Disney’s Pixar took over the Cannes Film Festival on Monday with its newest film, Inside Out, but the studio’s future was the focus on Wednesday when John Lasseter unveiled his vision for the most acclaimed animation studio of this century.

Directed by Up’s Pete Docter, Inside Out actually got a sneak peek at CinemaCon in Las Vegas last month, but that was for an audience of industry insiders and theater owners. On Monday, it was shown for critics and audiences for the first time and it earned a fantastic response.

The film centers on Riley, a young girl, and her emotions, which each have their own personality. The stellar voice cast includes Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader, Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan.

“In terms of its ambitious underlying concept, however, Inside Out blows the [other Pixar movies] away, going beyond the screen to become something audiences will carry around for the rest of their days — not as tie-in merchandise or spinoff theme parks (although there will inevitably be plenty of both), but as an elegant and iconic visual metaphor for understanding their own emotions, and empathizing with others,’” Variety’s Peter Debruge wrote.

HitFix’s Gregory Ellwood also praised the film’s creativity.

“What truly makes Inside Out remarkable, however, is how incredibly creative it is. Once Joy and Sadness are stuck in Long Term Memory you can see the story beats laid out in front of you, but Docter and his animators constantly surprise with the inhabitants they have populated throughout Riley’s mind,” Ellwood wrote. “From her abandoned imaginary friend Bing Bong (Richard Kind) to the eye-popping realization of Abstract World, there is a wealth of new ideas here that put recent Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios films to shame.”

Inside Out is Pixar’s first original movie since 2012’s Brave, but is actually the first new film from one of Pixar’s original creative geniuses since 2009’s Up, which Docter also directed. It looks like the concerns that Pixar’s greatness was waning can be put to rest.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lasseter showed some background clips from The Good Dinosaur, which hits theaters in November. The scenery reportedly looked realistic, but was completely animated. “This is a boy and a dog story, but the roles are reversed,” Lasseter said.

After Dinosaur though, Pixar is going back to sequels. Finding Dory his theaters in June 2016 and Toy Story 4, which Lasseter will direct, hits theaters in 2017.

Lasseter also talked about Zootropolis and Moana, two films the Walt Disney Animation Studios are working on. He concluded the presentation by showing off Sanjay’s Super Team, the short that will be shown before Dinosaur.

As for Inside Out, that hits theaters on June 19. You can learn more about the Pixar filmmaking process by checking out our interview with animator Jim Murphy, whose Lava will be shown before Inside Out.

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screenshot from Disney Pixar YouTube Video