If you thought Inside Out was responsible for all kinds of emotions, both on screen and in your tear ducts, you should see what else Pixar considered for Riley’s mind.
USA Today has an interview with Inside Out director Pete Doctor about the process the filmmakers went through whittling down all human emotions into the five we saw in the film—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear–as well as a look at the emotions that were under consideration that didn’t make it in.
The filmmakers consulted scientists on how many emotions are present in humans, with the answers ranging from zero to 17. Pixar’s own list went as high as 26 at one point. Now we have a look at actual concept art for some of the lost emotions, but there were even more that were under consideration that came close to making it into the actual film, like Pride, Despair, Depression, Schadenfreude, and Ennui.
Schadenfreude seems to be the one Doctor is most upset about losing. “When Schadenfreude says, ‘Your cries of pain amuse me’ it seems like dammit, why didn’t we use that? It gets laughs,” he said. While certainly funny, that might have been a difficult concept to explain to a child. “You know how when you fall down and Mommy laughs? That’s the emotion that makes me do that.”
So who came the closest to making the film? It looks like Pride and Hope were the final cuts. Considering those emotions, that must have really blindsided the both of them.
So let’s see some of the emotions that could have ended up in Riley’s head, and which emotions from the five in the film they might fall under.
Greed
Film emotions: Fear, Disgust, Anger, Sadness
Irritation
Film emotions: Anger, Disgust
Shame and Embarrassment
Film emotions: Sadness, Disgust, Fear
Gloom
Film Emotions: Sadness
Guilt
Film emotions: Sadness, Fear
Love
Film emotions: Joy
Love (Alternative)
Film emotions: Joy (And whatever is responsible for my nightmares. Yeesh.)
Envy/Greed
Film emotions: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Sadness
Hope
Film emotions: Joy
When you break them down like that you can start to see the actual process the filmmakers went through as they whittled down all human emotion into just the five they ended up with. Besides, where does it stop? If you have a character like Love, wouldn’t the obvious question be about where Hate is? It is also remarkable how much Joy actually covers from the human experience.
It also turns out that at one time Pixar was even considering giving the emotions actual names. So instead of Anger he would have been called Ira, and Fear would have been known as Freddy. “Saying, ‘Hey, Anger, come here!’ just seemed really weird to me at first. My thought was to be clever about it. We tried that for a while, but I was wrong. We backed off it,” said Doctor.
Head over to USA Today see a video, available on the Target Blu-ray of the film, on sale today, with some rough drawings and dialogue for some of those discarded emotions. Joy’s manipulation of Pride is particularly delightful.
What emotion do you most wish made it into the film? It would bring us great joy if you told us in the comments below.
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HT: USA Today
Images: Pixar
