The Ringer-Verse - ‘Inside Out 2’ with Director Kelsey Mann + The Pixar Tier Rankings | Mint Edition

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

Steve and Jomi are back and ready to go on a journey with their emotions in reaction to Disney Pixar’s latest ‘Inside Out 2’ (02:00). The guys are joined by director of the film Kelsey Mann later to get some insight into how the film came together, things that didn’t make the final cut, and much more (27:00). Later, Jomi and Steve share their tier rankings of every Pixar movie ever (54:00). Hosts: Jomi Adeniran and Steve Ahlman Producer: Jonathan Kermah Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Y'all, it's the Midnight Boys. Poo-Bee-Boo! And we're opening up the kitchen again to talk about the Bear season three, returning to Hulu on June 27th. That's right, the Midnight Boys are taking over Prestige TV. How you feeling, Cousin? Cousin! New restaurant, new takes, new ups, new downs, new season. I'm wearing to go, Chuck.

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You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Hello and welcome into the ringerverse. And welcome back to Mint Edition, a ringerverse podcast on the ringer podcast network. I'm Steve Allman. I'm Jimmy DeNeron. And we are here to talk to you about Inside Out and all.

Two. Well, Inside Out, too. We've got a two. Second one. Hey, yeah, a little bit of first. I mean, we can talk a little about the first one. We mainly talked about it. All, man.

That's right. That's right. We talk about all the latest family that you just can't live with. Today's a very, very special day. We've got our first guest in quite a while here. Our first mid-edition interview? In quite a while. Inside Out 2, director, Kelsey Mann joins us later in the program.

Talk about all of the spoiler-filled goodness that goes on in this great Pixar movie. I'm just going to say it now. I really love this film. we're going to be talking about that. We're going to be giving you our Pixar tier rankings for all time, until the next one. And we're going to have a great time. But before all that, let's get to some programming reminders before we begin. Sunday night, this Sunday night, it's Friday today, Sunday night, Talk the Thrones returns.

The premiere of House of the Dragon, Mallory Rubin, Joanna Robinson, CR, saying dragon names, remembering who they are. recapping all of those great things. Name one dragon from House of the Dragon. Exactly. I'm going to need you to get to five. Name one. CR, I'm going to need you to get to five. Going live for all your ears right after the episode airs. So tune in for that.

And on Monday, the Midnight Boys are going to be back to give you their Monday morning reactions to House of the Dragons premiere. Plus coverage of the Acolyde, House of R's got you, Midnight Boys has got you, as well as the boys. the midnight boys, covering the boys. It's all coming soon. And it's all coming for the next, like, two months.

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Got my man, Swiss and peace, man. All right, well, today we're getting right into it. We are going to be talking about the latest Pixar outing. The sequel fighters upon us, especially for Pixar. But you know what? We love this one. Let's talk about Inside Out and Inside Out 2.

Spoiler warning is going to come later for us. We're not going to be talking about it right now, but we're going to give you a spoiler-free section right here because we know that it's Friday. We know that you guys have got the weekend ahead of you. We both highly recommend that you see this movie, but we're going to talk about our general impressions about the first Inside Out and this going forward

before we talk about the plot happenings of the movie. So everybody's safe. Come on in. Let's get it going. All right, Jomey. Real quick, Inside Out One, directed by Beat Doctor, came out in 2015. What were your thoughts? about the first one, were you excited for this sequel?

Yeah, no, I mean, that film was one of the ones where it respects our movie. I think they had a little clout still back then. So, me and the home is right, yo, let's go through it. It was our first summer after our first year in college. Okay. So it was just good to see the boys again. Let's go catch a movie at the local theater. And when I tell you, I looked around to my right, looked around on my left,

went bing bingong, got left off that wagon. Real tears. real tears by grown men at that point. 19 year old men were in the theater just... When you said, when he said, take her to the moon. Man. Oh, man. But yeah, we loved it.

I loved it. It's one of those movies that makes you just think about being a child again and, you know, what it means to, like, you know, have your first sense of self. It was just, it was awesome. I loved it. I'll level with you. I had never seen Inside Out until recently in lead up to preparation for this. Like a lot of modern Pixar era,

not to say that I've outgrown Pixar by any means, because I love the movies that they come out with. There had been a bit of a blind spot where I'm like, nothing from their promotional materials or anything of this era, like from Inside Out and a couple of things really grabbed me until recently. So from then on, it was like kind of a blind spot where like, everybody loves Inside Out. And I'm like, how good could it really be?

And I saw it a few days ago and by God, was one of the great ones. It's awesome. It really is special. And I'm going to be putting it up there in some of the rankings that we have later on. It's going to be high. I was incredibly impressed by its sense of world building. Like, I love it when Pixar films at their best to me signify, like, an adventure as well

as a coming-of-age lesson that comes with it. Toy Story has had that, some of the best parts of Monsters. Inc. have that, all of those things. I think this is, like, a really great melding of, like, a modern sensibility of, like, making these, like, sort of, like, metaphysical spaces of, like, okay, what does the mind and emotions

and the factory that is our brains look like in, like, a Pixar rendering in an artistic way? And I think the first film did that brilliantly. And I think that the way that this sequel turns things on their heads and gives it a new adventure that feels fresh and invigorating, I was incredibly impressed by. Was there any sort of doubt that you've been having

because we have a lot of return to sort of traditional IP when it comes to what Pixar is going to be coming out with in the next few years? We know that Toy Story 5 is coming out for a while. We're going to be getting a lot more sequels to a lot more things. When I heard that there was going to be a sequel to Inside Out too, granted I hadn't heard about, or I hadn't seen the first one,

what did you think about, like, okay, are we going to run this amazing, like feature film back to do another thing? Like, was there any, like, sort of doubt? Yeah, I mean, you're always worried that they're just returning to the well for the, for the cash, you know, like that's always scary. Which, like, I mean, well, here's the thing, though, you know, you hope they have a story to tell. You hope they have a new story to tell that works, right?

it's not just, oh, we'll just make the same movie again. Like, that happens all the time. Hangover. They just did hangover too, which is the same movie, which is less funny. Right. Right. This, I was really interested to see, could they, again, it's nine years later, right?

It's not two years or three years where, like, the zeitgeist has changed. Like, the world has changed over the last nine years. How do you then make a movie that is a sequel to a movie that came out almost 10 years ago, but update it for the time so it's in right now. I think that that was my fear, but I think they did a good job ultimately.

I really do. I like the idea of these new emotions that they put forward. Envy, embarrassment, Onwee, shout out to Onwee. And the idea that the beauty of this first one was not only where they, is the novel concept of how emotions manipulate and control us,

but while those are either a, way or doing something that are helping us overcome something that's based in our memory or based in our sense of self and all these things that are these incredibly complex and challenging metaphysical ideas like made them into physical things like when you plant these seeds of memories with the context of emotions and they make this big beautiful thing in a film like making all of that sort of like plot armor for characters to interact with can be can seem rote and can seem like something that feels rather slapdash but in in that picks our magic that's actually captured here really hammers at home that I think that this is like a winner of a sequel and

I think something that is probably the best example of this is the level of like humor that they are able to put into this. I think this might be one of the funniest Pixar movies I've seen in a very long time. It was really funny. There's a lot of like, you know, obviously, you know, humor from the characters, their conversations, but some of the side gags and some of the jokes that they make are hilarious. Yeah, there are introductions of characters and concepts within the mind that we won't spoil here, but I actually had me in stitches. Like, there are some ways that characters can be animated. or express themselves, or jokes can be punchy enough,

or certain actors can portray certain characters in certain ways that are, like, genuinely inspired. Yeah. And I have to give credit because it really recaptures some of the magic that I think Pixar has at its best. Yeah, I think I agree. Mov's great. That's awesome.

