Asking if Inside Out could have been sadder is like asking to divide something by zero — it just shouldn’t be possible. And yet from MTV comes news that the most tearjerking moment of the film could have been even tearjerkier: According to Richard Kind, who voiced Bing Bong in the film, the scene where the colorful imaginary friend sacrifices himself was originally even more gut-wrenching. “When I first saw the movie, the scene down in the valley, where the memories have been lost and disposed of, was about 40 seconds to a minute longer,†he revealed. “And I loved it … when they’re trying and trying and trying to get back, you understand what he’s going through. You see him get a little desperate.â€
But as it turns out, even Pixar didn’t want to torture the audience that much. “The reason why they cut it — and I think they’re sort of right — was because that earlier version was heart-wrenching,†Kind says. “It was absolutely heartbreaking, and I likened it to the scene in Bambi when his mother dies. We don’t need to see that again.†In the end, it was a humanitarian decision: Had the original version made its way into theaters, it sounds like the flood of tears could have overwhelmed all of America’s major cities.