Joy

Joy is the protagonist of the film Inside Out. She is the main Emotion out of the five that live inside the mind of Riley, the others being Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. She appears to be happy all the time and full of energy.

Amy Poehler describes her as follows: "Joy is the engine. She keeps everyone moving and happy. She represents the parts of Riley that are starting to change and become more complicated, and she is reluctant to let that change happen. She may be the most positive, but in many ways, she is the least flexible."

Official Bio
"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 boisterous, hyperactive, exuberant, outgoing, and fiercely optimistic. She always sees the good in everything, which, on the flip side, causes her to be somewhat oblivious to the other, sad aspect of things. She is not insensitive to negative emotions; for instance, the destruction of Riley's Islands of Personality does bring sorrow to her; but her positive nature leads her to quickly push those feelings aside, refrain from being sad or angry, and think positive instead. Since on the contrary, Sadness is compelled to see the negative aspect of things, the two have completely different outlooks on the events of Riley's life.

Joy loves Riley, and feels a special bond as the first emotion that materialized in her mind. She wishes that Riley would be always happy and considers that for this to be, Riley must remain always joyful. Joy became a leader figure for the other Emotions, who look up to her to know what Riley needs. She tried to bury down Sadness because she represented the exact opposite of her. Joy does try to be supportive to Sadness, and never acts as a bully towards her. But ultimately, Sadness seems to be a hopeless case to Joy; she sees no helpful function to her, and as result, actively tries to minimize her actions. And when pushed to the edge, she was ready to leave Sadness behind.

When Riley turns 11 and her life begins to change, Joy is terrified that the other emotions become more prominent, seeing all the work she has done been destroyed; and when Riley ends up forming a sad core memory, it appears to her as a sign of utter failure. Over the course of her journey, Joy comes to understand that growing up is inevitable, that to be truly happy Riley needs all of her emotions, and that she was holding Riley back by trying to suppress them. She realizes that she is meant to work not against Sadness, but in pair with her.

Appearance
Joy has yellow flesh color skin, blue hair and large blue eyes. She wears a lime green summer dress adorned with blue flower-like motifs and is the only emotion not wearing shoes. She is surrounded by a blue halo and emits a bright golden glow, brighter than that of any of the other emotions.

Trivia

 * Joy is the second female protagonist of a Pixar movie, the first being Merida.