In just a few months, audiences will return to the mind of a young girl named Riley when Disney and Pixar release their newest animated film, Inside Out 2.
The original film, released in 2016, featured the five main emotions that lived in Riley’s head: joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). They had to learn to get along and work together as Riley adjusted to her new life in San Francisco.
Even though it’s been eight years since Inside Out was released, the sequel film is picking up where the first one left off. Riley is about to celebrate her thirteenth birthday and will officially be a teenager.
For anyone who has been a teenager or raised a teenager, especially a teenage girl, you know that is quite a chaotic time in life. Hormones are racing, emotions are out of control, and they are trying to figure out who they are and what they want from life. Riley is no exception, and her life is about to get crazy.
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Because of Riley’s ascent into puberty, brand-new emotions had to be introduced for Inside Out 2. In addition to the emotions from the first film, the sequel will also feature Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos).
In recent interviews, Inside Out 2 director Kelsey Mann revealed that a number of emotions had to be cut from the film so they didn’t overwhelm the viewer.
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However, there is one emotion that was cut because the filmmakers felt it would make the film “too heavy.” That emotion? Shame.
Shame can make us spiral downward and cause us to act in a way we might not under normal circumstances. And shame can feel especially overwhelming when you are a teenager and are struggling to deal with everything that entails.
Mann spoke with TheWrap and said that they cut Shame because the character just made the film “too heavy” and she was worried audiences would not enjoy it.
“It was not fun to watch,” Mann said more seriously. “It was not fun. It was too heavy. You know when you see a good movie and you’re like, ‘Man that was a great movie.’ You want to see it again? ‘No, not really.’ There are movies like that.”
Mann continued: “I don’t want to make that movie. I want to make a movie that’s really meaningful and when you’re asked, ‘Do you want to see that movie again?’ You say, ‘Yes!’ Because those are my favorite movies. And those are the kinds of movies I want to make. And I did not want to return to that movie with that character. It’s not that funny.”
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The Inside Out 2 team also enlisted the help of Dr. Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in human emotions. He pointed out that, while most people feel shame, not everyone does. However, everyone experiences some form of anxiety, so more audience members would identify with that.
In addition to the return of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and Lewis Black, Tony Hale will now voice Fear, and Liza Lapira will voice Disgust. Kensington Tallman will provide the voice for Riley. Diane Lane is back as Riley’s mom, and Kyle Maclachlan will voice Riley’s dad.
This is not the first film that Mann has worked on with both Disney and Pixar. She was also one of the driving forces behind Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur (2015), Onward (2020), Luca (2021), Turning Red (2022), Lightyear (2022), and Elemental (2023).
Inside Out 2 will hit theaters nationwide on June 14.
Do you think Shame should have been included in Inside Out 2? Or do you think they were right to cut it? Let us know in the comments!