An emotion was deleted from Vice-Versa 2: “It was too heavy”

In Riley's brain, the dashboard grew bigger because more emotions had to fit on it.

“Make room for new emotions”advises us the American poster of Vice-Versa 2. Indeed, now that Riley is a teenager, she will be overwhelmed by all kinds of new feelings. In addition to Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale replaces Bill Hader in original version) and disgust (Liza Lapira succeeds Mindy Kaling), the young girl will see land in her mind Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Boredom (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser).

Here is how they are described by Pixar:

Anxiety will turn everything upside down at Headquarters, and even beyond. A true ball of energy, Anxiety will enthusiastically ensure that Riley can prepare for any eventuality.
Envy always finds a way to achieve its ends. She systematically looks with jealousy at what others have and is not afraid to claim it;
Ennui doesn't care about anything. Jaded and lethargic, with a well-practiced eye roll, she adds – depending on her mood of the moment – a perfect dose of adolescent apathy to Riley's personality;
Embarrass is more of a discreet type, which is not easy when you have the appearance of a strong guy with a bright pink complexion.

Pixar presents the new emotions of Vice-Versa 2, voiced by Maya Hawke, Adèle Exarchopoulos… (trailer)

Director Kelsey Mann tells more at The Wrap about all these upheavals. Had you noticed that the dashboard that controls the heroine's brain had grown between the first opus released in 2015 at the cinema and this sequel expected this summer? He who worked on Monsters Academy And Ahead explains that they have also changed their format, going from 1.85:1 to a wider ratio of 2.35:1. Its producer, Mark Nielsen, adds that 150 animators worked on this animated film – a record at Pixar.

It must be said that the challenge was significant, Vice-Versa 2 having suffered the full brunt of the pandemic, then the writers' and actors' strike, which meant that they exceptionally had to work for a long time without having recorded any dialogue. Mann adds that “animation technologies have evolved so much”that those of the first film were obsolete.

“We were told it would take us a whole year just to bring Joy back!”he exclaims, supported by Nielsen who specifies: “They had used technology that is now abandoned for the first one, which means that the whole system for creating lights and shadows, for example, had changed. And we had to make sure that the sequel resembled the memory of the first one.”

No shame

The article then details that at the start, another emotion should have been part of the story: Shame. She had been imagined all gray and perpetually trying to hide by Jason Deamer, designer of many Pixar characters. The problem, “she wasn't fun, everything that was happening with her was too heavy”justifies Mann about his ouster from Vice-Versa 2 :

“You see when you watch a movie and you say to yourself: 'Man, this is a great feature film', but at the same time you know that you won't really want to see him again? There are works in this genre. I don't want my films to be like that. I want to create meaningful ones, but when you ask yourself: 'Would I want to watch it again?'I would like the answer to be: 'Downright !' My favorite films are like that, so logically, that's what I want to do. With this character, I didn't want to come back to it, it wasn't fun to explore.”

Dr. Dacher Kelter, who helped the team design the new characters'Inside Out 2 details that in addition, “Shame is not a real emotion. It's something that can happen to us in life, but not to everyone. While we all feel anxiety, it was better to eplore that It seemed more important to me to talk about her than to deliver a message like: 'Don't shame yourself.' It was a bit preachy. While anxiety is needed in some way, it is not a 100% negative emotion.”

Deamer adds: “I don't miss Shame, even though I liked his appearance. And then, there are still elements in the film (which the team had designed around it). This film is about the feeling of not being good enough, of thinking that you are not doing well enough. Of course, when we talk about this discomfort, there is shame, that's part of it.”

A battle of emotions

Deamer goes on to explain that if they had kept Shame, or Guilt, also under consideration, then “we should have created a villain story for him”, Whereas in Vice-Versa 2they ultimately preferred to explore the group idea.

“What we found funny about these new characters was the idea that they were a kind of new generation of emotions, says Nielsen. I believe it was Amy Poehler who said: 'These guys are the Gen Z of emotions.' (…) We found a good way to dramatize this, to pit them against each other.”

Dr. Keltner confirms, recalling that in the first part, Joie was a kind of antagonist without wanting to. It was his unwavering enthusiasm that ended up causing problems for the group. There, the relationship between the different emotions will work differently, and she supervised this new dynamic.

“I remember saying to myself: “At that age, you have a kind of internal battle inside you,” Mann recalls. This idea spoke to me a lot. I remember writing 'Internal battle' before surrounding it. I looked at this circle and said to myself: 'It's cool, it's different… What if we made these two groups face each other?' It seemed realistic to us, because as teenagers, you really feel this struggle in your head, and you don't talk about it to anyone. We tell ourselves : 'I'm the only one who feels this way.' What better way to address this subject than to show them in battle on the big screen, so people no longer feel alone? That’s when they wanted to make a film about it.”

Vice-Versa 2 will be released in theaters on June 19. Here is its trailer:

Pete Docter: “Vice Versa is the most ambitious project in Pixar's history”