TOY STORY CIRCLES
Conflicting Character Arcs
Intro
Toy Story does something cool. Many stories center on the conflict between two characters, but Toy Story goes further. It sets the characters’ narratives against one another. It introduces a main protagonist (Woody), and things proceed normally through the first act, but then at the start of act two (GO, in the Story Circle structural model), a secondary protagonist arrives (Buzz Lightyear), and creates beautiful discord as he begins his own story in the middle of Woody’s story. The leader of the toys is sidelined in both his reality and the narrative in which he dwells. While Buzz takes Woody’s place as Andy’s favorite, it’s Buzz’s blind insistence on being a spaceman that truly deranges the cowboy, and leads him to view Buzz as his antagonist. However, as they journey through the Unknown together, their dissonance is quelled by larger problems: once caught in the clutches of Sid, Andy’s toy-smashing neighbor, Buzz comes to terms with being a toy, and Woody’s resentment gives way to wanting what’s best for his kid, even if what’s best is sharing the spotlight with an awesome new toy. Their stories align and merge into one for a third act whose tension depends on them demonstrating how they have overcome their past conflict.
1. YOU:
The importance of a toy’s relationship to their kid is established. Woody loves Andy. He is a devoted companion. The toy hierarchy is established as well. Toys live in fear of their kid losing interest in them, and then being ignored, stored, lost, or worst of all: thrown out. Woody is the king of his tiny domain. He’s a hero to his kid, the most played with, and therefore, the top toy. This is reflected in Andy’s room, in which the posters, bedsheets, and drawings all portray wild-west adventure. Woody’s mastered this realm. It is an extremely comfortable Known to him.
2. NEED:
Because the family is moving soon, Andy’s birthday has been bumped ahead. Birthdays mean new toys, which means the hierarchy in Andy’s Room may be upset. Andy’s friends begin to arrive with gifts and the toys go into a panic. Woody, level-headed and confident in his place at the top, tries to calm everyone down, but they’re terrified of being replaced. A clear threat and need have been established. So far, Toy Story has behaved the same as any other story. But then…
3. GO:
…Buzz Lightyear arrives. Andy, in his excitement, knocks Woody aside and plants Buzz in Woody’s place on the bed. Woody is thrown into the Unknown as Andy becomes obsessed with his new toy. The world shifts. Andy’s room transforms from cowboy-themed to space themed. Despite Woody’s confidence, he is the one that got replaced.
Buzz becomes Andy’s new favorite, and the worst thing is, Buzz doesn’t particularly care. Buzz is on his own adventure, operating under the delusion that he is a space ranger crash landed on an alien world. While Woody is thrown into chaos, Buzz is being established with his own YOU (delusional toy) and NEED (to return to Star Command). Buzz has upset Woody’s world, transforming the Known into the Unknown, but through his denial of his true nature as a toy, he has also upset Woody’s personal hero narrative. Buzz does not value the hierarchy he has upset. He does not care about Andy or the important responsibility he has as a toy, something Woody takes seriously.
Throughout the journey through the Unknown, the spaceman’s quest will be at odds with the cowboy’s, and they will only be capable of cleaning up the mess their conflict makes when they reach an understanding.
4. SEEK:
Pushed to the edge by jealousy, and deprived of Andy’s attention, Woody begins to become something less than the heroic leader he played in Andy’s make believe. He tries to knock Buzz behind the dresser, but accidentally knocks him out the window instead. The other toys don’t buy his story, and for the first time in his life, Woody has become a villain. Before the other toys can act, Andy takes Woody with him for a family outing to Pizza Planet, a space-themed arcade.
Buzz has not been passive since his defenestration. He has stowed away in the family van, and attacks Woody when they stop for gas. Their squabbling costs them. The van drives away while they fight. Woody despairs, and Buzz prepares to continue his space adventure solo, but then a Pizza Planet delivery truck pulls up to the gas station.
