1995's Toy Story is arguably Pixar's most beloved film for both kids and adults, kicking
off a sprawling franchise that's endured the test of time.
As much as kids might love seeing their favorite toys have adventures, however, rewatching
Toy Story as a grown-up reveals the film as a dense, sometimes dark movie with more layers
than one could have ever imagined as a little kid.
Animators filled Toy Story with subtle gags, Easter eggs, and cultural references that
very few children would understand, but that their parents, and even grandparents, might
get a kick out of.
For example, the character of Mr. Potato Head is voiced by the late, great insult comedian
Don Rickles, who was at the height of his career in stand-up in the '60s and '70s.
At one point, Mr. Potato Head makes a crack at one of Andy's other toys:
"You uncultured swine!
What are you looking at, ya hockey puck?"
Referring to someone as a "hockey puck," which definitely sounds like something you can't
say on TV, was Rickles' signature line.
On the other end of the spectrum is the super creepy carpet in Sid's house.
How can a carpet be creepy?
Because it's the same pattern as the carpet of the nightmarish Overlook Hotel in the 1980
horror classic The Shining, where we see Danny playing with his toys.
Come and play with Woody and Buzz… forever.
Something very intimate is definitely going on between Woody and Bo Peep, and while kids
might take their conversations at face value, adults in the know recognize it as pretty
suggestive.
"What do you say I get someone else to watch the sheep tonight?…"
What exactly they're going to do is up for debate, given traditional toy anatomy, but
there's no doubt about what's going on here: Bo Peep is pre-arranging a booty call.
Another risqué joke requires a bit more unpacking.
One of Sid's freaky frankentoys is named Legs, and she consists of what appears to be the
long, shapely legs of a Barbie doll connected and a hook on a line.
In other words, Legs is a "hooker."
Woody is a kind cowboy in the vein of classic good-guy cowpokes like Roy Rogers and Gene
Autry.
One thing that sets him apart is that although he's the hero of the movie, Woody makes a
lot of attempts to get rid of his new rival… permanently.
Woody moves to get rid of perceived interloper Buzz Lightyear, intending to knock him behind
a piece of furniture so he'll get lost.
He instead knocks him out of an open window, where there is little chance he'll ever be
found.
Even worse: he grabs the remote of R.C., the remote-controlled car, and forces that toy
to be the one to nudge Buzz, thereby making R.C. an unwilling accomplice.
Usually in Disney movies, it's the bad guy who tries to kill the good guy; in Toy Story,
the "good" guy tries to kill the other good guy.
Toy Story is a movie for kids, but some of its themes are much more familiar to adults,
particularly those who struggle with mental illness.
At its core, it's a movie about anxiety, delusions, and the disappointment of believing you're
not living up to your potential.
For the first half of the film, Buzz Lightyear believes that he's not just a toy, but that
he really is an actual space ranger.
"YOU!
ARE!
A!
TOY!"
He is so firmly under that delusion that he cannot see his reality for what it is—he
hangs around self-aware toys and lives in a child's room (and even freezes when real
humans come around) but still does not waver in his stance.
The only thing that makes Buzz realize what he truly is comes when he sees a TV commercial
for Buzz Lightyear toys, and in it sees rows and rows of himself on a toy store shelf.
Buzz immediately, and understandably, becomes quite depressed.
Also dealing with an identity crisis is Woody, the film's other main character.
His main motivation for getting rid of Buzz is to remain the dominant toy in Andy's heart
and toy box.
An old-fashioned toy, he is extremely threatened by the shiny, high-tech Buzz Lightyear toy
swooping in and stealing his place as Andy's favorite.
He's like a cowboy doll version of Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, desperately trying
to hold on to relevance and usefulness in a changing world that finds him increasingly
obsolete.
The toys of Toy Story are living things, of course, because they clearly walk, talk, think,
and feel, but that isn't the same as being an actual biological organism.
The main difference between the toys and animals, for example, is that they cannot die in a
normal fashion.
They are simply played with or not played with.
If they are played with, great.
If not, they sit on a shelf, or in a toy box or some other storage option indefinitely,
aware of the passage of time as they wait and wait and wait to be played with, a moment
which may never come.
We definitely know that toys can die, though, since Sid blows up a Combat Carl action figure
and Buzz nearly meets his end in a similar way, as Sid ties a small rocket to his back.
Even worse, Sid's homemade chimeras are also alive, Frankensteined together from other
dismembered toys.
So toys can die, but the only means by which to kill them is with brutal, painful torture,
and even that might not end their suffering.
Now that's dark.
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