TOY STORY 3 (2010)
When I first watched TOY STORY 3, my family and I went to the midnight premiere and fully believed it was the last movie in the series as it was seemingly branded. By the end of the movie, the entire theater was collectively bawling in each other’s arms and felt the bittersweet nostalgia washing over us. Doing this rewatch, I felt those emotions again even though TOY STORY 4 and other related entries have come out since—including 2022’s LIGHTYEAR. Not a lot of sequels get called better than the original movie, but TOY STORY 3 bubbles up in conversations as the possible best movie in its franchise, including this article by Richard Schertzer.
The movie begins with Sheriff Woody Pride (Tom Hanks) playing with Jessie (Joan Cusack), Bullseye, and their toy family during a train robbery. While Woody is clearly the main hero of the scenario, Jessie, Bullseye, and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) are key players in their successful rescue of the train and its passengers. Once the action sequence is over, we see that time passes and the toys are now in a toy chest as Andy is older and preparing to go to college. They come up with Operation Playtime to try getting Andy to play with them, but he doesn’t take the bait.
As the toys realize their playtime with Andy has likely run its course, Woody says they should have a meeting and asks Slinky Dog to “gather everyone up,” but their numbers have dwindled due to donations and lost toys over the years. This is a stark contrast to us seeing an increase in toys between TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2 as what was once a bustling room of toys has dwindled to a skeleton crew. Woody lets everyone know the time has come to accept that their role for Andy has altered and that they’ll likely be in the attic when he goes to college. The plasticine sheriff attempts to psych them up for it by mentioning that they’ll have a TV and each other, but the toys are bummed about the loss of past friends and the grim future.
Woody is still clearly the leader of the toys that are left, but he’s a lot less authoritarian throughout the movie, depending on Buzz as a partner and caring about the other toys’ opinions.
While he tries to put on a brave face, Woody has a private, somber moment where he reminisces about the years he’s shared with Andy while looking at a photograph of the boy when he was young, with all the toys of past and present. Buzz comes up and mentions that Woody has no idea whether his guarantee of them staying with Andy in his attic is true and the audience recognizes that Woody now cares enough about his toy family that he tells “white lies” to help ease potential pain and burden on them.
Andy’s mom comes in and lets Andy know that he needs to sort his things into three piles–donations, things to go in the attic, and things going to college with him.
While the toys are nervous about where they’ll end up, we see Andy put all the toys except Woody into a trash bag and places Woody in the “college” pile. Andy goes to take the toys in the trash bag up to the attic, but he gets distracted by his sister, Molly, and his mom ends up putting that bag on the curb for garbage pickup. Woody is mortified by the situation and attempts to ride the dog, Buster, down to the curb like the good old days, but Buster is older and sprawls across the floor instead. Doing his signature great escape, Woody goes to save the toys from being thrown in the dump truck, only to discover that they saved themselves. He argues with them that Andy does want them and that they should stick together in their attic, but they decide to be donated to Sunnyside Daycare instead.
The other toys are excited about their prospects, but Woody exclaims that “as soon as we get to daycare, you’ll be begging to go home.” This is the Woody we saw in previous entries in the franchise—the Woody who tried to get Buzz home from Pizza Planet and Sid’s house in TOY STORY, and the Woody who tried to get back to Andy in TOY STORY 2. One thing about Woody that has remained consistent across all these beloved Disney-Pixar films is his extreme loyalty.
Sunnyside Daycare seems like a dream when the toys get there and except for Woody who is bothered by how perfect it all seems. The de facto leader still wants to go to Andy–even after the other toys decide to stay at the daycare to make new children happy. Woody goes on another great escape but gets swept up in a strong gust when he tries to hang glide off the daycare’s roof. Bonnie, one of the daycare workers’ daughters, picks Woody up and takes him home to play with the rest of her toys. Woody has a grand time with them, but he finds out from Chuckles the Clown that Lots-O’-Hugging-Bear AKA Lotso (Ned Beatty) from the Sunnyside Daycare has a dark past that’s corrupted him.
