The science behind why we always cry in that beginning scene of "Up"
No matter how many times you try to decline the truth to yourself, you got to admit that you cry during those particularly sad scenes during Pixar/Disney movies. But have you ever wondered why you seem to cry during those scenes? No, not just because it's sad, and not because you're emotionally attached to the character(s) (prime example would be Up, you only know Elli for about five minutes before she dies). It is because of the music. The chemistry behind humans' connection with music and emotion is fascinating, but incorporating that into film makes it even more captivating. Let's start with the chemistry behind emotion and music. In research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at McGill University in Montreal have established the direct link between the feeling stimulated by music and the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers (puts joy in things like addiction, gambling, etc). Researchers discovered that dopamine may also be why music is so powerful and dictates are emotions so heavily. People often say that music gives them the "chills," which is actually a technical term for a kind of emotional response. Dopamine is synthesized in the brain out of amino acids and transmits signals from one neuron to another through the circuits of the brain, which connects to the pleasure given from a desired type of music. The part of the brain the researchers studied was the striatum, deep inside the forebrain. The striatum has two subparts: the upper (dorsal) and the ventral (below). The dorsal section of the striatum is connected to the regions of the brain involved in prediction and 
Cinematic composers such as John Williams (Soundtracks and scores of Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Jaws, ET, and many, many, more), Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight series, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Pearl Harbor, and many more) and Michael Giacchino ( large majority of Disney/Pixar films) and others utilize our bodies’ strong sense of emotion we get from music due to dopamine and incorporate it into film to make us cry, feel happy, excited, or angry when watching just by the score playing in the background. An example would be while watching Star Wars, whenever you hear the famous “Imperial March”, you know Darth Vader is about to do something evil and you can’t help but feel a sense of excitement and anxiousness. In Disney films, (perfectly explained in this video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8HePfa7WYs) composers make you cry and almost “mess” with your dopamine but putting conflicting things in the film between what you hear and what you see. You see a sad scene with certain characters, but hear music that reminds you of the characters in a happy time earlier in the film. This is where themes (either of a character or the relationship of characters) come in. A good example of this is Monster’s Inc. (2:13-3:30 in the video), but a better example I am going to use is from Up. In Up, the film is opened with a scene of young Carl and Ellie playing happily as little kids, while the theme that represents their relationship subtly plays in the background, (Keep in mind Ellie’s love of adventure). Then begins the infamous montage of their “Married Life” (the name of the composition). During the happiest times of their married life (getting married, building a house, picnics), the theme is happy and upbeat, with a full orchestration and violin solos. During this, the dopamine in our brains releases feelings of warmth, love, and happiness. Then, during the melancholy parts of the montage (Initially when she found out she couldn't have kids then when she was sick in the hospital and finally at her funeral), Ellie’s theme plays as a solo piano. By this point in the film, Ellie and her sense of adventure has already been established and the theme reminds us of that. So when we hear the theme as she is dying in the hospital and at her funeral, our dopamine releases a sad emotion when we hear her theme, because we think of the time when Ellie was alive and happy (which would be when our dopamine released a happy sensation). This doesn’t just happen in the montage, but we also hear Ellie’s theme many times throughout the film, and when this happens our minds (dopamine!) remember the sense of adventure and a happier time for Carl that Ellie’s theme represents.
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