Behind the Scenes of the New “Inside Out” Short “Riley’s First Date?”

One of my absolute favorite things about getting a new Blu-ray is checking out the bonus features. I love all of it, but the first things I always have to check out are the deleted scenes and the bloopers. With the release of Inside Out onto Blu-ray & DVD the other day, however, I have something I’ll be clicking on first- the brand new animated short!

The new short, “Riley’s First Date?” takes place after the events in the movie and gives a hilarious glimpse into the minds of Riley’s Mom & Dad when a boy comes over to hang out. It’s a short, so it’s not very long, but it was packed full of laughs and so many relateable moments! My boys aren’t anywhere near old enough to date yet and I still caught myself nodding and laughing the entire time, so it’s definitely something that parents {and adults in general} at any stage can relate to!

I had the pleasure of interviewing two of the creators of the short- Director Josh Cooley & Producer Mark Nielsen. They discussed how they came up with the idea for the short, how they drew inspiration from home, and what it’s like to work with John Lasseter.

Did you know that you wanted to do this short as you were making the original movie or is it something you came up with after the movie was done?

Josh: I came up with the idea while working on the film because I was working on the film for almost 4 plus years. So it was an idea that I came up with while working on the film.

How did you come up with the idea [for the short]?

Mark: Toward the end of production Pete and Jonas [Director Pete Docter and Producer Jonas Rivera] started thinking about doing a short film for the DVD and they asked Josh to really start thinking about it and start coming up with some ideas. So he came up with a few different ideas and pitched those to Pete and Jonas.

Josh: And this is one they liked the best.

So how long did it take for the actual idea to what we just saw?

Mark: I think it took us probably about 10 months from when Josh first pitched to both to Pete and Jonas and then also to John Lasseter- who is our Executive Producer on the film- to the time that we had our final sound mix up at Skywalker Ranch. About 10 months.

Did you have other ideas for shorts that maybe didn’t make the cut?

Josh: I know I pitched at least two of  them, this being one of them. The other one was a Bing Bong idea.

Do either of you have daughters?

Josh: We both do.

So did a lot of this come from being the protective father?

Josh: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, first we had the idea for the kid at the end of the movie. We wanted to go into a boy’s head at the very end. I always loved that character and was like, “I wanna see more of that.”

And then this was not planned at all, but all of us have daughters. The Director, the co-Director, the Editor. We were trying to write a story about Riley- you just naturally talk about your own experiences. I was talking about my daughter who is about 4 or 5 at the time [when I was] working on Inside Out, and I was talking about how she was acting crazy. Our Editor who has daughters that are in college or actually out of college said, “Oh, you have nothing to worry about until she brings home the first boy.”

I was like, “I never even thought of that ever being a possibility.” And I mean it was coming eventually, but that’s where the seeds of this idea came from.

It’s just my head going like, “Oh my God.”

On how music came to play a role in the short:

Josh: So actually this came out of when I met my father-in-law for the first time. I had this kind of awkward like, “Hi, I love your daughter,” kind of a thing. And the thing we connected on was music. That was my own experience. So it’s in the film.

Was it on purpose to do something that was comedy instead of more emotional, more serious tone?

Josh: Yeah comedy’s kinda my thing that I go towards and when you have 4 minutes to tell a short story I think you just wanted people to come out laughing, especially with a short. A short has that quick cut, quick timing that just lends itself to comedy a little easier I think.

Mark: And as we were working on Inside Out at the dinner sequence where you go in and out of Mom and Dad’s head, that was playing so well with audiences, even early on as were showing it. We knew kind of the rhythm of that and just the potential of going back into their heads again was something that was worth pursuing.

With the success of Inside Out do you feel more pressure with the short film? Especially coming out with the DVD?

Josh: Well the movie hadn’t come out yet when we were working on it. We were still finishing the movie as we were working on the short.

As story tellers is it more challenging to make people laugh or to make them cry?

Josh: Oh great question. See it depends on the person because I don’t know. For me I think comedy is easier. Not easier, but it’s just more what I’m used to. But for others like Ronnie the Co-Director, he can do a drawing, and you look at this beautiful drawing and you start weeping. It just naturally comes out of him.

Mark: Yeah, I do feel like making people cry with the scenes that were more emotional in Inside Out were the ones that we struggled with the most. We spent the most time on re-working them the most. And then the scenes like the dinner scene actually seemed to come together earlier and a little quicker and kinda stayed more consistent. But getting it to play both for the humor and for the emotion is definitely a challenge.

Josh: There are a lot of movies that make me laugh, but there are not that many that make me actually start crying. So I don’t know what that says about me, but from that, that makes me think it’s harder to do the emotional stuff.

Do you feel any pressure working with John Lasseter?

Josh: No, I love working with him. I’ve worked with him since Day 1 at Pixar. I’ve been there for almost 13 years and the first movie I worked on was Cars. I love working with the guy. He’s so talented and just so awesome and there’s no pressure at all.

Mark: He’s incredibly inspirational with his crew. I had the chance to work on all of his earlier films and the crew just loves working with him. He’s so engaged and with any individual when he’s sitting with them and reviewing their work he’s complementary. He’s warm, and he’s so great at just cutting to the chase and getting right to just really great solid notes in a way that just kind of blows us all away every time.

So what’s next for you guys?

Josh: Well I’m working on a small independent film called Toy Story 4. It’s gonna be exciting. That’s all I can say.

Mark: And I am working on a future Pixar feature film that I am not allowed to talk about at this time.

Love Inside Out? Don’t miss this deleted scene, my interview with the Director & Producer, interview with Bing Bong & Sadness, interview with Riley & her dad, these Inside Out party ideas or these free Inside Out coloring pages!