Look & Color Of Inside Out 2’s New Emotions Explained By Designer

Inside Out 2 production designer Jason Deamer has opened up about the look and color of the movie’s new emotions, explaining how they reflect their purpose in the film. The upcoming sequel to Pixar’s 2015 film sees Riley growing into a teenager, resulting in a variety of new, negative emotions appearing in her brain. After the new emotions bottle up the old ones, Joy and her friends embark on a quest to save Riley from her negative emotions.

Speaking for Pixar ahead of Inside Out 2‘s release, Deamer revealed the reasoning behind the look and color of the new emotions the movie introduces. The production designer explained how the designs were meant to mesh with those of the first movie, creating characters who seamlessly fit into the film while maintaining their own look and personalities. Check out what Deamer had to say below:

I wanted to make sure that we honored the visual canon of the first film when we revisited the world of ‘Inside Out’ for this second film.

ANXIETY is orange with electric shape language—tense and shaky. You always see the whites of her eyes and her feather-like hair betrays her constant movements.

EMBARRASSMENT is pink like blush with a soft and round shape to evoke his reticence and timidness. He’s a gentle giant, and unfortunately for him, he wants to hide but he’s hard to miss.

ENNUI has the posture of a limp noodle. She’s rarely interested enough to lift her own head.

ENVY is teal in color and a smaller, sprouting-mushroom shape to juxtapose against the rest of the cast. Naturally, she wishes she were taller and less childlike.

How Inside Out 2’s New Emotion Designs Add To The Story

The new emotions in Inside Out 2 correspond to Riley slowly growing up, having to deal with more complex situations, and learning more about how to tackle changes in her life. The newcomers to her mind are reflective of this stressful growth, with designs corresponding to each of their new additions to her feelings. With these new emotions taking over, their designs needed to be reflective of what they represent, better capturing the feelings their human is going through.

By having designs that visually reflect what each emotion is supposed to represent, the movie crafts a new team of feelings just as memorable as those introduced in the first film. This adds to their presence in Riley’s head, making their takeover of her emotional system all the more potent because of how easily they’re able to replace the original team. It also signifies how natural these emotions are for her as she grows up, meshing with the pre-established designs so well, it’s like they had always been part of her brain.

Since Riley’s new storyline in Inside Out 2 is all about going through puberty and learning to grow up, getting the designs of her new emotions to correlate with this story was an important feat. However, it’s clear from the design of Anxiety, Embarrassment, and the other newcomers that they will be core reflections of these changes she goes through. With plenty of adventure and thematic exploration left to be uncovered, the sequel is likely to continue tackling emotional development in a mature and stylized way.

Source: Pixar