![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/overanalyzing-toy-story.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Slinky Dog<\/h4>\n
The idea that Slinky Dog would be anything other than a useless ball of mangled coils dumped in a heap at the bottom of Andy\u2019s toy bin by the time Toy Story 3<\/em> rolls around is just complete horse malarkey. NO WAY IN HELL has a slinky toy survived 18 years without ONE twisted spring. Especially with the life that Slink has led. There\u2019s a scene in Toy Story 2<\/em> where he stretches from the 2nd floor window all the way to the ground. Repeatedly<\/em>. I am not a physicist, but I feel confident saying Slinky Dog doesn\u2019t contain enough coils for that to be physically attainable. He\u2019s a nice guy and all, but Slinky Dog is an impossibility of nature.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to posit that Toy Story<\/em> wouldn\u2019t have taken such an ugly turn in the rivalry between Woody and Buzz if Mr. Potato Head hadn\u2019t been such a dick. From the moment Buzz Lightyear shows up in Andy\u2019s room, Potato Head takes every opportunity to rile Woody up with his perceived shortcomings. Oh Buzz has a laser! \u201cHow come YOU don\u2019t have a laser, Woody??\u201d It doesn\u2019t take a degree in psychology to see that Potato Head is working out his own years-long feelings of resentment toward Woody being Andy\u2019s favorite toy. The more I watch Toy Story<\/em>, the more I think that without Potato Head\u2019s constant jackassery, it\u2019s possible Woody\u2019s kind, reasonable side may have won out long before he pushed Buzz out a window. Woody should\u2019ve tossed Potato Head\u2019s mouth out the window instead; maybe everyone would\u2019ve ended up happier! Let this be a lesson, kids\u2026 If your \u201cfriends\u201d are constantly comparing you to other people, pointing out your flaws, & making you feel less than, they\u2019re not really your friends.<\/p>\n Uh, yes we do, Stinky Pete. Because I, Jessie, and my good pal Bullseye were standing here in transparent glass cases in full view of the whole room, so there would be NO POSSIBLE WAY we didn\u2019t see you get out of your box, turn the TV on, and place the remote control DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF MY CASE. You\u2019re clearly working against us here. Quick, let\u2019s tape him in his box and get out of here before we have to make an unbelievably dramatic escape from, like, a moving airplane or something crazy.<\/p>\n Herein lies my biggest question about the Toy Story universe: What is Woody\u2019s history, and why doesn\u2019t it seem to inform his present in any way?<\/p>\n Woody is as old as the Prospector, Bullseye, and Jessie. We can all agree on this, yes? And yet while Toy Story 2<\/em> deals very explicitly with Stinky Pete\u2019s seething anger and Jessie\u2019s trauma over the past few decades, there is no hint or mention at what Woody\u2019s past holds. HE HAS BEEN AROUND AS LONG AS THEY HAVE! Why doesn\u2019t Woody have a tragic story of loss & heartbreak from his past? Why does it always seem like Andy is the first kid who\u2019s ever owned him? Woody could not have been a \u201cnew\u201d toy when Andy received him. He either had a previous owner(s), or he was a second-hand toy at flea market or thrift store. So even IF Andy is Woody\u2019s first real owner, then Woody would at least have some resentful memories of spending decades on \u201ca dime-store shelf watching every other toy be sold\u201d like the Prospector, right? Right?!!<\/p>\n Guys. I\u2019m so confused by this! Woody has 30ish years of his life that are completely unacknowledged. I need to know what Woody\u2019s life was like before Andy and why he seems to be suppressing it in the present. I understand that many of Andy\u2019s other toys could also have history beyond Andy. The reason I\u2019m fixated on Woody\u2019s past is because Toy Story 2<\/em> goes to great lengths detailing Woody\u2019s incredible history. So why doesn\u2019t Woody already know who he is?! Really think about this. Woody must have been created and sold during the era when Woody’s Roundup<\/em> was popular, presumably alongside other Sheriff Woody dolls. How could he not know he\u2019s a popular TV character, just as Jessie & Stinky Pete know? Why doesn\u2019t he have memories of being played with as Sheriff Woody in the 1960’s? YOU GUYS, WHAT HAPPENED TO WOODY?!<\/p>\n Ok, I need to take a breath. The Woody thing always gets me riled up. Seriously, I edited about 3 paragraphs of ranting out of this section. This one really gets me.<\/p>\n After years of overanalyzing and nitpicking, you might think Toy Story has fallen in my esteem. Sure, there are facets of the story that don\u2019t hold up to even the faintest scrutiny. However, in the end, none of that really seems to matter.<\/p>\n In writing this, I looked up the final scene of Toy Story 3<\/em> on YouTube to make sure I had a certain detail correct. And instead of cataloging the dialogue like I meant to, I found myself wrapped up in the scene once again – \u00a0watching a teenage boy and his beloved toys have one final playtime together and then say one of the most fulfilling & heartbreaking goodbyes in cinematic history. I teared up all over again. Some of the logical details may falter, but the heart of Toy Story stays strong with every single viewing… even when you\u2019re purposefully trying to overanalyze it. That\u2019s the enduring legacy of Toy Story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Part 3 If you haven’t already, you can start by reading Part 1 and Part 2 of Stephanie Overanalyzes Toy Story. Yes, I have a lot to say about Toy Story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-overanalyzing-kids-entertainment","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa85Nh-3B","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}This Is Really All Potato Head\u2019s Fault<\/h4>\n
\u201cWe Don\u2019t Know Who Turned On That TV.\u201d<\/h4>\n
What Is Woody Suppressing?<\/h4>\n
So Long, Partner<\/h2>\n