Inside Out 2 Director Reveals Cut Content From The Movie

Inside Out 2 made quite an impression when it was released earlier in the year and has since maintained its spot as the highest-grossing movie of 2024. The Pixar sequel built on its original ideas about the personification of human emotions, but not every unique concept made it to the screen.

Inside Out 2 picks up with Riley in her teenage years as she prepares to enter high school and begins developing more complex emotions. This causes conflict with her dominant emotions—joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear—who are ousted to make way for the newcomers, Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment. Inside Out 2 was received incredibly well, with the movie earning a 91% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but scoring even better at the box office, with a worldwide gross of almost $1.7 billion.

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Inside Out 2 Director Reveals Cut Emotions

Inside Out 2 also recently earned a couple of nominations at the Golden Globe Awards and director Kelsey Mann took the opportunity to reveal to Variety some of the content that ended up being cut from the film. One of the concepts that didn’t make it into the movie was Procrastination Land, which would have included a joke from the emotions wondering why the construction was never completed. “It was such a fun location, yet it was really hard for it to fit into the story, especially a story that’s all about Riley being taken over by Anxiety. So we ended up cutting it, but it’s definitely a place I want to go back and revisit, hopefully someday,” Mann said.

Mann also revealed there were plans to introduce a few new emotions. Schadenfreude (the feeling of taking pleasure in someone else’s pain) was ultimately excluded from the story. Another was Jealousy, which caused some confusion about its similarities to Envy. “We actually had a joke where they showed up as identical twins and nobody could tell them apart,” Mann said.

“We tried a lot of emotions [for Inside Out 2]. One of them that comes to mind is Jealousy. We tried that emotion pretty early on. When I first started, I didn’t know the difference between jealousy and envy. We actually had a joke where they showed up as identical twins and nobody could tell them apart. And once I spoke to a lot of our experts that we had on our film, and I learned the difference. Envy is the one that I wanted to deal with, which is the feeling that you wish you had what others had. And it really drives when you’re at this age, when you’re a teenager, where you’re comparing yourself to others, especially for Riley. So we ended up cutting Jealousy and leaning into the emotion of Envy.”

Will Inside Out 3 Happen at Pixar?

While much of this content never made it into the film, Mann did mention a few times that these are concepts she hopes to revisit in the future. Presently, Inside Out 3 has not been given the green light, but it seems an inevitability following the second film’s massive success. Mann confirmed earlier in the year that sentiment within Pixar towards doing a third film was positive, with many creatives hoping to continue the story of Riley growing up.

The Dream Productions miniseries on Disney+ has become a source of additional content between Inside Out films, with the series following the stories of the team who create dreams for Riley each night. The spin-off series features the return of some major Inside Out characters, like Joy, and Riley and her parents. Dream Productions proves that the franchise has the potential to live on through other formats as well, which could ease the wait for another Inside Out film.

Inside Out 2 is currently streaming on Disney+.

Release Date

June 14, 2024

Director

Kelsey Mann

Cast

Amy Poehler , Maya Hawke , Kensington Tallman , Liza Lapira , Tony Hale , Lewis Black , Phyllis Smith , Ayo Edebiri , Lilimar , Grace Lu , Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green , Adèle Exarchopoulos , Diane Lane , Kyle MacLachlan , Paul Walter Hauser , Yvette Nicole Brown , Ron Funches , James Austin Johnson , Yong Yea , Steve Purcell , Dave Goelz , Kirk R. Thatcher , Frank Oz , Paula Pell , June Squibb , Pete Docter , Paula Poundstone , John Ratzenberger , Sarayu Blue , Flea , Bobby Moynihan , Kendall Coyne Schofield

Runtime

96 Minutes

Main Genre

Animation

Character(s)

Joy , Anxiety , Riley , Disgust , Fear , Anger , Sadness , Envy , Valentina , Grace , Bree , Ennui , Mom , Dad , Embarrassment , Coach Roberts , Bloofy , Pouchy , Lance Slashblade , Deep Dark Secret , Mind Cop Frank , Foreman , Mind Cop Dave , Mom’s Anger , Nostalgia , Dad’s Anger , Forgetter Paula , Fritz , Margie , Jake , Forgetter Bobby , Hockey Announcer

Writers

Meg LeFauve , Dave Holstein , Kelsey Mann

Studio(s)

Disney

Distributor(s)

Disney

prequel(s)

Inside Out

Franchise(s)

Disney

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