- “Delusional? OF COURSE I'M DELUSIONAL!! Do you know how hard it is to stay positive all the time when all you folks do is complain, complain, complain?! Jiminy, mother-lovin', toaster strudel!”
- ―Joy
Joy is a character in the Inside Out franchise. She is one of the original five emotions inside the mind of Riley Andersen.
History
Inside Out
When Riley was first born, Joy was the first ever emotion created. She then walked towards the control console, which at the time consisted of only one button. The instant she pressed it, infant Riley began smiling. However, 33 seconds later, Riley began crying. Joy soon realized that Sadness has arrived and pressed the button. When Joy looked at her, Sadness introduced herself, and Joy awkwardly moved her aside to make Riley happy again.
She, Sadness, and the other emotions, Anger, Disgust and Fear, controlled Riley through her thoughts and mind. Joy seemed to want to keep Riley happy and joyful, and always had important tasks for every emotion except Sadness, claiming she didn't know what Sadness did.
When Riley was eleven, her dad got a new job in San Francisco, and the family relocated there, leaving Minnesota behind. Joy tried to keep things cheerful, even as Riley's daydreams about her life in San Francisco were quashed by the reality. When Sadness touched a formerly happy memory and made it sad, Joy took it away from her, but was unable to wash the Sadness off. Sadness touched a Core Memory, saying it looked crooked, resulting in it turning sad and deactivating Goofball Island. Sadness kept trying to touch the core memories, but Joy stopped her. She tried to distract Sadness by sending her to reach Mind Manuals.
That night, as Riley lay down in her room, Joy tried to get the other emotions to look at the positives. They objected that there was no reason for Riley to be happy given the circumstances. As Riley went to sleep, Joy prepared for her Dream Duty. When Riley's dream turned into a nightmare, Joy intervened and turned it off, then pulled up a happy memory of Riley skating with her family.
The next morning, Joy woke the other emotions with an accordion. She tried to get them excited for Riley's first day of school. She put herself in charge of the console and gave the other emotions jobs, though Sadness's only job was to keep all the Sadness inside the Circle of Sadness.
Joy wanted to talk to some cool girls at Riley's new school, but Disgust stopped her, warning of the consequences. As Riley talked to her new class about her life in Minnesota, they realized Sadness had touched another one of Riley's happy memories. Joy tried to eject it and clean it, but she couldn't and Riley started crying in class. In that moment, a new Core Memory formed, a sad one. Joy tried to discard it, but Sadness said she couldn't because it was a Core Memory. They fought over it and knocked all the Core Memories out of the holder, deactivating Riley's Islands of Personality. Joy rushed to collect them and keep Sadness from putting the new Core Memory to the holder, but one of Riley's happy Core Memories was sucked into a Recall Tube, so Joy rushed to grab it. She got pulled in herself, along with Sadness and all the Core Memories.
They landed in Long Term Memory, where Joy collected the Core Memories and held them close to her. They saw that all of Riley's Islands of Personality were deactivated and Joy became determined to get back to Headquarters and plug the Core Memories back in to fix it. They started walking back toward Headquarters. The quickest way back was over a very narrow path over the Memory Dump. Sadness didn't want to risk it, but followed Joy when she started across. When Goofball Island collapsed, Joy and Sadness had to run back to avoid falling. When Sadness asked if they could fix Goofball Island, Joy admitted she didn't know, but would try. Joy was relieved when Riley went to sleep, since nothing bad could happen while she was sleeping. They decided to cross at Friendship Island instead, but Sadness despaired and Joy was forced to drag her to move through Riley's mind.
On their way, they ran into some Forgetters and Joy was upset to see them erasing memories, though they explained that when Riley didn't care about memories, they faded and it was their job to remove the faded memories. When Friendship Island fell next, Joy said they'd just have to go the long way. As they continued moving, they ran into Bing Bong, Riley's former imaginary friend, and Joy promised to help Riley remember him in exchange for his help. Bing Bong also gave Joy a bag to carry the Core Memories. Bing Bong said they could take a Train of Thought back to Headquarters and there was a station in Imagination Land. To get there, they had to go through Abstract Thought, where they were nearly destroyed when some Mind Workers activated it while they were inside. They got out on the other side just in time to see the train leave without them. Bing Bong said there was another station through Imagination Land, so they started walking toward it.
As they traveled, Hockey Island collapsed and Joy reminded Bing Bong they needed to get to the station. As they moved through Imagination Land, they watched Mind Workers demolish many of its exhibits. They also took Bing Bong's rocket and pushed it into the Memory Dump. Bing Bong was sad and started to cry. Joy tried to cheer him up so they could get to the train station, but Sadness sat with him and talked him through his negative feelings. Then she hugged him while he cried. Once he was doing, he said he was okay and started leading them to the train station. Joy asked Sadness how she did that and Sadness said she didn't know. She just listened to him.