It's wonderful. It's fun. It's enjoyable. It is... I don't say it's not as emotional as the first one. there's no like big bing bong moment where I'm sitting there and I'm like yo I'm gonna I'm crying in front of the homies right now you know I'll I'll be brave and say that I think when we get into our spoiler section soon after this I think the climax of this film was very very affecting for me and I'll say I was I was I was crying in front of in front of the homies for sure

you was crying for the humus oh yes yes I was I think it was it's it is relatable to a lot of us and I think that anybody that's had, you know, either struggles or relatable moments with both being teenagers or even adults in certain contexts with, like, our emotions and, like, regulating our emotions and trying to parse reality from fiction of the things that are in our minds, like, this film can tackle a lot of interesting and heady concepts for not only teenagers, but adults as well. And I think it does it beautifully. Yeah, it's really, really, really good. And I can't think of a better way to to end a sort of spoiler-free section

to recommend that you go see it and if you are inclined to listen to us further, I hope that you stick around or if you want to watch it this weekend, please do, but we're going to get into some spoiler sections right now before we get into our talk with director Kelsey Man. All right, trying to spoil it.

Yes, let's spoil it. Man, it's kind of crazy how Buzz and Woody showed up in the porthos at the end. Absolutely nuts. I was like, what? And then the T-Rex came out. And then the post credits was like, emotions will return. Oh man, in Avengers Not Kang to honesty

Because we're not doing that no more Could you imagine That's what they said They said we're not doing that no more Okay, I'm gonna get this Have this bit go just a little bit longer Could you imagine if anxiety Came through a Dr. Strange portal

To fight Kang Listen I like anxiety You know No you don't I like anxiety You came out of the theater being like If anxiety

anxiety shows up its hands It's hands I'm gonna fight anxiety Like I like some of the anxiety songs What the hell she know about What the hell she knows by my mind What the hell she know about my mind?

What the hell she know about my mind? What you know about Fine Kang? She getting, she getting clapped. It's over. Right. But I will say, though, spoiler section, right, this movie, like the new characters on Wii, embarrassment, envy, and, and, um, exactly.

Fantastic. Yes. Fantastic. They do, the, the movie does a excellent job of, like, having them come in, you know, exactly what they are, know exactly what they do, and the personalities reflect what's going on with Riley. You know, she's going to hockey camp. She wants trying to make new friends.

She's like, do I stick with my old friends? Makes new friends. Like, that tug in her mind is represented so well by the emotions. I thought they did an excellent job of making those two things work in Sepatico together. I couldn't agree more, first of all. And I think second of all, when I first, like, got into. the concept of learning about filmmaking, Pixar was the studio that actually got me to think about that.

And to know that so many things go into making any movie, but the care and, like, nuance that Pixar has was kind of the thing that got them to the top. And knowing that, like, not only the character of anxiety or the character of embarrassment has to act a certain way or touch a button a certain way or wear a certain set of clothing. The design that characters have to look like embarrassment,

to look like anxiety, to personify sadness, that goes through like iteration upon iteration and like to carefully craft and think about what those things can look like. I like every single character in this, every single sort of like representation of what the mind can be, what an imagination can be, what a vault of secrets can be.

look like all of those feel inspired again. Just as much as inside out can be. I loved this first one, and I genuinely think that the stuff that's put into the second part of this movie is some of the better things that Pixar as a filmmaking studio can do. It has so many different types of animation styles at its disposal. The types of sight gags and bits that the pouchy has is incredible. You mentioned like the animation, the mixed animation with Pouchy and Lance and Blufie. Bluefee, yes.

Bluefy. Like the, like the mixed animation with Lance and Bluffy and Pouffy and Pouci, like all that was like fantastic. Yes. Like just on a technical level making all of that work, and especially the scene in the vault, is excellent. And then again, the characters. Like, we only know Lance for like not even five. minutes. Yeah.

And he leaves an impression because it's, it's so fun and so silly and just, I love how, like, because when we see Lance, like, he looks perfectly rendered from, like,

the PlayStation 2 era of gravity. Like, he's, like, rendered in 720P. He's not anti-alius. He has, like, jagged edges on him. And,

like, but he's running at, like, a different frame rate than all of the other characters. It's so well done. It's a, it's like a remaster, but from,

like, 2006. You get hints of, like, of like Spider-verse when they integrate both of seeing all of these animation styles interact together as one is like truly like inspiring and it gets like your like imagination running

of like oh my god like such wonder is on the screen right now and I love it when Pixar does that it's been so long to me since Pixar has been able to do that speaking of uh speaking of jokes that we loved uh bluefeet trying to break the fourth wall and he's literally talking to a wall and all the other characters like

this guy is this guy's not what's going to what's going on I don't want to be friends with him it's fantastic really really really good you want to talk about Riley for a second

yes I think it's really impressive to me even though we know that there's like a dual storyline between Riley and her emotions especially when they're separated from headquarters both in the first one and the second one you could argue that this is more or less a retread and remake of the

first film but I think the again, quote unquote emotional weight of both movies are very different. The stakes couldn't be more different as far as the idea of a sense of self that's given to her by joy and is constructed for all to see when it's broken. And the moment that that breaks, you see these changes in her face,

these changes in her demeanor. and ultimately it's this odd balance that the movie has to kind of have where if you were to cut out every moment that was in this movie with her emotions and just see Riley's plotline play out, it probably is rather simple. It's a simple story coming to the end. But everything is undergirded by literally being inside of her head. And I understand that that's like a novel concept because we already had a movie

that did this. But to know that the finale of this movie is her having a panic attack because of everything that has like piled on that she's piled on to herself and let kind of come falling down. Like there's a beautiful moment where she tries to stop and literally can't.

Yeah. And everything with her friends, everything with her, team she's willing to impress with her coach, with a, with a stray book that a coach is written about. I'm really impressed with how many details we can put into Riley's life that the emotions have to bounce off of. What do you think, Jeremy? I think what is interesting about writing, because you do have a point where this is like a very, we've seen this on say about the bell, you know what I mean? Guy, you have your old friends and then somebody comes in who's really

cool, you want to be like them, so you kind of exude your friends for them, and then the end of day, it's like, nah, man, the real friendship was the friends you had. Not the other ones you made along the way, but kind of, because, you know, the real friends were the ones that we made

a couple years back, and then at the very last minute. Yeah, right? Like, it's kind of like, nah, man, like, go stick with your old homies, but this movie, even with the undercurrent of the emotions, I think does a really great job of making you feel and understand, Ronnie.

Because not only were we all that, you know, just like her at that age, right? Just like looking for a sense of purpose, looking for a sense of self. Just like, yeah, we were doing dumb stuff. Right? When she's going to... And the rationale that is behind it. Yeah. Like when she's going to go to the coach's office, look at the book, you're like,

no, don't do it. Why would you do it? I'm thinking that she's going to get caught. I'm thankful she didn't get caught, but... You still feel like a level of embarrassment. It's like now like when you want to go through somebody phone. Right. Right.

