fashion, Inside Out is essentially about the transition
between childhood to adulthood. And several reviewers have declared how the content has pretty much mostly appealed to adults the most. Since adults will recognize the transitional lost of childhood. While that is essentially right, it´s still evident that Inside Out still contains one of the most gratingly, juvenile elements ever seen in a Pixar movie, in my opinion. The character who mostly personifies the transition is Bing Bong (Richard Kind, who had previously starred in A Bug´s Life, the Cars series, and Toy Story 3. And he wanted to portray Bing Bong in the same "sort of innocence" of his previous Pixar roles). Bing Bong was a character that was deliberately hidden from the marketing campaign. Yet his demise is symbol of showing childhood fading away.  

Even an elephant can 
be a clown :)

While Bing Bong´s death has tugged a chord with reviewers and moviegoers, it was decided from the get-go that he was going to disappear. Yet, for all this, Bing Bong is one of the least successful aspects of this movie. As he comes across as gratingly juvenile, even for a Pixar character (the drawing of Bing Bong that Riley draws was actually drawn by the director of photography´s daughter, Kim White). Sorry guys, but that´s how I perceive him.

How Inside Out Could`ve Taken It`s Premise Further, Professor Keltner`s Opinions, Reception From Fans and Actors, How Riley is Essentially Just a Prop & Funny Moments

While a litteral transition between childhood to puberty is certainly nice to see in a childrens movie, perhaps Inside Out could’ve taken Pixar in a different direction and been a darker, more complex story. Since at least it has a premise that could´ve explored it. I´m not trying to imply that Inside Out doesn´t do it´s job and purpose well, but I think it would´ve been nice to see if Pixar took the step further and made it more adult and complex. While there were talks about sending Riley to a deep depression, the crew realized that it wouldn´t been appropriate for their movie.

I´m Hades Junior :)

However, regarding professor Keltner´s opinions about the narrative choices, he realized that the emotions needed to be simplifed for the sake of artistic narrative. He also liked the five islands of personality. Yet he still urged Docter to use some other emotions that would be really interesting.As the emotion of awe. And how Riley would tackle being a college student with her lovelife and having political emotions.
Keltner received a lot of emails about the movie. Some from Sixty-year-old men who said it changed their relationship to their wives. And from a mom who took her highly functioning autistic boy to the movie, and it was the first time that he got insight into his emotional difficulty.

"I´m so excited and just
can´t hide it. But I´ve
already lost control" ;)

When the story was pitched to Mindy Kaling (Disgust), she broke down in tears, explaining "I just think it's really beautiful that you guys are making a story that tells kids that it's difficult to grow up. And it's OK to be sad about it." Which really is one of the most admirable things about this movie. While Riley herself is receptive for all the events, it would be fair to say that she basically just serves as reactive prop for her emotions. She’s basically fills her role, but mostly lack  a personality that truly identifies her. The end credits was made to measure up for the sad tone of the film (and yes, puberty comment at may be the funniest line in the movie). Regarding the emotional transition, the new console at headquarters at the end was to represent the adult, complex emotions. But according to the directors, Riley´s boyfriend imaginery in mind was the funniest thing for the audience.

Trivia

Inside Out premiered in Cannes in an out-of-competition screening (just like Up did six years prior). And received a euphoric response from critics. It was the first animated movie to be released in Dolby Vision format in Dolby Cinema and the second for Disney following Tomorrowland.  

Michael Giacchino composed the film's score, making his fifth collaboration with Pixar and his second with Docter after Up. Inside Out won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2016. The American Film Institute selected Inside Out as one of the Top Ten Films of the Year. The film received the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

My eyes are bigger t
han my hands :)

Many of the voice actors are several veterans of SNL. Bill Hader (Fear), who´s a Pixar nerd, got his own private tour at Pixar. Who usually don´t give tours. He even got to write a little on the movie (despite how he had previously cameoed in Monsters University. Which speaking of which, the tour of Riley’s body somewhat recalls the locations of Monsters Inc). Hader even did a temp voice for Sadness. An Inside Out play set featuring all five emotions as playable characters were made available for Disney Infinity 3.0. A mobile game, Inside Out: Thought Bubbles, was released on June 18, 2015, by Disney Mobile Games on Apple App Store and various other services.

At least it´s better 
than Bubble Shooter :)

Yet Inside Out haven´t escaped

My head can be 
the perfect grill :)

controversy. On June 20, 2017, Denise Daniels, a child psychologist from Minnesota, filed a lawsuit against Disney and Pixar for breach of contract. Daniels had been working on a creative project, The Moodsters, with a theme very similar to Inside Out and had discussed prospects of a TV production with Disney and Pixar executives, including with Docter. However, her suit was dismissed by judge Philip Gutierrez. Who ruled that since Daniels had released materials related to the project publicly at the time.

 

 

 

 

Epilogue

Either way, Inside Out is a successful and well-made movie
that totally proved how Pixar can succeed at what they do best. While it didn´t became the landmark Up was, at least Inside Out had no small shoes to live up to. Docter and co-director Ronnie del Carmen have said how complex it was, yet how much they´ve learned about emotions. 

It`s our way of posing
tough :)

Regardless of how the premise lends to a sequel (which is going to be released in 2024), Inside Out is an evidence of how a truly intriguing premise a company dares to execute in a animated film. And it`s a good movie on it`s own right. While it may have a couple of shortcomings, it still rank among Pixar´s very best movies. So as this entry was written to synergize with it`s Fifth Anniversary, there`s nothing left to say Happy Past Fifth Anniversary, Inside Out and may you continue to have many more.

At least it´s not Upside Down ;)

 

 

 

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References:
Inisde Out Blu Ray
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2096673/?ref_=bo_se_r_1
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Out_(2015_film) 
https://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28836&hilit=Inside+Out
http://filmmusicreporter.com/2014/05/25/michael-giacchino-to-score-pixars-inside-out/ 
https://variety.com/2015/film/news/box-office-inside-out-wont-stop-jurassic-world-rampage-1201522202/
https://psmag.com/social-justice/a-conversation-with-psychologist-behind-inside-out 
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-inside-out.html
https://ew.com/article/2015/06/21/box-office-report-inside-out/ 
https://ew.com/article/2015/06/19/inside-out-pete-docter-joy/
http://www.wdsmediafile.com/media/InsideOut/writen-material/InsideOut555ce8f2b678a.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/02/01/pixars-inside-out-puppy-bowl-ad-plays-your-emotions/#73a0e8905a20 
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/movies/inside-out-pixars-new-movie-from-pete-docter-goes-inside-the-mind.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20150616232629/http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/why-pete-docters-inside-out-was-so-tough-to-make-into-must-see-pixar-20150525