In “Toy Story 3” Andy struggles with his sense of nostalgia—a feeling not generally attributed to 18-year-olds. Indeed, Andy’s generation, the ReGeneration, is much more commonly associated with narcissism. The accusations of narcissism are unfair; just as Andy’s sense of nostalgia is an unspoken commonality. To the ReGeneration (born roughly from 1982 to 2001), experience, as a concept, doesn’t deserve credit or attention itself but there is still a desire to understand one's place in history. In other words, the experience to come is more important than the experience passed. This circles back in “Toy Story 3” as the audience (and Andy) can not move down the road of life until reconciling our (and his) displaced sense of nostalgia.
Let me break it down more. “Toy Story 3” is the story of America; not unequivocally and not a one-to-one ratio, but the film is a stand-in for those struggling with cognitive dissonance and inconclusive identity.
Woody the Sheriff is the cowboy protagonist and throwback to the iconic gunslinger. The cowboy is America’s King Arthur. America’s samurai or Spartan. The cowboy is the archetype lifted from history and so repeatedly washed, treaded on, and re-washed that the cultural symbol is more meaningful than the history. His counterpart is Buzz Lightyear, the representative of science. Buzz is technologically superior, but technology is too vague and unstable as a concept. Rather, Buzz acts as the spaceman—a cultural symbol of 1970s science not solely American but definitely packaged and slapped on a lunchbox in a uniquely American fashion. Mr. and Mrs. Potato could be reasoned as symbols of America’s agriculture, but I find their strength as a traditional married-couple more palpable. Rex the dinosaur is our understanding of prehistoric history. Slink is what’s left of our wildlife. Lastly, Barbie—as the most iconic real-life toy—is America’s consumer culture.
As a little one, Andy, and real children, played with these concepts. Yes, the cowboy and spaceman were the most exciting, but each character/toy had a value—bestowed to him by his parents. As he grew up, he became sullen and cynical. Andy tossed aside the symbols of his culture in favor of, well, whatever it is kids do these days. Bowling perhaps? In the film, Andy literally refers to his toys as “junk.” And indeed, they are. As toys or ideologies, they are neither original nor accurate. Woody is a cowboy and a sheriff (a professional impossibility). Buzz Lightyear is a space ranger originally imagined from the near future, though now just a relic from the Cold War-inspired space race. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are incomplete, to the point of Mrs. Potato Head losing her eye/vision. Rex is an inaccurate model of the Tyrannosaurs Rex and Slinky, like nature, is perpetually stretched to its limits. In terms of American history, any widespread disillusionment with culture and history would have first appeared in the late 1950s with the beatniks and popularized by counter-cultures and counter-counter cultures of the 1960s. (An example of counter-counter-counter culture can be found here.) As for the film, in “Toy Story 3” Andy begrudgingly wants to keep the toys, his sole sense of cultural identity, but only for the sake of having an identity. He won’t share them with anybody nor wants to keep them overtly part of his life.
As the story goes, the toys accidentally end up at Sunnyside Daycare wherein scholars (children) can use the symbols for education and interaction. Before these symbols of Americana can be savored and studied appropriately, they are tossed into the Caterpillar room—a room of less patient and less experienced scholars. These scholars (again, children) run around with the metaphors, purposefully misunderstanding their purpose in order to gain a few fleeting moments of entertainment and attention. The abuse inflicted on the toys by these screaming crybabies soils the toys’ iconic identities. If I’m worthy of having critics, I suppose I have just opened myself up to being called a Caterpillar Scholar. Regardless…
To contrast the original crew of toys, the toys introduced at the daycare are crafted to fit in relation to, and in conflict to, the American icons. Lotso is the dictator of the Sunnyside nation and could probably be a stand-in for several specific dictators, though I think the connection is strongest with Stalin and the Soviet Union. Lotso surrounds himself with loyalists under the guise of a meritocracy. His group calls the American ideologies “fodder,” with the two exceptions of Buzz and Barbie. Buzz, as science, was necessary to obtain military equality (atom bomb in 1948) and space travel superiority (Sputnik in 1957). As a small note, Iranian President Ahmadinejad has made a big deal out of getting his country into space technology. Lotso, like Stalin and others, granted certain leniency to Ken—the upper class of the Sunnyside nation—including the acquisition of Barbie (again, consumer goods and luxuries). More specific to Stalin, Lotso is a bear—the mascot of the USSR. Also, Lotso was said to smell like strawberries, as did Leonid Brezhnev.
While the dictatorship is allowing, and even facilitating, the corruption of American ideologies, Woody is separated from the group. Here, the fear of isolation becomes a key theme for the film. Woody is far more excited about living in the attic with the toys than going to college by himself. Similarly, the primary punishment issued by Lotso is a night “in the box.” Even at Bonnie’s, Woody feels more isolated with toys he has no history with than he would with Andy at college.
Bonnie’s, like Sunnyside, introduces yet more toys/ideologies who collectively make up a world community. There is a Shakespearean actor, unicorn (which Greeks thought were from India/Africa), tech-savvy dinosaur and Totoro (a Japanese cartoon character). Baffling Woody, he is cherished by this community, much in line with how the cowboy imagery and characters were celebrated, mimicked and immortalized by Europeans in the post-WWII years (see: 500 Spaghetti Westerns in 6 years). To this day, several European and Asian film making industries perpetually have Western-inspired productions rolling.
In the climax sequence of the film, the ideologies are united but still trashed, along with the ousted dictator. On the trash conveyor belt, Lotso finds himself trapped under a golf bag (dead weight of American leisure). Had any random character saved Lotso, they would have looked like a sympathizer—but Woody was the cowboy president who lambasted Lotso time and time again, even before anybody else took the threat that seriously. Because of this tough-talk, Woody could save Lotso/shake his hand without appearing weak. More than any one president in history, this was the collective strategy of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Reagan up to the fall of the USSR. Moments before being disintegrated and forgotten, the “aliens”--and literal aliens--of the group save them all. This is not to say foreigners per se will save America (as they have before), but rather American ideologies become stronger when including more symbols and histories.
Eventually the ideologies are cleaned off and reunited under Andy. But he decides, as the ReGeneration will, to not lock away his past but rather share it with the world—represented by Bonnie and her toys. And so yes, Andy gave up ownership up his history but it doing so sees the importance it holds. Cultural history is something like being in a club; it’s fun being exclusive but it’s lonely if you have no one to share it with. Andy is no less American for giving up his cowboy, spaceman, etc. persona. Indeed, is he is better for having played with the toys he was given as a child but he is now open to playing with new toys. And by “toys” I mean metaphors and ideologies; though I suppose playing with actual toys in college wouldn’t be that unusual, especially if it could be made into some sort of bong.
I know at least six people who are at least a little bit jealous right now.
The specific intentions of the “Toy Story” creators don’t matter much more than if they intended to make a great film. I believe this intention existed and so am willing to pick up the challenge audiences are unknowingly faced with; the challenge of thinking about stories, art and the world around us. “Toy Story 3” perfectly represents how history can be used to understand a movie while the movie can be used to understand history—both spheres being made more accessible to new audiences. And that makes for a helluva “Toy (and True) Story”.
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