Like that kind of stuff. Now you're not with this new OS, it's being messy now. This new OS, yo, they said. They said monogamy is not for you. Shout out to all the cheat is out here. All the people who got something to hide. We got you. Wait, what's going on with the new OS?

I'm very glad that you asked, Kerm. You would be interested in this. Whoa. Whoa. What do you know? I don't know. Sorry, I'm being messy. He called you a cheater curl.

I wouldn't take that. So there's a new, very quickly. There was a new keynote that Apple gave for its new OS features, and there's basically you can lock apps themselves. So if you want to say open up a certain app, you have to either make it another face ID authentication or another passcode authentication. Or if you want to hide apps, say, okay, you have a hidden apps folder.

That, again, it's like a hidden folder for your phone for pictures. He's like, you hide it, open up the hidden folder, face ID. Interesting. Yeah, messy. Now, look at that. He's like, oh, look at that. You see the wheels in his hand turning right now. Wheels in the sky keep on turning.

Yeah, but it's like, it's one of those things where somebody does in here. Like, there's no, there's no outcome that works. Right. Right. You do it. If it's, if you even open and she's like, Anderson's great, Anderson's awesome. Now you look foolish because you just went around and broke into the coach's office. you get caught, it's over.

No, yeah, right? Let's be honest, Riley was on some bullshit. Riley was violent. But I mean, but that's what we were all doing at 13 years old. Right.

That's why the movie works. That's why the movie like speaks to us because, yeah, you can point to a time of your life in your mid-adolescence. You're like, yeah, I was doing too much.

For what? A hockey, like, bro, in five years, you won't even remember what went on that weekend. Like, you literally won't. You know,

but in the moment, it means the entire world. Nothing matters more than that weekend. But fast forward even like six, six months a year. Right. Future you'd be like, yo, I can't remember what happened. Like, it's just, that's what the movie does so well. It puts you back into that little spot of your life when the only thing that mattered

was the next thing. Exactly. You know, and it's, it's, it's, you lived in such moment-to-moment interactions. There's no big picture. No. There's no big picture. It's just a tiny picture that I can. keep with my sister and me.

And again, the plot of this movie is so well constructed because all of the things that are, like, all of the emotions that, like, you currently had that would have made sense for Riley are all bottled up and thrown away. And, like, thusly, inaccessible to her and the anxiety is running the show. Yeah. And Oni is this fake facade that she puts out

in the world just to make sort of sense. I'll tell you what. The sarchasm. The chasm of Sarr Of all the new All the new folks You know Onwee

Embarrassment Anxiety and envy Onwee's my favorite I love me some onwee Is it because you two are stuck On your phone all day Nah it's well He's probably of that

But it's also just like Sometimes man you just gotta Who cares bro Who cares man Like hey man You're just You're just sat at the couch Look sometimes you cannot be

Sometimes you cannot be bothered Right Right We have a question on here I've been training my whole life for this. My whole life. Circassim.

Circassim. Okay. When, there was a question on here, like, if you had to pick one of the nine emotions to operate your board for a day, I'm picking on a week, bro. So sometimes you just got to let go on that God. Right. You know, you can't, you can't be bothered on some stuff. I really, I really do let embarrassment take the wheel way too often. Ah, no.

See, I don't know where embarrassment is in my head, but it's gone. God. And again, like, there's so many. There's so many, like, if I could say anything that I loved about Pixar movies is that they are a studio that is so dedicated to amazing small touches that everybody can see and almost are always appreciated subconsciously. The bit about making, and what I love about Inside Out is because it makes all of those small nuanced things that Pixar can think of to the forefront. And it brings their genius out. the bit about what to do with your hands when you're walking is so inspired

because making that a part of a kid's movie where it's just emotion-based about like, okay, what are pockets for? Put them in the pockets. Oh, great, we have pockets now. Like, breaking those social interactions down is something that this movie is so good at. And I just, I can't effusively praise it anymore.

It's so great. And comes to the finale, I was bawling. It was great. Sitting there crying, huh? Mm-hmm. That's real. It's real.

It's real. Your tears are going to your popcorn. He was like, man, he's an extra salty. I thought by that time your popcorn should have been finished. Well, I opted out of popcorn. I just went with a root beer. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

I also opted out for the popcorn, too, but that's because it always gets caught on my throat and then I'm coughing. Exactly. You don't need that. You don't need that. I'm a Reese's Pieces guy. Reese's Pieces. Yeah.

Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. I don't know. You're trying to figure out with that. that says about me? I don't, I'm not, it's not cop behavior,

but it's also, it's not raising nets, right? Very true. You know what I'm saying? So it's not malteseers. Oh, wow. Okay.

Elite man. I'm talking to cover raisins, brother, in the theater. Have some pride. All right. Well, we'll get back to that. All right. Well, I think it's time that we get to our

great talk that we had with director Kelsey Man. He was very gracious with this time. We talked a lot about his inspirations for what to, what sort of personality traits to give the emotions, how different things about the film were coming together and what inspired him to sort of tell this story,

how he got the job to be a part of this project. And it was a really great time. So let's go now to our talk with Kelsey Mann. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support.

Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimfaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the. start. Tremfaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides

that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tremfaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections, or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before, treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. All right, joining us today is Director of Inside Out 2, Kelsey Mann. How are you? Congratulations. The movie's

out into the world. How you feeling? Yeah. A lot of different emotions, but I definitely would say right now, joy is definitely at my console. You know, these movies are about to say, I was like, who's driving right now? Yes, definitely, joy. Definitely. If you would have asked me, I don't know, a couple months ago,

I probably would have said anxiety because we needed to finish the movie, but we did it. Well, that's wonderful. Well, we love the film and we're excited to talk to you. Jomey, what did you want to kick us off with? I mean, Kelsey, this is your first feature film directorial debut. When you were coming into it, was there anything that you really wanted to get off in this movie?

When you're like, this is my first movie. Was there like a pitch, an idea? Was there something that you were like, I want to make inside out too because of this? Well, you know, it all started with a meeting that was on my calendar. It just popped on. It was with Pete Doctor, who's our chief creative officer and Jim Morris, the president of Pixar. And I had no idea what the meeting was. I'm like, whoa, what is this meeting?

Either this is going to be the best meeting in the world or it's going to be my last. And it ended up being the best meeting because that's where they asked me if I was interested in exploring, doing another story in the inside out world. And what I love about Pixar and what I love about working with Pete, you know, he was the director on the original film, too. He said, you know, if we don't find anything that excites us, then we won't make it. And that's what I love about Pixar is that we would only do another story unless we knew there was a story worth telling. And I'm curious, like, you come into a meeting like that, obviously Pete Dr. the first director of Inside Out One, and you have these like sort of ideas and expectations. You've been working in animation for quite a long time.

