Inside Out is a 2015 American animated coming-of-age film directed by Pete Docter who co-wrote it with Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley. Produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, the film stars the voices of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, and Kyle MacLachlan. Inside Out follows the inner workings of the mind of Riley (Dias), a young girl who adapts to her family's relocation as five personified emotions administer her thoughts and actions.
Docter conceived Inside Out in October 2009 after observing changes in his daughter's personality as she grew older. The project was subsequently green-lit, and Docter and co-director Ronnie del Carmen developed the story, while consulting psychologists and neuroscientists in an effort to accurately portray the mind. Development took five-and-a-half years on a budget of approximately $175million. Significant changes to the film's story and characters delayed the film's production schedule.
Inside Out debuted at the 68th Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2015, and was released in the United States on June 19. It received critical acclaim for its craftsmanship, screenplay, subject matter, plot, and vocal performances—particularly those of Poehler, Smith, Kind, Hader, Kaling, and Black. The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named Inside Out one of the top-ten films of 2015. It grossed $859.1million worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2015. The film was nominated for two awards at the 88th Academy Awards, winning Best Animated Feature, and received numerous other accolades. Philosophical journal Film and Philosophy recognized Inside Out as one of the best animated films ever made. A sequel, Inside Out 2, was released in 2024.
Plot
In the mind of a young girl named Riley Andersen are five personified emotions that influence her actions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger. They process her experiences into memories stored as colored orbs in "Headquarters", her conscious mind, and send them into long-term memory each night. The aspects of the most important "core memories" within her personality take the form of five floating islands. Joy acts as the leader and tries to limit Sadness's influence, perceiving her as an unnecessary burden for Riley.
At age 11, Riley moves from Minnesota to San Francisco for her father's new job. On Riley's first day at her new school, Sadness retroactively saddens joyous memories, making Riley cry in front of her class. This creates Riley's first sad core memory. Joy tries to dispose of it using a pneumatic tube but knocks loose the other core memories during a struggle with Sadness, disabling the personality islands. Joy, Sadness, and the core memories are sucked out of Headquarters. In their absence, Anger, Fear, and Disgust attempt to create new happy core memories but push Riley away from her parents, friends, and favorite activities. Goofball, Friendship, and Hockey Island thus collapse into the Memory Dump, where forgotten things gradually disappear forever.
In the vast long-term memory area, Joy and Sadness encounter Bing Bong, Riley's childhood imaginary friend, who suggests riding the "train of thought" back to Headquarters. They miss it after Bing Bong naively leads them into Abstract Thought. In Imagination Land, which is under heavy renovations, Bing Bong bemoans Riley outgrowing him and rejects Joy's attempts to cheer him up in favor of Sadness's empathy. The trio catches the train, but it stops when Riley goes to sleep. At Dream Productions, Bing Bong is imprisoned in Subconscious for crashing a dream being filmed; Joy and Sadness get themselves arrested and free him as well as Jangles the Clown, Riley's scariest memory, frightening her awake. Meanwhile, Anger inserts an idea bulb into the console to make Riley run away to Minnesota, believing this will form new happy memories.
Honesty Island collapses after Riley steals her mother's credit card, leaving only Family Island and derailing the train. Joy tries to ride a "recall tube" back to Headquarters, but the ground below collapses, plunging her and Bing Bong into the Memory Dump. Joy discovers a sad memory of Riley losing an ice hockey game that turns happy when Riley's parents and friends comfort her. She realizes Sadness's purpose is to alert others when Riley is emotionally overwhelmed. Joy and Bing Bong try to use his song-fueled rocket wagon to escape the Memory Dump, but cannot ascend due to their combined weight. On the third attempt, Bing Bong jumps out of the wagon mid-ascent, fading away as Joy escapes to freedom.
Anger's idea bulb shorts out the console, putting Riley into depression as she boards a bus to Minnesota. Joy and Sadness reunite and return to Headquarters while Family Island nears collapse. Joy hands control of the console to Sadness, who removes the idea bulb, restarting the console and prompting Riley to get off the bus and rush home. Joy, realizing that Riley needs to tell her parents the truth, allows Sadness to make the core memories sad. Riley bursts into tears, telling her parents she misses her old life; they comfort her and tell her they also miss Minnesota. Sadness and Joy join hands on the console, creating a new core memory that is both happy and sad, and a new Family Island forms, representing Riley's acceptance of her life in San Francisco.
One year later, 12-year-old Riley has adapted to her new home, made new friends, and acquired new hobbies. Inside Headquarters, Riley's emotions admire her 10 new personality islands, now powered by multicolored core memories that contain mixed emotions, and are given an expanded console with enough room for them to work as a team. Although they admit slight concern over a red alarm light marked "PUBERTY", they decide that it is not important at the moment.
