The first trailer for Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” was released this morning. There’s four new characters added into the mix this time around, including Anxiety, voiced by Maya Hawke. The other three are Embarrassment, Ennui and Envy. A possible Cannes bow is in play for this one.
Since 2016, writer-director Pete Docter has been assembling ideas for an “Inside Out” sequel. Disney officially began the development with the D23 Expo announcement. Kelsey Mann took over as the sequel's director and implemented Docter's ideas.
No Docter directing could be seen as a red flag, but we’ll see what kind of life Mann injects into this one. Also, original writers Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen are not part of the writing team for the sequel. Meg LaFauve, who co-wrote the first one with Docter and Del Carmen, is now the sole writer for the sequel.
2015’s “Inside Out” was the last great movie released by Pixar, although some could make the argument that 2017’s “Coco” and/or 2020’s “Soul” also attained some kind of greatness.
Fixing Pixar should be top priority at Disney. Firstly, they dumped their movies straight to Disney+ during the pandemic, which devalued the brand and trained audiences to ignore their theatrical releases. Add to that the issues they’ve had on the creative side, none of their recent releases have really quite hit the cultural zeitgeist since 2017’s “Coco.”
The inventive nature of the older classics is gone. It’s all surface-level stuff now. They are making overstylized films with none of the risk-taking involved. The last several movies have been nothing more than cynical attempts to hit specific emotional buttons. Hopefully “Inside Out 2” is the one that puts Pixar back on track.
“Inside Out 2” is scheduled for release on June 14, 2024.