What sort of like idea or sentiment did you bring to the table where they're like, this is why we picked you. This is why we wanted you to come and tell the story. Oh, boy, I'd have to ask Pete why he picked me. I think, I think kind of the, you have to be really willing to be vulnerable and talk about your emotions when you're doing an inside out movie. You know, we've got a crew of nearly 400 people that I need to, you know, be vulnerable in front of because, I mean, that's what I love about the inside out world is that we get to talk about and show what we're all. thinking and feeling, but don't really talk about it, you know? And so you kind of have to be a little bit brave to go, this is what I think and this is what I felt. Like, for instance,

oh, you know what's a big thing that really got locked in early on is I scanned all of my, my physical pictures. You know, I'm like, I should scan these things. And so I have a digital copy of all my physical stuff, right? And so as I was scanning some of my old pictures, I came across a photo of me when I was five years old. And I had this, it was my birthday. And I had this huge smile on my face. Like, as I'm sitting there in front of my friends and family, and they're all singing me, happy birthday. And I am having the time of my life. And what's great about it is it's, it's, it's not just any day. It's, it's my birthday. And it's a day to celebrate me. And by the smile on my face, I was 100% in on that. And then as I got older, when I turned 8 and 11 and the 13,

you could just see that smile. Go away, go away, go away. Until it's like, to like when I'm 13, I'm just staring at the cake. Like I wanted to be anywhere but there. I just hated, I hated being some happy birthday too at that age. I still kind of do. I'm a little bit better at it. I'm a little bit better. But I think it's really all about those emotions that show up at that age, you start to become really self-conscious. And for me, if I really think about what I was thinking and feeling, I was, you know, thinking, you know, am I really worth all this celebrating? Am I worth all this attention? You know, and that's ultimately what I was feeling. And I'm like, I want to do a movie about that because I think that voice of you not being good enough shows up at this age.

And I remember pitching that to Pete. I go, I want to make a movie that's talking about that thought and that feeling. That's, that's beautiful. That's wonderful. I'm curious because Inside Out is such an amazing, amazingly constructed world where you're personifying these emotions and metaphysical ideas while also making places like the imagination, memory banks, physical places. And it's fascinating to see what you choose to make personified and what you choose to make physical spaces. And I'm curious to know, are there any spaces that you wanted to explore in this movement that you actually didn't get to because we got to, you know, the greatest pun that I might have experienced in my life, the sarcasm.

And we have imagination land. We have all these places. Were there any other places that you wanted to explore that, like, you possibly didn't get to see in the film? Or did you have all of these ideas that you wanted to see? Yeah. Like what? Well, yeah, man.

There's so many. This world is so much fun to play in because you can come up with lots of ideas, both for characters. and like you're talking about locations. One of my favorites, I really believe in this idea and it should be used somehow. I have no idea what the future

of the inside out world is going to be, but somebody has to take the idea of procrastination land. It was an area that was kind of a dirt lot with a bunch of construction equipment and it had a big sign in front of it that said procrastination land coming soon. And the emotions

would walk by it and be like, man, that place has been sitting there for like months. When are they going to start building that place? That's good. That's wonderful. That's great. So, like, speaking of Imagination Land, you are a former storyboard artist, and one of my favorite gags in the film is they go to the pillow for it, and everybody's, like, drawing and trying to break up scenarios.

As a former storyboard artist yourself, was that, like, was that an end joke for you? Was that something you were like, this is going to be fun? Yeah. Oh, completely. That honestly came. I knew I wanted a place that was kind of oppressive and like cubicles. Like, you know, we wanted to take the power of imagination and use it for kind of worst case scenarios. Use it for like evil, right? And it was actually the art department. They came up with the idea of like, wait, let's have it be a little fun. It's in imagination land. Maybe maybe what they're doing is like, maybe they're drawing. And we're like, oh, what if they're on animation discs. And a lot of us have, like you said, have worked in the different studios in the past on 2D animation discs.

And I have definitely worked in, you know, horrible little animation studios that we're very oppressive. Pixar is not one of them, but I've definitely worked in places like this for sure. That's great. I mean, so anxiety,

I don't want to say is the villain, but, you know, presents a, presents our hero's joy. and the rest of the emotions with the challenge, you know, in the film. What did you and the team do to get that balance right? Because it's easy for us to be like, anxiety's the bad guy. You know, she deserves to be, you know, pushed off. But Riley kind of needs anxiety, right?

How did you and the team work to make that balance work in the film? You know, when we make our movies at Pixar, the key to what we do is iteration. We just make the movie over and over and over and over and over again. And we do it by storyboarding it. So we work on the script and then we draw it like kind of comic book panels and we send it to editorial and we cut in temporary sound and music and voices. And we watch it over and over again. And you're 100% right about anxiety being a villain. I always, in the very beginning, I'm like, oh, I want to do a takeover movie.

I was inspired by, you guys familiar with the film all about Eve? Do you guys know that one? Yes, I am, yeah. Yeah, that one really influenced me at the beginning. I'm like, ooh, that would be so great for kind of a joy and anxiety relationship where anxiety comes in and kind of takes over her headquarters. So she was always meant to be the antagonist. But in our earlier versions, she was really evil.

And it was really kind of not fun to watch. I didn't like her. We didn't like her. and we didn't understand why she was doing what she was doing. And it wasn't until we started to lean in to like, you know, we have a couple of experts that we've leaned in on about the science and the emotions that we have.

And we're like, why do we have anxiety? What is it trying to do? And it's really, it's trying to help us. It's trying to protect us. And it's trying to keep us safe. So we're like, maybe we should switch it so that joy, you know, anxiety loves Riley just as much as joy does. And when we made that switch, things started to work a lot better.

She became much more, you kind of understood what she was doing and why she was doing it. And I really started to realize, okay, this movie is really about, you know, joy and anxiety are like two parents arguing over how to best take care of their child. And they're both doing it from a place of love, but they're doing it both kind of the wrong way. And I love that. I love the fact that you were able to achieve that balance. And it brings me to probably the emotional climax of the film, which I found personally very beautiful and touching, because the finale of this film is essentially a illustrated panic attack.

And what made you want to make that kind of like the come-to-forution moment for joy and all of the other emotions to kind of band together? and actually present this idea, in my opinion, that, you know, we are not our emotions, but they are these things that help scaffold us and build us up to experience everything in life. Like, how did you find a way to fully bring that to life while kind of having us all come out of that together? Because I was personally very emotionally affected by that. And I applaud all of you guys for doing it. I really appreciate that. And we work really hard on these movies. that part in particular didn't really come until like near the end.

We had all kinds of other. You want to put, you know, Riley in peril, you know, and you want to worry about her. The first film did that really well where she was kind of running away and getting on the bus. And we kept getting the note of like, we want to be scared for Riley. What's your like she's getting on the bus kind of moment. And we had all these other versions of what she, you know, could do to put her in peril. And all of it didn't feel right. And this movie was always about anxiety coming in and taking over and spinning Riley off.

And it wasn't until, you know, the last couple screenings where we're like, what if we leaned into actually doing a panic attack? But doing it in a way, you got to do it right. You know, I didn't want to get it wrong. I wanted to make sure it felt real. and also that we were sending a good message of what you should do and how to get out of it. And so we leaned a lot on kind of our experts as to like what do you do in that moment. And a lot of that's kind of in the film as it is right now. And it seems like you very much had like either cognitive development specialists or therapists themselves on staff to like kind of work you through that.

Is that true? Yeah, actually the first person I called was an expert from the first film. Dacker Keltner, he's a professor over at Berkeley, and he was on the first film. And he's kind of our emotional expert. So I brought him in, within the first week that I started on this movie. And then I started reading also some books by clinical psychologist, Dr. Lisa D'Amora. She's a wonderful author of many books. And she deals with kind of emotional lives of teenagers and specifically teenage girls.