Voice cast
Amy Poehler as Joy, a yellow emotion who often takes the lead in Riley's emotional life and is in charge of giving her assurance in her everyday life and helping her enjoy it to the fullest, while being reluctant to accept any influence that could detract from Riley's happiness Phyllis Smith as Sadness, a blue emotion who discovers her purpose is to help process Riley's upsetting experiences and seek help from others when she needs it Bill Hader as Fear, a purple emotion responsible for protecting Riley from threats in the physical world Mindy Kaling as Disgust, a green emotion who uses visceral aversion and gut reactions to prevent Riley from being physically or socially harmed Lewis Black as Anger, a red emotion in charge of fighting to keep things fair for Riley Richard Kind as Bing Bong, Riley's lively pink cat/elephant/cotton candy hybrid imaginary friend from early childhood Kaitlyn Dias as Riley Andersen, an 11-year-old girl in whose mind the emotions and their supporting staff of Mind Workers live Archival recordings of Mary Gibbs from Monsters, Inc. (2001) are used for baby Riley. Diane Lane as Jill Andersen, Riley's mother Kyle MacLachlan as Bill Andersen, Riley's father Dawnn Lewis as Riley's teacher at her new school Paula Poundstone as Forgetter Paula, a Mind Worker who sorts through and disposes of Riley's obsolete long-term memories Bobby Moynihan as Forgetter Bobby, Paula's colleague Paula Pell as Dream Director, a Mind Worker filmmaker at Dream Productions, which produces Riley's dreams; and Jill's Anger Sherry Lynn as Jill's Joy and Disgust Lori Alan as Jill's Sadness Dave Goelz as Subconscious Guard Frank Frank Oz as Subconscious Guard Dave Josh Cooley as Jangles the Clown, a children's birthday party clown who secretly despises his job. An exaggerated version of Jangles appears in Riley's mind as a result of his traumatizing her during an early birthday. Flea as Mind Worker Cop Jake, a police officer in the Imagination Land theme park representing Riley's imagination John Ratzenberger as Fritz, a Mind Worker mechanic who upgrades and maintains the console in Headquarters Carlos Alazraqui as a Brazilian helicopter pilot in Jill's memories; and Bill's Fear Pete Docter as Bill's Anger Nick Pitera as a TripleDent Gum commercial singer; and Riley's imaginary boyfriend Peter Sagal as Jangles' Joy Rashida Jones as Cool Girl's emotions
Production
Development
Development on Inside Out was green-lit in October 2009, after director Pete Docter noticed his daughter Elie becoming "more quiet and reserved", and began to wonder what was happening internally. Docter invited Ronnie del Carmen, who had worked as story supervisor on Finding Nemo (2003) and Up (2009), to join the project as co-director, a role del Carmen accepted. They sought inspiration from their own personal histories and experiences, and conferred with psychologists and specialists such as psychologist Paul Ekman and Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, for accuracy. While designing Riley's mental landscape, they consulted neuroscientists, and took cues from DNA strands and photographs of neuronal flashes. According to Keltner and Ekman, the film emphasizes the ways emotions organize our thoughts and social lives, especially the role of sadness in fostering connections.
About 27 emotions—including irritation, envy, greed, gloom, despair, depression, love, schadenfreude, ennui, shame, embarrassment, and hope—were considered for early versions, but the number was later reduced for the sake of simplicity. Ekman supplied a list of emotions—anger, fear, sadness, disgust, contempt, surprise, and happiness—and Docter decided to remove surprise due to its similarity to fear; he also removed contempt. Happiness was renamed Optimism and later Joy. According to Docter, for some time in the film's development, Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter was less involved on a day-to-day basis on Inside Out and the other Pixar films as he continued to balance running Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. However, when Docter informed Lasseter that the film was not working after more than two years and proposed to swap Fear with Sadness as the emotion who would go on the main journey with Joy, Lasseter agreed. On his involvement with the film's creative team, Lasseter said, "We're always tearing up work and starting over. At Pixar, we trust our process, and we trust each other". It was Pixar's first original film to be produced almost entirely without involvement from the studio's co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011. Development took five-and-a-half years, and the film was produced on a budget of approximately $175million. Ralph Eggleston, Pixar's production designer, stated it was the hardest and longest film he had ever worked on.
Writing In 2010, Docter and the filmmaking team met to discuss aspects of Inside Out, including its setting, rules, and reels. Docter then recruited a small team to develop the narrative and design its characters within 12 months; their main challenge was to handle its multilayered technique. Del Carmen described his upbringing as a significant influence and had the idea of making Riley an avid ice-hockey player due to that sport's popularity in Minnesota. Though the script was deemed ambitious and ingenious, screenwriter Michael Arndt spent a year on it before leaving the project in early 2011; he was attributed with providing additional story material. Along with Docter, Josh Cooley and Meg LeFauve were credited as screenwriters for its rewrites.