#81: Get the tissues ready.

I’m finding that obsession for a two-year old comes in waves. Whether it’s a book, a movie, or a song, a child will go through periods of time where a single entity is all they want to experience. Then, when something inevitably new comes along, the prior obsession blurs from focus, like it never existed in the first place.

For most of the summer, my daughter was obsessed with the Super Mario Brothers. As a life-long Mario fan myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie upon its initial release and still enjoy it after nineteen billion viewings. Is it the greatest movie of all time? Not by a long shot, but the worlds are very colorful, and the characters are all distinct and fun. In a conversation with my younger brother about it, he expressed how much his daughter loved the movie. With my niece only six months older than my daughter, we gave it a shot, too.

Reader, she loved it. Most of June and July were filled with Mario this and Peaches that. Over the years, I’ve hobbled together a few figures from the franchise and gave them to her to play with, and her obsession only grew. These figures allowed the movie to leap off the screen and into her imagination. Hilariously enough, the character she gravitated to the most was Donkey Kong (my favorite), and it was fun to see Mario’s one-time nemesis living on her Fisher-Price farm playset and riding in her school bus. But as July gave way to August, her obsession shifted to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles after my nephew’s movie-themed birthday party prompted her see the latest iteration of the heroes in a half-shell.

Today, the turtles are still very much a thing for her, but I can already start to see her gaze shift once more. After a month with nothing but green ninjas, my wife wanted something a little different, and since we both grew up loving the Toy Story movies, we decided to watch the first one.

Then, we watched the second.

And the third.

And finally, the fourth.

Reader, by the time we saw Woody say farewell to his friends in Toy Story 4’s conclusion, our daughter’s new obsession with the Pixar toys were cemented and mine reignited.

In my eyes, the first Toy Story movie is absolutely brilliant. While the world is undoubtedly interesting: toys come alive when their owners aren’t around. The actual story is quite simple: a boy’s favorite toy feels jealous and threatened when a newer and cooler toy comes along. Anyone who has ever been jealous can immediately connect with Woody’s internal conflict, and the shift in his world view is perfectly intertwined with the film’s climax and resolution. The second movie thematically builds upon the first by having Woody contemplate his own mortality, and what happens when his owner eventually grows up. The culmination of Toy Story 2 has both Woody and Buzz embracing the inevitable and trying to enjoy Andy, their owner, for as long as the can.

Both the original and its sequel came out in the mid to late 90s, and I was ten and fourteen respectively. Between these two films, I received my own toy versions of Woody, Buzz, Rex, Ham, and many of the rest that I played with over and over again. In these years, I along with many others essentially became Andy and added another layer of complexity to this franchise.

By the time Toy Story 3, my favorite of the franchise, came out a decade later, I was in a completely different phase of life. In 2010, I had just turned twenty-five and had grown up considerably since Buzz and Woody’s second adventure. Sure, I had fond memories of the films and the characters, but I had long since put my own Buzz and Woody in the attic and moved on to other interests. To my surprise, the film wasn’t just another adventure with Woody and Buzz: Toy Story 3 use of the passage of time between sequels to its advantage. Here, Andy is going off to college, and our favorite toys and characters must deal with what happens when an owner has grown up and no longer needs or wants his toys.

In addition to this, Toy Story 3 is a wonderful “break out of jail” kind of movie. Each character gets their moment to shine in what I thought at the time was the conclusion of a perfect trilogy. But what makes it a standout is the movie’s emotional core. Reader, I must admit, I cannot get through the last thirty minutes without crying. The incinerator scene is harrowing and beautiful, and Andy’s passing on of the toys at the end was a perfect way to end it. (My daughter kept asking me why I was so sad during these parts.)

Reader, that kind of ending is the kind we all want for our own toys.

Toy Story 3’s end was so perfect and so beautiful that a Toy Story 4 was honestly something I never thought we’d see or need. The ambiguity of the third installment’s ending allowed for endless possibility, and Pixar did a great job of releasing Toy Story shorts to give us glimpse of these characters in the years after. Ultimately, a fourth movie came out, and while I do think it’s a bit unnecessary, it’s the most fantastic unnecessary movie of all time. In addition to being the most beautiful entry in the franchise, the movie deals with a pretty complex theme: who are you after you’ve fulfilled your purpose? Woody is not Bonnie’s favorite toy, not by a long shot, and he’s feeling lost, without a purpose. The film brings back Woody’s love interest Bo Peep, absent from the third movie, to help him find his way again.

Reader, what fascinates me about the Toy Story movies is the universal appeal they have. On the surface there are fun action sequences and cute characters but rooted down below are themes tied to the human experience. What my daughter loves and connects to today, while not unlike my initial feelings thirty years ago, is very different from what I get out of them now.

Coincidently, our little family’s obsession with the Toy Story franchise coincided with a press release from Bob Iger, Disney’s current CEO, announcing a Toy Story 5. Reader, while we’ll inevitably make the trek to see the film when it comes out, I can’t help but feel the same way about a fifth installment that I did about the fourth.

But it’s coming whether I like it or not, so what could I hope for a Toy Story 5? Well, it’s been leaked that Andy and his family are going to play an integral role in the film, and both Tim Allen and Tom Hanks are signed on to reprise their roles as Buzz and Woody. I imagine the characters separated in 4 are going to be reunited (and I’m guessing the internet will play a role in that) with clever action scenes and witty dialogue, but it’s that emotional core I’m wondering about. Reader, that core is what keeps us all coming back to this franchise.

The first movie dealt with Woody’s identity. The second his mortality. The third, his survival, and the fourth, his purpose or lack thereof. Will the fifth installment, deal with his death? Reader, I don’t know if I am emotionally ready for something like that.

With the news of Andy’s family playing an important role, I’m thinking that Andy probably has his own children at this point in the story. Maybe he regrets the decision he made in the third movie right before he left for college. Maybe the franchise will end with Andy handing off Buzz and Woody to his own daughter, and we’ll all vicariously experience his joy of watching her play with them.

Reader, as someone who did just that with his own Woody and Buzz not too long ago, I can only say this: get the tissues ready.

Okay. That’s enough about Toy Story for now.

Thanks for reading.