Kelsey Mann was scanning some old photos when he came to a series of pictures from his childhood birthdays – and was struck by what he saw.
“I was five, and it’s my birthday, and I’m sitting there in front of my cake … I think it was the smile and the joy on my face that made me stop,” says the director of Inside Out 2.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, I am really enjoying the hell out of this moment’. Then I turned eight, and my smile went down. I turned 11; it went down even further. Then 13, and I’m just staring at this cake, wishing I was anywhere but there.
“So I thought, ‘What the hell happened?’ ”
Inside Out 2 | Official Trailer
Inside Out had been a huge hit for Pixar in 2015. The comedy about 11-year-old Riley’s emotions, led by Joy, struggling to find balance within her grossed more than US$850 million and won the animated feature Oscar.