Yesterday, while at the computer graphics convention Siggraph, where early Pixar short films dazzled attendees (“Andre and Wally B” premiered at the convention way back in 1987), the Hollywood Reporter stopped and asked Pixar titan Pete Docter about his next feature for the studio—2015’s “Inside Out.” He offered minor—but still tantalizing—details about a film that has been described to us as “wildly ambitious,” even by Pixar standards. Docter told THR that it was “one of the most challenging stories I’ve ever had to put together.”
The movie, whose specifics are still being kept tightly under wraps, takes place almost entirely within the mind of an 11-year-old girl. The main characters are the emotions that exist inside her head—things like anger, sadness and joy. Based on this logline alone, it sounds like an insane mixture of Maurice Sendak‘s beloved children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Cranium Command,” a starry, 17-minute-long animated short film/attraction that opened in the Wonders of Life Pavilion at EPCOT Center in Orlando, Florida, in the fall of 1989, and took place inside a young person’s mind. But as Docter explains, it’s far weirder.
“One story is hard enough,” Docter said. “This is two stories that need to talk to each other.” When asked to describe the visual approach to the film, Docter said, “The characters are created with this energy because we are trying to represent what emotions would look like. They are made up of particles that actually move. Instead of being skin and solid, it is a massive collection of energy.” Say what? It sounds cool, though we wonder how the licensing department will turn those characters into video game sprites, action figures, and dolls. Well, there’s always “Cars 3” we suppose….
Boasting that the film “takes advantage of what animation can do,” Docter’s “Inside Out” will be released on June 19th, 2015.
