"A lot of my favorite movies are sequels," says the director Kelsey Mann. "Like, Empire Strikes Back is not only one of my favorite sequels, but honestly, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Aliens is, again, one of my favorite movies of all time. I love a really good sequel. They're almost my favorite movies."

It's a particularly helpful mindset to have when you've been tasked with directing the sequel to one of Pixar's most beloved movies: 2015's Inside Out, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Mann has been with Pixar Animation Studios since 2013 and, over the years, served as a story supervisor on such films as Monsters University and Onward. Pete Docter, who directed Inside Out and now serves as Pixar's chief creative officer, handpicked him to helm Inside Out 2, Mann's feature directorial debut.

Inside Out 2 delves back into the mind of 13-year-old Riley, where Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale) and Disgust (Liza Lapira) are caught unawares by the onset of puberty. With it comes the arrival of a handful of new emotions, led by Anxiety (Maya Hawke) — who quickly takes over and banishes the original emotions from Headquarters. But who will Riley become with Anxiety, Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Ha) and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) in control?

"The films we do at Pixar, whether originals or sequels, we just try to make really great movies," Mann tells A.frame. "When Toy Story came out, I was like, 'That's amazing.' And I when Toy Story 2 came around, I was like, 'Oh, they're going to phone in the sequel.' But it was awesome too! Pixar doesn't mess around."

Read the full interview on A.Frame.