History Headscratchers / ToyStory1

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?

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* 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 intervene 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 want 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 [[NightmareFuel/ToyStory 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 behaviour 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 then fifteen. Combine 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 then 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.

* 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" ect), does he press those buttons on his chest instead of actually saying it?

[[WMG: 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 noticed 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 of making sure to leave everything the way it was before.]]

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the beginning of ''[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 TS3]]'': Andy notices that the toys moved around after 'Operation Playtime,' but blames it on Molly.
*** He noticed his cellphone 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."

[[WMG: 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?]]

* The above answer is the best explanation. Rex, for example, worried that he'll 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.

* From the second movie, it seems all Buzz Lightyears think themselves as real, and the freezing thing is part of some protocol.

* But why did he never even realize that his laser wasn't real? Andy's played with it before and never done any damage with it.

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

* It depends, but that it would lean towards 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 to the tortilla. The rule is probably whatever the owner thinks.

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

* 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.

[[WMG: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.]]

** 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 to use his wings straight away after everything that just happened.

[[WMG: 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."]]

* Also? Woody was a total ''[[{{Jerkass}} jerk]]'' in the first film. The reason it seems weird in hindsight is because after seeing the sequels, we're now used to Woody being more of a KnightInSourArmor instead of the {{Jerkass}} he [[CharacterDevelopment was]] in the first movie.

* 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?

*** 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 to. 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...

** 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.

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. Third, Woody is actively pulling Buzz down, which should exceed the machine's grip strength if their natural weight wasn'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.

* 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 claws machines come with a feature where the user puts in an increased amount of money in exchange for getting to repeatedly try again until the machine registers a success, effectively making it purchasing 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 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.

* How do those Green Army men with Baby Monitor keep so well hidden in the Christmas Tree? In the beginning, where 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?

* 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 being a base for cheap manufacturing of consumer products, including toys).
*** But he firstly thought he was in a foreign planet, did you forget that?

** 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 afterwards 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.

* 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."

* An interpretation is that Buzz being 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's just a toy. It wasn't until the third time that he was trying 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 EleventhHourSuperpower.

** IIRC, the main reason they go inside is because 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 that 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".

[[WMG: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 honour 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).]]

*** 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 don 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.

* If Buzz hadn't board 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 bring him back to his room and face the consequences or he would have hidden until Buzz was found? Maybe he would have hidden into the car and wait 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?

Buzz Lightyear is based on an InUniverse 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?