Headscratchers / Toy Story

Be sure to also see Toy Story (whole franchise), Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, and Toy Story 4.

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As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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No help/intervention for Sid?

• OK, so it's made clear that Sid likes to blow up toys. Why has no one intervened!? Don't you think someone would've contacted the police by now? Why hadn't his parents intervened and got him psychological help? Why is everyone seemingly OK with the fact that a little boy likes to make his backyard sound like a war's going on in there? Why are his parents seemingly OK with his disturbed habits?
  • Sid's parents were probably the type that let their kids do whatever they wanted because it would be too much effort to keep an eye on them. Any police officers that got sent might have just laughed it off with "Boys will be boys" or "I remember when I did stuff to my toys at that age..." Even if they did fine them for it, Sid's parents might think it's easier to bail Sid out repeatedly than to stop him. Heck, they might not think he's doing anything wrong. Andy's family moving away could have been partially caused by this.
  • As pointed out on the Nightmare Fuel page, Scud's actions when he sees Sid's father imply that he's abusing the dog. Add to that our other clues regarding Mr. Phillips: his only appearance is in his man cave, asleep in his chair, with empty beer cans scattered all over the floor and the TV left on (so that Buzz can watch his worldview-destroying commercial). The implication is that Sid's father is neglectful if not abusive, and his mother isn't likely to call the authorities in that setting.
  • Sid's behavior is actually pretty similar to a lot of kids, the explosions are a touch worrying but again nothing that's too out of the ordinary. Though the big one likely would have got him in some trouble.
  • In addition to the above it's also important to keep in mind the time period this film was set in, 1994 specifically. In the early to mid-90s as the film depicts CPS in the United States had only existed for about twenty years and the first truly comprehensive child protection laws had been around for less than fifteen. Combining this with the cultural norms of the time that centered on not acknowledging such problems and the common sentiment of dealing with problems internally rather than involving outside authorities would create perfect circumstances for someone like Sid to go about their playtime uninterrupted. At least until his actions had some direct effect on another family nobody would be likely to intervene as how Sid is raised is his parents' business by the sentiment of the time.

In his introductory scene, doesn't Buzz find it weird that he has pre-recorded audio clips of himself that he can activate by pressing some buttons on his armor?

• If he thought he was the real Buzz at the time, then does that mean the Buzz Lightyear from the in-universe TV show also has generic audio clips? In the show, whenever he needs to say his thing ("Buzz Lightyear, space ranger of the Galactic Alliance, sworn to defeat Zurg" etc.), does he press those buttons on his chest instead of actually saying it?
  • Self-deception?
  • Buzz isn't just factually unaware of the fact that he is a toy, he is delusional. You might as well ask, doesn't Buzz find it weird that he is made out of plastic instead of flesh and blood, with blatant action-figure joints? As shown in the scene where he claims he can "fly", he edits reality to conform to his own views, he isn't really perceiving what is happening in a rational way. He probably either ignores the audio clips or thinks he made them by speaking, according to the situation.
  • Maybe he sees them as ways to communicate in space and on planets with poison air to fill in when his communication system isn't working?
  • Maybe he thinks of them as automatic voice-mail greetings for his suit's communication gear. Just in case it receives a message when he's not wearing it.

The opening scenes: Andy leaves his room. Hamm's contents are dumped out on the floor, and Mr. Potato Head is on the floor, his body parts scattered across the room. While he's downstairs for his birthday party, Hamm is shown scooping the money back into his slot and Mr. Potato Head puts himself back together. In this particular instance, Andy was too thrilled about getting Buzz to notice, but if behavior like this is common for Andy's toys, wouldn't he one day notice that something's been changed since the last time he was in there with no explanation? I watched this movie again recently and noticed a lack of interest on the part of the toys to make sure to leave everything the way it was before.

