Emotions are important. A lot of people are taught to squash their feelings and push them aside, or to express them as minimally as possible, and I think the rationale behind this is that they’re pesky things that get in the way of logic. But actually, to the contrary, they’re very functional and important.

This is the central point of the new Pixar movie Inside Out.

The plot of the film is fairly simple. It’s about an 11-year-old girl named Riley who moves from Minnesota to San Francisco for her father’s job. She’s always been a joyful little girl, but suddenly she finds herself in a whirlwind of unfamiliar negative feelings when she has to leave behind her home, her school, her hockey team, and her best friend. But that’s not where the real action takes place.

Inside Riley’s head are the five real stars of the show: Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness. Joy runs the ship – and in fact, most of what Riley feels throughout her early childhood is joy. And as Joy explains it, everyone has a purpose. Anger is what helps Riley stand up for herself. Fear is what helps Riley dodge dangerous situations. Disgust helps Riley avoid potentially poisonous things… like broccoli. But Sadness… Joy doesn’t really understand her purpose at all.

Whenever Riley has an experience, it gets logged as a large, colorful marble, depending on the nature of the experience. If it’s an angry experience, it’s a red marble. An experience of fear is purple. But the overwhelming majority of Riley’s memories are yellow for Joy.

I won’t spoil the film because really, everyone should see it. I also won’t go into too much detail about Pixar’s depiction of the inner workings of the human mind, because it’s really beautiful and filled with exciting surprises. But what I do want to talk about is the function of sadness because, like Joy, I think many of us view sadness as a waste of time and energy.

So, in short, here’s what Inside Out teaches us about sadness:

Most of us imagine that sadness will isolate us from others, but in reality, sadness has the opposite effect. If I feel and express sadness, I’m saying to the people in my life, “this is hard and I need help.” That gives those people an opportunity to express empathy and say, “I know, you’re right. Sometimes I need help too.” And because of that empathy, the sadness feels more bearable and connections grow stronger. And really, connection is why we’re all here… so sadness is immensely important and valuable.

Pretty profound for a cartoon!

We left the movie, and walking out of the theatre heard a few teenage boys ahead of us:
“No, sadness is important too! That’s the whole point!”
“It’s really funny how fear kicked in whenever she was about to get herself into a dangerous situation.”

I turned to my partner and said, “Do you hear that? Those are teenage boys talking about emotions. Little kids are going to see this movie and internalize that their emotions – all of their emotions – matter and are valid. 6-year-old kids are going to watch this movie again and again and again, because that’s what children do, and their parents are going to be really sick of it, but every time they put in the DVD, the child will be internalizing and solidifying the idea that their emotional world is important, that it’s ok to feel sad, and that their feelings make them who they are.”

Wow.