And all the research and press about the importance of happiness in recent years can make this message that much more potent. As a child, Vicki got similar messages and used to think something was wrong with her if she wasn’t happy all the time. One of us (Vicki) felt an old, familiar frustration when Riley’s mother tells her to be her parents’ “happy girl” while the family adjusts to a stressful cross-country move and her father goes through a difficult period at work. In that light, Inside Out’s creators, including director Pete Docter, made a smart choice to name Poehler’s character “Joy” instead of “Happiness.” Ultimately, joy is just one element of happiness, and happiness can be tinged with other emotions, even including sadness.
This choice reunites Riley with her family, giving her a deeper sense of happiness and contentment in the comfort she gets from her parents, even though it’s mixed with sadness and fear. The authors of this study suggest that feeling a variety of specific emotions may give a person more detailed information about a particular situation, thus resulting in better behavioral choices-and potentially greater happiness.įor example, in a pivotal moment in the film, Riley allows herself to feel sadness, in addition to fear and anger, about her idea of running away from home as a result, she decides not to go through with her plan.
In fact, a recent study found that people who experience “emodiversity,” or a rich array of both positive and negative emotions, have better mental health. Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of the best-selling How of Happiness, defines happiness as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.” (emphasis added) So while positive emotions such as joy are definitely part of the recipe for happiness, they are not the whole shebang. This reflects the way that a lot of leading emotion researchers see happiness. In fact, in the film’s final chapter, when Joy cedes control to some of her fellow emotions, particularly Sadness, Riley seems to achieve a deeper form of happiness. But by the end of the film, Joy-like Riley, and the audience-learns that there is much, much more to being happy than boundless positivity. When the film begins, the emotion of Joy-personified by a manic pixie-type with the voice of Amy Poehler-helms the controls inside Riley’s mind her overarching goal is to make sure that Riley is always happy. Some of the most memorable scenes in the film double as teachable moments for the classroom or dinner table. But they are conveyed strongly enough to provide a foundation for discussion among kids and adults alike. Those messages are smartly embedded within Inside Out‘s inventive storytelling and mind-blowing animation they enrich the film without weighing it down. The film has some deep things to say about the nature of our emotions-which is no coincidence, as the GGSC’s founding faculty director, Dacher Keltner, served as a consultant on the film, helping to make sure that, despite some obvious creative liberties, the film’s fundamental messages about emotion are consistent with scientific research.
As you likely know by now, much of the film takes place in the head of an 11-year-old girl named Riley, with five emotions-Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust-embodied by characters who help Riley navigate her world. But perhaps its greatest achievement has been this: It has moved viewers young and old to take a look inside their own minds.
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