• Well, how many times in Real Life do we go "I could have sworn I left X here" or "Who put my X in this room?" or "When did I put this in here?" Now we know why!
  • It seems to be taken to ridiculous extremes, though. First movie: Andy leaves Buzz and Woody on his desk as he gets ready to go to Pizza Planet. Buzz "disappears," so Andy just takes Woody. At the end of the movie, Andy finds them in the box he JUST put in the car, and his mom comments they were "right where (he) left them," even though Buzz had NEVER been in the car. Second movie: The antagonist breaks open the cash box at the yard sale to steal Woody, and apparently Andy's mom never noticed, or she would likely have told Andy about it on the way home. And while Andy makes the reasonable assumption that his mom got him new toys while he was away, why would his mom never question where the toys really came from?
    • True, but if you found something in a place where you didn't put it, what are you gonna think? "OMGZ! IS ALIVE!!!!" Or "Eh, I probably put it there and forgot, or someone else did." Andy thinks his mom (or sister) moved his toys, while her mom]] just thinks Andy himself misplaced them and doesn't remember. And then she believes he got Jessie and the other himself.
    • I don't know about that last point. She probably thought either Andy was mistaken, or that she'd found them while cleaning and put them there without remembering afterward. Plenty of toys I don't remember getting somehow migrated to my room when I was a kid, it's not unlikely Andy or his mom would just shrug it off.
  • Lampshaded at the beginning of TS3: Andy notices that the toys moved around after 'Operation Playtime,' but blames it on Molly.
    • He noticed his cell phone was where it shouldn't be, not the toys.
    • Still. My cellphone "migrates" to different places often enough, usually, I just think "Oh, right, must have set it down while doing something there", not "My Kamen Rider action figures are trying to get my attention."

Early in the movie all the toys (except Woody) are terrified of getting replaced. Likely this meant they were afraid of Andy getting an awesome toy that would make them look less appealing by comparison, and that makes sense, but then Andy gets a toy that makes all of them look pitiful by comparison, and only Woody is bothered by this. Wouldn't all of the other toys have their fears of being replaced justified by the arrival of a Buzz Lightyear Action Figure? Or does being replaced constitute something else entirely?

• Woody is Andy's favorite toy. That's why he is so upset—he's not anymore. The other toys were already used to being second best—it made little difference to them whether Woody or Buzz was the favorite.
• Perhaps they knew that Buzz would take on the "hero" role in Andy's games, which meant that he wasn't a threat to anyone but the current hero, Woody. For example, it's a lot harder to replace the scary dinosaur in your fantasy with a space-man.
• The above answer is the best explanation. Rex, for example, worried that he'd be replaced with a braver, scarier dinosaur. In other words, they don't particularly care about a new toy unless it's too similar to them.

Since Buzz didn't realize that he was a toy at first, why didn't he try interacting with any of the humans? Also, If Buzz thinks he's the real Buzz Lightyear, why does he allow Andy to write his name on his foot, freeze whenever he is around, and allow Andy to play with him?

• Could be justified. Buzz thinks this is a foreign planet, and as he sees the other toys playing dead whenever their "chief, Andy" shows up, he thinks he should too. When in Rome.
• He probably thought they were horrible aliens.
• Or maybe there's some underlying instinct in toys that tells them not to get seen by humans. I think the alien thing is a better guess, though. Everyone else dropped immediately at their approach, and if you were in a foreign place and everyone was quickly dropping at the arrival of some huge things you presumed to be aliens, you'd follow suit, at least lie low long enough to figure out what they were and such. There may, however, have been a scene in the film with Buzz refusing to lie low that I have not forgotten, so if this contradicts that, feel free to tell me.
• Based on the scene where Buzz shows the other toys Andy's name that he just accepted this as part of their culture and, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
• From the second movie, it seems all Buzz Lightyears think of themselves as real, and the freezing thing is part of some protocol.
• It could be that Buzz subconsciously knows that he's a toy (and thus follows all the toy-human conventions), but initially believes himself to be real.
• But why did he never even realize that his laser wasn't real? Andy's played with it before and never done any damage to it.
• Word of God, here.
• Perhaps no intelligent space ranger would attempt to converse with beings a few dozen times his size, whether they are screaming and flailing (Andy, his friends, Sid) or simply clanging about (the adults).

When Sid put the head of one toy in the body of another. Do these toys retain the memories of their heads or do they become a different toy with a totally new personality?'

• They may become like intelligent zombies, considering they don't even talk.
• The third movie establishes that certain toys don't necessarily need to be connected to their parts to feel them. Mrs. Potato Head could still see through her missing eye, and Mr. Potato Head was able to move his limbs independently without his actual potato. Maybe the toys have a consciousness, either in one part of their body, like Woody (who could not move his arm after it was lost in 2), or spread out through some parts, such as the Potato Heads. Any Frankenstein toys such as the latter category would still retain their ability to move their body parts independently, regardless of what they were attached to. Any in the former, however, would likely only be able to control what was attached to the part of their body holding their consciousness. The most likely assumption for this part is the head, but we don't really have confirmation one way or the other.
• It depends, but it would lean towards the head. Hannah's headless toys appear to have their own personality, and the Doll heads in Sid's room don't talk. I think it also depends on the intention of the toy. Since you're not supposed to remove Woody's or Buzz's arm they can't be used independently. Mr. Potato Head appeared to feel the attack on the tortilla. The rule is probably whatever the owner thinks.

