HI, ANXIETY

The Pixar sequel gets in touch with new feelings…

Maya Hawke voices the new emotion on the block, Anxiety

If ever a Pixar film screamed out for a sequel, it was Inside Out. The concept - in which the emotions inside a young girl’s head are personified as colourful characters - seemed like such a rich seam to mine. A critical and commercial success, it ranked eighth overall on TF’s ‘films of the 2010s’ countdown (the highest-placed animated film).

‘Every movie here is hard, and every movie is difficult,’ says director Kelsey Mann, a Pixar veteran making his feature directorial debut on Inside Out 2. ‘But especially when you have to follow-up a film that’s as beloved as the first Inside Out. We wouldn’t do another movie unless we knew we had a good story to tell.’

The sequel will follow on directly from the previous film. ‘The movie ends with this perfect, little tee-up to tell another story,’ says Mann. ‘I think Joy’s last line in the film is: “After all, Riley’s 12 now. What could happen?” It’s just the perfect tee-up for her becoming a teenager. And so I knew that would be something I wanted to explore.’

Inside Out was wildly inventive when it came to the inner workings of feelings and memories, and part two will expand Riley’s mind further. ‘The really good sequels are the ones that don’t just repeat the last film,’ Mann says. ‘Riley going through puberty automatically gives us changes to the world. Suddenly you have new emotions come to your console that you’re not used to having around, and having to deal with those new emotions.’

Chief among the newcomers - as introduced in the teaser trailer - is Anxiety (Maya Hawke), no doubt a familiar figure for a lot of people and increasingly more so since the pandemic. ‘She is the main new emotion that’s coming in, and wanting to help Riley just as much as anybody else. She loves Riley just as much as Joy does, but there’s going to be some friction between all of them on how to do that.’

Much like how Woody was the lead character in the Toy Story series (rather than Andy/Bonnie), so Amy Poehler’s Joy remains the protagonist here. ‘Even though Riley is such a part of Joy and her story, ultimately the story that we’re telling is through Joy’s perspective,’ explains Mann. ‘It’s through her eyes.’

And, where the first film has helped some children to verbalise their emotions - ‘It made a meaningful impact on the world,’ says Mann - the hope is that the sequel will also provide some support and wisdom for those that need it. ‘For me, being a teenager was one of the hardest times of my life,’ says Mann. ‘If I can do something that could improve the lives of some teenagers, even just a little bit, it’s so worth it to me.’