Pixar Animation Studios Inside out 2 takes audiences back into the mind of a young girl named Riley, going beyond the scope of Pete Docter’s original 2015 film. The sequel, directed by Forward‘s Kelsey Mann, takes Riley back to her teenage years, adding new emotional characters and the physical manifestation of her sense of self as she navigates major changes in her life.
But beyond the drama Riley experiences surrounding her friends and her social ambitions, the new Pixar film also features one of the best jokes about video game characters since. Tron.
(Ed. remark: This post contains some spoilers for Inside out 2.)
Image: Disney/Pixar
About half an hour into the movie, Joy (Amy Poehler) and the rest of the original Inside out emotions – fear, anger, disgust and sadness – enter a deep, dark vault of secrets, where they confront the manifestations of some of the things Riley has locked inside herself. This includes Bloofy, a Bluey-like character from a children’s cartoon that Riley still secretly, embarrassingly loves, and a large, shadowy character known as Deep Dark Secret.
But more importantly, the vault contains Lance Slashblade, a melodramatic video game character Riley knows from the universe’s equivalent of Super Smash Bros. Riley has a huge crush on him, but he is locked in the vault because despite his warm-hearted attitude, he is good looking, Lance has one of the weakest power attacks in his game, making Riley feel ashamed for liking him so much.
With his pixelated anime-style hair, enormous sword and comically serious voice (provided by veteran video game voice actor Yong Yea), Lance seems to fit right in with a range of Final Fantasy characters. And he’s definitely the kind of character a 13-year-old would be embarrassingly in love with, after only knowing him from a team game. (That was Mart in Super Smash Bros. Melee for me.) According to director Kelsey Mann, Lance was the brainchild of story artist McKenna Harris.
Image: Disney/Pixar
“They came up with this great idea of falling in love,” Mann told Polygon at a junket ahead of the film’s release. ‘At this age I was in love with cartoon characters, and you don’t really want to talk about that. We came up with the idea (…) and we got so excited.”
Harris told Polygon in a later interview that to create the character, they delved deep into their 13-year-old secrets. As avid gamers, they were drawn to what they call “mysterious figures” such as Cloud Strife Final fantasy 7 or Auron in Axel from Kingdom Hearts.
“However, I distinctly remember that among all my high school friends, I didn’t know anyone who liked these games, knew who these characters were, much less would admit to having feelings about these characters,” says Harris. “So I was immediately pitching, ‘What if Riley is in love with a video game character? That might be fun.’ It came from a very authentic place.”
All of the vault characters – Bloofy, Deep Dark, and Lance – came to fruition after the filmmakers’ initial brainstorm about Riley’s repressed secrets.
“I signed all three,” says Mann. “And Lance was always there. We always knew he would be a warrior. Someone says, ‘He should have a giant sword. Huge. ”
As the storyboards progressed, story artist Jeff Cole asked Harris for input on Lance’s design, as he was unfamiliar with the touch points needed for an “emo pretty boy.” So Harris focused on three specific comments.
“He needs fantastic hair, impractical armor and Maybelline-esque beauty,” says Harris.
Image: Disney/Pixar
Lance’s visual look definitely has a lot of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. But what makes it stand out isn’t just its design; it’s also the way he moves and how he looks in relation to the rest of his clothes. Inside out 2‘s world. His gestures and gait are a bit janky and stilted, like an old video game. (Or like some of the 8-bit inspired characters in Wreck it Ralph.) Even though he’s an epic warrior, he’s limited by the retro video game he comes from.
Animator David Torres tells Polygon that the animation team had to deliberately lower their visual standards to create Lance. That meant keeping the frame rate lower, emphasizing minimal movement and animation, and requiring Lance to hold poses longer than the other characters.
“One of the things we knew we had to do was that Real The hardest thing for an animator who has been at Pixar for so many years is to make things sink in, to make things look a little grittier,” says Torres. “Take the ponytail for example. We wanted to feel like the wind is always blowing through Lance’s hair and clothes – but that ponytail is going through his sword, or through his shoulder.”
Instead of using Pixar’s typical simulation software, the animators had to key in Lance’s hair by hand. Likewise, many of the other textures on Lance were applied by hand, to ensure he looked distinctive. Torres worked briefly in games before switching to animation, and mentions the time he worked on it Metroid Prime as a major influence on Lance’s ultimate look. But another big part of why Lance looks particularly specific to the PlayStation 2 era was the attempt to make him look unique and out of place, especially since video game animation has come so far.
“We probably had to go back at least 20 years to get to the quality we were looking at,” Torres says. “We just had to make some creative decisions to say: Okay, we really need to separate him from the world.”
Image: Disney/Pixar
But what really seals the deal is Lance Slashblade’s perfectly melodramatic voiceover. Yong Ja (Like a dragon: infinite wealth, Person 3 Reload), an experienced voice actor in video games, knew the specific atmosphere the character needed: deep, overly serious and dramatic. From the moment he read the material for his audition, Yea noticed one major anime influence: Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto.
“(Sasuke) has a very tense ‘my past is so haunted’ feeling,” Yea tells Polygon. “And I’m like, I’m going to channel a little bit of that into the audition. That was my first thought – I thought: There’s a bit of Sasuke energy in him.”
At that point, Yea had not seen any images of the character, so he relied purely on the melodramatic feel of the script. When he saw the first concept art, he said he was happy with how much the filmmakers were getting into the video game vibes.
“It looked like Cloud and Sephiroth had a child, but with a more purple theme,” he laughs.
Image: Disney/Pixar
Yes, tells us Mann pretty much asked him to let loose in the recording booth and channel all the video game and anime energy he could. Yes, he drew from a lot of the games and shows he loves, but he also had an unexpected touchpoint from his own career.
“There is a character I play Cookie Run: Kingdom called Madeleine Cookie”, says Yes. “Now it has a completely different vibe, but it’s just as melodramatic. So two sides of the same coin, I feel these two characters.
Lance Slashblade is unique in the world of Inside out 2, but the fact that he evokes so many specific comparisons from all the people who worked on him speaks to the power of his concept. After all, having an embarrassing fictional crush is such a milestone for the early teens.
“It’s just one of the little things that helps you become a teenager and become who you are,” Harris says. ‘Understanding that you like certain things, and that they are different from what other people like, can be embarrassing. Anyway, it’s actually a good thing that you are unique, and not exactly the same as someone else.”
Inside out 2 is now in theaters.
(Revelation: Some quotes from this article come from a Inside out 2 early press day held at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California, on March 26 and 27. Disney provided Polygon’s travel and accommodations for the event. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.)