Joy (Inside Out)
character from Inside Out
Joy is a fictional character who appears in Disney/Pixar's Inside Out franchise. She is one of several emotions inside the mind of Riley Andersen, being the literal embodiment of joy and the lead emotion in Riley's head. Joy's character and development are central themes in both movies. In the 2015 film, she is the protagonist and is primarily voiced by Amy Poehler.
Joy's popularity in Inside Out has led to multiple other appearances in related media. The character returns in Inside Out 2 (2024) once again as one of the protagonists and as a supporting character in the Disney+ spin-off show, Dream Productions.
Concept and creation
In early stages of development for Inside Out, Joy was going to be the main source of narrative tension as she wouldn't let Riley grow up. Kevin Nolting said they changed the character arc as "the essence of the problem was, Joy wasn't likable, she was putting Riley in embarrassing situations; Riley was in middle school, but Joy was making her act like a child. As an audience member, you weren't rooting for Joy." Joy was going to be paired with Fear and not Sadness for the film's story, but this was changed as the writers found Joy and Sadness as more dynamic viewing. From the early stages of production, director Pete Docter was set on Joy being the film's protagonist, as reason for why she is the only emotion with a common name.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joy (Inside Out)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.