- “Ugh. I wish I was as tall as all of you. I'm Envy! Oh... look at your hair...”
- ―Envy introducing herself
Envy is a major character in Disney•Pixar's 2024 animated feature film Inside Out 2. She is one of the new emotions and the seventh inside of Riley Andersen's mind.
Background
Official Description
- Envy may be small, but she sure knows what she wants. She's perpetually jealous of everything everyone else has, and she's not afraid to pine over it. Envy's wishful thinking and fascination with the newest, coolest thing pulls her attention in all directions and longs for what Riley doesn't have. Naturally, she wishes she were taller and less childlike.
Personality
Envy, as her name states, is the literal embodiment of any and all feelings of wishing for, longing for, and ambitious drive and desire for more things in one's life. She is perpetually fascinated by anything she finds beautiful, pretty, or desirable she feels she's lacking in, like Disgust's hairstyle, some cool girls Riley ends up meeting, and the height and appearance of the other emotions. She's always wishing for more, whether that be traits, ideas, abilities etc. and can be extremely enthusiastic about what she desires and will speak loudly for what she wishes for and wants to covet. She also has zero sense of personal space, always wanting to get close and reach out to whatever captivates her in an attempt to grasp it. Her main job is to let Riley know what she wants. This can sometimes clash with Disgust's own role in Riley's mind, whose impeccable taste serves as a filter to anything Riley doesn't need or is perceived as a threat to her, both physically and socially.
Envy is somewhat dramatic and easily captivated by things- demonstrating a passionate and curious side to her. Despite being envious she is in no way resentful, but she does have a tendency to get pouty or sad when not able to get to do or attain something (like when refused to plant a memory or touch the new Sense of Self and Riley's best friends getting in the way of her fitting in) when she's criticized by Ennui for caring too much and can get possessive at times such as not wanting to share Val with Riley's best friends. This tendency to admire everything and everyone and undermine herself can sometimes cause her to become somewhat of a people pleaser, both to the other emotions (especially Anxiety) and the people Riley interacts with. This can lead to her to try pretending to be something she is not or that she thinks the same way as them, displaying her insecurities.
Envy also serves as Anxiety’s second-in-command as of all the new emotions and is the most obedient and complicit with Anxiety’s machinations, and often brings her own input and ideas to fuel into Anxiety's plans for Riley's future. However, she can see when Anxiety is going too far. After Riley accidentally hurts one of her friends while trying to outdo Val's goal count when she made it to the team and Anxiety starts to spiral down, Envy was able to see that she was putting too much pressure on Riley and tried to calm her down, to no avail. After that, Envy and the other present emotions tried to remove the new Sense of Self Anxiety created for Riley.
Soon after both the old and new emotions managed to find common ground and understanding, Envy was able to come up with ideas to help Riley to the point she herself ended up getting envious of herself.
Physical appearance
Envy is a fairly small emotion compared to the rest of the Emotions, both the new ones and the old ones; the smallest of them all, she can even fit directly into the palm of Embarrassment, and even be carried by Disgust (and to an extent, the other emotions) with two hands. She has aquamarine skin, a tiny body, and a large spherical head. She has neck-length dark teal straight/wavy hair with some unruly strands tied up in two dark fuschia hair barrettes. She has big, round teal eyes that always fill with brilliance when she desires what others have. She also has small freckles in the middle of her eyes and has faint pink blush on her cheeks. Her wardrobe consists of a lilac long-sleeved dress with a magenta collar and off-white polka dots, brilliant purple leggings, and teal boots.
In the book, Go to Sleep, Anxiety!, Envy is shown wearing a pink nightgown with puffed sleeves and purple hair rollers.
Role in the film
When Riley is talking with Val Ortiz after Anxiety introduces herself to the Emotions, Envy grabs on the console of Headquarters and wishes she was tall as them. Anger asks Envy who she is, which she introduces herself to him just before seeing an image of Val on a projection, hoping to have hair like hers, much to Disgust preventing her from doing so, but not before Embarrassment appears. During the conversation, Envy alerts the emotions that Riley is talking with Val again at the locker room.
Later after Ennui engaged in a short conversation with Nostalgia, Envy tells the Emotions to see footage of Val introducing Riley to the other members of the Fire Hawks team. When she sees Riley cry, Envy reacts that she was expecting a sad moment from her. During a next game, Envy sees Riley on the team and is obsessed with Val's interaction with Riley but not before Joy engages in a frantic argument with Anxiety over the Sense of Self who then sends it to the Back of the Mind. Envy reacts that the moment of Riley being alone is what she wanted and then helps Anxiety send the orange orb away to the Back of the Mind.
Envy later follows Anxiety, curious of her concept of building the way she wanted to see Riley alone with Embarrassment and Envy following along. After Riley wakes up, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui return to Headquarters exhausted while Anxiety is devising ahead for Riley's plans and Envy suggesting to Anxiety to ask Val lots of questions. She then notices Val's interaction with Riley and thinks it is an invitation and when Riley is planning to order pizza with her friends, Envy becomes frustrated of this moment she is seeing with Val hanging out for a pizza party with Riley. After Anxiety recruits Envy to be in charge of the console, Ennui notices her obsession with Riley's moments after seeing Riley eating a granola bar.
