Interview With Director Kelsey Mann & Producer Mark Nielsen Previewing "Inside Out 2"

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[00:01:02] And producer Mark Nielsen at Pixar headquarters.

[00:01:18] Little girls growing up so fast.

[00:01:24] And things couldn't be better.

[00:01:26] What is that?

[00:01:35] Okay, let's clear it all out.

[00:01:36] It's dead!

[00:01:45] That was what?

[00:01:46] Orange?

[00:01:47] Who made the console orange?

[00:02:05] Do I look orange?

[00:02:07] I didn't touch it.

[00:02:08] Orange is not my color.

[00:02:09] Not me.

[00:02:10] Hello.

[00:02:11] Ah!

[00:02:12] Ah!

[00:02:13] Ah!

[00:02:14] Hello.

[00:02:15] Ah!

[00:02:16] Oh my gosh, I'm anxiety.

[00:02:17] Where can I put my stuff?

[00:02:18] A new emotion.

[00:02:19] Wow.

[00:02:20] Oh, I'm sorry.

[00:02:21] We wanted to make such a good first impression.

[00:02:25] What do you mean we?

[00:02:26] Well, I'm Daniel Powatt from Next Best Picture.

[00:02:27] Guys, thank you so much for showing us part of the movie.

[00:02:28] I love what we saw.

[00:02:29] We only saw 30 minutes.

[00:02:30] Can't wait to see more.

[00:02:31] I want to show you the rest.

[00:02:32] Let's do it.

[00:02:33] Let's do it.

[00:02:34] Let us finish it.

[00:02:35] We're going to finish it and then we're going to show you the rest.

[00:02:36] We're almost there.

[00:02:37] We're almost there.

[00:02:38] All right, fair enough.

[00:02:39] I'll accept that.

[00:02:40] Well, obviously, Inside Out, the first one is one of the most successful movies I've

[00:02:41] seen.

[00:02:42] Even for Pixar.

[00:02:43] Yeah.

[00:02:44] So hopping into tackling a sequel is no small thing.

[00:02:45] Kelsey, I'll start with you.

[00:02:46] You've been with Pixar for a long time.

[00:02:47] Yeah.

[00:02:48] But still jumping into a big movie like this is huge.

[00:02:49] So and to make your feature debut.

[00:02:50] Yeah.

[00:02:51] What was the process like to land this as your first feature as a director?

[00:02:52] I mean, it's exciting.

[00:02:53] It took me a long time to even come in the gates and become an employee at Pixar.

[00:02:54] I mean, I'm a big fan of Pixar.

[00:02:55] I'm a big fan of the movie.

[00:02:56] I'm a big fan of the movie.

[00:02:57] I'm a big fan of the movie.

[00:02:58] I'm a big fan of the movie.

[00:02:59] I'm a big fan of the movie.

[00:03:00] I'm a big fan of the movie.

[00:03:01] I'm a big fan of the movie.

[00:03:02] I worked a long time.

[00:03:03] I applied in 2000 and you guys denied me.

[00:03:04] It wasn't me.

[00:03:05] It wasn't?

[00:03:06] Yeah.

[00:03:07] No.

[00:03:08] I wouldn't let you in.

[00:03:09] So it took me a long time working out in the industry to try to get in here and I finally

[00:03:10] got in.

[00:03:11] And I got in the story department.

[00:03:12] So I worked as a story artist for a little while and then I thought I'd retire as a story

[00:03:13] or a Pixar story artist.

[00:03:14] And then I got in the film industry and I started working on a movie called The Big

[00:03:15] Brother.

[00:03:16] And I was like, I'm not going to do this.

[00:03:17] I'm not going to do this.

[00:03:18] I'm not going to do this.

[00:03:19] I'm not going to do this.

[00:03:20] I'm not going to do this.

[00:03:21] I'm not going to do this.

[00:03:22] I'm not going to do this.

[00:03:24] And then all of a sudden I started getting opportunities to like be a story supervisor.

[00:03:39] And then I got a chance to direct a short here.

[00:03:41] And then I got this opportunity to direct this movie.

[00:03:46] And I'll never forget Pete asking me.

[00:03:49] I had a meeting on my calendar, you know, Pete Docter and Jim Morris is the president

[00:03:53] of Pixar.

