One of Pixar’s best movies, Inside Out, allowed audiences to go inside the mind of 11-year-old Riley and meet five personified emotions: Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust,and Sadness. With the sequel showing a now-teenage Riley, that meant the development of new emotions arises. However, Pixar artist Crystal Kung revealed three emotions in development for Inside 2 that didn’t make the cut.
The Pixar sequel Inside Out 2 introduces new emotions of a teenage Riley that take up space in her head, like Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment and Envy. With so many emotions that can shape a human being, Pixar Character Designer Crystal Kung talked about the three emotions in development for the sequel that ended up being left out. Check out one Instagram post below of an emotion we feel when we regret doing something:
You guessed it, Guilt was one of the original emotions. It’s incredibly creative that the purple character was either going to be attached to a metal chained ball or a heavy emotional backpack. It’s like the weight of the world is resting on their shoulders which is absolutely what guilt feels like.
This next emotion in these Instagram photos is what we feel when we believe something is wrong:
Yep, Suspicion was going to be another one. It’s perfect that we see her in different sketches looking like a sleuth in her trench coat, a high-rise turtleneck or having multiple pairs of eyes. She would have been fun to watch constantly theorizing everyone’s every move and being an overthinker. This character would have been perfect if Inside Out 2 was centered on a crime or a mystery.
A third emotion that was pushed to the side was what we feel when we’re in a joyful daze:
Awe was an emotion that Crystal Kung admitted in her caption that was really fun to draw. I can understand that as we see a wide-eyed emotion either as a “cute chubby baby,” a “positive surfing dude,” or even a “Young Keanu Reeves.” I would have loved to see The Matrix actor give this one a spin!
With so many emotions to explore, having too many in one movie would have been just as overwhelming for an audience as it would for Riley. Filmmakers for Inside Out 2 originally tried to bring back a cut emotion called “Schadenfreude,” which is an ugly emotion that takes pleasure from others' misfortunes, but they ultimately couldn’t find a place for that emotion in the sequel.
Then, they were going to have Joy feel overwhelmed with a dozen emotions in Riley's mind until director Kelsey Mann himself was overwhelmed at the idea of keeping track of so many. Since being a teenager is all about being self-conscious, it made much more sense for the Inside Out 2 filmmakers that the new emotions like Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment and Envy personify that. Plus, it helps that an “advisory group” of teenage girls worldwide was credited for making the Pixar sequel as authentic as it was for giving input on what teenage girls feel.
Guilt, Suspicion and Awe may not have made it in Inside Out 2, but it was entertaining enough to see the animated characters that might have been. Still, if plans for a third movie come into being, maybe we can hope that these scrapped emotions can find their way in there. You can see Riley’s new self-conscious emotions come to life in the 2024 movie release of Inside Out 2 in theaters now.