Later when Riley sees a red notebook inside the office, Envy wonders if Riley made a list of all her favorite players or made a list without Envy herself, but not before Ennui tells them the Fire Hawks are working on it. Later when Riley is following her friends, Anxiety reacts frightened to Envy thinking she is making it worse but not before Embarrassment lies on the console to make Riley embarrassed. When Sadness finds herself back at Headquarters via tube, Envy, Anxiety, and Embarrassment scatter across the pile of memory orbs to distract them while Ennui causes Riley to talk sarcastically saying that she likes the band "Get Up and Glow". After the conversation between Riley and her Fire Hawk friends, Envy asks Anxiety of Riley could be herself if the new Sense of Self is not ready yet, which she then plans to send the memory orbs to the Back of the Mind.
Later as an anxious Sense of Self forms, Envy attempts to touch it, which Anxiety tells her that she needs more help while Embarrassment distractedly shows Sadness a pile of books but not before Anxiety instructs a scenario to some Mind Workers in Imagination Land, only for Joy to sabotage her plans from making Riley's life more miserable. As Riley opens Roberts' notebook and sees the note "Not ready yet", Envy, Embarrassment, and Anxiety notice that they have one day left but not before Anxiety unleashes a storm of ideas as she commands Embarrassment and Envy to give her ideas - one of them being a big idea to be used to make Riley's life even more miserable by causing the Headquarters to fade into orange coloration.
Later when Anxiety puts too much pressure on controlling Riley, Envy, Embarrassment, Sadness, and Ennui notice what she is doing to Riley, causing the four emotions to be blown by the pressure and attempt to pull the anxious Sense of Self out of the slot, but not before Joy scolds Anxiety for ruining Riley's life and then places the positive Sense of Self on the slot in order to save Riley. Envy and the rest of the emotions reunite with Joy altogether but not before Riley reconciles with her friends and then scores a goal in hockey, impressing Joy and the other emotions.
In the aftermath when Riley is hanging out with her friends, Envy and the rest of the emotions work together to protect Riley, as they look at Riley's positive life once again.
Gallery
Trivia
- Concept art of the first film almost shows Envy as a slick greedy man whose skin and suit are both in green, albeit in different shades, but this was later scrapped. In the sequel, Envy was redesigned as an excited little girl, shorter than her concept design, and her signature color is aquamarine instead of pale green (though, they are still correlated, nonetheless).
- The concept book of The Art of Inside Out 2 reveals that among the discarded ideas of Envy's design was that her hair be tied up in two pigtails that evoke the ears of a sad, wet puppy.
- Another scrapped idea shows that Envy would originally have the ability to replicate the looks and personalities of the core Emotions.
- According to Keiko Murayama (character art director), the reason Envy has big eyes is because the word "envy" is related to the Latin word invidia, which means "to look within"; which is why they decided to emphasize her eyes.
- Envy replaces Anger as the shortest and smallest of the emotions inside Riley's mind. She is so small that she needs to sit on the console in order to operate it and can be carried by the other emotions as if she is a toddler.
- She is, in addition, the youngest of the Emotions, appearance-wise.
- Her size plays into the idea of feeling tiny compared to others based off of one’s status and possessions they don’t have.
- This is Ayo Edebiri's second animated role in a Disney property, following her role in Kiff as Professor Totsy, and her third animated role in film overall following Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as Glory Grant and Nickelodeon/Point Grey's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem as April O'Neil.
- Envy's eyes when being amazed by something she likes are similar to Mei Lee's eyes from Turning Red when she tries to resist a box full of kittens during a test.
- Envy is the only one of the nine emotions that has four fingers.
- This references the fact that envy is the feeling that something is missing, since the other emotions have five fingers.
- Envy having four fingers might've also made it easier for the animators to move her around and design. This might be because there's a rule of thumb or a trope in media that four fingered characters are easier to animate than those with five or more fingers.
- The emotion of envy is typically portrayed as bitter and jaded, but Envy herself is instead depicted as an admiring character to reflect Riley's kind demeanor. This subversion of the emotion is actually tied to real psychological studies of it, revealing that envy has a more positive and adaptive side called "Benign Envy", as opposed to "Malicious Envy", the type in which the general mass is more familiar with.
- This also makes it rather ironic in the biblical sense since the opposite of envy is kindness, which is classified as one of the seven heavenly virtues.
- Despite not appearing in the first film, she was indirectly mentioned by Disgust there when referencing the dead mouse in Riley's new house.
- Religiously, in Christianity, Envy is classified as one of the 7 Deadly Sins. But the movie focuses on Envy as an emotion and not the former cause.
- Envy's green coloration may be a reference to the phrase "green with envy", which means to be very jealous of someone.
