Joy is the lead of the film. Pixar’s Inside Out uses Joy as its main narrator through Riley’s emotions and in their adventures within Riley’s head. At eleven-years-old, Riley is going through a lot. Moving to an entirely new place, discovering her old friends have made a new companion, and struggling in her new environment. However, through it all, Riley’s parents ask her to remain the upbeat, happy, and joyful person she has always been, even through the hard times. But, being eleven is about the age where, if it has not happened already, being joyful may not take precedence anymore, especially around potentially stressful situations.
When Joy and Sadness are thrown out of Headquarters in Riley’s mind, leaving Anger, Disgust, and Fear to lead the controls, Riley goes through emotional whiplash as her emotions struggle to emulate the happiness she is used to feeling without Joy around to lead the team. But, as much as Joy wants Riley to be happy, perhaps a journey through the brain will teach her why the range of emotions is actually the best thing for her. Inside Outuses the emotions themselves to tell the story of how people remember events and why the feelings they attach to those events are so significant.
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5 Disgust
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Disgust hates broccoli on pizza and is in charge of Riley’s outfit choices for the day. She understands who is considered cool in school and what to avoid to ensure she can get through the first day of school. While Disgust also leans toward Riley’s annoyed or sarcastic tendencies, she is also one of the few emotions remaining when Joy and Sadness are taken from Headquarters. Disgust struggles just as much as Fear and Anger in their attempts to show Riley’s positive side.
However, while Disgust has plenty of fun and comedic scenes, her big moment comes at the end. Disgust takes advantage of Anger’s temper to get his head to explode in flames, effectively using that to burn a hole through the Headquarters window and safely bring Joy and Sadness back into the fold. While Disgust is an essential member of the team overall, her interactions with other characters and what she brings out of Riley are not at the center of the emotional elements of Inside Out.
4 Fear
Fear bounces between genuinely being scared and Riley’s anxiety. He makes a complete list of every worst-case scenario that could occur on the first day of school. Fear is more than prepared for bad things to happen to Riley. But, he is also immensely helpful when Joy and Sadness need Riley to wake up to get the train of thought moving again. Placing extreme happiness in Riley’s dreams is not enough to wake her up, but scaring her awake does the job, especially with Fear in the driver’s seat for the night.
Fear also calls Anger’s running away plot into question. Is this really something Riley should be doing? What could go wrong? However, similar to Disgust, while Fear plays an integral role in Riley’s mind and the storyline, Fear is not a focal point of the movie’s most enormous climaxes.
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3 Anger
Although one of the biggest jokes Anger has is how quickly it takes for his temper to rise and get him to explode, he is also responsible for one of Riley’s most significant decisions. Riley has had a hard time with the move. Her ability to make joyful memories without Joy in Headquarters has continually brought out the worst in Riley’s new experiences.
Without access to her core memories, Riley’s life has slowly fallen apart. So, what was she meant to do? Anger has the answer. Run away and make new core memories. Anger places the idea in Riley’s head to run away from home. There is no stopping Riley from escaping her family and buying a bus ticket when it takes.
2 Joy
Joy may be the main character, but is she the most important emotion in the story? Joy overtakes everything to ensure that Riley’s life is filled with happiness and excitement more than anything else. However, in her drive and beliefs, she does not understand what Sadness is meant to achieve. Joy’s adventure outside of Headquarters is not just a race back to Riley’s mind. It also allows her to understand the importance of a spectrum of emotions. Joy is significant. Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust agree that Joy is the most important part of Riley’s mind. Without Joy, Riley would not be happy. But, as essential as Joy is to Riley and Inside Out, part of her journey is understanding how critical Sadness is.
1 Sadness
Sadness is disregarded as not being significant for the most part. She makes Riley cry rather than have fun, and her joys come from standing alone in down-pouring rain instead of jumping happily through puddles. However, Sadness may be the most significant of them all. Through Joy’s eyes, it becomes clear just how vital Sadness is to Riley’s life. Sadness is the emotion that grasps sympathy and empathy, which she uses to help Bing Bong when his rocket ship is thrown away to be forgotten forever. Through Sadness, sitting down beside him, listening to him, and bonding with him, Bing Bong can feel better and continue the journey. In addition, Riley being sad over having lost a game, brought her parents and teammates out to cheer her up, bringing out what Joy had thought of as a happy memory.
Although Sadness spends most of the movie apologizing for not finding happiness in things like Joy does, Inside Out never falters in proving the significance of Sadness. Sadness is the only one capable of removing the idea of running away. Riley’s breakdown of crying and emotion allows her to finally admit how she has been feeling and create a peaceful situation with her parents.