[00:03:54] I'm like, why do I have a meeting with them?

[00:03:55] This is either the best thing in the world or this is my last day at Pixar.

[00:04:01] But it luckily turned out to be great because Pete was like, hey, I was thinking about what

[00:04:05] worlds that we could revisit.

[00:04:07] I was thinking like, oh, I think he's going to ask me to direct a sequel.

[00:04:10] And I thought it'd be just something I worked on.

[00:04:13] And then he said, yeah.

[00:04:14] So I was thinking about what we could go back to.

[00:04:16] And I was thinking Inside Out.

[00:04:18] And I think you'd be a good person to think of ideas of what we could do.

[00:04:21] And I was like, it's just I was like, Inside Out?

[00:04:25] I guess surprise was at my console there for a second.

[00:04:27] And then very quickly joy because like you're right.

[00:04:30] It's a high bar for what we make here at Pixar, you know, regardless of any movie original

[00:04:36] or a sequel.

[00:04:37] So the feeling of like, I don't want to let people down.

[00:04:40] I've always had that feeling since day one that I stepped onto the campus here.

[00:04:44] So that's not a new thing at all.

[00:04:46] And luckily, I've done this before where the first film I ever worked on was Monsters University,

[00:04:51] which is following a Pete Docter directed movie.

[00:04:54] And so I kind of it was I was familiar with it.

[00:04:57] And so you just have to it's not like a movie.

[00:05:00] You can get caught up in the anxiety of it.

[00:05:02] Like what if what if what if you know what I really need to do is just focus on what

[00:05:06] can I control?

[00:05:08] What's right here in front of me and right here in front of me is me just being able to

[00:05:12] tell a story that I can hopefully make really fun, really imaginative and make it meaningful

[00:05:18] and come from my heart.

[00:05:20] And then that's how I'm going to make it work.

[00:05:24] And Mark, same thing.

[00:05:25] What excited you about jumping back into this world?

[00:05:27] Oh man, you know, I was the associate producer on the first film and it was a career highlight.

[00:05:31] Absolutely.

[00:05:32] Just a dreamy experience.

[00:05:34] Love that film so much.

[00:05:35] It's one of the gems within the walls of studio.

[00:05:38] It's one of the gems and the impact it had on the world.

[00:05:41] And over nine years, we were hearing from people, teachers and counselors and psychologists about

[00:05:46] how they've been able to use that film as a tool to talk for people to talk about their

[00:05:51] emotions in a way that's really been helpful.

[00:05:53] We didn't know that when we were making it, but it's amazing.

[00:05:56] And we know it now.

[00:05:58] And we have the chance maybe to open that conversation back up again to get people talking

[00:06:03] about more complex emotions and those ones that show their face at this at this time

[00:06:08] in your life.

[00:06:10] Coming up on 5 Minute News, I'm Anthony Davis.

[00:06:14] You might think it's partisan because maybe it's critical of one side or the other, but

[00:06:19] it's not.

[00:06:20] It's just the truth.

[00:06:21] And I think that's also something that's kind of unusual for Americans listening to the

[00:06:25] radio or to podcasts because the news landscape in the States has been so partisan for so

[00:06:32] many decades.

[00:06:33] So 5 Minute News is verified, truthful, independent, unbiased and essential world news daily.

[00:06:42] Well, I do know that Pixar movies often change drastically from initial pitch to final movie.

[00:06:50] So how different is it with Inside Out 2 from what it originally looked like four years

[00:06:55] ago to what it looks like now?

[00:06:56] They're really bad at first.

[00:06:59] It's true.

[00:07:01] You know, we do a thing here actually where we forget that, you know, and we have a thing

[00:07:06] where we screen the first screening of a lot of our films that everyone loves.

[00:07:12] Just to remind everyone, Monsters Inc. wasn't always the movie we know and love.

[00:07:18] There's a process here.

[00:07:20] And so Mark is totally right.

[00:07:21] You know, that's why we do multiple screenings so that we can make it better and better and

[00:07:25] better.

[00:07:26] We do up to 10 screenings where we literally rebuild the thing from scratch after watching

[00:07:31] it, evaluating it, and then we tear it apart and make it stronger.

[00:07:34] And I think that has been part of the secret sauce of the studio over the years is just

[00:07:39] by putting these things through kind of a fire before you get them to a place where

[00:07:44] you're ready to release them to the world.

