Sheriff Woody

Sheriff Woody
Toy Story character
Woody as he appears in Toy Story 2.
First appearance	Toy Story (1995)
Last appearance	Toy Story of Terror! (2013)
Created by	John Lasseter Pete Docter Andrew Stanton Andrew Cutler Joe Ranft
Voiced by	Tom Hanks (films) Jim Hanks (other media)

Sheriff Woody Pride, or simply Woody, is a fictional character in the Toy Story franchise. He is voiced by Tom Hanks in both the feature and short films, and by Jim Hanks in most other media. He is a stuffed cowboy character that leads the other toys in adventures in the movies.

Appearances

Toy Story

In the first film of the franchise, Woody is depicted as being Andy's favorite toy and the leader of Andy's room, including all the other toys in his possession. However, his position is overtaken by the arrival of Buzz Lightyear, an action figure given as a birthday present to Andy, who is convinced that he actually is the fictional astronaut that the doll represents. Empowered by jealousy, Woody uses Buzz's beliefs that he is a living astronaut against him to try to knock him down a shelf for misplacement, in hopes of regaining his former status as Andy's favorite toy; Buzz instead falls out the window and, upon learning of Woody's manipulation against Buzz, the other toys disown him despite Woody truthfully saying it was an accident. Woody's plan nearly proves effective, as Andy brings him on the car ride to the fictional pizza establishment "Pizza Planet" as planned; however, he encounters the antagonized Buzz once again and the two tussle together. As a result, they wind up losing sight of the family car and try to reunite with Andy inside of the restaurant, but wind up as prizes in a claw machine grabbed by Andy's devious, bratty neighbor Sid, notorious for defacing, disassembling, and damaging toys. Woody is frantic to plan an escape and encounters all of the toys monstrously reconstructed by Sid, where he discovers that they actually prove quite friendly and hospitable. He devises a plan of escape enlisting assistance from the toys, effectively petrifying Sid. As the movie carries on, Woody and Buzz gradually form a bond, Buzz making the realization that he is an action figure and nothing more, but nonetheless proving himself worth by transporting himself and Woody to Andy's car just as his family has left on their move to a new house. Buzz Lightyear and Woody reconcile afterward, and Woody is re-accepted amongst the other toys, sharing the status as Andy's favorite with Buzz.

A running gag is that throughout the movie Woody intentionally mispronounces Buzz's last name to mock him and Buzz fails to notice; in the beginning when he and Buzz are arguing over whether or not he can fly when Buzz says he can do it with his eyes closed Woody says with a mocking smile "Okay then Mr. Lightbeer, prove it." Later when Buzz is repairing his ship Woody during an argument calls him "Light-snack."

Toy Story 2

In Toy Story 2, Woody, (with Buzz at his side when his right arm gets ripped by accident) is still the leader of the toys, and prepares for an upcoming yard sale which seemed to be a dreadful situation for toys. A toy named Wheezie gets chosen to be sold, and Woody risks his safety to save him while riding on Andy's new puppy, Buster. His plan is successful until he falls off of Buster and gets stolen by a greedy toy collector named Al. At his apartment, Woody discovers his forgotten past and legacy as the star of a 1950s Western children's show "Woody's Roundup", but learns that he will be shipped to Japan to be displayed in a toy museum. Even worse, one of the toys from the franchise, Stinky Pete the Prospector, is intended to make sure that Woody doesn't go back to Andy and instead goes along to Japan, considering the fact Stinky Pete was never sold and had never experienced the love of a child for decades. However, Woody is rescued by Buzz and their friends just in time, along with Jessie and Bullseye, whom Woody took along back to Andy's house, while Stinky Pete is stuffed into a backpack of a little girl who loves to draw on her toys, so that Stinky Pete will get the love of a child he needed for decades. At the airport when struggling to get back to Andy by escaping an airplane with Jessie a tear in his right arm that he suffered in the beginning and fixed reopens and Buzz rescues them. In the ending Woody is fixed by Andy before he leaves to school, and is welcomed back home with Wheezy singing "You've got a friend in me" and during the song it is shown that the only evidence of their adventure left to the city is that two neighbors walk outside to find an airport luggage carrier hidden in their yard wondering how it got there (The toys used it to get home in time for Andy's return).

Toy Story 3

In Toy Story 3, Andy is now 17 years old, almost 18, and preparing to leave for college. Woody and the gang are heartbroken, and wonder what will become of them. Andy chooses Woody to take with him to college, thus putting him in a packing box. He puts the rest of the toys in a garbage bag to store in the attic. Andy's mother mistakes them for garbage, and the toys just manage to escape a garbage truck. Woody tries to convince everyone that Andy was going to put them in the attic, but they refuse to believe him. After a mix-up lands everyone at Sunnyside Daycare, (an apparent nightmare for toys caused by the evil teddy bear Lots-O-Huggin' Bear, who is only doing this out of spite of being replaced by his former owner) they manage to escape the prison/daycare but are recaptured until Lotso's men lead a mutiny and throw him in a trash can. Lotso takes Woody in with him as a garbage truck arrives forcing the other toys to come with Woody. They are taken to the dump and after cutting off from their three aliens are nearly killed to death by a shredder but escape until Lotso sets up their deaths by burning in a fiery incinerator. The aliens having escaped the dump's mechanics save their lives by grabbing them out with "The claaaw!!!" as a reference to the first movie; and Lotso as a fateful comeuppance is captured by a garbage man who had a Lotso toy and is strapped as a decoration on the garbage truck groaning when he sees the toys nearby emerge from the dump mostly unscathed. They return to Andy in time and are donated to a family friend's toddler girl named Bonnie who had once taken Woody as her own from the Daycare in the story until Woody escaped to help his friends. They enjoy their new lives with Bonnie.

