Inside out: Richard kind on fan love for bing bong

Note: Some spoilers for Inside Out follow.

Anyone who’s seen Pixar's most recent film, Inside Out – and given its success, many have – know just what an impact Bing Bong made. The pink cotton candy/half cat/half elephant steals the show as we learn his history as the discarded imaginary friend of 11-year old Riley, while we travel through her mind… and see what his fate is.

The voice of Bing Bong, veteran character actor Richard Kind (Spin City, Gotham) was on hand at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today to promote his new Amazon series, Red Oaks, and spoke about the impact the film and Bing Bong has had.

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Richard Kind voices Bing Bong (left) in Inside Out.

Regarding how emotionally impactful viewers are finding Inside Out, Kind recalled a movie from his own youth, saying, “When I was a kid and Brian's Song was on TV, I remember going to high school and everyone going, 'I cried! I swear I cried! It made me cry!' The football players - 'I cried!' I get those messages [about Inside Out]. 'You made me cry! It was so sad.”

Interestingly, Bing Bong was in none of the promotional materials for Inside Out prior to release, and Kind remarked, “How smart was Pixar not to use me in the advertising? To let me be a surprise. I thought that was the greatest. And it killed me, because I like attention - I'm an actor! But they were absolutely right. They made such a smart decision.”

Kind added, “Of course. I'm riding the coattails of a genius, [Inside Out director] Pete Docter. I am very lucky to be associated.”


I asked Kind his initial reaction to Inside Out when he read the script and began making the film and he replied, “First of all, you always put your trust in Pixar, because they know more than you do. The more that we did it, I kept wondering, 'Will people understand the story that you're trying to tell? This is weird! This is memory orbs and you're going...' This is stuff that is not high concept, it's weird concept. And then I saw what we see, like in the first six minutes, they introduced the whole world? That's pretty amazing. It's like playing Monopoly and you learn the rules in three minutes. It's just a whole different thing. And so when I saw that, I went, 'Oh my god, they are gonna get it!' Because I got it, but I got to read the script, I got to know it. They were explaining it to me as we were doing it! They would go, 'Okay, they’re going up to the brain! Now there are these memories...' And I'm understanding it, because they're explaining it to me. But if you can do that within five minutes before the credits? That's astounding to me.”

Kind said kids usually have no idea who he is in relation to the film, but did recount a recent story. "It was late at night and a mother was walking her two kids home and I heard them talking about Bing Bong. I overheard them. and I stopped them. I would [normally] never do this, but I stopped them and I went, 'Did you like Inside Out and did you like Bing Bong?' They say yes, and I go, 'I'm Bing Bong!' Well one of the kids couldn't compute it and the other was old enough to know and couldn’t believe it. And then the phones came out, 'Let's take pictures!' But they don't know. They have no idea. They're not going to go, 'Hey, he was on Spin City!'”