And the two of them have helped us out from the very beginning, you know, to the very end. So, I mean, anxiety, great, great character. But she also introduced envy, Anwi and embarrassment. Anwi's personally my favorite. Love that character. You feel a little Onwee from time to time? Man, I feel Onwee from time to time, brother. me tell you bringing those characters into the fold as well. How was it balancing it, you know,

with the return of the new characters? You know, you have to introduce us to all these new characters, but also we have to stay with our old friends from the first movie. How was that, how was you trying to figure out, figure that out? It got complicated. You know, in the very beginning, I knew I wanted to add new emotions, but I'm like, okay, who and how many? And when I, on our first screening that we did, I had nine new emotions show up and anxiety was one of them. And I did that because I wanted, like, you know, when you're a teenager, you can feel really overwhelmed with emotion, right? So I wanted to, like, flood headquarters with emotions and kind of overwhelm joy and overwhelmed Riley. And I certainly did that. I overwhelmed them,

but I also overwhelmed the audience and you couldn't like there was too much. It was like anxiety got lost in the crowd and suddenly you're like, what, where's this movie about? There's too many characters. It was a lot.

And so the first note I got was simplified. You got to cut it down, man. And so we ended up going down to four we thought would be a good number, including anxiety, because she could still lead a group, but you could still, you know, focus on her. And the emotions that stayed are the ones that kind of drive when you're a teenager.

And this time is so much about you're really self-conscious. It's that time when you start to compare yourself to others. You're worried about how you fit in. And really the emotions that stayed are the ones that are really good at that. I mean, I can't. I mean, honestly, I know we said four, but we're forgetting one of the most important emotions in the movie, nostalgia. She's showing up a little early.

That bit was so funny with them just like, ah, you gotta wait till your best friend's wedding and 30 years, like you can't come out now. Like the humor in this movie is really, really fun, I thought. And just to, and I'm familiar with your game, Kelsey. I saw the Bing Bonn totem on the bed. Oh my goodness. Oh, my gosh.

Okay, you found an Easter egg. It's funny. A lot of people ask about, they ask about Bing Bong, and if there's a nod to Bing Bong in there, I'm like, oh, there's a nod in there. So I'm impressed that you're able to pull that off on the first screening. Did you notice that in the first screening? First screening.

I got my eyes open, Kelsey. You know? That's it. There was a tension of disappointment in both of us because I'm like, okay, so this entire movie isn't centered around getting him back. That isn't about that? Well, we'll have to move on from that. That's fine.

Inside out to the rescue of Ben, Bing back Bingham. That's funny. Yeah. It was actually, to be frank, it's one of the things I wrote down early on and what I wanted to do with this movie. I go, okay, what do I want? What do I want to have happen? And just as an audience member and what do I not want to do? And very early on, I decided like, everyone, you know, I love Bing Bongbong just as much as everyone else. And what is so special about that last moment with Ming-Bong is a sacrifice

that he gives to Riley and to joy and I was there's been a lot of sequels that just bring somebody back and they're like just kidding

they're not gone they're back again I think that just would cheapen what they did on the first film and out of respect to Pete Doctor

who directed the original film into the character into the audience I wasn't I didn't want to undo that sacrifice I think that would

cheapen what he did. So honestly, it was the thing I said, I don't want to do that. I don't think that's right for the character. And even though as much as I would love to see Bing Bong back, I don't think it's right. And I appreciate that.

But we'll always bring back our two favorite mine police debating over which hat is my hat. But what I did love, again, is this film's a wonderful sense of fun because the thing that was so captivating about both the first one and this one is both getting out of headquarters and exploring the rest of the mind and

exploring the different types of places that you guys can imagine. And again, probably my favorite sequence in the entire film is the vault of secrets. And I'm curious, I would love to know how many times you guys just had okay, like we're worried about structure. We're worried about

making sure that this emotional beat hits and we're making sure that all of these plot points can have it. But then we're like, Okay, now we have a small section for us where we can have fun. And I really, like, I can imagine you guys had a lot of fun with just trying to be like, okay, let's have an entire section of just bits and fun things that she can find secret. Please tell me that you guys had millions of secrets just in the vault ready to deploy. It's funny.

We always knew that they would get kicked out of headquarters. And actually, they just got literally kind of thrown out of headquarters. That was kind of the first version of it. It's on the cover of the art of book where they're just getting kind of tossed out. We're like, this should be a more fun thing, a more clever way to get kicked out of headquarters. And then somebody had the idea that there's the term bottled up emotions. We're like, oh my God, they should be bottled up. That's way funnier than them just getting literally kicked out the window, right?

And so we're like, let's put them in a bottle. And then we're like, well, they should lock them up. where should they lock them up? They should put them in prison. And we're like, what's a mind? Where in the mind could be a prison? And I had come up with an idea a little while ago about like a bank where you come and you deposit your secrets.

And they're like, oh, you know, there's even the phrase is still in there. Your secrets are safe or safe with us. It's a little bit of like bank vault. I'm like, wait, I had this idea of a secrets area. What if it's more like a jail, you know? So it's kind of a bank, kind of. a jail cell and then we got really excited for that and then uh then we're like well what our secrets are the our secrets like uh on a piece of paper is it like is it a physical object and then uh meg

le foe who was um one of the writers on the film and was it uh you know one of the writers on the first film she's like it's much better at their characters like that's way more interesting than actually like a physical item so we're like okay let's let's make them like characters and people. And then ideas just flowed out of us. And I think in that one meeting, we created a Bluffy, Lance, and the deep dark secret, like all kind of in one meeting. Pouchi came a little bit later after we did the first script, the first pass of the script. I'm like, wait a minute, we're missing the helper character. I want to add the helper character. So we added Pauce a little bit later. I thank you greatly for Pouchy and for that second pass because Pouchy really saved the day.

literally save this day. He does. He totally does. But yeah, I mean, I've got two kids and they're now like teenagers, but, man, they were watching all those shows. And I remember growing up with shows like that, but some of those shows, I just can't stand. I can relate a little bit more to anger in this scene. Right. With some of those shows.

But they always have that kind of annoying helper character that comes in and offers items. I'm like, oh my gosh, we should put this in the move. I want to know, because Lance slashplayed, it's hilarious, like just fun character. I don't know who out there in Pixar was playing a Final Fantasy. Who was locked in? Was that you? Is that you, Kelsey?

He's perfectly non-anti-aliist, which really blew my mind. Oh, my goodness. There are so many passionate video game lovers at the studio. I'm not as much as one of them. I don't know the modern day games as much as some of the other people at the studio. So I would always rely on the people around me of like, okay, are we getting this right? How do we get this? And in fact, a lot of the animators that animated on Lance, they've worked in the gaming industry before they came to Pixar.

So they were going back to their roots. That's beautiful. Really fun character. I mean, the bit where he's trying to exit the vote and he can't call it. quite make the, you gotta like turn to control it. It was it was so, so funny. I kept saying

like this, this, it's when I handed out to the animation department, the animator, I'm like, it's like my mom is trying to control him to get him out the door and she just can't. She's hitting every button. Trying to get him to go out. That almost got cut, man.

That scene was really long. Really? Yeah. Dude, there's more to that scene. It was really long. because it was so much fun. We had so many ideas. And we had to keep cutting it down. We're like, we have to trim a minute out of this scene.

It's too long. It's really, it's all funny. It's all funny. But it's slowing the story down. And we need to cut out, we need to trim it. And that got trimmed.

That got trimmed for a second. And I'm like, I thought about it. And sometimes when we trim stuff, I'm like, great, I don't miss that at all. But that was, that part was gone.

