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Inside Out connects to so many people. A representative at the college fair at school noticed my lanyard and mentioned how much she loved the movie. The cashier who sold us our yogurt complimented me on it as well, happily going on about the film. What is it about this animated Pixar film, about the emotions in an 11 year old girl’s head that everyone of every age can relate to?

I love this movie. A lot. It’s right up my alley when it comes to things I like, and I found a lot of the characters incredibly relatable to my own personal experiences and personality. It does a beautiful job at explaining your emotions and how they effect your personality and life. Somehow, Pixar manages to tackle the importance of sadness, the difference between happiness and joy, and depression, in a movie with no main villain and surprisingly light and funny for it’s topic.

That’s what’s so great, I think. A movie about personified emotions could go a number of ways, and it goes full steam for the imagination filled, child like fueled side of it.

Inside Out doesn’t dumb down it’s message. It just presents it in an innocent, fun, way that doesn’t detract from the seriousness at all. It’s what kids movies are supposed to be like. Parents can relate to how Riley’s mom and dad feel dealing with the stress of moving and hoping Riley’s alright, their fear when she runs away. Audiences can relate to Riley’s struggle after moving, her struggle in trying to force sadness down, or moving so far from friends. It invokes a sense of wonder and imagination. It reminds people of being a kid.

Hey, even the emotions themselves can be related to. I can kind of relate to Joy, in her trying to exclude sadness before learning that sadness is a key element to life. Sadness is important. And in Joy’s mad scramble for happiness, she sort of loses, well, joy. Joy is a bit selfish at first in her quest to keep Riley happy, with happiness being the primary goal. By the end, they all figure out that the emotion joy is part of all the emotions mixed together. They’re all important, and it’s not healthy to hold them back.

A movie that can accomplish that when it’s main cast of characters involve emotions and an imaginary friend named Bing-Bong and full of side-splitting, relatable humor and touching moments is a good movie in my book. Which leads me to my second point: A good storyteller can get their message across in any platform. A deep message doesn’t have to strictly belong in one genre. That said, themes in kids movies aren’t superior to other movies and vice versa. Being aware of all that you’re writing, trying something new, and using all of the story you’ve written to the best of your ability.

So if you haven’t seen Inside Out yet, I recommend you do! It’s a great movie, and I can’t summarize what a great theme it shares.

To read more from Frame Rate, read Why the Nationwide ad works.