At the station, they boarded the train and started off toward Headquarters. When Riley fell asleep, the train stopped. Determined to get back to Headquarters as soon as possible, Joy said they needed to get to Dream Productions and use a happy dream to wake Riley up. Sadness said a scary dream might work better, but Joy refused to listen. She had Sadness dress as a dog with her and they invaded a dream, but the dream turned scary when the dog costume ripped. Riley started to wake, but the dream director called security and Bing Bong was taken to the Subconscious, where he was trapped in a cage on top of Jangles the Clown. Joy and Sadness followed, as he had the Core Memories, and freed him. Then they woke Jangles and led him back to Dream Productions, where his presence woke Riley. They ran to the train and started riding back to Headquarters. As they rode, Joy admitted that Sadness had been right about using a scary dream instead of a happy one. Bing Bong looked at a memory of Riley and said she was so big, she wouldn't fit in his rocket anymore, making him wonder how they'd get to the moon. Joy looked at the memory and said the whole team was there. Sadness said it was the day the Prairie Dogs lost the playoffs after Riley missed the game-winning shot. She felt awful and wanted to quit.
When Honesty Island collapsed, it knocked out the support beams for the train, throwing them off course. The train landed on the edge of the dump and started to slide. Some Mind Workers got Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong off the train just before it fell. Then the Mind Workers informed them that Riley was running away. Joy wanted to go to Family Island next, but then it crumbled. When Joy noticed a broken recall tube nearby, she decided to use it to get back. When Sadness climbed in with Joy, Joy pushed her out as it was making the Core Memories sad. She declared that Riley needed to be happy and left Sadness behind as she close the Recall Tube. She shot up, but then the Recall Tube broke, sending her into the Memory Dump along with Bing Bong.
Joy tried to climb out, but couldn't. Bing Bong said they were stuck down there, forgotten. Joy looked at a sad memory of Riley talking to her class. She looked at other memories and reminisced about Riley's childhood, then said she just wanted Riley to be happy. She started to cry and once of her tears hit a memory, leaving a mark. When Joy tried to brush it away, she saw that the happy memory of Riley with her parents and her team started sad, with Riley crying over missing the goal. Joy realized that Sadness was hot Mom and Dad and the team knew to come help Riley. This strengthened her resolve to get back to Headquarters and she had the idea to use Bing Bong's rocket to get out. She sang his song to find it and they climbed on and sang together. They tried to use a ramp to launch themselves out, but failed several times. Bing Bong encouraged Joy to try again and said he had a good feeling about this time. When they launched, he jumped off the back, lightening the load and allowing Joy to make it to the top. Joy celebrated until she realized Bing Bong hadn't made it. She looked back down, where Bing Bong was celebrating her success. He told Joy to take Riley to the moon for him.
Joy searched for Sadness as Family Island crumbled. Finally, she saw a line of memories that Sadness had touched and followed it to Sadness. Sadness ran away, saying that Riley was better off without her, but Joy followed her to Imagination Land. Joy then used the Imaginary Boyfriend Generator to create a large amount of imaginary boyfriends, which she stored in her bag. She used it to make a tower with herself at the top. She launched herself to a bouncy area, then grabbed Sadness on her way back. They hit the side of Headquarters, but were stopped by the windows. Disgust goaded Anger to make him angry enough to have flames come out of his head, then used the flames to cut through the window, allowing Joy and Sadness to come back inside. The other emotions told Joy she needed to fix things with Riley, but Joy stepped inside and had Sadness take care of it instead. Sadness took control and was able to get Riley to get off the bus and go back home to her parents.
Joy then offered the Core Memories to Sadness, who took them and they watched as they turned blue. Sadness then projected the memories, allowing Riley to admit to her parents that she missed Minnesota and her life there. Mom and Dad admitted that they were sad as well and they all shared memories of Minnesota. Joy then gave the sad Core Memory back to Sadness and together, they formed a new Core Memory that was both happy and sad.
A year later, Riley had many more Core Memories that were mixed emotions, forming a series of new Islands of Personality. Joy found them all beautiful. The Mind Workers also finished installing a new, expanded console, including a button labelled "puberty," which Joy said was probably not important.
Riley's First Date?
When Mom was probing Riley to see if she and Jordan were going out on a date or just as friends, Joy was embarrassed at Mom's attempted use of slang.
Mind Candy
Joy tried to keep the other emotions cheerful, especially Sadness. She tried to change Sadness's expression, offered her a flower, and pulled her to flip around on a trampoline. She threw marshmallows at Anger to get flames to shoot out of his head, which she and the other emotions used to roast marshmallows.
