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Pixar is finally ready to open up about Riley’s secret crush on Val in Inside Out 2. While the original movie focused on an 11-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman), the $1.7 billion sequel instead elected to see Riley as a 13-year-old. New emotions also joined the Inside Out universe, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). With so much change, Riley has to prepare for life as a high school student. All the while, she wrestles with an apparent love for her teammate, Val (Lilimar Hernandez).
In an interview with ScreenRant at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Pixar co-writer Dave Holstein explored the true nature of Riley’s crush on Val. Because the story required Riley to develop anxiety, Holstein and the other writers wanted to “give her someone to look up to“. Eventually, that meant including the ever-confident Val.
I think that the discussion throughout the entire film is just to give her someone to look up to, the way a freshman looks up to a senior. I mean, [it’s a] girl crush in that way, but it’s like there’s someone who… I always had this in school too, where you see someone who seems way older. They’re probably 18 months older, but they just found a confidence in themselves that speaks to where people want to be at that age in life. Frankly, it’s not even age, it’s confidence, and we wanted to give her that character to then give her anxiety, to then give us a movie.
Developing…
Inside Out 2
7/10
- Release Date
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June 14, 2024
- Runtime
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96 Minutes
- Director
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Kelsey Mann
- Writers
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Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein, Kelsey Mann