“My daughter is changing“, is the first thing the director thought Pete Docter when his 11-year-old daughter was losing that joy and “becoming quieter and more withdrawn.” The scenario went something like this: Elie was getting older and, as a result, some of her sparkle was disappearing in the development of this new person. As a dad, Pete witnessed the difficulties she faced in this process and this experience was the inspiration to create the film Inside Out (Inside Out), released in 2015 and which just released its sequel this year.
A few years before, the animator of Pixar I had even worked with Elie Docter for Up: an adventure at altitudeFor this project, the girl gave voice to Ellie Fredicksen, the child version of Carl’s wife who was characterized by being scandalous and adventurous. However, those vibrant colors in her faded as she experienced the changes typical of her age.
“Seeing my daughter made me a little sad.“, he confessed to Washington Post during the launch of the animated film. And he added: “As a father, I played and was part of that ‘playing pretend’. And that was going away [a los 11]. That was a big part of the movie.”.
There were times when Elie would break down and cry over things like exams or other experiences outside the family environment. Life was starting to get complicated. “Tomorrow I have to take this exam and I’m not ready,” Pete imitated those usual crises that took over his daughter. So, it was a mental question and, therefore, he was going to refer to processes that were within the human mind… Certainly something difficult to achieve, but not impossible.
“One of the big decisions I made early on was to say the movie is set in the mind, not the brain,” he said. “There are no blood vessels or dendrites, it’s a bit more abstractIn a way, it was revolutionary, because animated films and television had already tried to show us how the human body works internally on many occasions. But psychology as such had never been used to address what happens in the psyche of a child.
In Intenselylike her daughter’s life, there was a rush to grow up: “They are still children, and they want to be there. But they see adulthood and they want to be there. So they are completely in this strange, wobbly space,” he explained in conversation with Vulture. In the film, Riley’s stability is affected when her parents have to move cities and she changes elementary schools.
The radical transformation of his routine subjects his emotions to a revolution, starting with unexpressed sadness which he tried to mask from others (with the help of Alegría). According to Pete Docter“that was something fundamental throughout the entire film: Trying to capture that difficulty — that children grow up and it’s sad and it’s beautiful and it’s necessary”.
Although witnessing everything Elie was going through at this stage was strange for him, he also saw himself reflected in it.It triggered my own fears“I was quite a nerd as a kid, and things stressed me out,” he recalled. I was wondering, ‘How do I fit in and what do I say? What are the social things I should do?’ And then in fifth grade my parents moved us [de Minnesota] to Denmark. That was all.”
That’s why, although Elie never had an imaginary friend, Riley did receive one of her own: the adorable pink elephant. Bing Bong. The character design came from Pete Docter imagined in childhood, which he described as “a little elephant driving a little car“I imagined him wandering around. It was a way to pass the time. I knew it wasn’t real, but I enjoyed imagining it.”
Now, as a father, he strives to be more empathetic and seeks to understand what triggers that explosion of emotions.Having children is like forcing yourself to be less selfishbecause you care so much about these other guys and you start putting their interests first”Docter reflected, as a kind of exercise in seeing the future, during an interview in 2009, several years before launching the project. Intensely.
The task of raising his two children with his wife, Amanda, while constantly working on his films, has had an impact on his creations. “I think being a father has affected every film I’ve worked on,” he admitted. During the production of Monsters Inc. (2001) He was already a father and had two little ones at home waiting for him every day.
When Intensely debuted on cinema screens around the world, Elie Docter I had turned 16 and had already seen the film a few months earlier. It was like looking back on your own personal experiences. And, according to what his father revealed after its premiere, “Tears came to his eyes”. Although the filmmaker was not sure “how much of his own life he sees in the film”, he could not forget his congratulations: “Good movie, dad.”.
In a 2016 interview, Pete Docter talked with Guardian regarding the possibility of a sequel and said that they had talked about it, “but we haven’t found anything yet that I feel deserves it.” He also didn’t rule out the possibility of it happening, because it was perhaps “inevitable” that it would happen after the success and recognition that the original film received.
A few years later, in September 2022, disney confirmed that a second part was in development. Amy Poehler and Docter made the announcement at the D23 Expo, although the latter did not return to directing, but left it in the hands of Kelsey Mann with Meg LeFauve as a screenwriter (he had already assumed this position in its predecessor).
Inside Out 2 was released on June 13 in Latin America and, as of this writing, has grossed a total of $799 million at the global box office. The first film earned $857 million in 105 days of release.