Wasn't Andy supposed to be moving shortly after the birthday party? If so, why did he get a whole bunch of new Buzz Lightyear stuff like posters and bedsheets? Why didn't he just get that stuff after he moved?

• The bedsheets, at least, were a gift from one of his friends at the birthday party. His friend is just a dork.
• It wouldn't have been a stretch if Andy's mom told all the kids to buy Buzz-related merchandise as presents, as part of a themed birthday party. Andy opens his presents and gets a Buzz Lightyear lunchbox, Buzz Lightyear bedsheets, a Buzz Lightyear board game, etc., etc., etc., all culminating with the final present being an actual Buzz Lightyear toy.
• His mom was probably all like, "Don't get all that new stuff out, we're moving soon!" but he was so excited he did anyway. Kids.

What happened to that burn mark on Woody's forehead? It was still there until the end of the movie but then disappeared in the next. Was it painted over or something?

• In Toy Story 2, the burn mark doesn't appear anywhere, before or after the repair scene.
• There's a simple answer for this. When he got it, Woody said "I sure hope this isn't permanent". It wasn't permanent.
• He got better.
• You can get that kind of low-grade burn marks off with your finger.
• It was there when they landed in the car but gone during the Christmas party in the next scene. Presumably, it either disappeared or was painted over when Andy cleaned him after they moved.
• Likely the plastic was just singed and didn't actually burn a hole. You can get singe marks off rather easily.

If Buzz's wings can sever duct tape, why didn't he do that immediately after being rescued? Obviously, doing it with Sid around would have caused everyone's favorite toy sadist to do a double-take, but Sid was having a hysterical fit in his room. Buzz could have cut the rocket from his back and not got stuck in the fence instead of waiting until the last minute when he and the poster character were about to be blown to cinders. That would have saved everyone an uncountable number of headaches.

• When did Sid have a hysterical fit in his room? Also, keep in mind that at that point, Buzz was still in Heroic Blue Screen of Death mode after discovering he wasn't really a space ranger.
  • It meant when "Sid was freaking out after witnessing his toys coming to life". But it makes sense that Buzz wouldn't have been thinking of using his wings straight away after everything that just happened.
• Plus, he probably didn't know his wings could tear the tape. The only reason he opened them up in the air was to "fly" with them. The tape and rocket being torn off was just an added bonus.
  • Added bonus? The rocket was about to EXPLODE. When Woody mentioned it, Buzz said, "Not today!" and immediately deployed his wings. He knew what he was doing.
  • Also, without the rocket, they never would have made it back to Andy. The plot called for it not to occur to Buzz to remove the rocket. Willing Suspension of Disbelief, people.
• It didn't occur to him. Sometimes it's really that simple.

Why is Woody so insensitive about the Combat Carl getting blown up? He's not being mean or anything, but he looks at it and all he has to think about is "Boy, I wish that would happen to Buzz."

• He was kinda, "Aw, that's terrible, but we can't do anything to stop it." Honestly, Sid likely does this every day, so Woody and the other toys might've been desensitized to it by now. But yeah, he probably was thinking that about Buzz.
• Also? Woody was a total jerk in the first film. The reason it seems weird in hindsight is that after seeing the sequels, we're now used to Woody being more of a Knight in Sour Armor instead of the Jerkass he was in the first movie.
• In the first 'draft' of the movie, Woody was a sadistic, completely evil toy who had Slinky Dog as his slave. Compared to that, he was a saint in the real version. They seemed to just tone him down A LOT but keep a little of his jerkiness.

Why did the toys think Woody killed Buzz?

