At a recent Q&A, Inside Out‘s Pete Docter revealed what Disney classic inspires him, and why animation is more fascinating to him than live-action.
“Inside Out?” we hear you ask. “Didn’t that premiere months ago?”
Yes and no. Hypable recently attended the national premiere of Pixar’s latest hit in Denmark, which featured a Q&A with director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera.
While they couldn’t discuss the movie itself for obvious reasons (and we’re sure our European readers will appreciate the lack of spoilers, as many of them are still waiting for the premiere), Pixar fans will be interested to learn a bit about which Disney classics have influenced Docter’s work, and whether or not the prolific storyteller would ever consider moving into the live-action genre.
Here are the five most interesting reveals from Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera’s Inside Out panel:
‘Inside Out’s’ emotions can be likened to ‘Snow White’s’ dwarves
When Docter explained the challenge of creating the emotion characters, he referenced one of Disney’s earliest movies, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
“Those characters are all so clear as to who they are,” Docter said, “and this film, this concept, seemed to offer the same opportunity.”
In the 1937 classic, Snow White meets seven dwarves, whose names reflect their main characteristics. There’s Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Sneezy, and Bashful. Inside Out‘s four emotions are, to a certain extent, re-imaginings of those one-dimensional characters (albeit with more screentime, and opportunities to develop individual complexities).
Rivera went on to discuss the design of the characters, and the challenge of creating visual representations of how we feel. “Sadness is kind of like a teardrop, Joy is like a star, and Disgust is the shape of broccoli,” he explained. “We looked at elements and shapes that reminded us of what that [emotion] would be, and they kind of took that form.”
Pete Docter is forever inspired by ‘Dumbo’
The moderator of the panel pointed out that Inside Out appears to be a simple story, but is in fact very complex, and asked if this was an indication that Pixar might start making more complicated stories.
But in Docter’s opinion, it’s quite the opposite. “We try to make [the movies] as simple as we can,” he mused. “We try to have an elegant simplicity: It seems fairly straight-forward, but underneath all of that, there is depth. That’s our goal. And,” he confessed, “I think sometimes we fall short of that.”
When looking for inspiration, Docter and his team go back to the stories they grow up with, namely Disney’s Dumbo. “[It is] such an elegant, simple story, and yet has such emotional depth to it,” Docter said. “And that’s kind of what we’re always striving to do.”
Yes, there is a ‘Good Dinosaur’ cameo in the movie
Eagle-eyed fans have already spotted this one, but it’s nice to have confirmation from the filmmakers themselves! When asked what the audience should look out for in Inside Out, Rivera said, “If you look close, you might find somebody that you’ll see later in the Good Dinosaur. Keep your eyes open!”
The character he’s referring to is Arlo, who shows up (in model form) in Riley’s flashback to San Francisco.
Rivera also revealed that the infamous Pizza Planet truck from Toy Story shows up a total of three times in the movie.
Animation continues to fascinate Pete Docter
Having directed three original, wildly successful movies for Pixar (the other two being Up and Monsters Inc.), one might wonder if Docter might be flirting with the idea of transitioning to live-action filmmaking.
But although Docter admitted that, “There are ideas that I’ve had that I think would be better suited for live action,” he’s content with staying at Pixar for the time being.
“To me, there’s a real magic to animation,” Docter said. “Everything [you see in Inside Out], you know with one part of your brain that that’s all fake. None of it exists, it’s all pretend. And yet, if we do our job right, we can get you to laugh and to cry — I mean, that’s amazing, that you would invest emotionally enough to cry about something that’s completely fake (laughs). I don’t know, I find that really fascinating.”
They’re already working on the next big thing
Although the upcoming Pixar slate is looking pretty sequel-heavy, Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera are going back to the drawing-board, working out new ideas.
“We’re gonna go back to Pixar and go back into development on another film,” Rivera teased, adding that it’ll be a long time coming (but it’ll be worth it). “Maybe five, maybe four, maybe 10 years. We’re excited to get back to work.”
Let’s hope Docter doesn’t break his original concept streak, because so far, his work has been incredible.