Other appearances

Woody made a cameo in the outtakes of A Bug's Life as a crew member. Then he appeared in the Andy's room sequence of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins where he was voiced by Jim Hanks, and the Andy's room intro of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command television series as a cameo. Later, he appeared in the end credit epilogue of Cars as a toy station wagon. He also appeared in the theatrical shorts, Hawaiian Vacation (released with Cars 2), Small Fry (released with The Muppets), and Partysaurus Rex (released with Finding Nemo 3D). He appears in an episode of Robot Chicken along with the other toys where Andy comes home from college for spring break.

Characteristics

Woody is a passionate guy who throws himself into every action. As soon as he has an instinctive thought like "I have to help them," or "I have to run away," he does it with 100-percent commitment. You gotta love that about anybody. What's great is that I get credit for the way the character and the humor come off. I have kids that are now in college come up to me and say, "when you told that neighbor kid to play nice, that really meant a lot to me".

—Tom Hanks, ^[1]

Woody is an old-fashioned pull-string cowboy doll. The voice-box that is activated by the pull-string says many simple phrases such as "Reach for the sky!", "You're my favorite deputy!", "There's a snake in my boot!", and "Somebody's poisoned the waterhole!". As mentioned in Toy Story 2, his construction includes an "original hand-painted face, natural dyed-blanket stitched vest, and hand-stitched poly-vinyl hat." Woody wears an empty gun holster at his belt. He is Andy's favorite toy since kindergarten, with a special spot on the bed, and is the leader of the toys in Andy's room. In Toy Story 2 it is revealed that he is based on the main character from a popular 1950s TV show, Woody's Roundup. When Al is bargaining with Andy's mom in an attempt to take Woody, Andy's mom declines Al's bargain, stating that Woody is "an old family toy." Stinky Pete also directly refers to him as a hand-me-down toy later in the movie, and when Woody finds a record player in Al's apartment room, he states "I haven't seen one of these in ages!", again supporting that he has been around longer than Andy. (In fact, when introducing the 2009 set of Toy Story collectibles, John Lasseter said "We always imagined he was a hand-me-down to Andy from his father.") He is voiced by Tom Hanks in the films and by his brother Jim Hanks on other occasions.

In the three films, Woody makes two strong friendships with Buzz and Jessie. At first, however, when Buzz temporarily became Andy's favorite toy, he tried to push him off the dresser but accidentally knocked him out the window. When Sid had them, however, he and Buzz worked together to escape. Since then, he and Buzz are very close and care deeply about each other and will do anything for each other. Even though he and Jessie argue with each other sometimes, they are still very close friends.

It was revealed in August 2009 by Lee Unkrich that Woody's official last name is "Pride".^[2] Unkrich stated in his Twitter blog that “Woody’s actual full name is ‘Woody Pride’ and has been since the earliest days of developing the original Toy Story.”^[3]

Pullstring quotes

Before 2012

• "Reach for the Sky!"
• "This town ain't big enough for the two of us!"
• "Draw!"
• "You're my favorite Deputy!"
• "Somebody's poisoned the waterhole!"
• "There's a snake in my boot!"
• "Yee-haw! Giddyup, pardner! We've gotta get this wagon train a-movin'!"
• "I'd like to join your posse, boys, but first I'm gonna sing a little song."

2012 to current

• "You're my favorite Deputy!"
• "There's a snake in my boot!"
• "Yee-haw cowboy!"
• "Howdy partner!"

Lego sets

In late 2009, Lego released a Woody's Roundup! playset as one of the first released playsets, consisting of minifigures Woody, Bullseye, Jessie and Stinky Pete, and buildings Sheriff, Jail and a gold mine. The set has a trap in between Jail and Sheriff that flings the minifigures, a safe, Lego money, a wall that falls off the Jail and Lego pieces that fall through the top of the gold mine, specifically to land on Stinky Pete's head.

In early 2010, Lego released Woody and Buzz to the Rescue, a playset including a pull-back RC the car, Woody minifigure, and Buzz minifigure with a removable rocket attached to his back.

In late April 2010, Lego released a line based on Toy Story 3. This included Trash Compactor Escape, Western Train Chase, Trash Truck Escape and Lotso's Dump Truck.

Tom Hanks, Woody's primary voice actor

Reception

Tom Hanks's vocal performance as Sheriff Woody was received positively by film critics. Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today approved of the selection of Hanks for the lead role of Woody.^[4] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times stated that Tom Hanks "brings an invaluable heft and believability to Woody."^[5] In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Woody one of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.^[6]

Presenter Ryan Tubridy dressed up as Woody for The Late Late Toy Show in 2011.^[7][8]

References

External links

• Sheriff Woody at the Internet Movie Database