Inside Out 2's Cut Emotion Spoils A Pixar Movie Trope We've Loved Since Toy Story 2

Summary Pixar fans rely on the studio's trend of tackling difficult topics, making Inside Out 2's cut of an emotion disappointing.

Removing the emotion of Shame from Inside Out 2 may hinder the franchise's ability to authentically explore challenging themes.

Inside Out 2 needs to address difficult topics to follow in Pixar's successful footsteps and reconnect with audiences of all ages.

By cutting one of Riley's emotions, Inside Out 2 spoils a trend Pixar fans have come to respect in the studio's movies since Toy Story 2. The Inside Out sequel will document the next big stage of Riley's life, featuring the overarching protagonist's adolescence and how she copes with the onslaught of new emotions that come with growing older. Whereas her emotional headquarters only harbored anthropomorphic emotions such as Joy, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness, Riley has to adjust to the arrival of new emotions, including Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui, voiced by an updated Inside Out 2 cast.

Riley was a child when the Inside Out franchise began, but her story touches viewers of all ages and backgrounds as Inside Out explores the best and worst of human emotion through her. Inside Out is especially effective because of the ingenious way it characterizes Riley's emotions, accentuating its happiest moments while padding its most heartbreaking with vividly cute and hilarious characters that help render the complicated inner workings of her mind. However, by scrapping one of Riley's new emotions in Inside Out 2, the franchise will hinder itself and the one Pixar trend that never fails with fans.

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Inside Out 2 Cutting An Emotion Ignores What Makes Pixar Movies Great (& Unique)

Pixar's Ability To Tackle Difficult Topics Is What Makes It So Special

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The sequel's director, Kelsey Mann, recently admitted that the new emotion Shame was scrapped from Inside Out 2 because the character was "not fun to watch." Mann's declaration and action against Shame is fair, considering that Inside Out 2 is responsible for its typically young audience and their enjoyment, yet utterly ignores what makes Pixar movies so great. Shame's removal makes it easy for Inside Out 2 to avoid tackling a difficult topic, which is uncharacteristic of the Pixar movies that have effectively tackled heavy concepts for decades in moments that remain near and dear to fans of any age.

Take, for example, Pixar's earliest, most distressing moment - when Toy Story 2 shows Jessie enjoying life with her owner before being abandoned on the roadside in a donation box. The scene was absolutely devastating but essential in heightening the movie's core narrative, which in Toy Story's case was the power of a found family. The same sentiment holds for other harrowing Pixar moments, like Toy Story 4's incinerator scene, Bing-Bong's death in Inside Out, Up's intro, and so on; Pixar moments might be heavy or centered around difficult topics but are iconic for depicting authentic stories that mirror real life.

Would Shame REALLY Have Been Too Far For Inside Out 2?

Shame Is Not As Difficult As Topics Pixar Has Handled Before

There's no doubt that shame is a complicated emotion that has the potential to generate debilitating feelings and circumstances. However, it is still surprising that shame is where Inside Out 2 would draw the line when Pixar has tackled similarly difficult conceptions like abandonment, loss, rejection, and the like. Even more surprising is that Mann once tackled the ever-distressing topic of death, among several more troubling themes, when he teamed up with other writers to pen the story for the 2015 Pixar film The Good Dinosaur.

When likened to other sad Pixar movie moments, particularly the ones written by Mann previously, Inside Out 2's hesitance with shame seems unwarranted.

The Good Dinosaur follows an Apatosaurus named Arlo, who witnesses his father's death and loses his way from home in the movie's first thirty minutes. When likened to other sad Pixar movie moments, particularly the ones written by Mann previously, Inside Out 2's hesitance with shame seems unwarranted. It wouldn't be impossible for Inside Out 2 to mitigate Riley's shame with an uplifting ending and a truly authentic story, just as The Good Dinosaur tempered Arlo's circumstances by having him find his way home, feel closer to his family than ever, and make a new friend by the film's conclusion.

Inside Out 2 Needs To Fix Pixar's Recent Problems (But Now We're Worried)

Holding Back On Difficult Topics Could Hinder Inside Out 2

Holding back from addressing hard topics could be Inside Out 2's downfall, especially because Riley will be entering a very difficult period of life. Inside Out was a $857.6 million success (via Box Office Mojo) not only because it entertained children but because it was relatable to audiences of all ages and followed in line with Pixar's tried and true trend of tackling compelling, albeit difficult, topics. If Inside Out 2 turns out to be an oversimplified, peppy animation, it may not attract as big of a following and fail to fix Pixar's recent problems.

Pixar's last movie, Elemental, made considerably less at $496.4 million worldwide.

It may be unfair to put Inside Out 2 up to the challenge, but the sad truth about Pixar is that it's been struggling with consistency lately, and the Inside Out franchise could help to put the studio back on track. Compared to classic films of Pixar's past, movies like Lightyear, Elemental, and Turning Red have proven that the studio has been short of quality, interest, and box office highs. If Inside Out 2 reproduced the success of the first movie, it could repair Pixar's problems, but already, it seems to be straying from what made Inside Out so good.

Source: Box Office Mojo