Oscars 2016: Inside Out director Pete Docter talks nominations, possible sequel

It’s time to break out the bubbly! After a night spent tossing and turning, Inside Out director Pete Docter says he’s ready to celebrate with the news that Pixar’s latest has earned Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Screenplay.

“It’s been a roller coaster of fear and joy battling it out the last couple of days, but joy has won out,” says Docter, who watched the Oscars nomination livestream on a laptop in bed with his wife. “It’s a good thing.”

Sleep-deprived though he might be — “I kept waking up, thinking ‘Is it 5:30 yet?'” he shares, laughing — Docter says his biggest satisfaction comes from having tackled the extraordinary complexities of human emotions in a way that’s relatable to animation fans of all ages.

“The brain is a really complicated instrument, and there’s a lot of stuff going on. To be able to talk about that in an 80-minute film was hard,” he says. “It’s a credit to the amazing crew and people I get to work with that we were able to make it visual.”

That said, Docter (who earned an Oscar for 2010’s Up) says he did have his moments of doubt.

“I remember the first screening we had, Brad Bird was off doing Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, but he was nice enough to come back to watch and he said ‘I’m glad you’re doing this and not me,’ which was simultaneously a compliment and kind of scary,” recalls Docter. “The fact that Brad thought this would be hard was about the time I woke up to what I was getting myself into.”

Now, Docter — who has animated everything from childhood toys to tiny ants throughout the course of his career — says he feels nothing is off limits.

“I think we feel confident,” he says. “Like ‘If we can do this, where else can we go?”

RELATED VIDEO: Behind the scenes with Inside Out

Well, since he asked – how about an Inside Out sequel?

“Well see if anything turns up,” he says regarding the possibility of an Inside Out 2. “To me its not as simple as we liked it, so lets make another one. What happens is you design these characters not so much looks wise but as they are as character and people for a story. So we’ll explore it and see what happens.”