Warning: Some spoilers for Inside Out 2.

Inside Out 2 won over reviewers and became the first movie to rack up $1 billion at the box office in 2024, making the long-awaited sequel one of Pixar’s most successful movies of all time. Stars Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith are back as Joy and Sadness alongside a cast of other returning and new actors including Lewis Black, Tony Hale, and Maya Hawke. Despite being released a full nine years after the original movie, Inside Out 2 picks up with its just two years after the first film left off, following the journey of young girl Riley and her emotions into her teenage years.

To help tell the full story of Riley’s growing independence and her increased emotional palette, the filmmakers enlisted composer Andrea Datzman. A longtime Pixar collaborator, Datzman took cues from Michael Giacchino’s Inside Out score while incorporating new musical genres, leaning on rock elements to fit Riley’s high-octane environment of hockey camp. Datzman also notably contributed the catchy jingle for TripleDent gum that was featured in the first Inside Out.

In addition to scoring the events of Riley’s life, Datzman had the opportunity to musically match Inside Out 2’s new emotions and constructs. Specifically, she wrote a theme for Riley’s belief system, which is at the core of the movie, and found an effective way to compose music fitting for the movie’s most important new emotion, Anxiety. Speaking with Screen Rant, Datzman reflected on the process of scoring the movie, her favorite themes, and more.

Andrea Datzman’s Collaboration With Pixar Began Long Before Inside Out 2

Datzman’s relationship with Pixar dates back over 15 years, when she worked on her first of the studio’s projects in Ratatouille. She went on to work on Inside Out, Cars 2, and various other projects including the 2023 short Carl’s Date, which she scored. Datzman reflected on her history with Pixar, revealing a fun musical moment she contributed to Ratatouille even though she was not the film’s composer.

Andrea Datzman: I love working with Pixar. I’ve worked with them since 2007. It was my first job [after] I started working with Michael Giacchino. Here’s your Easter egg for Ratatouille–if you are watching and there’s a scene in Gusteau’s and there’s piano in the background, that’s something that I wrote. Then, I got to work with them in various ways over the years after that. I worked on Cars 2, Up, the original Inside Out, video game work, and then did general music consulting, so they just feel like family in a lot of ways.

Inside Out 2’s Score Was Influenced By A “Barbie VS Barb Wire” Roller Skate Event

Datzman credits a roller skating rink in Burbank with inspiring her to add rock music elements into her score for Inside Out 2. Unlike Riley, Datzman has never played hockey, but her experience at a “Barbie VS Barb Wire” event helped her find the perfect amount of adrenaline to infuse into her music. Datzman also cited one of the specific musicians she referenced when deciding how she wanted her score to sound.

Andrea Datzman: It was important to me that you get this physical sense of how Riley might be feeling. It’s easy to feel very heady about the emotions, but not how emotions necessarily feel in your body, or how Riley is feeling physically as she’s playing [hockey]. Hockey is scary, and there’s our Riley, who was a little person in the last movie. All of a sudden she’s out there just kicking butt.

I haven’t played hockey personally, so I wanted to get a sense of how that would feel. I went roller skating. I didn’t plan this as an informative trip, but I was out roller-skating at a “Barbie VS Barb Wire”-themed skate in a Burbank park, and the DJ was playing this awesome mix of psychobilly, metal, punk, and pop punk. It put me right into the idea of roller derby–the thought that you could spin out and thrash your knees. I wanted to touch into that world.

I also felt like the drums really did so much of the action lifting in a certain way. You could get a really driving bass, but that drum action you could get sort of Mickey Mouse-y about where you really hit action [moments]. You could have it stop on a dime, and feel like there’s a sense of clatter to it. That was a lot of fun.

Datzman Details Writing Music For Riley’s Inner World

Screen Rant’s Inside Out 2 review cited the film’s new emotions and belief system concept as high points, and those additions offered Datzman the chance to bring new thematic material to Riley’s inner world. One of Datzman’s favorite new contributions to Inside Out is her theme for Riley’s Belief System, which is worked into the overarching score in a number of exciting ways. The composer expanded on that, citing it as her favorite musical contribution to the franchise.

Andrea Datzman: The Sense Of Self theme meant a lot to me. In the Core Belief System, you’ve got this extended version of it, but I did a succinct version right at the beginning where you hear it in these different ways. You get minor and major, and you can play these themes in different ways, but then you get into the Core Belief System and get an extended version of it, where it’s broken out. With the Sense Of Self being made up from the Core Beliefs, maybe the Core Beliefs are [a series of short musical ideas], and all these individual parts come together to make our Riley, in the way that Joy says it in the film.

Another thing I had fun with down in the Core Belief System was that I recorded my voice mumble-speaking. I had inspiration thinking about Radiohead. “Everything In Its Right Place” has a reverse tape mumble that sort of sounds like this stream of consciousness in the back of your head. I was thinking about all these different voices that Riley has, these feelings about herself, like, “I’m a good person. I’m smart. I try hard,” and that those would be telegraphed in this way.

