Inside Out was an almost completely perfect film. Adolescents could relate to it. Adults could reminisce about it. Children who enjoy watching their parents burst into shuddering fits of tears for seemingly no reason also managed to get plenty out of it. This universal appeal was, in part, down to the well-balanced blend of emotions represented in the film.
There was Joy, there was Sadness, there were Fear and Anger and Disgust. However, a featurette included on the Inside Out DVD reveals that 26 emotions were initially considered for the film. Greed was one that didn’t make the cut, as were Hope, Guilt, Shame, Pride, Envy, Gloom, Despair and Embarrassment. Schadenfreude was even in the running, before he was hilariously kicked to the kerb, the idiot.
But Inside Out has been such a success that a sequel is inevitable, and with a sequel inevitably comes an expanded cast list. Because Riley will be older in Inside Out 2, and more susceptible to complex emotions, here are the characters we should be crossing our fingers to see.
Lust
In Inside Out 2, Riley will most likely be a teenager, so there’s a pretty good chance that the film’s plot will involve Lust – a perpetually masturbating 14-year-old boy voiced by Jonah Hill – forcefully gaining control of the control console in a bloodless coup and forcing Riley to exclusively see the world as a series of objects that she should rub against. Eventually, Riley reaches middle age, and Lust decides to share control with Sadness or, if she grows up to be a Daily Mail reader, Disgust.
Longing
Lust’s weak-kneed cousin, all Longing does is mope around the control console, obsessively writing her diary – dotting all the “i”s with little hearts – and seeing what her signature would look like if she ever married the boy she likes. Longing’s sole contribution to the plot of Inside Out 2 is the mixtape she makes for the other characters, but that’s immediately dismissed out of hand when they discover it’s just the song A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton repeated 12 times in a row.
Nostalgia
This won’t kick in for another decade, but it’s a big one. Dressed from head to toe like Screech from Saved by the Bell, Nostalgia speaks exclusively in dreadful social media soundbites. “Remember Blind Date?” he’ll shout at nobody in particular. “Remember when you had to fix cassette tapes with a pencil? Remember The Clangers? LOL! I’ve just thought of 26 things that you’ll only remember if you were born in the 1990s! LOLOLOL!” The film ends with all the other emotions tying Nostalgia up and pushing him out of Riley’s ear.
Idealism
As a teenager, Riley will come to believe that she’s the first person ever to think of several things that everyone else has known for centuries. Idealism will constantly rail against the evil of corporations and the way that advertising, like, manipulates the sheeple. He’ll do this in ways that are so tediously obvious that the other characters will do their best to avoid him at all cost. To be voiced by Banksy.
Torschlusspanik
A German mood, directly translating to “gate-closing panic”. It’s the sensation that life is simply a series of missed opportunities and that you’ll die having accomplished nothing. Chances are that Torschlusspanik will probably be Riley’s defining emotion for the rest of her life, so Pixar should probably hire a big name to do the voice.
