Women of the Month: Joy and Sadness

Joy and Sadness from Inside Out

The last time I doubled up on a Woman of the Month entry was for Korra and Asami back in December. For obvious reasons I couldn't bring myself to choose just one to showcase, and now I find myself in a similar situation for Joy and Sadness. Their relationship is just too important for this entry to divide them.

Walt Disney once said "for every laugh there must be a tear", and that could very well form the backbone of Inside Out, for at its core it is the relationship between joy and sadness. And because this is Pixar, we’re not just talking metaphorically. This is the actual relationship between a personified Joy and Sadness. Both of them are emotions within Riley Anderson's head, and since Joy is usually front-and-centre of Riley's life experiences, ensuring that all her happy memories are stowed away safety in the recesses of her mind, she can't quite figure out the point of Sadness.

At first glance (and perhaps in the hands of any other film studio) the point of the story would be Sadness learning to lighten up and embrace Joy's eternal bubbliness and exuberance. But this is Pixar we're talking about, and so across the course of Joy and Sadness's journey through Riley's mind, it's Joy who must eventually learn that she can't suppress the very natural emotion of sadness and to let go of her controlling tendencies so that Riley can learn to be an emotionally mature twelve year old girl.

And because these two emotions are personified women, it's also a portrayal of a friendship that grows in understanding and respect across the course of the film. The character design itself is a clue to this development: whilst Sadness is a blue blob of unhappiness (almost tear-shaped), Joy is a pixie-like bundle of charm and energy – but with a mop of blue hair that serves as a visual indication of her emotional counterpart.

It's a great movie, and also one that has female characters front-and-centre – even though Joy and Sadness are really only "women" in the sense that their voice actresses and bodily forms indicate as such. That's what makes them so unique. Their characters could quite easily have been male (as some of their emotional counterparts are), but they aren't really female at all. It's great.

That ... may have made more sense in my head.