Back in March, we were invited to Pixar Animation Studios, where the team was hard at work on the final touches of Inside Out 2. Visiting the studio on my very first press trip, I was assigned to the “Anxiety” group (how fitting!), joining other journalists for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the highly anticipated sequel.
First on our itinerary—and certainly one of the highlights of the day—was a stop at Pixar’s recording studio! We were each given a choice to dub a scene in the first half hour of the film as the effervescent Joy (Amy Poehler) or the fast-talking Anxiety (Maya Hawke.) Opting for the lighter task, I decided to rerecord Amy Poehler’s lines in the scene in my voice. (Check out the video to watch the recording session!)
Soon afterward, we were then escorted through the halls of the studio to Maurissa Horowitz’s office. Horowitz, the lead editor on Inside Out 2, walked us through the editing process for a Pixar film. Her job is to sharpen the tone of each scene, including making cuts and edits but also shopping for music. She demonstrated this by replaying “the Alarm scene” several times with different music choices—including score music from WandaVision—each changing the mood of the scene dramatically.
Ryan Heuett, Sunguk Chun and Adam Habib at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)
We then walked to a hallway meeting spot for a demonstration with Adam Habib, the director of photography on the sequel. Before our “play” session with the handheld camera, Habib explained how he uses the device to achieve his goals.
His task is to translate the storyboards created by the team of story artists into the best camera angles and shots, adding depth to the storytelling. The human world, as he shared, is shot with organic, very physical camera movements, and doesn’t shy away from showing imperfections. Riley’s Mind, however, is a different story—the camera doesn’t make mistakes.
In contrast, the audience is shown graceful, very mechanical camera movements to show a place that exudes cautious harmony.
Before we parted, Habib left us with an interesting detail: the new emotion, Nostalgia, enters headquarters through a side door initially designed as the entrance to Anger’s steam room in the first film, a scene that was cut from the first film.
Our next stop was the animation “war room,” where Evan Bonaficio, the animation supervisor, led an animation polish session. The team acts as quality checkers of sorts, ensuring that characters match their 3D models, are physically grounded in a scene and that their movements and voice recordings sync perfectly. Collaboration is key at Pixar, and we witnessed this firsthand during a mock session where the team evaluated a seven-second clip of Riley meeting Val, a new character, and noted necessary tweaks.
We then left the animation war room to head over to the studio’s art room for a character design session with Jason Deamer, the sequel’s production designer. Scattered around the table were small pieces of paper and cups of colored pencils and markers.
“Pete Docter, and I as well, are big fans of this idea of starting characters as a shape language and color first,” Deamer tells us. He shows us a series of shapes, each a different primary color–but we immediately recognize them as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. He points to Joy, who was initially represented as a yellow starburst and “exploding with happiness.” A direct contrast, the first iteration of Sadness was a blue teardrop-shaped figure.
INSIDE OUT 2 – Concept Art by Jason Deamer. © 2024 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
Wrapping up his walkthrough of the character design process, Deamer, who has worked at Pixar for three decades in a variety of artistic capacities, encouraged all of us to design our own personified emotion, which we each picked from a bowl with slips of paper. To help us overcome any trepidations we might have about drawing freely and sharing our work, he imparted the wisdom of writer and poet Suzy Kassem: “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.”
I picked my slip out of the bowl and opened it: “Zen.” I reached for a lilac-colored pencil and quickly got to work sketching. Zen, in my imagination, is an infinity symbol-shaped figure with a yoga ponytail, and her face at peace. Zen, by definition, means finding balance in the body. But no person can realistically achieve perfect balance—thus, the character of Zen is lopsided.
Our last stop for the day was the story room where Inside Out 2 director Kelsey Mann, as well as story artist Rebecca McVeigh, and story supervisor John Hoffman. During production of the sequel, Hoffman has been leading storyboard teams to pitch scenes to Mann, who reviewed the scenes with them to jot notes for rewrites before being presented again—or deciding to cut the scene completely.
Becca McVeigh and John Hoffman at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif. (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar)
During this session, Mann emphasized the importance of fostering an environment where everyone is heard, encouraging story artists to pitch ideas or gags. McVeigh then took the floor, pitching the “The Alarm” scene for everyone to observe—complete with her interpretation of various sound effects and voices during the scene.
Mann then walked McVeigh back through the scene with his notes, turning her attention to the Big Red Alarm, which he said shouldn’t shine such a bright light.
His favorite detail from the first film, Mann suggested using the alarm to build suspense—and a moment of calm before the storm.
Disney-Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” will be hitting theaters on June 14th, 2024!