• The toys are minding their business when Woody yells at them from Sid's house. They don't wanna help Woody because he knocked Buzz out the window due to jealousy. Woody tries to get Buzz to come to the window to prove he's fine, but Buzz is too depressed to do it and instead throws his detached arm at him. Woody, like an idiot, tries to use the arm to fool the toys into helping him escape, but the plan fails and everyone is disgusted by him. Everything is fine and dandy here, but one thing sticks out: Potato Head calls Woody a "Murderer". But think; Woody is at Sid's house. Wouldn't it have made more sense for the toys to simply think Woody was using another Buzz's arm while their Buzz was still out and about? Why would they think that it's their Buzz? And on top of that, even if it was, why would they think Woody killed Buzz? Why couldn't Sid do that?
  • The last time they saw Woody, he had pushed Buzz out the window as if to kill him. If the last you ever saw of a person before was trying to kill your friend, then later seeing carrying an arm that looks suspiciously like that friend's, it's not much of a leap to assume he did kill him. What's more, Woody dug his own hole by pretending the arm was Buzz.
    • Yeah, but here's the thing: 1) They don't know that their Buzz was with him. They were trying to rescue their Buzz the day before. They didn't know he got into the car where Woody was. Odds are, they just thought he ran off or died in the fall. 2) He is in Sid's house. Sid is a sadistic kid when it comes to toys, and odds are, the kid has the ability to get whatever toy he wants. Who's to say that he didn't get a different Buzz Lightyear for himself? I do agree though, that Woody did dig his own grave, but I just feel like Mr. Potato Head could have made a different conclusion; Instead of "Woody Killed Our Buzz!", he could have thought "Wow, Woody is so desperate that he's using a Buzz body part and trying to make us think that it's our Buzz? How pathetic". I don't get why he thinks that Woody murdered their Buzz when they don't know where their Buzz is, and that Sid could have easily murdered Buzz himself...
    • They'd think that if Sid killed Buzz, Woody wouldn't be using his corpse to perpetuate his lie... Either way, as they already think Woody is a maniac who's trying to kill Buzz, they're likely predisposed to jump to the conclusion that fits with that.
  • In a moment of shock, which one is faster to conclude? The toys are shocked because it turns out Woody was playing with a severed arm in front of them, and are going to jump to the fastest conclusion. They're predisposed to distrust Woody because they know he tried to kill Buzz, they know he's been jealous of him for a long time now, and Mr. Potato Head and Hamm suspected something was up because Buzz suddenly being friends with Woody was too good to be true. If they ever considered the "maybe he used a spare Buzz arm" possibility later, they probably shrugged it off with "Nah, he had been trying to kill Buzz for a while now".
  • And they were likely sickened that Woody would stoop so low to play with a toy's dismembered limb, regardless of whether or not they thought the arm belonged to their Buzz. (And they likely did, because as far as they knew, Sid never had a Buzz toy of his own, otherwise, he would've blown that Buzz up a long time ago. They saw a Buzz arm and concluded it was their Buzz.) And let's assume they thought it was SID that killed Buzz and dismembered him. Judging from Woody's reaction, it's clear that Woody isn't at all affected that his fellow toy from Andy's room was torn apart as one would think, and is happy to fake out the other toys with Buzz's arm. To them, he's profiting off of Buzz's demise to get his own freedom. That's why Mr. Potato Head and Hamm did not believe him.
  • Since Andy's other toys had such a low opinion of Woody at that point, they might actually think that Woody had switched sides to become Sid's #1 toy, and was luring them into a trap.

How come the claw machine at Pizza Planet is so strong?

As anyone who's ever played one can attest, claw machines are rigged so that on a majority of your tries, the machine will be too weak to grab anything. This is so that people will keep trying and the owners of the machine will make more money. On the rare occasion where the machine is strong enough to grab something, it's usually made to have barely enough strength to pick up a prize. The Pizza Planet claw machine, however, seems to have an incredibly powerful grip. First, Buzz and Woody aren't supposed to be in the machine, and so it's likely not designed for toys as heavy as them. Second, it grabs Buzz's rounded helmet, which it should slip right off of, no matter how strong its grip is. Third, Woody is actively pulling Buzz down, which should exceed the machine's grip strength if their natural weight isn't enough already. Lastly, we see that the machine gives Sid a prize right before Buzz and Woody show up, so it should not have been able to pick them up at all. With all of this, how the hell was Sid able to get two prizes in a row when the second set of prizes should have more than exceeded the machine's strength?

• Perhaps the toys were promotional material that was meant to be obtained that easily. Or the restaurant could have been nice enough to give their customers a fair chance at winning, instead of rigging the system against them. And don't forget, it is a combination fast food restaurant and arcade hall. Easy-to-get, dirt-cheap toys could be just the kind of lure to get kids to the more profitable games and food.
• The claw's ways are mysterious... which is to say that it sometimes brings results when it's unexpected. My mom once tried to prove that the claw was a scam by playing it herself, only to pull in an awesome prize completely by accident.
• Given the claw machine seems to normally be filled with nothing but a specific model of alien toy rather than a variety, the promotional idea seems reasonable. Alternatively, some claw machines come with a feature where the user puts in an increased amount of money in exchange for trying to repeatedly try again until the machine registers a success, effectively making it purchase the toy with extra steps. While this troper isn't certain how real-world examples of the feature interact with grip strength settings, it would be sensible to program it to play "fairly" so the user doesn't spend too long hogging the machine, after having already paid the expected price for their prize.

