Toy Story

Toy Story

Pixar Animation Studios

Released: 1995

Director: John Lasseter

Story: John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft

Writers: Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen

Music & Lyrics: Randy Newman

Rating: G

Grade: 4/5

Oh man. This movie. This is THE animated movie. It launched Pixar’s epic reputation. It convinced me that my toys led double lives. It’s. Just. Incredible. Genius. Beautiful. Heart warming. All the things!

Let’s see if it’s queer.

As much as it seriously pains me to write anything resembling a negative comment about this movie, I have to acknowledge that there are only two female characters in the whole movie (according to my very diligent watching). Bo Peep (ugh, not very feminist) and Andy’s Mom (whose name we never even learn). Major deductions for lack of diversity. Pixar generally needs to get better at gender representation.

Moving on.

The norm versus queer thing is a bit weird in this one. Pixar has lots of fun when it establishes norms in worlds that are primarily non-human. To figure out the norm here, we have to look at our position as viewers. The norm here is our world’s norm: the human perspective. Even though humans are not our primary characters, they still control the world of the toys and everything is dictated by their reality. Toys are a vulnerable population, their fates determined by human whim. Even though the toys make up the primary characters of the story, they hold a queer position in the human world. Their aliveness is an interruption, a deviation. In the normative world that we know, inanimate objects do not walk, talk, think, let alone feel love. So the idea of toys being alive: totally queer.

Let’s talk about Buzz. His character arc is real queer. He arrives in Andy’s room believing he is an actual astronaut. He believes in this fiction with his whole being. The fiction here is not only that he believes he is a real astronaut, but the nuance that he believes he is a real human astronaut. His ignorance is bliss. He believes he can fly. He believes he can touch the sky. For most of the movie he lives in his happy, bubbly normative world. Then reality finally hits when he sees his commercial and the bold letters, “THIS IS NOT A FLYING TOY.” I well up every time he tries to fly through the window and smashes to the ground. 

:(

Poor Buzz. This realization is Buzz’s queer Ah Ha! moment (I talked about this in my Prince of Egypt post). In this moment he realizes his queerness. He realizes he is not a real (human) astronaut. He is a toy. He is a queer toy. And in this he realizes the hierarchy of queer versus norm and that being just a toy is lesser than being a real astronaut.

But what’s great about this story is the message the movie drives home: THEY ARE NOT JUST TOYS. Being a toy, being someone’s toy is an incredible thing to be. Being queer is an incredible thing to be. Flying is not as cool as falling with style.

I'm the king of the world!

Don’t believe me? Let’s look a bit closer at the Woody versus Buzz tug of war over Andy. Bear with me on this one. I want to liken kids’ relationships with their toys to romantic relationships. Think about it. You love them and they love you unconditionally, even if they are alive. You take them everywhere. You sleep with them (not like that, get your head out of the gutter).  Andy even plasters his walls with posters of them and tons of merch. I’ll confess: my relationship with my Teddy bear is the most stable romantic relationship of my life. Yes, I am a grown woman who still sleeps with her childhood teddy bear. And now the internet knows way too much about me. When Buzz replaces Woody as Andy’s favorite toy, the storytelling treats it like a break up. There’s a whole montage of Woody’s heartbreak. Woody tosses Buzz out the window because he’s the jealous ex. 

Who THOT?

Rewatch the movie and try to tell me its not structured like a classic rom-com love triangle.

Linking the queerness of toys to the toys’ romantic relationship with their kids shows us that queer relationships are no less important than norm relationships. The story flips the queer versus norm hierarchy on its head prioritizing queerness and queer relationships. That being someone’s toy is a special thing to be. “Being a toy is a lot better than being a space ranger.” Cool, right? Is the ending secretly pro-polyamory? I’ll let you be the judge of that one.

I also want to mention Sid’s toys. 

We come in peace!

A queer subplot? I think so. At first they seem weird and totally terrifying, but they end up being really nice! They fix Buzz! Their story hits home the toy versus human, queerness versus norm. Sid’s toys are totally an oppressed population. No contest. Interesting to note that this Toy Story movie is the only one in the trilogy (soon to be 4-parter!) where toys reveal their aliveness to humans. Not sure what that means. Just thought I’d point it out.

Something I had never noticed before my recent rewatch is that the movie represents alternative family models and it’s totally NBD. There’s never any sort of mention of Andy’s dad, or lack thereof. Andy’s Mom is a single mom raising two kids and it needs no explanation. I’ve watched this movie many times and this is the only time I have ever noticed it. What a cool queer discovery!

AND finally, Rex is a total sissy. But I think that’s probably the most obvious queerness in the movie. I just love that this supposedly terrifying carnivorous dinosaur is the least ferocious character ever.

TINY T-REX ARMS!

MVQ: Buzz gets the queer struggle.

OTP: Woody and Buzz, obvi.

ummmmm....

Favorite Moment: When Buzz and Woody fly. I have so much nostalgia for the first time I ever watched that scene. Incredible storytelling/animation moment.