FIRST LOOK

First Look: Pixar's 'Inside Out' Characters from the Mind of Pete Docter

by Alex Billington
August 9, 2013
Source: SlashFilm

Inside Out takes you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind. Another one of the big reveals at Disney's D23 Expo taking place this weekend is a first look at the actual characters from Pete Docter's new Pixar movie Inside Out, slated for release in 2015. That pitch about the story taking place inside the mind is all they've revealed about this movie—until now. In addition to revealing a first look at the five main characters, which are emotions personified and colorfied, the voice cast for the animated feature was announced including Bill Hader, Amy Poehler and Lewis Black. See below.

The story is being told from the perspective of the emotions inside the mind of a little girl named Riley, age 11. She is a "happy, adventurous kid" from Minnesota who loves hockey, but then her family moves to San Francisco (home of Pixar!) and so begins the real emotional adventure. Here are the various characters we'll meet playing her five key emotions: the little pink guy is Fear, the blue girl with glasses is Sadness, the fairy-esque yellow one is Joy, the green one is Disgust and the short little red guy is Anger (obviously). Here's a look at the character imagery revealed to the public today - D23 Expo attendees watched footage.

The voices (left to right): Bill Hader as Fear, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Amy Poehler as Joy, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, and Lewis Black as Anger. Most of this casting is almost too obvious, with Black being a prominent voice of anger on television/in comedy already. But I trust in Pixar and I have a feeling this is only our first look at all the different characters we'll meet in this movie. The footage from D23 showed Joy, the "most important" character, at controls inside of Riley's consciousness "seen as a screen, with memories stored on racks." All the memories in her mind's "headquarters" are connected by the "Train of Thought".

This is where things get a bit crazier. One scene they describe takes place in four different areas: "the real world, and in the heads of the mother, father and daughter." Each one has all five of the emotions, but the emotions act differently based on their feelings. For example, her father's emotions are watching hockey because they're bored. As an argument at the dinner table heats up, the emotions get into a frenzy and the father decides to "'bring down the foot' which they treat like the release of a nuclear bomb." Starting to get the picture? This one may be hard to describe without the visuals, but it's unquestionably a unique concept.

Our friend Peter Sciretta from SlashFilm only tweeted: "Inside Out looks nuts. excited". About as much can be said for something that is so hard to describe, but this sounds like a Pixar creation that will be unlike anything we've seen before, from Pixar or elsewhere. From director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) and producer Jonas Rivera (Up), Pixar's Inside Out will go inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl to explore how memories are formed and how a mixture of five emotions—Joy, Disgust, Anger, Fear and Sadness—define life experiences. Arrives in theaters summer 2015. Read more about the D23 footage on SlashFilm.

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