The Last Scene...

• How do those Green Army men with Baby Monitor keep so well hidden in the Christmas Tree? In the beginning, when they took the Baby Monitor to the Bush, it made sense because it was out of the way of the main party, it looked thick and healthy, and no one was really going to pay close attention to the Bush. But the Christmas Tree? It was right where everyone was! Christmas trees are never thick enough that they can disguise stuff (Unless those things are behind the Tree, which the Baby Monitor wasn't), and if they're anything like my family, we like to take a good couple of pictures in front of the Tree, which would probably increase the chances of Andy's Mom seeing the Baby Monitor/Green Army men. Also, I highly doubt a Christmas Tree branch can support a giant Baby monitor like that. Surely they could have hidden in something else?
  • It's a live tree, and the monitor is sitting close to the trunk where the branches are strongest. Sarge picks a spot behind several ornaments; it's also established that the Army Men are no rookies to these missions and are experts at hiding and signaling to each other potential human activity. Photos involve plenty of talking and posturing, giving the men plenty of time to find hiding places among the tree. Worst case scenario, Andy's Mom finds the baby monitor and writes it off as some kind of practical joke.

How could Buzz know what Taiwan was?

• If Buzz was all convinced that he was from outer space in the beginning, then how did he know what Taiwan was when he read he was made there? And so quickly! By logic, he should have thought Taiwan was a planet or a galaxy when he thought he was a space ranger.
  • The part immediately before that was where he watched the rather lengthy toy commercial that repeatedly demonstrated and reiterated that he was just a toy. He probably would have dismissed it in such a fashion (or just not thought about it) had he not seen that first, but the "Made In Taiwan" stamp was just confirming the blindingly obvious for him at that point. In any case, he might be an astronaut, but he still comes from Earth, so has presumably heard about the country of Taiwan (and it is a base for cheap manufacturing of consumer products, including toys).
    • But he first thought he was on a foreign planet, did you forget that?
    • No, but the whole point of that scene is Buzz being bluntly confronted with the fact that he is not an actual space ranger, but is just a toy. At that point, the fact that he thought he was on another planet then is completely irrelevant, because now he is painfully aware that he is in fact on Earth, and the "Made in Taiwan" stamp is just further confirmation of that fact. He doesn't assume that Taiwan is another planet or galaxy because his illusions have been stripped from him and he now has no reason to.
  • The generally accepted interpretation is that Buzz knew he was a toy, he was just delusional or in denial. The "Made In Taiwan" sticker was the final straw; he couldn't explain why his spacesuit would be Taiwanese, and combined with all the other evidence, he had to accept that he was a toy.
    • Agreed. He knew he was a toy as soon as Woody started pointing it out, but he was too insecure to admit it, and seeing the advertisement made him finally realize that lying to himself was only destroying him inside. His failed attempt at flying directly afterward wasn't an attempt to prove the advertisement wrong (as many seem to assume) but him giving himself his last chance at being who he thought he was.
    • To each their own interpretation, of course, but I'm honestly not sure you're getting this from, since I don't recall anything from the movie that suggests that Buzz knows he's a toy all along but is just insecure; from where I'm sitting everything about Buzz screams "utterly and sincerely deluded that he's a real space ranger". That particular scene is played as Buzz being completely shattered as he finally realizes the truth about himself, not that he finally lets go of a harmful delusion that's killing him inside and everything about his attempt at flying is played as a last-ditch attempt at denial. Just listen to the song lyrics at that moment — "No! It can't be true!/I can fly if I wanted to!" That's someone desperately in denial about the truth, not someone who's known all along that they weren't who they pretended they were.
  • Plus the exact words were "Made in Taiwan". "Made" as in manufactured and mass-produced for commercial sale. That, combined with the commercial and Woody constantly telling him he's a toy convinced him of the truth.
• He probably assumed that label just meant that's where his spacesuit was made.

