Video: Telling a Story from the Inside Out

A look at Pixar’s creative process in crafting the script for Inside Out.

In the latest of the ongoing ‘Lessons from the Screenplay’ series, host Michael Tucker provides a helpful overview of how Pixar’s Inside Out evolved into a cohesive story, then a hit movie.

Some takeaways:

• You can file this in the Look For Inspiration In The World Around You category: Pixar director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) came up with the idea of telling a story dealing physicalizing the emotions of an adolescent girl based on his own experiences as a parent dealing with the radical personality shift of his daughter Elie. [By the way, she voiced Young Ellie in the movie Up].
• Pixar’s first pass at Joy’s personality was a big swing-and-miss as she came across as bossy and mean-spirited. Interestingly they had the same problem with the initial iteration of Woody in Toy Story which required them to retool the character.

• Joy’s initial ‘buddy’ was Fear, but as Docter explains in the video, that was a reflection of his own experience as a youth, how he was afraid of everything. Docter went for a walk — which you can see in the video — in which he realized the true opposite emotion of Joy is Sadness. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Inside Out conveys two powerful messages, especially relevant for children and adolescents. First, it’s okay to have feelings. Second, sadness is a necessary, even valuable emotion.

For more ‘Lessons from the Screenplay’ series, go here.