The life of the mind - Riley's First Date?

Things are currently up in the air as to whether or not an Inside Out sequel is on the cards at Pixar. When questioned on the subject, director Pete Docter gave the predictable response - it wasn't on his radar right now, but who knows what the future will bring? All credit to Docter for wanting to focus upon more original ideas, but at the rate that Pixar are presently going (their current slate consists of four sequels, with Coco being their only original upcoming feature) I daresay that it will only be a matter of time. Like it or lump it, franchise-expansion is fast becoming Pixar's number one priority, with original pictures now an occasional treat instead of the norm. (How the misfortunes of The Good Dinosaur, Pixar's first box office turkey, will affect that trend remains to be seen - its failure could well solidify Pixar's current outlook that stories with familiar, established characters are a far safer bet, although at the same time it's certainly an encouraging sign that, when it came to the two Pixar releases of 2015, the cinema-going public emphatically chose the quirkier, riskier and more mature picture over the generic, unadventurous and more obviously toy-friendly one).  So yes, for now I lean more toward the prediction that there WILL be an Inside Out 2 at some point in the future, although I personally am rather conflicted as to whether or not I actually welcome the idea. On the one hand, the original offered up a world so intriguing and characters so rich that a part of me would positively leap at the opportunity to spend more time with them. On the other hand, the original's ideas and messages were communicated so beautifully and so succinctly that I'm left wondering what more a sequel could add that could expand upon that world in a positive and constructive way. I also have this uneasy sneaking suspicion that, if a sequel does come, it will be helmed by a director other than Pete Docter (a la Monsters University), although I suspect that it might be a number of years yet before I have to worry about such things.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached the short film Riley's First Date? (directed by Josh Cooley), which appears as a bonus feature on the DVD/Blu Ray release of Inside Out.  I certainly didn't want to rush in and devour the short the instant that I had the disc in my possession, knowing as I did that it could well be the last new material with the Inside Out characters that we'll receive for quite some time (if ever), and I wanted to ensure that that anticipation was properly savoured before I let it go.

Riley's First Date? doesn't have a particularly strong or tightly-structured story, and I can't see it offering a great deal of stand-alone appeal to viewers not familiar with the original movie. It's very much a supplement short, purposely designed to be packaged in with the main feature as a frivolous little extra you can watch on the side, but lacking the substance it would need to hold up beyond that context. The short takes place some time after the events of Inside Out, with Riley having successfully adjusted to life in San Francisco. Jordan, the curly-haired boy she encountered in the final scene of the movie, has shown up on the Anderson's doorstep to go ice skating with Riley, sending her mother and her father and their respective squads of emotions into a frenzy as to whether or not their twelve-year-old daughter is setting out on her very first date. Neither parent (or any of their emotions) much approves of the idea, but neither wants to inquire directly, so Mr and Mrs Anderson opt instead to play a few mind games with Riley and Jordan. The short then splits into two very basic narrative strands, with Mrs Anderson attempting to "probe" a definitive answer out Riley using language that she believes to be fashionable with the current young generation, while Mr Anderson stays downstairs and squares off against a largely oblivious Jordan. The short wisely chooses to devote more time to the latter strand, as Mrs Anderson's attempts at teenspeak are not, in themselves, particularly funny and amount to something of an old sitcom standard, although the reaction of Riley's emotions is what really sells it.

On that note, one of the most surprising (and in my view disappointing) aspects of Riley's First Date? is just how little presence Riley's own emotions (and, indeed, Riley herself) have throughout the short.  The particular Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust we spent most of our time with in the movie proper appear only in two very brief scenes here and have exactly ONE line of dialogue each.  In fact, the emotions who get by far the most focus here are those belonging to Mr Anderson, distinguishable by their moustaches and their military control room-styled headquarters.  As with the scene in which they appear most prominently in Inside Out itself (the dinner table sequence, which also functioned as the film's teaser trailer), the humour comes from the manner in which they hyperbolise the most basic and banal of human interactions as potentially deadly military operations, and the sequence between Jordan and Mr Anderson is easily the high point of the short (climaxing in an uproarious moment in which Mr Anderson discovers, to his surprise, that he does have some common ground with Jordan - this was apparently based upon a personal experience of Cooley's, so it's not surprising that it winds up being the most resonant and heartfelt aspect of the short).  Jordan's emotions appear here as well - a welcome component, as we didn't get a particularly good glimpse of them in the movie itself, although they're allocated even less screen time than Riley's emotions, and only Jordan's Joy and Fear get any actual dialogue.  Constantly switching back and forth between four different sets of emotions over such a short space of time ultimately does prove quite cumbersome and, in terms of their overall contribution to the story, Riley's emotions wind up feeling like the most dispensable aspect of the short.  Inside Out's dinner table sequence was a triumph, but Docter was definitely wise to use that kind of inter-emotion interaction sparingly across the feature.

In the end, the central issue as to whether or not Riley and Jordan are intending to go out on a date is not an especially compelling one, and the short feigns very little interest in the subject (the question is eventually answered during the course of the short, but is treated squarely as an aside).  It's really more of an excuse to get the human characters and their emotions interacting (mainly Mr Anderson and Jordan), and nothing of any real significance happens, at least on the human side of things.   Once the main issue with Riley and Jordan has been resolved (not there was ever a whole lot there to be resolved in the first place) there's some additional interaction between Mr and Mrs Anderson, which has the distinct feeling of being tacked on in order to pad out the running time a little further (and to disguise the fact that the story with Riley and Jordan basically fizzled).  It is perfectly charming, however, and makes me wonder how a short featuring just the parents and their emotions might play out, without those pesky kids there to clutter things up.

Ultimately, Riley's First Date? is something of a fluff piece - it's much too frivolous and uneventful a dip into the world of Inside Out to truly satisfy fans desperate for another fix, nor does it measure up to the very best of Pixar's shorts.  It is, however, an entirely likeable, charming and often hilarious bit of bells and whistles to go alongside the main feature, and Inside Out fans should still find plenty in there to enjoy.