Joy

"It was amazing. Just Riley and me forever."

- Joy when she first manifests in baby Riley's mind

Joy is the protagonist of the 2015 Disney/Pixar film Inside Out. She is one of the five emotions inside the mind of Riley Andersen. She is happy and joyful all the time, and is the leader of the group of emotions. She is voiced by Amy Poehler.

Official Description

 * Joy's goal has always been to make sure Riley stays happy. She is lighthearted, optimistic and determined to find the fun in every situation. Joy sees challenges in Riley's life as opportunities, and the less happy moments as hiccups on the way back to something great. As long as Riley is happy, so is Joy.

Personality
Joy is, as her name states is the very essence of happiness and perkiness. She is the oldest of all of the emotions. She values Riley's happiness to the point where she doesn't want any of the other emotions to influence Riley. She doesn't want Riley to be sad at all, even when she needs to be.

She mistreats Sadness because she doesn't understand why Sadness is a necessary emotion due to wanting Riley to be happy all the time. When Bing Bong lost his wagon and was grieving, she wanted him to not be sad when he had to be and tried doing childish and silly things to get him to stop without understanding that cheerfulness and positivity are not always what a sad person needs.

When the islands were falling apart, there was an escape tube back to HQ and when Sadness was about to go in, she pushed her out of the tube and left Sadness behind because Sadness was influencing the core memories that Joy held and Joy wanted Riley to be happy. She ends up falling into the Memory Dump when the escape tube falls apart.

During her time in the Memory Dump, Joy realized that Sadness is very important to Riley's life and that she was only thinking of herself and not Riley or any of the other emotions. After reuniting with the other emotions, she decides to let them do their job and stop being so bossy all the time, since Riley needs all of them to function.

Physical appearance

 * Joy / Yellow color (bright blue hair and a light chartreuse dress with an over-the-top vibe character).
 * She glows when she's excited (blue light).

Inside Out
Joy appears in the film as one of the five emotions in Riley Andersen's mind, she's the leader of the group.

When Riley was first born, Joy was the first ever emotion to be born. She then walked towards the control panel, which at the time consisted of only one button. The instant she pressed it, infant Riley began smiling. However, thirty-three seconds later, Riley began crying. Joy soon realizes that Sadness (the second emotion to come to Riley's mind) has arrived and has pressed the button. When Joy looks at her, Sadness introduces herself, and Joy awkwardly moves her aside to fix the situation.

She and the other emotions control Riley through her thoughts and mind. She seems to want to keep Riley happy and joyful and always has an important task for every emotion--except Sadness, who she mistreats (and the others do a little bit of the same).

Riley enjoys a happy, joyous life in Minnesota until Riley's father gets a brand new job in San Francisco, which causes Riley to become depressed and sentimental. To make things worse, everything has gone horribly wrong; the house is terrible and broken, the moving van won't arrive for another couple of weeks, and the food is awful.

Joy sees that Riley is becoming sad, depressed, and sentimental and wants her to still be happy and jolly. So, she does all she can to keep her as cheerful and joyous as she was back in Minnesota.

On Riley's first day of school, her first impression is horrible because during Riley's introduction, Sadness caused Riley to cry and made a sad memory. Since she doesn't want Riley to ever be sad, she tries getting rid of it. Sadness tries to pull the memory back, but Joy fights her for it and this causes the two to get lost in Riley's mind. Literally.

Joy decides to have Sadness navigate her back to headquarters. They then run into Riley's old imaginary friend, Bing Bong and Joy is more than happy to meet him, and the feeling is mutually. Rather than having Sadness guide her back, she decides to have Bing Bong be the navigator instead. Sadness doesn't want them to, but Joy insists they follow Bing Bong.

Bing Bong takes them to a "shortcut", which is actually a dangerous place to go into. Sadness tries to warn them, but the others don't listen and go in anyway. Inside, they start losing their depth, but Sadness gets them out. Outside, they find Imagination Island which is full of imaginative things Riley has dreamed of. They find out that the Forgetters are tearing it down, because Riley has lost her imagination.

The Forgetters then toss down Bing Bong's old wagon, which is the last thing he has of his fun with Riley, down a cliff. Bing Bong falls into deep despair, so Joy tries to cheer him up by doing many childish things, but hey don't help at all. Sadness decides to empathize with him and let's him show his true feelings, which makes him better. Joy is shocked that Sadness made him feel better without cheering him up.

That night, the trio then go to Dream Productions to wake Riley up so they can get home faster. Joy and Bing Bong decide to meddle with Riley's dream, by making her dream happ, in hopes that it'll wake her up (which clearly wouldn't). Joy then makes Sadness and her dress up like a puppy and they just weird Riley out and Bing Bong starts playing in her dream, of course, this doesn't work at all.

