Exclusive: Missing 'Inside Out' emotions revealed

Bryan Alexander | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Exclusive 'Inside Out' clip shows missing emotions Director Pete Docter shows off some of the emotions that didn't make it into Pixar's 'Inside Out.'

Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust weren't the only emotions seeking starring roles in Pixar's Inside Out.

During the lengthy filmmaking process for the animated journey into the mind of Riley, an 11-year-old girl, many more emotions fought for roles. Irritation, Pride, Envy, Greed, Gloom, Despair, Depression and even Love were incorporated, but didn't make the final cut.

"When the film is done, you look at the characters and go, 'Of course, these are the emotions,' " says director Pete Docter of Inside Out, which has made more than $355 million at the box office since June. "But we tried a lot of things before we got to where we ended on the screen."

Many of the missing emotions are being revealed in a special Inside Out Blu-ray/DVD edition (available Tuesday at Target).

When filmmakers started intensive research in late 2009 to create the characters, they discovered a wide disparity in the scientific community about how many emotions exist, Docter says.

"We thought that this is science, there is going to be one correct answer to the number of emotions," says Docter. "But some (scientists) said 17, another said four. A couple of scientists said zero, that emotions are sort of an illusion. There was no real unity. That was good because we were able to decide for ourselves."

The list ran as high as 26 before the whittling began. Schadenfreude (the enjoyment that comes from seeing others' troubles) was a contender, along with Ennui (the feeling of listlessness or dissatisfaction). Pride and Hope stayed the longest before getting the ax.

Ultimately, the list was streamlined for story simplicity and because key character traits were already embodied in the final five.

"I just remember sitting at my desk and saying, 'OK, I'm going to have to make a call. Which emotions feel instinctively like the ones appropriate for the story of this girl?' " says Docter. "And that's how we came up with the five that we have."

At one point, Docter had names for the emotions — for example, Anger was Ira and Freddy was Fear.

"Saying, 'Hey, Anger, come here!' just seemed really weird to me at first. My thought was to be clever about it," says Docter. "We tried that for a while, but I was wrong. We backed off it."

In the end, filmmakers knew they had the right emotions to fit the five voice actors: Amy Poehler (Joy), Bill Hader (Fear), Lewis Black (Anger), Mindy Kaling (Disgust) and Phyllis Smith (Sadness).

"When we heard the cast all recorded, it was like, this works," says producer Jonas Rivera. "It just felt right to us."