Joy then stood on Fear, who stood on Anger, so she could reach a high shelf and place a memory. Then Sadness pulled a string, revealing the shape of a Christmas tree.
Inside Out 2
Joy continued to work with the other emotions to protect Riley and enrich her life. She worked to respect the other emotions' role in Riley's life. She and the other emotions had also learned that Riley's memories weren't just making islands. They were also making beliefs. The beliefs formed into a belief system, which grew Riley's Sense Of Self, centered around Riley's belief that she's a good person.
Joy was excited when Riley got invited to Coach Roberts' hockey skills camp. She said it was a chance for Riley, Grace, and Bree to impress Coach Roberts and get all three of them on the team. When Riley had a thought about messing up at camp, Joy put a stop to it and then sent the memory to the Back of the Mind using the Riley Protection System she'd created to protect Riley from negative things. The other emotions helped find negative emotions to send away and the remaining memories were sent to Long Term Memory. Joy then took a few select memories to the Belief System to add them.
The next morning, Joy and the other emotions woke to Puberty light on the console flashing. Joy took it off and flung it to the Back of the Mind, but Mind Workers began work updating the console to make room for the others, who hadn't yet arrived. When Riley woke up, they quickly realized that she was more reactive and her emotions were all stronger. They decided not to touch the console until they'd figured things out.
They were all surprised when Riley learned on the way to hockey camp that Bree and Grace were going to a different high school. When they got to camp, Sadness set in and Riley cried. Joy celebrated it, saying Riley needed it. When Riley ran into Val Ortiz, a senior who had heard about Riley, Joy wanted Riley to make friends. During this interaction, Riley pretended to be from Michigan under the influence of Anxiety, one of Riley's new emotions. Anxiety introduced herself and explained that as Riley got older, she needed more complex emotions. She also introduced the other new emotions, Envy, Ennui, and Embarrassment. Joy happily welcomed all of them, but she and Anxiety butted heads when Anxiety caused Riley to choose Val and her friends over Grace and Bree. Joy took back control and got Riley to goof off with Grave and Bree, but that led to all the players having to skate lines. Joy applauded some of Anxiety's work, but Anxiety said she wasn't done, that her plan had many parts and Joy had to wait on the sidelines while Anxiety did them. When Riley's Sense of Self intervened with Anxiety's plan, Anxiety took it off and launched it to the back of the mind. They argued and Anxiety had Embarrassment take all the original emotions and put them in a jar. Then he took them to the Vault of Secrets, where they met Bloofy, Lance Slashblade, and Riley's Deep Dark Secret.
They reluctantly helped the emotions get out and they set off to follow the Stream of Consciousness to the back of Riley's mind to retrieve her Sense of Self. Due to the changes in Riley's mind, they ran into a dead end and had to find another way to the stream. When they arrived, they realized that without someone to recall them to Headquarters, they'd be stranded in the back of Riley's mind. Joy decided to send Sadness to crawl back to Headquarters with a walkie talkie to be ready to recall them. Once she was gone, they set off down the stream. Their path was interrupted when, thanks to Ennui, a Sar-chasm opened, separating the stream of consciousness. This forced them to go the long way around.
As they cut through Imagination Land, Joy was startled at all the changes. Fort Pillowton was still there, but larger and orange. They investigated and found mind workers inside drawing potential negative scenarios for Riley at the game so Riley could prepare for them. Joy found an empty station and drew a happy outcome, then encouraged the Mind Workers to do the same. Anxiety soon realized Joy was in there, but it was too late and the mind workers rebelled, starting a pillow fight.
The emotions left and joined a Parade of Future Careers, allowing them to ride a balloon. They held onto that until they got caught in a Brainstorm and had to let go. They got stuck to the outside of a Recall Tube and used Fear's parachute to get safely to the ground. Then they continued their journey to the back of the mind. When they arrived, they found more memories than Joy remembered sending there along with Riley's old Sense of Self. Once they had it, they called Sadness to bring them back, but due to Anxiety's interference, the Riley Protection System broke, preventing Sadness from calling them back. Joy looked over the memories around her and wondered if it was just a part of getting older that you started to feel less joy. Anger finally had the idea to call for Pouchy, Bloofy's sidekick, and see what items he had that they could use. Anger dug around inside him and found dynamite, which gave Joy the idea to use it to create an avalanche of memories that would send them back to Headquarters through the Belief System. Disgust wondered how Joy would stop the bad memories from forming beliefs and she admitted she didn't know.