And I'm like, can we put it back in, please. Please put it back in. And I'm so glad we. did, you know, because we just watched it the other day with a fresh audience and they laughed really hard at it. I'm like, okay, great.

I felt justified for fighting, keeping it in. So thanks for calling it out. All I'm hearing is that there's an inside out to Lance edition. Hashtag we need the Lance cut. Where's the Lance cut at? I do look forward to seeing at least one or several of these secrets in many of Pixar short in the coming future because you're missing on a golden opportunity here. Yeah, yeah, totally. No, that was a really, that was a really fun scene to do.

And the other part I really like about that scene where it comes off like, oh, it's a really fun sequence. But there's a whole element, you know, this movie is all about learning to accept and love who you are, not just the best parts, but all of you, flaws in all. That's what this is all about. So if you really look at that scene, look at what Joy's doing in that scene. She's kind of judging Lance, you know, and saying in essence kind of he's not good enough. Like his move isn't that great. And he kind of deserves to be like locked up and shoved away.

And really it's that little, you know, disgust tells him, you know, to embrace his gift and embrace, you know, his flaws. And that's what ends up getting them out of the vault in the first place, but getting away from the cops and the two cops are arguing over the over my hat you know it comes from him leaning into who he is versus you know changing him well so the people already talking kelsey they're already having discussions like as 2010 and inception just came out people need to know did riley make the hockey team oh you're talking about the very last shot of the movie oh my goodness. I That's the kind of thing that I would love for people to talk about and figure out.

You know, we honestly, because here's the thing. Here's the thing that I'm really happy and proud of is the whole film is learning, is having joy and Riley learn that it kind of doesn't matter. Like she's going to be okay. Whether she, you know, there's a really funny line and it's kind of a joke, but it's when anger says, confetti if we make the team, confetti if we don't.

It's kind of a silly line, but I'm like, honestly, the thematic of the entire film where it's going to be okay. So either way, you know, it's all right.

And so I liked leaving the film, kind of leaving that open-ended because she's going to be okay either way. I think that's wonderful. And I think we'll be okay either way, not knowing that Kelsey, that Riley did or didn't make the football team. I've seen the movie, she looks at the phone

and her face lights up. She made the team. She made the team. Just like Cobb, went back to get his family, she made the team. What if it was just her DoorDash order? It could have been anything. Her DoorDash. She's like, it's ready. Riley's 13 order and DoorDash, but she got Wingstop on the way. Come on, man.

I'd be excited, wouldn't you? I absolutely would be excited to see Wingstop at my door. Let me tell you that. Well, Kelsey, thank you so much for joining us. we've loved the film and we love talking to you. Thank you so much for coming on and good luck with the rest of the film because it's great.

I hope everybody sees it. Thanks you guys. I really appreciate that. These movies take a long time to make and I'm just so proud of what this whole crew has done and I can't wait to, you know, audiences to go see this on the big screen. Yeah, they're going to love it, man.

Thank you again. Thank you to your entire team. Everybody at Pixar, just so awesome. And we can't wait to see what you do next, man. Thanks, you guys. This episode is brought to you by Two Good and Company coffee creamers. Howdy take your coffee? Piping Hot, Ice, Strong, frothy. But if you love rich, creamy goodness and delicious flavor in every sip, try Two Good and Company creamers. They're made with farm-fresh cream and real milk. Each serving has just three grams of sugar, 40% less than the leading coffee creamers. Two good creamers are available in sweet cream,

roasted vanilla and lavender. So which one are you trying first? Find two good creamers at your local retailer in the creamer aisle. All right, that was our talk with Kelsey. What a talk. What a conversation. Yeah, no, it really felt good. I'm really, really thankful that he sat down with us.

Shout out to Kelsey. That was great. All right, before we go, we're going to do a quick, rapid fire of our rankings of the entire Pixar catalog. We're structuring this a little bit differently. I know that we've talked about our feelings on the Pixar catalog before, but we're going to give a definitive ranking system for this one.

We have got a tier list from S-tier, S-plus, all the way down to F. So we have the top of the top S-plus. Only one Pixar film goes there. That's the absolute best in our opinion what film can go there.

S-tier is saved for the absolute top-of-the-top. These are some the best films that Pixar has ever made, some of the best movies we've ever seen. A tier. Great. Excellent. A little flawed, but we love them all the same.

B tier. Good. All right. Solid. C tier. Nah, we're getting there. D tier. Maybe not so great.

Maybe even not even some redeeming qualities. We have one F tier choice. Yeah. That we don't like. We just don't like this. Let's start there. Let's start there. With our one vote of all of the Pixar films from Toy Story 1,

all the way up to Inside Out 2. I'm putting in the F tier. Cars 3. You know, see, you know, and... Because you know me? I got my agenda. I'm a Cars hater. You know what I'm saying?

I just kind of feel like... I'm a car's hateer. Because not only is not the worst, like, it's not even the worst cars movie. It's definitely not even the worst movie. Is it in Cars 2 is the worst cars movie? Yes. Okay, I don't...

What? Brother, this is... See, that's... That's too much dip on the chip. Correct me. Give me your F. Your F. It's a good dinosaur.

That's fair. Good dinosaurs. It's not good. Cars 2 is bad, but it's kind of stupid. And if you like, it's, listen, listen, it's kind of stupid. But if you like, close your eyes and just go. And just don't watch the movie and watch something else. Yeah, I think it's a great idea.

And look at the car's moving. Oh, man, it's bad. It's, it's my D. Carstoo's in my D. Carstu's in D. All right. Let's move up to the D tier because we only had one vote for the F tier. All right.

Let's kick out of D. Carstu's the only one in my D tier. Yeah, all right. Really? Only one. Okay, I have four. Okay. In the D tier.

I'll start it off and I'm not too afraid to say it. I think Lightyear's in D. Lightyear re-examining that. I'm like, we didn't need this. It's not even that compelling. I think we didn't need, I don't think we needed a Buzz Light Year. Like, you know, we love the robot cat. It's nice.

You know. But I think my hottest take of my D tier here is going to be Monsters University. Man, you, I mean. I don't think Monsters University needed to happen. Like, this is where we're starting to get into the things where I'm like, there doesn't need to be a sequel to what may or may not be a perfect film in Monsters Inc. You know? I don't know, man.

Keep going, brother. But my D tier consists of Lightyear, Cars 2, Good dinosaur, Monsters University. Let's keep a point. What's the second one? What's the second one? Cars 2. Cars 2 is D.

Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. All right. What's your D tier? My D tier is just cars 2. Just cars 2. Okay, all right.

We can be in agreement on that. All right. C is where it gets interesting for me. Okay. All right. Where your C's it? We kick it off with Onward. Yeah, that's in mine too.

Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I think it, like, honestly, every time that I've seen like promo material from this

before I've even seen it, I was like, oh, this is like a DreamWorks movie. This doesn't look like a Pixar movie at any turn. This is the movie that they were like, you know what? We should start casting Chris Pratt in all the voiceover rules. And this, you know what? This was the beginning of the evil that is yet to be defeated.

This was the beginning. Exactly. All right. CTI are moving on, cars. Wrong. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's not going to be there for me.