Did Woody always do the "...There's been a bit of a mix-up..." speech whenever he was introducing a new toy into Andy's room

• When he first met Buzz, he said, "...There's been a bit of a mix-up. This is my spot, see, the bed here." This was before Woody found out Buzz was about to become the center of Andy's attention, and the toy's attention, so this left me wondering: Did he always do this to every new toy Andy plopped onto his bed? "Hi, T-Rex, welcome to Andy's room. By the way, this bed is my spot, so please find somewhere else to be."
  • I doubt it. Woody knows, from Andy's surprise and excitement, that Buzz is already an excellent toy before he is placed on the bed. Also, Andy says "This is where the spaceship lands!" implying that Andy was already planning to make Buzz his new bedtime toy. Therefore, Woody telling Buzz that it's his spot was him trying to persuade Buzz to stay away from there, in the hopes that Andy would lose interest in making the bed Buzz's new space earlier.
  • It's a sign that Woody is already feeling jealous and threatened by Buzz's presence; he's staking his claim on the territory that Buzz is intruding on and trying to put Buzz in what Woody thinks is / should be his place. There may also be a bit of denial in there (i.e. "There's clearly some kind of mistake, Andy didn't mean to knock me aside like I wasn't there."). He's only commenting on it now because Buzz has knocked him off his perch at the top of the ladder, so to speak; if it was a 'lesser' toy who hadn't immediately captured Andy's affections, he wouldn't worry about it so much.
  • Not only did Andy make a big deal out of Buzz but he also knocked Woody onto the floor to place Buzz in his normal spot. That's going to leave Woody feeling awfully insecure, under normal circumstances a new toy that had been left on the bed with Woody likely would have simply received a welcome instead.

Why did Buzz call Andy's room an "uncharted planet"?

He sees the other toys not requiring helmets to breathe. Assuming that he assumes that Andy's toys are actually from this "planet" (the room), why did he call it uncharted if it's obviously already populated? And, again, if he can see that the other toys don't require helmets, why would he think the air was toxic?

• Uncharted does not mean uninhabited. It means nobody official has come around and added it to the map. And the air on the planet being fine for natives doesn't mean it's fine for a non-native.

Falling with style

• Flying, falling fancily, whatever you'd like to call it, how was what Buzz did in the climax possible? He has many electronic parts built into him and is made entirely out of plastic - the moves and glides he performs don't seem very doable for such a heavy toy.
  • This is one of the weirdest parts of the film because it completely contradicts the fact that Buzz truly is a toy incapable of flight, and was only added in because there was no other way for the duo to get back to Andy (and it also made a charming finale to the film). Similar to the nonsensical "Remy can make Linguini move by pulling his hair" thing and a few thousand balloons being able to lift an entire house, it's not explainable - it's just movie magic.
  • OP here: I understand that, and normally, I'd be perfectly fine with it...but it's the fact that the movie had already established Buzz's incapability to actually fly that kind of irks me, since it was part of what made him realize he wasn't really a space ranger...Then they completely turn it over just for the sake of convenience at the climax. The other examples you listed were at least established earlier on, and their respective films didn't have anything that specifically contradicted them.
• An interpretation is that Buzz is able to fly in that scene because it's a "heroic power" that can only be done when he's doing something heroic. The first "falling with style" was just him showing off. The second attempt at flying was him trying desperately to deny the truth that he was just a toy. It wasn't until the third time that he tried to fly for a heroic reason (saving Woody and himself from certain doom) and thus was successful at doing so. It's also possible that it's an 11th-Hour Superpower.
• Personally, I think Buzz's wings just happened to have been unintentionally designed to provide a bit of aero lift. At the velocity they were falling, it's highly likely Buzz's wings were able to lift them back up, and into a slow glide.
• Buzz doesn't fly in that scene, he uses the altitude gained from the rocket to glide. They establish he can't fly, and he can't, but thanks to "cartoon logic" having wings lets him glide, at least when he has gained a lot of altitude and speed. It isn't realistic, but it doesn't technically break the "no flying" rule. And there are lots of unrealistic elements to the whole rocket launch scene, the whole thing runs on Rule of Cool.

Why do they go inside?

• Why would Woody and Buzz want to risk being seen by going inside Pizza Planet to find Andy? Why not just go find his mom's car in the parking lot? Even if they couldn't get inside the car on their own, they could easily just wait nearby for Andy to leave the restaurant and make like they'd just fallen out onto the ground, which would be a lot less conspicuous than his two toys suddenly showing up inside his baby sister's stroller.
  • IIRC, the main reason they go inside is that Buzz sees the spaceship on the top of the restaurant and assumes that it's a spaceport, so Woody has to follow him in order to get him back.
  • No, Woody only tricked Buzz using the rocket atop the Pizza Planet truck as a means of getting him to follow him inside it, and Buzz got distracted by the rocket-shaped claw game once they were inside the restaurant, but they both went in together, by sneaking themselves in using a couple of carry-out containers. Woody could just as easily have told Buzz that Andy's mom's van was their transport to another "spaceport".
    • Woody didn't have time to plan this out in advance, so maybe he didn't think of that. Also, it's pretty hard to get Buzz Lightyear to ignore what looks like a very obvious spaceport.