So, I recorded myself on different pitches mumbling like that, and put sort of a cathedral treatment on it, and that theme got to resonate in these different ways as Riley evolves in ways that are scary or disconcerting. You’ve got that theme all of a sudden falling apart and turning into this disjointed version, where it’s repeating over itself in a way where you feel like, “That’s not going well. There’s something wrong here.” Since it’s such a specific, small, recognizable piece, you can tell when it’s off.

Datzman further detailed how she crafted music to match the character of Anxiety.

Andrea Datzman: There were 10 new music elements that I brought in for this. Each new character got their own treatment or motif. It was [like] Peter and the Wolf, and had these very specific motifs for each thing. There was so much going on in this film that it was hard to keep everything sewn together. You’ve got Bloofy, Lance Slashblade, Ennui, and all these things. So they do all have their own music signatures. Anxiety definitely is the one that is the most versatile, and is versatile in our lives.

For that one, like all the emotions, I wanted it to be, like, “How does this feel in your body?” This zing to get your attention, and then a tapping on your shoulder, but then also attractive and persuasive. It’s like a little bolt of lightning that gets your attention and then somehow convinces you to listen in all these different ways and all these different variations. So, you start out in one way and then eventually it turns militaristic or tricky in different ways where it just is disjointed.

When you get to the end of the film and get inside of that panic attack moment–control moment–it’s this deconstruction of it. It’s this very tender little being inside of Riley that has this message they need to convey at all costs. For that, that alarm is just stuck on–it’s a solo violin, [playing an] A, repeating. I took that, and I put that through all these different processors. So, everything you hear there is just the A repeated, that alarm stuck on, and these different musical effects which take and sort of spray that effect. Some of it sounds like it’s an electrical signal gone wrong. Some of it sounds very washy and echo-y. That would be like that emotional message getting conveyed and skewed, and we don’t know what to be afraid of anymore, but everything is scary.

Inside of that, you’ve got this plucked piano with a very vulnerable message. It’s the stripped-down thing where you can finally talk to it. It’s made everything around it melt down, but you can actually finally see what the truth of it is.

Given the amount of intention behind Datzman’s score, it’s hardly a surprise that the composer initially tried to incorporate Morse code into the score’s rhythms, eventually coming up with her own interpretations of words like “Love”, “Riley”, and “Stress”.

Andrea Datzman: I had an early version of a theme… it does still exist within it, but down in the Core Belief System, it felt like each one of those core beliefs were telegraph wires. I brought up Morse code, and I was doing my rhythms in Morse code. I wanted to see if I could make the theme rhythm say things in ways that made sense, and have this sort of hidden Morse code within it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. It was a little disjointed. So, In the end, I didn’t go for the exact Morse code, but I decided that the rhythm was a Morse code of our own–our own rhythm of our message we were conveying.

Riley Should Travel In Inside Out 3, Says Datzman

Creating a follow-up to one of Screen Rant’s picks for the best movies of 2024 would be quite a task for Pixar, but Inside Out 2 prompts questions of where audiences might see Riley next. With the advent of Riley’s teenage years facilitating the introduction of powerful new emotions, the possibilities are endless when it comes to future adventures for the character. In Datzman’s eyes, one concept in particular is brimming with possibilities.

Andrea Datzman: I would like to see Riley travel. That would be a really cool thing, if we could see Riley train travel through Europe. Or maybe she makes the US hockey team and goes on a world tour, so she gets to learn all sorts of new things that way. That would be really cool, and then you could see how broadened perspective works. I think so much changes when you do get to see the outside world in a bigger way. You get to see how people in different countries react to a sense of space. How personal space is different… or different cuisines would be wonderful–getting to try different things out.

Datzman Reflects On The Emotional Journeys Inside Out 2 Might Inspire

Inside Out 2 is arguably even more relatable for adults than the first movie was, which is especially fitting given that viewers who saw Inside Out in theaters have aged nine years. Thanks to Anxiety and the other new characters, Inside Out 2 offers a more layered and nuanced interpretation of what goes on inside our minds. Given that, Datzman reflects on how she hopes the experience of watching Inside Out 2’s story impacted her.

Andrea Datzman: What became very clear for me was that all the emotions are about love, regardless of their approach. The thing that was empowering for me with Riley’s story was going on this journey with her and all those different emotions, because the story is about understanding that you can’t use control with any of those emotions. You can’t say, “I’m not going to feel this one.” [It’s about] understanding what its message is for you.

When asked what she hopes people will take away from the movie, Datzman said the following:

Andrea Datzman: What I hope people take away is compassion for themselves. For me, the major message is that trying to control how you feel is going to backfire. In order to be the best and most present version of yourself, understanding that you are who you are and that you’re going to make mistakes–and having compassion for that person–makes you more resilient. Resilience and compassion are what I would love for people to feel for themselves.

About Inside Out 2

Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 invites moviegoers inside the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as Headquarters undergoes a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions.

Also check out our other Inside Out 2 interviews:

• Amy Poehler & Maya Hawke
• Tony Hale & Liza Lapira
• Lewis Black & Paul Walter Hauser
• Kelsey Mann & Mark Nielsen

Inside Out 2 is in theaters now.