Pixar may not have the perfect track record it had in the age of Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles, as the studio has focused more on franchise-building and attempting to emulate its own style, but 2015’s Inside Out stands as one of the company’s finest offerings. And it has a beautiful message about the important role played by sadness.
Between Pete Docter conceiving a vaguely defined story idea about personified emotions and Inside Out hitting theaters, the movie went through a ton of different script drafts and conceptual designs. So, here are 10 fascinating details from the making of Inside Out.
Riley’s Voice Actor Pictured Her Cat Dying To Be Able To Cry On Cue
Whenever Riley cries in Inside Out, her tears are real, because voice actor Kaitlyn Dias was able to cry on cue when she was in the recording studio. She said that she would picture her cat dying in order to trigger an emotional reaction that would get the tears flowing.
There Was Originally A Villain Called Gloom
In early versions of the story of Inside Out, there was a villainous force called Gloom that spent the movie trying the bring everybody down. At the end of the movie, Gloom would have been defeated. Gloom’s role was instead filled by Riley’s personality islands collapsing.
The story team realized that Gloom was a little too close to being a personification of depression. As they didn’t want to trivialize depression by implying that it could just go away in one fell swoop, Gloom was removed.
Dave Chappelle Was Considered To Play Bing Bong
The Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong, but he wasn’t the first choice for the role.
Comedians Dave Chappelle and Kevin Meaney were both considered for the role before Kind was approached. Meaney ed away due to a heart attack in 2016, which would’ve made Bing Bong’s death even more heartbreaking on rewatches.
Director Pete Docter Based Riley On His Daughter
Since director Pete Docter himself couldn’t relate to Riley, he based the character on his daughter, Elie, who went from being a playful, fun-loving kid to a broody introvert when she turned 11.
Elie Docter had previously voiced young Ellie in her dad’s previous Pixar movie, Up, and when she saw Inside Out, she was very moved by it.
The Movie Is Dedicated To A Pixar Software Engineer
At the end of Inside Out, you’ll notice that the whole movie is dedicated to the memory of a man named Brian Smits. Smits was a software engineer who worked for Pixar and unfortunately ed away in June of 2013. Some of the films he worked on were Up, The Incredibles, Brave, and Inside Out.
In Early Drafts, Fear Was Going To Be Joy’s Sidekick, Not Sadness
In early drafts of Inside Out’s script, Sadness didn’t go along with Joy for the journey across Riley’s mind. Instead, her sidekick was Fear, who was originally called Freddie. However, this was dropped when the story team decided it would make more sense to have Fear with Anger and Disgust for Riley’s various culture-shock moments.
Plus, Pixar wanted to discourage fans from problematically shipping Joy and Fear. Unfortunately, even without the Joy/Fear team-up, this has become a popular ship among Pixar fans called “Starnerve.”
Some Iconic Pixar Scenes Were Included As Easter Eggs In Riley’s Memory Balls
If one looks closely at the memories on the rows of memory balls that Joy and Sadness walk past in Riley’s mind, they are likely to notice some interesting Easter eggs.
Notably, a few of these memory balls contain iconic scenes from Pixar classics, like Carl and Ellie’s wedding from the heartbreaking opening montage in Up, which was also directed by Pete Docter.
Riley’s Toddler Speak Was Made Up Of Unused Takes From Monsters, Inc.
In the scenes featuring Riley as a toddler, the recordings of her unintelligible toddler speak were recycled from unused takes performed by Mary Gibbs for Monsters, Inc., in which she played Boo.
Gibbs recorded those lines when she was three or four years old, and the takes that ended up in Inside Out were scooped off the cutting room floor years after they were put there.
The Movie Has Drastically Different Titles In Foreign Markets
Due to the fact that the title Inside Out relies on an English turn of phrase, the movie was given some very different titles in foreign markets. In Latin America, it is called Intensa Mente (Intense Mind). In Spain, Inside Out goes by Del Revés (Reverse), while it is known as Divertida Mente (Fun Mind) in Portugal and Brazil.
In Russia, Inside Out is called головоломка (Brain Breaker). In Israel, Pixar's film is known as הקול בראש (The Voice in the Head), while it is called W Głowie Się Nie Mieści (Head Can’t Contain It) in Poland. Lastly, in Cantonese, Inside Out is called 玩轉腦朋友 (Fun with Brain Friends).
The Original Concept Featured 27 Emotions
In the very, very complicated early drafts of Inside Out, there was going to be a cast of 27 emotions. This was eventually cut down to five to avoid confusing audiences. Among the emotions that didn’t make the cut were Envy, Pride, Surprise, and Trust. There was even a Schadenfreude character at one point.
According to director Pete Docter, the design of each emotion is based on a shape: Joy is a star, Sadness is a teardrop, Fear is a raw nerve, Anger is a fireplace brick, and Disgust is broccoli, although Docter actually likes broccoli.
