Even by the high standards of its studio, Pixar, Inside Out was praised as one of the most spectacularly innovative animated films ever when it made its premiere in 2015. Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), a young girl whose parents force her to leave her childhood home, goes on a journey that is at once thrilling, horrifying, and heartbreaking. The clever plot device of the movie is that Riley’s emotions serve as the personifications that staff the Headquarters of her brain and tell the majority of the narrative. The near-irrepressible Joy (Amy Poehler), the depressing Sadness (Phyllis Smith), the raging Anger (Lewis Black), the wary Fear (Bill Hader), and the wonderfully outspoken Disgust are the characters (Mindy Kaling).
The movie also deftly sketched out Riley’s mind through a variety of brilliantly realized settings, such as the “islands” of Riley’s personality (such as Friendship Island, Family Island, and Hockey Island), Riley’s long-term memory storage facility’s expansive hallways, and the “Memory Dump,” where memories that have outlived their usefulness are sent to crumble into nothingness. Before Riley makes the desperate decision to flee his house, Joy and Sadness attempt to return to Headquarters after being unintentionally banished by Bing-Bong (Richard Kind), Riley’s imaginary buddy from childhood.
Riley learns that happiness and sadness are only two sides of the same coin as the movie comes to a conclusion and she is once again secure with her family. She is approaching puberty, which results in the creation of some intriguing new islands (such as Boy Band Island and Tragic Vampire Romance Island), the kind of Pixar-like touch that both nicely concluded what we had just watched and hinted at potential future adventures. Could Inside Out 2 show us how Riley handles the change from child to adolescent?
Pixar is focusing on new original films for now
When it comes to choosing which assets to give the sequel treatment, Pixar is renowned for being picky. Pixar sequels generally tend to depend on getting the proper stars to align, in terms of actor availability, and having the right premise to justify a continuation, if it isn’t Toy Story or Cars, both of which are merchandising champions. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Monsters Inc. were the only Pixar films released outside of the aforementioned franchises to receive sequels; those films weren’t released for 13 years, 14 years, and 12 years, respectively. This would imply that there wouldn’t be an Inside Out sequel for quite some time, which is consistent with comments made by Jim Morris, the head of Pixar.
Everything that comes after Toy Story 4 and The Incredibles 2 is an original right now, as Morris previously stated to Entertainment Weekly in 2016, and that prediction has come true with the release of Coco and Onward. It’s safe to say that filmmaker Pete Docter has had his hands full: He also said that Pixar will never develop a sequel “unless the director of the original picture has an idea that they like and are prepared to go forward on.” Since Ratatouille in 2007, he has contributed in some way to every Pixar picture. With Soul, he wrote and directed for the first time since Inside Out.
All of which is to imply that, even if the stars do align for an Inside Out sequel, it probably won’t happen for a while. We’re sorry to put Sadness in charge of your Headquarters’ main console, but all you have to do to restore Joy’s control is to watch the original movie once more.
