In Pixar’s recently revealed plot details for its next animated feature Inside Out, a young girl named Riley suddenly moves from the Midwest to San Francisco where her father has landed a new job (perhaps at Pixar?). In her transition, she must deal with the onslaught of emotions: joy, anger, fear, disgust, and sadness. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Pixar film without a special twist; these emotions are individual character that live in “Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life.” So far the voice actors include Amy Poehler (Joy), Bill Hader (Fear), Lewis Black (Anger), Mindy Kaling (Disgust), and Phyllis Smith (Sadness). The film will be released on June 19, 2015.
Because Pixar recently pushed back the release date for its other upcoming film The Good Dinosaur to November 25, 2015 (after its original director Bob Petersen departed the project) the animation company will not release feature film this year. Pixar had previously released a film every year since 2006’s Cars. Finding Dory, the long-awaited sequel to the Oscar-winning Finding Nemo, will follow on June 17, 2016, and afterwards an untitled project from director Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3), though no release date for that project has been announced.
As we covered in the past, Bob Petersen’s exit from The Good Dinosaur is not the first of recent setbacks for Pixar. Beginning with the replacement of Brave director Martha Chapman with Mark Andrews, the company also laid off nearly 5% of its California staff because of its delaying The Good Dinosaur and shut down its office in Vancouver last year. Even the last three films from Pixar (Cars 2, Brave, Monster’s University) have generally been regarded as inferior to its more lauded works. Nevertheless, Inside Out seems like an ambitious story, and the past successes of its director Pete Doctor (Up, Monsters Inc.) and screenwriter Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Little Miss Sunshine), both Oscar winners, should elicit high expectations.
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