The Toy Story franchise is one of the most beloved animated series’ of all time. They’ve perfected the formula of storyline/humor/character development and treated us to three phenomenal films. The fourth was pretty divisive upon its announcement, but many fans were pleasantly surprised with the film upon its release.
Despite this, there are a fair few things about the toy-led saga that don’t quite add up. Its plot holes range from minor moments that don’t quite make sense, all the way to huge questions that plague the very basics of the plot.
Why Doesn’t Woody Remember His Past Life?
Woody is a toy from the 1950s. As we learn from Toy Story 2, he came as part of the marketing campaign for Woody’s Roundup way back in the time of black and white TV and puppets. Despite this, he is incredibly concerned that Andy will lose interest in him.
Considering the fact that Andy obviously wasn’t born in the 50s, he can’t be the only owner Woody has ever had. Why doesn’t he seem to remember any of his past owners or their eventual abandonment of him?
Buzz Shouldn’t Freeze When He Thinks He’s Real
At the very beginning of the first Toy Story film, Buzz Lightyear is totally convinced he is a real space ranger. He is wary of those around him and keeps trying to interrogate people and explore the new planet he has landed on (which is just Andy’s bed). Despite this, he freezes and falls to the floor as soon as a human walks in.
We see that Woody is able to choose when to freeze, so it obviously isn’t a built-in response that toys have, so it’s pretty weird if Buzz thinks laying on the floor when a massive human enters the room is a normal thing for a space ranger to do, then we have some stuff to discuss.
And It Doesn’t Really Make Sense That He Thinks He’s Real Anyway
On top of this, Buzz does a fair few things that you think would completely prove to him and everyone around him that he, of course, isn’t really a space ranger. Firstly, seeing humans who are absolutely huge in comparison to him must cause a bit of confusion (he seems to be a human under that suit after all).
He also knows what the button on his chest does (it says “Buzz Lightyear to the rescue”) when he presses it. Doesn’t he think it’s a bit weird that a real space ranger would have a button that just plays a random soundbite of his own voice out loud?
How Does Al Film His Sad Advert So Quickly?
Al isn’t the most loveable character in the world. When everything goes wrong for him, we see him on a plane to Japan. The next morning, he looks sad in his commercial, suggesting that it was filmed after the multitude of things that made him sad happened.
This doesn’t really add up, because not only would a flight to Japan and back take a lot longer than this, it would be incredibly impressive to have a less than 24-hour turnaround on a full advert.
Why Does Woody Think He Was Real?
When we see Woody watching ‘Woody’s Round Up’, it seems like he truly believes that was his past life. When he sees ‘himself’ getting up to adventures with Jessy and Bullseye, he responds to it like watching the shows makes him remember his friends, despite the fact that these particular toys had never met before.
He also spent the entire first half of Toy Story 1 mocking Buzz for thinking he was real, and now he is imagining himself getting up to adventures in the wild west, despite it being pretty obvious that the version of himself he is watching is just a puppet.
Slinky Dog Stops Being Magnetic
As the toys are being pushed towards certain death at the end of Toy Story 3, we see Slinky Dog being pulled up to the ceiling because he is made of metal. It inspires the other toys to grab something metal and save themselves from the grinder.
Once they reach the other side, they all let go and fall back down. For some reason, Slinky Dog has managed to do the same thing, except he can’t let go of his own body… Either the magnets turned off without any explanation or they conveniently forgot about his magnetism.
Why Couldn’t Mrs. Potato Head Move Her Eye?
The entire way through Toy Story 3, Mrs. Potato Head’s right eye is missing, as she left it under the dusty cupboard in Andy’s room. It ends up being quite an important plot point, but also inadvertently part of a pretty glaring plot hole.
When Mr. Potato Head moves all of his body parts onto a tortilla, it suggests that these Potato Head toys actually have independent control of every part of their body. As such, Mrs. Potato Head should have pretty easily been able to move her eye from under the cupboard a long time ago.
Surely Bonnie’s Dad Would Just Stop The RV?
When the toys are in the RV messing with Bonnie’s dad’s control of the car, you’d think that he might just try and bring it to a stop, rather than fight it off by steering erratically and accelerating.
Despite the fact that his young daughter is in his vehicle, he does the exact wrong thing and ends up in an unnecessarily dangerous situation.
A Few Timekeeping Problems
The Toy Story franchise as a whole doesn’t seem to keep much of an eye on its own timekeeping. Back in Sid’s room in the first film, we see the clock on the wall jump from 6:35 to 10:00 to 3:10 in a few seconds.
In the playroom in Toy Story 3, the clock says 3:00 just before recess but has gone back to 1:00 when the kids come back. In Toy Story 4, the calendar in Andy’s room at the beginning suggests that September has 31 days.
If All Toys Are Real, How Has A Human Never Found Out?
All of these plot holes are underpinned by one major issue that plagues the entire Toy Story franchise. Of course, it’s fictional, so you have to take everything with a pinch of salt and a little artistic license, but how has no one figured out that toys are alive?
If every toy in the world (which is billions, by the way) is alive, there is a civilization almost as big as humans themselves coexisting with us, and no one knows about them at all? The chaos and destruction they cause and the number of close calls when changing back to toy-form when a human enters the room should surely be enough, right?