Once in the belief system, the memories immediately started forming beliefs, some negative and some positive. Then they went back up to Headquarters but they couldn't get the new sense of self out of the way to put the old one back. Joy looked over at the console to see Anxiety flitting frantically over it, trying to solve the problems she had caused for Riley. Joy stepped toward Anxiety and told her she needed to let go, that she didn't get to decide who Riley was. Anxiety let go and the emotions were able to remove her new Sense of Self. Joy put the old one back, but she quickly realized it was stopping a new Sense of Self from emerging. She removed the old sense of self, allowing the new, more complex Sense of Self to emerge. Joy then stepped up to the console and helped Riley rejoin her hockey game.
The emotions learned to exist peacefully with each other. When Riley waited for the email from Coach Roberts, telling her whether or not she'd made the team, Anxiety started to worry about Riley not making the team, so Joy sent her to sit in her special chair and encouraged her to focus on something Riley could control. She reminded them that Riley had a Spanish test she needed to study for. They celebrated her remembering because no one else did. Joy then let Envy take credit for the idea and they decided they loved Riley either way. When Riley finally got the email, she smiled.
Joy later went back to the Vault of Secrets to release the Deep Dark Secret. He admitted that Riley's secret was that she burned a hole in the rug. When Joy said she thought it was the time Riley peed in the pool, the Deep Dark Secret slunk back into the Vault and closed the door.
Personality
As her name would suggest, Joy is vivacious and has a cheerful, peppy and optimistic attitude, mainly wanting the best for Riley. However, this causes her to act somewhat selfishly towards the other emotions, particularly Sadness, as Joy likes to be in control of how Riley feels. While she thinks of herself as a people person, Joy grows easily frustrated with anyone who doesn't share her worldview. She's happiest when she's in charge, and she's confident that her way is always the right way.
As the movie goes on, Joy, learns to accept Sadness as an integral part of Riley's mind. Amy Poehler stated "Joy goes through her own journey in the film: She realizes that she has to also be sad. And so when we were working on the character together, it was like: What level are we at in the beginning? Can we modulate that? And how does she change?"
Notes and Trivia
- 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.
- According to Pete Docter, her appearance is based on that of a star.[source?]
- 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.
- Originally her wardrobe consisted of blue overalls (and that can be seen in the early versions of the film in deleted scenes and conceptual art). But with the change of version and story, her wardrobe became a lime-colored summer dress.[source?]
- This is because the team sought to move away from stereotypical "feminine" interests, such as the color pink or the dresses, although in the final version those interests are used.[source?]
- Her favorite island is Goofball Island.[source?]
- During gameplay of Disney Infinity 3.0, she is shown to have the ability to project light beams from her hands as a means of combat, to pop balloons (a main collectable), and to perform a gentle descend similar to Princess Peach's floating ability and Yoshi's Flutter Jump of Nintendo's Super Mario and Yoshi's Island franchises.[source?]
Gallery
Quotes
Inside Out
- Do you ever look at someone and wonder, "What is going on inside their head?"
- It was amazing. Just Riley and Me forever.
- All right, everyone, fresh start. We are gonna have a good day, which will turn into a good week, which will turn into a good year, which turns into a good life!
- Anyway, these are Riley's memories, and they're mostly happy, you'll notice. Not to brag.
- But the really important ones are over here. I don't want to get too technical, but these are called Core Memories. Each one came from a super important time in Riley's life, like when she first scored a goal. That was so amazing!"
- I'm doing the happy dance! I'm not wearing any pants! Something-something-France! I'm doing the happy dance, hey!
- Okay, first day of school! Very, very exciting! I was up late last night figuring out a new plan. Here it is!
- This is the Circle of Sadness. Your job is to make sure that all the Sadness stays inside of it!
- Whoo-hoo! We did it! Group hug! You too, Anger!
- I just wanted Riley to be happy…
- Goofball Island is my personal favorite.
- We're the team Riley needs! Each one of us has something to contribute!
- (Gazing at Riley's new Personality Islands) Say what you want, I think it's all beautiful.
Inside Out 2
- Riley's got this.
- Could you do me a favor and stop tearing Headquarters apart?
- Wow! You've got a lot of energy! Maybe you could just stay in one place?
- Great job, Anxiety! I stepped back, you stepped in. You got Riley back on track. Now I'm ready to step back in.
- Delusional? Of course I'm delusional! Do you know how hard it is to stay positive all the time when all you folks do is complain, complain, complain? Jiminy, mother-lovin' toaster strudel! Do you think I have all the answers? Of course I don't!
- Anxiety is right. Riley doesn't need us as much as she needs them. And that hurts. It really hurts.
- If you wanted Riley to be happy, you would stop hurting her.
- I don't know how to stop Anxiety. Maybe this is what happens when you grow up. You feel less joy.
- You don't get to choose who Riley is.
- Anxiety, you need to let her go.
- Every bit of Riley makes her who she is. And we love all of our girl. Every messy, beautiful piece of her.
References
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