[00:07:46] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:07:47] Well, we are excited to see it in theaters, not streaming.

[00:07:51] Why should people rush to the theater to see Inside Out 2?

[00:07:54] Oh man.

[00:07:55] We designed this film to be seen in theaters.

[00:07:57] It's made for the big screen, 2.39 aspect ratio.

[00:08:01] We wanted to widen the aspect ratio from the first film, which was 1.85 because Riley's

[00:08:06] world is expanding.

[00:08:07] The console is bigger.

[00:08:09] There's more emotions behind it.

[00:08:10] There's now nine emotions.

[00:08:12] We have to fit them all on the screen.

[00:08:14] Yeah.

[00:08:15] And this film is actually a journey out to like the outer reaches of Riley's mind.

[00:08:19] We're going to explore a lot of new territories that audiences have never seen.

[00:08:23] We're going to have some giant effect scenes in this movie that were not in the first 30

[00:08:27] minutes that are going to be spectacular on a big screen.

[00:08:30] And you hinted at it earlier.

[00:08:31] I know I've used Inside Out with my kids as a tool to talk about emotions and feelings.

[00:08:36] What do you hope people take away in a similar fashion with Inside Out 2?

[00:08:40] That they're not alone.

[00:08:41] When I was a teenager, I really could have used a movie like this because you think what

[00:08:47] you're going through, you're the only one going through it.

[00:08:50] And it's hard to get any teenager to talk, let alone what's going on inside of their

[00:08:56] head and their emotions.

[00:08:58] I really want teenagers to walk away with that feeling, knowing that they're not the

[00:09:03] only ones who are feeling and going through what they're going through.

[00:09:07] And it's going to be okay.

[00:09:09] We love that the first film got to explore concepts like memories and what those look

[00:09:14] like in core memories, which has become a word people use out there to describe memories

[00:09:18] that are important to them.

[00:09:20] This film gets to open the door to new areas of the mind and explore beliefs and what those

[00:09:27] are and how they work inside us.

[00:09:29] And it's such a great way to put faces to new emotions and to build out these areas

[00:09:35] that we've all known are in our minds somewhere, but we've never seen them before.

[00:09:40] Yeah.

[00:09:41] Well, before I let you go, short films are such an important, vital part of Pixar's history.

[00:09:45] You got started on Direct-to-Party Central.

[00:09:48] Will there be a short film before Inside Out in theaters?

[00:09:52] I don't know the answer to that question, honestly.

[00:09:58] You might have to stay tuned on that one.

[00:09:59] Okay, we'll stay tuned.

[00:10:00] We'll stay tuned.

[00:10:01] But what did you learn from working?

[00:10:03] That was your first directorial piece there.

[00:10:05] So what did you learn on Party Central specifically that helped you direct Inside Out 2?

[00:10:10] I think a lot of different things.

[00:10:12] The greatest thing about doing that short was I was able to interact with all the other

[00:10:16] departments that I normally don't get a chance to interact with.

[00:10:19] When you work in the story department, you're very close to editorial and layout and art,

[00:10:24] but I never really dealt with animation and lighting and effects.

[00:10:29] And so I think what I learned was how amazing all those departments are.

[00:10:34] And it made me feel a little envious, you know?

[00:10:37] Envy was definitely driving at my console, but I wanted to work with them again because

[00:10:42] they're such amazing craftsmen and filmmakers.

[00:10:45] So I learned to lean on their talents and just trust.

[00:10:49] Awesome.

[00:10:50] Well, we can't wait to see the rest of the movie.

[00:10:51] I appreciate you guys' time.

[00:10:52] Thank you.

[00:10:53] Can't wait to share it.

[00:10:54] Thanks so much for talking about it.

[00:10:55] Yeah, thanks a lot, man.

[00:10:56] Hey everyone, thank you so much for listening to Daniel Howitt's interview with the director

[00:11:00] for Inside Out 2, Kelsey Mann, and the film's producer, Mark Nielsen, in this preview for

[00:11:07] Pixar's latest film, Inside Out 2.

[00:11:10] Inside Out 2 will be released in theaters by Disney Pixar on June 14.

[00:11:16] You have been listening to the Next Best Picture podcast.

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