In this wonderful animated film, Disney presents its imaginative view on how our emotions work. Now that I have taken a class on happiness, I now realize that Joy is misinterpreted in the film. Everyone favors Joy, believing that she is the primary source of Riley's happiness; however, Sadness can actually be seen as the main protagonist.
Joy is continiuously forcing people to be "happy". From her point of view, this means constantly smiling and having fun. Like the majority of people, Joy believes that happiness only comes from positive emotions. In the scene where Bing Bong's rocket is thrown into the abyss, Joy tries to comfort him so he could move on from his feelings. In a way, Joy is trying to have him"fake it till he makes it", one of the Secrets of Adulthood by Gretchen Rubin. However, when Sadness talks to him and acknoledges his sorrows, he is able to continue forward. Having sadness in our lives makes us more grateful for when we are happy.
Happiness does not only rely on Joy. At the end of the film, she realizes that one of Riley's memories is happy because Sadness had occurred. Like Victor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning, there is meaning within suffering. When Riley missed the winning goal, causing her team lose the championships, she was overwhelmed with sadness. But then her parents and teammates came to comfort and appreciate her efforts. This made Riley very happy.
Another factor that is needed for Riley's happiness are the aspects of PERMA. In the film, each island can represent PERMA. For example, Goofball Island is related to the positive emotions while Hockey Island is engagement. Seligman suggested that we need to embrace PERMA in order to achieve well-being. This evidence is depicted in the film when Riley loses her core memories. Without them, she felt nothing.
The overall meaning behind the film is that people cannot only rely on positive emotions. Instead, sadness is needed to make people appreciate how happy they were before.
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