Disney and Pixar’s ‘Toy Story’ Turns 30: An Ode to Woody
The Heart and Soul of an Iconic Franchise
“He's brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, is he'll never give up on you... ever. He'll be there for you, no matter what.”
Andy’s words to Bonnie at the end of Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 3 are the culmination of a series in which the vintage cowboy doll faced insurmountable odds at every turn, and at times terrifying moments of self-realization and personal growth. He faced very real challenges both internal and external and still managed to keep his band of toys together. He saw them through to a better future not afforded to many toys before them.
Woody’s devotion to those he loves most is a central tenet to his ethos as a character, but his depth goes far beyond even that. Woody is at times hardheaded, a bit selfish, and unable or unwilling to listen to reason. His emotions occasionally get the best of him. When we first meet Woody, he’s threatened by a future in which he feels he doesn’t belong and puts both him and Buzz in a precarious position.
Despite all that, Woody is more than capable of personal evolution and ultimately never betrays his most important inherent qualities. He is a hero, no doubt, but deeply flawed and universally relatable in that way. He faces down immense uncertainty and carves out a brighter world for him and his friends. Each one of Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story films adds a new layer to the complex Woody onion, as he remains one of the most emotionally rich — and human, really — characters in all of film history.
A Toy Against Time
Throughout Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story series, Woody is constantly fighting against the onslaught of time. Just like us, these toys inherently face an expiration date, their own mortality of sorts, when a child grows older. The human condition is learning to accept the passing of time and the inevitability of change that comes with it. Things can never, and will never, stay the same and these changes are not always welcomed. But it’s our ability to learn to exist and adapt in these new structures that allows for true growth.
In Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story, Woody is first personally confronted with this concept when he meets Buzz Lightyear, Andy’s brand-new action figure. He fears his own irrelevance, of being discarded. Woody acts on those fears and gets Buzz thrown out of a window, setting in motion a perilous journey for the two toys that ends in them learning to understand each other and becoming the best friends we know them to be.
Woody’s ultimate evolution in the first movie allows him to see beyond his own worldview within Andy’s room. One of the best choices in the series is that Woody still has his moments of doubt and fiery conviction that can make him clash with others. However, even in his lowest points, he never betrays his own core values and beliefs. Family is his guiding principle.
The Culmination of Woody’s Evolution as a Character
What makes Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 4 such a marvel of storytelling is that the toys’ happy ending with Bonnie is a bit of a ruse. It resets the clock in some ways, but nothing is inherently changed; at some point, the toys will once again deal with loss and adversity.
Woody experiences this quickly in the fourth film, which becomes far more existential than any of the previous three (Forky serves as an important catalyst for this). Even the villain arc is turned on its head here. Gabby Gabby starts out as a traditional “villain” but, true to life, her motives are complex; deep down, she’s simply seeking the loving embrace of a child and Woody, always true to himself, helps her find it.
By the end of the fourth movie, Woody has spent so much time surviving that he has rarely — if ever — taken time to think about what he wants his own life to look like. What makes him happy, him alone? From the very beginning of Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story, Woody is on that path of fighting to beat the odds, to avoid the fate that has befallen all other toys before him. But what does living actually mean to him?
In Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 4, Woody sees the freedom in making the choice to be an untethered toy. There is a peace to accepting the relentless, undulating, and unpredictable waves of life’s challenges, and of choosing to live life on one’s own terms.
For once, Woody is finally able to do just that. He’s burdened with so much responsibility throughout the series that it’s deeply cathartic to see that wash away for him internally by the end of the fourth movie.
He has new friends and new responsibilities now, but in a different context that offers Woody perhaps some personal, maybe even spiritual, levity. As he walks a new path, he’s giving the other toys the gift of their own choice and growth, Buzz especially. And as they go their separate ways, deep down, the audience knows Woody would still never betray his devotion to those he cares about the most, and that will always make him one of the greatest heroes in movie history.
