“Inside Out 2” was originally supposed to introduce 9 new emotions

"I wanted Joy to feel overwhelmed," director Kelsey Mann says.

As Inside Out 2 brings Riley into puberty and her teenage years, it introduces five new emotions to her brain's command center — but there were originally supposed to be even more.

In addition to the original core emotions — Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira replacing Mindy Kaling), and Fear (Tony Hale replacing Bill Hader), the sequel brings us four new additions to the console — Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Plus, every once in a while, Nostalgia (June Squibb) pops in for a visit.

But director Kelsey Mann tells Entertainment Weekly he had something even more complicated in mind at first: "I started with nine new emotions showing up. It was ridiculous. There were so many. I wanted Joy to feel overwhelmed."

Related: Pete Docter previews Pixar's future: Inside Out Disney+ series, more Monsters, Inc., and more

In part, the inundation of new emotions was meant to mirror Mann's experience of raising a teenager.

"I think of Joy as a parent to Riley, and she even calls her 'our girl,'" he says. "There's a parental aspect to her, and I feel that too. When you're a parent and you're raising kids, there's certain times where you feel like, Okay, I got this. Things are going all right. And then they hit puberty and they're a teenager, and suddenly, you're like, I don't know anything. I don't know what I'm doing at all. It's like somebody switched the playbook on you, and you're like, What team are we playing? And I wanted Joy to feel like that."

However, upper brass at Pixar were quick to point out the need to simplify.

"I overwhelmed her with all these new emotions showing up," Mann continues. "And not only did I overwhelm Joy, I overwhelmed the audience. There were too many. Anxiety was always there. She was one of the nine that showed up. But the first note I got was, 'That's fantastic, but there's so much noise around her that you're losing your focus.' So, I ended up stripping it down to the emotions that we have now in the final film."

Cowriter Dave Holstein reveals they were able to get more emotions in the mix (at least, briefly) in a cutscene: "It shows the waiting room where all the emotions sit and wait until it's their turn to get up there."

Related: Welcome to the Belief System, a core part of Riley's mind in Inside Out 2

Holstein was also involved in refining the emotions that made the final cut.

"We found four that felt like they didn't overlap and that felt like they would have very specific driving jobs at 13," he notes. "Of course, you can have anxiety and envy before you hit puberty, logistically speaking. But in terms of when they really start to drive, Anxiety won out because any 13-year-old, especially one who's been that age any time over the last five years, will understand Anxiety."

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Related: Inside Out 2 adds new emotions, but it’s the same old story

Devoted cinephiles will notice one thing Mann was able to expand: the aspect ratio.

"It's more wide-screen" he explains. "Her world is expanding, so why shouldn't the film's aspect ratio expand too? It really helped because when they all line up on that console, we were really happy that we had the wider screen."

Inside Out 2 is now in theaters.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.