Toy Story 2 (When She Loved Me)

January 25, 2010 at 9:08 PM (Top 10 Saddest Deaths in Disney)

Toy Story 2 – 1999
Director – John Lasseter
Running Time  – 92 minutes
Stars:  Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer

Toy Story like the Lion King is a film that played a huge part in my childhood. I got Toy Story on VHS on release, I had not seen it previously so it was a new experience to me. I loved it I watched it every day for weeks, I would get the toys I owned that most resembled each character in the film and played with them… But Buzz and Woody were missing, I had no toys that resembled those two.

Christmas came and so did the mad rush for the year’s top toy, sadly that year was Buzz Lightyear. I did not get Buzz for Christmas but I did get Woody. I loved my Woody doll, and as Andy did I wrote my name on his shoe. I took Woody on holiday with me, I took him everywhere. He ended up being filthy… Woody was a toy that could not go in the washing machine as he had a voice box and batteries… sadly, his voice box once broke and my dad had to do an “operation” to fix him… To this day I don’t know how he did it. One day in Birmingham we came across Toys ‘r’ us inside there was new delivery of Buzz Lightyear… my parents bought one each for me and my brother instantly… the rest is history.

Upon hearing there would be a sequel to Toy Story I was very excited, I went to see it at the cinema. I was amazed by it. Although I hated the character of Jessie, one part of the film stuck in my head, the same part that sticks now. A moment so sad and revealing that re-watching 10 years later has entirely changed my perception of the Toy Story franchise.

Toy Story 2 starts where the original leaves off, the toys are now settled in Andy’s new room, they are discussing Andy’s trip to Cowboy camp, sadly in between this talk and Andy leaving Woody’s arm is ripped, Andy does not want to take him and he is put on a shelf.

Andy’s mum later comes back and throws some toys in a box to take to her garage sale. In this box she throws Wheezy penguin. Woody decides to save Wheezy and ends up being stolen by Al “the man in a chicken suit” upon arriving at Al’s apartment its clear he is a huge fan of Woody’s round up” the show which made Woody famous. At Al’s house Woody is fixed by someone who looks remarkably like Jerry from a Pixar short entitled Jerry’s Game” at the house Woody meets Bullseye, Woody’s faithful companion on the Woody’s round Up TV Show, he meets Jessie a cow girl and Stinky Pete (The Prospector) Of course, as Woody saved Buzz in the first movie, Buzz makes it his mission to save Woody.

Although, it’s at Al’s house that the scene that changed my perception of the franchise happened. The song “When She Love Me” was written by Toy Story Soundtrack favourite Randy Newman, I have always felt the song enhanced the sadness of this part of the story. As I said, I did not like the character of Jessie after this scene I felt sorry for her situation was sad, but I never grew to like the character or any of the new characters in the film. I always wondered if this scene would be as poignant without the song… and so I watched it with no sound.  The scene still brought tears to my eyes not as much as it did with the song.  So I rewound, but the volume up and re-watched. The scene instantly got sadder. For me the saddest part of this scene is when Emily (the girl) finds Jessie under her bed, the idea that “things were going to be the same” only made it worse, when we find that Jessie had in fact been taken to a donation pickup area.

Another saddest shot breakdown:

Here we see Jessie, at this point Woody has been talking about how he has to get back to Andy, because Andy loves him. Upset by this Jessie walks away only to be followed by Woody who again, tells her how great Andy is. Jessie snaps back at him telling him she knows what its like but it will change.

Here we see Emily playing with Jessie happily, after going to a small park the two return in the car. Jessie is safely tucked in Emily seatbelt, Emily strokes her hand in a comforting way (maybe the same way you would comfort a tired child?) Jessie seems to go to sleep.

After Jessie falls under Emily’s bed she looks out to see Emily is starting to grow up, she’s into makeup and has her friend over. very different to the days she dressed as a cow girl.

What appears to be a few years later, Emily drops her makeup on the floor reaching under her bed she finds Jessie, she pulls her out and looks at her. Jessie looks happily back

At this point we see that Jessie thinks every thing will return to the way it was. She sits in Emily’s bag in the car as they return to the same park from earlier.

We now see that Jessie has been put into a box in a area where a charity collection vehicle lies stationary. We can see that things have not returned to normal and that Emily truly has moved on.

I was thinking about what made this scene so sad and that’s when it hit me, these scene was part of a grand scheme, I was in two minds, this scene was sad because 1. It was a child’s reaction to fearing the loss of a parent or 2. It was a parent’s reaction to fearing the loss of a child? I say it’s part of a grand scheme because I went back and thought about the series. In the first film Woody was Andy’s favourite (his first born child) when Buzz came along he caused a fuss (as a second child would) leavening Woody to feel left out. So I came to the realisation that, the children were the parents to these toys and there for that Jessie’s reaction was that of a child fearing the loss of parent, through separation (the child moves on to something else) Of course I have no children of my own and so I’m sure from a parents point of view its more the second thought, That Jessie is the parent, and her child moved on to play with other children and no longer her, the child grew up and no longer needed the parent… this point was reinforced by the line “Andy’s a real special kid, and to him you are his buddy his best friend and when Andy plays with you it’s like, even though you’re not moving you feel like you alive, ‘cos that’s how he sees you.”

So why is this scene sad? I guess even as a child I really understood why this scene was sad, I just never really thought about it until I had to write about it. For me the idea that eventually my parents will leave is a horrible feeling, hearing them talk about “when they die” makes me feel terrible as I’m sure anyone else, the other side of this is as I said, I don’t have my own children. But I’m sure to a parent the opposite is true, the realisation that one day there child will no longer leave them is a scary prospect. The idea of loosing anyone is sad, and in re valuating the Toy Story series I can now see a deeper meaning in it. Maybe I’m reading to deeply into this? But seeing this recurring film has only reinforced this scene making it all the sadder.