It’s genuinely pretty strange to think that Pixar — ye vaunted Pixar — is in a rebuilding phase, but it’s true: After back-to-back billion-dollar hits with Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4, the COVID-19 pandemic really fucked with the studio. All of their original titles (which were their critical bread and butter as well as a chance to mint new IP) received truncated theatrical releases or were shunted off onto streaming, and their return to theaters with Lightyear in 2022 was anything but valiant. That flopped critically and commercially, but their last feature, Elemental, was less of a failure than initially reported — it doubled Lightyear‘s gross and was a hit overseas, even if it landed with a thud domestically.
So what’s the move, Pixar? Well, if you’re Disney, the move is to punt the next original title — a movie about aliens called Elio — to 2025 and hype up the fact that you’re making Inside Out 2. You could subtitle it “Anxious Boogaloo,” because it’s all about stressing the fuck out, as this trailer that Disney dropped on Thursday morning shows.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis that also doubles as a cast list:
“Disney and Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’ returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone. Maya Hawke lends her voice to Anxiety, alongside Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Tony Hale as Fear, and Liza Lapira as Disgust.”
Well, that’s kind of weird — Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling didn’t show up for round two. Pixar’s normally pretty good about retaining their original voice actors for sequels, so who knows what’s up with this?
Anyhow, Inside Out 2 will hit theaters on June 14. If this thing isn’t a smash hit domestically, it might be time to press the panic button.