Emotions collide in Pixar’s latest offering

This photo provided by Disney-Pixar shows Anger in a scene from the new animated film 'Inside Out'. Photo: AP/Disney-Pixar

This photo provided by Disney-Pixar shows Anger in a scene from the new animated film 'Inside Out'. Photo: AP/Disney-Pixar

Published Apr 9, 2015

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Fear, anger, disgust, sadness and joy have taken over Pixar headquarters in Northern California, and things are going great. The studio is celebrating the completion of Inside Out, a film that features each of those emotions as personified characters controlling operations inside a little girl’s head.

Sculptures, sketches, paintings and other concept art from the film that took over five years to make, fills a gallery. About 350 artists and technicians collaborated under the direction of Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) to bring the imaginative adventure to life.

Inside Out tells a story of two worlds – the external, human world and the internal landscape of the mind – and how they influence one another. As Riley, 11, navigates the human world, her mind’s staff of emotions handle her internal goings-on.

Joy (Amy Poehler) was the de facto leader of the emotion team, but when she and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) get lost in Riley’s subconscious, Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) are left in charge. Joy and Sadness, with the help of a character named Bing Bong, must bridge their differences to ensure Riley’s happiness.

With the project now completed, Docter and producer Jonas Rivera invited reporters to Pixar to explain why Inside Out was so time-consuming.

Animated movies typically take longer to make than live action because everything has to be built – not only the sets and costumes, but also the characters and cameras. On this film, the artists also had to create entire worlds.

Inside Out started with an idea from Docter inspired by his daughter, who had gone from an outgoing, happy kid to a quiet, sullen pre-teen.

He imagined a story set inside a girl’s mind that explored what went on in there. His team met with neuroscientists and psychologists to learn the basics about emotion, memory and mind function. Then the story artists had to develop characters based on that information and come up with a script.

Production designer Ralph Eggleston was dreaming up what the world of mind and personality might look like. “The biggest challenge was what is the mind?” he said.

Filming comes next, before animation, inverting the familiar lights-camera-action formula to “camera, action, lights” says photography director Patrick Lin.

Animators – 45 in the case of Inside Out – give expression and personality to the characters. It takes about a week to produce three seconds of animation, says directing animator Jamie Roe. Lighting, which comes last, is also a painstaking process, and artists can complete only a few shots a week.

The film is set for release on June 19. – AP

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