‘Good stories’ key to success for creators of ‘Inside Out’

Inside Out, the latest animation film from Disney Pixar will have children on the edge of their seats when it opens in cinemas next week. It received its Irish premiere at last week’s Film Fleadh, when adults too were charmed by the story of Riley, an 11-year-old, transiting from childhood to adulthood and also coping with being uprooted from her Minnesota home as her patents move to San Francisco for work reasons.

But although the film is about Riley, she isn’t its central character, explains Inside Out’s creator and director, Pete Docter who attended the Fleadh screening at the Eye on Saturday with its producer, Jonas Rivera, following it with a series of media interviews.

The two work with California’s Pixar Animation Studios, where Pete’s previous credits include Monster and Up.

In Inside Out, he has gone inside Riley’s head to explore its inhabitants – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. These five emotions, based in ‘Mission Control’ are the stars, especially Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith).

Inside Out was inspired by Pete’s experience of his daughter entering adolescence. There were also elements from his own childhood – his family moved to Denmark when Peter was the same age as Riley.

This is a wildly imaginative story where Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust create colourful memory balls that ultimately go into Riley’s long-term memory bank, set in a strange, surreal landscape. Joy dominates Riley’s early years, and is determined to stay at the controls to ensure happy memories.

But when Joy and Sadness are locked out of the command centre, Riley’s emotions go into freefall. We see her in her new home in a grey San Francisco, where she is afraid, disgusted, and often very angry. The end brings resolution and an acceptance that there is no entirely happy-ever-after life, but it’s done in a wholesome, sweet way.

“I start with what would be entertaining to me. Then I pitch it at work to three or four other people at the beginning,” says Pete of the process.

One of those people is Jonas Rivera. The pair previously worked together on 2009’s Up, which won an Oscar for Best Animation.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.