Amy Poehler’s performance as Joy in Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out” is her 9th animated character role in the last nine years. In 2007’s “Shrek the Third”, her Snow White joined “SNL” pals Cheri Oteri (Sleeping Beauty) and Maya Rudolph (Rapunzel). 2008’s “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” featured Poehler as The Mayor’s Wife, part of a star-studded ensemble that included Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and ex-husband Will Arnett.
In 2009, Poehler voiced the sarcastic “Computer” in DreamWorks’ “Monsters vs. Aliens” and Chipette Eleanor in “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”. She returned for “Chipwrecked” in 2011, but Eleanor and the other Chipettes are reportedly not in this December’s “The Road Chip”, the fourth franchise installment. 2011 also brought us Poehler as Gretel in the Weinstein Co. sequel “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil”. She followed that by voicing the mother Homily in the American version of Studio Ghibli’s “The Secret World of Arrietty” in 2012. And she teamed-up with Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson as Jenny for the Thanksgiving-themed comedy “Free Birds” in 2013.
To get herself into the complex and energetic character of Joy in “Inside Out” (a character she describes as a combination of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and Mowgli from “The Jungle Book”), Poehler re-watched the “Toy Story” trilogy and studied Tom Hanks’ work as the proud and confident Woody, who always has to keep the entire toy team positive and on the right track. That prep work certainly paid-off as Joy is Poehler’s most ambitious and strongest voice performance to date.
Lights Camera Jackson (a.k.a. Jackson Murphy) began his career as a film critic in 2006 at the age of 7. To date, Jackson has written nearly 1,000 reviews of new releases and, in total, has seen more than 1,500 films. In 2010, Jackson became the youngest person to win a NY Emmy Award, for his on-air movie reviews on Time Warner TV station, Capital News 9. And in 2011, Jackson was inducted into the Broadcast Film Critics Association as their youngest member. The BFCA’s annual Critics Choice Awards is one of the industry’s most recognized and prestigious awards shows. Jackson is also a member of SAG-AFTRA and votes annually for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.