From Ice to Animation, Tabor Alum Skates into Inside Out 2

Nervousness. Admiration. Excitement.

There was no containing her emotions when Tracey Roberts ’85 was asked to bring her experience playing and coaching ice hockey on to the set of Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2. While she was already working at Pixar as a character technical director, she was first approached by the film’s character supervisor after he heard her son played 18AA for the Oakland Bears. It didn’t take long until the director asked to meet her.

“I was ecstatic to be involved and a bit nervous to talk with the director. Kelsey Mann is an incredibly intelligent, creative, thoughtful, and inclusive director. It was amazing to get to talk to him one-on-one and then be included in some of the steps that make up a Pixar film—from talking to the director, producer, writers, character artists, simulation artists, and animators. Kelsey also invited me to go to the sound recording with [Olympian] Kendall Coyne Schofield,” she says.

The billion-dollar box office hit follows the beloved emotions from the first movie—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust—as “newly minted teenager” Riley attends ice hockey camp and copes with new emotions, such as Anxiety (Maya Hawke).

“Inside Out 2 is not a hockey movie, it's a movie about a teenage girl who plays and loves hockey,” admits Roberts. “The lessons you learn on the ice, court, or field are directly related to larger lessons in life: teamwork, hard work, communication, and learning to accept both wins and losses gracefully. Hockey is a game of mistakes and recoveries. We will all make mistakes in life, we will have ups and downs; how quickly we can pivot and let go gracefully, while keeping our heads in the game, that's when we can win.”

Roberts knows these lessons well, as her extensive hockey career began at an early age. Inheriting the love of the sport from her father, she recalls memories of skating at a public rink, reaching her arms up as high as possible just to hold her father’s hands. Roberts continued playing hockey in high school at Tabor Academy.

As a student, she remembers, “I was on the ice a lot at the Tabor rink. It was an outdoor rink [then] with a roof but no walls. It was freezing cold; the wind blew in from the ocean right onto the bench. The [girls] team was just starting out, so I practiced and played with the boys 2nd team and the girls team. At that time there were only 20 girls boarding at the school, and I seemed to be the only girl playing in the boys prep school league.”

In addition to advancing her hockey skills at Tabor, Roberts also cultivated a newfound passion—art. During her junior year, she took her first art class with Mr. Lucien Lavoie, who coached the boys team at Tabor before Roberts was a student. “Had I not taken that class, I would not be working in the animation industry. In fact, I probably would be doing something with my economics degree,” she adds. “He had a theory that art and athletics have a strong correlation, that much of it was related to creativity and hand-eye coordination. After that first class at Tabor, I spent all [my] free time, outside of the ice and the library, in the art building. He taught me to draw, paint, and sculpt. He was my mentor and passed on his passion for all forms of art.”

Roberts took Lavoie’s lessons one play further when she was asked to consult with Pixar on Inside Out 2. She says, “It is not often that you are able to have two of your favorite things wrapped into one. Animation and the characters department are a team, at the end of the day the director is the coach, the supervisors are the captains, and the team is composed of the artists. If there is a healthy level of competition between working to be the best individually, and working together as a team supporting each other, accepting and giving feedback, it pays off. Inside Out 2 speaks for itself on Pixar as a winning team.”

Thanks to enhanced technology and storytelling techniques, the intersection of sports and animation is evolving. This advancement offers potential for continued cross-disciplinary learning and collaboration. According to Roberts, partnership at Pixar is incredible.

During the animation process, artists would reach out to her whenever they had hockey-related questions, from equipment to game play. She also attended virtual “dailies,” where animators present their previous day’s work for feedback from the director and supervising animators. She explains, “Although it is a large company, most of the artists know each other and are constantly bouncing ideas off each other … all the animators throw out ideas to improve the shots; it is beautiful to watch.” As the film moved further along, Roberts says they brought in additional animation artists with hockey experience to balance out the knowledge base and feedback loop.

“Hockey is a fast, complex, and creative game. There are many subtleties you would not know unless you have played … The shots done by Brendan Beesley are amazing. He played Junior A in Canada. The fact that the hockey looks so amazing in the film, knowing that many of the animators have never played the game, is a testament to the incredible skill and creativity the Pixar animation team possesses,” says Roberts.

Ongoing innovation in animation promises not just an increase in athletic-themed films, but also richer narratives and profound themes that resonate across diverse audiences.

“Folks may chase the success of Inside Out 2 attempting to make more films about sport in animation, but that's not the secret ingredient. Inside Out 2 is an amazing film, an amazing story with a heart; this is why it is successful. It addresses important emotions that all people, young and old, deal with. Hockey is just what Riley loves, it's her passion, but that passion could have been many things,” Roberts emphasizes. “Animation and sport are stories in the end, it's the story that has to be great.”

Read more about Roberts’ participation in Pixar’s Inside Out 2 in The Boston Globe and The New York Times. Watch the trailer for the movie, below.

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