How old is Andy supposed to be turning in this movie?

• It said somewhere that he was six years old in the first film. The film begins with him having a birthday party, but it is mentioned that his birthday is “not until next week.” Also, Mr. Potato Head says that Woody has “been Andy’s favorite since kindergarten.” That line seems to suggest that Andy is at the very least in the first grade. Also, the film takes place in the summer, so Andy presumably would not have gone back to school at this point. So is it Andy’s sixth birthday, or his seventh?
  • Somewhere else said he was eight. (Or seven, turning eight.) He seems a tad too old-looking for a six-year-old.

Why does Andy put Woody in the toy box, while the secondary cast and even Snake and Robot get to stay out? It's not like he suddenly dropped from favorite to least favorite! And it can't be that being in the toy box is more of an honor than being on the shelf, since we know that Mr. Potato Head/Slinky/Rex/Hamm are in Andy's "third tier" right below Buzz (and eventually Jessie/Bullseye/Mrs. Potato Head/possibly the aliens join that tier).

• To keep the dust off him?
• Maybe they all got out of the toy box after Andy went to sleep so they could spread out comfortably. Woody was just too depressed to join them.
• Everything else already had a place. Woody's place was in bed with Andy, a place which was being occupied by Buzz so Andy put Woody in the place where everything else goes for the night.

Did Andy really not notice right away that Woody was not in the van?

• When they stopped at the gas station, Andy really should have noticed immediately that Woody was gone, especially since he had Woody right beside him. But after Buzz knocked Woody out of the car, Andy’s mom drove away as if neither of them noticed him missing. If he looked and saw that Woody wasn't there, all they would need to do was look around their car. Since Andy had him with him just a minute ago, they should figure he had to be somewhere around there.
  • Obviously, he didn't notice, or else they would have stopped and looked.
  • But how could he not have noticed? He had Woody right in the seat with him. I think it should have been obvious. Even Woody was shocked that Andy supposedly didn't realize he wasn't there.
  • Because he's a child with a limited attention span. The movie makes it obvious that he didn't notice. That it "should have been obvious" doesn't really matter.
  • How long did it take Andy to notice Woody was missing? It's really only clear that he's noticed once they return home. Is this when he first noticed or was it before? He at least should have noticed when they got to Pizza Planet, at least if he was planning to take him inside.

If Sid likes mutilating dolls so much, why doesn’t he just buy his own dolls to mutilate instead of taking his sister’s from her? She obviously hates it when he does that.

• Does Sid seem like he cares about what his sister thinks? It's asking a sadistic little asshole 10-year-old to suddenly be logical and rational.
  • Adding to that, it's implied that Sid's father is an abusive drunk at one point in the film. Sid probably has a bad relationship with his father, which means he takes it out on his little sister to make himself feel better.
  • Still, he should be punished for it. It appears he doesn't have the best parents (if the above is true about his father then it's easy to see why). No wonder he takes so much joy out of bullying his sister.
  • Plus, who's to say only Sid is destroying Hannah's dolls? It's highly possible Scud would've been onto it as well, considering dogs often destroy toys.

Slinky's midsection is around 12 inches long in Toy Story, but while he gets stretched out as a result of trying to help Woody and Buzz it stretches to at least 50ft. How/why is this possible?

• Well, a standard slinky can stretch up to 87 feet long, so it's not really movie magic. However, how Slinky, after getting stretched so far out, can still retain his shape in the scene after is still a mystery.
  • That was Slinky's heroic moment. The more peril he's in the more heroic he becomes. He was injured desperately trying to rescue his friends with no regard for himself, it just might be the most commendable thing any character does in the first movie. Note that, despite being in obvious pain with the other toys tending to him, his only comment is "I should have held on longer."
    • But it was a useless act. With Slinky getting stretched out, it accomplished nothing to move the plot, apart from perhaps adding suspense to the rocket scene. Why was it here? What purpose did watching him get hurt serve to move the story forward? Honestly, they could have done without it and the scene would still be the same.
    • The point was to get the other toys involved. Slinky was trying to reach Buzz, Woody, and RC so they could be pulled back onto the truck but RC was losing power and Slinky couldn't get a strong enough hold. It's basically so the other toys don't come across as useless dicks. They turned on Woody when they thought he'd killed Buzz and threw him off the truck when they thought he'd do something similar to RC, This was them winning the audience back and re-establishing that Slinky was completely loyal to Woody. Plus it added to the drama.