It's not going to be there. It's incorrect. Here's the thing, and I've said this on multiple podcasts. The Cars hey is just bad. I'll be pretty slanderous about cars It's just bandwagoning It's a fine film It's a frankly fantastic film

But y'all just want to hate Y'all just feel like I gotta be mad about something Because God forbid A movie come out that people like I can just let them like it Like it's really it's really nuts I will let people like it I just don't I don't like it like that

C tier it's fine It's fine respect You put Cars 3 as your F brother Like that's You know what I'm saying that's really elite hating. You hate Lidna McQueen.

What did Lidt McQueen do to you? Steve, tell us. Absolutely nothing and that's why. No, clearly you hate his guts. No. Clearly, is it Mater? Is it Mader? Is it your problem?

What was that riff where it's just like how many chips does Lightning McQueen have versus It was Lightning McQueen, Jackson Storm. And Jackson Storm is like, listen, lightning's got the chips. You got to put the numbers. You know, Doc, Doc's level, like, Doc's peak might have been higher. And Jackson Storm saw as a ways to go. But at his peak, the long, long, longevity. And the, like, the piston cup wins, you have to give it.

Oh, I'm sorry, it wasn't Jackson Storm. It was Strip Weathers. Yes, Strip, it was Doc, and it was Lightning. And Strip has the longevity. But his peak, the peak of Lightning McQueen, was the best we'd ever see. That's peak Jordan. Was the best we'd ever seen, exactly. Right.

So you have to give it to lightning, despite the fact that, like, Doc won a lot early, he got hurt. You know, he's kind of, I almost said like, Grant Hill, but, you know, like, there was a point where he was, like, the best in the game, but, you know, his, you know, he suffers that big injury, like. And that's, and that's just the march of time. You can't read, it happens.

All right. All right. Last two things in C for me, finding Dory. Okay. Brave. Okay. Brave is fine to me. So I got a couple, we got a couple of matches.

Finding Dory. brave, light year and onward are... Light years and C for you. Okay. Yeah. I also have Cars 3 in here. I have Monsters University in here. Okay. And I have Luca in here.

Oh, okay. All right. Let's see. All right. B tier is where we're getting, I think, a little spicier for me. Okay. All right, I'll start with Luca is in B tier for me. Okay.

It's good. I'm a medita. It's very nice. Let's kick it off, though. Toy Story 4. That's also my B tier. It is in B tier. here. I think that this might be the most

unnecessary film Pixar's ever made. It's a necessary. It's good, but check, how much you make it the box office? All right. See, how much you make it the box office? Okay, yeah, that's fair. Let's see how unnecessary it is. How much you make it the box office? Sorry, it's for box office. You know what I'm saying? How much are you making the box office?

$1.07 billion. One billion dollars? Yeah, it's not a billion. It was very necessary. It was very necessary. It was very necessary. It was very necessary. It was very necessary. But again, like, it's not. It's not like, I didn't need it. You didn't need it.

No, we didn't need it. Pixar needed it, buddy. Yeah, we did, we did. The shareholders needed it, buddy. I get you, I get you. All right, all right. I think, uh, I think this is where you're going to start to get mad at me. Okay.

I put Incredibles. I put Incredibles 2 at B. See, now you're not, you're not taking this exercise seriously. Hmm. I think I am. You're not taking this seriously. You're not. You're not.

It's good. Okay. It's good. It's not enough. I don't think it exceeds good. It's all right. I just, I think that's fine. Sorry.

All right, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get you really mad now. Why? Well, no, no. Okay. Soul, B tier. I got Soul there too.

Okay, great. Great. We can, but that's fine. I, okay. I think Soul looks incredible. It's probably one of the best looking

Pixar movies ever. But I just, yeah. Yeah. All right, my last, the last two B tiers that I have,

Elemental. In B. Okay. up. See? You see, you fellas. Now,

now hear me out. Hear me out here. I'm tired of it. Every thing you say, every take you have is, wait, wait, hold on.

You got to listen. Let me explain. Brother, what are you on? We can all agree. First 10 minutes of up. Sublime. Amazing.

Everybody talks about the first 10 minutes of up. Yes. Right? Respect. Right. Kerm, you're listening. Respect Doug and Kevin.

We got the rest of the movie up to talk about now. It's a good movie We're all safe It's all fine I love Kevin I love the dog We love everybody here All right

But it's just a good one to me There are worse There are way way worse films That you have higher up That I'm like I'm gonna be disgusted No there isn't I'm looking at the list right now

Let's go through your beats here I got Toad Story 4 It's B Souls B I have elemental It B like Elemental. I was one of the champions of elemental,

but there's some, like, really special, special Pixar movies coming up. It can't, can't get bumped. And then, Turning Red is B. Okay, I can accept that.

I enjoy turning Red a lot. But again, there's some, there's some films on here. It's just different levels. Well, then I'll, I'll transition you up to the A tier. I'm starting with Turning Red.

Turning Red. Turning Red's an A for me. Okay. I really like. Turning Red is an A? Yeah. But, yeah, I dig. I really do.

I think that was like a gigantic refresh. People overlook that because it came out during COVID. Turning red is an A but up is a B? Yes. That's not serious behavior. I need you to be for real. You literally can't argue with me after turning red being at A because everything else is

absolute bangers. It's a reach, man. It's a reach. All right. So the rest of A tier. Okay. Finding Nemo. Because it's like, I'm not that I need to make cuts, but I'm like, if I find to S to S plus, it's not Okay.

It's not there for me. Okay. Toy Story 1. A tier. Okay. Toy Story 3, A tier. All right. I love these movies.

Dang. Not really. But when we get to this next echelon, to S and above. Remind me to put you on my staff. Do you say Toy Story 1? Yeah. Toy Story 1 is A. No talent.

No talent. No talent. I got a packed S tier, dude. They're going to fry you, my boy. All right. That's fine. Let's hear it. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Now, you keep going. You keep going. Let me. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. Finding Nemo, turning red, Toy Story 1, Toy Story 1, Toy Story 3. There you have some heaters in here.

Yeah, we do. Listen, it's getting real. It's, like, there's nothing we don't like here. Seriously, here's that. I'm going to take this one on. I'm going to have to eat this one. All right. Car's 8th here for me. That's nuts. I think that's nuts. Y'all, y'all hate it, but that's mine. That's real sad. That's mine, right? Okay, fine. You hold that. That's mine. Inside Out, A tier. Okay.

Bugs Life, A tier. Incredibles 2. A tier for you? Mm-hmm. Okay. I don't, yeah, no. Wally is A-tier. No, that's not, no, no.

Look, I had to make a good. Anything below S for Wally, come on, man. I would have eight movies up here. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven movies in S-tier. I have, I have six. I had to make some cuts. There's a, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's no cap on whatever we put in these tiers. Like, we didn't pick as amazing we want.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I'd be here all day. I had to, like, I had to make some, some adjustments. Just some personal enforcement cuts here. And then the last two, these are, this is tough. These are tough cuts, but they're great films, but I got some that I just feel. So what's the rest of your A tier? Coco and Ratatouie.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. I respect that. I respect that. Like, again, all you, like, from A up. I love all these films. You're not going to tell me they're not special.

Wally for... You know, Rattitoui, cars, Coco. Incredibles, Two, Inside Out, Wally, and Bugs Life for my A tier. That's nuts. All right. Well, then let's go for S here. Toy Story 2 for me. Okay.

Incredibles. Yes. Ratatoui. Okay, that's fair. Monsters Inc. Coco. Okay. Inside Out.