They go down to the basement and meet Riley's worst nightmare, Jangles the Clown, who then wakes up Riley. The three jump back onto the train.

The next day, Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong find out that Riley is running away. Sadness finds an escape tube back to headquarters and goes inside, but Joy pushes her out and betrays Sadness and leaves her to die in Long Term Memory with Bing Bong, because, "Riley needs to be happy" which really hurts Sadness' feelings. However, the tub breaks and Joy falls into the pit of forgotten memories.

Bing Bong, attempting to save Joy, also falls down into the pit. Joy reminisces and cries about the happy moments that she remembers, stating "I just wanted Riley to be happy." She also sees one of the happy memories and realizes it was made because Sadness helped Riley call for help, support, and comfort.

After realizing the presence of Bing Bong's rocket, Joy becomes happy once again and the duo start attempting to escape the pit. They try 2 times, and then Bing Bong realizes that the wagon is too heavy with the two of them in it. Deciding to sacrifice himself for Joy and Riley, he cheers Joy on, while stating his last words while he fades into oblivion- "Take her to the moon for me, okay?"

Joy finally arrives back up in Long Term Memory, but she can't find Sadness anywhere. She then sees her flying on a cloud and chases after her. She finds that Sadness is close to HQ and flings herself to Sadness and they finally arrive back home.

The others tell Joy to fix Riley's problem, but Joy gives her job to Sadness instead, because they need her to help Riley. She gives Sadness the happy memories and they turned into sad ones. This makes Riley give up on running away and she decides to return home. Sadness takes control of the panel and Riley finally reveals her true feelings to her parents- she hates San Francisco, misses the good old days in Minnesota, and that she was pretending to be happy and was afraid of making them mad because she has always been their "happy girl". Riley's parents admit they feel the same way and a brand new core memory is made; it is a mix of happiness and sadness.

Disney INFINITY
Joy is set to appear in Disney INFINITY 's third installment as a playable character. However, she will not be voiced by Amy, as John Vignocchi explained that her agent said she was too busy.

Disney Parks
Joy and Sadness have a meet and greet area near the Art of Animation exhibitions at Hong Kong Disneyland for a limited time during the Coolest Summer Ever event in 2015. They are currently the only Inside Out characters to appear at Disney Parks.

Following an advanced screening of the film at Downtown Disney in Orlando, a private meet and greet with Joy and Sadness was set up. The event was exclusive to Disney journal/blog members.

Quotes

 * "These are Riley's memories, and they're mostly happy if you notice. Not to brag."
 * "But the really important ones are here. I don't want to get too technical but these are called Core Memories. Each one came from a super important moment in Riley's life, like when she first scored a goal. That was so amazing!"
 * "And each core memory powers a different aspect of Riley's personality. Like Hockey Island."
 * (Introducing Disgust) "This is Disgust, she basically keeps Riley from being poisoned. Physically and socially."
 * (Introducing Anger) "That's Anger, he cares very deeply about things being fair."
 * (Dancing) "I'm doing the happy dance! I'm not wearing any pants!"
 * "Five second rule!"
 * "Disgust, it's fine. It passed the five second rule."
 * "It's a grape. It's not like we're eating broccoli...or boogers...or dog food."
 * "Fear, I don't think you can handle it. It's a scary movie."
 * (Gasp) "The song from the gum commercial!"
 * "First day of school! Very, very exciting! I was up late last night, figuring out a new plan. Here it is!"
 * (Talking to herself) "Joy!...Yes Joy?...You'll be in charge of the console, keeping Riley happy all day long. And may I add I love your dress. It's adorable...Oh, this old thing? Thank you so much. I love the way it twirls."

Trivia

 * According to Pete Docter, her appearance is based on that of a star/burst of energy.
 * This can be seen in Abstract Thought, as during the fourth stage, Joy and Sadness were reduced to a single shape and color - Joy was a yellow star and Sadness was a blue teardrop.
 * Joy is the second female protagonist in a Pixar movie, with the first being Merida from Brave.
 * Also, Joy is the first Pixar protagonist that lives within an human being.
 * Joy shares similarities with Anna from Frozen.
 * Both are highly optimistic.
 * Both can get energetic and excited easily.
 * Both have an interest in music and dancing.
 * Both love having fun and playing.
 * Both misinterpreted someone. Anna misinterpreted Elsa and joy misinterpreted Sadness
 * There are several things that make Joy stand out from the other emotions:
 * She's the only emotion not wearing shoes or pants.
 * She's the only emotion that glows.
 * She's the only emotion whose hair and eye color isn't the same as her theme color.
 * Joy has a habit of talking to herself.
 * Her favorite island is Goofball Island.
 * During the finale of World of Color Celebrate!, Joy is doing some tricks with Riley's memories on California Screamin, but the guests may not find her since the fountains are too tall and block the view of California Screamin.