“Sadness is necessary” might not seem like the most kid-friendly message, but that is the idea most expressed throughout Pixar’s Inside Out. The story starts by laying the groundwork in which a little girl named Riley is born in Minnesota and experiences the first few years in her life. We meet the five different emotions who work the control panel of her mind: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Initially, Joy is in charge, and since Riley’s a kid, the spotlight is put on fun and happiness. But as Riley moves from her home in Minnesota to the bustling city of San Francisco, Joy starts to lose her grip, and the other emotions, primarily Sadness, start to impact Riley in ways they never had before.

Sadness is seen as the greatest threat to Riley’s happiness, which isn’t any surprise. What’s unexpected, though, is that she gradually becomes the heroine. Sadness is what gives Riley’s life feeling and depth. And it’s what makes this movie so touching. The greatest thing about this movie is definitely its openness towards sadness and depression and the approach to make it easy to understand. Throughout the movie, Joy tries to force Riley to be happy in difficult situations. She soon realizes that you can’t force happy onto people; you have to let them express how they feel. In this case, she had to hand over the reins to Sadness in order for Riley to feel happiness again.  Inside Out was able to explain how depression works in the simplest of terms.

In short, this movie has it all. According to Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times, “Inside Out [is] a bold, gorgeous, sweet, funny, sometimes heartbreakingly sad, candy-colored adventure that deserves an Academy Award nomination for best picture.” The movie is filled with adorable humor, sparking visuals, and thrilling adventures, never ceasing to captivate the audience and making it another addition to Pixar’s library of modern animated classic.