Inside Out's Deleted Characters Were Too Dark For Kids

Pixar's "Inside Out" offers an insightful window into the complicated emotions of childhood. Of course, those inner complexities are boiled down to a specific selection of feelings, including Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, and Joy. While a good way to tell the story, it's no secret that real life involves a lot more than this quintet of feelings. It's a fact that the creatives at Pixar are well aware of, which is why they considered a smorgasbord of additional members to Riley's in-head team before giving them the axe — often because they were too dark or complex for the lighter, family-friendly tone of the film.

According to the film's director, Pete Docter (via USA Today), some of the candidates that were nixed during development included Despair, Depression, Envy, Pride, and Irritation. Greed and Gloom were also contenders who didn't make the cut. Alongside Joy, Love was also considered, as well as Hope. In fact, Hope and Pride were the longest-running candidates who didn't make the final list.

Some of the emotions got really deep (and dark), too. Schadenfreude, the feeling of enjoying the experience of watching others suffer, was one of these. Ennui, the emotional reaction of dissatisfaction or listlessness, was also involved for a bit.

One question that Docter and his team had from the get-go was how many emotions there are in the first place. The answer was surprisingly elusive, with Docter explaining that the supposedly scientific concept is anything but nailed down. Some scientists that they consulted with explained that there were 17 official emotions. Others kept the number closer to the film's five, while still others claimed the entire concept of emotions isn't real.

The lack of a single answer was a blessing in disguise. It freed up the Pixar storytelling team to make up their own mind, which led to the lengthy list already discussed. In fact, 26 different emotional elements were ultimately considered for the film. In the end, though, Docter made the tough call to dramatically reduce that number to the final five. This kept the story streamlined and simpler to tell. Many of the more nuanced feelings also overlapped with one another, making it easier to incorporate them into the remaining characters.

Five emotions was a good starting point to establish a childlike and trustful 11-year-old narrative for "Inside Out." It left the room to explore the concept and properly introduce and develop Riley and her parents, too. Now that the foundation is laid, the film's highly anticipated sequel, which takes place when Riley is 13 years old, is set to expand the emotional headcount right in time for puberty.

The film's trailer already introduced Anxiety (voiced by "Stranger Things'" Maya Hawke). The new character ends the clip with the foreboding line, "We wanted to make such a good first impression." The line indicates that there are a lot more emotionally charged individuals coming down the pike. The final seconds of the trailer include the line "the feel good movie of 2024" where the word "good" flips through a menagerie of other feeling-focused words, including "embarrassed," "envy," and the surprising re-addition of "ennui." 

After the trailer dropped, Pixar came right out and confirmed that Embarrassment, Envy, Anxiety, and Ennui will be officially joining the lineup for the new film. While it's a restrained number of additions considering the range of options available, it's interesting that all of these — and Ennui, in particular — were chosen. Apparently, Pixar has decided that some of the bleaker emotions aren't too dark for family-friendly viewing, after all.