Pixar Put My Voice Into Inside Out 2, And It Brought Me Immense Joy

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster cartoon character. At first, it was simply the lack of physical limitations that a kid can only dream of having, because physics and biology make it impossible to fall off a cliff and have your body turned into an accordion or get blown up by dynamite with only a busted nose and a soot-covered body to show for it.

As I grew up, I became fascinated with the art of cartoon voice work, transforming your speech into something completely different and having it represented by a kooky character in a cartoon world. Though it's not a dream I actively pursued, in the back of my head, I've always wished to lend my voice to some kind of animated project. Well, earlier this year, Pixar Animation came as close to making my dream come true as they could.

During an early press day for "Inside Out 2," not only did Pixar show off the film's wonderful first act, complete with the introduction of new emotions and two other scene-stealing characters that audiences are going to love, but they gave attending media a truly rare experience. Pixar allowed me to hop in the recording booth and give my voice to one of the characters in "Inside Out 2." Granted, my voice isn't appearing in the actual final cut of the movie, but it was professionally recorded just like any other Pixar movie cast member, and I performed lines for a finished scene from the film. And, unfortunately for you, they gave me the footage to share.

Pixar had one of their senior recording engineers prepared with a scene from the film's first act, where Anxiety shows up in Riley's mind for the first time and catches Joy and the rest of the core emotions from the first "Inside Out" off guard. But this time, Amy Poehler wouldn't be heard as the voice of Joy. Instead, it would be me.

For those who maybe haven't listened to an episode of the /Film Daily podcast (where I go by my real name, Brad Oman), I have an average male voice that isn't particularly deep. But my voice doesn't sound anything like Amy Poehler or her interpretation of Joy, either. Furthermore, the character design of Joy made it particularly challenging to craft a voice that naturally matched the look of the core emotion whenever she opens her mouth. With the limited time we had to record, I decided that putting my voice into a higher vocal register (without becoming too high-pitched) and trying to echo Poehler's line readings, if only because the timing had to be very precise, was going to be the best approach.

For reference, here's the original clip with Amy Poehler as the voice of Joy:

In order to match my voice to the animation that was already complete, guidance was provided in a way not dissimilar from karaoke, with the line displayed in a caption on a TV in the booth and a scrolling marker indicating when I needed to hit each word in order to match the animated visuals. That's why trying to match Poehler's cadence in her line readings was key. Granted, that didn't allow for a lot of interpretation, and lending my voice to a brand new character would have offered a little more creative wiggle room, at least as far as the voice is concerned. But this was such a wonderful experience, and I could not be more pleased with the result. Of course, I can assure you that Amy Poehler's job is very much secure. 

"Inside Out 2" is in theaters everywhere on June 14, 2024, thankfully without my voice as Joy.