What Did it Take for Pixar to Create INSIDE OUT 2?
By Movieguide® Contributor
INSIDE OUT 2 creator Meg LeFauve described Pixar’s intense Brain Trust system which allows the studio to withhold its extremely high-quality stories.
The Brain Trust is led by Pixar’s chief, Pete Doctor, with a rotating group of animators who give period feedback throughout the creation system. Those who join the system are oftentimes all-stars in the animation space who have availability in their schedule to take on another project.
“The Brain Trust is always evolving, because it is a living thing in terms of who’s at Pixar at the time,” LeFauve said. “Who’s working on what projects; can they take time off to come into a Brain Trust? Pete Doctor is the creative leader but is attuned to the same philosophies of a Brain Trust of getting multiple voices creatively to turn it up and give you ideas and places to look and maybe blind spots. So that has stayed much the same.”
To give the Trust the most amount of material to work with, the INSIDE OUT 2 team pitched 3 ideas for the movie’s plot, settling on the anxiety-based one due to personal connections.
“[Director Kelsey Mann] went to the personal, to himself, and was vulnerable talking about himself at that cusp [of adolescence],” LeFauve explained. “He showed me pictures of himself when he was six and had a birthday party and the next birthday party, he’s getting a little bit more remote; by the time he’s 13: ‘I wish everybody would just go away.’ I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s me.’ My dad called me Moody Meg. I can relate.”
Throughout the process, some of LeFauve’s favorite ideas were cut out of the storyline because, although they were fun to play with, they didn’t add enough to the plot. This included more new emotions and a new location called “Procrastination Land.” These changes, while disappointing for LeFauve are all part of the the Trust’s system.
“Pixar is all about, ‘Is this the best story?’ It’s about iteration, and it’s about fail fast. So you’re always pushing, pushing, pushing out to the edge of your creativity. They want you to fail, because then they know you’re trying for something, but fail fast, because we’ve got to get movie going here,” she said. “At the beginning we’re at that delicate stage of putting together our ideas.”
While pushing the story through many iterations and changes is exhausting, it certainly leads to the best possible version of the movie. Fans have responded accordingly with INSIDE OUT 2 debuting to the strongest box office start yet of 2024, with a $155 million domestic gross along with an additional $140 million internationally. Despite less than a week in theaters, it has already become the No. 4 movie of the year and should easily continue to climb to at least the second spot.
The movie has also been bolstered by a family-friendly plot, free from woke ideologies that have marred the majority of animated movies in recent years. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
INSIDE OUT 2 is a marvelous, family-friendly animated movie. The movie is delightful, funny, inventive, and heartwarming. It has many positive messages. For example, it promotes doing the right thing, controlling your emotions and not letting anxieties overcome your decision making. INSIDE OUT 2 also promotes kindness, friendship, repentance, and forgiveness. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children for scenes of peril and a large scary-looking but nonthreatening character. Unlike other recent animated movies, INSIDE OUT 2 doesn’t have any woke or politically correct content.
Movieguide® previously reported:
INSIDE OUT 2 dominated the box office over the weekend, earning a record-breaking start and once again proving that family-friendly movies will always be a hit with audiences.
“INSIDE OUT 2’s success is definitive proof that Movieguide®’s advocacy work impacts Disney,” says Robby Baehr, Movieguide® CEO. “This is the first movie Pixar has released in years that doesn’t flaunt an immoral agenda. Instead, because of our Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry, Disney and Pixar chose to cater to families and focus on positive, uplifting messages, and it’s already paying out dividends.
It grossed $295 million worldwide during its debut weekend, taking $155 million domestically and $140 million internationally.
This start, when using “current exchange rates and in like-for-like markets,” is bigger than Teddy Bear Award® winner THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE, which previously held the title for the biggest animation opening.
“Using a similar metric, the Kelsey Mann-directed INSIDE OUT sequel is the best international animation opening of all time (surpassing FROZEN 2’s $135.4M). INSIDE OUT 2 also has the biggest overseas and worldwide opening of 2024,” Deadline reported.
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