During a press conference from an early press day at Pixar Animation’s campus in Emeryville, California, (where we saw the first promising, clever, and hilarious first act) I took the time to ask Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen if there was anything in particular they were disappointed to lose in Pixar’s famously fluctuating development process that shapes the film across four or five years. Mann revealed:
“I hesitate ’cause I’m like, ‘It’s a good idea and it should come back, and I don’t know what’s going to happen in this world, but this needs to come back.’ We had a land called Procrastination Land, and I love that land. The joke with was that it was always under construction, and it’s a coming-soon Procrastination Land. And they’re like, ‘When are they going to finish that place?’ They’re like, ‘Ah. They’ll get around to it.’ We had workers who were like, ‘Hey, should we start building this land today?’ They’re like, ‘Nah,’ and they’re on their phones. They’re like, ‘Maybe tomorrow.’ It’s such a good gag.”
The gag in question was so good that its eventual cut from the movie disappointed a key trust of people that the filmmakers relied upon for perspective about life as a teenage girl. As part of their efforts to get into the mind of a 13-year-old girl, Pixar assembled a group of girls aged between 13 and 19 that they called Riley’s Crew. They’re all in high school and beyond now, but when they were younger, they would see the movie every four months and provide notes to Pixar to keep Riley’s story on track, especially regarding her interaction with friends and peers. Riley’s crew was bummed when Procrastination Land ended up on the cutting room floor. Mann recalled their reaction after one screening:
“They’re like, ‘Where’s Procrastination Land? You got to bring it back,’ and it’s such a funny idea. I will hold back one gag of it that I think is so funny, ’cause I’m like, ‘It’s going to come back. It’s going to come back. You guys are going to see Procrastination Land at some point.'”