I posted this on Facebook some time ago (June 8, 2020) and I wanted to share it here.

SPOILER WARNING Long Post

If you haven't seen Toy Story, this is a spoiler warning. I wanted to address a couple of things which jumped out at me in regards to some of the protest and give perspective. Here are a few things as I was watching Toy Story with my family, which popped out to me.

Toy Story, I gotta say, is starting to become my favorite movie (right now it's Fly Away Home more because of personal reasons). Toy Story is one of the few movies that have turned into a series which hasn't gotten worse than the original; the sequels have been either equal or better than the original. If you have watched Toy Story you know about Sid and his toys. If you haven't, and you don't care about me spoiling the movie,

*** Sid is a gruesome kid who likes destruction and terrorizing his toys and sometimes his little sister. The movie introduces Sid after you meet Andy's toys and the plot of the movie between Woody and Buzz. Andy's toys are relatively taken care of and played like any other toy using Andy's imagination. Woody is jealous of the new toy, Buzz, and there's an incident where Woody accidently knocks Buzz out a window. Woody and Buzz end up at Sid's house. Woody is terrified of being there, mainly because of Sid, however Woody also fear's the toys of Sid. Woody has seen the actions of Sid and what Sid has done to the toys but never (according to what we see in the movie) has met any of the toys. Woody believes them to be vile and cannibals even because Woody and Buzz think they see Sid's toys eat another of Sid's toys. Woody and Buzz are in Sid's house for at least a day and somehow Buzz gets broken. Buzz, depressed and Woody believing to be stranded, aren't particularly aware of their surroundings. Sid's toys come out from the shadows and Woody thinks they are gonna to eat Buzz. Sid's toys, after a few moments all hovered around Buzz, back away and reveal a physically fixed Buzz. Woody, amazed, stutters, "but those other toys..." and the camera pans to the other toys Woody and Buzz thought were eaten. They were fixed with materials Sid's other toys could find. Woody and Buzz are still in a pickle cause Buzz is basically scheduled for execution by Sid. Woody tries to approach Sid’s toys to help his friend and Sid’s toys are scared of Woody and hide from him. Woody gives a little speech practically begging to save his friend. Sid’s toys come out and agree to help. The plan is to basically give Sid a piece of his own medicine. It’s some rule (unspoken?) the toys must remain a toy and not reveal themselves in true animation to humans yet they drop that rule to save Buzz’s friend AND help Sid’s toys. Sid is basically scared shitless and runs away. He runs into his sister who has a new toy. After seeing what the toys have done, he says to his sister scared, “The toys are alive!” When he sees his sister toy he says, “Nice dolly.” He is scared. However, his sister thinks he’s being nice and is paying a compliment so she holds the toy up to Sid. Sid is terrified and runs away and his sister runs after him and you hear her say, “What’s the matter, Sid? Don’t you wanna play with Sally?” ***

What got me was how much these interactions between toys relate to so much which has been and is going on in the real world. Quotes I’ve seen, “Violence is never the answer” or “Violence shouldn’t be used to make social change” or "do we really need riots" have got me thinking. I think a lot and I do talk a lot but not nearly as much as I think and reflect. A few points I wanna pull out of the above movie

• Sid IS an evil kid. He is torturing his toys, his sister, even a game at a store. Sid is painted this way because Sid is the bad in this movie, not because we (the viewers) or Andy’s toys want him to be or just assume he is. It’s based off what he’s done. Again, the whole movie isn’t about Sid and Woody has his faults too but the focus is on Sid at the moment.

• Sid IS oppressing his toys. Sid’s toys look, to the people watching the movie, as scary and messed up and a large, if not all, is in fact of how Sid is playing with his toys.

• Sid’s toys DIDN’T HAVE A VOICE and they are living in a world where they have to survive in ways not normal to either Andy’s toys nor the viewers of the movie. Yes, they didn’t have a physical voice so they weren’t able to calm Woody and Buzz the first couple of times they encountered. Any action of help looked scary. Any action of living looked scary.

• Sid’s toys DID VALUE LIFE (assuming the toys are alive… different argument, different day) Sid’s toys rushed, as soon as they could, to save the life of the toys Woody and Buzz thought they were eating and saved Buzz when they could

• Sid’s toys DID NOT REVEAL THEMSELVES TO SID. This is an important one. This whole time Sid’s toys lived under Sid’s oppression and didn’t break the “unspoken” rule. It wasn’t until Woody had to decide between saving Buzz or not breaking the rule and Woody chose his friend’s life. Sid’s toys agreed to help Woody. Two things here. One, the toys could have broken the rule before. Maybe one of them at least one of them thought by scaring or threating Sid could improve their life or maybe it never crossed their mind cause THAT WAS THE RULE. And, two… when they did agree with Woody the opposite could have went through their mind… this will make things worse. Sid is awful and just do more to us than he has done before or vice versa.

• Woody and Sid’s toys actions WERE VIOLENT OR AT LEAST THREATENED VIOLENCE. If you seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t… basically picture a compilation of horror entrances and scary move references. All was intended to threaten violence against Sid and scare him from killing Buzz

• Standing up to Sid WORKED FOR ALL PARTIES Sid was terrified of the toys and ran away. Not only was Buzz saved but Sid’s toys were probably never again touched by Sid and Sid’s sister was seen playing with a broken Buzz earlier so it’s possible the Sid’s toys were then played with by Sid’s sister who did take care of the toys.

• Sid, who spent most of his time terrorizing and destroying, WAS TERRIFIED OF GOOD INTENTIONS. Again, Sid’s sister didn’t chase Sid because he was scared of her. In fact, it’s the first time we see Sid be nice to her. Sid’s sister then willingly wants to share her toy with Sid. Sid was so scared of the toys because Sid also realized they knew what Sid had been doing to them.

Sadly, some are more worried about the "unspoken rule" than Buzz's life.

I never expected this from this movie nor would I ever think I would break down this movie in such a way but the examples popped out at me. I wanted to share. I didn’t know a better way to write this and I apologize if it took longer than I needed to explain some things. By the way, I’m open to discuss and talk about anything. Feel free to share.