International versions of INSIDE OUT tweaked the details, Pete Docter reveals.
The story of Riley, the young protagonist in Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out who sends her emotions on quite an adventure after a move from Minnesota to San Francisco, is a smart, poignant one. But that doesn’t mean it translates flawlessly worldwide in the minute details. In a recent interview, Inside Out director Peter Docter explained how the movie changed in the various international versions.
For instance, Riley’s distaste for broccoli wouldn’t make much sense in Japan, where most children actually have an affinity for the vegetable. Instead, the offending food of choice was changed to green bell peppers, which is not a crowd pleaser in that nation.
Riley’s childhood sport of choice was also switched up in some countries, but not all:
“We offered a version with soccer instead of hockey since soccer is huge in so many parts of the world. But some countries that are into soccer actually decided to stick with hockey since the characters in the movie are from Minnesota and it makes sense that they’d be hockey fans.”
Of course, Docter also points out that Bing Bong’s DANGER sign was also translated for each applicable language and animation was tweaked to make sure he pointed out each letter in the correct order (as some nations read from right to left rather than left to right.)