When a filmmaker’s first-ever feature directorial credit makes $1.7 billion at the global box office, you should pay attention. Many may still not know the name Kelsey Mann, yet he steadily moved up the Pixar ladder and was finally given the reins to do the sequel to Disney/Pixar’s Oscar-winning box office smash Inside Out — a full nine years after the original dazzled audiences.
That Inside Out 2 exceeded even that, and every other Pixar film in terms of box office, is a major achievement, and much of the credit goes to Mann, whose previous work since joining Pixar in 2009 was as story supervisor on The Good Dinosaur and Onward, as well as Monsters U in 2013, and even as director on the Monster U short Party Central.
Mann joins me today for my Deadline video series Behind the Lens to talk about the making of Inside Out 2, and how he has turned out the biggest success in Pixar history in his first at-bat, while also making his own history behind the biggest-grossing feature directorial debut ever. There are a number of fascinating, unexpected reasons this happened and why this sequel connected on an even deeper level than even Pixar chief Pete Docter’s original, and that includes the introduction of new emotions like Envy, Ennui, Nostalgia and especially Anxiety.
Mann is a terrific and lively interview, so to watch our conversation and go “behind the lens” with him, click on the video above.
Join me every Monday during Oscar season for a new episode of Behind the Lens.