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Inside Out was one of Pixar's most accomplished films. Beloved by both fans and critics, Inside Out was just the latest notch on Pixar's already impressive belt. But when Inside Out 2 was announced it was quickly realied two of the main emotions would not be returning with their original Voice Actors. Why exactly did Inside Out 2 recast two main characters after a proven track record of success? Will fans of Inside Out notice the difference?
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It's anger
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Let me at him! We gotta get our mouth guard, people! Fear
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No, no! That's not ours! Disgust! Glad to have her on our team
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That is anger, for sure. But if you were listening closely to that clip from the trailer for Inside Out 2
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you might have noticed that's not fear and disgust. At least, not the versions fans already know and love
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Uh, she did not just say that. A new girl? Meg has a new friend already
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That's because despite the overwhelming critical and box office success of the first movie
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these two roles wound up being recast for the sequel. Oh yeah, that sounds fantastic
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Released in 2015, Pixar's Inside Out told the story of a young girl named Riley struggling to deal with her evolving emotions
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after her parents move her family to a new town. Personified inside her mind, those emotions include joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust
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Voiced by Parks and Recreation's Annie Poehler, the relentlessly positive Joy is the film's protagonist
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She acts as the leader of the emotions, and the movie's A plot follows her as she gets trapped in the wrong part of Riley's mind
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along with sadness, voiced by Phyllis Smith. As the two struggle to get back to the control center of the brain
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Riley is left at the mercy of anger, fear, and disgust. Voiced respectively by Louis Black, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling
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Directed by Pete Docter, Inside Out pulled in almost $860 million worldwide
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That's what I'm talking about! Another perfect day! Nice job, everybody! Inside Out proved the studio still had the magic touch for creating original stories, so naturally, development on a second installment started almost immediately
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Inside Out 2 was officially announced by Polar and Doctor at Disney's D23 showcase in September of 2022
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Hater, Kaling, Smith, and Black, however, didn't appear at this event, seeming to confirm a report from entertainment journalist Matthew Villani that at least two of them would not be returning
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Those two were Hater and Kaling and their departure from the franchise was apparently caused by a salary dispute According to the report Poehler involvement in the sequel was said to earn her million plus additional bonuses and fees
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The other four emotions, however, were offered just $100,000 apiece to return
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a paltry 2% of what Poehler would be pulling down, even without the extra bonuses and fees
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Hey, it's not my place to tell you how to do your job. Just make sure that all the sadness stays in the circle
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See? You're a pro at this! Of course, Joy was the main character of the first film and will be again for the sequel
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so it's not surprising that Poehler would significantly out-earn her co-stars. And we now know that the second film will also introduce at least four new emotion characters
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so it's reasonable to assume that to make room for them, parts like anger, sadness, fear, and disgust likely will be a little smaller
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Nonetheless, the massive discrepancy between what Poehler was being offered for the follow-up
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and what was being offered to the rest of the ensemble was striking, because both Hater and Caitlyn were perfect for their parts
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What was that? There wasn't anything like joy. Uh, because I'm not Joy? Yeah, no kidding
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At the time of the first movie, for example, Hater was a recent Saturday Night Live alumni
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An interview since, the actor has revealed that he would frequently experience panic attacks
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while working on the famous comedy show once, even during a broadcast. On air, I'm sitting there
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and all of a sudden it felt like someone was sitting on my chest, like I started sweating
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I thought I was going to start crying. His real-life anxiety issues would memorably inform his performance as fear
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That's fear. He's really good at keeping Riley safe. Meanwhile, according to Doctor, during production
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the creative team struggled over whether the character of Disgust should be disgusted or disgusting
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Once they settled on Disgusted, Kaling, then primarily known for playing snooty characters
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on both The Office and The Mindy Project, became the obvious choice. The actress impressed producers with her reading
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and ultimately delivered a performance that made the potentially prickly emotion genuinely lovable to audiences Hold on guys it broccoli Well I just saved our lives Yeah you welcome But Hayter and Kaling did more than just act in the first movie Hayter for example
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helped Doctor and the creative team design fear from the ground up, including the character's
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appearance, personality, voice, and mannerisms. He was also credited with writing some amount of
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additional dialogue for the first film, and in interviews, Doctor would later credit Kaling
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herself a highly accomplished writer, with helping him focus the themes of the movie
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when he initially pitched it to her. After the two stars turned down the sequel
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Disney apparently did up their offer by an unknown amount, but whatever it was, it wasn't enough
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A January 2023 interview with Kayleen quoted her as saying, I had a great time working on Inside Out
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and I'm sure Inside Out 2 will be great, but I'm not working on it. While she didn't explain why she wasn't returning
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Kayleen did emphasize that her level of involvement would change, presumably if Disney offered more money
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Despite the hopeful framing, the actress would ultimately not return. Hayter, for his part, had been even less forthcoming on his reasons for skipping the
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sequel, and so far he generally avoided addressing the subject in the press
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As was widely expected, it was eventually announced that both fear and disgust had been
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recast, with Toy Story 4's Tony Hale and the equalizer's Liza LaPierre, respectively
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We are suppressed emotions! No doubt both are highly talented performers, but for Pixar fans, the situation remains
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troubling because it seems to represent something of a shift in the studio's priorities
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Pixar's increased willingness to recast major characters with new talent raises the possibility that moving forward, they might not be as well cast
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since that top-tier talent might be less inclined to take supporting roles in Pixar films
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if they know they're going to be low-balled for sequels. It all begs the question, if Hayter and Kaling were ideal in their roles
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and were creative contributors, valuable to the franchise beyond just their work as actors
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why did Pixar place so little value on their involvement in Part 2? It seems like a strange move for a studio that went to such extraordinary lengths to make sure that Mr Potato Head voice was still provided by Don Rickles in Toy Story 4 even though he had died without recording any of his lines The panic is attacking me Hey watch it buddy
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What do we do? So why was Inside Out 2 so different? Well, the most obvious explanation might be that it wasn't up to Pixar
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In his original report, Bellamy noted that going cheap on voice talent is becoming more
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common at Disney, pointing to what he described as laughably low talent fees on the studio's
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recent Emmy Award-winning Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers movie. The journalist also added he'd heard
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Pixar people complain about the tightening purse strings, implying that the Pixar team would have
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preferred to stick with the original cast but were denied the funds they needed by Disney higher-ups
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specifically former CEO Bob Chapek. So that begs the question of why Disney considered Hader and
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Kaling so easily replaceable. I tell you, but you're too dumb to understand. What? And unfortunately
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Only for voice talent, the execs may not be wrong, or at least not wrong enough
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Disney dropped the trailer for Inside Out 2 back in November, and within 24 hours, it garnered 157 million views
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Based on that, we'd say anticipation is sky high regardless of the substitutions
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Of course, most people probably don't even realize some of the characters have been recast, but that's kind of the point
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Disney now knows fans will quickly and easily accept cheaper imitations regardless of why the original actor bowed out
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and that doesn't bode well for talent or fans at a time when performers are already fighting not to be replaced by sound-alike AI
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It remains to be seen whether Hale and Lapera will be given an opportunity to put their own spin on the roles
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But based on the trailer, their performances are fairly interchangeable with those of the original actors
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It should be nothing but smooth sailing for... Hello! That is, no doubt, what they were hired to do, and the situation is in no way on them
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But knowing the original voice talent was replaced for no reason other than that they wanted to be fairly compensated for their contributions to the franchise has, for us, as animation fans, put sadness firmly at the controls
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