Yeah. Bugs Life. See, it can't be mad at that. Absolutely not. It's not bad. It's not bad. Can we talk about the Renaissance that Bugs Life. is having right now.

I feel like people played out Bugs' Life for a little bit before really coming on board with this. This thing. You say that, but remember when like ants came out the same time, right? I kind of like ants.

I don't, brother. I think ants is pretty nuts. No, because here's the thing. Like, it was such an early time. Like, Pixar was the only game in town that was making like real legitimate movies and then other people would just be like, okay, what other bullshit can we throw up on the screen?

Can we make an ants movie that's like a hard? Hard PG. Hard PG. A hard PG, ants movie that's like just a B Life with like a little bit of edge. This is before B movie. This is before any of that.

Like just ants with a Z because it's got some edge to it. That's so funny to me. I love a Bugs' Life, man. Bugs'Live is great. Bugs'Iv is great. My A tier. So your S tier. Oh, sorry, my S tier.

Upper Echelon. Yeah. You know, the cream of the crap. Got Toy Story. Okay. Toy Story 3. Mm-hmm. Incredibles, Monsters, Inc.

Up, and find an email. Okay. Again, I know that you think I'm wild for putting up in B. But I see where everybody's putting up in A, and I don't, and I just think that's too high. Here's a man. You're putting that in the same tier as, like, Toy Story and the Incredibles. If you put up in A, I'd like that slide about it. I quite see the vision.

Fine. But in B is disrespectful, do you? Be is disrespectful. Okay. Be disrespectful. You calling you, you're telling me, you look at me in your eyes and telling me that up is like not top, not a top 10 picture movie. I think the craziest take that I have is that I think that turning red is better than up. I like turning red.

It's not better than cameras. It's not better than up. All right, we got one S plus. One S plus tier. Steve, what's your S plus? Wally. That was an easy, that was an easy call for me. I get it.

All right, man. Wally's beautiful. Here's thing. It's actually sublime. I love Wally. I legitimately do love this movie. Yeah. S plus.

That's it. It's it. It's the peak for me. Like, and here's it. Now, listen, listen,

listen. I'm, the only, the only, like, flip-flop that I could, like, possibly swap this with

is Toy Story 2. It's funny enough, that's my S-plus. That's your S-plus. And I get it. And I get it. And I get it. I really do.

And it's, honestly, like, between those two, it's like, whichever I saw last, is my S-plus. plus. But I'm like, if I think about Wally and I think about like all of the beautiful story beats

and like the song and the holding hands and all of the things that Wally brings, I'm just like that's the first half of the movie. Again, it's still good at the end of that. I don't say, I'm no disagree with you. I, again, I love Wally. What if you made the first 10 minutes of up the first half of a whole movie? That's what I'm talking about. Man, I don't know.

I like, I like Wally. I, no, I don't like Wally. I love Wally. I think like. like again when they go to the ship and like once the humans start getting involved it's like bro give me back to Wally and E. That's fair That's my thing like I love the entire movie

The whole thing Sure like people like like to make the same joke I made Like you're only on like the first half No I like the entire movie But just when the humans get involved And like hey you cut away from my homies Like we just spent like a whole But then it's an allegory about humanity

And like how we're wasteful we are and yeah You know they got they got a homie as the president It's all great and dandy But Toy Story 2 man I don't want to I don't want to overstep, right? So I'm going to try to be as like, you know, generic and open as I can.

But in terms of Western animation, like American-made animation, it's like, I feel like it's a, it's a, it's a pitiful. Like computer. Sure. For the time, yes.

Especially for the time, man. As forward progressing as the first toy story was in 1995. Come on. It's just one of the, when you look at the history of animated movies in, like, American-May animated movies, that's going to stand, like, near the top of, like, just what they created, the story, the characters, like. And, like, the introduction of Jesse and that song that she has about, like, losing a kid, and then bringing up.

Oh, my God. Dude. It's sublime. Actually sublime. is has like, it's got that emotional because of course. And a wonderful capper. But like putting that at A for me was like,

it's another great, it starts. It starts the idea of basically what Toy Story 4 is where it's like, okay, it's an escape adventure and then a very poignant message at the very end. And to think that like that's all we had to end Toy Story franchise, whatever you call it on, amazing. That's why I would put it at A, because to me, like, that's its up moment, is its last 20 minutes.

I don't know, man. The first three car, or the first three cars. First three car, go get out of here, but, but, please. The first three Toy Story movies, man, are just a fantastic piece of work. Yes, yes, amazing. You can argue about the fourth,

but when you watch those three in sequence, I can't wait to let my kid watch Toy Story, man. That'd be a beautiful time. That's the kind of stuff, man. That's just like, this is real cinema right here it is this is real this meant something to all of us you know it's great

you're a hater bro you're not talking about this man they'd say Charles a hater band you it's sick work oh turning red over up again I like turning red bro Toronto early 2000s we up

we hype man the scene where they're like you're weird she's like yo my mom is cool man, it's going to be great. And then you look at the city's kids, and it's a shadow of a kaiju red panda. But that lives in my head.

Amazing. I love it. It's great. It's fantastic. Shout out to turning red. Respect up, man. I respect it enough. Have some shame.

All right. So to cap it off, where are we putting inside out too? I think I know where I'm putting it. Where you're putting it in? Where are you putting it in? I'm going to put it in A. Maybe the recency bias might be recency biasing, but I was very effective by its ending.

I think it was a very crisp and great adventure. I think it harkens back to some of the best that Toy Story, or some of the best that Pixar can do. And I think it deserves to be an A. So here's what I'm going to do, right? Since I have like, I did my mental math, right? So I have six movies in S and six movies. was in A, right?

We took one of the S and made it an S plus, right? So there's five and six. So if I'm going to move. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, there's a lot of here. Okay. Yeah.

Great stuff. It's really good. We love Inside Out. I was really, really happy that we got to see it. And it was a really great time. But that's going to do it for us on Mint's edition. Thank you again to Kelsey Mann for joining us. A really great talk.

We had a great time with him. It was fantastic. Don't forget, this Sunday night, Talk the Thrones returns right after the premiere of House of the Dragon. Mal, Joe, and CR are going to be in their bag this weekend. Don't forget to miss out on that. Don't forget to miss out on that. Don't forget to miss out on that.

sorry, three, two, one. And don't miss out on that. On Monday, the Midnight Boys are back also to give you their Monday morning reactions to House of the Dragon. And we've got the Acolyte coverage coming to you. House of ours got you. Midnight Boys have got you. Can we talk about the boys. House of the Dragons is going to be a great time. Also, the Acolyte. Baby, we're on YouTube.

Yeah. Don't forget our secret comment. Cuckoo for... Content. Content. We are cuckoo for this content. Junior Mints do your thing. We'll see you out there.

We are produced by the great Jonathan Kerma, with additional production from our Juno Ramgo Pal, Jomi. Take Us Out. Junior Mints, thank you for listening. We love you guys so much. Thanks for rocking with us. We got some fun, fun stuff coming into for these next couple of months. So stay locked in.

As always, got to give our shout out to the intrepid producer, number one, out here, our guy. Don't say it. I already know what you were going to say. I'm not going to call him Kermchilla. Because that would be crazy. That would be nuts.

That would be nuts. If you did that. It's a really good thing you didn't do that. It's a really good thing I didn't do that. Yeah. But, you know, we'll see you guys next time. Summer is here, and Ralph's is your destination for a hot sales.

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