‘Inside Out’ Director On Pixar’s New Film: ‘It’s A Film About Me Watching My Kids Grow Up’
Pixar has quite the reputation for tugging on the heartstrings. Ever since the first Toy Story film hit the big screen in 1995, they’ve become synonymous with quality storytelling. Though some may say the studio hasn’t been at its best since Cars 2 was released in 2011, Inside Out looks like it could be a true return to form for Pixar.
The film follows 11-year-old Riley, a girl who is uprooted from her Midwest home when her father gets a job at a start-up company in San Francisco. This girl, like everyone else, is guided by her emotions: Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Sadness (Phyllis Smith), all of whom live in Riley’s control center (via Variety).
Though the story may revolve around Riley, it is by no means limited to her perspective. Inside Out‘s director — and father of two — Pete Docter, spoke with USA Today on this very idea.
“I started out doing a film about growing up, but it turned out it’s a film about me watching my kids grow up. These parents are realizing that their kid is changing. That’s difficult. But it is a part of life.”
It’s this detail that may help Inside Out stand above your typical fare. Not only will kids be able to relate to Riley and all she’s going through, but parents can appreciate the details of seeing their child grow up. “This film gets you inside each character’s heads,” Docter says.
“There’s our world which we’re conscientious of and looking at. So we’re driving, eating dinner, whatever. And inside our head there’s this whole rich internal dialogue and world no one else knows about… We’re intercutting to show what’s going on inside each of their heads behind the scenes. What seems like a simple family dinner is actually fraught with all sorts of emotional angst and drama.”
In Inside Out, each character has their own set of emotions, and each of their emotions has their own unique style that suits the character (e.g., the father’s emotions have mustaches, and the mother’s emotions have red glasses). With this broad perspective, it’ll add a nice layer of depth to every scene in the film, as one would expect from a Pixar movie.
Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out is set to premiere on June 19, 2015, and is having its first full-length trailer release this Wednesday. Are you looking forward to the film? Sound off below!