What Woody would have done if Buzz hadn't board the car while they went to Pizza Planet?

• If Buzz hadn't boarded the car of Andy, Molly, and their mom while they went to Pizza Planet and thus he and Woody didn't get lost at the gas station, what Woody was planning to do after they returned home? He was going to allow Andy to bring him back to his room and face the consequences or he would have hidden until Buzz was found? Maybe he would have hidden in the car and waited until Mrs. Davis and her children went into the house to search for Buzz in the garden so he could say sorry to him and return to Andy's room.
  • He was already trying to formulate a plan to convince the toys that Buzz falling out of the window was some sort of an accident. However, it was clear he wasn't going to be given that chance, as they intended to tear him apart the moment he stepped back into the bedroom. My thinking is that he would have to perhaps fake some sort of "proof" that Buzz was still alive, then quietly sneak back inside to claim he might have found Buzz, and lead the toys on a wild goose chase while he went to find him. Then, he'd locate Buzz, apologize, and "bring" him back to the toys to clear things up.
    • The toys were searching the bushes Buzz fell into with a torch ("Get out of there, Mittens!") while the Davises were at dinner. If Buzz hadn't stowed away on the van, they'd have found him, and... well, they didn't yet have a workable plan to rescue him, but at least they'd know he was safe (and could exonerate Woody, although from his perspective, and given his current ill-feeling to Woody, he could just as easily agree Woody had tried to kill him).

The game of "Strip Battleship" is literally a mathematical impossibility.

Mr. Potato Head apparently guessed every single square that Hamm didn't have a ship in, while Hamm had nothing but hits. Even if Hamm was indeed cheating, what Potato Head did is actually impossible. Never mind how astronomically unlikely it would be to get a perfect negative of Hamm's exact formation, or how dumb he would have to be for not trying those conspicuously ship-sized empty spaces. Mr. Potato Head would have needed a lot more turns than Hamm to pull that off. If they were playing by the rules, the difference between the number of shots they fired should never be more than one.

• They're probably playing by some silly rules that Hamm made up for the purpose of cheating. Also, presumably Potato Head got a perfect negative of Hamm's formation because Hamm just moved his ships around every time Potato Head was about to get a hit. If he keeps track of Potato Head's missed shots, he can keep moving his ships into unchecked territory while still claiming that the ships were in that formation the whole time and Potato Head was just unlucky.
• The DVD Commentary also noted that Potato Head also put all his own ships right next to each other, making him an easier target, so he might not be very smart at the game in general.

Blindsided?

Buzz Lightyear is based on an In-Universe cartoon series. Andy already knows about it, as he was excited to have received a Buzz Lightyear action figure for his birthday. Prior to that, Woody was his favorite toy, & the "You've Got a Friend in Me" montage shows how much time they spend together (I'm not sure if it appears in the first film, but the third film establishes that yes, Andy watches TV with his toys). Buzz Lightyear being deposited on their bed was the first time this franchise had ever entered their life. Andy doesn't start play-acting Space Ranger instead of Cowboy until he's had Buzz for a few days, despite the fact all his friends have gotten into Buzz Lightyear.

Would Woody rather die than let the secret out?

In the scene where Woody is about to get crushed by a truck at the gas station, he just stays on the floor motionlessly as the truck's wheels get near him. Is the secret life of toys so important that Woody would have preferred to die than to be discovered?

Bo Peep wears lipstick?

Toward the end of the film, after being kissed by Bo Peep, Woody comes out covered in kiss marks. Wait a minute. So we're supposed to assume that Bo, a porcelain doll, actually wears lipstick?

Anyone else feel like the other toys were suspiciously quick to convict?

The other toys see Buzz get knocked out of the window, and RC says Woody did it, sure, fair reason to be concerned. Then Woody immediately insists it was an accident, which RC can attest to as Buzz got pushed by the lamp after it was hit by the globe. But without giving him a second to respond, without any real consensus, the other toys (mostly Potatohead, Sarge and Ham) immediately mob up on him, label him a murderer and assault him, Mr. Potatohead even asserting they were gong to execute him. It really didn't take a lot for them to all jump into a murderous mob, and even those who aren't super on board like Rex or Bo Peep don't seem to be doing much to stop it.

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