For the first time, Woody begins to adapt to Buzz’s delusion. He plays along with Buzz, using the truck’s rocket theme to convince Buzz that it’s a spaceship. They climb on and catch a ride to Pizza Planet. Inside the arcade, they are still somewhat at odds, despite having resolved to work together. Buzz isn’t trying to get back to Andy. He still thinks he needs to find a ship to take him to Star Command. He climbs inside a rocket-shaped claw game instead of following Woody’s lead.
5. FIND:
The Claw is Toy Story’s midpoint. The claw is a god that chooses, worshipped by a cult of adorable squeaky aliens. And while Woody is dismissive of their cult, the truth is that every toy wants to be chosen. The claw echoes the anxiety of the toy hierarchy from the film’s start. Toys want to achieve their purpose. Left inside a claw game with no outside interaction, they will worship The Claw.
Woody follows Buzz inside the claw game. While Woody tries to convince Buzz to return to Andy, Andy’s vindictive, toy-torturing neighbor Sid plays the claw game, catches the both of them, and takes them home. This is the beginning of Woody and Buzz really moving into alignment, as they now have a clear common goal. They both want to escape from Sid. Because being chosen by the wrong kid is actually worse than not being chosen at all.
6. TAKE:
In the middle of Woody’s TAKE, Buzz gets his own FIND. He watches a commercial for himself and learns that he truly is just a toy. He quickly moves into his own TAKE, trying to fly to disprove the commercial, but instead he falls, loses his arm on impact, and is taken by Sid’s little sister to a tea party. While despondent, Buzz is also humbled. This is the truth he needed to face.
They are recaptured by Sid, who prepares to destroy the both of them the next day. When Woody admits his jealousy and makes the case that being a toy is just as important as being a space ranger, Buzz is finally ready to listen. This is the moment the heroes align. They are Andy’s two favorite toys, and they have a responsibility to get back to their kid before he moves away.
7. RETURN:
Before they can escape, Sid grabs Buzz, and takes him outside to blow him up with fireworks. Toy Story has an interesting RETURN. For Woody, it’s a return to the leadership role. He takes charge of Sid’s toys, and together they develop and execute a plan to rescue Buzz. This section of the film is a reassertion that while Buzz is an important character, this is primarily Woody’s story. Buzz is fully sidelined and must wait while Woody demonstrates his growth by organizing Sid’s misfit toys and saving the space ranger.
8. CHANGE:
Reunited, Woody and Buzz work as a team to chase down the moving truck. This section does an excellent job of demonstrating how the heroes have changed. Both of them risk their lives to save one another, and they use tools they gained in the Unknown (Sid’s rocket, the match, knowledge of magnifying glasses) to get back to Andy. This culminates in Woody lighting the rocket attached to Buzz’s back and them flying through the sunroof of the family van to rejoin Andy.
Why does Buzz flying work? Why do we, as an audience, buy in deeply to the film’s finale? Aside from this being a cartoon, Buzz successfully flies because he is now pursuing his true function. He’s no longer chasing a falsehood. He couldn’t fly as a space ranger, because that was a lie. He can fly as a toy, because now he’s on track to his highest ideal. It doesn’t make literal sense to our upper brains, but it makes metaphorical sense to our subconscious.
Conclusion:
Part of the resonance of Toy Story arises from the fact that toys are the conduit through which many of us tell our first stories to our friends and ourselves. Woody and Buzz are embodiments of story. They are the actors in a child’s imagination at war.
Buzz’s story perfectly interrupts Woody’s. Ironically, he is the alien invader, bringing the Unknown by usurping, and then discarding Woody’s personal hero narrative. Woody can’t return to the Known until he is able to convince Buzz that they are both part of the same narrative.
Most impressive is Toy Story’s density. There is not a wasted moment, never mind a wasted scene. Every interaction serves as development, provides exposition, and raises the stakes for two heroes who serve as the other’s antagonist. This film is a masterclass: perhaps the greatest modern fairy tale. A clever, elegant, satisfying story told in less than eighty minutes.
