Inside Out 2 is the next big hope for Pixar and Disney, and to ensure its success, it’s going into a new market: Gen Z beauty products.
After several years of commercial disappointments, including Luca (2021) and Lightyear (2022), Pixar Animation Studios is hoping that it has a surefire hit on its hands with Inside Out 2. The sequel to the critically acclaimed Pete Docter 2015 animated film is scheduled to arrive in theaters this summer, and the Walt Disney Company has a lot riding on the new film kicking off a wave of successful Pixar sequels.
Inside Out 2 will feature a newly teenaged Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman, replacing Kaitlyn Dias) experiencing all the joys and traumas of adolescence and, along with them, a new wave of emotions. Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, and Lewis Black return to voice Joy, Sadness, and Anger, while Tony Hale replaces Bill Hader as Fear and Liza Lapira replaces Mindy Kaling as Disgust.
Related: ‘Inside Out 2’ Changes Story, Cuts Controversial New German Emotion
The emotions of the first film (which also featured a returning Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan) will be joined by Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and June Squibb is rumored to be portraying Nostalgia. Hockey is also involved.
Disney and Pixar are going all out with the product tie-ins for Inside Out 2. Yesterday, it announced an Inside Out 2-branded line of skincare products aimed at the Gen Z market in partnership with Bubble, which will include two kits featuring its popular face wash and moisturizers with new packaging. Bubble described the new products on Instagram as:
All new friends from us and Disney and Pixar’s #InsideOut2!
2 collectible kits, and 3 collectible products designed to help you face whatever you’re feeling.
Shop the collection on our site and go see Disney and Pixar’s #InsideOut2, only in theaters June 14.
This makes a great deal of sense for the cash-strapped Disney, which sees its revenue from its film divisions at a low point. The company is losing billions of dollars trying to make Disney+ a streaming competitor to Netflix, while Star Wars feature films have still failed to recoup their initial purchase cost.
Related: Disney Confirms Monumental Change With ‘Inside Out 2’ Prior to Release
Combine that with the fact that skincare is an incredibly quickly growing industry around the world. Skincare is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%, and by 2034, experts estimate that skincare products will total a global $ 3,80,492.2 million. In large part, this massive growth is being supported by historically younger and younger consumers of skincare products with disposable income, like the Gen Z audiences Disney hopes will come out for Inside Out 2.
If Disney manages to pull off making itself the face of Gen Z skincare, it could maybe start to turn its financial fortunes around.
Inside Out 2 is directed by Kelsey Mann from a screenplay written by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein. It will be in theaters on June 14.
Do you think Inside Out 2 will be another success or a big flop? Tell us in the comments below!
