Hanging with Riley’s First Date Directors and Producers

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I did receive an all expenses paid trip to facilitate this post, but all Inside Out fan girling is my own!

And the Inside Out fun keeps on coming! Aren’t you a lucky duck? We’ve already heard from the voice actors behind Inside Out and Riley’s First Date (make sure to read that great Inside Out post here), and now we had a chance to talk to the director Josh Cooley and Producer Mark Nielsen from the new Pixar Short film. Did I mention that it’s hilarious? (If not, look into my eyes ‘It’s hilarious and you must watch it!)

Think that just because it’s a short film that there isn’t just as much work that goes into the Pixar short films like Riley’s First Date? Think again. Though a full length film takes about four years to complete, even a short film like this one almost takes a full year to do.

When we first met Josh and Mark, we asked them if they already had this idea rolling around in their heads when they were making Inside Out. They laughed and told us that they didn’t know what they were going to do for the DVD, but towards the end of the film process they knew they wanted to make a short for the DVD release of Inside Out.

After thinking about it, the both started to laugh because they realized that virtually every creator on Inside Out were father’s with daughters. Josh shared with us one day when he saw his four year old daughter was acting all crazy. He shared this fun anectdote with another cast member;

I was you know talking about how she was acting crazy. And 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.” And I just the thought of that.

I was like, “I never even thought of that ever being a possibility.”  And I mean it was coming eventually, but um that’s kinda’ where the, the seeds of this idea came from.  It’s just my head going like, “Oh my God.”

And from that little gem, the idea of Riley’s first date was born. Heck, even as a mom I can relate to all that. You want to protect your kids from whatever you can, even if that means giving the kid some stank eye to make sure they know who’s the boss or who they will answer to if they hurt your kid.

One of my favorite questions during this interview was when we asked why they wanted to use AC/DC in the short. (Like that is even a question, HA!) Mark shared with us,

We did go down a lot of roads with music and we tried a lot different bands and a lot of songs. I think we really wanted to settle on something that was iconic.  It also had to be something that both Jordan as, as a kid can be into and could be familiar with as well as, as the Dad. 

Well done, Pixar, well done. The AC/DC part of the short totally makes the short which is why you HAVE to see it. The only way to do that is to buy your Inside Out digital copy plus extras or buy Inside Out on Blu Ray and DVD here! (Subtle hint, I know)

Disney-Pixar’s INSIDE OUT will be available on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere October 13 and on DVD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray Combo Pack and On Demand on November 3.

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