Unbeknownst to Woody, his toy family has been subjected to rough play and imprisonment by Lotso as he keeps a rigid hierarchy of toys to allow his friends an easier existence at the daycare, preying on newer toys.
Woody immediately springs into action and goes to rescue them, seeing firsthand the rough play that they go through. While peeking at them, he’s approached by Chatter Telephone who gives him a rundown on what he’d need to know to liberate his friends.
Chatter lets him know that while it’s near-impossible due to the recent security reinforcements by Lotso, there is a chance through the trash chute. Through a painful moment, Woody discovers that Buzz has been reset to his factory settings, after being captured by Lotso, and makes a secondary mission to get their Buzz back. In an impressive caper, the toys accomplish Woody’s plan almost flawlessly but are discovered by Lotso, who captured and tortured Chatter for the information. Woody appeals to Big Baby, Lotso’s top lieutenant, and uses Chuckles’ story to his advantage by reminding Big Baby about what they and Lotso went through, pointing out that Lotso lied to them as when they were supposedly replaced by their kid—but it was only Lotso that had been replaced.
After some harrowing sequences, Lotso is thrown into the dumpster pulling Woody in with him. Woody’s family proves their love for him yet again by jump in to save him and get caught in the dump truck in the process. Woody lets his family know that he’s sorry for abandoning them to attempt to get back to Andy by himself earlier and they apologize for not believing him again about how much Andy loves them. As they attempt to escape the dump’s SAW-like traps and devices, Woody stops multiple times to help Lotso regardless of how badly he’s treated them. Woody is nothing if not loyal and caring and it comes back to haunt him as Lotso betrays them, running away instead of pressing the emergency stop button to prevent them from falling into the furnace.
While Woody is desperately trying to find a way for them to escape, he looks around and sees the calm acceptance on his family’s faces. The toys holds their hands protectively and solemnly as they prepare to melt together, calling back to his multiple messages of being together forever throughout the franchise. The toys are rescued by the martian toys with the claw and are ready to go after Lotso, but Woody lets them know that he isn’t worth their time.
While the toys have been through a lot to get back to Andy’s room, they’ve accepted their fate in the attic and Woody’s at Andy’s to college. But Woody doesn’t want to lose his family. He sees Andy’s mom tell him that she wishes she could always be with him and that she always will be with him. Woody looks down and sees the photograph he reminisced about earlier and through some trickery, convinces Andy to donate the toys to Bonnie to give them a new lease on playtime. Andy emotionally introduces all his toys to Bonnie but stops himself at Woody. Bonnie recognizes Woody as her cowboy that she’d played with earlier in the movie and Andy reluctantly introduces her to Woody, his special friend that she wants Bonnie to take care of. He lets her know that “the thing that makes Woody special is that he’ll never give up on you” and proceeds to show her how to properly play with the toys to their fullest. At this point in the movie, any audience who grew up with TOY STORY is most likely watching through watery eyes, but in a final show of acceptance and love for Andy, Woody says “so long partner” as he drives away.
Woody’s story arc with Andy spanned all three of the first TOY STORY movies and while he wasn’t consistently in his presence, his love and loyalty to Andy was strong. He’d been gaslit into believing Andy didn’t want him anymore in TOY STORY 2 and even fooled himself into believing he’d been replaced in the first movie. But, in this third installment, nobody could convince him that Andy didn’t care about him. Lotso tried multiple times with snide comments, but Woody never faltered. His loyalty was so strong that the other toys eventually came to realize that they were wrong and accepted a potential fate of never being played with again because they trusted Woody that much. Luckily Andy’s love for Woody and the other toys allowed him to give them to a little girl who would be able to breathe life into them for many more years. While painful to lose his nostalgic toys, Andy was able to walk away knowing that Woody was always there for him and their great shared memories would always remain with him.
